In another post I made a few days ago, I criticized the MSM for failure to go into Ramadi (while I also sent people to another Michael Fumento article), saying they were too cowardly to do it.  Someone (incredibly) came to the defense of the MSM, and an argument ensued, until, that is, Michael Fumento weighed in.  He brought the argument to a swift and decisive conclusion, saying:

Insofar as I repeatedly noted in my Weekly Standard article that Todd Pitman was with me in Ramadi, it’s hardly a state secret. Todd is a good reporter and courageous, but his one-time stint in Ramadi (he’s back at home in Africa right now) cannot make up for the lack of MSM coverage in Ramadi or other areas outside Baghdad. As I noted in response to a letter to the Weekly Standard, it’s easy enough to google “Ramadi

In another post I made a few days ago, I criticized the MSM for failure to go into Ramadi (while I also sent people to another Michael Fumento article), saying they were too cowardly to do it.  Someone (incredibly) came to the defense of the MSM, and an argument ensued, until, that is, Michael Fumento weighed in.  He brought the argument to a swift and decisive conclusion, saying:

Insofar as I repeatedly noted in my Weekly Standard article that Todd Pitman was with me in Ramadi, it’s hardly a state secret. Todd is a good reporter and courageous, but his one-time stint in Ramadi (he’s back at home in Africa right now) cannot make up for the lack of MSM coverage in Ramadi or other areas outside Baghdad. As I noted in response to a letter to the Weekly Standard, it’s easy enough to google “Ramadi

In followup to my “Liberals Say the Darndest Things” where I summarized the jaw-dropping position of the liberals on North Korea (“its all Bush’s fault”), its nice to hear someone step up and say the truth.  Tony Snow steps up (hat tip to Polipundit):

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters that Bill Richardson, who served as United Nations ambassador and Energy Secretary under Clinton, “went with flowers and chocolates, and he went with light-water nuclear reactors … and a basketball signed by Michael Jordan and many other inducements for the ‘dear leader’ to try to agree not to develop nuclear weapons, and it failed.”

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Jihad Watch is reporting that the recent bombing of the commuter rail in Bombay, India, has the appearance of being Kashmir Jihadists.  If so, then we should look for tensions over the Kashmir region between India and Pakistan to heat up again.

Remember the most recent spate of tensions there?  India and Pakistan almost went to war over Kashmir (all the while, the U.S. was courting Pakistan in order to gain assistance with the war in Afghanistan).  While I think that Dick Armitage is mostly a lackey, he apparently managed to suppress the tensions and pull a nuclear India and nuclear Pakistan back from the brink of war.

It would be better for world stability if this was an internal affair within India rather than the work of Muslim terrorists.  Michelle Malkin thinks that this is possible (reference here).

We’ll see.

 **** UPDATE #1 ****

The arrests make it currently look like it is Islamic Terrorists.  From Fox News:

The Indian home minister said on Indian television that authorities had information of an attack but did not know when or where it was to occur.

“There is no information about who is behind these blasts,

See this interesting article over at Fox News on the EU being a “leaderless superpower.”  It is right in so far as it goes (i.e., without a leader).  But the EU is so far from being a superpower that it is really surprising that anyone would have written a piece hinting at such a thing.

A few comments on the EU.  First of all, quoting from the link above:

Europe’s current climate of “Christianophobia

Here is a very, very, very strange post.  It is called the “Dark Side of the Blog” over at MSNBC.com.  One of the examples used as “dark” is of Glenn Reynolds.  The quote on the blog says:

One example that comes to mind is Glenn recently encouraging readers to contact the Egyptian embassy on behalf of an imprisoned blogger.

Um, excuse me?  Once again, um, excuse me?

Encouraging people to contact the Egyptian embassy on behalf of an imprisoned blogger is a “dark” example of blogging?  If so, then “Lord, please let me be a dark blogger who becomes a thorn in the side of the Islamo-fascist Mubarrak who imprisons not only bloggers but Christians as well.”

Here is Zarqawi from the CENTCOM web site (page “What Extremists are Saying“):

“”Why do not you tell them that your soldiers cannot sleep without taking drugs and hallucination pills …

Barbara Boxer, as shown and discussed on The Factor with Bill O’Reilly, July 10, 2006:

“Our soldiers are having to take anti-depressants …”

The context made it clear that she was discussing forward-deployed soldiers and Marines.  In Fact, the always enjoyable Col. David Hunt had to refute this claim.

I also know that our boys cannot have any drugs, alcohol, women or anything else that would interfere with the performance of their duties or otherwise adversely effect them when deployed.  The only thing they can have is tobacco.

There you have it.  Zarqawi and Boxer – extremists.  Boxer slams our boys in harm’s way because they use smokeless tobacco.

Nice job, Barbara.  Do you feel proud?

Here is a link to the current goings-on over Japan and North Korea.  This is a followup post to my “Will Japan go Nuclear?”

Japan is indeed worried, and they are talking big on rethinking a first-strike option for North Korea.  I just have four words for them: they had better not.  They are not prepared, do not have the air force or navy to pull it off, and do not have the missile defense capabilities right now to properly defend themselves from a North Korea missile attack.

They should go nuclear first.  It might take some time (a half a year to a year, I would guess, to make the weapons grade fissile material).  In the mean time, they can be beefing up their offensive and defensive capabilities.  Nuclear capability in Japan is the penultimate strategic defense (and it would forever modify the politics of the far east).  North Korean nuclear capabilities would not hold a candle to Japanese capabilities (I say this based on two things: (1) the availability of fissile material in Japan from commercial nuclear fuel, and (2) the capabilities of Japanese nuclear engineers).

An interesting thing appears in this little article I posted a link to at the top.  We hear this from Christopher Hill:

Still, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill questioned just how influential Beijing was with the enigmatic regime.

“I must say the issue of China’s influence on DPRK is one that concerns us,” Hill told reporters in Tokyo. “China said to the DPRK, ‘Don’t fire those missiles,’ but the DPRK fired them. So I think everybody, especially the Chinese, are a little bit worried about it.”

I am not buying it for one second.  This is bluster from China.  They want the appearance of having tried to reign in Kim Jong Il.  They could do it quickly if they wanted.  Too much aid comes from China across the boarder to N. Korea.  The country would quickly starve without China.

So why did Hill repeat this?  Does he believe it, or does he know better but want the rest of the world to believe that China tried to stop the missile launches?

While Bill O’Reilly was on vacation last week, John Kasich filled in for him.  When discussing North Korea, he had the always sensible Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerney and the mostly nonsensical P.J. Crowley on the show.

After the Lt. General spoke, Crowley said something to the effect that he disagreed with McInerney and that he believed that the period of time during the Clinton years had managed to “pull us back from the brink of war and give us a number of years of stability.”

When I first heard this, I was going to post on it but decided not to.  After all, Crowley was security advisor to Clinton and any commentary he makes has a personal side.  The North Korea debacle is largely the responsibility and fault of Crowley and Clinton and the politics of appeasement and ignorance.  We will engage in talky-talk with them, give them things and hope that they don’t lie to us.  So I figured that I would give him some grace.  He was embarrassed and simply defending himself.  We must remember that it was during the Clinton years that North Korea went nuclear.  No matter when they got the technology from Pakistan, the fissile material to actually use in bombs became available during the Clinton years.  This is important to remember.

So having dismissed Crowley as personally involved, it was interesting  to see that over at MSNBC.com, where the Eric Alterman blogs, we see this commentary on North Korea:

The tone of Powell’s tenure was set early in the administration when he announced that he planned “to pick up where the Clinton administration had left off

Below “Lefty” takes me to task for insulting the MSM.  And then he accuses me of dripping sarcasm in my posts/responses.

I have sat alone in the dark and become pensive over this whole issue, and I have concluded that I did indeed insult the MSM.  And I have wept buckets and buckets of tears over it.

As to this issue of how reporting “from Ramadi,” or “from Haditha,” goes, primarily the MSM is holed up in Baghdad.  They (the brave ones) travel to a site — sometimes — like Ramadi, set up shop on the outskirts of the city where the risk is reduced, and pay informants and other news sources for information about a locale.  Then they report “from Ramadi,” or “from Haditha.”  The more cowardly ones just stay holed up in Baghdad.

Michael Fumento, on the other hand, dons full combat gear, goes in with the boys who are there, and gives us a first hand look during actual combat (like Ernie Pyle).

Michael Fumento is the closest thing to Ernie Pyle we have.  God bless Michael Fumento.

As for the MSM, I have wept buckets of tears over my insult to them.

You do believe my repentance, don’t you, Lefty?  Buckets and buckets of tears.