Target Centermass

Author: Gunner

  • England Convicted, Awaiting Sentence

    As if the overly-publicisized photos weren’t enough, there’s finally a guilty verdict to the case of the Abu Ghraib scandal’s poster girl.

    Army Pfc. Lynndie England, whose smiling poses in photos of detainee abuse at Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison made her the face of the scandal, was convicted Monday by a military jury on six of seven counts.

    England, 22, was found guilty of one count of conspiracy, four counts of maltreating detainees and one count of committing an indecent act. She was acquitted on a second conspiracy count.

    The jury of five male Army officers took about two hours to reach its verdict. Her case now moves to the sentencing phase, which will be heard by the same jury beginning Tuesday.

    England tried to plead guilty in May to the same counts she faced this month in exchange for an undisclosed sentencing cap, but a judge threw out the plea deal. She now faces a maximum 10 years in prison.

    I’m glad the smitten-moron defense didn’t carry the day. Now, I hope for the maximum penalty for a woman who did everything she certainly knew was wrong. Granted, she had no clue what the impact on global affairs would be, but she certainly knew the UCMJ and her lawful orders.

  • Update on the Serenity Screening

    In advance of its pending national opening, the movie Serenity has become the subject of an internet experiment. As I mentioned here, the marketers of the movie have invited bloggers to a limited number of screenings. I signed up, as did who the heck knows just how many others.

    The marketers responded, and at least one potential blog-screening participant, Steve H. at Hog on Ice, was chagrined.

    The more I think about it, the more I think I should blow off the bloggers-only screening of the movie Serenity.

    It’s nice to be treated like a professional writer, and to be given a seat at a free showing of a movie. But that isn’t what’s happening here.

    The confirmation email I got from Grace Hill Media says I have to show up 45 minutes before the movie, find a Universal rep, produce the email showing that I’m part of the “Blogger Bonanza,” and see if they want to give me a seat. And I have to do this on a Tuesday night, after driving over 20 miles through rush-hour traffic.

    That’s not how you treat someone you respect. They’re hoping I’ll write a review which will be seen by a few thousand people, hundreds of whom will presumably buy tickets after reading what I write. In other words, they’re hoping I’ll provide a service that will benefit them economically. In return, I’m entitled to a guaranteed seat.

    Certainly, Steve has some valid points here. Nevertheless, as did Rick Blaine, in this case I understand the point of view of both the hound and the fox. In a campaign seeking attention from bloggers, Steve has to be considered one of the big guns, having passed the one million mark for hits on his SiteMeter. Still, the Serenity marketers are treading their way through unexplored territory. Perhaps a scattershot welcoming of the blogosphere is the best way to build a groundswell of publicity, or maybe targeting particular large bloggers is the better route. Who knows?

    As for myself, I’ve once before been to a no-guarantee screening, for a late-’90s movie that I cannot recall (I can only remember being glad I had only stood in line at a co-worker’s urging rather than actually spending money on the drivel). I will comply with the marketing requirements, if only because I’m a sci-fi buff (goodness knows I’ve pimped out Battlestar Galactica enough on this blog). Actually, I’m intrigued by both this marketing concept and this movie. The required synopsis is as follows:

    Joss Whedon, the Oscar® – and Emmy – nominated writer/director responsible for the worldwide television phenomena of BUFFY THE VAMPIRE, ANGEL and FIREFLY, now applies his trademark compassion and wit to a small band of galactic outcasts 500 years in the future in his feature film directorial debut, Serenity. The film centers around Captain Malcolm Reynolds, a hardened veteran (on the losing side) of a galactic civil war, who now ekes out a living pulling off small crimes and transport-for-hire aboard his ship, Serenity. He leads a small, eclectic crew who are the closest thing he has left to family –squabbling, insubordinate and undyingly loyal.

    I have not seen a single episode of Firefly, upon which this movie is based. I will be taking with me to the screening a co-worker who is a fan of the series for feedback from an insider’s perspective. Expect a spoiler-free review here tomorrow or Wednesday. If the blogger screeing is bungled and I don’t catch the flick, expect some vitriol instead.

  • Sheehan: Busted by the Left and the Law

    Regarding Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, the dear Mother Sheehan of the anti-war movement, I recently blogged that she was fighting tooth and nail for a sixteenth minute of fame.

    Meanwhile, my lingering question about Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan is this: Is there some sort of methadone equivalent for limelight addiction?

    I guess I did not know then the extent of her adult attention desire disorder, nor the lengths that Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan would go to in her need to feed on publicity.

    First, Angry in the Great White North catches Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan whining over the weekend at the Daily Kos. Her complaint? Hurricane Rita was getting too much coverage, leaving one to conclude just who Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan felt was robbed by this.

    i am watching cnn and it is 100 percent rita…even though it is a little wind and a little rain…it is bad, but there are other things going on in this country today…and in the world!!!!

    Even for the Kos leftists, this is childishly too far. Angry in the GWN has selected several comments that I wish you would read. Here’s a small taste:

    Give it a rest

    Sorry Cindy, but I must say that the suffering in Texas right now is quite pertinent. In fact, at a time when we have people suffering, left homeless and devastated from “a little wind and a little rain,” I think you can take a break from the camera just for a moment.

    That wasn’t enough to slow Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan, though. After getting appropriately rebuffed by the left, Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan today decided to fight the law.

    A leading anti-Iraq war activist has been arrested outside the White House for what supporters say was as an act of civil disobedience.

    Anti-war protesters ended three days of demonstrations in Washington by congregating at one of the main gates to the White House.

    Police asked them several times to move on, saying they were gathering in a restricted area. When they refused, they were arrested.

    The first to be taken into custody was Cindy Sheehan, the mother of a soldier who was killed in Iraq and a leader of the anti-war campaign. She moved to the public arena last month when she staged a vigil outside the Bush family ranch in Texas, demanding a meeting with the president.

    As her supporters applauded, she was taken away by police and was expected to be released after being processed on minor charges.

    The law won.

    So, too, did Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan. Currently, a Google News search for her name and the word “arrested” returns 1,130 articles and many more related entries. Ahhhh … Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan scored another attention fix at last!

    Still, John Hinderaker at Power Line finds reason to question Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan’s judgement in this little circus of civil disobediance.

    I may be wrong about this, but I don’t think it is wise for Sheehan to go out of her way to cultivate associations between her anti-war protest and similar events in the 1960s. I really don’t think that images of her being carried away by policemen, hobnobbing with Communists, marching with Joan Baez and Jesse Jackson, etc., are helpful to her cause. I think such actions will cause light bulbs to go on in many Americans’ heads as they realize, “Oh, she’s one of those!” [emphasis in original]

    So true, but also true is the concern that the media will fail to convey to the public the radically out-of-the-mainstream nature of Gold Star mom Cindy Sheehan’s statements and associates. Had the media already been willing to objectively do so, Mother Sheehan would have been but a pitied blip on the nation’s radar.

  • D.C. Protests: Associated Press Picks Side

    In straight news reporting, the lede is everything. The opening paragraph should carry the gist of the entire article and answer all of the fundamental questions of who, what, when, where and how. Why is questionable, as it can paint a bias on the story or be immediately undetermined.

    This weekend, the American capital of Washington, D.C. saw back-to-back gatherings of anti-war and pro-troop rallies. The Associated Press’ lede paragraph for today’s rally in support of the U.S. efforts in Iraq is as follows:

    Support for U.S. troops fighting abroad mixed with anger toward anti-war demonstrators at home as hundreds of people, far fewer than organizers had expected, rallied Sunday on the National Mall just a day after a massive protest against the war in Iraq.

    My attention is immediately drawn towards the mention of anger. Actually, my first reaction is that I dare you to diagram that rather poorly written sentence. Past that, I’m taken by the mention of anger in the lede. Why? Well, let’s look at the lede from the AP’s coverage of Saturday’s rally.

    Opponents of the war in Iraq rallied by the thousands Saturday to demand the return of U.S. troops, staging a day of protest, song and remembrance of the dead in marches through Washington and other American and European cities.

    What? Song and remembrance? No anger?

    Well, judging by photoblogging by Michelle Malkin and Davids Medienkritik, I would beg to differ. There seems to have been a great deal of unreported anger at Saturday’s shin dig. Meanwhile, Gateway Pundit followed Saturday’s speeches and seems to have identified a great deal of anger, as well as a great deal of failed leftist talking points.

    So why no mention of anger Saturday while it made the lede Sunday? Well, I’ll leave it to one of the best bloggers out there, Jeff Goldstein, to absolutely rip the puff piece that was Saturday’s “news” story by the A.P. Suffice it to say that the A.P. has happily allowed the slant of their writers to overwhelm their supposed straight news reporting.

    As the Indepundit allows a Marine in Iraq to point out, this weekend was critical for the home front of the war against the radical Islamist movement and our efforts in Iraq.

    Thanks for doing this. The battlefield this weekend will be on the homefront. The only thing that truly concerns me is that the seditionist groups will succeed in causing the American people to lose their will and the enemy will win politically the victory we have denied them militarily.

    Let there be no mistake: we are winning here. Morale is outstanding and we are successfully taking the fight to the enemy. You will see a successful referendum in less than 3 weeks and a successfull election in less than 3 months. I see the positive resuts of our actions everyday. The MSM ignores or denigrates almost every piece of positive news, exaggerates every negative and makes the enemy and his actions out to be more than they are.

    They absolutely cannot defeat us militarily and have no strategic vision except the destruction of all who oppose them. A strategy based on such a negative is doomed to fail, unless we cut and run. That is the enemy’s only chance to win. The biggest threat we face is a determined enemy who will not quit because, like the Vietnamese they see the possibility of victory because of a perceived willingness to quit at home.

    Folks, in the war the Marine describes, the A.P. has long since chosen sides. This weekend, they made it very freakin’ obvious.

  • 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.