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Things are heating up with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and they’ve reopened the inquiry into the Chinese Gymnastics Team:

Earlier this month, the AP found registration lists previously posted on the Web site of the General Administration of Sport of China that showed both He and Yang were too young to compete. He was born Jan. 1, 1994, according to the 2005, 2006 and 2007 registration lists. Yang was born Aug. 26, 1993, according to the 2004, 2005 and 2006 registration lists. In the 2007 registration list, however, her birthday has changed to Aug. 26, 1992.

So why is this age issue such a big deal? The minimum age for female gymnasts was increased from 14 to 15 in 1981, and up to 16 in 1997, to protect the physical and mental health of young athletes.

According to today’s FoxNews.com story:

Age falsification has been a problem in gymnastics since the 1980s after the minimum age was raised from 14 to 15 to protect young athletes from serious injuries. The minimum age was raised to its current 16 in 1997. Younger gymnasts are considered to have an advantage because they are more flexible and are likely to have an easier time doing the tough skills the sport requires. They also aren’t as likely to have a history of injuries or fear of failure.

If you’ve got an advantage, that’s cheating. Can you imagine the pressure on the young girl holding the medal, her family? Here’s a teen girl stuck in the middle of either a complete fabrication or being assailed by the world unfairly.

We take it for granted that He Kexin won’t be on the box of Wheaties or doing any other US-based promotional work but the lifestyle she will live in China if she’s discredited for the gold concerns me. Living with shame is intolerable at best, having no way to escape it pushes people over the edge.

As in the 2007 lead paint toy fiasco this much global attention on a problem usually ends up with someone hanging themselves quite literally as the scapegoat.

Evidence: Raw Data Showing Years of Competition Records

Read the rest of this entry »

Here’s a quick summary: US contributions 1 billion dollars, Iran - zero

Does it seem appropriate that with so many unfilled seats in the Olympics, China’s venue managers would hire a cheering section for Venezuela’s volleyball team in their game against the US? You’ll have to go to the halfway point in this video to get to the story…

Not even mentioning the alleged age issues with their medal-winning women’s gymnastics team.

I’m sure that’s in no way whatsoever tied to why China has been providing construction consulting for small Caribbean islands who want to build freeways for cheap… According to independent intelligence sources I’ve developed these freeways have long stretches built to the same specifications as runways, presumably the dual use would allow air transport.

Here’s an example:

Chinese companies are increasingly winning many large construction bids in the Eastern Caribbean, for which they also provide the labour. They are soon to be awarded the contracts for construction of the two secondary schools being funded by the World Bank under the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Education Development Project, where the Chinese bid came in EC$3m (£265,000) below the next lowest tender…

…China has also promised support for the development of a major highway in St Lucia, and is active in Jamaica, Guyana and Surinam.

One blog, the Barbados Free Press claims that a letter written by a contractor’s organization states local Carib companies have been outmanuvered by the Chinese construction for a contract for the University of The West Indies. Some of these claims:

…Wages paid by the Chinese companies to their Chinese workers are 25% of the wages paid by the Barbadian contractors to their workers. The conditions, under which the Chinese workers work, violate Human rights treaty and the UN convention of the treatment of migrant Labour, to which Barbados is a signatory.

…Majority of materials are imported from China, which denies opportunities to Caricom indigenous business enterprises.

…The Chinese companies enjoy taxation advantages in Barbados that are not available to our members.

These claims are corroborated by another source which claims:

Dick Stoute, president of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce, predicts that local contractors will soon begin complaining about the lack of a level playing field, as he was unsure whether the Chinese state and private sector construction companies are enjoying greater tax and other benefits than locals.

None Of This Is Good News

I’m examining the connections between Venezuela, China, Cuba, and Iran very closely because there is a potential balance of power shift that could happen quickly.

If any disaster removed the US from being a strong naval presence in the Pacific Rim, the balance of power would shift predictably towards China. Japan is concerned about this as well.

If the Caribbean nations are influenced properly by China, support elements (troops) for Hugo Chavez could quickly come in by air to suppress any dissent he may have.

Training for Iranian agents in Venezuela is more than just a potential, according to some sources I have this is a reality and they are attempting to assimilate into South American culture.

Related Articles:

Trade between Dominican Republic, China grows fast

China to build aluminium smelter in southern Trinidad

CARIBBEAN: Influx of Chinese Workers Irks Local Unions

The main question is who shares the national defense values with America more - McCain or Obama?

Has our country shifted left enough for Obama’s policy of change to win, or will there always be shifting within influential subcultures such as Hollywood and New York in America?

Example of Left to Right Migration

Why did Dennis Miller, comedian / political commentator abandon his liberal beliefs? In this interview he explains why…

Let’s talk about Joe

Another former Democrat is Joe Lieberman who puts forward a position that the Democratic party left him. After the 2006 election where Dem bigshots tried to unseat him, he’s got a valid argument.

Read his latest article Democrats and Our Enemies - Lieberman’s speech on WSJ.com

Now Lieberman slams Obama for his stance on Iran and calls him naive… He further states that the EU has talked to Iran for years with zero results in their nuclear program.

Joe Lieberman also states in this interview that he believes John McCain is closer to JFK and Clinton’s foreign policies than Obama.

This is somewhat hilarious yet oddly factual.

From Search Engine Journal’s post Why Doesn’t Google Honor Memorial Day in the US?

Google, we love you, but you really can’t have it both ways. You can send Larry Page to Washington DC the week before Memorial Day to ask our Congress for access to the property of the citizens of the United States, but you cannot honor those who have given their lives to create and protect the Constitution of the United States of America?

After investigation I found that this is definitely an ongoing issue. Check out Google’s historic holiday logos and you’ll see that even though Mother’s Day, Earth Day, and even the Persian New Year is celebrated, Memorial Day isn’t.

From the LA Times on Memorial Day, 2007:

"When they ignore Veterans Day and Memorial Day, I think they’re telling us something about the way they view America," said Joseph Farah, editor of WorldNetDaily.com, a conservative website that has criticized Google’s logo decisions.

In that same article, Google had a response:

The company defended its decision to let Veterans Day and Memorial Day pass without a special logo, saying it was trying to be respectful.

"Google’s special logos tend to be lighthearted and often scientific in nature," spokeswoman Sunny Gettinger said in an e-mailed statement. "We do not believe we can convey the appropriate somber tone through this medium to mark holidays like Memorial Day."

Google has altered its logo more than 140 times since 1999, according to a gallery on the company’s website.

Related Posts:

Google decides to give Memorial Day a miss

Google Lets Memorial Day Down Once Again

Google Once Again Snubs Memorial Day

This Memorial Day, Google STILL Unpatriotic… Yahoo! Rocks!!!

Update: Google Plots MoH winners on GoogleEarth

Here’s one interesting spin and/or development:

Memorial Day - US Medal of Honor Recipients in Google Earth

I wonder if this were some act of conservative or independent Google Fifth-column subterfuge in the timing of it to coincide with Memorial Day…

Continuing my Memorial Day series… Here’s an analysis and OpEd piece done by Joe Lieberman.

Democrats and Our Enemies | Wall Street Journal

By JOSEPH LIEBERMAN
May 21, 2008; Page A19

How did the Democratic Party get here? How did the party of Franklin Roosevelt, Harry Truman and John F. Kennedy drift so far from the foreign policy and national security principles and policies that were at the core of its identity and its purpose?

Beginning in the 1940s, the Democratic Party was forced to confront two of the most dangerous enemies our nation has ever faced: Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. In response, Democrats under Roosevelt, Truman and Kennedy forged and conducted a foreign policy that was principled, internationalist, strong and successful.

This was the Democratic Party that I grew up in – a party that was unhesitatingly and proudly pro-American, a party that was unafraid to make moral judgments about the world beyond our borders. It was a party that understood that either the American people stood united with free nations and freedom fighters against the forces of totalitarianism, or that we would fall divided.

This was the Democratic Party of Harry Truman, who pledged that "it must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures."

And this was the Democratic Party of John F. Kennedy, who promised in his inaugural address that the United States would "pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, to assure the survival and the success of freedom."

This worldview began to come apart in the late 1960s, around the war in Vietnam. In its place, a very different view of the world took root in the Democratic Party.

Read the rest of this entry »

This would be funny if it weren’t true… Ex-Army Chaplain Cleared in Gitmo Spy Case to be Obama Delegate - America’s Election HQ

OLYMPIA, Wash. — A former Army chaplain at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, who was cleared of spy accusations will be a delegate to the Democratic National Convention.

Former Capt. James J. Yee, a Muslim, was among the delegates pledged to Sen. Barack Obama who were elected by precinct representatives Saturday. He’s representing the state’s 9th Congressional District at the party’s convention in Denver in August.

My question regarding the dismissed spying accusations would be whether they were dismissed for a good reason, or for political expediency, or even to protect confidential sources from having to be revealed.

What I recall about Yee is that he was maintaining lines of communication between Gitmo prisoners and the outside world, something that was against both standard counterterrorism rules and also the Gitmo prisoner policies. Even worse is that Yee was a commissioned officer in the army at the time and should have known better.

The only way Yee would have felt confident in doing this type of activity is if he felt it was his calling as a Muslim Imam / Army Chaplain to disregard the ‘laws of man’. If that were the case, it sounds like his flock converted him.

I don’t think anyone disputes the fact that Hussein wasn’t directly behind the 9/11 attacks. There are some strong indicators that he was still a threat, most of which I covered in a previous thesis / post.

Interesting information as always from Mark Eichenlaub’s Iraq Regime of Terror blog:

A closer reading of the study (see here, here, here, here, here and here) shows that Saddam Hussein’s Iraq cooperated with, financed and supported a number of Islamic terrorist groups, including al Qaeda proxies (at least five according to Thomas Joscelyn) and had a larger capacity for state apparatus terrorism (car bomb training, IED training, jihadist suicide bomber recruitment, etc.) than previously believed by many.

Of the many noteworthy findings in the report is the assertion made in the conclusion that Hussein had retained not only the capacity to launch anti-West terrorist attacks but the will to use those terrorist capabilities, including directly against the United States, which was also a matter of previous debate.

The report’s conclusion, while noting that a perfect grasp of Hussein’s mindset at the exact time of U.S. invasion remained elusive, states that "evidence that was uncovered and analyzed attests to the existence of a terrorist capability and a willingness to use it until the day Saddam was forced to flee Baghdad by Coalition forces."

Still, there are reasons that I have felt justified our actions.

My opinion on invading Iraq - three years later…

clinton,military,SERE,hillary,army,democrat,democratic party,election 2008,liberal,GWOT,Iraq War,politics,obama,hillary clinton,2008,democrats,president

A lot of people wonder why veterans as a whole and the active duty military regularly votes overwhelmingly in favor of either Bush or the Republican Party.

The simplest explanation I can give is that when you take the oath to protect the country and the Constitution, the CinC who gives you the most latitude to carry out that duty is the better leader. Why? Because when you’ve volunteered to put your derriere on the line in a combat zone you need all the tools and innovation you can muster, period.

I expect the report from General Petraeus next month will be brutally honest, pounced upon ravenously by those who wish for failure in the hopes of increasing their own power base, debated endlessly, and, in history and hindsight, will stand on its own merits.

Given the proper goals and motivation, there’s nothing a US servicemember cannot accomplish.

Given massive constraints, no faith, no fair shake in the press, and no budget, well, they still can get the job done unless you outright outlaw them from doing so.

Hillary Clinton’s Iraq Trip Photo Op With Coerced Military Personnel | Verified - Picture of U.S. Soldier in Iraq Shaking Hands With Senator Hillary Clinton Not Willingly

Of course I checked this pic with truthorfiction.com and snopes.com. From the widely circulated email:

From email titled: Absolutely the best picture EVER!   

Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has already started her 2008 presidential campaign by aligning herself with the military and pretending to be tough on terror. Fortunately, the ultra-liberal Hillary has yet to brainwash all of the voting public into believers that her symbolism is really substance.  

Guess some folks will never forget that she was co-president for eight years in an administration that I QUOTE: “Loath the military”!

Note: The ‘loath the military’ statement is not entirely accurate, here’s the full Congressional record entry online but the context is correct.

The picture shows that this soldier has been thru Survival School and learned his lessons well. He’s giving the sign of “coercion” with his left hand. These hand signs are taught in survival school to be used by POW’s as a method of posing messages back to our intelligence services who may view the photo or video.

This guy was obviously being coerced into shaking hands with Hillary Clinton. It’s ironic how little she knew that he would so inform us about the photo—perhaps because she’s never understood our military to begin with.

Verification from snopes.com with an explanation of the crossed fingers:

Military history includes many instances when soldiers who fell into the hands of the enemy were trotted out before photographers or television cameras by their captors for purposes of propaganda: — to create false images intended to trick audiences into believing that the prisoners were actually well-cared for, sympathized with their captors, or were voluntarily denouncing the political policies of their home countries.

Likewise, military history includes many instances in which such captured soldiers managed to inserted subtle and furtive signs into propagandistic images to express their defiance, to indicate that the information they were relaying was false, or to signal that they were acting under duress.

(One of the most well-known examples of this phenomenon is the infamous middle finger gesture employed by the crew of the USS Pueblo in photographs after their ship was captured by North Korea in 1968.)

Verification from truthorfiction.com adds a follow-up from the subject himself:

The answer is that he did intentionally cross his fingers during the handshake and it did mean that he was not thrilled to shake Senator Clinton’s hand.

After his discharge from the Army, the soldier posted a personal profile on Yahoo Personals as part of looking for introductions to single females.

In his profile, he includes the picture with Hillary and explains:

“The picture of me and Hillary Clinton was taken when she came to visit Iraq. I was actually ordered to shake her hand, and I never figured that my friends would circulate it all over the net. I AM NOT a Hillary fan by any stretch.“

Active Duty Voting In 2008? | Support The Troops

I remember Matt Nalley’s opinion stands out the most with me.

Matt was an undesignated airman when he came into VS-38 in 1992 was working First Lieutenant. You know, one of those guys who emptied trash cans and spent hours waxing the passageways. One of our unsung heroes who stood many a ready room runner watch with me as the ASDO. Mostly because he could do the job right where so many would screw something up.

This change in administration coincided with our return from cruise on the USS Ranger to the NAG and Somalia. Matt actually had to be ordered by then-AW1 Brian Ball, acting LPO of 1st Lt Division to hang up President Clinton’s picture when he was elected into office in January 2003. I was in the hallway of our hangar space when the conversation took place. I didn’t care; I’d voted Independent and for Perot with an absentee ballot while flying over Kuwait earning my logbook’s green ink.

Seeing how things turned out in Somalia with Pres. Clinton’s ROE less than ten months later, Matt had a darned good instinct about our former Commander in Chief. He’s still in and working as a Master At Arms.

I wonder what Matt would say about Hillary? Maybe he’ll post a reply and let us know.

Ouch

This is hardcore yet actually factual. Details of the poll are here at Zogby. Unbelievably, only months after the 2006 elections where they won control of both Houses, only 19% of Democrats are POSITIVE about Congress (remember, they’re in charge now) or that only 8% of Independants (yours truly among them) are positive.

Quoted from Don Surber » Blog Archive » Worst. Congress. Ever.

Congressional Democrats are spinning their wheels trying to “get” George Bush. Democrats promised not to waste their time impeaching Bush. That is what they are doing. The public disdain for Democrats is overwhelming.

It took 12 years for Republicans to drop to 23%. Dems already are down to 14%. That means even Mom is starting to wonder about you.

14% job approval. Nixon did better. On the day he left office!

One of the commenters to this post had a great analysis:

Ireckun Says:One has only to look at the facts that, the leaders of congress and the senate
have no idea what the American people want. They play to win the next election by playing to special interest groups that are not real main stream
American voters. The interest groups just try to influence the voters.
So here is a clue.
1. Win the war and then get out.
2. Stop illegal immigration. Secure our borders!
3. Quit trying to run our life.
Work on the first three and see where that gets you in the points ratings.

Read the rest of this entry »

…And Statistics. Lex gives a good analysis of the Rasmussen Poll numbers regarding the Surge… Read his article

Quoted from http://www.neptunuslex.com/category/gwot/:

GWOT - Neptunus Lex - The unbearable lightness of Lex. Enjoy.

That leaves the 24% as the smartest people in the room since they acknowledge that it’s too soon to tell taken together with some portion of the 15% who chose to answer the question as “not sure” rather than “too soon to say,” both of which would be plausible answers with the insufficient data now in hand.

Interesting. Click on over and give it a read. He’s got a lot of good info, for a Single-Anchor ‘O’.

milblog,GWOT,Surge,Iraq Opinion