Making Matters Worse

The first hurricane of the 2010 season made landfall about 100 miles south of the US-Mexican border, thus hampering the clean-up of the gulf oil spill.

From the Seattle Times:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2012240909_apustropicalweather.html

More Talks with the Usual Suspects

Continuing with the theme of ditching allies and patronizing thugocracies, Obama Administration officials are supposedly talking with representatives from Hamas, but don't want these talks publicly broadcast, lest it upsets "the Jewish lobby."

YNet News, has the story:

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3910714,00.html

What Obama's cronies don't realize is that this "Jewish lobby" consists of us gentiles who support the only democracy in the middle east.  A democracy that isn't hell-bent on attacking the U.S.

"Provacative Action," but not Terrorism

(Pictured above is the salvaged portion of the S. Korean frigate, Cheonan, sunk by a N. Korean torpedo)

Once again, the Obama Administration turns its back on an ally.  This time by declining to put North Korea on the U.S. blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism.

From the San Luis Obispo's The Tribune:

http://www.sanluisobispo.com/2010/06/28/1196302/us-sinking-of-skorean-warship.html?storylink=mirelated 

Somehow I don't think the condolence letters mailed to South Korean families said their sons died of a "provocation."

The Russian Bear Doesn't Change It's Fur After All

Ten people were rounded-up the other day and charged with spying for Mother Russia.  News agencies ask if this is return of the Cold War.  Most of us like-minded folks feel the chill never really left in the first place. 

From CBS:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/06/28/world/main6627393.shtml?tag=topnews

While the Daily News has photos of "spy vixen" Anna Chapman:

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2010/06/29/2010-06-29_untitled__2spies29m.html

The friend who sent us this news story had this to say:

But....but...Russia is our friend! We hit the Reset Button and everything!

Yeah, we're reset back to pre-1989.

Our Dear Leader Continues to Fiddle...

...or play golf, while oil continues to spew into the Gulf of Mexico, Iran and North Korea continue with their nuclear program, Russia continues to bully it's neighbors, while the Taliban becomes resurgent in Afghanistan.

It's not that we expect the President of the United States to personally scrub oil-covered wildlife, but the federal government shouldn't hinder state and local clean up efforts either.  Not to mention turning down help from our allies, some who've had extensive experience in off-shore drilling.

Mark Steyn rolls-in on our "unengaged" President:

http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/obama-255034-one-president.html

I certainly agree with Mark on this one.  The press should have asked serious questions about Obama's qualifications for the most powerful office in the world right from the beggining.  Instead most news agencies prostituted themselves as his cheerleading section, and now, Ministry of Propaganda.

Iranian "3 Hour Tour" Delayed/Cancelled

(Image of the SS Minnow from Gilligan's Island).

Apparently the Iranian attempt to run the Isreali blockade has been delayed or cancelled.

From Ricochet:

http://ricochet.com/conversations/Iran-Ship-to-Gaza-Cancelled

From Time Live:

http://www.timeslive.co.za/world/article512971.ece/Iran-aid-flotilla-to-Gaza-delayed

Five days ago, a high amount of message traffic was exchanged over the story of a US carrier battle group entered the Red Sea:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/138164

I read 3 articles on it yesterday when I saw it linked on Drudge - not a single one made it clear which direction they were headed! I thought they  were going to the Med (low interest) but maybe they are heading to the IO/AS/PG?  My admiration for the press knows no bounds (or really even existence) for their godawful reporting!


According to USN press releases the strike group deployed on 21 May and according to NAVCENT's website the carrier entered the 5th Fleet AOR on 18 June to relieve the Eisenhower's strike group. In other words, it is simply part of the normal rotation.

It's always fun when bloggers and people in the media get excited about routine deployments because they are too lazy to look up the facts. Two years ago there was similar drill. Some people got all excited about a possible strike on Iran because there was a French Rafale squadron doing workups with the TR's airwing off the East Coast and she was going to deploy to 5th Fleet with a French ship and British ship as part of her battle group. The thinking was that Washington, Paris, and London had finally had it with Iran and the TR with its airwing plussed up by a French squadron with allied ships in tow was heading to the AOR to kick some tail. Reality was of course a lot less interesting - our strike groups deploy with allied ships all of the time and the French squadron operating off the TR was there to do their annual qualifications because the Charles De Gaulle was in refit and it didn't deploy with the group.

There was some of this pre-2003...everytime a convoy of ships went somewhere, usually as part of an UNREP or other maritime replenishment of stocks, the blogs would freak and go "whoa, hey...."

Interesting this is raising so much hoo hah. Sometimes I suspect it reflects wishful thinking of the blogger/analyst rather than anything meaningful. As was pointed out, a lot of it is just reflective of how lame reporting is these days--these guys (and gals) seem to lack basic journalistic skills.

This Blog--And Most of the Internet--are Blasphemous

(Image from caglecartoons.com)

Pakistan will be monitoring several websites in an attempt to block "blasphemous material." From Yahoo News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100625/ap_on_hi_te/as_pakistan

The sites listed in the article represent a large chunk of the internet.  But one of my friends noticed "...they don't seem to be blocking any porn sites..."

I guess you can take extremism only so far.

Nemisis Takes Aim (Again)

Once again, Victor Davis Hanson (VDH), calls forth Nemisis.  This isn't the first time VDH pointed out that a lot of Obama's campaign rhetoric is coming back to bite him. 

And this isn't the first time I've used the above image either.  I prefer the Xena: Warrior Princess version of the vengeful goddess than the classic one.

http://article.nationalreview.com/437029/saving-obama-from-himself/victor-davis-hanson

My How Times Have Changed

Remember this hit piece, pictured above?

After General McChrystal's comments about Obama and his administration to Rolling Stone Magazine, Petraeus is now called back to help set things right in Afghanistan.  From Yahoo News:

http://finance.yahoo.com/career-work/article/109922/general-mcchrystals-next-job?mod=career-leadership

Victor Davis Hanson adds his scholarly view of this chain-of-command shake-up:

http://pajamasmedia.com/victordavishanson/cracked-chrystal/

During Bush the Younger's administration, General Shinseki was praised for "speaking truth to power" when the general criticized the president over proposed troop strength in Iraq.  Now Obama is praised for "taking bold action" for removing an outspoken general.

Happy Father's Day!

As if Islamofacism Weren't Enough to Worry About

Chinese generals and admirals have been giving our flag officers a tongue lashing.  Gordon Chang discusses Sino-US relations and China's looming threat in Pajamas Media:

http://pajamasmedia.com/blog/china%E2%80%99s-military-threatens-america-we-will-hurt-you/

I've often wondered about our country's wishy-washiness towards the PRC, especially since their hackers continually try to infiltrate our computer systems, not to mention stealing our nuclear secrets.

Chang's article garnered a couple of comments from my friends:

The Navy leadership ought to read their own scholarly publication, Naval War College Review (AKA “We’re Gonna Go to War with China Eventually” Magazine)

Why would the Chinese need to pop a nuke. They could just dump all of the US treasury bills they hold. It would hurt their economy but it would pretty much wreck ours...

Kind of like cashing in their chips all at once.