Target Centermass

Month: September 2005

  • Gaza Erupts as 40 Rockets Hit Israel

    Well, so much for belief that Israeli withdrawal from Gaza would immediately lead to a greater peace in the region as Palestinian terrorists launched a slew of missiles into Israel. I should note, of course, that I would seriously question anyone foolish enough to have ever harbored such hopes.

    Barely two weeks after Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip, the area erupted into violence over the weekend as Islamic militias launched 40 missiles into Israel, which responded by resuming assassinations, as the two sides sought to set new ground rules in the wake of the pullout.

    Four alleged Hamas operatives were killed on Saturday when helicopters fired missiles at two cars in the northern part of the Gaza Strip, the area from which missiles aimed at the Israeli town of Sderot had been launched. In this and other Israeli air attacks against weapons facilities and other Hamas targets, 17 Palestinians, most of them civilians, were wounded. Six Israeli civilians were lightly wounded in the Palestinian attacks.

    For the first time, Israel moved artillery into position at the edge of the Gaza Strip and warned that it would use it if necessary.

    “We are undertaking a continuing series of attacks on Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” said Israeli General Yisrael Ziv. “Our time framework is open-ended.”

    […]

    The weekend flare-up was triggered by two incidents, one on the West Bank and one in Gaza.

    The first took place before dawn on Friday, local time, when Israeli security forces killed three alleged Islamic Jihad operatives near the West Bank town of Tulkarm. Israeli officials said the three had organised several suicide bombings and were drawing up plans to make rockets to be fired from the West Bank at Israel’s heartland. The officials said the three, after being surrounded, had started the exchange of fire that killed them.

    Hours later, three Palestinian-made Kassem rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip by Islamic Jihad into Israel in retaliation for the Tulkarm killings. There were no casualties.

    In the second incident, on Friday evening, an explosion occurred during a military parade staged by Hamas in the Jabaliya refugee camp celebrating the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza after 38 years. Fifteen people were killed and 80 wounded in the blast. Hamas accused Israel of being behind the explosion and unleashed dozens of rockets at Sderot and other Israeli targets.

    Israel denied involvement and, surprisingly, was supported by the Palestinian Authority. “The explosion occurred when a Hamas vehicle loaded with locally made rockets blew up during the rally,” said the authority’s Interior Ministry spokesman, Tawkif Abu Khoussa. He noted that a similar explosion during a Hamas rally last month had killed five onlookers. “We urge our brothers in Hamas to assume their responsibilities instead of levelling charges against others,” Mr Khoussa said.

    Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah movement issued a statement condemning Hamas for staging paramilitary rallies in residential areas. “This rally was held despite our warnings to refrain from displaying and storing weapons in residential areas,” he said. “The Fatah Central Committee holds Hamas fully responsible for the deaths.”

    My problem with the unilateral Israeli withdrawal from an unstable Gaza was that it inevitably would be trumpeted as a triumph by the terrorists. Never an inch given without an inch deserved. Perhaps there is a silver lining to the maneuver, however, as a shift in Israeli strategy would seem to indicate.

    In this first military confrontation with Palestinian militants since the pullout, Israel is intent on establishing new rules of combat that will permit it greater freedom of action against the Palestinians than it allowed itself when it was an occupying power. Officials have warned that there would be “zero tolerance” after the withdrawal and that Israel would regard an attack upon it from Gaza as an attack on its sovereignty by a foreign entity.

    Israel also wants to undo the attempt by Palestinian militants to create a deterrent balance, by which Israeli activity against militants in the West Bank will be met by retaliatory fire from the Gaza Strip, as occurred on Friday with Islamic Jihad. By employing wide-ranging strikes against militant targets Israel hopes to discourage such linkage.

    Ah, at least the battlefield has lines that are far more clearly drawn now than during the age of the settlements and occupation. Though there is still a great political need for restraint and judicious use of force, the Israelis once again have a defined an area where they can go “weapons free” as needed.

  • Sen. Clinton Opposes Museum at WTC Site

    Shrewd. Very shrewd.

    Sen. Hillary Clinton is opposing a freedom museum planned for ground zero, citing concerns raised by the families of the World Trade Center victims who say the proposed museum would dishonor the dead.

    The International Freedom Center last week released a report saying the museum “will tangibly link Sept. 11 and the lives of its victims to humanity’s greatest idea: freedom.”

    In addition to the terrorist attacks, its exhibits would deal with events such as the fall of the Berlin Wall, efforts such as the Civil Rights Movement, and documents such as the Declaration of Independence and the South African constitution.

    But relatives of some of the Sept. 11 victims say it would over shadow a memorial museum and dishonor the 2,749 people who died there by fostering debate about the attacks.

    “I am troubled by the serious concerns that family members and first responders have expressed to me,” Clinton said Friday. “I cannot support the IFC.”

    Clinton said she does not think plans should move forward until the rebuilding agency, Lower Manhattan Development Corp., addresses the families’ concerns.

    While I agree with Sen. Clinton in this regard, I have serious doubts that we reached the same position for the same reasons.

    More on the IFC and the families’ campaign can be found at their site, Take Back the Memorial.

  • Quote of the Week, 25 SEP 05

    Good generals, unlike poets, are made rather than born, and will never reach the first rank without much study of their profession; but they must have certain natural gifts, the power of quick decision, judgment, boldness, and, I am afraid, a considerable degree of toughness, almost callousness, which is harder to find as civilization progresses.

    —Field Marshal Lord Arthur Wavell

  • Nothing Tonight

    I’ll hopefully be back at it tomorrow.

    Good night, y’all.

  • Hey, Sci-Fi Bloggers

    Want to see Serenity early? Here’s your chance, with a hat tip to the Blogfather. I’m currently down as being on the press list for the early Dallas screening. I’ll believe it when I get there.

  • A Music Meme

    Yikes! Phil, finally returned to blogging after a brief hiatus from his blog Shades of Gray (Umbrae Canarum), has tagged me with a meme.

    The meme involves the following:

    1. Total volume of music
    2. Last CD I bought
    3. Song playing right now, or last song played
    4. Five songs I listen to a lot or that mean a lot to me

    Quick. Simple. Easy.

    1. Total Volume of Music
    About 500 MB of MP3s and roughly 175 CDs. I just haven’t transitioned to the MP3 fixation yet. The actual number of CDs is tough, since I’m guessing at what’s scattered around my cubicle or over at the fiancee’s house.

    2. Last CD I Bought
    Probably either Run-DMC’s Greatest Hits or the Team America: World Police soundtrack or some Scottish folk music.

    3. Last Song Played
    “Calling You,” from Blue October’s History for Sale.

    4. Five Songs That Mean a Lot to Me
    Now’s where the meme gets tough.

    Well, let’s start with two for the fiancee.

    1) “Let Me Go,” by Cake, from Prolonging the Magic. In no lasting way do the specific lyrics of this song remind me of the fiancee. It’s really just the concept of a girl saying stay away and I’ll want you. The fiancee and I, at one time, worked for the same company. I kind of pursued her and somehow, after much no-thank-you-but-well-maybe behaviour on her part, began dating her. I had already decided to leave my job, and right after we actually began dating, a company flew me to Denver for an interview. The sweet hotel they put me up in had a Cake sample CD and the song just reminded me of our relationship to date. I played it for her and it’s stuck.

    2) “Calling You,” by Blue October, from History for Sale. This is a good love/rock song for any couple. Especially for a couple that has to persevere separation.

    Now, two from the undergrad days at Texas A&M.

    3) “The Aggie War Hymn,” by the Fighting Texas Aggie Band. My CD version is from Recall! Step-off on Hullabaloo! Gig’em, Aggies.

    4) “You Never Even Call Me by My Name,” by David Allen Coe, which I have on his 17 Greatest Hits CD. Ah, Northgate. You’ve changed a lot, but the Dixie Chicken and Dudley’s Draw are still the same.

    Now, my favorite from my senior year of high school, a song that has resonated with me for Lo! These many years.

    5) “Kayleigh,” by Marillion, from Misplaced Childhood. I tend to love songs for their lyrics, and the imagery in this one is amazing. I actually recommend the entire album, a concept piece about a relationship gone wrong, a night of contemplation and a dawn of new reckoning. Besides, after all these years of grooving on the song, I’m pushing, so far successfully, for the beautiful name Kayleigh as a name for a possible daughter.

    What the hell, Phil cheated and listed six. Besides, what’s a song list without Frank?

    6) “Summer Wind,” currently my favorite Sinatra, from the highly recommended The Very Best of Frank Sinatra (which tragically lacks “The Lady is a Tramp”). I waited too long in coming to appreciate the man’s work. A late-blossoming affection for vodka martinis helped. Frank and a martini glass just mesh beautifully — it’s like the universe shifts into proper alignment.

    I’ll tag no one, as I tend to tag the same folks again and again. However, anybody is welcome to participate in the meme.

  • Non-Rita Quick Hits

    Defense says Lynndie England easily influenced by lover

    Army Pfc. Lynndie England’s attorneys, marshaling their defense for the first time Wednesday, laid blame for her participation in the Abu Ghraib prison scandal on her blind love for and trust of soldier Charles Graner Jr., whom the Army put in charge of part of the dangerous Iraqi facility.

    England, who attended special-education classes for much of her childhood, has learned to rely on strong authority figures, her lead attorney said, and that left her vulnerable to Graner in Abu Ghraib, where their unit took dozens of photos and videos of naked prisoners in humiliating positions in late 2003. Graner has already been convicted.

    “He’s older than I am. He’s been around. He’s experienced,” her attorney, Capt. Jonathan Crisp, said of England’s feelings. “He’s a corrections officer in the civilian world. He must know what’s going on. I love him; he loves me. Everybody looks up to him.”

    England, 22, a reservist from West Virginia, stands accused of two counts of conspiracy, four counts of mistreatment of prisoners and one count of indecent acts in connection with the photos. If convicted of all counts, she could face an 11-year prison sentence.

    I doubt strongly that this defense will stand up, as England, like every soldier, was well versed in the Universal Code of Military Justice. Peer pressure or love or stupidity ain’t an out. The poster child for the anti-war left’s (read New York Time’s) Abu Ghraib campaign has to pay her due.

    Pelosi willing to give up S.F. funds for recovery

    House Minority Leader Rep. Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco said Tuesday she was willing to return to the federal Treasury $70 million designated for San Francisco projects in the new highway and transportation bill and use the money to help pay for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts.

    Well, obviously that portion of federal spending was expendable. If only we could find some other places to cut spending.

    Sheehan’s Anti-War Campaign Now in D.C.

    Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan pledged Wednesday to “force change to happen” during protest speeches outside the White House and Capitol.

    Sheehan arrived in Washington after a three-week cross-country bus tour that began near President Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas. She is expected to participate in an anti-Iraq war rally Saturday that organizers hope could draw tens of thousands of people.

    Sheehan, whose 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed last year in Iraq, wants Bush to explain why he sent the United States to war and say what steps he will take to end the conflict.

    “This is where we will force change to happen because we the people of America are the checks and balances on this government,” she said. “And we will end this war.”

    […]

    Sheehan’s one-woman protest in Texas this August re-energized the anti-war movement as well as supporters of the U.S.-led invasion and of American troops serving in Iraq. Rallies in opposition to the anti-war protesters also are set for this weekend in the capital.

    I’ve already given my thoughts on Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan. I’ll leave it to Confederate Yankee to nail what is missing from WaPo’s story:

    The AP, Washington Post, and other news sources gleefully mentioned Cindy Sheehan’s march on the White House this afternoon. With the exception of Reuters, however, they were all more than willing to forego this little tidbit of information:

    “Mrs Sheehan was joined by about 30 supporters in her march down Pennsylvania Avenue to deliver a letter to Bush urging him to pull the troops out of Iraq.”

    That’s all, folks. I count 29 people. This is her entire protest party. Including Cindy.

    Hamas chief hints at compromise

    THE militant Islamic group Hamas could one day accept the existence of the state of Israel and negotiate, one of its political leaders said yesterday in an unprecedented sign of compromise.

    For years, Hamas has criticised the ruling Fatah movement of the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, for allegedly selling out claims to all of historic Palestine by recognising Israel and confining the Palestinian struggle to the West Bank and Gaza Strip areas occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

    But Mohammed Ghazal, a respected figure within the movement from the West Bank city of Nablus, said yesterday: “The [Hamas] charter is not the Koran.

    “Historically, we believe all of Palestine belongs to the Palestinians, but we’re talking now about reality, about political solutions. The realities are different.”

    Hamas is about to join the Palestinian Authority’s political system by participating in January’s legislative elections.

    Analysts differed over whether Mr Ghazal’s comments suggested Hamas might take a more moderate approach.

    The movement has made it clear it will not disarm its military wing, responsible for dozens of suicide bombings against civilian and military targets, even after the election.

    Mr Ghazal’s remarks were described as “unusual” and “a new language” by Ziyad Abu Amr, a Palestinian MP who is also an expert on the movement. But they elicited cool reactions from other leading figures within Hamas and from Israel.

    The new language is a reaction to a possible line in the sand by Israel about Hamas’ role in upcoming PA elections. Israel, which has already willingly and unilaterally withdrawn from the Gaza Strip, has certainly earned a little cooperation from the Palestinian side, though I have no faith in Hamas actually making any serious steps toward a mutually beneficial future. I expect this development to be little more than a reactive twitch on the face of a terrorist organization that once claimed it was politically ready to rule Palestine but currently sees the Palestinians as ungovernable.

  • Rita Grows into Monster Cat 5 Hurricane

    Well, this certainly isn’t good news for my hometown of Angleton, Texas.

    Gaining strength with frightening speed, Hurricane Rita swirled toward the Gulf Coast a Category 5, 175-mph monster today as more than 1.3 million people in Texas and Louisiana were sent packing on orders from authorities who learned a bitter lesson from Katrina.

    “It’s scary. It’s really scary,” Shalonda Dunn said as she and her 5- and 9-year-old daughters waited to board a bus arranged by emergency authorities in Galveston. “I’m glad we’ve got the opportunity to leave. … You never know what can happen.”

    With Rita projected to hit Texas by Saturday, Gov. Rick Perry urged residents along the state’s entire coast to begin evacuating. And New Orleans braced for the possibility that the storm could swamp the misery-stricken city all over again.

    Galveston, low-lying parts of Corpus Christi and Houston, and mostly emptied-out New Orleans were under mandatory evacuation orders as Rita sideswiped the Florida Keys and began drawing energy with terrifying efficiency from the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Between 2 a.m. and 10 p.m., it went from a 115-mph Category 2 to a 175-mph Category 5.

    Forecasters said Rita could be the most intense hurricane on record ever to hit Texas, and easily one of the most powerful ever to plow into the U.S. mainland. Category 5 is the highest on the scale, and only three Category 5 hurricanes are known to have hit the U.S. mainland — most recently, Andrew, which smashed South Florida in 1992.

    Government officials eager to show they had learned their lessons from the sluggish response to Katrina sent in hundreds of buses to evacuate the poor, moved out hospital and nursing home patients, dispatched truckloads of water, ice and ready-made meals, and put rescue and medical teams on standby. An Army general in Texas was told to be ready to assume control of a military task force in Rita’s wake.

    “We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we got to be ready for the worst,” President Bush said in Washington.

    By this evening, Rita was centered about 575 miles east-southeast of Galveston and about 670 miles east-southeast of Corpus Christi. Forecasters predicted it would come ashore along the central Texas coast between Galveston and Corpus Christi.

    I’ve just found out that Angleton is under mandatory evacuation.

    Angleton Mayor Matt Sebesta has ordered a mandatory evacuation for the city at 6 p.m. Wednesday.

    “People need to be out of town no later than noon Thursday,” Sebesta said.

    Angleton Police Lt. Mike Jones, the city’s emergency management coordinator, said people do not need to wait until the evacuation goes into effect. County officials said trailers will not be restricted on evacuation routes.

    Hey, Russ, Hollis, et al., head my way if you need digs to ride out the storm. The fiancee and I have you covered. Sure, we’re expected to get some major wind and rain in north Dallas on Saturday night, but I just bought season one of Battlestar Galactica. We’ll make the best of it. And, after all, as Phil points out at Shades of Gray, hotel space is already problematic for much of Texas thanks to Katrina.

  • Rita Forces Texas A&M to Move Game

    Hurricane Rita is still in the Gulf of Mexico and already its effects are being felt at my alma mater.

    Texas A&M has moved Saturday’s football game with Texas State to tomorrow night at Kyle Field.

    Fox Sports Net will televise the game.

    A&M President Robert Gates says fans not living in the College Station area should not try to attend the game — because no hotels will be available.

    A number of hurricane evacuees are expected to be staying in the area.

    Ah, but this certainly brings to mind memories of the “Hurricane Bowl” in 1988 during my undergrad days. I still believe Bama was scared of a team that was about to rebound from a rough start.

  • Hurricane Rita and my Hometown

    Run away!

    ANGLETON — Texas’ first mandatory hurricane evacuation goes into effect at 6 p.m. today as officials urge residents to get out of the path of Hurricane Rita.

    Brazoria County Judge John Willy called for the evacuation Tuesday afternoon after a series of conference calls with state emergency management officials and meetings with local officials. By 5 p.m. Tuesday, the county had plans to evacuate people without their own transportation, schools planned to close for the rest of the week and the emergency operations center opened.

    As of 5 p.m., the National Hurricane Center projected Rita to make landfall late Friday night or early Saturday morning in Matagorda County as at least a Category 3. That would put Brazoria County on the “dirty” side of the storm, as the counterclockwise rotation sucks moisture up from the Gulf of Mexico, dropping it on Brazoria County. Willy is holding out hope the county’s preparations will be in vain and the storm will dodge the county.

    “If it does miss us, we can all smile,” Willy said. “If it doesn’t, we’re in good shape.”

    A mandatory evacuation for health-care facilities, including nursing homes, hospices and hospitals, goes into effect at 6 a.m. today.

    “None of us have been through anything like this,” said Rick Perry, the county’s emergency management coordinator. “I think we’ve got a good plan in place.”

    Here’s hoping for the best for dear ol’ Angleton and the surrounding communities.

    A map with suggested evacuation routes can be found here, courtesy the Houston Chronicle.