Hugh Hewitt intervies Gen. Petraeus Hugh Hewitt intervies Gen. Petraeus

Hugh Hewitt interviewed General David Petraeus on the conditions on the ground in Iraq. Instapundit thinks this is a must read for all of Congress. Of course, they won't, because doing so would likely interfere with their claim that the "Surge" has failed. It hasn't, and the one man who would know, the man at the helm in Iraq, and the designer of it, explains why it is working, in places even better than expected.

Eating beef ' is less green than driving' Eating beef ' is less green than driving'

This is bad news for the environmentally sensitive: Eating beef ' is less green than driving'. Apparently, according to Japanese experts, 2.2 lbs of beef is worse for the environment than driving 150 miles. The problem with eating beef is first that cows generate a lot of methane, and second, a lot of energy is expended bring them food. Bad news for feedlots like we have in such plenty in Greeley, but better for range fed beef. Of course, the Japanese don't have the room for range fed, and they coddle their cows even more than we do - so eating beef here may only be as bad as driving 125 miles from an energy point of view.

This will be quite interesting to see how this plays out. Not surprisingly, I first saw this from PETA ("People Eating Tasty Animals" or something like that). Cows do compete for the same corn that is now in demand for ethanol right now. But the bigger question is whether people will have to give up their meat to be seen as environmentally sensitive.

Luckily, I don't have that problem.

Dillon in the morning in summer Dillon in the morning in summer

Dillon Colorado in the morning. Pictures taken yesterday from the back porch.


It actually looks about the same this morning. Maybe a couple more clouds, but mostly blue sky. The lake is calm. Temperature is balmy 53 degrees, but should get up to 80 or so today.

What I have never been able to figure out is that in the summer, the weather is fairly consistent, mornings like this, clouding over in the mid afternoon, a little rain, and then clear again by dusk. Well, ok, yesterday it started out perfect, as usual, but was raining by 4, and did so until about 7. So, I ended up driving to the grocery store.

I have found that walking to the grocery store is a nice walk in the summer, maybe 20 minutes each way. So, I have taken to doing that in the evening, instead of walking along the dam. So, hopefully, instead, I will skate along it in an hour or two.

Quindlen: Hillary Should Make Barack Her Running Mate Quindlen: Hillary Should Make Barack Her Running Mate

Anna Quindlen: Hillary Should Make Barack Her Running Mate makes a good point, that the best thing that Hillary could do to win the general election would be to take Barack Obama as her running mate. And, I think that she is right. That would be a very, very strong ticket. Obama's biggest problem seem to me to be his inexperience. And, despite the reality to the contrary, Hillary doesn't have that problem in the view of many Americans. Obama appears cleaner than Hillary, and he appeals to the younger crowd better than probably any other major candidate. Oh, and he is Black, or at least partially so. But White enough not to scare the voters.

I am not sure who the Republicans could run to compete with this ticket. Maybe one their losing Black candidates in the last election as VP. Or Dr. Rice. Possibly a charismatic Hispanic? In any case, it would significantly increase the Democrats chance at winning, with Obama cancelling out many of Hillary's weaknesses.

Strategypage on Iraq Strategypage on Iraq

I do think that strategypage.com on Iraq is a good source for what is going on there. It doesn't always get down into the details that Yon, Totten, et al. do, but its weekly posts do a decent job at keeping me up to date at a slightly higher level.

Some of its recent observations were that the Iraqi insurgency has always been a Sunni Arab insurgency. For a long time, it primarily involved Baathists paying for a lot of the attacks, and working with foreign terrorists as an expediency. But the recent surge has targetted them, and they and their money are being seized at an increasing rate.

The other thing is that the Sunni Arabs in Iraq have turned on the terrorists because of the wanton bloodshed, mostly of innocent Iraqis. Strict Wahhabi Sharia law doesn't help either. I was surprised that this turning really started three years ago, and not in the last six months. Rather, we are now just seeing the results of that long term process, with most of the Sunni tribes swapping sides and aiding us in ridding their communities of the terrorists, who in the end terrorized the Sunni Arabs hosting them almost as much as they did the Shi'a .

If I have a complaint with strategypage's coverage of the war in Iraq, it is that it is too rah-rah, and some of our problems in the past were glossed over. But still, it is far better coverage than you normally get with the MSM here in the U.S.

Who Is Responsible for the Mess in Mesopotamia? Who Is Responsible for the Mess in Mesopotamia?

TCS Daily: Who Is Responsible for the Mess in Mesopotamia? asks how the MSM can be so clueless about what is going on right now in Iraq. Esp. interesting is their abject refusal to put a name and nationality to the major terrorists in Iraq right now - they are Wahhabi Sunnis, primarily from the Gulf states, notably Saudi Arabia. As evidenced by the Anbar tribes switching sides this spring, the Iraqis mostly dislike the Wahhabi strictness, including their imposition of a very strict Sharia law.

As noted, all this is missed, when liberals, the MSM, etc. try to convince everyone that the war in Iraq is lost.

What do you call John Edwards at the bottom of Lake Michigan? What do you call John Edwards at the bottom of Lake Michigan?

Answer: A good start.

Thanks to poster: Dubya resonding to Feeling "Betrayed," Kucinich Calls Edwards Bluff where Rep. Kucinich indicated a feeling of betrayal with former Sen. Edwards attempting to cut him out of future Democratic presidential debates.

Bush and the Fairness Doctrine Bush and the Fairness Doctrine

The Corner@NROBush and the Fairness Doctrine had this statement from the Administration:

As you probably know, some Members of Congress have recently indicated their desire to seek legislation to regulate what is said on the radio by reinstating the so-called Fairness Doctrine, which was abolished in 1987 after the FCC concluded that "a multiplicity of voices in the marketplace assured diversity of opinion" on our airwaves. Since then, the multiplicity of voices has significantly increased — and the case for the Fairness Doctrine is weaker than ever. Reinstating the Fairness Doctrine would muzzle political debate and free speech. I therefore want you to know that the President would veto any legislation reinstating the Fairness Doctrine.

This is, of course, not unexpected. Talk radio benefits the right, since that is where the dominent talk radio shows are located. And so, the Democrats in Congress, newly in a majority, would like nothing better than to hobble their enemies with a reinstitution of the "Fairness Doctrine".

But what is interesting to me about this is the Constitutional side of this. The Fairness Doctrine had been justified by Red Lion, where the Supreme Court approved it based on there being a limited number of channels of communications available. Of course, this started in the 1920s, when there actually was a shortage. Eighty years later, there of course isn't.

Note that the Administration talks straight at this, pointing out that twenty years ago, the FCC found that the doctrine could no longer be justified on that basis. So what has changed to justify it now? Nothing.

But if Congress were to pass such a bill, and if it were signed (presumably by a later president), or they were able to overcome the president's veto, would it be enforcable? I would suggest not. Normally, the Supreme Court defers to Congress in its finding of facts supporting bills. But in this case, first there was a conflicting finding of fact by an administrative agency. And again, the Court would often ignore this in favor of Congress. But in this case, the standard of review is not the usual Rational Basis, but rather Strict Scrutiny. And because of that, I would suggest that the 1987 FCC findings would be fatal to its Constitutionality.

Michael Yon reports from Baquba, Iraq that the surge appears to be working. Michael Yon reports from Baquba, Iraq that the surge appears to be working.

Hugh Hewitt show: Michael Yon reports from Baquba, Iraq that the surge appears to be working.Some of the interview:

HH: I’m joined now by satellite phone from Baghdad by intrepid reporter Michael Yon. He’s actually in Baquba. Michael, welcome back to the Hugh Hewitt Show, always a pleasure to speak with you. How goes the fighting on the ground?

MY: Well, it’s really slowed down here in Baquba, Hugh. I was just in the TOC or the headquarters about fifteen minutes ago before I came on the show, and they were like the Maytag repairmen here. I mean, Baquba has just…you know, it was a very serious fight when it started, Operation Arrowhead Ripper on the 19th of June, I came in with them, but it quickly abated. The people have just turned against al Qaeda here. And so Baquba is really, the big fight now is to get the food distribution working again, which it already is. You know, they’ve got that going. And now, they’re working on fuel, because the fuel relates to electricity and water pumping. So really, they’re working on more civic things now. There’s still some combat to do, but not a lot, actually, because like I said, you know, the people just turned against al Qaeda.

HH: Now Michael Yon, a lot of people don’t know the significance of Baquba. And so can you explain what peace in Baquba means for the larger war effort?

MY: Well, it’s huge, because al Qaeda had claimed Baquba as their capitol, their worldwide capitol. And you might recall one of the things that kind of upsets people about my reporting is I said Iraq was in a civil war, and I said that way back in February of 2005, and I continue to do so. But when I first wrote that, I was in Baquba, in 2005, and I spent two or three months here. And it was just total…you could see it, and you could see al Qaeda was trying to foment that civil war, because that’s their underlying strategy, is to do that. And so getting, fracturing al Qaeda here, and al Qaeda alienating so many Iraqis, it’s helping us to put a damper on the civil war.

HH: Now yesterday, Harry Reid said on the floor of the Senate that the surge has failed. Do you think there’s any factual basis for making that assertion, Michael Yon, from what you’ve seen in Iraq over the last many months?

MY: He’s wrong, he’s wrong. It has absolutely not failed, and in fact, I’m finally willing to say it in public. I feel like it’s starting to succeed. And you know, I’m kind of stretching a little bit, because we haven’t gone too far into it, but I can see it from my travels around, for instance, in Anbar and out here in Diyala Province as well. Baghdad’s still very problematic. But there’s other areas where you can clearly see that there is a positive effect. And the first and foremost thing we have to do is knock down al Qaeda. And with them alienating so many Iraqis, I mean, they’re almost doing it for us. I mean, yeah, it takes military might to finally like wipe them out of Baquba, but it’s working. I mean, I sense that the surge is working. Reid is just wrong.

Yon goes on to say that Baghdad is still problematic, but that al Qaeda is rapidly running out of places to operate from. It can't operate in the south because there aren't any Sunni there, and the Kurds in the north are even less receptive.

The big thing is that a lot of the Sunni Arabs have switched sides. Not so much because of the surge, though that is probably helping, but because of two primary things. First, al Qaeda has overstayed their welcome. Most of the Sunni Arabs that used to work with al Qaeda are not in favor of the strict Sharia law imposed by al Qaeda, esp. when imposed through brutality. And, secondly, they are beginning to realize that we are their best chance at surviving in Iraq, esp. given the ethnic cleansing that had been going on last fall and maybe winter, with them the target.

Michael Yon : Feasting on the Moveable Beast Michael Yon : Feasting on the Moveable Beast

Michael Yon in: Al-Qaeda on the Run: Feasting on the Moveable Beast again brings us the reality of our war in Iraq. Here, he describes a meeting with a leader of the 1920s Revolution Brigades (1920s) who goes by the name Abu Ali. Six months ago, his group was fairly effectively fighting our troops, as well as those of Iraqi government. But then, in April, he came to us and asked for help in fighting al Qaeda. We were more than willing to accept his change of allegance and do some of the heavy lifting. As a result, Burhiz is being rapidly cleaned out of al Qaeda. Some of Yon's blog:

Before the tape was running, I asked Abu Ali why he and the 1920s turned against al Qaeda in Buhriz. Speaking through LT David Wallach, a native Arabic speaker, Abu Ali said that “al Qaeda is an abomination of Islam: cutting off heads, stealing people’s money, kidnapping . . . every type of torture they have done.”

The recent stories of baked children came to mind. I asked if Abu Ali had heard about children being baked. Ali said no, he had not heard such a story, but he would not be surprised if it were true because al Qaeda had done so many crimes, such as cutting off a man’s head, putting it up on a stick and parading it around town.

Ali said people had been afraid in their own homes because of al Qaeda. I asked if he had fought Americans and Ali laughed and said through Wallach, “What kind of question is that?” I chuckled. Unfortunately, we had to go to other meetings, so the time for taping was short. In closing, I asked Abu Ali if there was something he would like to say to Americans. The markets that had been closed under al Qaeda were bustling around us.

Ali thought for a moment as some local people tried to interrupt him with greetings, and he said, “I ask one thing,” and now I paraphrase Ali’s words: “After the Iraqi Army and Police take hold and the security forces are ready, we want a schedule for the leaving of the American forces.”

I have no doubt that the Administration agrees completely with this later sentiment, as do I.

Ladies’ Nights, RIP Ladies’ Nights, RIP

This Westword article: Ladies’ Nights, RIP tells of the possible demise in Colorado of Ladies' night at nightclubs based on the fact that they discriminate on the basis of sex in the provision of public accomodations.

On the one hand, I have always felt somewhat discriminated against when I have visited bars on Ladies' nights. But on the other, I have gone there for just that reason - that the cheap or free drinks, cover charges, etc. bring out more women, which has typically been my reason for visiting bars in the first place.

So, in the end, I think that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission did the wrong thing here, regardless of the law.

The New York Times Surrenders The New York Times Surrenders

Victor Davis Hanson does his usual superb job of destroying the credibility of the New York Times in: The New York Times Surrenders responding to their article titled "The Road Home". What is really scary is how idiotic the NYT article is. It seems to almost intentionally ignore the reality of the logistics, short term, and long term effects of an immediate pullout. As Hanson points out, the Gray Lady seems to be saying that any resulting genocide or ethnic cleansing is just fine, since it would be George Bush's fault for going into Iraq in the first place.

Google faces landmark lawsuit over sponsored links Google faces landmark lawsuit over sponsored links

Google faces landmark lawsuit over sponsored links:

A consumer watchdog is taking legal action against Google over the way it sells and displays its sponsored links, in a case that could "send shudders down the industry".

The case stems from 2005 when Trading Post, an Australian classified ads magazine, took out sponsored links in the name of two car dealerships from Newcastle, New South Wales. People clicking on the names of the dealerships found themselves on Trading Post’s website.

Interesting case, even if it is in Australia. Trading Post apparently used Google sponsored ads to misdirect people looking for the car dealerships to its, presumably competing, web site. Web sites have been trying to do this for a long time via regular search results by including the name of the product or service they want to steal from somehow on their web pages - and the search engines go out of their way to try to police that. But in this case, Google was taking money for it, and is therefore presumably somewhat culpable.

U.S. leg of Live Earth hits key notes - Newsday.com U.S. leg of Live Earth hits key notes - Newsday.com

Newsday.com: U.S. leg of Live Earth hits key notes brings into question whether newsday.com is a legitimate news site or a shill of the environmental wacko fringe. The artists can be forgiven, but the others? For example,

Etheridge aside, it was nonmusicians at this concert who made the most passionate pleas about demanding action for the environment. "Get rid of all these rotten politicians that we have in Washington, who are nothing more than corporate toadies," said Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the environmentalist author, president of Waterkeeper Alliance and Robert F. Kennedy's son, who grew hoarse from shouting. "This is treason. And we need to start treating them as traitors."

RFKJR is evidence here of growing panic on the Global Warming fringe, by suggesting that anyone who doesn't fully, completely, and absoutely believe his his type of hocus-pocus is a traitor. Of course, the reality is that the science is not settled, and "consensus" is not a word that applies to science, but rather, to politics. Oh, wait, he is a politician, whose father and grandfather tried for the presidency (the later having lost his chance by backing the wrong side in WW II). Of course, this guy's uncle is the one leading the opposition to windmills ofshore in Mass., and he likely still makes use of the family compounds in Hyannis Port and Miami.

And then there is this:

Primatologist Jane Goodall offered a greeting in chimpanzee language, before saying, "Up in the North the ice is melting, what will it take to melt the ice in the human heart?"

Yes Jane, it is that time of year, and so the artic ice is melting now. And in a couple of months, it will be forming again. It happens every year, and is called by the technical term of "Summer". My guess is that after all those years in the jungle, Ms. Goodall has forgotten that most of the world goes through this sort of annual heating and cooling cycle.

Bless the Beasts and Children Bless the Beasts and Children

I wasn't sure of the title of this: Michael Yon: Bless the Beasts and Children until I reached the comments. Yon did Pulitzer level work here, documenting an al Qaeda atrocity where they butchered the donkeys and the people of a village they were abandoning as Iraqi and American forces advanced. The dead animals were left on the road, but the people buried, in parts, in a common grave. Kids were beheaded, but it wasn't clear whether their parents had seen the kids killed first, or the kids had to watch their parents being killed, before they themselves were butchered.

In Yon's follow-up article: Update on “Bless the Beasts and Children”, the latest body count is somewhere between ten and fourteen.

The unanswered question in all the comments is why this atrocity hasn't seen the light of day in the various mainstream media news outlets.