Right Wing Nut House

This from the “I can’t believe what I just read” department:

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN — The aircraft carrier leading the U.S. military’s tsunami relief effort steamed out of Indonesian waters yesterday after the country declined to let the ship’s fighter pilots use its airspace for training missions — part of a broad effort by Indonesia to reassert control over its territory.

The USS Abraham Lincoln’s diversion, which was not expected to affect aid flights, came as the White House asked the Indonesian government to explain why it appears to be demanding that the U.S. military and other foreign troops providing disaster relief leave the country by the end of March. (Washington Times 1/13/05)

Apparently, what passes for a government in Indonesia doesn’t want any witnesses in their ongoing slaughter of rebels in Aceh province. And they’re afraid that “western contamination” will spread faster than the dysentery now claiming dozens of lives daily.

Lest any of our moonbat friends applaud Indonesia for rejecting US requests for fighter training missions over their airspace, there’s a method to the navy’s madness:

Under Navy rules, pilots of carrier-based warplanes cannot go longer than 14 days without flying, or their skills are considered to have degraded too far and they have to undergo extensive retraining.

And its not just denial of training missions:

U.S. Marines have scaled back plans to send hundreds of troops ashore to build roads and clear rubble. The two sides reached a compromise in which the Americans agreed not to set up a base camp on Indonesia or carry weapons.

This is just peachy. Our guys have to hump all day long helping to keep people alive and start bringing some semblance of order out of the chaos caused by the disaster and then, like guest workers in Saudi Arabia, they’re kicked out of the house at night and sent back to their bunks on board a ship.

Oh…and remember that al Qaeda is also “helping” in Indonesia? This from Capn’ Ed last week:

An extremist Islamic group with links to al Qaeda has set up relief operations in Aceh province on Sumatra island, raising concerns that international relief workers will become terrorist targets as in Iraq.

The group, known for hunting down and killing Christians during a long-running sectarian conflict in another part of Indonesia, said yesterday it is collecting corpses, distributing food and spreading Islamic teachings among refugees.

I’d give a months pay to know what “Islamic teachings” are being spread amongst the refugees. And isn’t it convenient that the Indonesian government has just disarmed our guys? Kinda makes it easier for al Qaeda to spread some of that Islamofacist love amongst our troops.

The Capn’ explains:

Having an AQ-affiliated gang of terrorists in Banda Aceh risks a provocation between the lunatics and our troops, although the greater danger will be a whispering campaign that creates the wild conspiracy theories and rampant rumors that we’ve already seen. With people missing by the thousands and normal society and communications wiped out, it won’t be difficult for groups like Laskar Mujahidin to convince people that Americans stole children, caused the tsunami, poisoned the water or food — and you can bet they’ll try.

To those who would suggest we leave and let them all wallow in rotting corpses and never-before-seen carnage, well…we just can’t.

Folks, we’re IT. Without the Abraham Lincoln and 20 other ships flying helicopter missions around the clock ferrying food and medicine to the victims, not to mention the 13,000 Marines and Sailors helping out on the ground this disaster would turn into something like the Chinese floods of 1931 when about 500,000 people were killed during the rainy season but another 2.5 million died of starvation as a result of the flooding. Something similar would almost certainly happen without the United States military ferrying supplies, aid workers, and yes, even UN bureaucrats to the areas hardest hit. Some of the affected areas are so remote and waterlogged, they can only be reached by the long-range helicopters flying off the flight deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Air and sea lift capability…logistical expertise…and the will and knowhow to GET THINGS DONE…that’s why they need us so badly. And it’s why we can’t leave.

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Originally uploaded by elvenstar522.

Although I got this as a Christmas present, being the antigeek when it comes to anything technical, I had to wait for Significant Otherhawk’s son to come down from Ohio to help me get everything to work.

The picture above just show’s the box. Here’s the good stuff:

OS: Windows XP Pro w/service pack 2
Processor: Intel Pentium 4 processor 550 w/HT technology 3.4 GHz IMB cache
Motherboard: Alienware PCI Express motherboard with Intel 925XE Chipset 1006/800Mhz FSB
Memory: 1 GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533 MHz-2 x 512MB
Graphics Processor: ATI RADEON X600 XT PCI Express 128 MB DDR w/Digital and TV Out
Sound Card: Intel High Definition Audio (24 bit 192 KHz) with 7.1 surround sound
Monitor: BenQ FP731 Black 17″ LCD monitor
Speakers: Logitech Z-5300 5.1 280 watt speakers

Plus…I got a free Alienware T-Shirt (and other really, really, kewl stuff).

Now…I have no clue as to what all that stuff up there means but bottom line is this:

1. IT’S REAL REAL FAST
2. IT SOUNDS REAL REAL GOOD
3. ITS REAL REAL PRETTY

Now, if I can only figure out to import all my classic porn from my old computer, I’ll be one happy camper.

There’s no lack of opinions in the blogosphere about the Thornburgh-Boccardi report detailing CBS malfeasance in the Rathergate episode. Captain Ed is outraged about CBS President Les Moonves decision protect CBS anchor Dan Rather:

When seen in context, Rather’s performance during this scandal is shockingly dishonest and deliberately misleading. He seems to have no sense of loyalty to the truth or to his viewers; in fact, his actions appear quite contemptuous of the public. How could Moonves expect to retain any credibility for any story fronted by Rather in any capacity at CBS? Moonves may think that the storm has passed — but as long as Dan Rather continues to represent CBS, their news organization will have no credibility whatsoever.

The Capn’ also has a remarkable post about the failure of the report to admit that there was political bias involved in the rush to air the report. Quoting from a series of devastating emails, the Capn’ points the finger directly and unerringly at the political aspects of the “investigation:”

On page 61, we get the answer with this exchange of e-mail between Smith and Mapes. Smith outlines a “hypothetical” deal for Burkett (emphasis mine):

What if there was a person who might have some information that could possibly change the momentum of an election but we needed to get an ASAP book deal to help get us the information? What kinds of turnaround payment schedules are possible, keeping in mind the book probably could not make it out until after the election . . . . What I am asking is in this best case hypothetical scenario, can we get a decent sized advance payment, and get it turned around quickly.”

Mapes’ reply? “[T]hat looks good, hypothetically speaking of course.”

After detailing several notable examples of political bias by Producer Mary Mapes and others connected with the story, the report concluded that there was no bias in the run-up to or airing of the hit piece.

I guess having a producer who concurs that airing “information that could change the momentum of the election” is an example of “objectivity.”

One thing the report glosses over and which, to me, constitutes the most shocking and egregious aspect of the entire sorry affair is the coordination between CBS news and the Kerry campaign. The report fails to answer some significant questions as well as neglecting to even ask some questions that need to be addressed. To wit:

1. Did the Kerry campaign and the Democratic National Committee coordinate their attack on President Bush’s National Guard service with the CBS hit piece? Circumstantial evidence would validate that assumption. The Democrats scheduled an ad campaign entitled “Fortunate Son” to begin on September 10; two days after the TANG story aired on CBS. The ads had been in the works for weeks.

2. When did the Kerry campaign learn of the existence of the TANG memos? The American Spectator on September 9 published an article saying that an opposition researcher at the DNC knew of the existence of the memos as far back as the Democratic Convention in July. Markings on the forged documents themselves show they may have been manufactured as far back as February, 2004. As early as March, the source of the documents Bill Burkett was posting on Democratic forums that he had evidence of Bush’s preferential treatment. The evidence would point to specific knowledge of the documents and their content sometime between March and July, 2004.

3. Who forged the documents? Here’s my speculation back in September:

Whoever fabricated the documents would have had to pore over Bush’s TANG records and come up with the appropriate dates, personnel, situations, and perhaps most importantly, the tone and tenor of the memos that would match what’s known of Killian. (Remember, both granny Knox and General Strong said the memos “sounded” like Killian.)

The panel, which came to no conclusion about the documents’ authenticity, nevertheless offered a detailed and devastating analysis of their shortcomings. But the question hangs over this case like a side of rotten meat; who’s the forger? Was Bill Burkett clever enough and knowledgeable enough about TANG procedures to come up with this on his own?

We’ll probably never know. My personal guess is that more than one person was involved in the forgery and Burkett may have been a straw man to hide the forgers identity.

4. Why didn’t the report delve into the political bias of both Mapes and Rather as it related to the overall reporting of CBS news during the campaign? Polipundit has some similar thoughts:

On page 211, the Report briefly, and far too poorly, reconsiders the political aspect of CBS’ attacks on President Bush. By separating the September 8th episode from the rest of the campaign to attack George W. Bush, the Report unfairly attempts to paint the attack as an isolated incident. The Report far too casually accepts assertions by Mapes and Rather that they had no political agenda, and refuses to dig any deeper than their claims. The fact that Rather’s e-mails, for example, were not reviewed, and that Mapes’ claims to only limited contact to high-ranking Democrats were accepted at face value, even with the evidence of their complicity in an organized plan to influence the Presidential election, is baffling. The Report tried to dodge the connection between Burkett and CBS, for example, by lamely stating “he declined to talk to the Panel” (page 212). Even as the Report noted that “[m]any of the sources of information that were used for the September 8 Segment had an anti-Bush political agenda” (page 212), yet somehow managed to conclude that the people collecting and organizing those sources did not also have such an agenda.

In summary, I think the reason the report glosses over so many important questions was best summed up by Captain Ed:

The Thornburgh-Boccardi report on the CBS debacle avoided casting the Killian memo story as definitively caused by political bias in its conclusions. Some of their reluctance, I think, has resulted from a legalistic mindset that pushed the panel to only state what they felt could be proven in a lawsuit.

Not everyone agrees, but it’s pretty clear to me that the report in its conclusions, is a whitewash; not meant to get to the bottom of the affair but rather to protect the reputation of CBS News from being totally destroyed.

At the same time, there is an inordinate amount of self-congratulation on the part of bloggers who believe that the Rathergate affair has somehow been a watershed event and that mainstream media will never be the same. This may be true. What I believe is misplaced is a general feeling of triumphalism and a belief that bloggers will now replace major news organs as purveyors of news.

This is nuts. Bloggers are eloquent in writing opinions about the news. Blogs are at their best when they uncover factual errors or bias in media reports. But bloggers as journalists? Generally speaking (there are many bloggers who are now or who have been journalists in the past) this won’t happen.

Back in December, I did a post on the illusion of Rathergate. I quoted extensively from an article in “The American Digest” by Gerard Vanderleun regarding the false lessons learned by bloggers:

“In a reactive medium such as blogging, one brings one’s opinions and expertise (limited, expansive or non-existent) to any question that engages one’s interest. At times, the confluence of these factors — most famously in the CBS False Documents scandal — creates a situation that causes what is sometimes referred to as “blowback” in the analog world. But these cases are still few and far between since there are not that many situations where the elements (documents, pdf files, computer and typewriter and word processing knowledge) combine to form a perfect storm of blogging blowback.”

The “Perfect Storm” Vanderleun refers to may happen once in a great while. My own belief is that blogs have much more utility in pushing stories into the mainstream media that are otherwise ignored. Stories like the “Oil for food” scandal or, more recently, the excellent work done by bloggers in uncovering and publicizing fraud in the Washington State Governors race. These are important stories that, because of bias or laziness, the mainstream media fails to cover.

But until news organs like CBS News put there own house in order, bloggers will continue to “bite at their ankles” by revealing outright bias and sloppiness in their work.

I’ve been experiencing some problems with internet connectivity due to either a balky broadband modem or a problem in the cable.

Posting has been light the last two days as a result. Moonbats rejoice!

I’m having a tech come out tommorrow and try and trace the problem. Hopefully, I’ll be back to normal by early afternoon..

Kiefer_Sutherland_108504a
Originally uploaded by elvenstar522.

SUMMARY

When last we left our hero, Jack was in hot pursuit of terrorist Khaleel Hasson who had kidnapped Andrew Paige, computer hacker, friend of Chloe, and innocent bystander who happened to get a look at a terrorist internet code. Jack follows Hasson to a deserted part of the road and, after Hasson’s thugs torture Paige to make sure he doesn’t really know anything, make ready to kill him. Jack is torn. He MUST follow Hasson but Paige is about to be sent to that big hacker spot in the sky. Jack takes the easy way out (for him). After all, why pass up a good chance to get some target rounds off at some low-life terrorists. Jack shoots and kills the thugs before they can kill poor Andrew. He then picks up Hasson’s car and continues the chase.

Meanwhile, back at CTU a couple of interesting developments; we’re introduced to Maryann, a worthy successor to Sherry Palmer as uber-bitchy, backstabbing, blackmailing, lowlife femme fatale. And Araon turns out to have a daughter suffering from schizophrenia…with consequences that will certainly be developed later as Araon is using her position at CTU to interfere in a local law enforcement matter involving the poor girl. Finally, Chloe “The bitch with the heart of gold,” is feverishly helping Jack, trying to set up satellite coverage so they don’t lose track of Hasson in the canyons and hills outside of LA.

Then there’s the bizarro Araz family. After cutsie little Debbie followed Beruss to the warehouse where Secretary of Defense Heller is being held (and where he will shortly go on trial for “Crimes against humanity”…ATTN MOONBATS: IT’S A TV SHOW, NITWITS!)mommie Araz calls Debbie and invites her over for some tea. After ascertaining that Debbie didn’t tell anyone about the warehouse, mommie tells Beruss to “take care of the problem.” Beruss, torn between his raging hormones and obeying his parents, opts for the hormones and tries to hustle Debbie out the door. There’s only one small problem; Debbie can’t walk on account of she’s been poisoned by mommie dearest. She soon also can’t breathe cause she’s dead. Beruss, resentment clearly on his face, restrains himself from committing matricide.

Meanwhile, because the satellite coverage is slow to develop, Jack must find a way to delay Hasson from going into the canyons. He gets his opportunity when Hasson stops at a convenience store for…what? Maybe some gum Arabic. Anyway, Jack does what any red-blooded American would do in this situation.

He pretends to hold up the convenience store.

This is why I love Jack Bauer…he’s always thinking “outside the box; except on this one, Jack isn’t only outside the box, he’s outside the room. Anyway, it works. Jack flees with Hasson as hostage and lets him out. Chloe gets the satellite coverage and just in time, Aron discovers she’s working with Jack. Aron has Cloe arrested and wants Jack brought in until she hears a phone call between Hasson and Omar that indicates Hasson is on his way to where Heller is being held.

This doesn’t help Jack very much because he robbed that convenience store, remember. Well, the cops don’t forget either. The night ends with Jack captured by cops while still in pursuit of Hasson.

BODY COUNT

Jack: 1 gratuitous wounding; 2 kills
Show: 53

SPECULATION

How will Maryann gum up the works? Like many liberal Democrats, Maryann is more concerned with her career than national security. She may even sell her soul to the terrorists if she thinks it will be beneficial to herself.

Secretary Heller ain’t no Chickenhawk! He’s killed two terrorists in an escape attempt already. Expect that when he’s beheaded (and folks, the writings on the wall on this one) he’ll try and make some grandiose, ultra patriotic gesture.

Jack will rescue Audrey. (Duh)

Chloe will not be arrested…maybe. Fat computer geek Edgar is now under the thumb of Maryann because she overheard Edgar helping Chloe. Great plot twist potential here.

Beruss will turn on his family. (Duh #2)

LOOSE END

Since when are black ski masks standard issue equipment for CTU field agents? Jack just happened to have one when he went in to rob the convenience store? Now that’s what I call convenience…

Stay tuned for next weeks installment of the “Chronicles of Jack” or “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Islamofacist Terrorists.”

As you may or may not already be aware, members of the Watcher’s Council hold a vote every week on what they consider to be the most link-worthy pieces of writing around… per the Watcher’s instructions, I am submitting one of my own posts for consideration in the upcoming nominations process.

Here is the most recent winning council post, here is the most recent winning non-council post, here is the list of results for the latest vote, and here is the initial posting of all the nominees that were voted on.

The winning Council post comes to us via the Education Wonks who have a post on a disturbing beating that took place recently at a public school.

The winning non-council post is from the Diplomad. Their piece on tsunami relief efforts and what the UN isn’t doing has been one of the most linked posts in a while. Don’t miss it.

Although we Americans tend to be a happy-go-lucky optimistic lot, we’ve developed something of a myopic and jaded view of the rest of the world and how our supposed betters look upon us as either blithering, idiotic, tobacco chewing, red-necked crackers from Jesusland or evil, manipulative, militaristic xenophobes working clandestinely to make the world safe for Haliburton and Mickey Mouse.

The spectacular and heroic efforts of our military in aiding the hundreds of thousands of tsunami victims in SE Asia is a prime example of how Americans are being marginalized by the world press and how the United Nations is proving itself to be for anyone with the guts to see, a hollow shell, or worse, a shameless self-promoting cadre of self-important, self-aggrandizing, self-centered, do-nothing lickspittles.

Victor Davis Hanson speculates as to what the world would have been like the last 15 years or so without the United States:

Imagine a world in which there was no United States during the last 15 years. Iraq, Iran, and Libya would now have nukes. Afghanistan would remain a seventh-century Islamic terrorist haven sending out the minions of Zarqawi and Bin Laden worldwide. The lieutenants of Noriega, Milosevic, Mullah Omar, Saddam, and Moammar Khaddafi would no doubt be adjudicating human rights at the United Nations. The Ortega Brothers and Fidel Castro, not democracy, would be the exemplars of Latin America. Bosnia and Kosovo would be national graveyards like Pol Pot’s Cambodia. Add in Kurdistan as well — the periodic laboratory for Saddam’s latest varieties of gas.

Then why the resentment overseas? Hanson compares Americas detractors with the frightened townfolks in classic American westerns:

After all, the holed-up ‘good’ citizens were always angry that the lawman had shamed them, worried that he might make dangerous demands on their insular lives, confused about whether they would have to accommodate themselves either to savagery or civilization in their town’s future, and, above all, assured that they could libel and slur the tin star in a way that would earn a bullet from the lawbreaker. It was precisely that paradox between impotent high-sounding rhetoric and blunt-speaking, roughshod courage that lay at the heart of the classic Western from Shane and High Noon to The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance and The Magnificent Seven.

This doesn’t explain the attitude of the world press and their studious, almost ludicrous avoidance of any mention of the US Navy (don’t forget those magnificent Aussies too) in tsunami relief efforts. This from Powerline quoting from a Daily Telegraph story:

Last week we were subjected to one of the most extraordinary examples of one-sided news management of modern times, as most of our media, led by the BBC, studiously ignored what was by far the most effective and dramatic response to Asia’s tsunami disaster. A mighty task force of more than 20 US Navy ships, led by a vast nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, the Abraham Lincoln, and equipped with nearly 90 helicopters, landing craft and hovercraft, were carrying out a round-the-clock relief operation, providing food, water and medical supplies to hundreds of thousands of survivors.

The BBC went out of its way not to report this. Only when one BBC reporter, Ben Brown, hitched a lift from one of the Abraham Lincoln’s Sea Hawk helicopters to report from the Sumatran coast was there the faintest hint of the part that the Americans, aided by the Australian navy, were playing.

What then is the real story here?

The real story of the week should thus have been the startling contrast between the impotence of the international organizations, the UN and the EU, and the remarkable efficiency of the US and Australian military on the ground. Here and there, news organizations have tried to report this, such as the Frankfurter Allgemeine in Germany, and even the China News Agency, not to mention various weblogs, such as the wonderfully outspoken Diplomad, run undercover by members of the US State Department, and our own www.eureferendum.blogspot.com. But when even Communist China’s news agency tells us more about what is really going on than the BBC, we see just how strange the world has become.

Could this slanted, biased coverage explain this maddening remark by a Euroweenie reported by Varifrank?

Today, during an afternoon conference that wrapped up my project of the last 18 months, one of my Euro collegues tossed this little turd out to no one in particular:

and then they looked at me. I wasn’t laughing, and neither was my Hindi friend sitting next to me, who has lost family in the disaster.

Okay…you’re an American sitting with a bunch of ignorant Eurofrauds who’ve just made a remark so stupid, so insensitive that, in my case, would have set loose a string of profanity laced invectives so purple, it would’ve put the Giant People Eater to shame. Varifrank, thankfully, takes a calmer approach…and even more devastating:

“Hmmm, let’s see, what would be the ideal ship to send to a disaster, now what kind of ship would we want?

Well “Franz”, us peasants in America call that kind of ship an “Aircraft Carrier”. We have 12 of them. How many do you have? Oh that’s right, NONE. Lucky for you and the rest of the world, we are the kind of people who share. Even with people we dont like. In fact, if memory serves,once upon a time we peasants spent a ton of money and lives rescuing people who we had once tried to kill and who tried to kill us…”

So where is the UN? What are they doing? Hugh Hewitt, in his inimitable way, puts the issue succinctly:

With the oil-for-food-for-dictators scandals pushed temporarily into the background, it is easy to forget the absurdity of arguments in favor of a “lead role” for the United Nations. Why were there no calls for former Enron execs to take the lead role in the rebuilding of the Iraqi oil and gas industry? Why does the American press and the American left disconnect the Kofiklatch from the siphoned-off billions still being used to attack Americans and Iraqis from the meeting planners gathering at various relief conferences around the world.

Corrupt, venal, and apparently taking credit for running the relief effort even though they complain that US and Aussie helicopters aren’t throwing supplies for the victims overboard to ferry hundreds of UN employees who are acting as “assessment teams” into the disaster area, the United Nations is not only proving its impotence, it’s proving that it’s incapable of fulfilling one of its primary mandates; humanitarian relief on a global scale.

I suppose in the years ahead, Americans are going to have to get used to the idea that no matter what good we do in the world (Afghanistan, Iraq, the Sudan, or SE Asia) we’ll be reviled, despised, feared, and belittled. Is this the price we pay for being a hyperpower in a uni-polar world? Or is it a harbinger of an even more destructive anti-Americanism that, when the next terrorist attack hits our shores, the entire planet will be dancing in the streets in joy, not just the islamofacist thugs who celebrated on 9/11?

Man…reality really bites.

Kiefer_Sutherland_108504a
Originally uploaded by elvenstar522.

Terrorists derail train! Suitcase stolen! Average American family not so average! Jack in love! Secretary of Defense kidnapped along with his daughter, Jack’s squeeze! Body count for show at 45!

Just a typical two hour period in the life of our heroes at CTU. Below is a brief synopsis, some comments, and some speculation.

SUMMARY

A terrorist attack on a train all to steal a suitcase. A Turkish (not mid-east) plot to kidnap the Secretary of Defense Heller (played well by veteran character actor William Devane) who Jack works for now (gone from field ops at CTU for more than a year)also ends up nabbing Audrey Heller, the Secretary’s daughter who, though separated from her husband, is playing a little slap and tickle with ‘ole Jack.

While at CTU to brief the new Bureaucrat in Chief Aron Driscoll, Jack, realizes that the terrorist attack on the train is not the main target. The terrorist suspect brought to CTU headquarters isn’t talking so Jack takes matters into his own hands (as usual), busts into the interrogation room, shoots the terrorist in the knee(ouch!) and wrings the information out of him about the Secretary’s impending kidnapping. Also, probable internet attack is discovered…the hacker who discovers it (played by Lukas Haas of “Mars Attacks” and “Witness” fame) finds everybody at his office dead and goes on the run. Being a friend of super anal retentive bitch Chloe, Jack’s old administrative assistant (Jack: “How are you Chloe? Chloe: “Not perfect but OK.”), hacker Andrew Paige calls Chloe and tells her about the killings. Jack, who should have been arrested for shooting the terrorist, agrees to meet Paige at LA’s Union Station. Overheard by a terrorist, Paige is kidnapped and Jack, who’s been temporarily re-instated so that he can find Audrey and save her, is hot on the terrorists trail, following him and hoping that Paige’s kidnapper will lead him to his lost love.

SOME CHARACTERS:

The Araz Family: Mommy, daddy and teenage lovestruck son. Been in country 5 years. ALL are in on the plot (ultimate plot not yet revealed)

Richard Heller: Secretary Heller’s moonbat son. Heller was at Richard’s house when he was kidnapped trying to talk him out of speaking at an anti-war demonstration. Secretary Heller got off best line of the night; “Spare me the 6th grade Michael Moore logic…”

Edgar: Fat computer geek at CTU with photographic memory.

Aron Driscoll: Successor to Tony who we assume is still in jail, she’s a hard assed bureaucratic bitch with no discernible redeeming qualities. (I speculate she’s going to be killed off shortly). She fired Jack for being an addict (maybe).

Tomas Sharik: Turkish terrorist who blew up train. Might know more about ultimate plot.

Omar: So far mysterious terrorist in charge of holding the Secretary and Audrey. Probably NOT the mastermind.

Debbie: Lovestruck girl that Araz kid Beruss has been seeing. Followed him to terrorist hideout. Chance for a quick termination of relationship (not to mention her life functions)…say, about 100%.

LOOSE END

At CTU, Jack busts into interrogation room by cold cocking a guard, using his code card, and then PUNCHES A CODE INTO PANEL! Now, Jack’s been gone for more than a year…maybe the writers want to explain how the hell he still had a valid code to enter the interrogation room?

BODY COUNT

Jack: One gratuitous wounding.
Show to date: 45. including 32 on the train.

SPECULATION:

Who are the Araz family? We know they’re connected to Omar but they obviously have a larger role to play. My guess is, that when the major attack is revealed, they’ll be hip deep in it.

Richard Heller…terrorist dupe or a guy who REALLY hates his father? Could be surprise bad guy down the road. Right now, he looks innocent…sorta.

Who’s the mole? When Paige called Chloe to tell her about a possible internet attack, she was ordered by Driscoll to fob it off to the FBI. Paige’s office was then targeted by the terrorists. That means that Chloe, Driscoll, or someone at the FBI is a mole working for the terrorists. Stay tuned for THAT one.

Stay tuned for update tomorrow…same JACK time…same JACK channel.

UPDATE:

For all of you real fans of “24″…you’ve got to check out “24 Weblog.” Links to other sites, links to some great articles, as well as links to some spoilers, this is a GREAT site. Check it out.

Beautiful Atrocities answers a question that both Democrats and Republicans seem unwilling to ask; what price will we pay for the abandonment of mildly coercive interrogation techniques used against non-combatants?

Whom do the FBI, Defense Secretary, & Joint Chiefs answer to? What party has control of Congress? If Republicans don’t subject liberal Democrats to an aggressive public interrogation & force the issue, they’ll deserve full blame for the next terrorist attack. You can’t have it both ways.

“I hope to god I will end up being wrong, BUT, because of the changes put out; soldiers will die. I pray to god I’m wrong, but our chances just went up tenfolds because of the changes.”

We’re not playing tiddlywinks here, we’re at war. And we’re not dealing with your run-of-the-mill enemy soldier. We’re dealing with hardened killers who’d just as soon spit in the eye of an interrogator than give up any valuable information.

And we’re not talking about using the kind of shameless humiliation that was used at Abu Ghraib. We’re talking about mildly coercive “stress techniques” I listed here earlier.

It remains to be seen whether the NY Times and their moonbat allies in Congress are willing to place the lives of American soldiers over discomforting and inconveniencing a bunch of terrorist thugs. One thing’s for sure; the families of servicemen in Iraq are apparently going to lose more sleep over worrying than any of the beheaders, torturers, and homicidal maniacs who fall into our custody.

Some news from Iran:

It appears that Iranian ISPs have been ordered to block a large number of popular Web sites, including weblogging, community, chat and email services. Web (particularly weblog) use has been increasing rapidly in Iran, with 64000+ weblogs published by Iranians via various sites. As of today, if the news is correct, the majority of these may be inaccessible to their authors, as will the email (eg. Yahoo) services they use to communicate with friends, colleagues and family worldwide.”

The radioactive Mullahs are cracking down on blogs and bloggers because of what they represent; unregulated free speech.

If you haven’t been following what’s been going on in Iran over the last few months, a remarkable series of events have occurred which have challenged the absolute authority of the religious zealots currently in control in Iran. While the government of President Mohammad Khatami has buckled under pressure applied by the nutball Islamofacists to crack down on free speech, hundreds of courageous Iranian bloggers have continued to find a way to to post their stories.

Back in December at an International Internet Conference, Khatami said this:

Speaking to journalists, President Khatami added, “democracy runs in tandem with freedom of expression, but this does not mean that everything goes.

“Freedom of expression and freedom of thought are the preconditions of a democratic society. But freedom does not mean chaos”. (BBC News: 12/12/04)

Famous last words of tyrants everywhere! “Too much freedom” is a bad thing. Or, more rationally, freedom equals “chaos.”

Here’s an example of Iranian “free speech” in action:

In the U.S., when bloggers fact-check the media — as they did with the questionable National Guard memos on “60 Minutes” — they are hailed as new media heroes. In Iran, when reformist bloggers and journalists fact-check the government — as they did when the ruling hardliners railroaded the last election — they are put in jail and their publications are shut.

That point was brought home recently when the Iranian government, led by Ayatollah Khamenei, moved to block three reformist news Web sites, and then jailed three journalists — Hanif Mazrooie, Babak Ghafoori Azar, and Shahram Rafi Zadeh — the latter two are also bloggers. These moves follow a string of reformist newspaper closures this year, as well as a controversial election in which the ruling party disqualified reformist candidates, resulting in a widespread boycott of the vote.

Amazingly, Iranian bloggers haven’t let this kind of oppression stop them. They’ve continued to post riveting stories on anti-government riots in various cities involving tens of thousands of people was well as reporting on the continuing crackdown involving some of their blogging brethren. This comes from a recent post by Jeff Jarvis:

Iranian blogger Parthisan left a comment below urging us to read his translation of a post by Mohammed Ali Abtahi, the former VP of Iran — renowned for blogging himself — reporting on the imprisonment and torture of bloggers in Iran. It is his report on a committee meeting with imprisoned bloggers, called for by the president of Iran. An excerpt:

1- Physical torture, punches and kicks: “he banged my head to the bench that made my recently-operated nose bleed, and later I found out that they broke my nose”; “they punched us”; “we were alone in single cells for months”; and things of this kind…

ATTENTION MOONBATS: The next time you crawl out from under a rock and start screaming about being “oppressed” please read the above very carefully. Oppression is when you speak your mind and are thrown in jail and tortured for it…unlike in America where if you criticize the government, you get to be fawned over at cocktail parties, are offered a million dollar advance for a book contract that will make you rich and famous, and appear on MSNBC and have Chrissy Matthews kiss your overly ample ass in public.

All this brings to mind current attempts in the United States and elsewhere to “regulate” the internet. Already in Australia, there’s a serious effort underway to curtail internet freedom. And in the US, efforts to regulate internet commerce have taken on added impetus with the ballooning budget deficit and the belief by some lawmakers that a way can be found to tax internet transactions. Now, politicians generally speaking, are not the brightest of bulbs, but eventually they’re going to find a way to get a cut of the expanding e-commerce pie…and that spells trouble for the net in general.

If politicians can regulate one part of the internet, what’s to stop them from developing “standards” or other regulatory instruments to interfere with free expression? For instance, I’ve been known from time to time to use language that would be unsuitable for preteens to read. This is not uncommon on personal weblogs, even amongst some of the larger sites. Would there be some kind of push to develop a rating system for web sites? With the e-porn business topping the $4 billion mark this past year, it certainly is not beyond the realm of the impossible.

This is the crux of the problem. Once started down the “slippery slope” of internet control, politicians rarely know when to stop. And what the Iranian government crackdown on the internet proves is that any justification for oppression can be cited as long as the “people’s interest” is involved.