Tic-TOC

clipped from www.strategypage.com The solution has been TOCs (Tactical Operations Centers, milspeak for "war room") for everyone, from company commanders, on up. Each of these TOCs have lots of laptops, showing either real-time video, or other data useful to the mission, and people answering queries from the commander The new procedures have eliminated a lot of the micromanagement nightmares of the past. Lower ranking officers, especially company commanders and platoon leaders, are largely left to get on with the battle (or raid, or whatever). Interrogations of prisoners indicate that the enemy is in awe of what they are up against, often attributing the seeming omnipresence of the Americans, and accuracy of their weapons, to some kind of magic. But there are many ways these new drills and procedures could be exploited by an enemy who knew what they were. So details remain secret. That secrecy is further enhanced by the rapid evolution of the TOC, both in terms of equipment and procedures.

ODu'oh

clipped from www.newsweek.com Summary Obama released a national ad saying he has "fast-track alternatives" to imported oil. On closer examination, those turn out to be his proposal to spend $150 billion over the coming decade on energy research. Ten years doesn't sound all that "fast" to us, and there's no guarantee that the research will result in less oil being imported. Analysis Sen. Barack Obama's campaign released the ad and said it would run on national cable TV networks starting July 17. According to the news release, the 30-second spot "underscores Barack Obama's understanding of national security in a new century." Perhaps so. Much of what it says is accurate enough, but on one point we find that it strains the truth and could easily give viewers a false impression.

OMiscreant

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com Obama has been so uninterested in Afghanistan that when he went to Iraq and other countries in the Middle East with a Congressional delegation in January 2006, he skipped the opportunity to continue on to Afghanistan, which was taken by others who made the trip with him, including Kit Bond and Harold Ford. And, in an embarrassing gaffe, Obama claimed on May 13, 2008, that we don't have enough "Arabic interpreters, Arab language speakers" in Afghanistan Worst of all, far from being committed to victory in Afghanistan, Obama voted to cut off all funding for all of our military efforts in Afghanistan on May 24, 2007 (H.R. 2206, CQ Vote #181), thereby seeking to bring about defeat there as well as in Iraq. His current effort to portray himself as a wolf in sheep's clothing on Afghanistan is a complete fraud. It is possible that at some point in American history there may have been a major politician as dishonest as Barack Obama, but I can't offhand think of such a miscreant.

Combustible

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Vast global flows of money threaten unintended side effects. Foreigners own more than $1 trillion of debt issued or guaranteed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, reports economist Harm Bandholz of UniCredit. In the past six years, he notes, foreigners have purchased $5.7 trillion of U.S. stocks and bonds. Bandholz says the inflow of money cut U.S. interest rates by 0.75 percentage points. So: Surplus savings from Asia and the Middle East, funneled into U.S. financial markets, may have abetted the "subprime" mortgage crisis by encouraging sloppy American credit practices. Too much money chased too few good investment opportunities. Today's global economy baffles experts -- corporate executives, bankers, economists -- as much as it puzzles ordinary people. Countries are growing economically more interdependent and politically more nationalistic. This is a combustible combination.

Kagan Iraq Update

clipped from online.wsj.com Recent comments by some Iraqi leaders about the current negotiations for a status-of-force agreement -- made in the context of an increasingly heated election season in Iraq, and with the desire to improve Iraq's bargaining position in the negotiations -- do not call the U.S. partnership into question. As we recently found in Baghdad, even the most outspoken advocates of rapid American force reductions strongly insist on a strategic partnership with America that helps Iraq stand up to Iran. Most of Iraq's military leaders are unequivocal about the need for a continued U.S. force presence. The Iraqi government and people -- whose surging anti-Persian feeling is more obvious every day -- have already shown their willingness to push back against Iranian intervention. victory in war is never certain until the war is over, the odds are strongly with us for once -- provided we do the right thing. That is to stand by our best ally in the war against al Qaeda, and the struggle to contain Iran.

And The Rocket Scientist Of Canterbury Is Not To Be Eclipsed By Those Come-Uppity Lutherans

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk Christian doctrine is offensive to Muslims, the Archbishop of Canterbury said yesterday. Dr Rowan Williams also criticised Christianity's history for its violence, its use of harsh punishments and its betrayal of its peaceful principles. His comments came in a highly conciliatory letter to Islamic leaders calling for an alliance between the two faiths for 'the common good'.

And here I thought yesterday couldn't be improved upon.

Caeser Is Now Lord At The ELCA

clipped from www.frontpagemagazine.com But the Religious Left, including the Lutheran prelates, attach messianic importance and powers to the state.  Perhaps Caesar is Lord after all? How likely would the Apostles, or Luther,  have viewed modern America’s lower income people, most of whom are armed with air conditioned homes, automobiles, cable television and high tech gadgetry, along with modern health care, record life spans and food stuffs from a global market, as desperately poor? Poverty is often a relative term. And by the standards of history, or most of today’s world, few in America are genuinely impoverished. Avoiding poverty in America mostly entails finishing high school, shunning drug and alcohol addictions, not having illegitimate children, and avoiding divorce.  But the Religious Left, contrary to its own religious traditions, is not interested in shaping personal choices.  It prefers the compulsion of state regulation and taxation.

My Dad must be rolling in his grave right now. And I can't even imagine what my Aunt Louise would be thinking now of what has become of the Lutheran Church she knew.

As for me, I will be prayerfully reconsidering my personal choices.

Pirating Schools Of Desolation

clipped from www.davidwarrenonline.com It is worth noting in every case, that the urban voter, or poll respondent, leads the swing. I have written from time to time on what I call the “school of fish” phenomenon among urban electorates. The nicest, politest explanation of such swings is the Canadian desire for “peace in the family.” We may not like what is going to be done, but once it has been done, we won’t look back. That is to say, a public attitude of “don’t rock the boat,” which is maintained even when pirates are boarding it. Now, I am a Catholic, and my Church teaches that “despair” is a sin (since it involves the abandonment of hope in eternity). So I opt instead for “desolation,” which is not a sin, merely a psychological response to everything around one being in an advanced state of disintegration. For civilization requires, among other things, a general populace with moral ideas that cannot be altered by the slightest breeze.

Staggering

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com But what of Obama's current vision under which Mr. Yes-We-Can resolves to "create a Jerusalem that is cohesive and coherent" that it is not exclusively part of a Jewish state but requires no barriers? The question answers itself. Here's how David Hazony, a resident of Jerusalem, puts it: What could it possibly mean to want a “coherent” city that is the capital of two different countries, one of which has been teaching its entire population to hate the other and commit suicide bombings in its restaurants for 15 years now — and all this without a proper border? I live in Jerusalem. If there is ever a division of Jerusalem, there will be more than just barbed wire separating the two halves of the city. We are talking about different worlds entirely, and security arrangements will reflect this. As Hazony concludes, Obama either understands this or he doesn't. If he doesn't, his ignorance is staggering.

The Once And Future Depression

clipped from www.realclearpolitics.com In an election campaign in which not only young liberals, but also some people who are neither young nor liberals, seem absolutely mesmerized by the skilled rhetoric of Barack Obama, facts have receded even further into the background than usual. As the hypnotic mantra of "change" is repeated endlessly, few people even raise the question of whether what few specifics we hear represent any real change, much less a change for the better. Raising taxes, increasing government spending and demonizing business? That is straight out of the New Deal of the 1930s. The New Deal was new then but it is not new now. Moreover, increasing numbers of economists and historians have concluded that New Deal policies are what prolonged the Great Depression. Senator Obama may gain similar popularity by advocating similar policies today-- and his political popularity is what it's all about. The consequences for the country come later.

The Goal

clipped from www.commentarymagazine.com So what we thought was a promise was a goal. What we thought was an unqualified timetable is not. What we thought was his determination to issue new orders really wasn’t. But whatever he committed to the American people he is still committing. Can you imagine if he had said this during the primary? Hillary Clinton would be the one with the White House redecorating plans now. (I can understand why McCaskill was pleading to get back to the economy.) However, what we don’t hear, and I am beginning to wonder if we will, is any recognition from the Obama that we need to build upon the success of the surge and not allow Iraq to drift back into chaos. From his op-ed in the New York Times the answer appears to be “no.” Notice how he shies from any causal connection between the surge and gains we have achieved: “the Sunni tribes have rejected Al Qaeda.” And why was that? Could it be because the U.S. troops gave them confidence that we would remain and fight to defend the population?

The First Priority

clipped from www.american.com What was wrong with energy independence? As the decades progressed, the United States became more and more integrated into a global economy, where goods, information, and oil move unimpeded across national boundaries. Countries around the world produce energy if they can, and buy on the world market what they need beyond their own production. Oil flows toward the highest bidder, just like all other goods. I believe that the appropriate aim is to strengthen our ability to adjust to such changes—to strengthen our energy resilience. We can do that by increasing our reliance on electricity. Not all vehicles have the space and design that allow this process to happen easily. Luckily, it is the most gasoline-hungry cars that do. Pickups, SUVs, vans, and the like represent about 80 million vehicles, with mileage of perhaps 13 to 16 miles per gallon. Converting these should be our first priority. A task of this magnitude requires major effort and investment.

(Campaign) Econ 101 Redux

clipped from hotair.com Democrats clearly don’t understand the mechanisms of pricing.  Their rhetoric on speculators demonstrates this, as it misses the point.  Speculators matter only in shortage economies, as the future value of any commodity becomes more relevant in inverse proportion to its availability.  Even apart from that, speculators want to make money just as in any other commodity trading.  If they foresaw a glut of oil, they’d bet short on it just as quickly as they’re going long on oil now. All of this is Econ 101, as the U-L notes.  That may be a bit below King Banaian’s focus as chair of economics at St. Cloud State University, but I’m pretty certain that King would be gracious enough to schedule a lecture series for Congressional Democrats who want to learn how markets work rather than continually work from ignorance to the detriment of the nation.  (via Let Freedom Ring)

And Don't Forget Lurch II

clipped from www.chicagotribune.com And his cheerleaders are beginning to realize that Obama may not be the Arthurian knight in shining armor, that he may not be Mr. Tumnus, the gentle forest faun of our presidential politics. Months after his inauguration, after he makes Billy Daley the secretary of the treasury and Michael Daley the secretary of zoning and promotes Patrick Fitzgerald to become the attorney general of Mars, the political left may figure out that Obama is a Chicago politician. "Only an idiot would think or hope that a politician going through the crucible of a presidential campaign could hold fast to every position, steer clear of the stumbling blocks of nuance and never make a mistake," wrote Bob Herbert in The New York Times. "But Barack Obama went out of his way to create the impression that he was a new kind of political leader—more honest, less cynical and less relentlessly calculating than most. . . . Obama is not just tacking gently toward the center. He's lurching right when it suits him

Mayor ODaley (Part 8,836,376)

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com [Obama helped design his new senate district running from the South Side to the North.] The new district was a natural fit for the candidate that Obama was in the process of becoming. “He saw that when we were doing fund-raisers in the Rush campaign his appeal to, quite frankly, young white professionals was dramatic.” In the end, Obama’s North Side fund-raising base and his South Side political base were united in one district. He now represented Hyde Park operators like Lois Friedberg-Dobry as well as Gold Coast doyennes like Bettylu Saltzman, and his old South Side street operative Al Kindle as well as his future consultant David Axelrod. In an article in the Hyde Park Herald about how “partisan” and “undemocratic” Illinois redistricting had become, Obama was asked for his views. As usual, he was candid. “There is a conflict of interest built into the process,” he said. “Incumbents drawing their own maps will inevitably try to advantage themselves.”

Not Even As Good As Jimmah II? Yikes!

clipped from www.plnewsforum.com These people are much worse that Jimmy Carter.  He said in his “Crisis of Confidence” speech: We know the strength of America. We are strong. We can regain our unity. We can regain our confidence. We are the heirs of generations who survived threats much more powerful and awesome than those that challenge us now. Our fathers and mothers were strong men and women who shaped a new society during the Great Depression, who fought world wars, and who carved out a new charter of peace for the world. and To give us energy security, I am asking for the most massive peacetime commitment of funds and resources in our nation’s history to develop America’s own alternative sources of fuel—from coal, from oil shale, from plant products for gasohol, from unconventional gas, from the sun. I’m no defender of Carter...but when that party had more of a vision (however lacking) than the current Dem party has, we are in for trouble.

Still The One

clipped from www.nypost.com Besides, the cold water is raining down regardless. Obama's recent fire sale on his left-wing positions in order to raise capital with centrists has understandably prompted lamentations from the idealistic left. But Obama has a less-than-humble response to these whiners. He says they're the cynical ones, even as he strokes the Second Amendment like it was Ernst Blofeld's cat and tut-tuts the moodiness of women who want late-term abortions. It seems Barack Obama believes the measure of one's idealism or cynicism rests on a single criterion: How much you support The One. After all, he's not really answerable to the voters, but to the steady gaze of his own conscience. And, by that unimpeachable standard, Obama's still the one he's been waiting for.

Luckily, Mayor ODaley Will Never Allow Anthing Like This To Happen...

clipped from hotair.com This has even been an issue in this particular presidential campaign, as one of the men responsible for bypassing Department of Justice protocols in securing the pardon now serves as a senior adviser to Barack Obama on the VP vetting committee and on national security: Eric Holder.   In that case, the payoff cycle was complete; in this case, only the initial part of it has been exposed, but both are exactly the same kind of corruption. Is it possible that Payne was just blowing smoke to gain a $500,000 payday for his firm?  Sure, but that’s still fraud, and it could also make it a violation of the Logan Act.  It’s hard to imagine why someone with Payne’s connections would take that kind of risk without some sense that he had enough authority to avoid those possibilities, though.  This deserves a thorough investigation, one that should be supported by all Americans.

Riiiight.

The New Failure, Same As The Old Failures

clipped from www.stephenbainbridge.com Want a worst case scenario? The government takes over Fannie and Freddie. The immense increase in the national debt causes the bond rating agencies to cut their rating of Treasury securities from their traditional AAA. Along with other economic problems (whether its mostly whining or not), this spooks investors, especially foreign investors. Foreigners abandon the dollar for the euro, dumping treasuries. The collapse of foreign investment in Treasuries makes our massive current account deficit unsustainable. Washington failed on a bipartisan basis to address the problems at Fannie and Freddie. Why didn;t they do something? Because Fannie and Freddie bribed them and because they’re petrified of being painted as anti-consumer, as even the Times finally noticed: The companies, Wall Street, mortgage bankers, real estate agents and Washington lawmakers have built up an unusual and mutually beneficial co-dependency, helped along by robust lobbying efforts and campaign contributions.

Idiot Windbags Of Corruption

clipped from pajamasmedia.com Much of the dissatisfaction with Congress is due to its unwillingness to do anything about the soaring price of gasoline. "Right now, our strategy on gas prices is 'Drive small cars and wait for the wind,'•" a Democratic congressional aide told The Hill newspaper. "So why are the Republicans running scared, and why aren't they going after the 'new Democratic Congress' hammer and tongs?" wondered Web logger Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit. "Beats me. Because they're idiots, I guess." I disagree. Some Republicans in Congress are crooks, and many are cowards. But few are idiots. For idiocy, you have to look to the campaign of Sen. John McCain. Ouch. But, yeah.

News And Political Poverty

clipped from pajamasmedia.com This paper produces a wide variety of niche products. The figure that they reach about 80% of their region with one of their products. The products are focused on parenting, retirees, entertainment, etc, as well as online and print versions of the daily paper. They are making money. One of the explanations for the demise of the print edition of the traditional newspaper that they gave him was the change in the demographics of the community. They told him that increasingly people move there, spend a few years, and move elsewhere. They don’t move into town and take up an intimate concern for the community. They find that the percentage of the local population that is engaged in local issues is shrinking, and therefore the numbers of people who are interested in a newspaper is shrinking. As a result, the problems of local newspapers are the connected to the problems of local communities. May explain why the quality of people who run for local public office is so poor.

Zero Time

clipped from www.popularmechanics.com At 140 pounds, the American-made, $7450 Zero X weighs in about 100 pounds lighter than a typical 250 cc dirt bike. The weight savings come from the green wheelie machine’s diminutive size and 6061-T6 aluminum frame, which tips the scales at a feathery 18 pounds. Between those rails sits the easily removable, 40-pound, lithium-manganese spinal battery pack. “That’s our secret sauce,” Zero’s Saiki says of the power source, which he says can recharge in 2 hours for 2 hours of driving or a 40-mile range, depending on conditions. The unit is fully recyclable and can be swapped for another one in a mere 30 seconds. It might be the future of on-road riding, too. Zero gave us an exclusive first look at their new 2009 street-legal Supermoto bike. The Supermoto will have a larger 3 kwh battery for a range of 60 miles and a top speed of 65 mph. Zero is also planning a commuter bike for the future. We can’t wait to try either one of those clean machines.

Out Of Oil? Really?

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com This chart by the Institute for Energy Research shows graphically how America's shale oil reserves compare to other countries' petroleum reserves. Click to enlarge: Can shale oil be developed economically? At today's prices, of course. A few years ago it was estimated that shale oil development would be competitive at around $40 a barrel. That figure may have risen a bit, but with world oil prices over $140 a barrel, shale oil development is a no-brainer. Republicans in Congress like Utah's Orrin Hatch have been pushing for shale oil development for years. But, like drilling in the outer continental shelf and in ANWR, shale oil development is being blocked by Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the Democrats in Congress. The future of America's economy is at risk as a result.

Campaign Econ 101

clipped from www.washingtonpost.com Consider what happened this week. While speaking with the Washington Times, Gramm said that the country was not in a true recession but a "mental recession." He also said, "We have sort of become a nation of whiners" and "You just hear this constant whining, complaining about a loss of competitiveness, America in decline." Gramm was right about the recession and stood by his recession comments on Thursday. A recession is two consecutive quarters in which the economy shrinks, and last quarter it grew. But no matter. Voters feel they are in a recession, and so they are, at least according to Campaign Econ. The way to strengthen the economy right now is to elect leaders who dare to talk about problems in precise and even technical terms -- and then act on them. McCain has that capacity, but only if he can transcend Campaign Econ.

The Not So Big Melt

clipped from www.climate-skeptic.com Antarctic sea ice extent is actually at the highest levels observed since we started watching it via satellite around 1979.  Ice may be shrinking around the Peninsula, but is net growing over the whole continent We have no clue how ice shelves behave over time spans longer than the 100 years we have watched them.  It may well be they go through long-term natural growth and collapse cycles.

FARCed

clipped from pajamasmedia.com But deep down inside, even the most credulous may be feeling an unease; because like Robert Mugabe’s government, those who print credits can print more of them for themselves, whether it is to fly to exotic locales to attend conferences or to serve themselves eight course meals at global summits on the Food Crisis. And the heretical thought might occur to us that we’re being had. Today what passes for revolution is often just despotism tricked out as a campaign to fight some supposedly great evil; for final victory against the White Farmers, Hate Speech, Global Warming or something else. But suppose it were really about money? “I want to tell you about the FARC … They say that they want equality; they say that they just want to make Colombia a better place. But that’s all a lie. It’s a cover story and they hide behind it and they use it to justify their criminal activity.” Say on Marc, but there are none so deaf as they who will not hear.

Obama Now Himself Under Bus -- Reaches Mars Orbit Insertion

clipped from hotair.com While the Obama campaign says that Obama speaks a little bit of Indonesian, Obama himself admits that he isn’t bilingual. “I know because I don’t speak a foreign language. It’s embarrassing!” he said. So now Barack Obama has managed the impossible — he’s thrown himself under his own bus! And if Obama was speaking about education policy, he’d still be wrong. Most school districts require a second language in high school, although they don’t require it to be Spanish. Spanish wouldn’t help much in France or Germany anyway. To no one’s great surprise, Obama tried spinning his way out of his elitist, snobby remarks by essentially lying about their context. He then contradicted repeated assertions during the campaign that he spoke Spanish (he did an ad in Spanish during the primaries). He’s flip-flopped on his own bilingual status and called himself an embarrassment as a defense. What a week!

The Weeds Of Change

clipped from hotair.com However, Obama’s direction of the state funds to one of his campaign workers gives him additional responsibility to make sure that the funds got used properly and that the work got performed, neither of which appears to be the case at Englewood.   Besides a plywood gazebo, the only evidence of a botanical garden is a large variety of wild weeds indigenous to Chicago. Once again, one of the problems of constantly moving on to the next promotion is that you never get to see the consequences and ramifications of past actions. For a man with such a thin track record, the number of failures is rather shocking — but that’s not the most significant part of this story.  It’s quite obvious that Obama has a pattern of talking about hope and change, and caring less about it when it doesn’t boost him politically.  As soon as Englewood stopped being significant to his electoral hopes, he turned his back on the neighborhood.  That speaks to character more than competence.

Paradise Value Optimization

clipped from iowahawk.typepad.com Hello, valued Al Qaeda associate! Welcome to the inaugural issue of Vistas, the new electronic newsletter designed to keep you informed on all the fast-paced comings and goings within our Total Quality Jihad family. In a dynamic marketplace characterized by rapid change and unexpected missiles, even the most disciplined adaptive organizations can find it challenging to keep the lines of communication open. Without understanding the strategic "big picture," associates will sometimes be confused by misleading rumors they read on unreliable infidel blogs and websites like "F*cked Insurgency" and "Jihad Deadpool."  With Vistas, you will learn the real story -- of how we are attacking the competitive casualty gap with a paradigm-changing tactical adaptive strategy focused on paradise value optimization.

Mayor ODaley With Lipstick And A Che T-Shirt

clipped from www.youtube.com

Change. Hope. Corruption.

Whiners, Etc.

clipped from corner.nationalreview.com Anyway, this is just another example of why I've always wanted Phil Gramm to be president of the United States and why that can never, ever, happen.  Because it's a peeve of mine, my ears always seem to be catching people talking about how much we need straight talkers in this country who won't cave to their handlers, won't spin, won't poll-test their views. And yet, whenever somebody speaks honestly, down comes the thunder. I think this is a bipartisan phenomenon, by the way.  Anyway, I think Gramm's comments were politically dumb but substantially correct.

Actually, to be more precise we're a nation of puerile Gramscian fascifists. If he would have been really honest and said that then there wouldn't have been the reaction there was since nobody would have had the foggiest notion of what he said.

Because it was so much to the point of course.

You Couldn't Tell It

clipped from meganmcardle.theatlantic.com Optimal tax theory pretty much hates capital gains taxes because they, as their very name suggests, impede capital formation. Also, capital is much more mobile than labor, which is why countries like Sweden focus their taxation on incomes. In fact, when I look at the graph he posts, it seems to tell me a very different story than it is telling him. By 2007, capital gains revenues had nearly returned to their 2000 highs in real dollars, even though the indexes hadn't regained their previous (real and/or nominal) heights. When you consider that the capital gains revenues in 2000 were coming off nearly 20 years of uninterrupted growth, this in fact suggests that the capital gains tax raised revenues. Moreover, the inflection point is at the time of the cut to 15%, with revenues marching steadily upward thereafter. Now, I'd be the last person to suggest that correlation is causation--I'm only pointing out that if they didn't raise revenues, you couldn't prove it by this graph.

Professionals Think Logistics

clipped from hotair.com This is the kind of information that policy makers usually get before formulating policy.  We can rotate troops out of Iraq on the kind of timetable Obama suggests, but we’d have to leave all of our heavy equipment in Iraq.  Unless Obama plans some kind of nationwide garage sale, that would be a rather large loss for the American military in materiel as well as making our exit look more like Dunkirk. Obviously, Obama didn’t have any awareness of logistics when he made this proposal — and that’s the point.  His lack of experience, combined with a hubris that he has consistently shown on the campaign trail, makes clear that he is in way over his head at this point of his career.  He has no sense of military policy at all, and got the biggest call of the war — the surge — completely wrong.  Yet he insists that he’s ready to lead this nation’s military during a time of war as Commander in Chief?

Welcome To Chinafornia

clipped from www.tnr.com Cross over San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, head north for half an hour, and you'll reach Mount Tamalpais State Park, home to redwood groves and, a little ways up, panoramic views of the bay. As it turns out, though, the park is also home to large amounts of pollution from Asia--dust, sulfur, trace metals--blowing in from across the Pacific. "We call it the persistent Asian plume," says Steven Cliff, an atmospheric scientist currently working with the California Air Resources Board. On some days, one-third of the state's background air pollution can be traced to Asia, and researchers are now looking into whether the plume could be disrupting cloud formation and rainfall in water-starved California. And China, which is building coal plants at a shocking rate of two per week, is now the world's largest source of greenhouse gases, emitting 14 percent more carbon dioxide than the United States in 2007.

Nozzled

clipped from youtube.com

Non-existant Yellowcake Finally Removed

clipped from www.strategypage.com July 9, 2008: In a secret operation, Canada completed the movement of 550 tons Iraqi uranium oxide, from Iraq to Canada. The Canadians will process the uranium oxide into fuel for nuclear power plants. The U.S. did most of the work to transport the 3,500 barrels of uranium oxide from Iraq, to Diego Garcia island in the Indian Ocean, and then, via a U.S. merchant ship, to Montreal, Canada. The uranium oxide was what remained of Saddam's original 1980s nuclear program, the one that was halted by an Israeli air raid in 1981, which destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor. The uranium oxide has been in storage ever since, and was checked by UN inspectors after the 1991 war. If further refined, the Iraqi uranium oxide could produce enough weapons grade uranium for over 100 nuclear bombs. Saddam never developed the engineering capability to build the plants to refine yellowcake into Uranium 238. He would have done so eventually, just as the Iranians are doing right now.

Move along now. Nothing to see here...