We hear the peace protesters say they support the soldiers but not the war.

The following video puts the lie to that.

As they chant, “It’s not just Bush; it’s the soldiers too!” and burn a soldier in effigy I think we can see how “peaceful” these peace protesters in Portland, Oregon really are.

Caution: Foul language, but what else do you expect from people who dare not even show their faces while they show their “pacifism”?

Update: Please read this Portland Tribune editorial, which is in support of demonstrating against the war, but is horrified by what they witnessed. I won’t even tell you what the gross act was. You’ll have to read it for yourselves.

When I was a teen-ager growing up on an Indian Reservation in Maine our tribe started an annual Indian Day, which was similar to old-fashioned pow-wows in the West.

It was wonderful fun all day, but the thing I remember and cherish the most was when the older ladies of our tribe including Tonto’s and my grandmother, a friend called Medassin, an older woman called Susie and many others of our elders who just got together and decided on the spur of the moment to do a Penobscot Indian snake dance.

They moved so slowly and so gracefully while singing an old Penobscot song whose words I can’t recall. More and more ladies joined in and soon the entire street was participating in the snake dance.

What wonderful fun to see my heritage on display in such a magnificent way. They had drums, but most of the music was the elder women singing Ho Latta Geh or something that sounded like that.

I thought of this while looking for some Native American dances on YouTube tonight, and I was once again a care-free teenager watching Grammy and all the others entertain us with our own culture that died when they did.

It is my dream to go to the West and see and hear a real pow-wow before I die.

To a Native American the drums represent the heartbeat of Mother Earth.

The last time I heard the drum it was beating once every 30 seconds or so at the end of my mother’s funeral and then it stopped as a symbol of her heart stopping.

I hope you enjoy the selection I have made for you of these fine ladies doing a beautiful Native American dance. The wonderful dancer in white is named Claudia. Enjoy, but know this was not the type of singing our tribe did. This is Western.

Anyone who has been reading or watching the news since Friday knows fifteen British sailors and marines (including one woman) have been captured by the Revolutionary Guards of Iran for supposedly being in Iranian waters while on a patrol in Iraqi waters while searching for smugglers.

The Brits claim they were in Iraqi waters and the Iranians claim they were in Iranian waters. At any rate the sailors and marines are now in Tehran on an unexpected detour and Iran is claiming they will charge them with espionage, which carries the death penalty under Iranian Islamic law.

The Times Online reports:

FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

The penalty for espionage in Iran is death. However, similar accusations of spying were made when eight British servicemen were detained in the same area in 2004. They were paraded blindfolded on television but did not appear in court and were freed after three nights in detention.

Iranian student groups called yesterday for the 15 detainees to be held until US forces released five Revolutionary Guards captured in Iraq earlier this year.

Al-Sharq al-Awsat, a Saudi-owned newspaper based in London, quoted an Iranian military source as saying that the aim was to trade the Royal Marines and sailors for these Guards.

The claim was backed by other sources in Tehran. “As soon as the corps’s five members are released, the Britons can go home,” said one source close to the Guards.

He said the tactic had been approved by Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader, who warned last week that Tehran would take “illegal actions” if necessary to maintain its right to develop a nuclear programme.

There are some missing Iranian agents from Iraq, so this demand makes some sense.

At the same time there have been a couple of defections of high-ranking Iranians the Iranians would love to get back and give them a dose of Islamic justice.

Subhi Sadek, the Guards’ weekly newspaper, warned last weekend that the force had “the ability to capture a bunch of blue-eyed blond-haired officers and feed them to our fighting cocks”.

Safavi is known to be furious about the recent defections to the West of three senior Guards officers, including a general, and the effect of UN sanctions on his own finances.

There are some Iraqi fishermen who have convinced an Iraqi general the Brits were in Iranian waters, but the British deny it, saying the last time this happened GPS devices proved they were in Iraqi waters and he is certain this will be the case also.

Meanwhile, this Fox News report states British Prime Minister is determined to get this situation solved as soon and as diplomatically as possible.

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said Sunday that the 15 British sailors and marines captured by Iran as they searched for smugglers off the Iraqi coast were not in Iranian waters and warned that Britain viewed their situation as “very serious.”

The group was seized at gunpoint on Friday, and the Foreign Office in London said British officials do not know where Iran is holding them.

Speaking at an EU summit in Berlin, Blair said Iran’s claim that the sailors had crossed into Iranian territorial waters “is simply not true.”

“I want to get [the situation] resolved in as easy and diplomatic a way as possible,” Blair said, but added he hoped the Iranians “understood how fundamental an issue this is for the British government.”

Britain said its diplomats met with Iranian officials in Tehran on Sunday where their demand for access to the group was denied after Iran refused to say where they were being held.

“This is a very serious situation,” Blair said.

We’ll soon see if it’s spies they want or if they really believe these sailors and marines breeched their waters.

Either way I pray for a peaceful solution to this mess.

Lousiania Governor Kathleen Blanco has announced she will not run for re-election, leaving the democrats in search of a candidate who can defeat the popular Bobby Jindal.

Former Senator John Breaux had said he would not run as long as Blanco was in the race, but now that she is out he is checking for legal opinions to see if it will be legal for him to run.

The problem is that the Lousiana constitution states a person must have been a resident of the state for the preceeding five years in order to run for Governor.

Mr. Breaux has declared Maryland to be his home state and has even registered to vote there.

He is now asking for a legal ruling as to whether or not he qualifies to be on the ballot.

According to this article:

Former U.S. Sen. John Breaux said he will run for Louisiana governor if the state attorney general determines he meets the legal requirements to enter the race.

…

Breaux said he would give up his lobbying job in Washington, D.C., and begin campaigning if the state attorney general determines he meets residency requirements to run.

“I could stay here and live a very good life, but this is my last opportunity to be helpful to our state through public service,” Breaux told The Associated Press on Friday by telephone from the Washington area.

Republicans have raised questions about whether Breaux can be a legal candidate in Louisiana. To be eligible to run for a statewide elected office, the state Constitution requires that a person be a “citizen” of the state for “at least the preceding five years.”

Breaux is registered to vote in Maryland and lists his primary address there, about 70 miles from Washington, where he works for Patton Boggs LLP, a lobbying firm. Republicans say that disqualifies him from running for Louisiana governor.

State Rep. Eric LaFleur, chairman of the Louisiana House Democratic Caucus, said he will ask for the legal opinion from Attorney General Charles Foti on whether Breaux could legally run for governor. Foti also is a Democrat.

As a private citizen, Breaux does not have standing to make the request for an attorney general’s opinion, but LaFleur can and said he will file his request with Foti’s office next week. It’s unclear how long it would take for Foti’s office to issue a ruling.

“I would hope they’ll have an opportunity to get a quick turnaround,” Breaux said. “I’m going to wait until we get that ruling, and I will plan accordingly.”

It does seem to be pretty cut and dried, but we never know what might happen in the world of politics. Stay tuned.

Jim Addison from Wizbang Politics is also blogging on this topic.