Sunday Morning Blogburst

First, I'll start local, then swing out national and international if my internet connection will hold that long.


Sound Off Buncombe sits down with Congressman Howard Coble:

The full program will air on URTV Public Access on Channel 20 later this week. [note from TP]I have updated the video so that it will play through the entire posted 3 video series.



One of the local blogs, Petulant Rumblings, has a photo of a Battlestar Galactica-themed Last Supper based on the famous painting by Leonardo da Vinci.

Another local blog, Where's The Outrage?, has this to say:

For years, we, the American people, have been waiting for real progress in Iraq. There has been none. Yes, the violence has decreased. This is nice but it hasn’t made the Iraq politicians have been unable or unwilling to take the next steps. Oil sharing deal. Re-Baathification law.

Well, is appears there has been a re-Baathification law.

Source: Finally progress in Iraq, to which I might add that we have that progress despite your willful ignorance of our progress, and despite the Democrat opposition of that progress every step of the way. The modern Democrat Party will be remembered as being kindred spirits with the Democrats who opposed Lincoln every step of the way. I only wish President Bush had some of them escorted out of the country as well!

Here is another, more sane take on the same story as B5 TV News reports on President George W. Bush, the 43rd President, doing a victory lap:




In national news, Rush Limbaugh notes the Democrats are trying to use fear (something they always say we republicans are doing...calling us fear-mongers) of an economic recession to further their evil agenda:

RUSH: Now the economy. I noticed after the debate last night, I did get home in time to watch the post-debate roundtables, the wastes of time on the Drive-By cable news networks last night, and I detected a theme. The Democrats are doing two things. They're bringing back, not the Iraq war, but the surge. Nancy Pelosi has issued a press release yesterday proclaiming the surge to be a total failure, on the same day that we're told we're about being ready to be able to turn over Anbar province to the Iraqis!

Eleven out of 18 provinces in Iraq are soon to be turned over to the Iraqis, and yet the surge didn't work! The second thing that the Democrats, the commentators on the Democrat side, are really pushing is the economy. It's horrible, it is rotten, it is bad. Of course, the one guy on the Republican side that's going right along with them and echoing that sentiment is Mike Huckabee -- and this whole notion of angst (panting) and uncertainty and fear about the future of the economy has got people on edge. And, of course, the Democrats, the Drive-Bys are eager for that impression to take hold because even though for the last eight years the economy has not been an issue that will have an effect on elections, because Bush was the president, all of a sudden, guess what's back? Iraq's off the front page, the economy is on the front page, and guess what? The economy is rotten. The economy is bad. Let me share some things with you. You can turn on any financial news network or read a newspaper, and you can find what you think are disasters in the making. The price of gold is way up. The price of oil is way up. Stocks are plunging, the subprime crisis, banks having to refinance with foreign money and so forth.

And the USMC Commandant, James T. Conway, has this to say:

One way the Marines are clearly changing is in the vehicles troops use to patrol in Iraq. “If you look at the table of equipment that a Marine battalion is operating with right now in Iraq,” Gen. Conway explains, “it is dramatically different than the table of equipment the battalion used when it went over the berm in Kuwait in ‘03, and it is remarkably heavier. Heavier, particularly in terms of vehicles.

“I mean the Humvees were canvas at that point for the most part. Today they are up-armored and we’re looking at vehicles even heavier than that. We’ve got a whole new type of vehicle that we’re patrolling in, conducting operations in, that’s the MRAP [Mine Resistant Ambush Protected], a 48,000 pound vehicle. . . . these type of things, make us look more like a land army than it does a fast, hard-hitting expeditionary force.”

SOurce: WSJ Interviews Marine Corps Commandant James T. Conway


Let's try some World War I history via the world's oldest milblogger:

I have today received the latest posting of the Battalion's War Diary. As could probably be predicted from the recent patrols, Harry is now back in the front line.

This section of the War Dairy is extremely difficult to decipher, but I will do my best to update the blog of the War Diaries as the entries occur.

Source: Back in the front Line


And Here is some interesting World War II history:

Of all the stories that have been written, and movies that have been shown, about the 8th Air Force, very little attention has been given to what was involved in assembling 1200 B-17’s and B-24’s each day, to get them in formation to carry out a strike against Germany. Certainly showing bombers under attack by fighters, or encountering heavy flak, was a reality, and are interesting to watch. Also, stories about some of the rougher missions make interesting reading. But what was going on over England, each morning, could get just as scary to the crews as the time spent over some of the targets. The planning, and coordination, that had to be accomplished during the night, by the operations planners of each Group, so that the crews could be briefed, was unbelievable. If the planners had failed to do their jobs properly, there would have been a free for all among Bomb Groups, in the skies over England.

The rendezvous points, altitude, and times had to be precise, and known by all of the crews, before the Eighth Air Force could get in formation. The success of the planners, in accomplishing their mission, enabled the Eighth Air Force to become the most powerful air armada ever assembled. In my view, how this was accomplished is one of the major untold stories of the war.

Source: News Flash: The Mighty Eighth

News from Afghanistan:

During 2007, Afghanistan experienced its most violent year since the overthrow of the Taliban regime in early 2002. Suicide attacks, improvised explosive devices, or IEDs, and small arms attacks reached new heights in 2007.The Taliban, with its sanctuaries in the Northwestern Frontier Province and Baluchistan in Pakistan, have stepped up attacks against the Afghan military and the International Security Assistance Force in an attempt to destabilize the Afghan government and force the Western governments to withdraw.

The southern, southeastern, and eastern regions, all which border Pakistan, experience 73 percent of the Taliban-inspired violence in Afghanistan. Kunar, Kandahar, Khost, Nangarhar, and Paktia provinces, all of which border Pakistan, experience the most Taliban-driven attacks in Afghanistan. Kunar, which borders Pakistan's Bajaur province, an al Qaeda command-and-control hub, is Afghanistan's most dangerous province.

The charts below look at the data over the course of 2007. With special thanks to Tim Lynch and Sami Kovanen at Vigilant Strategic Services Afghanistan (VSSA), who compiled the data and created the graphics.

Source: Afghanistan: Charting the violence in 2007

I think that is good enough for this morning. If you want more news, you can refer to my widgets in the right-hand sidebar. The top widget is from my google reader's shared items, so you'll know what I have found interesting enough to pass along. The other widgets are divided by categories, such as "Watching The Jihad", where I have listed several bloggers who offer commentary and analysis on the progress of the Third Great Jihad around the world and here in the United States. The there is "Thunder Pig 2008", which I created to keep track of some of the websites covering the 2008 Presidential Election process, and one covering military bloggers. I have more widgets available at West Carolina report, and am creating more to cover ever more narrow niches of information which are always available, and updated constantly, 24/7/365.

I guess you could say that Thunder Pig is becoming Web 2.0, which if it fits with the rest of my efforts, will be just in time for Web 3.0 (whatever that is) to become popular!