In the wake of the recent torture and deaths of PFC Kristian Menchaca and PFC Thomas L. Tucker, there will be a dearth of any encouraging news from Iraq. We feel it is important to forward some of this news when the MSM ignores it. For instance this post about events on June 19th in Iraq from CENTCOM depicts some positive coalition activities:

COALITION FORCES KILL 15 TERRORISTS, DETAIN THREE OTHERS

Coalition forces came under immediate small arms fire from a rooftop upon arrival to the objective area. The ground force returned fire, killing nine armed terrorists on the rooftop, and an additional two armed terrorists who were identified firing on Coalition forces from next to the building, were killed by Coalition aircraft supporting fire.

Following this initial contact, Coalition forces found 10 AK-47 assault rifles, one shotgun, one pistol and a crate of explosives.

One supporting aircraft hit utility wires as they were engaging the armed terrorists. The aircraft was damaged and forced to make a controlled landing. There were no injuries to the crew and the ground force immediately secured the site. Three armed suspects were then killed by another Coalition aircraft as they attempted to attack the downed aircraft.

After securing the aircraft, Coalition forces moved to assault the building that several terrorists had fled to following the first contact. One terrorist was killed by a Coalition sniper as he attempted to engage the troops from the nearby rooftop.

The force cleared the buildings, detaining the three terrorists. The captured individuals, who fled earlier, were found hiding amidst nine women. None of the women were injured. One of the detained terrorists was wounded at the initial target building after he engaged Coalition forces.

The raids were targeting individuals associated with a suspected senior al-Qaida in Iraq network member targeted in previous Coalition operations.

The downed aircraft was recovered prior to all forces returning to base, and all weapons and explosives were destroyed on-site.

And the next news release:

COALITION FORCES DETAIN SENIOR AL-QAIDA IN IRAQ NETWORK MEMBER

Coalition forces detained a senior al-Qaida in Iraq network member and three suspected terrorists during coordinated raids southwest of Baqubah June 19.

The terrorist is reportedly a senior al-Qaida cell leader throughout central Iraq, north of Baghdad. He’s known to be involved in facilitating foreign terrorists throughout central Iraq, and is suspected of having ties to previous attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces.

Coalition forces secured multiple buildings and detained the known terrorist plus three suspected terrorists without incident. Troops found an AK-47 with several magazines of ammunition and destroyed them all on site.

Several women and children were present at the raid sites. None were harmed and all were returned to their homes once the troops ensured the area was secure.

What these two items mean to the coalition is that they have weakened the enemy and have increased the possibility of recovering intelligence regarding the enemy’s intentions and composition. All good things.

We feel the grief of the families of those tortured soldiers and share the avenging spirit that must be in the hearts of the rest of the soldiers as they continue their campaign in Iraq. That being said, the overall scorecard since the death of Al Zarqawi has been overwhelmingly in the favor of the coalition:

Coalition: hundreds of captures and kills — Al Qaida in Iraq: a handful of casualties and two atrocities.

But AQI gets support from the Associated Press, Reuters and much of the MSM due to their heavily-biased reporting.

UPDATE: A good resource for breaking news out of CENTCOM may be found on their press release website.

Our Internet Service Provider (ISP) is in the throes of upgrading their MySQL Server this week. I have been advised that the one currently in service is experiencing high demands on it’s capabilities and often will be slow to respond. This supposedly will be resolved by Thursday, 22 June 2006. Please be patient with occasional slow response times until then. Thanks.

UPDATE: Just got this from the ISP:

We have been experiencing some issues with MySQL performance. We
discovered a user with a packaged PHP program causing unusual load to
MySQL. Service to the offending account has been suspended and you
should no longer experience trouble.

Should be OK for now. They are still proceeding with installation of the new server.

UPDATE: Still seems to be some slowness in spite of the message.

Blogs for Bush is urging readers to donate to the campaign of Diana Irey, who is opposing John Murtha for congress in Pennsylvania. So, I did – it’s my little way of supporting our military and calling “Jack the Ripoff” for what he is - a cut and run coward who is long overdue to get out of public service.

Please donate to Diana Irey if you can.

Also, BFB directed us to a new blog: Murtha Must Go. The new blog was started by a military mom DAD.

UPDATE: Somehow I got the gender wrong for the proprietor of Murtha Must Go - He’s a military Dad.

So, Damsel and I were in the drug store to buy some stuff, just a couple of little things really. When we got to the register, the purchase came to five dollars and seventy-one cents. I put down a five-dollar bill and counted out seventy-five cents in change. After waiting a longer than would be normal delay for my four cents change, the young lady at the register announced “two dollars and four cents is your change.” There were people in line behind me and I took the change and walked to the side without saying anything.

Now, I wouldn’t normally take the small windfall, but it would have enormously confused this poor child and inconvenienced the people in line behind me. So I stuffed the change into the little collection jar for a charity.

I figured out what happened afterwards — the girl keyed seven dollars and seventy-five cents as the amount tendered and let the cash register do the math for her. Damsel says she was checking out one of the male clerks walking through the store as I counted out the change.

So a combination of poor math skills from our failing public schools and hormonal distraction got the charity a couple of extra bucks.

I pity Generation Y people as they undoubtedly will collapse under their own stupidity.

There is no question that using cell phones while driving a vehicle causes driver distraction. First, the matter of driving one-handed while holding a phone up to the ear is clearly incapacitating to some degree. Second, the interface to operate the device should be considered; drivers are distracted while dialing and answering. Finally there is the consideration of distraction due to animated or even angry discourse with the party on the other end of the connection.

We posted about this a while ago in Top 10 Reasons Why People Use a Wireless While Driving.

Now, there is legislation pending in Sacramento that would ban drivers from using hand-held devices. However, some argue that there needs to be more studies to analyze effects of the use of hands-free devices as well.

Mixed signals in hands-free phone debate - sacbee.com

Americans spent 1.7 trillion minutes on their cell phones last year. Although no one knows how many minutes were spent talking while driving, one state senator wants to make sure Californians keep both hands on the steering wheel.

“We know you’re distracted. We know the risk has risen dramatically. Now the question is one of control,” Sen. Joe Simitian, D-Palo Alto, told fellow lawmakers on the Senate floor in making his fifth attempt to ban the use of hand-held phones while driving.

His proposal, Senate Bill 1613, cleared the Senate last month and is expected to be vetted by the Assembly Transportation Committee in the coming weeks. If passed, drivers would face initial fines of $20, going up to $50 for subsequent offenses beginning in July 2008.
As California considers joining a growing number of states and cities imposing cell phone restrictions, there are conflicting reports on whether hands-free is safer than hand-held. New York, which was the first state to implement a ban back in 2001, has yet to complete a review of the law’s impact.

While many studies have shown cell phone use is a common form of driver distraction, experts say there has been relatively little direct research comparing hands-free with hand-held devices.

[Full story]

I say enact the ban on hand-helds now and continue with the studies. At least the obvious one-handed drivers will be eliminated from whatever the equation turns out to be.

This morning, the meter on the Never Forget graphic animation tribute ticked over 10 million. Seen on hundreds of blogs and websites in countries around the world, this little tribute reminds us of what happened on 9/11/2001 and that we must not forget and keep our resolve to defeat terrorism and Islamofacism wherever and whenever we must.

In the interest of completeness, the graphic was updated around the time that Flight 93 appeared in theaters to include an image of the makeshift memorial in that Pennsylvania field.

The finished product! Late in the evening the flowers opened to their full glory, beckoning photographers and pollinators alike.

Shortly before opening completely, the flower goes onto what I call the Fabergé Egg phase, resembling the famous designer eggs with little scenes inside seen through a peephole. The delicate interior of this egg harbors the pistils and stamens that enable night-flying pollinators to cross-pollinate the flowers.

Remember the little alien-looking eyestalks on the picture I shot of the backyard cactus I posted in my article Cactus Flower Season? Well, tonight the little stalks have extended themselves into buds that soon will produce beautiful, delicate and fragrant cactus flowers. These are a type of night-blooming cereus and attract nocturnal pollinators. The next stage of the bloom for these will resemble a Fabergé Egg. I’ll have those out to you tomorrow! Things happen fast in the world of these gorgeous flowers — almost hour by hour.

Cox and Forkum do it again.

Read more on Global Warming.