This is only a test.
Or maybe more, depending...

Syria pwned.

Marc Schulman:

Assuming the information in this article is accurate, Israel did more than attack Syria: it also sent a message to Tehran.

OpFor:

Ahhh makes me think of Patton: "Fixed fortifications are monuments to the stupidity of man." Integrated anti-air defenses haven't really been all that effective since the Vietnam era, and I'm starting to think that they're obsolete technology.

They're talking about this article in Aviation Week:

The big mystery of the strike is how did the non-stealthy F-15s and F-16s get through the Syrian air defense radars without being detected? Some U.S. officials say they have the answer.

U.S. aerospace industry and retired military officials indicated today that a technology like the U.S.-developed “Suter” airborne network attack system developed by BAE Systems and integrated into U.S. unmanned aircraft by L-3 Communications was used by the Israelis. The system has been used or at least tested operationally in Iraq and Afghanistan over the last year.

The technology allows users to invade communications networks, see what enemy sensors see and even take over as systems administrator so sensors can be manipulated into positions so that approaching aircraft can’t be seen, they say. The process involves locating enemy emitters with great precision and then directing data streams into them that can include false targets and misleading messages algorithms that allow a number of activities including control.

A Kuwaiti newspaper wrote that "Russian experts are studying why the two state-of-the art Russian-built radar systems in Syria did not detect the Israeli jets entering Syrian territory. Iran reportedly has asked the same question, since it is buying the same systems and might have paid for the Syrian acquisitions."

No kidding. I'll bet the Iranian regime thugs are crapping their pants, and the Russians too. "The process involves locating enemy emitters with great precision and then directing data streams into them that can include false targets and misleading messages algorithms that allow a number of activities including control." Sounds like Star Trek stuff, don't it?

The system in question is thought to be the new Tor-M1 launchers which carries eight missiles as well as two of the Pachora-2A system. Iran bought 29 of the Tor launchers from Russia for $750 million to guard its nuclear sites,

and I'll bet they want their money back. Oh well. Caveat emperor, or whatever.

Debka seems to believe there's a dirty bomb in the works. For whatever it's worth (and yeah, I know, it's Debka, the guys who breathlessly reported a nonexistent Turkish-Iraqi war last summer), their latest DNW [paid subscription service] claims:

Iran, Syria and North Korea are believed to be the first nations in history to have acquired dirty bombs as operational weapons, stowing their main stock in northern Syria. This discovery has injected fresh urgency into the Bush administration’s approach to the nuclear issue. Policy-makers have been running around in circles for a strategy and options to scotch the new threat at source.

The Sept. 6 air strike over Syria was the first result; it also carried a warning to Tehran, Pyongyang and Damascus that they had better hurry up and do away with any stocks of such weapons they may have or else incur the treatment meted out to Damascus at its “agricultural research center.”

Syria was targeted for the air strike both as the hiding place of the bulk of the RDD stock and because there is no way its presence could be hidden unbeknownst to the ruler. The buck clearly stopped at the presidential palace in Damascus. No one therefore believed President Bashar Assad’s hasty message to Washington through undercover back doors denying he had any personal knowledge of the nefarious operation at the Beir al Harj site and had ordered it investigated.

I'm not going to excerpt any more lest I bring down the wrath of the Debka Copyright Mossad, but you get the idea.

Anyway, that about sums it up. So who do you think is gonna win this thing - the guys who can barely manage to put their toxic waste on a rocket or plane, or the guys who can "include false targets and misleading messages algorithms that allow a number of activities including control"?

Yeah, that's what I thought.

Mad In America

"They keep sending our jobs away."

Here's a great song from the brother of an old friend of mine.

Troubled by the rising tied of offshoring around the country musician and CSEA Local 2001 member Steve Dube put pen to paper and wrote an anthem called “Mad in America” for his band ETX.

[Dube]: The song was written as a protest basically, just because of all of the engineering and IT jobs going away.

Dube is now trying to bring that protest via song to music lovers everywhere by landing on ITunes top 100 on July 4. How? Dube is calling on everyone to log into their ITunes player on the Independence Day holiday and download the song. If enough people do it, the song should hypothetically find a place among the Avril Lavignes and Fall Out Boys of the world.

[Dube2]: We’d like to just get a grassroots effort going where the song could become like an anthem for American workers just to show Washington in an election year that we don’t want the middle class to go away and we want jobs in the United States.

I've just downloaded the song to iTunes and I can personally and enthusiastically recommend it. "Mad in America" raises important questions about globalization and the outsourcing of American jobs. And it's a great song, too.

My friend Chuck comes from a family of patriots and is also a musician, having performed with Leigh Gregory. Go have a listen to Mad in America by ETx - and you can download the whole thing for just 99 cents.

Memorial Day

The day that America has set aside to commemorate our fallen warriors is upon us. To those who have given the ultimate sacrifice for our country and the world I can not adequetely express our gratitude. For the widows and orphans I don't have the eloquence to properly console. I can only ask that my fellow citizens take one day to properly honor those who have fallen. Be respectful of the soldiers, sailors, Marines and airmen who have laid down their lives so that you can enjoy your life, and don't use it in an attempt to make political points.

Israel, the Palestinians, and the Cyber-Donks (Part One)

Yesterday Charles Johnson linked to a Daily Kos diary in which the diarist – an Israeli - calls it quits, with one of the best door-slammer endings ever: “I came to this site with Leftist Zionist Environmentalist Pro-Peace ideology (Meretz style). I leave it with a heavy doubt of the entire ‘Progressive’ ideology, morals and goals.”

I briefly skimmed the comments to this diary and something caught my eye. I don’t usually read the comments at Kos, partly because the signature lines tend to be longer than the comments and it is very annoying to be subjected to the same tag-line slogan over and over. But what caught my eye was this:

“Israel/Palestine is not a germane topic for this site to begin with. The Kos himself has said so many times, and I agree with him. … It's been said here many times - it is a THIRD RAIL that blogsites touch at their peril. Kos blocks diaries that try to bring this topic up … Pro-Israel and Pro-Palestinian arguments HAVE NO PLACE HERE. Most people here, frankly, are not interested in discussing this chronically intractable subject.”

It’s a stunning admission for “progressives” who claim to speak credibly on world events to say that they are not interested in talking about Israel and the Palestinians. Besides being a salient feature of the international landscape, it is a very important part of American political culture – the culture that the progs are trying to harness and ride for a saddle-pony. The comment claims that “The Kos himself” tries to steer Kos away from such discussion, even to the point of deletion. And I found that very strange.

I already knew, as most people who read the blogs know, that one does not turn to the left for detailed discussion of Israel and the Palestinians. As the departing Kos diarist noted, there are an unnerving number of people over there who seem to assume that Noam Chomsky has said the last word on the subject. Still, the left has articulated lots of pro-Israeli - and even pro-Zionist - opinion in the past. For many decades there has been a lot of left and center-left interest in a positive future for Israel, so why does it suddenly and emphatically HAVE NO PLACE HERE? And above all, SAYS WHO?

More to come.

Civics 101: The Logan Act

Should our elected representatives know where their authority begins and ends, or does that only apply to Republicans?

I know, rhetorical question, but humor me.

Today I stumbled upon and article written by Robert Turner that was published by OpinionJournal.com. In the article, Mr. Turner asks the question, "Did Nancy Pelosi commit a felony when she went to Syria?"

The answer is, yes, she did.

He goes on to inform the reader about the history and reasons behind the Logan Act, the very law Nancy Pelosi broke.

In our litigious society, that is also keen on making excuses for law-breakers when it suits their world view, the press, democrats, and sadly the current administration are all looking the other way in an effort to avoid the hot potato issue that is burning a hole in the carpet of our political society.

First question. Did she knowingly break the law? We are often instructed and reminded that ignorance of the law is no excuse, and as a "law maker" she should know the law, or at the very least, be informed about the law by her staff or do her own homework.

Mr. Turner goes on to explain the non-to-subtle difference between the perfectly legal "fact finding mission" and what she did... actively carrying out foriegn policy discussion (negotiations) without permission of the Executive branch of our government (i.e. President Bush's permission/blessing) and making a royal mess of it. I guess Nancy is so used to being able to manipulate public opinion and having her "world view" blessed and accepted by the press and her supporters, that she must have thought she could do the same with the Israeli Prime Minister and Syrian President Assad.

Second question. Will this administration refer the matter to the Attorney General for investigation? Somehow I doubt it. And I doubt the press will make an issue of it either, unless of course the matter is refered and then it will be deemed a retalliatory witch hunt (at least they will get the witch part right). I doubt anyone that reads this blog will be surprised by any of this either.

I'm wondering when will the Republicans grow a set and do what is right regardless of how it looks; politics be damned. When a federal law has been broken by an elected member of the US Congress we should not look the other way, especially when that representative made the promise to oversee the most ethical US congress in history. So far the democrats have a dismal record and we haven't even gotten through their first year in office. Representative Steele's freezer money, Feinstein's conflict of interest that dwarfs any allegations of wrong-doing on the part of Haliburton, Delay, Chenney, Gingrich, and Abramoff combined. But the press isn't interested because the parties involved have a "D" after their names.

Well, you learn something new every day. At least I did, but I don't think the press is capable of learning anything new, least ways not until they take off their blinders.

The War Within and the War Without

We are at war. Our enemies are within and without. Without, we have the global islamic jihad against Western Civilization. Within, we have the traitors on the left........
http://herbertsobel.blogspot.com/2007/03/war-within-and-war-without.html