You're advertising here, we should get an ad at your place...

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This might bring a smile to some of the faces around here. Rep. Murtha forced to testify in defamation case concerning Haditha. Homeboy could find himself in real trouble over this. Take home lesson? Be careful with your rhetoric and hyperbole pols, ‘cause it can cost you mega.
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Simply too funny, even if I am more of a fan of TNG than the original.
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Why is the War on Terror not a war solely against ObL and aQ? This is why.
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The PMC question seems to be getting hazier.
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ry
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Of interest, the State Department is getting on the blog bandwagon with their brand new blog: Dipnote. Feel free to make fun of the name, I already did over there while simultaneously giving it kudos for breaking the blog block and opening up a direct forum for nationals and foreign nationals to exchange ideas. And, it is off to a roaring start. Kind of makes you believe that, well, people were waiting for the "direct communications" method with our government. They are maintaining the "rulez" over there. (h/t SWJ)

Kind of makes you wonder why anyone would write "The Death of Blogs". Their theory is that, because so many people stop blogging, the blog world will die. Maybe, but probably not. I think they said that about chat rooms and forums which simply morphed into something else. Also, I believe, as with any new media, quality eventually overcomes quantity, though, I hesitate to front that since it also means a loss of democratic voices. Something the news corporations no comprende.

Kind of a "blog" day, so I'll also point out this little tract: Journalists must learn to swim the blogosphere

JOURNALISTS have a hard lesson to learn about the Internet. If they refuse to restructure their minds to accommodate it, they will become obsolete curiosities within a few years, no matter how superior they feel.

Just so you know, we're not the only ones complaining about journalist integrity and the raunchy war coverage in the media. Al Jazeera accuses US Media of stealing Goebbels propaganda techniques. Yeah, this is another one of those "laugh, you know you want to" moments. Hypocrisy, thy name is Al Jazeera. Of course, this just allows the media to claim they must be doing something right since everyone is complaining.

Wrong! You're wimping out on telling the truth because you don't want to shake anyone's panties loose. That's not "truth", that's cowardice.

Speaking of media and cowardice, got this extremely interesting link over at Cannoneers place:
Wiretap Delay Hurt Search For Missing Soldiers.

I said "media and cowardice" for the obvious reason that the wire tap issue was directly related to media exposing our programs. There was a need for authorization for a wire tap because, shockingly, the suspected terrorists had cellphones that were routed through the United States, thus making them fall under FISA. I would like to know which ACLU idiots (I assume) argued against the authorization since it resulted in the death of two and one still missing (to my knowledge).

My favorite discussion over at SWJ right now is separation of mosque and state. Does it effect our ability to prosecute an effective counter-insurgency?

don't have a link this AM, but a local female soldier was attacked by some career idiots...er..criminals who apparently did not realize that, all things considered, a female in the US military is probably one of the most hard headed people you could ever try to pistol whip. The two geniuses are now in custody. -Kat

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And this is where I jump in to say that we've made the switch and are now sleeping at the New Castle, but the internet access is not yet established. So Armorer-blogging will be light this weekend. -the Armorer

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The arrogance wrapped up in this story - on the part of authorities - is simply... stunning. -the Armorer

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Back in the day, when you could just kill people and break things without a note from a lawyer, they were pre-planned, but to the enemy, random, fires at known gathering points, road junctions, Main Supply Routes, assembly areas, etc - to keep the bad guy nervous that the world around him might start exploding at any minute.

*Not really relevant to today's operating environment, right? But, it *is*

The UAVs (oops, can't call 'em UAVs anymore - they're now Unmanned Aerial Systems... some Colonel got his Legion of Merit for that change...), er, um UAS's we fly over Afghanistan and Pakistan looking for targets of opportunity are a form of H&I fires, if you really want to parse it finely. We just have better sensors and fire control now.

I call the post that because it's random things posted by me and people I've given posting privileges to. It's also an open trackback, so if someone has a post they're proud of, but it really isn't either Castle kind of stuff, or topical to a particular post, I've basically given blanket permission to use that post for that purpose. Another term of art that might be appropriate is "Free Fire Zone"