Bedrock Guy

Read Diplomad. He's on the ground. The U.N. is nowhere to be found.

Probably too busy trying to figure out how to badmouth the U.S. relief effort.

They never stop do they, the Bush haters and their associated anti-American fellow travellers? They've even called us names over relief to the disaster area. We are "stingy". The President is vacationing, insensitive, you name it.

What a shame. How about if we focus on helping the victims instead of trying to score anti-U.S. points with your left wing, socialist, and anti-American buddies?

John Podhoretz sums up my feelings.

This blogger, Amit Varma, writes of his account walking the beach in India. It's horrifying. He's not very impressed with his government's relief efforts, and given what he describes I wonder how that region will ever recover from this deadly event.

Please read it and realize how lucky we are on this last day of 2004.

In yet another shining example of U.N. arrogance, the UN accuses the U.S. of being stingy with relief aid for the victims of the tsunami in Southeast and East Asia.

He thinks the government should raise taxes to provide more relief money.

Well, why should we raise taxes to fund U.N. programs when U.N. bureaucrats and their cronies are doing perfectly well taking bribes from dictators and embezzling oil for food money? I can’t wait for Paul Voecker’s report in 2005.

Here’s the quote from the Washington Times on Mr. Egeland’s comments:

“But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes "It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become."

"There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy," he said, adding that politicians in the United States and Europe "believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more."

Wait a minute, now it’s ok to talk about Christmas? I thought that offended folks like the U.N. and its left wing allies. Amazing, now that they want money, they bring up Christmas. Hey, I’ve got an idea, go see Target. They give all kinds of money, even if they did kick the Salvation Army out of their stores.

For the record, the U.S. is the largest contributor to international relief agencies. If only more of our aide got thru the U.N. bureaucrats and the dictators that take their cuts.

Also, for the record, Americans are donating tremendous amounts of money for this relief effort. One such way is the link to the American Red Cross at Amazon.com.

Americans are also donating at the Salvation Army website.

Having said that above, this disaster has been horrible. The news account from the European networks that I’m viewing (Sky News and BBC), in combination with the web reports, show devastation and death everywhere. These poor people are shown crying as they hold their dead children in their arms. I heard a report Tuesday night on CNN discussing how children were disproportionately represented among the victims, simply because they could not get away from the water or survive by hanging on to trees, poles, and other objects.

A humanitarian disaster looms in the aftermath.

Here’s hoping that it’s a team effort to help these nations and their populations with a minimal amount of name calling and finger pointing from U.N. bureacrats.

So, Mr. Egeland, how about discussing donor amounts after you get your outfit moving to the scene of the disaster. Plenty of time to discuss that and how much your home country and the EU donated when the initial recovery has been completed.

Update: Mr. Egeland was interviewed on Fox News on 28 Dec. He wasn’t quite so strident and made some nice comments about what the U.S. was contributing. I suppose he was just “misinterpreted.”

Update 2: Just saw, on Nightline, an interview with Ms. Carol Bellamy, the Executive Director of UNICEF. Great interview. She did a very nice job detailing what the relief effort would entail and how people could help. She covered for Mr. Egeland and stated that he did not mean that the United States was stingy. Ms. Bellamy has helped the U.N. recover from the slight public relations problem caused by Mr. Egeland.

Later on Fox, Stewart Varney interviewed a left wing writer from The Nation, and Mr. Varney made a comment that perhaps Mr. Egeland was trying to generate some anti-American sentiment. I had not thought of that angle, but I would not be surprised by anything a U.N. official did anymore. When you think about it, with all the negative press that the U.N. is currently receiving, Mr. Egeland’s comments were very, how can we say it nicely, ill-timed?

Remember, before the election, how oil prices climbed steeply upward, passing $50 per barrel?

Gas prices have now declined for the eighth week in a row. Interesting development.

Now, if we really had a press corps interested in something besides dirt on Bush/Cheney/Halliburton, maybe some of them might start probing how this could happen. I’m sure there wasn’t a global conspiracy, with some really wealthy left wing backing, trying to cause yet another problem for the President. I’m sure there wasn’t.

On the other hand, I really, really, really, need the press to find out for me.

I keep forgetting that we went to war in Iraq for cheap oil. When is that going to kick in?

I’m sure she’ll be remembered for many things. By all accounts, she was an extremely talented writer.

I, however, will remember her as an apologist for communism and left wing extremism across the world. She was the epitome of the blame America first crowd. It’s truly a shame that her literary talent was generally used to blame her nation for all the world’s problems.

Tim Blair has a collection of comments, from the center and the left.

Update. If you thought I was off base with my comments, then read this. Or this.

Is off to America for a few days. What an amazing woman. Watching her the last week prepare for Christmas and welcome and host favorite daughter has been a true pleasure. I do not know how she can buy presents, wrap presents, attend parties, work out, pay bills, and tolerate the various quirks of the favorite daughter and I and still maintain that calm, patient, loving manner.

Merry Christmas my love and thank you for your patience.

Go read Jim Lileks.

Last week, the papers ran the front page photo of those terrorist (no Reuters quotation marks here) thugs murdering the young Iraqi election officials, in the open, in broad daylight.

A lot of questions about how the AP photographer just happened to be there to see the murders.

Belmont Club is staying on this story. Go read it. In his latest post he links to the AP bid to show how independent their photographers are in their quest to show what's happening in Iraq.

Yes, the photographer just happened to be there. Had no idea those animals would murder those election officials in broad daylight.

Franklin Raines, the CEO of Fannie Mae, announced his "retirement" the other day.

According to the Washington Post, a federal regulator was prepared to began public hearings to remove Raines. The Fannie Mae board apparently concluded that this fight was not winnable, hence Raines’ decision to "retire." To his credit, Raines had earlier announced that he would hold himself accountable if the SEC found significant errors in Fannie Mae accounting. The SEC did. $9 Billion worth of errors.

Don’t feel sorry for Raines. Apparently, according to Mickey Kaus at kausfiles, Raines will receive an "absurdly plush" package worth about $16 million annually if the stock options are included.

Amazing. Huge accounting errors and Raines receives a $16 million retirement.

Do the Feds have someone like Eliot Spitzer, the New York State Attorney General, to investigate Fannie Mae?

Apparently, Raines is not the first Democrat to star at Fannie Mae. His predecessor, according to the kausfiles, apparently was involved in a few accounting issues as well. Hmmh, two Democrats.

Jeez, if these two guys were Republicans, the New York Times would be all over this. It would be billed as yet another example of corporate greed, Enron 2, and of course, it would be President Bush's fault. C'mon, you know I'm right.

Give the Washington Post credit on the reporting thus far.

Think I'll just file this story away for now, pending further review by that watchdog of democracy, the New York Times. Bet Hilary picks Raines to be Secretary of the Treasury. Won't this Fannie Mae tale make for an interesting pre-confirmation story?

The favorite family and I will be in Rothenburg this weekend.

Click here to see the main square. A great Christmas market.

Hope it snows AFTER we arrive.

Transterrestrial Musings submits this fantastic article, "War Unwinnable in Face of Renewed German Offensive."

A superb look of what would happen if the same standards applied to our war in 2004 had been applied to World War II. In this case, the analogies to the German Counteroffensive in the Ardennes (the Battle of the Bulge), are superb, and really make you think.

A few bullets:

"It all came as a complete shock..."

"...the administration and General Eisenhower were operating on flawed intelligence, and led the nation into an invasion of Europe on clearly false pretenses."

"They ignored our warnings...said an anonymous State Department source."

""It was Japan that attacked us, not Germany," pointed out a Senate staffer. "We need to focus our resources on the true enemy in the Pacific.""

Bottom Line: Roosevelt Lied, People Died. Fire General Marshall. Fire Secretary Stimson.

Thanks to Instapundit for the idea.

According to NPR, and 42 other historical sites I visit, on this day in 1777, the French government recognized American independence.

Yes, I listen to NPR in the afternoons, but only when I'm in the Beemer.

So, let's agree that the French government was helpful to the new American nation. Can we also agree that France did so, not to foster democracy, but because it was in French interest to counteract British influence and power?

And they are still trying to hold it over our heads (the French, not NPR) .

In keeping with the spirit of this anniversary, thank you to the French government of 1777.

Now, let me add a gentle reminder of the sacrifices which were being made this day only sixty years ago, in Holland, Belgium, Germany, France, and Italy, so that France could regain and then retain its independence after four years of brutal German oppression.

On this day in History, in 1944, the American 82d and 101st Airborne Divisions were alerted to move to the Ardennes in reaction to the German attacks against the First U.S. Army.

I look forward to participating in the French celebration of American generosity on 8 May 2005, in Rheims, France, next to the school building where the Germans signed the surrender documents.

The Fannie Mae Accounting Scandal

The Washington Post today carried an editorial about the overstatement of profits by Fannie Mae. Try $9 Billion.

Big number, $9 Billion. We could finance a lot of things in America with $9 Billion.

The CEO of Fannie Mae is a man named Franklin Raines.

Here's what the Post wrote: "But high tech's highhandedness has nothing on the leadership at Fannie Mae. Bosses at the federally chartered mortgage giant also formed their own opinion of what an accounting rule should say. They did this not merely before the rule in question went into effect -- but afterward.

This arrogance is almost as stunning as the $9 billion overstatement of profits that resulted. Fannie's top managers looked at the federal rule on accounting for futures, swaps and other such financial instruments, and they decided they didn't agree with it. They requested permission from regulators to go their own way, and when this was denied they went their own way anyhow. They behaved like a passenger who sees a "No Smoking" sign, checks with the conductor that the sign means what it says, and then nonchalantly lights up."

More on Mr. Raines in a column by Steven Perlstein.

Raines, according to Mr. Perlstein, was a member of the audit committees for both AOL and Time-Warner, and we all know how well the accounting teams for these two organizations have done in the recent past.

Now Raines is the head of Fannie Mae, and a major accounting scandal has occurred.

My questions:

1) How does Raines keep getting hired with this track record?
2) How many more leadership failures like him still work in American business and government?

Here’s hoping the SEC and the Justice Department stop this reign of t(error) on our business and financial organizations.

Finally heard from Delta's customer service about the cancellation of favorite daughter's flight last Thursday, which in turn plunged us into an abyss and forced therapy....(oops, sorry, that's from a future post on those folks in Florida needing and receiving therapy due to severe depression OVER THE REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL VICTORY. But I digress.

Anyway, Delta very nicely said it wasn't their fault, safety first, etc, etc.

Did anyone think they would say anything different?

Post and attitude of 12 December still stands.

Our Trip to Bastogne

Last Saturday, I led a USO tour group to see the American battlefield at Bastogne, Belgium. Here, in December 1944, sixty years ago, the American soldier held out, in desperate conditions, against the Wehrmacht and its SS buddies. I am honored to have walked on this battlefield, where the 101st Airborne Division, ably supported by Combat Command B, 10th Armored Division, CCR of the 9th Armored, and remnants of the 28th Infantry Division, held out and defeated the Germans as they attacked to reach Antwerp.


This is a battle that has long attracted me. I do not know whether it was the confused nature of the fight, of being surrounded, or the tankers moving east, in the dark, to fight against Germans in tanks that were inferior to what the enemy possessed. Perhaps it was that legendary attack from the south by Patton's Third Army, engaged in Lorraine on the Saar River, reorienting, and attacking north from Arlon on 22 December to destroy the German left flank and open a corridor to Bastogne, that has most interested me. Whatever kept my attention, this is an American battle that never gets old.

What an inspiring day. We drove to several critical points on the battlefield. It was very cold, and foggy, with visibility many times limited to 100-200 meters. We stood in the very foxholes dug by Easy Company, 2d Battalion, 506th Airborne Infantry. We walked thru the woods where these troops attacked in the Bois Jacques, and we traversed their battlefield at Foy. We drove the road east of Bastogne, from Longvilly, to Margaret, by Neff, and Mont, on which the critical early battles of the 18th and 19th of December were fought by Team Cherry, 10th Armored Division, and the 1st Battalion, 501st Airborne Infantry. We stopped in the center of town, in the Place de McAuliffe, and next to the Sherman Tank of the 11th Armored Division, met and talked with a veteran of the Bulge from the 87th Infantry Division.

Finally, on the way home, we stopped just south of Bastogne, at the small concrete bunker where Lieutenant Boggess, of the 37th Tank Battalion, 4th Armored Division, linked up with soldiers of the Engineer Battalion of the 101st Airborne, close to last light on 26th December.

As I prepared for leading this tour, I read a great deal about the battle. How does one describe for a tour group what it must have been like for the soldiers of the 28th Infantry Division, stretched along Skyline Drive east of Bastogne, to have absorbed the initial attacks of the Fifth Panzer Army? What must it have been like to have been a soldier in Task Force Harper, of the untested 9th Armored Division, thrown out as a roadblock to gain time for the VIII Corps commander to develop a defense at Bastogne? What was going through the heads of the paratroopers of the 101st Airborne as they marched into Bastogne after a 12 hour truck ride from Rheims, in the cold, without the ammunition and supplies they knew they would need for this fight?

I tried to convey that to my guests on the tour. I could clearly see it in their silence as we walked thru the woods and I could tell in their questions and their comments that they too were awed by what our soldiers accomplished at Bastogne.

The town of Bastogne remembers the sacrifices of the American Army sixty years ago. So does the Belgian Government.

Well, this time it's Chevy Chase.

Drudge Report stated that at an awards ceremony in Washington, hosted by that icon of tolerance, People for the American Way, Chevy Chase acted like an ignorant, left wing extremist and used extremely abusive language concerning both President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

The Washington Post reported the same thing here.

When will these paragons of Hollywood virture realize that cursing the President in public only confirms what most, and I emphasize most, of America thinks about Hollywood? Norman Lear and his fellow left wingers can try and distance themselves all they want, but alas, poor Norman, we know you all too well.

Just to be fair to the American Way "team", I checked their web site to see if the Secretary had disavowed any knowledge of Chevy's actions (or apologized). No apology. Lear and the organization president were quoted in the Post article as saying the language was inappropropriate, but, they really should say something on the "team" website. I guess, in the long term, historical sense, it's ok with them what was said about the President at their award ceremony.

All is well. Feels great to have the family together again.

Please think of our soldiers and their families who are separated because of our war with the enemies of freedom and liberty.

A Reminder.

Sat down with favorite daughter and my wife and watched one of our favorite Christmas movies, "Home Alone 2".

Remember how, shortly after Kevin mistakenly arrives in New York City, he takes a tour of the city. Remember his trip to the top of the World Trade Center? The movie shows the twin towers, standing tall on a beautiful day, with Kevin on top.

Well, the twin towers aren’t there anymore. So, remember the type of scum who attacked America and its citizens. Think about our enemies, every day. Bottom line, we haven’t killed enough of them yet to avenge 9/11. Not sure we ever will, but at least we have a President who understands that America is in a shooting war it didn’t ask for, and a President who understands that sometimes the need to take the war to the enemy is a prerequisite to winning.

The next time you wonder about "why they hate us," remember, they hate us because we are America, the greatest country in the world, and America can do anything when it decides to do it. They hate us because their society is such an utter, corrupt failure, and they need to blame someone. So, let’s bring them their very own personal 12 step program so they can understand that their failure is a function of their corrupt society, which is something they can fix. Their failure is their fault, not America's fault.

No matter what America does, it will not be enough to placate enemies that will not take responsibility for the failures of their society. So, let’s do what we need to do to win and remain the greatest country in the world. No other country can ensure that this world has a chance to develop personal liberty, human rights, and freedom, which is what being a liberal is all about (a small reminder to the left wing).

Still no answers to my questions to Delta Airlines about why they canceled my daughter’s first flight on Thursday.
So...Delta Airlines still sucks.

Great article in the Washington Post about how to start a winning blog. Mike Peed writes that one should "pick the write stuff, and "post often, and well."

I'm not sure how often I can post, and I'll wait for your comments on how well I'm doing. I am, however, going to continue.

Well, in total violation of my rule that you should never post when you are mad, here goes.

Delta Airlines has done it to us again. I was so looking forward to picking up my favorite daughter on Friday morning and driving back to our little place downtown. But, just like they did at Thanksgiving, Delta Airlines has stepped up again and excelled.

Today's excuse for canceling my daughter's flight to Atlanta? A cargo plane's landing gear collapsed and blocked a runway. Hey, that sounds like the sort of info that one would see on the news right? Wrong. No CNN, no Delta web site, no Atlanta Airport website info. And, the kicker, Delta flights are still flying into Atlanta as I write this. I'm tracking them on the airport website. Some other flights have been cancelled, but I'd say about 85% have not.

So why did our flight to Atlanta get cancelled? Anybody at Delta have an answer? Oh yes, I did ask, but after 15 minutes talking to a nice man in India, I broke contact. He had no idea either, but it was fascinating, sitting in Germany, talking to a man in India, about a Delta flight to Atlanta.

I smell some bean counter with an algorithm taped to his forehead, pushing his or her glasses up saying, "well, that flight wasn't full/making money/who cares if we cancel a small town flight," and sending his recommendation to some suit with his own PDA.

OK - Delta, we might play nice if you help us out and make the flight on Friday work. But right now, since my daughter left for college, you are 0-2.

Favorite Daughter - don't forget to reconfirm, and call SATO like we discussed. Safe trip. We love you ( I guess I should call you Pebbles here, cuz this is the blog of Bedrock Guy).

Some recent news about a pending Dutch law called the Groningen Protocol. It's focus seems fairly direct - mercy killings. I've just started tracking this so I'll do some more reading and repost at a later date.

The column title says is all, "Dutch descend into barbarism."

Again, someone tell me how Europeans believe they can lecture the U.S. about morality?

Given how the Dutch feel they are being besieged by Islamic fascists after the Van Gogh murder, isn't it time they relooked how they deem to treat those in dire circumstances? Just a thought.

Does the left wing press know about this? I would assume they'd be outraged about the murder of less fortunate people, as we all should be. I would assume the left wing press would be "all over" this issue. Are they?

Man, I love using that old Vietnam war chant against a left wing hero.

Today I read a left winger's blog in which he complained that if the Republicans, the Democratic Leadership Council, and Instapundit all agree that Kofi must go, well...."he can't help but think they are all wrong."

Wow, that's the same logic I use on other topics. If the Democrats, Hollywood, and University Professors all have an opinion about the war or politics, and I agree, I have to reexamine my decision.

Anyway, I would add to my left wing fellow blogger's comments, that EVEN the DLC thinks Kofi must go. That just shows me that somewhere within the Democratic Party, some common sense exists in regards to the real world.

If you want to review yet another example of the sterling incompetence and corruption which passes for the UN these days, read about the Congo. The comments contain some interesting history about European exploitation of the Congo (and they lecture us about morality?).

The Democratic Leadership Council agrees with me...

and it agrees with the Washington Times - how often does that happen?

The National Post editorial reviews the bidding on Kofi.

The Instapundit, www.instapundit.com Glenn Reynolds, wrote in the Wall Street Journal that "Things are going badly for Kofi Annan. The Oil for Food scandal has revealed U.N. behavior regarding Saddam Hussein's Iraq that ranges from criminally inept to outright corrupt. Rape and pedophilia by U.N. peacekeepers haven't gotten the kind of attention they'd get if American troops were involved, but the scandals have begun to take their toll. And the U.N.'s ability to serve its crowning purpose--the "never again" treatment of genocide that was vowed after the Holocaust, and re-vowed after Cambodia and Rwanda--is looking less and less credible in the wake of its response to ongoing genocide in Darfur. And finally, the U.N. has so far played no significant role in defusing the Ukrainian crisis."

Of course, other left wing pundits see this as some type of extremist right wing conspiracy, cuz, after all, the UN is sacred and above all that partisan bickering. Please.

If you want a good review of what the UN is all about, read The Diplomad.

So, in closing: Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, Kofi Annan's got to go!

Jimmy Carter has all kinds of time to supervise elections which elect bad guys while he simultaneously slanders the current President and gives propoganda ammunition to our enemies. He is supposedly such a great world citizen that he was given a Nobel Peace Prize. So....Mr. Carter, how about dropping the hammer on the Ukrainian election? Given your influence and stature, wouldn't it be great to have a former President of the United States on Putin's doorstep, trying to help the Ukraine usher in a more democratic society?

Someone please let me know when he arrives in the Ukraine or says something in the press. I'm not holding my breath.

I know, I know. He's not there because he was a President of the United
States, and he doesn't want to upset Putin.

Thanks to Powerline for this idea.

Hi. Welcome to Bedrock Guy. I just started today, 4 December. I am an American living in Germany and after this recent election campaign, I have decided that I too want to contribute something to the blogosphere. I welcome your comments and criticism about the website and its content. Oh yes, I've explained why it's called "Bedrock Guy" in the above comments. That unknown left wing couple remain an inspiration to me.

Given the left wing willingness to aggressively protest any crime they feel oppresses their favorite left wing extremist causes, one must wonder why the left wing (and Hollywood) has said little, if anything, of note to protest the gruesome and barbaric murder of the Dutch director, Theo van Gogh, in the Netherlands. The article by Pat Sajek provides one view on that noticeable left wing silence.

From "A Hush Over Hollywood", in http://www.humaneventsonline.com

"There's another possibility; one that seems crazy on the surface, but does provide an explanation for the silence, and is also in keeping with the political climate in Hollywood. Is it just possible that there are those who are reluctant to criticize an act of terror because that might somehow align them with President Bush, who stubbornly clings to the notion that these are evil people who need to be defeated? Could the level of hatred for this President be so great that some people are against anything he is for, and for anything he is against?"
http://www.humaneventsonline.com/article.php?id=5905

Another great article, "Look Who Isn't Talking," in the Wall Street Journal Online also asks hard questions of these supposedly enlightened and all knowing Hollywood left wingers.

Bridget Johnson writes, "One would think that in the name of artistic freedom, the creative community would take a stand against filmmakers being sent into hiding à la Salman Rushdie, or left bleeding in the street. Yet we've heard nary a peep from Hollywood about the van Gogh slaying. Indeed Hollywood has long walked on eggshells regarding the topic of Islamic fundamentalism. The film version of Tom Clancy's "The Sum of All Fears" changed Palestinian terrorists to neo-Nazis out of a desire to avoid offending Arabs or Muslims. The war on terror is a Tinsel Town taboo, even though a Hollywood Reporter poll showed that roughly two-thirds of filmgoers surveyed would pay to see a film on the topic."
http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110005935

Bottom line - a filmmaker is murdered for his beliefs, and no filmmakers in America protest. What am I missing here?

Just read what the outgoing HHS Secretary said at his news conference in which he announced his resignation:

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do." http://apnews.myway.com/article/20041203/D86OD2TG1.html

I cannot believe he said this. Does he know nothing about operational security? Hopefully, his replacement will be a bit more discrete in giving the enemy ideas. Time for Mr. Thompson to go, quietly, into the night.