I’ve just upgraded version 3.14 to the 3.2 beta. My MT-blacklist links appear to be missing. The look and feel is good, though.
Don’t have time to fully update the templates, but will once whatever new layout tool I’m sure to love them for has been released.
Some harmless and speculative fun: the 2008 Straw Poll: “Just Right” Edition from Patrick Fuffini.
George Allen has my pick. Only former governors will do, in my opinion.
Iraq the Model’s Omar points to this story (scroll to bottom of pg.6) in Centcom’s The Advisor weekly, billed as the “Official Weekly Command Information Report for the Multi-National Security Transition Command - Iraq”
Obviously, this weekly is the product of DOD Public Affairs officers, so expect it to be on the positive message the DOD wants told. However, it isn’t as if the Iraq ‘news’ product being delivered by MSM outlets is not the negative message editors and producers want told!
Regardless, it gives me hope for the people of Iraq.
An excerpt:
The students are continually struggling to understand a new language and different ways of doing things while simultaneously fighting for their lives and worrying about keeping their identities secret to protect themselves and their families from harm by insurgents.But for them, they say it is worth it because they no longer fight for just one man — they fight for their country.
For Iraqi Capt. S., who was also an officer during the previous regime, that shift in mentality is priceless.
“I recently went to visit an Iraqi soldier in the hospital,” he said. “He had lost both his legs, and we went there to comfort him. When we were leaving, we told him, ‘May God be with you.’ He called back out to me, ‘For Iraq, I would give up my whole life, not just my legs.’”
Most of the Iraqi airmen have businesses or farms and are relatively well off already. But when the opportunity came to return to the service they love, regardless of the risk, they jumped on it.
Since Jan. 14, when the squadron was officially formed, the airmen have been sneaking in the shadows and many have hid their allegiance to the Iraqi Air Force to family and friends, some even to their own wives.
Captain S’s wife, concerned for her family’s safety, continually pleads with him to quit and has also asked his father to pressure him. But the captain, whose own son does not know he is currently serving, said, “If I don’t do it, who will?
“I dream that Iraq will someday be safe,” he said. “We will be at peace, and at peace with our neighbors. I wish for a civilized country and a better place for my children.
“I try to teach my son to respect the armed forces when he sees them in the streets,” he said. “One day when he grows up, I want him to know his father sacrificed during the worst period in his country in order for his children to have a better Iraq.”
Iraqi Flight Engineer J. also fights for the same dream and a chance to build a new Iraqi Air Force. He has been a flight engineer for 10 years, but until now has never felt able to express concerns to his superiors because of his rank.
“I’m impressed at how Americans treat each other as far as rank,” Engineer J. said. “They treat each other equally. During the previous regime there was a huge difference between a flight engineer and pilot. Now, we work together.
“Because of the treatment we’ve experienced from our instructors firsthand and the friendship they’ve shown us, it’s made me change my views on all Americans,” he said. “We understand the true (meaning of) American kindness.”
A pilot in training with the 23rd Squadron (transport), Iraqi Air Force, loads his baggage April 18, 2005, in Talil, Iraq, before taking off in one of three C-130 aircraft that the United States provided to the Iraqi Air Force. U.S. airmen from the 23rd Advisory Support Team, 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron are teaching the Iraqi pilots to use their new aircraft. U.S. Army photo by Sgt. David Foley
Hat tip, Iraqi Bounty Hunter
Donald Trump appeared before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs hearing on the costs of the UN renovation project. An old pro where New York City commercial construction and demolition is concerned, The Donald tore the UN up one side and down the other, over transition plans, contingency costs and $27 million payments to an architect who had been fired and submitted no work.
Watch the whole hearing following the link above, or just watch Trump during the last half hour of the hearing.
Radio Blogger has the transcript and downloadable mp3 audio.
Hat tip: Hugh Hewitt, Powerline