Dave Ross with the Osgood File

The 8:25 am version of the Osgood File this morning with Dave Ross was somewhat surprising.

You can listen to it and read the transcript here.

He discusses the innocents who are being hurt and that they have some responsibility for what is happening.

Listen and read.

Related: Don Surber’s post “First they came for the Jews

Hate Crimes & Terrorism

Referencing my article below, here’s another crime that won’t be classified as terrorism (and probably shouldn’t be) and it also won’t be classified as a “hate” crime (as was the crime committed by Naveed Afzal Haq in Seattle).

I agree with Betsy wholeheartedly about the classification of “hate” crimes. How does it make an assault or a murder more of an assault or a murder?

Person A kills Person B.

Scenario 1: Person A is a wife who just can’t stand her husband anymore. She’s really mad because he will not put the seat back down and he never picks up his dirty under shorts. She “hates” him.

Scenario 2: Person “A” is a member of one religious or ethnic group. Person “B” is member of another religious or ethnic group. Person A “hates” all persons of Person B’s religious or ethnic group.

Person B is just as dead. Murder one is murder one.

As Betsy says, “Why should motive (apart from self-defense) make a murder more or less heinous?”

When is Terrorism not Terrorism?

Terrorism isn’t terrorism when a Naveed Afzal Haq is charged with a hate crime for killing and wounding Jews at a Jewish center in Seattle. This after he announced, “I’m a Muslim American; I’m angry at Israel,”

haq.jpg

Terrorism isn’t terrorism when the Deputy Secretary of the UN, Mark Malloch Brown, says

that he does not think that Hezbollah, the Syrian- and Iranian-backed group currently fighting Israeli Defense Forces, is a terrorist organization.

“It’s not helpful to couch this war in the language of international terrorism. Hezbollah employs terrorist tactics; it is an organization, however, whose roots historically are completely separate and different from Al Qaeda,” [emphasis mine] he said, according to a transcript of an interview.

And I think therein lies the problem. The press and the left seem to think that it’s terrorism only if Al Qaeda is involved. If Al Qaeda and Osama Bin Ladin aren’t involved, if Osama Bin Ladin isn’t pulling the strings or sending out the orders, then it isn’t terrorism. The press and the left had a very hard time even considering that Zarqawi was Al Qaeda in Iraq (because Al Qaeda has nothing to do with Iraq dontcha know).

Somehow, the word terrorism for the left and the press is narrowly defined and limited to Al Qaeda. That needs to be changed. Terrorism knows no particular ideology or ethnic background. Currently the main force of terrorism is Islamofascists, but there are others. MS-13 comes to mind as one (see Michelle Malkin’s coverage of this group).

Thanks to Hang Right Politics for pointing me to the Malloch Brown story.

Giant Gnome

This is a giant gnome we saw at the Big Foot store on the Redwood Highway (101). We also saw one of these in someone’s yard along the Russian River in the Sonoma Valley, but I didn’t get a picture of that one.

GIANT GNOME.JPG

Back

We got back from the trip on Tuesday, completely exhausted. Our flight had been cancelled and we had to get another one, on which the passengers were packed like sardines. We did get to see Ice Age 2: The Meltdown on the flight.

My left ear failed to clear after the descent into San Francisco when we arrived on the 12th and my left tonsil has been killing me ever since. Yesterday was the first time I was able to look down my throat with a flashlight and lo and behold my left tonsil is covered with large white spots! I went to the doctor who did a throat swab. The swab was negative for strep, but they will send it to the lab to be cultured anyway just to make sure. If it is strep, they’ll call me and let me know to pick up some antibiotics. Otherwise it’s just pharyngitis which is doctor speak for “sore throat”. He gave me some vicodin for night time to help with the pain so I can sleep. Fun, fun, fun.

Otherwise we did have a lot of fun on the trip. I am posting a few photos below and they are in thumbnail version so downloading the page won’t be a bother for those on dial up. Just click a photo caption to see a larger version.

Radio Equalizer readers here for the “anti-Bush weirdness” that Brian refers to: please see the post below this one or click here.

Really Big Redwood on the Avenue of the Giants:
big tree
Carson Mansion in Eureka, the most photographed building in California:
Carson Mansion
Drive Thru Tree, I’ve left a person in for perspective. We had a rental convertible PT Cruiser and felt like we only just squeezed through. We would not have been able to get through with our Yukon XL. No way, no how:
Drive Thru Tree
The ocean off of Humboldt Bay:
Ocean
A little weirdness in Willits (talk about stuck in the sixties):
Small weirdness in Willits

Not Really Surprised

I am in San Francisco after all…
bush sidewalk.jpg
I took this as we were walking around looking for dinner on Wednesday evening.

Today we’re going to drive up the coast to Redwood Country. We’ll be back in San Francisco on Sunday evening just in time for our Alcatraz tour!

Plame Game

Brit Hume just announced that Robert Novak announced that he got Valerie Plame’s name from Joe Wilson’s Who’s Who entry.

Novak has been informed by Fitzgerald’s office that his part of the investigation is complete and now Novak can talk. He has been silent on this at Fitzgerald’s request.

Hume will interview Novak tomorrow on Special Report.

The US Has To Be Nice

so others will like us…

On June 30th on Fox News’ Dayside program, they were discussing the NYT’s “release” of the SWIFT story and SCOTUS’ ruling in Hamdan. The guests were Kristen Powers (Democratic Strategist) and John Leboutillier (Former NY Congressman currently of Newsmax). I couldn’t believe what he said.

At one point they were discussing Gitmo and a Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll that showed that 43% of respondents thought it was fair to hold detainees without charging them and 44% who thought it was not fair. Mr. Leboutillier’s comment was as follows:

Well Mike, you know, my view on it is, I think we all believe in a system of how to charge criminals – and these are criminals. And there’s something un-American about taking people, not trying them and just locking them up wherever. Now the worry I have is – next week, next month, next year – what if some American soldiers are taken – by some terrorist group – or some country – and they don’t charge them, they don’t give them back, they just say. “Ah, we’re keeping them for as long as we want.” We have lost our ability to say, “you’re wrong for doing this.”

I hadn’t posted on it yet because I was busy with other things for the last 11 days. Big weekend was coming up, final week of my current class, planning a trip to San Francisco that we leave for tomorrow.

I’m sorry. When I first heard this, I TiVo’d it because I needed to have it so I could transcribe it. The quote seemed so very outlandish to me. And this is a Republican saying this. The first thing I thought back on June 30th had to do with his “worry” about

… next week, next month, next year – what if some American soldiers are taken – by some terrorist group – or some country – and they don’t charge them, they don’t give them back, they just say. “Ah, we’re keeping them for as long as we want.” …

What about Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker? Their bodies were found not 10 days before.

Now, just yesterday, the terrorists have released video of the horrors that they have perpetrated upon our brave soldiers. Rusty at The Jawa Report has the video.

We’ve been nice Mr. Leboutillier. Terrorists aren’t nice. They never will be nice. Even if we let every single detainee, held anywhere, go. Right now. Terrorists would still terrorize. Even if we left Iraq and Afghanistan right now. Terrorists would still terrorize.

That was the first thought. The second thought was criminals?. These people aren’t criminals. They’re terrorists.