Lament

LATER:  Erica has a remembrance (and prayers for Maya).

Thanks to Lar, who does a better job of keeping track of things than I do.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 15:46:11 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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The State Department: "Looking out for all interests *EXCEPT* America's"

Two (adjacent) Michael Ledeen items at The Corner:
#1:

Marines Rescue Iraqi Puppies, Send Them to San Diego

Really. Nice pictures, too.

Now that you've had the good news, there's #2:

Betrayed by Our Diplomats

...As Owen West says quite accurately, our government—very much including Ambassador Crocker's embassy—somehow just cannot find a way to do the right thing for those Iraqis who have risked life and limb to work with us as translators/interpreters... Every imaginable obstacle is put in the way of these Iraqis, for whom we should instead be arranging medals and scholarships...

If Gates or one of his people would just pound the table and order his staff to get this thing done pronto, I think it would happen. Maybe not; maybe the bureaucratic inertia or resistance is so great that more violent methods are require. Maybe these guys should be sent to Iraqi hot spots themselves, so that they'd get a more accurate appreciation of the bravery and the urgent necessity of the interpreters.

Money quote from West's Post article:

Iraq vets and terps [interpreters] now call State's paper maze the "waiting to die list" - because it requires interpreters to risk death to purchase passports and cross the border undisguised.

Maybe we should just fire all the Staties, and put the Marines in charge.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 19:09:37 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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How "free trade" works

Associated Press (noted by Don Surber):

Beginning Monday, only cars built in 1998 — none older and none newer — can be legally imported into Mexico...

Until now, used cars 10 to 15 years old were scooped up at auction by South Texas used car dealers and rapidly sold to Mexicans hungry for affordable transportation and "la novedad" — or novelty — of unfamiliar makes and models.

Cars newer than that were banned from imports as unwelcome competition for Mexican car dealers, and anything more than 15 years old was seen as a potential environmental and safety hazard.

But now, under pressure from Mexico's new car dealers who say "vehiculos chatarra," or jalopies, undercut their sales, the Mexican government is allowing only 10-year-old used cars to be legally imported into Mexico...

Yes, I’ve already made note of the horrors of the U.S. sugar program here. Point is, the so-called “free trade” program always seems to be free except when some free trading might wind up benefitting average citizens– of any country.

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 17:44:31 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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Not quite a "boomlet," but still...

Beginning to get scary:

Could the risk of an ugly convention and the fact that the superdelegates may decide the contest lead Al Gore to step up as a candidate for President at the convention and then choose Barack Obama as his runningmate? - A.C. Kleinheider

Let's see:  We heard this from Eleanor Clift back on the 15^th.  Five days later, John Derbyshire said “I told you so”^[1]– a reminder that he first mooted the possibility last May.  Now there’s this.

Or maybe silly season is starting early this year?


Previously.
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^[1] Via: Race42008.com

Posted by: Old Grouch in In Passing at 16:25:44 GMT | No Comments | Add Comment
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