Moussaoui Gets Life

I can't say that I'm all that surprised. The reaction across a lot of blogs has been that of outrage - many are vexed that he didn't get the death penalty - I can't help but feel the same way. Like I said in my comment over at Wizbang, I would have loved nothing more than a firing squad to light his ass up like a Fourth of July display using rocket launchers as the matches. But anything like that is not going to happen, short of a little "prison justice".

What I will say is that, in the face of the government almost losing on the basis of a mistrial from stupid mistakes, Moussaoui getting anything is a miracle. Some are already settling for "at least he doesn't get to be a martyr". Yeah, its technically true, but it doesn't change the fact that a lot of people want him to die - myself included.

He'll likely spend the rest of his miserable life in solitary confinement, with all correspondence being carefully monitored - hopefully a lot of it never making its way to him. Finally, when it gets to be just a little too much for him to handle - what, with no human contact, let alone sympathy - maybe he'll find a way to do take care of it himself?

Dark thinking, to be sure, but one can't help but indulge in just a little of it today when you think of what could - and should - have been.

On Disrespecting the Dead

I had sworn to myself that I would (in all likelihood) never talk about Cindy Sheehan again. At first I had thought her "star" in foaming-leftist circles would eventually fall. I waited through the marches, the arrests. I bided my time through her cozying up to dictators like Hugo Chavez. I even expected a semi-reasonable answer to why she hadn't purchased a headstone for her son Casey - the very cause of her "peace protest".

So what does she do? She smears anyone within a thirty mile radius:

I will tell the world why Casey has no marker yet. In the first place, does anyone who is attacking me know how Casey was brought home from Iraq? We picked him up in the United loading dock in a cardboard box and he was off-loaded into a hearse without one honor guard. We had to wait for about a half hour on a curb near the United freight area for his one escort, who rode from Dover Air Force Base in a seat, while Casey was treated as an over-sized piece of luggage. Has anybody held her other sobbing children who are sitting on a curb in San Francisco, waiting for the remains of their big brother to be carried over to the dock by a forklift?

Now, I may be a naive little college student, but I suspect that dead bodies are not delivered in cardboard boxes - especially United States military servicemen and women.

As it turns out, infinitely better-qualified sources went ahead and proved that out.

Every, single consideration could and was made for the respectful return of Sgt. Sheehan's remains. I mean, good Lord, the funeral home paid for the costs of the cemetary burial - they were friends of the Sheehan family!

The unmitigated, repulsive gall of Cindy Sheehan just knows no bounds. She has constructed a new sort of private hell atop of the one she made after her son had died - one where she lives in a world forever discredited, and forever scorned for lying about the funeral of her son.

What kind of madness do we live in to let someone do this to themselves?

Snowball.

God, has it really been so long since I last updated?

Obviously, an explanation is in order - it's called "exams". I had a lot of them. More papers (and pages therein) than I care to think about - I had at least six to write for Theories of International Relations alone, four on government, video games, and the first amendment (believe you me, its a big undertaking), and others that I care not think about.

I'm already well into my next semester (only two more after this one, God willing), so updating will STILL be a bit spotty. This blog may actually be a useful catalyst for some of my other Political Science classes - you (and I) will likely see some of my more off-the-wall ideas and thoughts being spelled out here.

Profuse apologies for the lack of updates, but I'll likely get around to posting on current events this week. Hopefully.

When Politicos Attack!

Just a quickie update to my post from Wednesday. Michelle Malkin has weighed in on the subject, and links to a Washington Post editorial that essentially shakes its finger at the DSCC for fraudulently possessing Lt. Governor Michael Steele's credit record, but then takes a moment to remind us that Republicans do bad things too - referencing the infamous incident with President Nixon's "Plumbers" and the wiretapping of a Democratic party building in Virginia.

First and foremost - that foolishness happened thirty years ago and, while shameful in its own right, that stuff is long since in the past. Get over it.

Secondly, this lunacy that the theft of someone's personal financial information, strictly on the basis of smearing Michael Steele for having (God forbid!) debt, is somehow just a sign he has arrived in "big-time politics" is just that - lunacy. If I have my credit information stolen and used maliciously, have I arrived in "Big-time" Politics/Stardom/Blogging-Punditry? No, frankly, I haven't. This bizarre idea that it is public acceptance that we let this go as "Capitol Hill politics" drives me insane. When is it "politics" and when is it a flagrant violation of the law that transcends "political need"?

The DSCC had no business going through his finances, and yet we're supposed to just lay back and accept it as politics? God, who would want to be in the public sector if you frequently ran the risk of having your credit report illegally obtained and then used against you?

washington post

Well, well.

God, I take a break from blogging (longer than usual, I know - stop reminding me, all two of you), and then the Democrats have to go and pull crap like this and just pull me back in.

It doesn't take a lawyer to tell you that the Democratic Senatorial Committee's possession of Maryland Lt. Governor Michael Steele's credit records is highly illegal. It doesn't take a lawyer to tell you that, in all likelihood, that their possession of a credit report is only the tip of the iceberg - pundits, experts, and lawyers all alike will tell you that identity theft runs a little deeper than just a credit report. The DSCC now gets to have the FBI shove a probe up their nose, and this half-wit "apology" just isn't going to fly. Their spokesman, Phil Singer, goes on to speculate that other requests for information from the Governor, Robert Ehrlich, and Lt. Governor Michael Steele are being stonewalled to "hide something", dating back to June when this story first started to break. So two "errant" employees then look into Michael Steele's credit record. I guess the two employees throwing themselves on the sword is supposed to be some kind of pennance, right? Give me a break.

What this will look like is the Democrats fearing that a Michael Steele candidacy for Senate will actually happen - and that their washed-up, racist, has-been candidate Kweisi Mfume is going to get the bejeesus kicked out of him. True or not, snooping into someone's credit records just reflects on the Democrats in the worst possible way.

Does anyone else just boggle at the implications that, if they wanted to, any major political party with a few bucks, a phone, and an axe to grind could find out the credit history of not just their opponents, but anyone? The mind reels, folks. If you think a politician, who probably has far-superior means of protecting his identity and sensitive information, can be undone by a political committee, how do you think you or I should feel? Campaign fundraisers suddenly get their names thrown into the press because, God forbid, they missed a car payment. Regular supporters, all the way down to the $20-Minimum-Donation level, might suddenly find a magnifying glass shoved up their ass about a television they bought in 2004. The criminality of this is just insane.

What really pisses me off is that this kind of story - the kind of "See? See how Big Brother is a bad idea?" story - is summarily buried in the back of newspapers in the "Digest" section. The obvious violation of someone's privacy - "public figure" or not - is just not important to the press. Instead it's them getting all in a lather about being called on the carpet for being "stuck on stupid" when it comes to accuracy in reporting a hurricane evacuation plan. Or, here in Maryland, deciding that a Republican political operative, not acting on the Governor's orders, who speculates about Democratic mayor Martin O'Malleys infidelity is front page news.

But it suddenly isn't important that a politician's identity is stolen - especially since he's on the "wrong" side.

Hurricane Katrina

No creative titles, no witty banter - I've been reading all about this truly horrible event and how many bloggers have been doing astounding amounts of reporting and research. I'm not even going to pretend I can match the level of effort these people. Just a brief run-through of places to go, things to read.

Hurricaid blog is the clearinghouse for a lot of Hurricane Katrina-related information and charities to donate through.

Wizbang, period. Paul is riding this entire thing out down in New Orleans, and updates whenever he can with new information (God bless him).

Michelle Malkin has tons and tons of stories out of NO, from looting to stories of heroism and bravery.

Radio host and blogger Hugh Hewitt has been coordinating with NZ Bear (of The Truth Laid Bear blog and ecosystem) and Glenn Reynolds (the Instapundit) for Blogger Relief efforts (which has been expanded into the Labor Day weekend - I'll likely be donating a bit of money to some of these wonderful causes). Check out the TTLB Katrina Relief page for the blogs, donors, and charities listed on there. If you are so compelled, donate or participate by blogging - even $20 can go a long way.

Video game gurus and cartoon duo Gabe and Tycho of Penny-Arcade.com are putting up an original piece of artwork on an eBay auction, with all proceeds going straight to the American Red Cross. As of this posting, it is up to eight hundred and ten dollars ($810). Truly wonderful stuff. Their Child's Play charity is something to bookmark for revisiting around the holidays - they do astounding amounts of work for children in hospitals.

I'll make every effort I can to get back and post a lot more on the ongoing efforts to restore life back into the afflicted areas

*Wham* *Wham* *Wham* *Wham*

A truly dumb story out of Dallas, Texas (with a hat tip to Say Anything) has a Dallas school board voting 5-4 on a resolution that requires adminstrators in the system to learn Spanish or risk losing their jobs. The reason?

To better communicate with immigrant parents.

First and foremost, I have to admit that this is completely lost on me. Immigrants are getting a message that English is optional in Dallas, because we force our administrators to talk to you in your native language, or we'll can their ass. What happened to the idea that integration meant that the immigrants, not the natives, learned the language of their new country, and not have the natives speak to them in their own language?

This lowers the bar so far down to the ground it's ridiculous - the (legal, legal) immigrants should be learning English, not our school administrators learning Spanish. Otherwise, what is the point of emigrating to this country, where the native language is (still!) ENGLISH. It isn't sensical to require an administrator to bend over that far backwards to accomodate someone who is unwilling to learn the language (or well-practiced in it, for that matter).