About
Captain Ed is a father and grandfather living in the Twin Cities area of Minnesota, a native Californian who moved to the North Star State because of the weather. He lives with his wife Marcia, also known as the First Mate, their two dogs, and frequently watch their granddaughter Kayla, whom Captain Ed calls The Little Admiral.
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The Crows Nest
Would Early Primaries Allow More Donations?
Jim Geraghty at The Campaign Spot believes that candidates will benefit if primaries and caucuses get pushed into 2007. A loophole in campaign finance regulation appears to allow an extra $2,300 per donor for candidates if those elections are held this year. Be sure to check out Jim's analysis, and the surprising candidate that may benefit the most.
When Tom Met Jeralyn
One of the interesting aspects of politics is finding out that opponents are people, too. Jeralyn Merritt of TalkLeft met Rep. Tom Tancredo backstage at NBC's studios, and found him more likable than she had anticipated. Perhaps it was their mutual interest in Dog, The Bounty Hunter ...
Joe Lieberman A Right-Wing Nut?
That's what CAIR says, according to Joe Kaufman. He has a link to a CAIR official's blog post that calls Lieberman, along with John Bolton, former CIA director James Woolsey, and the Heritage Foundation's Peter Brookes as "extremists". Affad Shaikh also calls Dick Cheney a "fat bastard of a liar," apparently not meant as a pop-culture reference to the Austin Powers movies. (via Let Freedom Ring)
Broadband Homelessness
The Japanese have made homelessness more efficient, and more Net-friendly, too. Their Internet cafés have become homeless shelters for the struggling manual-labor sector. The problem has grown into such a problem that government intervention will shortly become a political priority.
Found My Law Firm
Power Line links twice to this story regarding an attorney at Faegre & Benson who refused to become a victim and helped capture a very dangerous man. Keith Radtke is a partner in the firm as is Power Line's John Hinderaker. Radtke is listed in satisfactory condition after getting shot in the back, but that didn't keep him from locking up his attacker in a wrestling grip until police could arrive. I don't know about you, but that's the kind of man I'd want as my counsel ....
Don't Click That YouTube E-mail
The latest in spam seems to be redirections from YouTube links in e-mail to IP addresses without domain names. They attempt to entice people by making it seem that they have been inadvertently YouTubed. I'm sure most people can see through this scam, but just in case, you've been warned ....
Rick Moran Escapes The Floods
Rick Moran has kept us up to date on his travails along the Algonquin River. Yesterday, the police showed up to get him evacuated before the river flooded his home -- but today, Rick finds that a minor miracle has taken place, and that his house survives ... at least for now. Keep Rick in your prayers, and keep checking in at Right Wing Nut House for updates.
Rule 1: Drag The Corpse On Over First
If I've learned anything in four years of blogging, don't try to be out in front of the death rumors, especially with the villains of the world. Saddam died a hundred deaths before we caught him alive in his spider hole, and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi almost as many before his demise last year. Osama may or may not be alive, but everyone's avoided speculating on his fate for a while now. Maybe Val at Babalu Blog will get luckier with his "Castro Is Dead" story. We all hope so. I'll wait for the announcement ....
Hobbs Choice
Volunteer Voters is holding its annual "Best of Nashville" on-line polls, and one of the categories is for the best political writer. Our friend Bill Hobbs, now posting at Newsbusters, and he'd like his on-line fans to cast their votes. Drop by and put one in for Bill if you get a chance!
Murtha Getting Backlogged On Apologies
Gary Gross of Let Freedom Ring sees another case collapsing on the Haditha charges. He's called for Murtha to apologize earlier, and adds another reason to the tally.
No Such Thing As 'Moderate' Islam?
Turkish PM Tayyip Erdogan told a television interviewer that he finds the label "moderate Islam" offensive. Shrink Wrapped has a lot more on this, but at least in the same interview Erdogan acknowledged that "radical Islam" exists, and that it's been a catastrophe. Be sure to read the whole post.
MS-NBC Gets Punk'd
Power Line has a great post on a lack of journalistic effort on the part of MS-NBC. In covering the Michael Vick story, they reported on what they thought was Al Sharpton's website proclaiming Vick's innocence. I guess Alex Johnson and two other MS-NBC reporters couldn't bother to read the title bar of the site, which proudly proclaims it as a "parody site".
New Instapundit Podcast On Pharmaceuticals
I just caught this e-mail from Glenn Reynolds about his new podcast with Richard Epstein, the author of Overdose: How Excessive Government Regulation Stifles Pharmaceutical Innovation. Haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, but the topic is important enough to make sure I carve out time for it tomorrow. Get their first and tell me what I'm missing ....
Fed Trying A 'Stealth Easing'?
The Federal Reserve seems to have conducted a quiet campaign to steady markets that started spinning out of control, according to King Banaian at SCSU Scholars. He thinks that the Fed has conducted a "stealth easing". Be sure to read his explanation and follow his lnks.
A Shameless Bit Of Sel-Promotion
Gateway Pundit and Val at Babalu Blog note a crass PR move by Hugo Chavez. Venezuela has responded to Peru's eathquake disaster with food shipments -- and with Hugo's smiling picture on the cans. He also uses the tuna-can label to undermine President Garcia of Peru, who narrowly defeated Chavez' pal Ollanto Humalla, whom the labels extol for his "solidarity" with Chavez.
Tacky beyond belief.
Comments (25)
Posted by SoldiersMom | July 17, 2007 3:24 PM
I was listening to Hannity this afternoon and he said something that I hadn't thought of before, but realized how true it was. Democrats have done nothing to enhance National Security. They allowed the gathering storm that resulted in 9/11 and have worked tirelessly to defeat every effort to enhance security since. Disgusting.
Posted by AmendmentX | July 17, 2007 3:26 PM
New news is old news. 4-5 years ago there were numerous reports of OTM's (Other Than Mexicans) being smuggled across the border. Prices offered to coyotes for some of these OTM's were up to $50,000. No Mexican who's going to work pounding nails or laying block for some gringo is going to pay $50,000 for the privilege. Arabic reading material has also been left behind in the trash on the border.
And this story made up part of the plot to Tom Clancy's book "Teeth of the Tiger".
"They" are already amongst us. And Swim Champ Kennedy and his ilk and allies in the driveby media take away the means that the Admin uses to discover these people. Yet watch what happens when we get hit. The radical American hating lefties are like people who chop the fireman's hose and then are outraged when the house burns down.
Posted by docjim505 | July 17, 2007 3:52 PM
Folks, there's nothing to worry about! Grand Admiral Reid, Commissar Pelosi, and their allies and toadies in the Congress are getting ready to engineer our surrender in Iraq. Once that's done, all the terrorists in the world will pack up and go home. After all, they didn't exist before Chimpy McBushitler invaded Iraq and have no reason to harm us once we stop stealing Iraq's oil for Halliburton.
/sarcasm
There's plenty of blame to go around on this one. Bush has been chief among idiots on the border issue. It's one thing to encourage immigration. It's another to leave open a huge door into our country when there are people who want nothing more than to come in to commit murder and mayhem. Many people (including me) like to say that we haven't been attacked at home since 9-11. There's truth to this; we've been doing more to keep ourselves safe than we did before 9-11(*). However, I think that there's also been a large element of luck. As near as I can tell, there's damned little to stop bin Laden coming over the Rio Grande with an A-bomb on his back. What will we do when he finally does... and a few hundred thousand Americans pay with their lives for our carelessness?
-----------
Whenever one talks about the lack of counterterrorism efforts prior to 9-11, it almost always degenerates into a "Clinton did this" or "Bush did not do that". We were ALL asleep at the switch on 9-10-01. Let's not go back to sleep now.
Posted by Philip | July 17, 2007 3:59 PM
So. How much of that southern security fence got built today?
Hm.?
Anyone...?
(crickets)
Posted by starfleet_dude | July 17, 2007 4:09 PM
I'm pretty skeptical about the allegations in this report, considering since there's not a single person from the Middle East who has been apprehended after crossing illegally into the U.S. from Mexico. It's not like they would be fluent speakers of Spanish, si?. Now if they do catch someone who's from Iraq, then maybe there's something to it. Otherwise, it might as well be so much fiction from Tom Clancy.
docjim505, besides the problem of first getting an A-bomb and somehow hauling it across the border, it's much easier to sail it into a port, non?
Posted by NoDonkey | July 17, 2007 4:17 PM
As painful as it is for me to agree with sanfran_dude here, I do.
Besides, walling off our entire border, to include Canada, the coasts and Mexico, ain't gonna happen.
Even if you do, you can always get under, over or through whatever is built.
Which is why we need to do as much as possible overseas, to kill these cockroaches and destroy their organization where they live - not wait until they get here.
And dry up their financial support. The kind that the NY Times blew the cover on, BTW.
Posted by Duke DeLand | July 17, 2007 4:17 PM
Starfleet......Got your head in the sand, I see.
Do you possibly suppose anyone coming across the border with $25,000 in his pocket to do so is coming across without someone already here as a contact? These folks are not coming in from Iraq to pick lettuce! Even if that is what Chertoff believes!
The reality is the reports of impending attacks could quite likely be connected to this FBI report, as well as, yet unidentified folks of the same origin coming across the border from the much-more-Muslim-friendly country of Canada.
We'll probably learn all this much too late to help us....say after a certain major event kills many or at the least leaves us afraid and dispirited!
How sad we have Liberals and a President who can see no border evil!
Duke DeLand
Posted by lexhamfox | July 17, 2007 5:27 PM
I think the most efficient way to penetrate the US is to fly or drive across the border rather than go through the discomfort of being smuggled. It costs less too.
It is scandalous that the United States has not taken more of the estimated two million refugess from the Iraq war. That we only plan to take 6,000 is a disgrace as is the fact that we don't help allies like Jordan cope with the massive influx of refugees which are overwhelming their economy.
Posted by starfleet_dude | July 17, 2007 5:57 PM
One reason I think this news about a report is rather suspect is that it blatantly tips off the perps about the FBI being onto them. You'd think the FBI might want to keep this under wraps to better catch those allegedly smuggling in Iraqis, as well as any Iraqis themselves.
Posted by Frantic Freddie | July 17, 2007 6:21 PM
Belen?!? Goin' north thru Albuquerque has it's risks,but head east to Mountainair & come up thru Manzano,Tajique & Chilili.
Drug distribution points all & all filled with anti-American Hispanics.
And people ask me why I carry several guns when I'm down there.
Posted by Grey | July 17, 2007 7:04 PM
This has been a problem for years--rewatched Red Dawn yesterday and in the movie Cubans snuck across the border to prepare for the invasion. And the movie is 25 years old!
Posted by McGehee | July 17, 2007 8:53 PM
And of course the MSM would never divulge sensitive information to the bad guys, would they? It's never happened before, has it?
<ZAP!>
[grumble grumble] @#$!! lightning...
Posted by starfleet_dude | July 17, 2007 9:07 PM
McGehee, who then is tipping the MSM off about what the FBI knows? IMO, it's someone who wants the allegations to be made public, regardless of whether they're true or not.
Posted by onlineanalyst | July 17, 2007 9:20 PM
It has been known for years that Hezbollah, another of our enemies, has been recruiting/training jihadists in a triangle of countries in South America. These infiltrators, fluent in Spanish, are massed in groups along the Mexican border, easily able to blend in with native Mexican border crossers attempting to illegal enter the US.
Once dispersed across our country into safe houses and cells, they would have no trouble coordinating simultaneous attacks on soft targets-- schools, malls, sports gatherings, electrical power stations and water-treatment plants, etc-- to create a confusing pandemonium of terrorism.
AlQaeda certainly would have no trouble concocting a comparable plan, perhaps through our northern border, to blend into our major metropolis areas. How many doctors and academics have had professional cover of attending conferences in our country and been given a green light by a PC-friendly, non-profiling agent? (After all, it was a group of doctors who attempted the Glasgow caper.)What about students on visas who disappear into our broad country?
The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We cannot be asleep or passive if something seems amiss in our home areas.
Posted by onlineanalyst | July 17, 2007 9:27 PM
Who tipped the NYT about various methods of tracking terrorist operations?
Cui bono Who benefits?
SF assumes that leaks such as this latest one at ABC originate with government blessing. Why is not the same cynicism aimed at NYT "scoops" via leaks or by unattributed sources? And why are not questions asked about why those were done? Skepticism works both ways.
Posted by John Adams | July 17, 2007 10:24 PM
So, it has taken a year for the pathetic FBI, whose ghastly failure brought us 9/11, to produce the intelligence that Middle Eastern terrorists are being smuggled across the southern border. Wonderful, just wonderful! However, before the laughter begins, let us not forget that this positively silly, ineffectual agency has had to spend much of its time in the investigation of the nationally devastating crime of dog fighting! What next? Will the FBI now divert their attention to Hoover’s favorite interstate crime, investigating New York teenagers, under the Mann Act, for taking their dates two miles over to Hoboken, N.J., for “immoral purposes”? Stay tuned! Maybe we can even get the current FBI bozo in charge to resign for someone who is vaguely responsible to the public, like big city police chiefs! The FBI has been, and remains, a joke. They have learned nothing since 9/11! They continue to grossly waste precious Federal resources on absurd investigations of local amateur crimes that are none of their business. The only solution is the immediate termination of the entire top management of the FBI and their replacement with the type of officials that cleaned up New York City.
Posted by flenser | July 18, 2007 1:19 AM
Of course this is true, although its not new.
http://powerlineblog.com/archives/018175.php
Bensman discovered the existence of a pipeline of illegals from "Countries of Special Interest" -- mostly in the Middle East, almost all Muslim -- that runs through Latin American into the United States. It is a remarkable series. Yet apart from our friend Hugh Hewitt, who immediately highlighted the series on his site and invited Bensman on his show to discuss it, the silence has been deafening. Why? You can answer that question as well as I can.
More than 5,700 illegal migrants from 43 Islamic countries, including State Sponsors of Terror, have been caught while traveling over the Canadian and Mexican borders along well-established underground smuggling routes since 9-11, a traffic that continues daily. People caught coming from these countries in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa are labeled by our federal law enforcement agencies as "Special Interest Aliens."
starfleet dude, you are dismissed.
Posted by starfleet_dude | July 18, 2007 8:32 AM
More than 5,700 illegal migrants from 43 Islamic countries
Wrong, it was 43 countries who were on the "suspected terrorism" list, including North Korea and other non-Islamic countries. FYI, most were detained at the border after trying to cross legally, and weren't hiring coyotes to get them across the border.
Posted by roc ingersol | July 18, 2007 9:08 AM
I'm more worried about the US/Canada border , specifically Detroit / Windsor tunnel with their high muslim population.
Posted by flenser | July 18, 2007 1:16 PM
sdude, you may want to follow the links and read what you find.
Posted by Jim C | July 18, 2007 7:42 PM
SF Dude,
I guess you didn't bother to read Bensman's story. In it he details at least one Iraqi who was smuggled across the border. Please read the article. You might find it helpful to have the facts.
Jim C
Posted by treehugger | July 18, 2007 8:06 PM
I disagree that we "owe" the Iraqis who have fled a darn thing.
If they won't stay and fight for their country while American soldiers do their work for them, what good are they to us? It was refugees from Iraq that attacked that US solider in the southeast this spring
If they want to run away, they should stay in muslim countries. It's just another avenue for terrorists to enter the US.
Posted by Rose | July 18, 2007 8:32 PM
So! This is a breaking news alert!
Well, so it was - in 2001.
But sleep on, if you please.
But those who are preparing for the aftermath are also preparing for those who refuse to wake up before the flood is neck deep, fully intending to go knocking on THEIR doors, when it "gets serious enough" to have to think about it.
THAT is the FIRST thing the prepared people think of, when they decide to prepare.
You sleepers won't find the red carpet rolled out for you.
Posted by Rose | July 18, 2007 8:39 PM
We were ALL asleep at the switch on 9-10-01. Let's not go back to sleep now.
Posted by: docjim505 at July 17, 2007 3:52 PM
********************
Actually, NOT. But this isn't the America of 100 - 150 - 200 years ago, Americans who felt strongly about something could get something accomplished, many times.
These days, if you don't have the sympathies of the politicians and MSM, you are pretty much strangled. And they will institute a tremendous amounts of red tape, regulations and taxes to stop Americans from many things they could do on their own, which are no harm to America or their community - if they think the "message" is NOT PC.
Posted by Kadang | July 18, 2007 8:57 PM
I guess they are simply coming to do the jihads that Americans won't do...