Friday Musings

Was prepared for a bad day today – I’d left work yesterday in a bit of a funk and left my wallet on my desk. Which is an inconvenience for any citizen, but for military these days, is closely akin to a disaster. Armed with a driver’s license and a government credit card, you might plausibly assert that you’d left your military ID stuck in your keyboard – that’s how we login these days – but bringing nothing but a winning smile and winsome personality, you’re pretty much stuck at the gate: NO ENTRAR.

But! It’d be OK, because the base I take my courses at on Friday uses a different photo ID access pass. So I was happily cruising down the 5 in morning traffic, feeling all virtuous since I’d left home early and making good time in the (relatively) sparse AM traffic when I realized that I’d left that pass at home. ‘Twas a good thing I was tout seule en voiture, because the disinterested passenger might have been dismayed – not to say shocked – by the manner and volume at which I announced mydisappointment. Still, there was no avoiding the fact that I was going to be late for class, which fact made me ease off the accelerator as I floated towards the off ramp. In doing so, I picked up – for the first time, I must be getting slow – the motorcycle CHP trailing me tentatively before deciding that there were other lunatics to pick on.

So sometimes you get lucky.

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Good news!

The shadowy leader of the Islamic State of Iraq, an al-Qaida-inspired group that challenged the authority of Iraq’s government, was captured Friday in a raid on the western outskirts of Baghdad, an Iraqi military spokesman said.

Abu Omar al-Baghdadi was arrested along with several other insurgents in a raid in the town of Abu Ghraib, said Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, spokesman for the Baghdad security operation.

Bad news!

A Justice Department investigation has found pervasive errors in the FBI’s use of its power to secretly demand telephone, e-mail and financial records in national security cases, officials with access to the report said yesterday.

The inspector general’s audit found 22 possible breaches of internal FBI and Justice Department regulations — some of which were potential violations of law — in a sampling of 293 “national security letters.” The letters were used by the FBI to obtain the personal records of U.S. residents or visitors between 2003 and 2005. The FBI identified 26 potential violations in other cases.

Stupid politician news!

House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) berated a woman who approached him in a Congressional corridor, claiming that “idiot liberals” don’t understand the war supplemental spending bill process.

The altercation was videotaped and posted on www.youtube.com .

“We’re trying to use the supplemental to end the war,” Obey said. “You can’t end the war if you’re going against the supplemental. It’s time these idiot liberals understood that.”

Glad he said it.

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Seriously though, the FBI thing? Bad. Not Reichstag fire bad, but the usual – dare I say it: Inevitable? – result of super-empowered government servants.

Like that’s not an oxymoron.

Swing, pendulum, swing. Back t’other way a bit. We can’t defend our freedoms by destroying them.

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So, I’m heading up to Vancouver end of next month to participate in the INFORMs Conference. It may well interfere with my tentative commitment to attend the MilBlog Conference. But all I’m thinking about is how cool it would have been to take this tour of Vancouver.

Embrace the geekiness.

I have.

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Final word on the the whole Plamegate thing. From me anyway:

Lewis “Scooter” Libby stands convicted of telling lies to the FBI and a grand jury, whereas happy-faced, opportunistic Democratic leaders and the man who started this whole, awful charade, Joseph Wilson, are merely telling lies to the public.

Unlike the former adviser to Vice President Dick Cheney, of course, they won’t be found guilty of a felony or face the possibility of years in prison, but they should pay a penalty for their misstatements, something on the order of a total loss of credibility and widespread disgust.

It won’t happen, I am afraid, because it’s been a complicated, slowly evolving case that the left has assiduously misconstrued. When Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid says it’s “about time someone in the Bush administration has been held accountable for the campaign to manipulate intelligence and discredit war critics,” echoing statements by other Democrats, many citizens will likely think he’s merely saying the obvious.

In fact, the statement illustrates that Reid either doesn’t have an honest bone in his body or is so utterly incompetent that he failed to grasp two things: what went on in court and a 2004 bipartisan report by the Senate intelligence committee. It showed conclusively that it wasn’t the Bush administration doing the manipulating in this case. It was Wilson.

It’s all good.

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Saw the “300” today after class! Liked it. You’ll like it too if you’re a fan of cinematic artistry and stern martial virtues – you know: Courage meaning trusting the man on the right, honor meaning protecting the man to the left. You’ll like it less if you’re not impressed by Persian limbs spread randomly about the field of battle, or arrow-transpierced Spartans at the end, with gouts of gore liberally sprinkled in between. And if you insist on historical accuracy.

But you probably knew all of that already.

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Them children are dispersed, and the lady of the house and I have a rare opportunity for guilt-free enjoyment of the Del Martian delights. We’ll bid you therefore, a civil good night and hope you have a wonderful weekend.

You deserve it.