Bachmann responds to Krinkie

Today the Bachmann campaign responded to a letter sent out yesterday by Phil Krinkie concerning some literature from the Bachmann campaign comparing their respective ratings from the Taxpayers League.

Wingman has the text of Krinkie's letter here:

Senator Bachmann:

I am writing today to call attention to false information in your campaign literature concerning our voting records. I trust you will immediately stop disseminating this false information in radio interviews, your speeches and in your campaign literature.

The false claim you have repeatedly made is that you have the highest rating from the Taxpayers League of Minnesota from 2000 through 2004. This claim is patently false.

My rating from the Minnesota Taxpayers League for each year from 2000 to 2004 was 100%. My average rating over that time period is, of course, 100%. This can be easily verified by visiting the Taxpayers League Website at www.taxpayersleague.org. Visitors to this site will also see my 100% rating in 2005 compared to your 77% rating, due to the fact that you broke your written pledge not to raise taxes.

Your most recent literature, handed out at the BPOU conventions last weekend, states that my average is 95%. This is false and you need to stop repeating it.

You first made this claim in a radio interview on February 18th on the Patriot Radio Show. You are now repeating it in your campaign speeches and in your literature.

Since this is a campaign between Republicans, I would respectfully ask that you destroy any literature with this false claim and cease and desist from repeating it in your speeches. Your quick action will prevent us from having to pursue legal action.

Running for Congress is much different than running for the State Legislature, and the Democrats in Washington D.C. are going to do everything they can to steal this seat back in November – including taking legal action against such distortions.

I would appreciate immediate compliance with my request. The Delegates to the 6th District Convention will benefit from a thorough and open discussion of our voting records – but only if we stick to the facts.

Sincerely,

Phil Krinkie

The claims in question can be seen here, courtesty of a statement from David Strom of the Taxpayers League.

Bachmann said:

Bachmann's Taxpayers League voting record, 2000-2004, of 96% outperformed Knoblach's 77% and Krinkie's 95%.

Those numbers can be found in this document from the TL.

In the reply today from the Bachmann campaign, their letter says:

See for yourself that my lifetime rating through 2004 was 96% and Rep. Krinkie’s lifetime score was 95%.

Now, that is a true statement. However, if that is what the Bachmann campaign intended to say by their literature, they were not at all clear on that point. They certainly seemed to say that they were comparing the years 2000-2004, and not lifetime ratings.

If just those years are compared, David Strom’s statement on the TL website is accurate.

The Bachmann campaign should have been more specific about what precisely they were comparing.

(Though, as stated in the comments in a post at Residual Forces, it’s understandable Bachmann would not include 2005, as she had a decision to make on whether to swallow a poison pill. That she sided with a pro-life issue is not in any way an indication of how she votes on fiscal matters.)

Also, it is true that Krinkie said this in his letter:

“My rating from the Minnesota Taxpayers League for each year from 2000 to 2004 was 100%.”

However, as the Taxpayers League documents show, Krinkie’s rating in 2000 was not 100%, but was, rather, 92%.

I now sit back and await the chorus that Krinkie is a liar, a slimeball, has no integrity, etc…

(Now, I in no way think Krinkie is those things. Just wondering if those who are so venomous towards Bachmann will hold Krinkie to their same standard of truth.)

Roundup on African conflicts

Chad

A senior commander in Chad's army has been killed in the fighting around the border between Chad and Sudan.

Chad's senior army commander has been killed in fighting with rebels on its border with Sudan, army officials say.

Gen Abakar Itno - the nephew of Chad's President Idriss Deby - died of injuries in clashes in the Moudeina area, south of the border town of Adre.

Chad alleges Rally for Democracy and Liberty rebels receive support from the Janjaweed militia operating in the neighbouring Sudanese region of Darfur.

Aid officials say the fighting involved about 1,000 men on each side.

Gen Itno was commanding the military operation launched 10 days ago against the rebels.

"Gen Abakar Youssouf Mahamat Itno has died of his injuries," an unnamed military source told Reuters news agency.

"Caught without communications, the general was surprised by the rebels who seriously wounded him," the source added.

The start of the operation came a week after the Chadian government said it had foiled a coup attempt against President Deby.

Uganda

The fighting in northern Uganda has created terrible conditions.

Some 146 people die each week in the northern region where rebels of the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have waged war against the Uganda government for two decades, charity groups said in a report published on Wednesday.

War-related deaths in the region are three times higher than the number of killings in Iraq since the United States-led invasion that toppled the regime of Saddam Hussein in 2003 - a death rate that represents 0.17 deaths per 10,000 people, compared with 0.052 per 10,000 in Iraq, according to the report, entitled "Counting the Cost: 20 years of war in northern Uganda". It was prepared by 50 aid agencies working in the region.

"Twenty years of conflict have had a devastating impact on children," said the Civil Society Organisations for Peace in Northern Uganda (CSOPNU) report, which was released as Jan Egeland, United Nations Under Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs, arrived in the country to discuss with Ugandan officials a new approach to the situation before visiting camps for the internally displaced in the north.

"Twenty five thousand children have been abducted during the course of the war, 41 percent of all deaths in the camps are amongst children under five [and] 250,000 children in northern Uganda receive no education, despite Uganda's policy of universal primary education.

"An estimated 1,000 children have been born in LRA captivity to girls abducted by the rebel army. At the times of heightened insecurity up to 45,000 children 'night commute' each evening and sleep in streets or makeshift shelters in town centres to avoid being abducted by the rebel LRA," the report added.

Liberia

Charles Taylor will at last answer for his crimes.

UN peacekeepers delivered handcuffed former Liberian president Charles Taylor into the custody of a UN-backed Special Court in Sierra Leone on Wednesday where he will be the first former African head of state to face prosecution for war crimes before an international tribunal.

A UN helicopter brought Taylor from the Liberian capital Monrovia directly to the landing pad of the Special Court in Freetown where officials whisked him directly to his waiting cell.

Nigerian police captured Taylor, who is indicted on 17 counts of war crimes, on Tuesday after he disappeared from the mansion where he was living in exile in the south of the country.

Taylor was detained Tuesday night in Borno state in northeastern Nigeria, Information Minister Frank Nweke told reporters. Authorities immediately informed Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo who is on a visit to the United States and the Nigerian leader ordered Taylor's immediate deportation to Liberia.

DR of Congo

The awful practice of using children as soldiers is not that uncommon, but steps are being taken to combat the practice.

The United Nations and international human rights organisations have long campaigned against recruiters of child soldiers, urging their prosecution as war criminals.

But the first break came only last week when the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague decided to arrest Thomas Lubanga, a founder and leader of the Union des Patriotes Congolais (UPC), on charges of conscripting children in the current insurgency against the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
....
Unicef has estimated that up to 300 000 children globally are being used by armed rebels and military forces in a variety of roles, including as combatants, cooks, porters, messengers, spies and for sexual purposes.

Somalia

The lack of a strong central government in that country is allowing chaos to flourish.

Talks between militias who unleashed the worst clashes in years in Mogadishu collapsed on Wednesday, fuelling fears last week's fighting could resume and spread to the seat of government.

Islamist militia seized a seaport and airstrip formerly controlled by warlord Bashir Raghe in four days of clashes with the town's most powerful warlords. Between 70 and 90 people were killed.

Since the fighting ended on Sunday, religious leaders and elders have been trying to broker a full ceasefire, but the warlord alliance -- which dubbed itself the "Anti-terrorism Coalition" -- has not taken part.

The Democrats confirm they are not serious about national security

Yesterday the Democrats put forth their new national security strategy. (The 123 page document can be read here in PDF.) The document encompasses five main areas.

* 21st Century Military
* War on Terror
* Homeland Security
* Iraq
* Energy Independence

Not all of it is a complete waste of paper. For instance, in discussing the 21st Century Military, their plan calls for getting our troops the best possible equipment, for securing good pay and benefits for our troops and their families and veterans, and the document discusses the dangers of wearing down almost all of our combat troops in Iraq through multiple rotations. These are all things I agree with to one extent or another, and are perfectly reasonable.

However, large chunks of the document are little more than wishes and slogans on par with what you might find in a high school yearbook. "Loved sitting next to ya in English class! Keep on restoring our leadership in the world!"

For instance, you'll be surprised to know that the "foremost threat to U.S. national security today comes from violent extremists who are willing to use catastrophic terror", and that the Bush Administration has "has failed to grasp the nature of this mounting threat." Hmmm. You may disagree with Bush's foreign policy, but there is absolutely no basis for claiming Bush has failed to recognize the danger posed by militant Islamic terrorists.

Here's one way the Dems would defeat terrorists:

Eliminate Osama Bin Laden, destroy terrorist networks like al Qaeda, finish the job in Afghanistan and end the threat posed by the Taliban.

Get bin Laden? Dang, I wish I'd thought of that one. I would've been a world-wide blog star.

Fine, we all want bin Laden to be filling a pine box somewhere. But how to the Dems propose to get bin Laden? What is the magic answer that Bush has been missing these past five years? They don't say.

Do they want to invade Pakistan? Musharraf is quite opposed to the open presence of US troops in his country. It makes him look weak, and like the puppet of the US, not a pleasing image to the radical elements in his country. So, Dems, perhaps reality is a bit more complicated than just saying we should eliminate bin Laden, bang end of story?

Here's another nice wish:

Double the size of our Special Forces

Terrific. If only we had more of the best of the best. But do the Dems think they can wave a magic wand? Do they have any idea what it takes to create an SF soldier? Are they proposing we relax standards in order to lessen the signicant drop out rate in training? The Dems say nothing about the challenges involved in reaching this goal.

W. Thomas Smith Jr. has a good article talking about just this issue with the Navy SEALs. He writes,

The problem is, transforming a good man into a Navy SEAL is not cheap - about $350,000 a copy - nor is it easy. Sure, there are lots of schoolyard scrappers, gym rats, competitive swimmers, and adrenaline junkies who believe they have what it takes to become SEALs. But few pack the gear to endure-to-completion BUD/S (Basic Underwater Demolition/SEAL) training. Some are injured. Many fail to measure up during various training evolutions. Most simply quit, concluding that the wet, miserably cold life of a frogman is not for them.

None of this, however, changes the U.S. Defense Department's requirement for more special operators, including SEALs.

The Pentagon's just-released Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) is calling for a 15-percent increase in the number of U.S. special operations forces to fight terrorism and other unconventional threats worldwide. That's a huge demand for senior SEAL officers and petty officers who know that increasing SEAL numbers means proactive recruiting for fresh "talent" and getting a handle on the staggering 80-percent wash-out (attrition) rate without reducing standards.

Special operations experts contend that to lessen costs and to lower training standards would produce a commando that is not quite a SEAL in the purest sense.

After bashing Bush around for three years over invading Iraq, here's how the Dems would handle things:

Eliminate terrorist breeding grounds by combating the economic, social, and political conditions that allow extremism to thrive

And just how do they propose to combat these conditions? Again, they don't say. Are they going to ask politely, and voila, brutal regimes like that in Iran will just relinquish power and go home? Perhaps Bush has figured out that the most effective way to combat the conditions that allow extremism to thrive is through actual combat? You get in the face of a terrorist and you kick it in. It's about the only thing these murderers really understand.

The document goes on at some length like this, but you get the idea. Jim Geraghty has a series of posts on this at his TKS blog.

My fellow briefer C.S. Scott also has an excellent post on this Democratic strategy at Security Watchtower. He writes,

In the end, "Real Security" isn't much more than a plan to look like Democrats have a plan, which is a better alternative in most people's mind to not having a plan at all. Did you get all that? All plans aside, the inescapable fact remains that much of the Democratic leadership is beholden to a voting constituency that is further left then they are on a host of issues, generally opposes the war in Iraq and favors some form of disengagement, supports smaller military budgets to offset larger social spending, and heavily advocates a U.S. foreign policy operating at the behest of the United Nations.

Publicly, few Congressional Democrats can afford to represent the voice of Cindy Sheehan or Michael Moore (there are a few who can) and expect to survive politically. By the same token, they have to walk a political tightrope with their voting constituency and be seen as disapproving and critical of current security and defense policies, without looking weak and what you end up with is a slogan. What "tough and smart" really translates into is a broad appeal that says "we're convicted enough to act on threats if necessary, but we're smart enough not to get involved in wars."

Just to reinforce their lack of seriousness, the Democrats presented their plan with former Secretary of State Madeleine K. Albright and retired Army Gen. Wesley Clark present.

Perhaps no American diplomat has ever looked as weak as Albright did when she went running after Yassir Arafat in Paris in 1997 begging him to return to the "peace talks". (A close second might be Warren Christopher allowing himself to be kept waiting on a Damascus tarmac for hours before getting to meet with Assad. Now, hmm, which President did these two work for again?)

Wesley Clark called the war in Iraq a strategic blunder, and said it isn't connected to the war on terror.

Perhaps these two weren't the best image to present when trying to sound tough on national security.

Nigeria, Iran and China

David McCormack has a terrific analysis on Nigeria over at the Warfooting blog. He brings up something I've mentioned here, namely the Islamic elements that exist in Nigeria.

It was hoped by many that President Bush's meeting today with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo augurs a stronger relationship between the United States and Africa's most populous country. The reality, however, is that a situation exists in Nigeria in which threats to U.S. interests are creating tremendous impediments to a viable partnership. If the U.S. does not act quickly, these challenges will become insurmountable.

Most significantly, Nigeria -- home to 60 million Muslims, roughly half the country's population -- has become the central battleground of Islamofascism's war on Africa. Over the course of the last 30 years, foreign sponsors -- namely Saudi Arabia, but including Iran and Libya -- backed by treasuries overflowing with petrodollars have systematically exported extremist interpretations of Islam to the African subcontinent, significantly corroding the region's temperate and progressive Islamic traditions.

Nowhere has the impact of this campaign been felt more greatly than in Nigeria. In the shake-up that followed liberation from military rule in 1999, twelve predominantly Muslim states in northern Nigeria took advantage of the central government's weakened position and adopted legal codes based on full Shari'a. Characteristics of these Shari'a states include the severe marginalization of women and the institutionalization of punishments such as flogging and death by stoning. The new laws, moreover, are often applied regardless of a citizen's faith and enforced by vigilante organizations modeled on those of Saudi Arabia and Iran.

I've also mentioned in passing that China is certainly interested in Nigeria, too, given Nigeria's oil industry. But McCormack adds some interesting details.

Absent communal friction, Nigeria's energy sector would still prove highly problematic for American interests. Communist China's global drive to dominate strategic energy resources has naturally attracted it to sub-Saharan Africa, from which it currently imports nearly 30 percent of its oil and natural gas. The PRC's presence, unfortunately, has greatly abetted the scourge of Africa -- corruption. As Mustafa Bello, head of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission, recently admitted, "The U.S. will talk to you about governance, about efficiency, about security, about the environment....The Chinese just ask, 'How do we procure this license?'"

Not surprisingly, then, Nigeria has been increasingly receptive to PRC energy forays. For instance, in its first major investment since its failed bid to take over Unocal last year, the Chinese state-controlled oil company CNOOC announced last month it will pay $2.3 billion for a 45 percent stake in a Nigerian oil field. As Iheanyi Ohiaeri, head of business development for Nigeria's National Petroleum Corporation, explains, "We haven't been totally invaded by China yet, but it will come."

In a comment to his post, I asked him if he had any information on Iranian involvement in Nigeria, as I talked about in this post.

He replied by email and added some additional interesting details. Here's his reply:

I'm afraid I just don't know enough to definitively say whether or not Iran is involved in the Niger Delta. They have, however, been involved in the advance of Islamism in the northern region - for example, they sponsor an Islamist publication called Sakon Islam, and the leader of the Nigerian Ikhwan was trained in and is suspected to have received money from Iran.

I've spent a great deal of time chronicling Saudi activity in Africa in general and in Nigeria more specifically (http://www.centerforsecuritypolicy.org/Af_Vortex.pdf).
If the opportunity ever arises, I'd love to do the same with Iran. A casual glance seems to suggest they're a lot more involved in eastern and southern Africa, but I'm sure some research would turn up a lot more in western Africa as well.

Restraining the tiger with paper chains

Vital Perspective, which is an excellent blog, has some disappointing but not surprising news concerning the UN Security Council's talks on Iran:

Vital Perspective has obtained the text of the Security Council presidential statement on Iran agreed to today. This is a watered-down statement which - at Russia's demand - dropped any reference to Chapter 7 ("threat to international peace and security"), and therefore is not binding. Iran was given thirty days to comply instead of the original fourteen. The five specific IAEA demands were watered-down to just one. This is the result of nearly a month of negotiations, meaning that Iran essentially enjoys nearly sixty days of unimpeded enrichment activities which continue unabated. This assumes, however, that action is taken after thirty days - experience shows otherwise. As we reported exclusively, Iran's enrichment progress is advancing more rapidly than previously assumed. Once again, the diplomatic process is completely out of sync with the pace of Iran's technological progress. You wouldn't know that though from reading the press.

UPDATE @ 8:02pm: John Bolton is not a happy camper: "The Security Council can and should work with other UN bodies [the IAEA], but if the Iranians take steps as they have repeatedly over the last four years that show a continuing desire to get nuclear weapons that poses and has posed a threat to international peace and security that the Security Council has a responsibility to act on. I don't know what steps the Council will take, I've said before and I'll say it again - this is a test for the Security Council. The threat of the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and international terrorism are the greatest threats to international peace and security we face in the world today. How the Council handles those threats, will be a determining factor in the role of the Council in the future."

Indications all along have been that Russia and China were not likely to support taking stringent measures against Iran.

The situation, though, is similiar to Iraq in that going the diplunacy route through the UN at least gives the US cover to be able to say we exhausted all peaceful means before any military action became necessary. But, also like Iraq, the endless dithering simply buys more time for Iran, as it did for Iraq to prepare plans for a post-war insurgency and perhaps spirit its WMD program away to Syria.

As VP points out however, the clock is ticking. Iran is charging ahead with its nuclear program, and Iran is more than happy to see endless droning in the UN. This article from Iran Focus highlights Iran's preparations.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) will begin large-scale naval exercises in the Persian Gulf and Sea of Oman on Friday by firing a Shahab-2 missile “to show Iran’s desire for peace and friendship with neighbouring countries”, the IRGC naval chief said on Wednesday.

Ah, we should celebrate cultural differences, and appreciate those societies where firing missiles is a sign of peace. In a crisis, the Persian Gulf could become a flashpoint if Iran decides to try and stop the flow of oil through the Straits of Hormuz, and this naval exercise and missile firing is a not-so-subtle reminder of exactly that.

Iran is not immune from pressure. With unrest in the southwest in the province of Khuzestan, and in the southeast in the province of Sistan-Baluchistan, student protests, unemployment, and so on, Iran might well respond to serious international action. Just today there was another example of violence inside Iran:

Three agents of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps were killed in a gun-battle in the north-west town of Salmas, the state-run news agency ISNA reported on Wednesday.

The IRGC agents were from the towns of Khoy, Maku, and Marand, the report said.

Salmas, close to the Turkish border, is situated in the province of West Azerbaijan.

However, with Russia and China running interference for them, Iran must be chuckling at the lack of Western fortitude. Some in the US government and in other governments seem to have decided that we can live with a nuclear-armed Iran. But, we shouldn't mistake wishful thinking for analysis.

Regime Change Iran points to an article in Haaretz which says the following:

Former Spanish prime minister Jose Maria Aznar said Tuesday that Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told him five years ago that "setting Israel on fire" was the first order of business on the Iranian agenda.

Aznar, in Israel as the guest of the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, related the story to Major General (Res.) Professor Yitzhak Ben-Israel, who later confirmed to Haaretz that the remarks had been made.

Aznar's aides refused to give Haaretz the exact quote, but mentioned an article Aznar has written in the past on his meeting with Khamenei.

"He received me politely," Aznar wrote, "and at the beginning of the meeting he explained to me why Iran must declare war on Israel and the United States until they are completely destroyed. I made only one request of him: that he tell me the time of the planned attack.

When someone threatens us with such blunt language, shouldn't we take it seriously?

Tick tick tick...

Darfur is heading for a cliff

The just-concluded Arab League Summit in Khartoum has produced an empty gesture with regards to Darfur.

Arab leaders have agreed to pay for the African Union (AU) peacekeeping force in the Sudanese region of Darfur.

Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir had asked the Arab League to meet the cost of the mission from October this year, when its current funding runs out.

Agreement on payment was reached at a summit in Khartoum but it is unlikely the Arab leaders will have to pay out.

The AU has agreed in principle to hand over peacekeeping to the United Nations from September.

The Sudanese government is quite opposed to having UN troops in Sudan. In fact, on March 10 the African Union decided to kick the can down the road and extend its mission in Darfur till the end of September in part because of Sudanese opposition.

However, the African Union is indeed in need of funds, as even the AU itself admits.

An Arab offer to fund African Union forces in Sudan’s Darfur region from October is too late as troops need immediate cash to help stop escalating violence there, an AU official said on Wednesday.

"This is medicine after death," said Baba Gana Kingibe, the head of the AU mission in Sudan. "We need the assistance now in order to be able to resolve the crisis."

Worse, the African Union troops in Darfur are woefully inadequate to the task of monitoring the ceasefire there, a ceasefire which is falling apart like wet tissue paper. The AU troops don't have the firepower nor the mobility to be effective.

Hostilities between Chad and Sudan are escalating, with both sides using militias and rebels in the Darfur region against the other. Again, AU troops are powerless.

The humanitarian crisis in Darfur is growing worse, with civilians at the mercy of marauding gangs. The Arab Janjaweed militia receives support from the Sudanese government. The Sudanese government uses these militias against rebel groups and non-Arab ethnic groups in Sudan, so it has an interest in letting these militias continue to operate. Sudan also has an interest in letting its proxy fight against Chad continue. For these reason, Sudan is reluctant to let UN troops in, and the crisis worsens.

The UN and NATO, and along with them Europe and the United States, are not sending strong signals that they will force the issue with the AU and Sudan.

Here is a view of the situation from Eric Reeves:

Security has essentially collapsed in large areas of Darfur, and as a result humanitarian operations cannot reach hundreds of thousands of desperate civilians; ethnically targeted destruction is expanding unchecked into eastern Chad; and remaining rural populations are completely vulnerable to ongoing predations by Khartoum’s regular and militia forces. The prideful yet cowardly African Union decision to maintain its control of the current mission in Darfur for another six months ensures that conditions will deteriorate rapidly and precipitously.

The consequences of the AU decision, which effectively forecloses robust international humanitarian intervention for the foreseeable future, are also implicitly articulated by Egeland:

“As a result of [deteriorating insecurity], Egeland said, UN relief officials and relief organizations cannot reach more than 300,000 people on the Chad border in western Darfur and the central mountainous region of Jebal Marra because they are too dangerous. These unreachable areas, he said, ‘will soon get massively increased mortality because there is nothing else but international assistance.’ He expected deaths to increase markedly within weeks.” (Associated Press [dateline: United Nations], March 13, 2006)

Additional hundreds of thousands of civilians are inaccessible in South Darfur and North Darfur states. Egeland declared that “Darfur is returning to ‘the abyss’ of early 2004 when the region was ‘the killing fields of this world.’ ‘We're losing ground every day in the humanitarian operation which is the lifeline for more than 3 million people.’” In fact, aggregated UN estimates for the conflict-affected population in Darfur and eastern Chad now total approximately 4 million human beings. Tens of thousands of these people will certainly die in the coming weeks and months; the number of deaths could easily range into the hundreds of thousands over the full course of this rapidly accelerating catastrophe.

Darfur cannot afford to have the status quo continue till October.

It is going to be a long summer in Darfur.

Politics is not war by other means

Though, I suppose it can seem like it. No, politics is the expressed will of the people. It is the means by which we decide how we will govern ourselves. And because important things are at stake, politics often involves passion and even rancor.

Over at Always Right Usually Correct, Tony has worked himself into a good head of steam. He is not exactly a fervent support of Michele Bachmann. I'm not familiar with all his reasons for his opposition, but some of it seems to stem from the fact Bachmann has not appeared on his radio show a time or two.

In his post that starts with a link to my account of the SD51 convention, Tony uses some language that you don't usually hear on the conservative side of the aisle.

I will next point out I have been consistently against using the grey area of "unethical yet legal" in campaigns.

What is a shame is the number of Republicans who are blinded by the need to win. More accurately is the number of Republicans who are blinded by the need for THEIR candidate to win. When it is their candidate then "it is the system we have".

I find the practice of fixing the endorsement a sign of weakness. Bachmann knows that she is the weaker of the candidates and cannot risk allowing the endorsement in the hands of a group of individually thinking people. Instead she has to find people who cannot think independently, cannot stand up in the convention when running for delegate and speak their mind ("vote for me because I'm a Bachmann robot supporter"), who have to be told exactly who to vote for because they lack the cognitive ability to decide for themselves.

As he says, among other things Tony is not in favor of the practice of letting delegates know who other like-minded delegates are so they can support their candidate by voting for delegates who will also vote for their candidate.

I am quite in favor of that practice. I think it is good politics. Yet Tony refers to those who do support the use of slates as "blinded", people who "cannot think independently", and who "have to be told exactly who to vote for because they lack the cognitive ability to decide for themselves."

Gracious.

I suppose I cannot speak for everyone, but I am quite certain I am not blinded. I am quite capable of thinking and deciding for myself which candidate I support and why.

In fact, trusting people and their own judgment is a hallmark of conservative ideology. Tony continues:

What is more sickening is that people cannot see through the fact that the game is rigged and standing ovations at the end of Bachmann's empty rhetoric is a part of the scam.

I regret that Tony has become physically ill over the issue, but again, how is the game rigged. People are perfectly free to support whichever candidate they wish. At the SD51 convention last Saturday, people voted for delegates with no threat of punishment if they didn't vote a certain way. No one was standing over us with cattle prods making us vote for certain delegates. Nobody dumped a bucket filled with prewritten ballots into the teller's lap. So how was anything rigged?

I willingly voted for other delegates who support Bachmann because I want to see Bachmann get the endorsement. I, as a private citizen, completely of my own accord, took steps to participate in the process and try and do what I could for the candidate of my choice. Would Tony rather I vote for delegates at random?

There is more, but Tony concludes:

I am disappointed in the party's members for not recognizing this for what it is. The moral character of the party is disintegrating before my eyes this year.

I don't know that the free and fair practice of politics really deserves such histrionics. But, I think a danger in local politics is that for those who like to participate in the process, it's like a hobby. They enjoy it, it's what they spend time on, they get to know other people in the hobby, and after awhile they tend to have a feeling of ownership about the whole thing.

Again, just speaking in general terms, the trap for officers in local districts is to see their district as their fiefdom, and candidates coming in to seek support as intruders.

At the convention last Saturday just before we voted for delegates, one such local official argued that we shouldn't refer to any "slates", but instead we should vote for people who have worked in the process, who have done the legwork, etc...

I don't deny those who work in the local district deserve commendation for their service. But, the right to be a delegate should not be a perk conveyed upon political bosses. That elitist attitude has no business in conservative circles.

When neighbors get together and in the open and above board vote for whomever they wish, that's not "stuffing the ballot", it's politics in its noblest form.

China's rural pressures

A couple weeks ago Stratfor had an insightful analysis pointing out the growing pressures in China's rural regions. Unemployment and economic struggles are putting tensions among China's rural poor on a slow and steady simmer.

But [China's] growth has been anything but even. Urban growth continues to outpace rural growth, despite income increases across the board. In 2005, per capita disposable income reached $1,310 in urban areas, compared to just $405 in rural net income. Income disparity in 1984 was about a 2 to 1 ratio; now it is 3 to 1. Overall, the poorest 10 percent of China's citizens hold only 1 percent of the nation's wealth, and the wealthiest 10 percent claim 50 percent of the money. Even in urban areas, there are massive disparities: The poorest 20 percent of urban-dwellers control just 2.75 percent of private income; the top 20 percent control 60 percent of the total.

The gaps manifest in other ways as well. China's registered urban unemployment stands at 4.2 percent, but rural unemployment -- which isn't measured officially -- is anecdotally much higher, and even Beijing admits that some 200 million rural workers have migrated to cities recently in search of employment. That represents a substantial portion of the total rural population, which numbers 800 million to 900 million. In the cities, these migrants are treated as second-class citizens at best. In the countryside, they fare little better: Measures of education and health care are substantially lower. Moreover, there has been little legal recourse for farmers, who technically don't even own the land they work, when local officials confiscate the land for new industrial and housing projects.

The central government is well aware of these problems and, perhaps ironically, began issuing public cautions about social and economic tensions years before the international business community bothered to notice. Unrestrained economic growth no longer is viewed as a viable or sustainable option, and Beijing has begun to reassert more centralized control over economic development, with a particular emphasis on reducing the rural-urban gap.

Stratfor suggested a not entirely obvious solution.

This means Beijing needs to allow, if not subtly encourage, more localized demonstrations.

And that apparently is where Hu and Wen intend to go. The central government's response to stories of rural unrest has remained rather low-key thus far. In reference to the Dongzhou protests in December 2005, where at least three were killed when local security forces opened fire on the crowd, officials on the sidelines of the NPC session recently made it a point to say the officers in question are under detention and did not follow orders. In other uprisings, there even have been suggestions of sympathy from the center. In the cost-benefit analysis, Beijing apparently has determined that the risks of allowing the current trend of growing regionalized power to continue outweigh the risks of trying to manipulate popular sentiment against local officials.

This, perhaps more than anything, underscores the severity of the economic and governing problems facing China's central leadership.

The strategy of unleashing the rural masses, allowing and even subtly encouraging protests could quickly get out of hand. However, given the wide array of localized concerns, there is a natural disunity that could be expected to constrain protesters -- keeping demonstrations locally significant but nationally isolated. So long as protesters don't join across provinces and regions, so long as no interest is able to link the disparate demonstrations, the central leadership will retain some leeway to implement its policies.

But as history bears witness, any attempt to harness protests and mass movements is a very risky strategy indeed.

In a March 14 WoC article, Joe Katzman linked to an article that described the "rural time bomb":

A peasant "time bomb" threatens to stunt China's rise to global economic superiority unless immediate measures are taken to fix the problem, say experts. The Chinese state has lost much of its legitimacy with the country's rural majority, a turnaround that could have increasingly adverse effects on the long-term socio-economic development of the country, according to Joshua Muldavin, an Asian studies expert at Sarah Lawrence College in New York.

With greater land seizures by the state and reduced levels of rural subsistence, more peasants are having to migrate to urban areas in search of work where disappointment often awaits, making "peasant landlessness ... a time bomb for the state," Muldavin told an audience Thursday at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"There are two Chinas," he said. One is for investors, and the other is the "rural hinterlands," where official corruption, a growing gap between rich and poor and unemployment led to some 87,000 incidents of unrest in China last year, said Muldavin. It is believed that many more go unreported.

I bring this up because the Financial Times just had an article pointing out a factor that can be overlooked as we ponder China's rise and its implications for our security. China is vulnerable to the high prices of oil on the world market, too, and passing those higher costs on to the rural sectors might increase tensions to a dangerous level.

China on Sunday announced its first rise in domestic oil product prices in eight months, but promised to soften the blow to farmers, fishermen and urban transportation companies with a new system of subsidies.

...The increases are too small to make up for the steep increase in global oil prices during the past year, but will ease the pain imposed by Beijing’s pricing regime on domestic refiners such as Sinopec, the internationally listed market leader. The commission did not give comparative figures for most state-set petrol and diesel prices, but said Sunday’s move raised the ex-refinery cost of oil products for military use by 5.1-6.8 per cent.

China’s refining sector lost a reported Rmb30bn in 2005, and refiners’ lack of enthusiasm for supplying the domestic oil products market led to severe shortages in some parts of the country last summer. In spite of China’s increasing reliance on imported oil, Beijing has been unwilling to pass price increases on to the pump out of concern over the impact on already hard-pressed farmers and vocal urban groups such as taxi drivers.

Analysts say the gap between market and state-set prices had been becoming increasingly unsustainable, with Beijing forced to give Sinopec a windfall payment of Rmb9.42bn at the end of last year to compensate for its refining losses.

It's one reason why China is so reluctant to be a part of UN sanctions against Iran. Not only does China need Iranian oil, but if sanctions or military action against Iran cause a spike in oil prices, China will feel it, and might exacerbate internal problems China doesn't need.

Krinkie fires back

A press release from the Krinkie campaign today addresses two charges made in recent days by the Knoblach campaign. Incoming!

It appears that "Silly Season" has started in full force in the race for Congress in the Sixth Congressional District. (Note: Silly Season is the term used in campaigns when candidates begin to throw anything they can at the wall in the hope that something will stick) Phil’s opponents in the race have launched two recent attacks that warrant a response.

At the conventions last weekend and now in the mail, one of the campaigns put out a "hit piece" insinuating that Phil Krinkie is not tough on sex offenders because he voted against the Omnibus Crime Prevention Bill in 2000. To say Phil Krinkie voted against "Katie’s Law" is simply not true.

The reason Phil voted against this huge omnibus bill had nothing to do with “Katie’s Law” or sex offenders. The bill contained the creation of a huge government computer database called CRIMNET that cost millions of dollars to implement and put the privacy rights of individual citizens in jeopardy. In fact, private information about regular citizens was collected and stored in this government database, even the names of suspects, witnesses and people who sought handgun permits.

The last thing Phil wanted was for state government to compile a database that would track gun owners!

The bottom line: Phil Krinkie votes against boondoggles and government intrusion into our lives, even when it’s not politically expedient. That’s just what we need in Congress.

On Monday, Rep. Knoblach tried issued a press release charging that Phil’s vote against the House Budget Resolution authorizing $88 million in new spending was actually a vote to increase spending. Nothing could be further from the truth. The vote against Jim Knoblach’s budget resolution means that state government will have to spend the same amount next year as this year. No new spending!

As we continue through the Silly Season, don’t believe everything you read, check the facts, and call the Krinkie Campaign with any questions at 763-717-2222.

Another one falls out of the sky

Certainly accidents happen, and we shouldn't see mysterious hands in absolutely everything, but given the last two paragraphs in this story, I'm sure certain folks will be trying to find out who and what exactly was on that plane.

From Iran,

An Iranian cargo plane carrying 12 passengers crash-landed close to the city of Karaj, west of Tehran, on Tuesday, state television reported.

None of the 12-man crew on board was killed according to the report, which quoted the head of Payam Airport. The airport is three miles away from the crash site.

The Russian-made Antonov plane crash-landed into farmland at 16:40 Tehran time after one of its engines failed.

On January 9, a dozen senior commanders of the Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) died in a plane crash in northwest Iran. The Falcon jet belonging to the IRGC crashed 13 kilometres southeast of Lake Orumieh, killing all 15 passengers on board including Brigadier General Ahmad Kazemi, commander of the IRGC Ground Forces and a rising star in Iran’s radical Islamist military.

On December 6, another military aircraft, a C-130 cargo plane, crashed in southern Tehran killing more than 100 people on board.

The nature of the enemy

One of the overlooked aspects of the cooperation of American and Iraqi forces in Iraq is the trust that must be involved. It takes trust for an American soldier to be around an armed Iraqi, to overcome quiet but lingering suspicions about whether that Iraqi is really an insurgent infiltrator who will start shooting Americans in the back first chance he gets.

Here is a story of an insurgent infiltrator in a different, unexpected setting.

(I would think the victims here are Iraqis. Surely US military casualties are treated in a US military facility, not in a Kirkuk hospital.)

When policemen, soldiers and officials in Kirkuk who were injured in insurgent attacks arrived in the emergency room of the hospital, they hoped their chances of surviving had gone up as doctors tended their wounds.

In fact, many of the wounded were almost certain to die because one of the doctors at the Republic Hospital was a member of an insurgent cell. Pretending to treat the injured men, he killed 43 of them by secretly administering lethal injections, a police inquiry has revealed.

"He was called Dr Louay and when the terrorists had failed to kill a policeman or a soldier he would finish them off," Colonel Yadgar Shukir Abdullah Jaff, a senior Kirkuk police chief, told The Independent. "He gave them a high dosage of a medicine which increased their bleeding so they died from loss of blood."

Dr Louay carried out his murder campaign over an eight to nine-month period, say police. He appeared to be a hard working assistant doctor who selflessly made himself available for work in any part of the hospital, which is the largest in Kirkuk.

He was particularly willing to assist in the emergency room. With 272 soldiers, policemen and civilians killed and 1,220 injured in insurgent attacks in Kirkuk in 2005, the doctors were rushed off their feet and glad of any help they could get. Nobody noticed how many patients were dying soon after being tended by their enthusiastic young colleague.

Dr Louay was finally arrested only after the leader of the cell to which he belonged, named Malla Yassin, was captured and confessed. "I was really shocked that a doctor and an educated men should do such a thing," said Col Jaff.

The race for the MN SD51 delegates

I've been informed I was elected as a 20th alternate to the MN 6th Congressional District convention. Since there are 21 delegates, I take this to mean I have no shot at being a seated delegate to the convention.

More importantly though, out of the 21 elected delegates, 13 were from Michele Bachmann's slate.

(And of the top nine alternates, five were from Bachmann's slate.)

I think the Bachmann campaign will be pleased with the results. If the trend continues in other senate districts, she could win the endorsement on the first ballot.

Wingman has a post about a Knoblach press release going after Krinkie's vote on a budget resolution. (HT: KvM) Wingman asks:

When Michele Bachmann is the perceived frontrunner, why is Knoblach going after Phil Krinkie?

In the comments there I suggested the following answer:

Perhaps he doesn't want to push on a stone that's already going downhill.

If all the other campaings constantly go after Bachmann Bachmann Bachmann, they are acknowledging she is the frontrunner, and help make her look like it.

By talking about another candidate, perhaps Knoblach is trying to give the impression it is still very much a race.

24 Day 5 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Ooh, I just felt the graphic violence warning kick!

In the recaps from last week, Vice President Hal still refuses to open the pod bay doors. RunLoganRun is on tv, even though last week we saw his presser live and in person at Budokan. Jack looks like he's groping Collette up against her car.

As we get into hot steaming fresh episode this week, Bill asks Chloe to check out Audrey for the past 18 months. Then, Bill goes and takes Audrey into custody. She is understandably flummoxed. Then, Bill utters the words no one inside CTU ever wants to hear. "Prep Ms. Raines for interrogation." Gaahh. CTU is the most torture happy outfit I've ever seen.

Audrey asks if Jack knows about this. Bill says Jack sanctioned it. Ex-boyfriends can be so vindictive sometimes.

Yowzer, Jack and Collette and Curtis are walking into CTU already?!? Did they bleem over here? They were at the Van Nuys airport less than five minutes ago! Were they really out in the CTU parking lot? I tell ya, with this curfew in place, you can get around LA in seconds.

Some nameless CTU agent helpfully points out Collette ID'd Audrey from photos on the way over. For you and me, that would be mighty quick work to send photos of Audrey within minutes to the agents in the vehicles coming back to CTU, but for CTU it's child's play.

Jack says to put Collette in Holding. I assume they've gotten Lynn and Harry out of there by now, and mopped up?

Audrey is frog-marched into a room, and rather rudely held tightly by the arm by some uniformed agent. Oh. No. Here comes The Cart! Death on Wheels, as they call it around the CTU watercooler. CTU's Torturer-In-Residence the past few seasons, Richards, must have snapped under the strain of all that constant gruesome work. So, this season Burke is our eager torturer.

Bill asks Karen, "So we can torture our own people but we can't touch a criminal?" Yup, Bill has got CTU pegged!

Bill also says "I trust her implicitly." I've never quite understood that saying. Wouldn't it be a stronger endorsement to say you trust someone explicitly? Implicitly sounds like a backhanded compliment.

Miles gets all righteous with Karen and says the decision to put Audrey on the rack is hers, but if she's wrong she'll take the blame.

Jack is mad. He wants to be the one to interrogate Audrey. Oh sure, Karen throws Nina Meyers in his face. Bring that up again. Make one mistake with a homicidal maniac spy and you can never live it down. But now it's Jack's turn to pressure Karen. He points out Audrey is the daughter of the SecDef, and if Karen is wrong about Audrey, Dad will eat Karen alive. Jack gets his ten minutes with Audrey.

Suddenly we cut to a scene from Escape from LA. Snake Plissken is wrestling with some hoods. Nope, wait, this is a staged fight. The terrorists jump the cops and get their squad car.

Chloe has already come up with a connection between Walt Cummings and Audrey. They stayed in the same hotel room in Maryland. And how did she confirm this? Well, she emailed photos to the hotel manager! And he sent back phone bills and receipts! All in about seven minutes! That is some service! And good memory, Hotel Manager Guy! Do you remember the faces of all your guests months later? Chloe speaks truth to power and blurts that this doesn't exactly look that good for Audrey.

Going into the first commercial break, clocks are at :10 to :10. But coming back, clocks are at :14 to :13. Simon the Heretic, the mysterious hermit who lives in a cave on the top floor of CTU, cackles and rubs his glowing blue stone.

A Shari Rothenberg from Section 5 reports to her new boss, a hunched over twitchy Chloe. I say, more than anyone else in CTU, Chloe's body language always says "Welcome, friend!"

Shari is there to replace Edgar. Of course, no one can replace Edgar. No one person, I mean. Maybe three people glued together would be enough to replace Edgar. With each one holding an anvil. Wearing lead boots. And having just had three Big Macs apiece.

Chloe sends Shari over to Station Six, Edgar's old stomping grounds. But wait, isn't Miles working over there? He took Chloe's key card so he could work there.

Chloe asks Shari, "Are you familiar with the Gavilan matrix analyzer?" Shari flips a coin in her head and says Yeah. Chloe then tells her to make sure the databases are current. I wonder if Shari will end up having to rekey them.

Oh brother. Shari and Miles exchange A Look. Do we have to give every character on this show a Wacky Backstory, a Dark Past, a Sinister Secret?

Jack goes into the room where Audrey must surely be trying hard not to lose control of her bodily functions. Jack says "Sit. Down."

And a tough scene proceeds, which the actors handle deftly. Jack asks if Daddy is involved. Audrey suggests he ought to know better than to ask. Jack asks if she's seen Walt. She dissembles and says a couple times, at briefings. Then, Jack busts her with Chloe's file from the helpful hotel manager.

Audrey admits she was on the rebound and found temporary solace in Walt. But she broke it off because Walt wasn't Jack.

Jack then decides to try the intimidation tactic, and tosses the table aside and grabs Audrey by the throat. He shouts right in her face. Not very gentlemanly, Jack. Audrey maintains her innocence, and Jack believes her. He then yells at a monitor "This is over!" What, is he mad he missed an episode of Seinfeld because he had to waste time talking to Audrey?

Karen says, and not without good reason, "She broke him, not the other way around." But, Karen has been waiting years for this chance to torture someone, She says "Send Burke in."

Chloe tells Shari that an agent at Bierko's safe house found the place empty. Um, he should've found the place torched, since that's what Sgt. Bierko ordered. Shari has a look that says "that's nice", and Chloe harrumphs "so upload the information to the subnets." This Shari isn't much of a replacement, is she.

Miles decides to bring sunshine to Shari's life and reams her for not having Level 3 clearance. Shari says she has provisional clearance. Miles says one mistake and it's bang pow to the moon.

Chloe asks what that was all about, and Shari says she and Miles used to work in SanFran together, and there was a sexual harassment episode. She reported him, but didn't go to trial. He only received a warning. OK, enough Days of Our Lives.

Burke is taking Audrey somewhere. Not sure why Audrey wasn't still back in the room. Maybe Jack let her out. Anyway, Burke says he has orders to take Audrey. Jack says through clenched teeth "Get out of my way." Then, he Jack-fu's a White Shirt. (White? What happened to the Red Shirts? They haven't been White Shirts since Season Three.) Goodness, Jack is just out of control. Thankfully, Burke tasers Jack.

Audrey is shrieking "Bill! Do something!" Jack is handcuffed. Since Jack just assaulted a uniformed officer, he'll be court martialed now, right? Right? Surely there will be some punishment? Right? Right?

Coming back from commercial, clocks are at :27 to :25. Henderson is driving somewhere. Hmm. So after ditching his first car a block from CTU, he got another car somewhere? "Gone in 60" they used to call Henderson in high school. And, he also managed to find a cell phone. Because he is calling a guy in the woods and asks "Is Wayne Palmer dead yet?" Guy says no. Buckaroo says "You had better make it right, you know what's at stake." (A trip to the Final Four? Tell us!)

It's been less than an hour since Palmer called Aaron. So Vice President BOB somehow got in contact with Henderson and heard the news that Palmer was coming to the presidential retreat? Henderson must have called BOB, because with a stolen cell phone, BOB wouldn't know how to reach Henderson.

Aaron, now sporting a dapper patch on his head, says he'll go out and look for Palmer.

Back at CTU, Jack thinks Collette must have gotten Audrey's name from Henderson. (Don't know why he doesn't think it could be Walt, since Walt was involved in this plot and slept with Audrey.) Jack thinks this is Henderson's attempt to make Jack lose focus.

Karen says "These plans must have been made some time ago when Henderson had every reason to believe you would be killed." Ya know, the actors must read this stuff and say to themselves "I have no idea what's going on, but I'll just use my actorly training and try to sound authoritative." If you recall, Henderson didn't even know Jack was alive until earlier in the day. Today. The current day. So the plans made "some time ago" means plans made several hours ago?

So, according to Karen, expecting Jack would be dead, Henderson left his office and called Collette and gave her Audrey's name, even though he thought Jack was about to be blowed up? And this woman is in a position of authority at Homeland Security?

Jack says this is Henderson's contingency plan. It sure is a doozy. Karen finally gets around to something that makes sense and points out they can't touch Collette because Jack made the immunity deal, Jack knows she got him on that one, and says he and Chloe will work to find proof that Collette is lying.

Another scene with Miles and Shari. Chloe covers for Shari, and makes a friend. Miles retreats from the women with his masculinity hanging in shreds.

Jack tells Chloe they need to find proof Collette and Henderson were together more than once. I guess they had better start calling hotel managers. And then just wait five minutes.

We cut to some facility called Wilshire Gas Distribution Center. The baddies roll up to the gate. A hapless guard says there was no delivery scheduled and he'll have to call it in. I guess he assumes that with all the terrorist attacks today and martial law declared, there'd still be people out doing deliveries. And the cop car accompanying the van doesn't seem strange to him. For all his trouble, the guard gets a few slugs in the back.

The baddies bust in, shoot a plant worker, and tell the Leader to take them to the control room. Bierko says "Cooperate and no more of your friends will die, understand?" The Leader says "Yes, sir." I don't think Bierko really deserves to be called "sir", but I suppose when someone is holding a gun and has just shot your coworker, you tend to be more polite.

Bierko says he wants to release something into the pipelines and needs the pressure dropped in the pipes. Another worker in the control room says "Sam, don't do it!" *pow* He gets a few slugs for his insubordination.

Now this becomes an episode of Star Trek. Sam says he might be able to drop the pressure in the pipes in an hour. Bierko gives him the motherly raised eyebrow look. Sam says he might be able to do it in 30 minutes. Bierko says he has 15. Or the Klingons will kill us all! Sam should've said "I canna change the laws of physics!"

Clocks are at :38 to :36.

Aaron is out in the woods somewhere. Where, I have no idea. Why isn't he near a road?

Wayne is there too, and yikes, he has a big honking gun. But where did this rifle come from? When his car crashed, he ran, and he wasn't holding anything. Again, this is like that Star Trek episode with the vacation planet where everything you imagined became real. Perhaps Wayne imagined Tawny Kitain in a leopard skin bikini holding this gun in a forest clearing, and he grabbed it as he went running by. But if this is how he got it, he probably should've imagined an M1 tank. He'd be safer.

At CTU, we finally get down to the torturing. Burke is working Audrey over, and she is in distress. Again, a tough scene nicely handled by the actress. Didn't go overboard with it. And yet, conveyed her extreme discomfort and fear.

Chloe finds evidence Henderson called Collette several times. Jack says that is enough to rescind the immunity deal. He heads off to Holding Room 3.

Collette reminds Jack of her immunity deal, and a guard says "She's right." Oh, what does he know?

Oh my, Jack is out of control. He punches the guard and takes his gun. Surely Jack will be arrested for this, right? CTU can't allow an out of control psycho like Jack to be running this investigation, right? Right? Surely there will be consequences, right?

Jack says to Collette through clenched to teeth "You do not want to try me." Collette agrees, and says Henderson told her to use Audrey's name if she got in trouble.

Jack says "Now I'm...upset." Collette knows there is a gas distribution center involved, but not which one.

Jack says there are dozens. (That's an obscure fact to immediately recall. Jack must be a bear at Trivial Pursuit.) And, Jack immediately zens that the gas pipelines are to be used as delivery system. He needs Chloe on it.

Bill says the rescinding order will be there in 15 minutes. It only took about 2 minutes to get the immunity deal. I suppose they have to go track down Logan, since he, Martha and BOB aren't in this episode at all.

In the torture room, Audrey screams. poor girl. Jack busts in and manages not to punch Burke. Audrey says "I survived because I knew you would come." Then some kissy kissy.

Jack tells Audrey she was set up to make him lose focus. I suppose it worked. For about 40 minutes. Henderson will have to do better than this.

Jack heads back to the main room. The krazy kaptions have Bill saying "Jack, the medic is on his way." But we don't hear anything.

Shari comes over and says she was a chem major. She says the pressure in the pipes will have to be dropped in order to transport the nerve gas without rendering it inert. So, they immediately start looking at gas pressures all over LA. So CTU has an interface to gas pressures why?

They find one where the pressure has dropped to 75% in ten minutes. (How do they know it's been ten minutes?)

Bill says "Great work, Shari." (But this time, the krazy kaptions spell her name as "Sherry.")

After Bill leaves, Shari says "Did you see how he brushed across my shoulder? That was wrong." Ay yi yi. What's wrong is this whole kooky thread. Is Shari crazy? Do we really care? Why is this even in here? Is the thundering conclusion to this season going to be Bill attending diversity training?

Out in the woods, it looks like Wayne and Aaron are hanging around Wayne's wrecked car. What are they doing there? Wayne took off running. Why is he still in the vicinity? And indeed, there is a gunfight with the baddies. Who apparently have rockets. They came prepared.

In the fight, Wayne is hit. As Aaron drives them away from the scene. Wayne slumps over unconscious. Since he is in next week's previews, he too must have amazing recuperative powers.

Clocks are at :52 to :48. Jack is flying in a helo. The baddies have the Evil Canisters of Death on a floor somewhere. Chloe has given the helo an approach vector so guards won't see them. The pilot says the noise from the plant will mask the sound of the helo.

Must be one noisy plant. For we see a guard looking around while the helo is hovering behind him dropping the CTU team on the roof of the plant.

The team makes their way to the control room. A Nameless CTU Agent Guy looks through the window and sees Bierko and some baddies directly across from the door.

They open the door and go in and... apparently step into another room, because they are in some little hall, and Bierko is nowhere in sight. In fact, he is around a corner. Even though the agent just saw the baddies straight through the window seconds before.

There is a gunfight. Bierko takes out his remote doohickey and releases the gas. The canisters start opening up like the pods in Alien. Perhaps the real plan is to release face huggers into the pipes.

The gas just starts drifting up into the air. Now just what kind of an injection system is this? The gas is just floating around this room. What is going to take the gas and inject it into the pipes? Why would such a system have been built in the first place? Who would've planned to get stuff into the pipes by sucking it in from this room? And if the pressure in the pipes is still greater than the pressure in this room, the gas will not get into the pipes. The pressure difference will keep it out. So what is going on???

After Sam the Leader tells them that apparently no one thought to put a valve on these pipes, and that they can't prevent the nerve gas from getting to the main pipelines, Jack says they have to blow up the pipes. Remember they are in a natural gas distribution center.

It's a good thing the team remembered to bring some C4 explosives with them.

Chloe somehow knows Jack only has 60 seconds to stop the gas. Jack sets a timer for 30 seconds. Everybody runs.

Goodness, back at CTU Audrey is already suited up again and ready for work. Nothing can keep characters on this show down for long.

The pipes blow, and Jack does his homage to Luke Skywalker escaping from the Death Star and outruns the gas explosions behind him. (I would think that with all that gas, an explosion would be like a small thermonuclear detonation.)

Jack says "I have a visual on Bierko." Nobody just "sees" things on this show.

An explosion knocks Bierko to the ground. Back at CTU everyone is yelling "Jack, get out!" Gee, they could show some love and concern for Curtis and the other agents.

Jack goes over and grabs Bierko. Who, naturally, instantly revives and fights with Jack. Everyone on this show is superhuman!

Jack pulls Bierko into the cop car just as there is a big explosion. Some debris falls on the car.

With the clocks at :60 to :57, the episode ends. Has Jack survived? Will he escape so he can punch out more federal agents? Tune in next week.

Guest critic Paul won't be joining us this week. The pressure in his cappuccino machine was a bit wonky, so he went outside to his backyard and blew up his propane tank. We're not sure yet if he survived.

Number of times Jack says "Now!": 17
Number of times Jack says "No!": 8
Number of times a "protocol" is mentioned: 31
Number of times someone says a variation of "Go!": 22
Number of moles: 3
Approximate Body Count: 65 (plus three rats, plus one human nerve gas guinea pig, plus 11 in the mall food court (and no, not from food poisoning), plus one security camera, plus 56 in CTU)

<-8:00 PM - 9:00 PM 10:00 PM - 11:00 PM ->

That'll be convenient

Foreign Ministers from the UN Security Council will meet this week to discuss Iran.

Foreign ministers from the five U.N. Security Council permanent members and Germany will meet in Berlin on Thursday for talks about Iran's nuclear program, Britain's foreign secretary said Monday.

Talks in New York aimed at drafting a Security Council statement on Tehran's nuclear enrichment program stalled. The diplomats' meeting in Berlin would seek to push that process forward, Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said.

Germany's Foreign Ministry confirmed plans for the meeting.

Oh what fun those talks should be. Britain, France and Germany wasted two years dancing around with Iran, when anyone with a modicum of sense would have known Iran wasn't going to be talked out of its nuclear weapons program.

Russia and China are trying to provide cover for Iran, each for its own reasons. In the middle of all this is the United States.

It's convenient that they'll all be together in Berlin, because then the ministers can ask the Germans and the Russians about this.

Seven people are being investigated over exports of German equipment that could be useful to Iran's nuclear program, prosecutors said on Monday.

Benedikt Welfens, spokesman for the prosecutors' office in Potsdam, near Berlin, said investigators wanted to question the seven, most of them Russians, after seizing cash, equipment and records in raids on 41 sites across Germany last week.

He said they were not under arrest but declined to comment on their whereabouts.

Welfens said German-made electronic components, transformers and special cables and pumps worth 2 million to 3 million euros ($2.4 million to $3.6 million) were found to have been delivered to Iran via Russia.

Between this, and reports that Russia gave Saddam Hussein highly sensitive information regarding the US war plans ahead of the Iraq invasion, I'm hoping President Bush takes another deep look into Putin's eyes when they meet later this summer at the G8 summit. Russia is bucking to become an alternate member to the Axis of Evil.

Monday Winds of War Briefing

Welcome! Our goal at Winds of Change.NET is to give you one power-packed briefing of insights, news and trends from the global War on Terror that leaves you stimulated, informed, and occasionally amused every Monday & Thursday. Monday's Winds of War briefings are given by Peace Like a River and Security Watchtower.

Top Topics

* A Los Angeles Times report on Saturday indicated that Iran could have a nuclear weapon within three years, an estimate previously put forth by former nuclear weapons inspector David Albright. In a speech in southern Iran on Saturday, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that the "threats and intimidations by the West against Iran's nuclear programme will not hinder the final victory to be that of the Iranian nation."

* Israeli security forces were placed on high alert on Sunday, 48 hours before the Israeli elections take place. According to Israeli radio "more than 70 warnings of planned terror attacks were registered, 16 of them 'focused' warnings." In the latest poll, Kadima still enjoys a large lead over Labor and Likud.

* Pakistani forces using helicopter gunships killed up to 20 pro-Taliban militants near the Afghan border today, after an attack on a security post left one soldier dead, officials said. The fighting in the restive district of North Waziristan came a day after President Pervez Musharraf ordered foreign al-Qaeda militants to quit Pakistani tribal areas bordering Afghanistan or be killed.

* British citizens were shocked to hear that a terrorist cell linked to Al-Qaeda plotted to bomb pubs, nightclubs and trains in an intense, coordinated terrorist attack in the United Kingdom. These reports emanated from the trial of terror suspects in London's courthouse, the Old Bailey. One alleged member of the terrorist cell, Mohammed Babar, a Pakistani-born American citizen who has pleaded guilty in New York to a role in the British bomb plot, is expected to testify against the British defendants.

Other topics today include: Blank check for Palestinian terrorists; Iranian oil interests; US and Iran to talk; Airstrike in Gaza; Hamas fighting with Fatah; Turkish forces clash with Kurds; majority Palestinians support terrorism & train their kids to do the same; UN wants Hezbollah to join Lebanon's army; PFLP-GC pressured to move operations to Syria; Sharm el-Sheikh suspects charged; Moussaoui trial; update on Lodi trial; more on NSA wiretaps; Terror attacks down in Chechnya; al Qaeda recruiting Azeri girls; Qu'ran controversy in Dagestan; Protests in Belarus; Tamil Tigers still kidnapping and arming children; More fighting in Nepal; ETA ceasefire; Taliban hideout in Uruzgan attacked; Fighting continues in Helmand province; Taliban vow suicide bombings; Clashes in Baluchistan; Bioterror threat in Asia; US bases in Bulgaria ok'd; fighting in Somalia; Libya to stay on terror list; GSPC kills mayor; and more.

Iran & the Middle East

* Incoming Palestinian interior minister Saeed Seyam, chosen by Hamas to oversee three security services, essentially handed Palestinian terrorists a blank check to attack Israel when he said "the day will never come when any Palestinian would be arrested because of his political affiliation or because of resisting the occupation," adding that "the file of political detention must be closed."

* Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is warning Hamas that without recognition of Israel they have no future and the Palestinian government would fail.

* Despite terror warnings, Israel agreed to reopen the Karni crossing between Gaza and Egypt this past weekend. The move is one of several steps taken by Israel under pressure from the United States.

* Israeli Chief of Staff Dan Halutz indicated on Friday that he believes Hamas may soften their stance with the obligations and responsibilities that come with governing, but currently they "present themselves as an enemy of Israel."

* According to Olivier Guitta, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard is angry over Qatar's alliance to the US and Israel. In the event of war between the United States and Iran the "Revolutionary guards are threatening to attack Qatari oil and gas facilities by sea and air. They plan to use suicide boats and air missiles."

* On Sunday, the al-Rashideen Army in Iraq released a seven-minute video with an open letter to President Bush included.

* David R. Francis writes in the Christian Science Monitor that any move by Iran to cut off oil supplies would be economic suicide for a government that receives 90 percent of their revenues from the sale of oil.

* There are growing indications that the United States and Iran may hold direct talks over issues in Iraq, a move that Amir Taheri says may be a major mistake. On Saturday, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei accused the British of plotting against Iran.

* Israeli aircraft fired two missiles at a carload of al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade members on Monday morning in Gaza city, missing their target and wounding two.

* Hamas leaders in Kalkilya have been targeted in assassination attempts in what many describe as continued fighting between Hamas and Fatah. One Hamas official complained that "ever since we won the municipal election, we have been subjected to a campaign of intimidation and incitement by Fatah activists." How ironic.

* Turkish army soldiers backed by helicopter gunships are carrying out large operations in the Mur province, near the Iraqi border. On Saturday, 11 Kurdish militant members of the PPK were killed in clashes with the army.

* Hamas continues to promote terrorism and violence among Palestinian children, with the latest display taking place at the Palestinian Children's Festival. A poll released on Sunday indicates that 60 percent of Palestinians are opposed to Hamas recognizing the state of Israel.

* UN envoy Terje Roed-Larsen doesn't believe it is possible to disarm Hezbollah in Lebanon, as outlined in UNSC 1559 and stated "Our goal is to integrate Hezbollah into the Lebanese army."

* According to Lebanese sources, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC) is being pressured to move operations from Lebanon to Syria in an effort to reduce international pressure on Prime Minister Fuad Siniora.

* The High State Security Prosecutor in Egypt has charged 13 terror suspects of involvement in a series of blasts in Sharm el-Sheikh in July last year.

America Domestic Security & the Americas

* Prosecutors concluded their case for executing Zacarias Moussaoui with a step-by-step account of how they possibly could have identified most of the Sept. 11 hijackers if the al-Qaida conspirator had confessed when he was arrested a month before the suicide attacks.

* The Sacramento, Calif., trial of accused terrorist Hamid Hayat isn't going well for prosecutors six weeks along, a juror who was excused told reporters. Andrea Clabaugh, 39, said on leaving the court the case wasn't "very clear-cut," and if she had to decide now she would vote to acquit Hayat.

* The government does not have to tell three men accused of illegally sending $3.5 million to Yemen whether secret wiretaps were used to investigate them, a judge has ruled. Without explanation, U.S. District Judge William Skretny denied the defense request for information in a one-page decision dated Tuesday. He said he had reviewed the government's classified response to the January request in private.

* The National Security Agency could have legally monitored ordinarily confidential communications between doctors and patients or lawyers and their clients, the Justice Department said yesterday of its controversial warrantless surveillance program. Responding to questions from Congress, the department also said it sees no prohibition to using information collected under the NSA's program in court.

* Trina Magi, a UVM librarian, has traveled across the country, publicly fighting the law that opponents say infringes on free speech and abuses Americans' rights to privacy. This month's reauthorization of the Patriot Act, Magi said, does little to appease critics, despite revisions in the law that were meant to improve safeguards on civil liberties. Magi's stance is backed by local librarians and the American Library Association, which has battled for reforms in the act since it was passed four years ago in the wake of Sept. 11.

* The U.S. Justice Department's indictment of 50 individuals allegedly tied to Colombia's largest narco-trafficking group could backfire, according to a policy expert from American University, by increasing the chances that Colombia's current president - an American ally - will lose his re-election bid. Emilio Viano, a professor in the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, D.C., added that the indictments, announced Wednesday by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, "could just be a propaganda gesture" on the part of the Bush administration.

* An American said he had "done nothing" wrong as a Bolivian judge formally charged him and his Uruguayan lover with murder Thursday in the hotel bombings that killed two people and wounded seven in La Paz. Triston Jay Amero, 24, and his pregnant partner, Alda Ribeiro, 45, were ordered held in preventive detention by Judge Williams Davila, who said he would consider a psychiatric evaluation for Amero and a medical exam for Ribeiro.

* Argentina's president grimly shouted "Never Again!" as he marked Friday's 30th anniversary of a military coup by remembering the thousands of people killed during the ensuing seven-year dictatorship. The country somberly recalled the March 24, 1976 coup that toppled the constitutional government of Maria Estela Martinez de Peron, widow of former strongman Juan Domingo Peron, and ushered in a "Dirty War" against dissidents.

* The murder conspiracy trial of the incarcerated leader of the Jamaat al Muslimeen, Imam Yasin Abu Bakr, was adjourned last week for a third time this year without a date being fixed for the matter to begin.

Russia, Caucasus & Central Asia

* A large weapons cache was discovered in Chechnya on Sunday, containing a large amount of explosives, two mines, a self-made explosive device, a flame thrower, 16 82-mm artillery shells, 13 rounds for grenade launchers, nine grenades and 3,800 cartridges of various caliber weapons.

* Azerbaijani National Security Minister Eldar Mahmudov says that al Qaeda is attempting to recruit Azeri girls to carry out suicide attacks.

* According to Chechen President Alu Alkhanov, the number of terrorist attacks has been on the decline, saying "only two serious terrorist acts were committed last year, and 70 terrorist acts were averted."

* Muslim leaders in the Russian Federation are demanding that the Russian government punish militia officers responsible for the desecration of a Koran in a Dagestani village earlier this month - or face the prospect of protests across the country and the expansion of violence in the northern Caucasus.

* Hundreds of Belarusian opposition activists were still in jail yesterday, and the location of one of their top leaders remained unknown one day after mass crackdowns by the government. Gateway Pundit has a run down of the protests and photos.

* On Saturday authorities discovered a fragmentation mine in Shtyba Square in downtown Vladikavkaz, and disarmed the explosive before it detonated by an attached timer.

* The Russian Interior Ministry announced they will use unmanned aerial drones to help provide security for the July G8 summit in St. Petersburg. It will mark the first time Russian police units have deployed UAVs.

Afghanistan & Southern Asia

* Children are still being kidnapped by Sri Lanka's Tamil Tigers to train as fighters, the UN children's agency Unicef says, but the abductions appear to be less frequent four years into a ceasefire. The number of children taken by the Tigers has fallen every year since a 2002 ceasefire halted two decades of civil war, Unicef senior programme co-ordinator Yasmin Ali Haque said, but child recruitment was still continuing at an unacceptable level.

* Six Tamil Tiger rebels have died after blowi