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From SDP: While it is a little hard to keep track of all the words flying around this weekend, here's a summary of what happened. On Friday or so, Erin started hammering on the Hildebrand Boys (the former/current Daschle bloggers...

Fire rages at a chemical plant in suburban Detroit

There have been several of these sorts of fires in the last couple months or so. If the Chief were paranoid, he MIGHT think that someone or some group might be trying to knock back our petrochemical infrastructure to negatively impact the economy, especially with the well documented tight situation with refining capacity.

Naaah. Surely Homeland Security or someone would tell us if something like that were happening. Wouldn't they?

Then again...just because I'm paranoid, doessn't mean somebody isn't REALLY after me!

I find Gov. Rounds' comments yesterday about education at once edifying and disturbing. You can read about them here and here. Clearly we need to do a better job of educating young people in math and science. So on that...

I was scanning through my stack of articles on my desk and stumbled upon this one that I forgot to post about before I left for Iowa (so please excuse it for being a week old). From the Aberdeen American...

"Erin," writing in the comments to my post yesterday: Character Assasination 101 is under way right now and it should be noted that even though I have only talked about the "players" that I have had direct contact with, there...

Lone Prairie on the virtues and vices of Wal-Mart. Money line: Surviving doesn't include crying about the state of the local business climate because of Wal-Mart. That's prolonging death, not surviving....

I have already covered the Air America scandal regarding funds they allegedly took from the taxpayer. Now Michelle Malkin finds the Democrats raiding homeland security: But when an investigative reporter exposes Democrats raiding federal homeland security grants and turning 9-11...

The Chief received the following via e-mail. This correspondent of his, a former USN active-duty shipmate, added his pithy comments to an AP story.

For your consideration:

Aug. 13, 2005, 10:33PM Associated Press Bush backers join Crawford showdown Counter-rallies are prompted by anti-war group

CRAWFORD - A grieving mother's anti-war protest entered its second week, gaining momentum and spurring counter-rallies, as hundreds of people with conflicting opinions about the war in Iraq descended Saturday on a road leading to the Western White House.

More than 350 anti-war demonstrators gathered at a park near downtown, then moved the rally several miles away to the peace vigil's makeshift campsite along the road to President Bush's ranch.

"Who knew that the beginning of the end of the occupation in Iraq was going to start last Saturday in Crawford, Texas?" said Cindy Sheehan of Vacaville, Calif.,

She is delusional. Her fifteen minutes of fame has gone to her head.

who started the protest Aug. 6 in memory of her 24-year-old son, Casey, who was killed in Iraq last year.

I doubt her son would support what she's doing.

As about a dozen Bush supporters stood across the street holding signs, down from more than 250 who gathered there Saturday morning, one exchange became heated. A Bush supporter approached an anti-war veteran, and they stood chest to chest as deputies tried to separate them.

When the veteran shouted about his wartime experiences and yelled, "I earned the right to be here!" several of his fellow protesters subdued him, moving him away as he sobbed and his knees buckled.

Who knows if he's really a veteran. You can tell people anything and they will believe it. If I told people I met Mick Jagger some place they'd believe it. If I told them I was in Vietnam they'd believe it. If I told them I sat the bench on some OSU football team and that Woody Hayes chewed me out a few times, they'd believe it.

Sheriff's deputies and Secret Service agents otherwise kept the groups on opposite sides of the road, and no one was arrested. The morning pro-Bush rally was organized by Darrell Ankarlo, a conservative radio talk-show host for KLIF in Dallas, who said, "In my heart of hearts I believe that we're trying to do the right thing" in Iraq.

I think we are too.

He also asked to meet with Sheehan, but she agreed only to meet privately Saturday evening with Bush supporters whose relatives have died in Iraq.

She might be putting herself into some emotional buzz saw with this move.

The 250-plus Bush supporters stood in the blazing sun for a few hours in a ditch across the street from the campsite. Most waved American flags and held signs, including "Help! I'm surrounded by America hating idiots!"

He's probably right.

"I feel sorry for Cindy, but I think she went about this the wrong way," said Bill Garrett, of Dallas, a member of Protest Warrior, a group that frequently holds counterprotests to anti-war rallies. "Somebody's got to stand up to them."

This is true.

The first counter-rally was Friday night, organized by another conservative radio talk-show host, Mike Gallagher. He brought many of the 100 Bush supporters by bus to the anti-war group's campsite, and the pro-Bush side waved flags, sang patriotic songs and chanted, "Go, George, go!"

Mike wants publicity for his show.

But Tim Origer, who lost his left leg above the knee when he was a 19-year-old Marine fighting in Vietnam, said Saturday that believing the war with Iraq is wrong does not diminish the protesters' support for the soldiers.

Again.....a real vet or someone who lost his leg on his motorcycle? I've seen guys who say they were in Nam who, even in 1975 when it ended, weren't old enough to be there. I'd say that someone has to be at least 47 to have been in Nam at the end.

"When Iraqi Freedom started, it looked so much like Vietnam that I couldn't be quiet," said Origer, who lives in Santa Fe, N.M., and is a member of Veterans for Peace. "It's real easy to say war is good when you don't have to be in it." The campsite of tents and anti-war banners has swelled to several hundred people some days but has a core group of about 100. They sing songs, chat and plan strategy each day on the shoulders of two intersecting side roads that form a triangle with Prairie Chapel Road, which leads to Bush's ranch.

Stevie Wonder can see that these people don't have jobs. What job lets you go and spend a week at a anti-war rally.

They vow to remain until Bush meets with Sheehan and the group's other grieving parents or until the end of his monthlong ranch visit.

Gimme a break. They won't do that. Bush will outlast them. They'll give up in about two weeks....except the six who decide stick it out.

Bush has said that he sympathizes with Sheehan but hasn't said whether he will talk to her. Two administration officials met with her last weekend.

If I were Bush I would not talk to her as it won't do him any good.
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Just the viewpoint and words of a non-activist friend. H/T/ to this former shipmate, and regular Texas guy. I've heard a LOT worse commentary on this, and other issues.

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