Coyote Gulch

Monday, November 12, 2007

Veterans Day

Thank you to all you veterans out there.

8:10:44 AM

? for President?
The Right's Field, "Rudy Giuliani's going around telling everyone who will listen that Bill Clinton hollowed out the military. Funny, I seem to remember a period between, say, 2001 and 2007, where a Republican President and a Republican Congress could have increased the size of the military and overall readiness if they needed too. However, the watchword of the Rumsfeld Pentagon was "transformation," based on making the military SMALLER and lighter and better able to deal in quick strike actions.

"The military is indeed strained. Six years of nonstop war and calls for the whole nation to quit worrying and go shopping will do that to you. You got a problem with that, take it up with the guy in charge."

Coyote Gulch reminds the author that there is still a political advantage for Republicans in focusing discussion on the Clinton's and off recent actions by the Republican president and congress. Clinton hate rallies the troops and helps to control discussion.
"2008 pres"
7:53:00 AM

Blogs for Victory
Say hello to Blogs for Victory, the successor to the now archived and inactive Blogs for Bush. We're hoping that they'll bring along the whole gang from the old site. We did see posts from Mr. Margolis and Mr. Noonan.
"2008 pres"
7:47:37 AM

Middle east policy
Juan Cole: "Gen. Musharraf says he will keep the State of Emergency in place but will dissolve parliament and hold new elections for it before Jan. 9 under a caretaker government. Provincial elections will be held at the same time. The Northwest Frontier Province, which is ethnically mostly Pushtun and some parts of which have become hotbeds of Muslim radicalism, had elected the Islamic Action Council (called MMA after its Urdu name) in the 2002 elections, but Musharraf has put a caretaker government in place there."

Don Surber: "Musharraf vs. Chavez: One wants to ignore his nation's constitution, the other is a U.S. ally Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's crackdown on dissidents in his country looks a lot like Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's crackdown on dissidents in his country. Both men seek to exceed their nation's term limits on presidents. The difference is one is a dictator, the other is a lion tamer trying to keep the second-largest Muslim nation in the world from exploding."
"2008 pres"
7:39:51 AM

Iraq
Captain's Quarters: "One of the more remarkable stories of the "surge" has been the alliance of native insurgencies with American and Iraqi forces to drive out foreign terrorists. Everyone understands this as a marriage of convenience. The insurgents made the mistake of allying themselves with the foreigners and discovered that the American infidels had much more respect for Iraq than the Islamist extremists did. After experiencing the brutality of al-Qaeda in Iraq, the native insurgents decided to cast their lot with the US and the elected Iraqi government, at least temporarily. Nouri al-Maliki has broached an amnesty plan that may keep them in the fold permanently."

Captain's Quarters:, "The news keeps improving in Iraq. According to the US military, rocket and mortar attacks continue to drop in Baghdad and throughout the country. After peaking in the early days of the surge, the numbers have declined ever since to a two-year low."

Juan Cole: "Al-Zaman reports in Arabic that PM al-Maliki has taken the controversial decision to recruit 18,000 members of Shiite militias into the Iraqi government security forces. (In fact, the Iraqi military has de facto been recruiting a lot of Shiite militiamen anyway). You have to wonder if this step is intended to offset the American military's pressure to recruit Sunni tribesmen and neighborhood volunteers into the security forces. Aljazeera is reporting that Iraqi vice president Tariq al-Hashimi has come out vigorously denouncing al-Maliki for this move."
"2008 pres"
7:33:33 AM

Energy policy: Nuclear

According to a recent opinion poll Utahns are divided over nuclear power, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. From the article:

Green River resident Nancy Dunham wouldn't mind having safe, clean nuclear power plants in the neighborhood to energize the local economy. But Moab resident Sarah Fields doubts reactors will fly because they are water hogs and will bring more waste into an area already riddled with the dangerous stuff. The two views illustrate Utah's split on the nuclear power plant issue, according to a new opinion poll by The Salt Lake Tribune. About as many Utahns would welcome having nuclear-power plants in the state as those who would oppose reactors, respondents say. Forty-three percent favor construction of nuclear plants in their state and 42 percent object. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington, D.C., conducted the newspaper's telephone poll of 625 likely voters from throughout the state Oct. 29-31. It has a margin of error of about 4 percent. The findings come just weeks after most Utahns learned about efforts by two legislators, Republican Reps. Aaron Tilton of Springville and Mike Noel of Kanab, to locate two reactors near Green River, Emery County. They would be Utah's first nuclear plants. If the plans go forward, the Utah reactors would be among nearly two dozen on the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission's schedule of license reviews for new plants...

A newly formed environmental group based in Moab, Uranium Watch, has begun to put the proposed reactors in its cross hairs. Members are drafting an opposition letter to Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and state legislators, said Fields, a Moab resident who is organizing the group. "This is not going to fly," she says. Moab is the scene of a U.S. Energy Department cleanup of uranium tailings that is projected to cost as much as $835 million and last for two decades. And it is upstream of a uranium processing plant that some have accused of "sham disposal" of radiation-contaminated waste. Uranium Watch is concerned about the proposed reactors' water use, on-site waste storage, endangered species in the Colorado River, electric transmission lines and other issues that will come up as the public considers the proposal. "Here we are trying to get rid of nuclear waste and they [the reactor proponents] want to come in," says Uranium Watch member John Weisheit.
"2008 pres"
7:13:34 AM

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