Tidyin’ Up The Place

We’re expectin’ company, y’all. So we’re doing a little housekeeping.

Our site is optimized for Mozilla Firefox, and is not fully functional in the ever-incompatible Internet Explorer. Unfortunately, our stats show that 60% of our visitors still use the error-prone IE, for some inexplicable reason. Which means they are only seeing 2/3 of the site in IE. That’s not so good. So, to cater to our readers still wallowing in IE, we are overhauling the code, cleaning out our blogrolls, and moving the furniture around. Or at least doing our best to untangle IE without Kit losing her mind.

So bear with us through the fixes - but we’ll be nice and shiny soon, and ready for our honored guests. Not that y’all aren’t special - you are! But we’re partial to men in uniform, as you well know - and the 75th Rangers aren’t just any men in uniform!

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Trollhunter General

Memo from the Trollhunter General via Rottweiler: you’ll be surprised at how little you know about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Better find out how atrociously ignorant you are before posting an idiot comment here.

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DROP ZONE Open Post: Samuel Alito Is Next

Bush nominated solid conservative Samuel Alito as next up to the chopping block, as Kit terms it. Early indications are that the conservative right will be rallying behind him, and are gearing up for a fight. Malkin has an early round up - extraordinarily early considering Bush hasn’t made the announcement yet and won’t until 0800.

I have bigger fish to fry today and won’t have a chance (or the inclination, quite honestly) to blog ferociously on this as I know much of the blogosphere will.

If you’ve written up your opinion on the new SCOTUS nominee, drop a link to your post here. Your link will show up as an inline trackback on our front page for TTLB ecosphere credit.

Trackback URL: http://euphoricreality.com/journal/2005/10/31/1208/trackback/

Linked to NIF and In the Bullpen (twice).

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The Harriet Miers Fiasco: A Cross-Blog Debate

Brian Scott over at The Blue State Conservatives has asked me to join in a little cross-blogging friendly debate over the Harriet Miers fiasco. It’s 4 am, but I just finished taking care of the gift sent to me by some psychotic f-tards. Brian wrote a post based on my article entitled Who’s Next On the Chopping Block?, and he raises the basic premise that while some conservatives may have made inappropriate remarks, the overall reaction was necessary, well-founded, and not over the line. I disagree.

The initial reports, on the day of her nomination, already had her pegged as a “crony”. In fact, the first time I heard her name mentioned, it was at a large conservative blog that lambasted the President’s choice, calling her “yet another Bush crony” and casting doubt on the idea that Bush even has the intelligence level required to tie his own shoes, let alone pick a good nominee. Let’s ignore the fact that our new Chief Justice is going to be, in a word, excellent, and he was a Bush pick too. How quickly we forget.

So what’s the big deal? It’s our right to complain, to hold accountable, to force the hand of our elected Congress, right? Absolutely. Except in this case, we never even gave them a chance to do their job. We never let it even go to a vote, and Miers never had a chance. We, the ones who scream about filibusters and the insanity of blocking nominations and refusing to let them go to a vote. We handed the Dems a victory with this one. We showed a double standard.

And what does this mean for future nominees? Hugh Hewitt puts it bluntly and perfectly:

The next nominee — even one who is a superb scholar and sitting judge who recently underwent Senate confirmation like Michael McConnell of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, or a long-serving superstar like Michael Luttig of the Fourth Circuit — will face an instant and savage assault. After all, it “worked” with Miers.

A claim of “special circumstances” justifying a filibuster will also be forthcoming. And will other nominees simply pass on the opportunity to walk out in the middle of a crossfire?

Not every candidate is a Roberts, who dealt with the entire coal-raking process with grace, maturity, and class. Regardless of someone’s qualifications, maturity or level of experience on the bench, any future nominee knows without a doubt that he will probably be subjected to an attack of the highest order - not just from the moonbat idiots, but from the President’s own party. From his own supporters. There would be some conservatives with the mindset that “if you want to be on the Court, you should be willing to put up with the process, whatever that entails.” Oh, really? Interestingly enough, some of these same conservatives were loudly proclaiming that Roberts didn’t deserve the hand he was dealt by Democrats. So, which is it? Is it only bad when “they” do it?

I want to see a conservative justice nominated as badly as anyone. In my mind, the more conservative, the better. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to personally launch a campaign to discredit a nominee who I don’t think is “conservative enough”.

Brian makes the claim that “I don’t see that kind of attack coming from anyone in our camp.” However, there were many of the same things we’d expect to see from moonbats in heat. We had “anonymous sources” leaking left and right, we had conjecture and supposition; hell, we even had the “every five minutes a new headline” phenomenon going on. Ann Coulter, who I have a great deal of respect for, flat out said Miers was not intelligent enough.

I agree that the point of political blogs is two-fold: To inform, and to give the average citizen a voice. The idea of blogging is supremely American in nature. We love to use our freedoms to tell everyone what we think. For me, political debate is not only informative, it’s pure fun. That being said, I believe wholeheartedly that with that freedom comes responsibility. We have a duty to perform in the sense that we need to act maturely when it comes to situations where our actions influence the future.

Let’s look at the facts. We didn’t like Miers as a Supreme Court nominee, and we bitched and moaned until we got our way and she withdrew - with, might I add, a great deal more class than many conservatives showed during the whole ordeal. So what did we learn from all this? The exact same thing Democrats learned during their last filibuster. If you bitch loud enough and long enough, eventually someone will give in.

In the wake of everything, hindsight tells us that she really wasn’t the best choice. Many conservatives think that excuses their conduct. “Thank God we threw a fit,” they’re saying. “I’m glad we didn’t let up on that one.” The thing is, just because she wasn’t qualified doesn’t give us the right to act as we did. If Bush nominated Janice Rogers Brown next, how can we call the Dems out for the attack we know is coming against her?

It almost reminds me of a line from The Runaway Jury: “Trials are too important to be left in the hands of a jury.” Is the same premise true for Supreme Court nominees? Is the process too important to be left in the hands of the people we chose to lead us? If we have so little faith in the Republican Congress that we can’t even let them have the chance to vote ‘no’, why did we elect them in the first place? I’m all for standing up and making your voice heard, but in this case, I think simply pressuring our Congress to vote her nomination down would have been the better course of action. The process is there for a reason.

Does the end justify the means? I don’t believe it does. What it all comes down to is situational ethics. It’s okay when we do it, but not okay when they do it.

Sorry, I’m raising the bullshit flag.

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Attacked by Lesser Mortals

My computer sustained a nice little attack tonight. I got doubleteamed by a backdoor and a worm that only seemed to want to attach itself to certain emails dealing with the Brother Against Brother series. I’ll leave it to you readers to speculate about that one. It was an interesting night and it took a bit of work, but as of 0405 I’ve got it taken care of. To the readers who were wondering where the bloody blankety-blank their new reading material was, blame the above turds. We’re good to go now.

To the scum that apparently has nothing better to do than attack people’s computers: Nice try, but no cigar. I had backups. Thanks for playing, though. Go get a freaking life, you pieces of dog shit.

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Guard the Borders Blogburst

As of tomorrow, we are less secure. As of tomorrow, our national security is once again left solely in the incapable hands of our federal government. Do you know why? Because as of tomorrow, the Minutemen border watch concludes for the month of October. And once again, illegal aliens will be free to pour across our borders with little but an understaffed, overworked, hamstrung Border Patrol to stem the tide.

I, for one, thank the Minutemen for their vigilance.

In their honor, for this week’s Guard the Borders Blogburst I present a speech from Minuteman Tim Donnelly (reproduced with permission) that was delivered on Oct 1st, 2005 in the O’Neill Valley on the border:

Who are the Minutemen?

By Minuteman Tim Donnelly

Who are the Minutemen? That was the burning question in my mind as I drove down for opening day in Tombstone this past April 1st – and that same thought is with me today.

If you read the papers this past April, they got it wrong when they claimed we are:

Middle aged…

Balding…

Overweight…

White…

Racist…

Vigilantes.

And that was just one newspaper.

Let’s not forget what other newspapers have added to the mix:

Wild-eyed, armed ‘migrant’ hunters.

I have never seen such a lack of curiosity among those paid to be curious. I wish just once they would tell the world who we really are with the same sympathy they use in covering those who support illegal immigration.

Minutemen:

You have answered the call of your nation. You have shown courage and commitment and gone where others fear to tread.

You understand that while our elected government has failed us, our form of government has not – we are a self-governing people. You can see today that many who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution have failed not only this generation, but they have failed those brave few who 230 years ago pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor in defense of an idea:

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

There are those who claim that WE seek to deny these same rights to those who illegally cross our borders. Nothing could be further from the truth. Men of great courage in America in the not so distant past rejected the notion that any man could be less than equal – yet what those who OPPOSE us are really saying it is okay to have a sub-class of people with no legal status, second-class non-citizens, who can never hope to be more than indentured servants to the slavers who bring them here.

We Minutemen are not content with a solution that rewards those who capitalize on the misery of others. But the status quo is good enough for the so-called “human rights activists” who are not offended when people are treated no better than chattel.

When Minutemen stand against the open borders coalition, we stand against systematic rape, abuse and exploitation of our fellow human beings. We bring water and food to those who are dying in the desert. We did not invite them, others did; but we will not abandon them to die as their enslavers do.

The status quo is 455 deaths this year, up from over 330 last year. Some say that is just the cost of doing business, as they count their profits. I say if we think that is acceptable in the United States of America in 2005, then we have failed not only our Founding Fathers, but we have failed all of mankind.

They say we are spreading a message of hate. If you read on in the Declaration of Independence, it says:

“That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”

The idea that governments are answerable to the people seems to me to be a message of hope, not hate.

Just as the French lent us the ideas that eventually became the founding principles of this Republic, so should we lend our voices and our ideas to our neighbors to the south that they could throw off their own shackles of tyranny. We could start by sending them a copy of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

President Bush earlier this year went on national TV and called the Minutemen ‘vigilantes’ just before I left for Tombstone. If you take the “e” off vigilante, what do you have? Vigilant. And isn’t “vigilant” what the President asked us to be after 9/11? We are answering the President’s call.

Article 4, Section 4 of the Constitution says this:

“The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion…”

Wouldn’t it be great if the President executed his duty so well that Vicente Fox called HIM a vigilante?

On April 19th, 1775, Minutemen rallied against “Taxation without Representation” and rejected the tyranny of foreign rule. On April 1st 2005, Minutemen again rallied against “Taxation without Representation” and we stand here today in defense of self-governance. We stand for liberty and justice for ALL, not just those who can afford a Congressman.

We are not here to deny anyone the American dream, but what the Tories of our day are selling is not a dream, American or otherwise. It is a mirage. It is a fraud. If America were to open her doors to ALL who would wish to come here, the world would tilt on its axis and the American dream would be lost for EVERYONE.

In the sea of exploited humanity that moves across our open borders every day in pursuit of a false promise, all sorts of ugly things can and do hide. Terrorists who wish to convert by tyranny all who oppose their warped and radical version of Islam are free today to walk across the border unchecked with chemical, biological and even nuclear materials. This is an unacceptable level of national security risk in a post-9/11 world.

In 2005 what we need is “a nation of Minutemen, citizens who are not only prepared to take arms, but citizens who regard the preservation of freedom as the basic purpose of their daily life,” as John F. Kennedy stated. I think President Kennedy would be proud to see all the Minutemen standing here on this line today and on lines all across this great nation.

We are a nation of Minutemen. We just need to wake up the other 299 million of us who have forgotten. Let the call arise and resound until the alert is heard in Washington:

“The Minutemen are coming! The Minutemen are coming!”

Let it begin here today.

As men and women of a proud Minuteman tradition, let us ponder what may have happened if those few had not stood against tyranny in the colonial America. This nation, conceived in liberty, would not stand as it does today – a beacon to the world and the last best hope for human freedom and liberty on Earth. Consider what the world would look like now, and what would even have been the result of two World Wars – or even if there would have been only two.

There will always be those who do nothing, as there were during those days a few Americans struck a mortal blow against tyranny on our shores. Yet we as Americans must remember, as Edmund Burke once said, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”

I say to my fellow Minutemen here today that if America is to fall prey to terrorists and those who would undermine her sovereignty: LET IT NOT BE ON OUR WATCH!

_________________________________________________________

This has been a production of the Guard the Borders Blogburst. It was started by Euphoric Reality, and serves to keep immigration issues in the forefront of our minds as we’re going about our daily lives and continuing to fight the war on terror. If you are concerned with the trend of illegal immigration facing our country, join our blogburst! Just send an email with your blog name and url to kit.jarrell at gmail dot com.

Blogs already on board:

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The Fun Never Ends

Everyone’s favorite troll is back. Ever since we wrote Brother Against Brother, we’ve been dealing with Don Hall and his wife Annette. Faithful readers will remember the attempts at intimidation, threats of legal action, harrassing phone calls (never published on the blog until now) and various other actions designed to make us rue the day we ever decided to tell the truth and expose his libelous, psychotic fixation on Gary Linderer and the men of F Company, 58th Infantry. They are so completely obsessed with us at this point that they’ve even made a website just to talk about us, calling the whole affair “BloggerGate” as if the entire wretched and retarded drama is even big enough to be a “-gate” anything. For our part, Heidi and I just let it go. We did our research, wrote the truth, and exposed a pair of malicious liars. End of story.

It’s been quiet for a few weeks, and I had started to wonder if perhaps they had crawled back under their rock to stay. Unfortunately, not only are they still wasting oxygen, but they’ve reared their ugly head again. This time they’ve outdone themselves.

As many of you know, I am a member of the Media Bloggers Association. Hall made a telephone call to Robert Cox, the President of the MBA to say that he wanted to file a complaint against the unethical actions of one of its members.

One can only speculate as to the horrors that lay in store for us all, since Hall apparently bored even the voicemail to death - it cut ff after a few moments. We’ll keep you posted when we get more info. We know you’re all waiting with bated breath. Or something.

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ER Goes Mobile!

In an effort to make it easier for you to get your Euphoric Reality fix force you to read us no matter where you are, ER is now available on your mobile phone courtesy of Alex King’s plugin. Just go to http://euphoricreality.com/wp-mobile.php, and you’ll get a “lite” version of the site that’s easy to navigate. You can even comment on articles right from your phone. To see a preview, click here.

It’s been tested on a Samsung x495, but if you have problems accessing it let me know.

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Naked Kit

Ha! Caught you again. No, I’m not naked - it’s just my turn for Basil’s hotseat. Check out the interview here. I answer such burning questions as “What’s a jarkolicious and how do I get one?” Actually, they had a lot better questions than that, but that one still amused me.

PS: Basil…favorite smell? What were you thinking? ;) I contemplated saying “nasty farts” just to be contrary. Aren’t you glad I was raised better?

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Drop Zone - OPEN POST

It’s Saturday and I’ve got study groups to attend, so here’s a Drop Zone for y’all to gnaw on until I get back.

Daisy Cutter has a great post up about political prosecution.

Michael Yon has new stuff up, and I gotta say - he’s the top must-read for news from Iraq. Can’t say enough good things about him. I’ve had the pleasure of exchanging emails with him a few times, and he’s just a class act all around. He’s back with CSM Mellinger for the time being, so check out his blog and read the new happenings.

Andi was at Walter Reed last night when Cindy Sheehag came through. Stay tuned for her full report with photos.

Bill Roggio of the Fourth Rail blog is going to Iraq on an invitation from the Marines. I’m jealous, sincerely. What an opportunity. Stop by his blog and wish him well - and don’t forget to drop a few bucks in his Paypal.

Last but not least (yes, this is a short one but I’m late for studying), we bring you The Lean. It’s a fantastic satire and political humor site that came recommended by Emperor Misha. Considering he’s one of the funniest people I’ve ever read, I took his recommendation to heart. The Lean is great stuff. Check it out.

So begins the fun! Leave a trackback.

Linked at Mudville

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Patrolling Magazine Mentions Euphoric Reality

Heidi and I were mentioned in the latest issue of Patrolling magazine, the official publication of the 75th Ranger Regiment Association. Patrolling named our site and encouraged its readers to check out our series Brother Against Brother, about the LRP/Rangers of F Company, 58th Infantry in I Corps, Vietnam. It was an unexpected thing to open my copy of the magazine and come across our names, but it’s definitely made us really excited. Writing that series brought into our lives some of the most incredible men we have ever known, and it was a real pleasure to write their story.

Welcome to all 75th Ranger Regiment members. We are truly honored to have you on our site. Thank you for your service and your continued dedication to our freedoms.

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Three Wishes

If you didn’t catch the Three Wishes episode tonight with Amy Grant, find a way to get your hands on it. It was a tribute to a returning Marine battalion that suffered heavy losses in Iraq. It was more than a tear-jerker, it truly honored the sacrifice of the families who had endured a year of uncertainty and fear - and the ultimate sacrifice of some.

Normally, a show like this wouldn’t cross my radar, so I had no plans to watch it until Kit recommended it here on the blog. Then I thought I’d better do my homework. Before I watched it, I thought it would be a typically maudlin, insincere Hollywood attempt at “supporting the troops”. It was not that - it was so much more. I’m not a sentimental gal at all, and some think I’m a real hard ass - but when it comes to our troops, I’m a downright cry-baby. If that episode doesn’t make your heart burst with pride in the American soldier, then you need to start paying dues over at Daily Kos.

Watching Three Wishes you will catch a glimpse of what it means to be a U.S. Marine. Notice the pride and discipline with which they exit the plane and stride across the tarmac. You’ll see before pictures of the striplings who left for Iraq, and you’ll hardly recognize the square-jawed men who return in their place. Notice their hands. And then finally, you’ll see hardened soldiers tenderly fill their arms with newborn babies for the first time, and mothers wrap their arms around burly men that used to be their little boys.

It was…good.

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What the…?!

HUH?

H/T: Wizbang’s got a caption contest going on for this one.

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Who’s Next On the Chopping Block?

In the wake of Miers withdrawing her name from consideration for the Supreme Court, everyone and their mother is throwing their opinion in the ring. That’s what blogs do, of course, and so it should come as no real surprise. That being said, I think a lot of the blogs on the conservative side have stepped over a line.

There is nothing that says we should always and without fail agree with every single thing our President does. No conservative with a brain will tell you that you have no right to complain, to question, to hold accountable. We must do these things. Our continued freedom depends not only on military defense, but on our willingness to stand up as a people and literally steer our nation in the way that it needs to be in order to stay free and safe.

What’s disturbed me the most about this whole thing isn’t that Miers wasn’t qualified. It isn’t that she was nominated. It isn’t even that she may not have been as conservative as we wanted. What bothered me was the speed with which conservatives turned into liberals. Now I don’t mean we all suddently wanted extra gay rights and abortion on demand. I mean that so many conservatives turned into sniping, nasty, divisive little brats. The Democrats didn’t even need to defeat Miers. We did that ourselves. Theories abounded about why she was picked, who said what, who might have said something to this guy over there who heard it from his mom who works in the office down the street. A few blogs sounded like Democratic Underground on speed. Even the Kool-aid comments were flying. Everyone was drinking Kool-aid; just ask anyone who disagreed with them.

Should Miers have been there? Who knows? Maybe not, but aren’t we the ones constantly pointing out the ways the Democrats eat their own? Aren’t we the ones that consider ourselves the mature ones, the examples, the adults? Throughout this situation, we have been no better.

Before we all rush out to our blogs and start campaigning for our choice as next nominee, I encourage everyone to just sit back a moment and really think about how we’ll handle the next nominee. Disagreeing is great - it’s our right and we must guard it with our lives. But disagreeing doesn’t mean crucifying.

Bloggers have fought and continue to fight for respect and credibility from elected officials and the general public. Acting like a bunch of liberals who just got told to get off welfare is something we should be above. Whoever the President chooses, we owe it to ourselves and to our country to act firmly but responsibly, resolutely but maturely. Too many of us forgot that in the last few weeks.

Just my two cents.

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Gray-Haired Warriors: Vietnam Veterans in Iraq

The VFW has a feature article about Vietnam veterans currently serving in Iraq. Here are some excerpts:

Brigade tactical operations officer CWO 5 Don Clayton explained, “Our tactics were similar to Vietnam. Just like Vietnam, you couldn’t tell the good guys from the bad guys.”

Clayton, also 56, flew OH-6A light observation helicopters in Vietnam with the 25th Infantry and the 101st Airborne divisions.

“Many of the younger pilots I saw in Iraq were gung-ho,” he said. “I tried to advise them. I guess you get protective. I remember how I was in Vietnam. I thought I was invincible and nothing could kill me.”
[...]
Nearly 5,600 of GIs who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan were 50 or older. At least nine soldiers and one Air Force reservist in that age group have died in Iraq. The oldest was Staff Sgt. William D. Chaney, who was 59. Of the 10, three were killed in action and the remaining seven died due to accidents or medical problems.

“With an expanding role for full-time soldiers and no draft to replenish it, the nation’s armed forces have had to reach deeper into the Reserves and National Guard, where men in their 50s typically train and serve alongside soldiers in their teens,” Edward Wyatt wrote in the New York Times.

National Guard and Reserve troops now make up 40% of GIs serving in Iraq. They are older than their counterparts in the active service. Retirement age in the reserve component is 60. Compare that to the 20-year retiree and you can see why 22% of the Guard is over 40 and just 6% of active-duty personnel are that old.

“We were a good unit,” Clayton said. “We knew why we were there, and we wanted to be there. It’s always hard being away from home. This time, however, it wasn’t as bad for me as it was in Vietnam. The younger guys were homesick, but I told them that we will spend Christmas here so, hopefully, our kids and grandkids will be safer back home.”

H/T: Going Down Range

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