J's Cafe Nette

Archive for July 26th, 2007

This ABC News exclusive on the Pat Tillman case leads with these two paragraphs:

ABC News has learned that seven Army officers will receive career-ending administrative punishments for mishandling the Pat Tillman case. The Army has decided not to punish three other officers who had been accused of wrongdoing by the Pentagon inspector general.

None of the officers will face criminal charges.

A few paragraphs down in the article we find this:

Army officials would not confirm the punishments and cautioned that nothing had been finalized.

“No final decisions has been made, but those things are being considered,” Army spokesman Col. Dan Baggio told ABC News. Baggio added, “It would be inappropriate for the Army to make any announcements prior to family and congressional notification, which is going to happen next week.”

It escapes me how you can incorporate both of those paragraphs in one article. While I believe there are those who should pay a price for the handling of this friendly fire incident, why can we not just wait until all the facts are on the table before we make assumptions.

Furthermore, we are treated to the news that Congress will open yet another hearing into this matter.

Congressional investigators announced this week that they intend to question several former Bush administration officials about their knowledge of Pat Tillman’s death.

The top Democrat and Republican on the House Oversight Committee sent a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding Tuesday, informing him about the upcoming investigation.

The death of this young man was indeed a tragedy as each one is, but if he was not a former NFL star I doubt very seriously if this would be on the table for Congressional investigation. Friendly fire incidents unfortunately are a product of war and sometimes difficult to immediately distinguish.

I have no problem with the military disciplining their own when wrongdoing is confirmed,but I do have a problem with this becoming just another sound bite for Congress and a continuation of the following.(via White House Press Briefing, 07/25/07)

In any event, it’s worth putting this in perspective in terms of the accomplishments of the present Congress. If you take a look at the 110th Congress right now, which had promised to have all of its appropriations bills done this month, here’s what we have seen since the beginning of the Congress: More than 300 executive branch investigations or inquiries; 400 requests for documents, interviews, or testimony; we’ve had more than 550 officials testify; we’ve had more than 600 oversight hearings; 87,000-plus hours spent responding to oversight requests; and 430,000 pages made available to Congress for oversight. That’s pretty significant.

In fact, the 87,000 hours that we mentioned that have been used in document production — that’s equal to more than nine-and-a-half years — and here’s your graphic of the day, ladies and gentlemen — if you took those 430,000 pages and stack them on top of each other, they would reach a height twice that of the executive mansion, itself.

Oh well, another day, another taxpayer dollar.

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I got this in email today and thought it was cute enough to share:

Can you imagine yourself to be the nun that is sitting at her desk grading these papers all the while trying to keep a straight face and maintain her composure!

PAY SPECIAL ATTENTION TO THE WORDING AND SPELLING. IF YOU ARE EVEN REMOTELY FAMILIAR WITH HOLY SCRIPTURE, YOU’LL FIND THIS HILARIOUS! IT COMES FROM A ROMAN CATHOLIC ELEMENTARY SCHOOL TEST KIDS WERE ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE OLD AND NEW TESTAMENTS. THE FOLLOWING STATEMENTS ABOUT THE BIBLE WERE WRITTEN BY CHILDREN. THEY HAVE NOT BEEN RETOUCHED OR CORRECTED. INCORRECT SPELLING HAS BEEN LEFT IN.

1. IN THE FIRST BOOK OF THE BIBLE, GUINESSIS. GOD GOT TIRED OF CREATING THE WORLD SO HE TOOK THE SABBATH OFF.

2. ADAM AND EVE WERE CREATED FROM AN APPLE TREE. NOAH’S WIFE WAS JOAN OF ARK. NOAH BUILT AND ARK AND THE ANIMALS CAME ON IN PEARS.

3. LOTS WIFE WAS A PILLAR OF SALT DURING THE DAY, BUT A BALL OF FIRE DURING THE NIGHT.

4. THE JEWS WERE A PROUD PEOPLE AND THROUGHOUT HISTORY THEY HAD TROUBLE WITH UNSYMPATHETIC GENITALS.

5. SAMPSON WAS A STRONGMAN WHO LET HIMSELF BE LED ASTRAY BY A JEZEBEL LIKE DELILAH.

6. SAMSON SLAYED THE PHILISTINES WITH THE AXE OF THE APOSTLES.

7. MOSES LED THE JEWS TO THE RED SEA WHERE THEY MADE UNLEAVENED BREAD WHICH IS BREAD WITHOUT ANY INGREDIENTS.

8, THE EGYPTIANS WERE ALL DROWNED IN THE DESSERT. AFTERWARDS, MOSES WENT UP TO MOUNT CYANIDE TO GET THE TEN COMMANDMENTS.

9. THE FIRST COMMANDMENTS WAS WHEN EVE TOLD ADAM TO EAT THE APPLE.

10. THE SEVENTH COMMANDMENT IS THOU SHALT NOT ADMIT ADULTERY.

11. MOSES DIED BEFORE HE EVER REACHED CANADA. THEN JOSHUA LED THE HEBREWS IN THE BATTLE OF GERITOL.

12. THE GREATEST MIRICLE IN THE BIBLE IS WHEN JOSHUA TOLD HIS SON TO STAND STILL AND HE OBEYED HIM.

13. DAVID WAS A HEBREW KING WHO WAS SKILLED AT PLAYING THE LIAR. HE FOUGHT THE FINKELSTEINS, A RACE OF PEOPLE WHO LIVED IN BIBLICAL TIMES.

14. SOLOMON, ONE OF DAVIDS SONS, HAD 300 WIVES AND 700 PORCUPINES.

15. WHEN MARY HEARD SHE WAS THE MOTHER OF JESUS, SHE SANG THE MAGNA CARTA.

16. WHEN THE THREE WISE GUYS FROM THE EAST SIDE ARRIVED THEY FOUND JESUS IN THE MANAGER.

17. JESUS WAS BORN BECAUSE MARY HAD AN IMMACULATE CONTRAPTION.

18. ST. JOHN THE BLACKSMITH DUMPED WATER ON HIS HEAD.

19. JESUS ENUNCIATED THE GOLDEN RULE, WHICH SAYS TO DO UNTO OTHERS BEFORE THEY DO ONE TO YOU. HE ALSO EXPLAINED A MAN DOTH NOT LIVE BY SWEAT ALONE.

20. IT WAS A MIRICLE WHEN JESUS ROSE FROM THE DEAD AND MANAGED TO GET THE TOMBSTONE OFF THE ENTRANCE.

21. THE PEOPLE WHO FOLLOWED THE LORD WERE CALLED THE 12 DECIBELS.

22. THE EPISTELS WERE THE WIVES OF THE APOSTLES.

23. ONE OF THE OPPOSSUMS WAS ST. MATTHEW WHO WAS ALSO A TAXIMAN.

24. ST. PAUL CAVORTED TO CHRISTIANITY, HE PREACHED HOLY ACRIMONY WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR MARRAIGE.

25. CHRISTIANS HAVE ONLY ONE SPOUSE . THIS IS CALLED MONOTONY.

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It took disbarment and losing his job, along with the threat of being held in contempt of court for Mike Nifong, the disgraced former DA from Durham, NC, to finally admit there was no credible evidence against the three Duke lacrosse players he charged.

Disgraced former prosecutor Mike Nifong acknowledged Thursday there is “no credible evidence” that three Duke lacrosse players committed any of the crimes he accused them of more than a year ago, offering for the first time a complete and unqualified apology.

“We all need to heal,” Nifong said. “It is my hope we can start this process today.”

Nifong’s apology came as a judge began considering whether to hold the former Durham County district attorney in criminal contempt of court for his handling of the case.

Superior Court Judge W. Osmond Smith III has already concluded there is probable cause to believe Nifong “willfully and intentionally made false statements of material fact” to the court during a hearing in the case last fall. If he finds Nifong in contempt, the now-disbarred former prosecutor could face up to 30 days in jail.

30 days in jail and up to a $500 fine for ruining the reputations of three young men who are innocent of the charges he brought against them.

It’s good to hear him finally apologize to these young men. I got the $500 fine information from the radio news as I was on the way for my weekly allergy shot.

Story here.

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We like to refer our readers to Michael Yon’s site because he is an on the spot reporter who takes photos, video and interviews Iraqis and American soldiers.

In short, he gives us a feel for the war in Iraq that no one else comes close to doing.

In today’s dispatch he talks of the different weapons at our disposal and the desire to not have civilian casualties to the extent that is possible.

Then he goes into the problems of the Iraqi people just setting up a city or community. Many of the people with the knowledge are dead or gone and it is up to the younger people to try to figure out what to do:

I have wondered now for two years why is it that American military leaders somehow seem to naturally know what it takes to run a city, while many of the local leaders seem clueless. Over time, a possible answer occurred, and that nudge might be due to how the person who runs each American base is referred to as the “Mayor.” A commander’s first job is to take care of his or her forces. Our military is, in a sense its own little country, with city-states spread out all around the world. Each base is like a little city-state. The military commander must understand how the water, electricity, sewerage, food distribution, police, courts, prisons, hospitals, fire, schools, airports, ports, trash control, vector control, communications, fuel, fiscal budgeting, fire, for his “city” all work. They have “embassies” all over the world and must deal diplomatically with local officials in Korea, Germany, Japan and many dozens of other nations. The U.S. military even has its own space program, which few countries have. In short, our military is a reasonable microcosm of the United States – sans the very important business aspect which actually produces the wealth the military depends on. The requisite skill-set to run a serious war campaign involves a subset of skills that include diplomacy and civil administration.

We live far better on base here in Baqubah than many people who are living downtown (though there are some very nice homes), and it’s not all about money. Not at all and not in the least. When Americans move into Iraqi buildings, the buildings start improving from the first day. And then, the buildings near the buildings start to improve. It’s not about the money, but the mindset. The Greatest Generation called it “the can-do mentality.” It’s a wealth measured not only in dollars, but also in knowledge. The burning curiosity that launched the Hubble, flows from that mentality, and so does the revenue stream of taxpayer dollars that funded it. Iraq is very rich in resources, but philosophically it is impoverished. The truest separation between cultures is in the collective dreams of their people.

When I listen to people in these civil administration meetings inventorying the obstacles, giving detailed and passionate speeches about why the things that need to happen cannot, often next comes the tired lament, “You can do these things because America is rich.” This seems like a chicken-egg argument, but it’s not. They will stare at you like a bird. Blinking. Blinking. As if waiting for an answer to a question that seems to forever loop back on itself. “But you are rich! You put a man on the moon!”

Go read his latest dispatch and while you’re over there drop a few bucks into his paypal account so we can continue to get these dispatches from him.

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In a piece for which I cannot figure out the reason the Washington Post today goes into the law career of Fred Thompson with the breathless headline, “No Easy Verdict on Thompson The Lawyer” with a subtitle of “Cases Indicate Willingness to Defy GOP Orthodoxy”.

It then goes on to tell us Thompson was opposed to tort reform because he thought that was a state issue.

The article states Thompson advocated clients going before the Grand Jury and exercising their fifth amendment rights. They can’t be accused of perjury that way and it is a right we all have.

When a Marine pilot was killed by a helicopter blade Thompson sued the helicopter maker because he couldn’t sue the Dept. of Defense and he won a settlement for the wife of the Marine.

In the Senate, Thompson routinely voted against legislation aimed at shrinking the size of fees that attorneys could collect and rejected limits on medical malpractice lawsuits, bucking his own party. Most Republicans supported such reforms, arguing that trial lawyers routinely filed frivolous lawsuits or won unnecessarily large awards that drove up the cost of insurance and products.

The American Conservative Union gave Thompson a lifetime score of 86, placing him in the middle of Republicans it rated. The group noted that he voted against two of the four lawsuit changes the group supported.

“When you are taking a look at Thompson as a conservative,” said ACU Chairman David Keene, “the negatives come down to plowing around with John McCain on campaign finance and a general sense that he sided with trial lawyers because of his background.”

Keene said Thompson’s position on tort reform is “something someone who favors another candidate or isn’t very enamored with Thompson might raise more as an excuse than a reason” not to vote for him.

A real conservative does believe the state has a lot of jurisdiction and the federal government should not usurp that authority.

Thompson recently sought to head off attacks, posting a statement on a conservative blog explaining his opposition to federal limits on malpractice lawsuits by saying it is a matter best left to states.

“In the past, those who want to solve this problem have tended to ignore our Federalist tradition,” Thompson wrote last month. “They’ve driven right past their statehouses to their airports and flown to Washington to ask for national legal remedies. Fortunately, now we’re seeing that states can take effective action themselves.”

Thompson cited as a model he could support the 2003 law in Texas that imposed state limits on malpractice lawsuit awards, which Norquist regards as “the gold standard of state-level tort reform.”

Advisers say Thompson has long thought that the federal government ought to be as small and unintrusive as possible, and should leave solutions to local problems to local government except in cases such as terrorism, when a national effort is needed. He has held that view firmly even in the face of politically popular legislation, such as the time Thompson opposed requiring states to adopt federal sentencing guidelines to keep their crime-fighting money.

“State sentencing for state crime is a state matter,” he argued in 1999.

I don’t have a problem with that, but I appreciate the Post doing an article about Thompson so I can weigh what I don’t know about him against what I do know about him.

I don’t find him wanting for this conservative.

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When I was a child I heard stories of the little people and swear to this day, that while in the woods, I saw many.

The Little People of the Cherokee are a race of Spirits who live in rock caves on the mountain side. They are little fellows and ladies reaching almost to your knees. They are well shaped and handsome, and their hair so long it almost touches the ground. They are very helpful, kind-hearted, and great wonder workers. They love music and spend most of their time drumming, singing, and dancing. They have a very gentle nature, but do not like to be disturbed.
Sometimes their drums are heard in lonely places in the mountains, but it is not safe to follow it, for they do not like to be disturbed at home, and they will throw a spell over the stranger so that he is bewildered and loses his way, and even if he does at last get back to the settlement he is like one dazed ever after. Sometimes, also, they come near a house at night and the people inside hear them talking, but they must not go out, and in the morning they find the corn gathered or the field cleared as if a whole force of men had been at work. If anyone should go out to watch, he would die.

When a hunter finds anything in the woods, such as a knife or a trinket, he must say, ‘Little People, I would like to take this’ because it may belong to them, and if he does not ask their permission they will throw stones at him as he goes home.

Some Little People are black, some are white and some are golden like the Cherokee. Sometimes they speak in Cherokee, but at other times they speak their own ‘Indian’ language. Some call them “Brownies”.

Little people are here to teach lessons about living in harmony with nature and with others. There are three kinds of Little People. The Laurel People, the Rock People, and the Dogwood People.

The Rock People are the mean ones who practice “getting even” who steal children and the like. But they are like this because their space has been invaded.

The Laurel People play tricks and are generally mischievous. When you find children laughing in their sleep – the Laurel People are humorous and enjoy sharing joy with others.

Then there are the Dogwood People who are good and take care of people.

The lessons taught by the Little People are clear. The Rock People teach us that if you do things to other people out of meanness or intentionally, it will come back on you. We must always respect other people’s limits and boundaries. The Laurel People teach us that we shouldn’t take the world too seriously, and we must always have joy and share that joy with others. The lessons of the Dogwood People are simple – if you do something for someone, do it out of goodness of your heart. Don’t do it to have people obligated to you or for personal gain.

In Cherokee beliefs, many stories contain references to beings called the Little People. These people are supposed to be small mythical characters, and in different beliefs they serve different purposes.

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There has been an ongoing investigation on steroid use by baseball players which includes some of the biggest names in that game.

We have a professional football quarterback accused of running a dog-fighting ring, a professional basketball referee accused of fixing games which he officiated and now the Tour de France bicycle sport has had to remove two teams and four leaders of the current Tour de France for various reasons, most having to do with doping.

Chaos and disgrace enveloped the Tour de France early Thursday after the event’s overall leader, Michael Rasmussen, was removed from the race by his Rabobank team for lying about where he was training.

The announcement came hours after Rasmussen, who had already been riding under suspicion of doping, won the 16th stage Wednesday and appeared to be in position to claim the championship of cycling’s most prestigious event on Sunday in Paris. The news came shortly after the withdrawal of a second team in two days from the Tour amid the ever-widening doping scandal that has rocked the sport since last year’s champion, Floyd Landis, was found to have failed a drug test on his way to the title.

This year’s Tour has lost at least two teams, the winners of four stages and the overall leader. But organizers have so far said the event would not be canceled. Doing so, said Patrice Clerc, the president of the company that organizes the Tour, would mean victory for the riders who violate the rules.

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Beginnings, fresh and clean, Part of the Sacred Wheel
Each morning is a new opportunity,
To share our love, our Souls, and Spirits,
With those who choose to Walk this Path along with us,
To learn the lessons of the Wheel, and grow closer,
To The One Who- Created- All.
Each day is fresh and unblemished, clean and pure.
Look around, Rejoice in the New Beginning,
The Sun rises again, our hearts beat within our bodies,
We draw fresh Breath, and re-enter the World.
Set aside the pain of past days, each day begins afresh,
Build upon the past, its lessons and joys,
Be strengthened by the love within,
Reach out in love to those around us.
For each day is a gift, given but once.

KiiskeeN’tum- She Who Remembers

The Unity Prayer

Mother Earth, Hear our prayers,
As we learn to respect the Gifts you give so freely.
Renew our Spirits, as we learn and grow.
Teach us to honour you, our Mother.

Grandparents who wait us at the Sacred Fire,
Where we may go in Dreams to learn the lessons of Spirit.
Lead us gently, for we are always children when it comes to learning
Guide us to you with gentle Dreamings.

Spirit brothers, Spirit guides, from all Directions of the Winds.
Surround us, protect us, be visible to us,
As you travel the path between the World of Earth and World of Spirit
Let us be thankful to you for your love.

Brothers and sisters of our earthly family,
Let us be loving to one another.
Let us look beyond the differences of our bodies to
Envision the unity of our Spirits and Souls.

-KiiskeeN’tum

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