What I would like to see...

Just once I would like to see the President express a bit of public pique or even anger with the Russians. President Obama has not responded aggressively, so far as I know, to Russian President Putin's statement that Russia will not hand over Edward Snowden. Unless you have been sleeping on the moon you must know Snowden has released U.S. classified information to the world and has been indicted for his violation of American laws. If he is returned to the U.S., he would be tried in Virginia and if convicted could be sentenced to a term in a federal prison. 
Granted Russia does not have an extradition treaty with the United States. Since Snowden is at the airport in Moscow, however, the Russians could put him on a plane to the U.S. He has no passport and whether he has a visa or not is immaterial. 
So what shape could President Obama's displeasure take without turning U.S. - Russia relations into a 1950's Cold War era nuclear standoff? He could recall the American ambassador to Russia for consultations. He could call in the Russian ambassador in Washington and give him a dressing down.  He could order a halt to whatever commercial, social or cultural exchanges are set up for the next six to twelve months. (President Carter cancelled American participation in the 1980 Olympics in Russia.) This might put a crimp in some Americans' interests, but a little hard ball from time to time would do wonders for the national psyche.
You might ask if Mr. Snowden is worth all this. It is not only about  that blabbermouth. It is about our country, our laws and the right we have to expect cooperation from other countries and officials. Granted, President Obama has to play the long game and prudence dictates he take these humiliations in silence. Waiting to get even, however, is not in the American tradition. Such pettiness at a later date would be looked upon by the rest of the world as third-graders getting even over a playground argument. So, for just once, I would like President Obama to let Mr. Putin and the world know he is p****d off. It might not do any good for U.S. - Russia relations, but it would make me and - I believe - a lot of other Americans feel good. It might lead Mr. Putin to sit up and take notice, and it would put the rest of the world on notice.

(Complete blog here.)

(To opt out send "Delete" to arch@archibald99.com)

An Obama opponent keyed my car

It takes a real mean spirited third-rate lowlife to key someone’s car simply because it carries stickers indicating support for President Obama, but that is what happened to my BMW this past week.

I have driven out only a few times this past week and did not go anyplace different than where I have gone many times before. I park carefully, take only the allotted space and try to be a good motorist. I had two bumper stickers on the car urging support of President Obama. One, for example, read “Osama bin Laden is dead, General Motors is alive.”

The keying struck a straight line on the passenger side from the rear door to the front door. This is a lengthy line on a BMW 745LI. I tried to rub it out but it still shows and probably will until I have it professionally attended to.

This keying comes on the heels of similar vandalism I experienced earlier this month when someone used a razor blade or sharp cutting tool to destroy a picture of me and a likeness of President Obama which hung on wall space outside my apartment door.

There are other reports from around the country telling of vandalism to signs and property identifiable as supporting President Obama. I don’t know why I have not seen the same kind of reports from people supporting Governor Romney. It is not that President Obama’s supporters are too liberal or too lazy. I like to think we are just fair minded.

(The complete blog.)

In memory of Trayvon Martin

I wear a hoodie on occasion but this is no reason to shoot me and it was no reason to fear or shoot a 17-year old African-American youth in Sanford, Fla. on February 26. The Grand Jury and/or the Justice Department need to get to the bottom of this. 

Electric shock for Limbaugh

Hardly anyone in the United States isn't aware of Rush Limbaugh's insult of a Georgetown law student for her testimony about insurance coverage for birth control pills. His ugly version is twisted 180 degrees opposite what the student testified about. Here is some information excerpted from The Loyal Opposition blog, The New York Times,  March 2, 2012: 

"Do the Right Thing

"By ANDREW ROSENTHAL

"Intolerance and character assassination are so ubiquitous in political discourse that it’s important to take note when someone calls out bad behavior, withstands it, or bothers to apologize for it.
*****
"The next person who deserves a bit of positive attention is Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown University law student.
"At a Congressional hearing in mid-February on the Obama administration’s new contraception rules, Ms. Fluke testified that birth control can cost women up to $3,000 over the course of law school. She also told the House Oversight Committee about a friend who was prescribed birth control pills as part of her cancer treatment (a common occurrence) but had to buy them herself because Georgetown’s health insurance did not cover it (also a common occurrence).
"She was eminently reasonable. But, this week, Rush Limbaugh attacked her repeatedly on his radio show. He twisted what Ms. Fluke said beyond recognition and claimed she was trying to get taxpayers to subsidize her sex life, which is entirely irrelevant to this conversation. Mr. Limbaugh called her a “slut” who wanted to be paid to have sex.
"(After he heard about Mr. Limbaugh’s comments, Mr. Obama called Ms. Fluke to thank her for backing his policies despite the onslaught, and to see how she was doing. I think he deserves praise, but he’s not one of the three because the effort cost him no political capital.)"

Earlier this week I expressed the idea of starting a fund to take Rush Limbaugh out for an afternoon of electric shock. Learning more details of how he twisted Ms. Fluke's testimony leads me to think a full day might be in order.

Perry ought to read the Constitution

Texas Governor Perry, running for the Republican nomination for president, said in Iowa yesterday that Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke would be committing a "treasonous" act by ordering the printing of more money in another round of quantitative easing in the money supply to help business and employers' efforts to strengthen the economy.

Well, the Governor ought to check Article AIII, Section 3, of the Constitution of the United States: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."

A few good words from the FBI

Intelligence Note

Prepared by the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)

August 9, 2011

FBI Officials Continue To Be The Target Of Spam E-mail

Various government agencies and high ranking government officials have been the target of previous spam attacks. In their attempts to lure victims, criminals continue to explore new avenues to obtain their goal.

A new version of the spam e-mail uses the names of FBI officials along with the names of specific units within the FBI. The e-mail alerts the recipient that two "Trunk Boxes" containing a large sum of money were intercepted at an international airport. The funds are allegedly from the Office of the Ministry of Finance, Federal Government of Nigeria.

The boxes contain documents bearing the recipient's name as the owner of the funds. The fraudsters advise an additional document called the "Diplomatic Immunity Seal of Delivery" is needed to protect the recipient from violating the Patriot Act. The recipient is required to contact the fraudsters, via email, for instructions to obtain the document. The fraudsters further inform the recipient of the consequences if they fail to comply and are told not to contact any bank in Africa, or any other institution.

Do not respond. These e-mails are a hoax.

Neither government agencies nor government officials send unsolicited e-mail to consumers. United States government agencies use the legal process to contact individuals.

Consumers should not respond to any unsolicited e-mails or click on an embedded link associated with such e-mails, as they may contain viruses or malware.

If you have been a victim of Internet crime, please file a complaint at www.IC3.gov.

For previous IC3 Alerts concerning e-mail scams targeting the FBI and other government agencies visit http://www.ic3.gov/media/2009/091027.aspx.

(Earlier blog entries at www.archibaldinsc.blogspot.com)

Readers' responses

Sometimes I get responses to a blog entry so fast it makes me think I touched a sensitive nerve. Such was the case on Sunday, August 6, when I blogged against some lawmakers expressing an inclination to change the Constitution (see below)to deny citizenship to children born in the United States of parents who are illegal immigrants. These were some of the early comments, in agreement with and opposed to my views, including a boilerplate response from Senator Lindsey Graham, (R-SC). (References to the baby refer to the picture which accompanied the blog entry. I alternated the typeface to make it easier to read.)

I am p....d off at Lindsay Graham also. I think he is a blockhead for supporting Kagan.
(Semi-retired businessman in Virginia.)

Just a quick line to applaud your latest. I spent an hour last night trying to prove Obama was born in the U.S. I always try to remember what my Dad use to say "sometimes the best revenge is to leave them stupid." Hang in there pal.
(SC Businessman)

I hope you sent this to those chowder heads!!
(Retired SC physician)

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I appreciate the opportunity to hear from you.
In spite of the high volume of mail I receive daily, I look forward to reviewing your correspondence and providing a personal response as soon as possible.
As we continue our work in the 111th Congress, I look forward to supporting our troops in the War on Terror, repairing our economy and creating jobs, strengthening Social Security, lowering the tax burden on American families, and making the federal government more accountable and efficient.
Please do not hesitate to contact me if I may be of further assistance to you or your family, and if you need immediate assistance, please call my office at 202-224-5972. If your correspondence pertains to a scheduling request, please fax your request to (202) 224-3808.
Sincerely,
Lindsey Graham (U.S. Senator)

I am P......d too! Loved the PHOTO! Keep your COOL... (SC Lady)

Thanks again for your views and comments. I agree with you completely. I like the photo!
(Retired SC man)

If they are the children of illegal immigrants. they are illegal ,also. And I'm totally exasperated with that blockhead, Obama, who is burdening our children, grandchildren and ,probably, great, great, great grandchildren with enormous debt. I'm p****d off, too!!!!!!!!!!!!
(SC Lady)

Could not agree more. Lindsey Graham has made some courageous decisions to cross party lines but in this case I think he is simply seeking a gimmick to pander to the right. Love that baby!
(SC Lady)

Welcome to the club. All the guys you named should be out on the street as far as I am concerned, especially Graham. P.S. Moreover, I think this jerk pictures himself as President!
(Former federal employee)

Well, there ARE those of us who are NOT "blockhead" (I AM, after all, an ex-cop who feels just as strongly about cop killers and the like) but remain equally as pissed off at this "INVASION" of illegals into our...OUR...sovereign nation! Just because our gutless, inside-the-beltway, totally PC'd, so-called leaders (on both sides of the aisle) refuse to do what it'll take to stop this tidal wave of immigrants flooding over the border, doesn't (shouldn't) mean we cannot WISELY, in my view, amend things such that by sneaking across our border to "drop a kid" no longer REWARDS these illegals with granting their newborn fetuses with automatic, constitutionally protected US citizenship! That's NONSENSE and absolutely NOT in the spirit of what our Founding Fathers had in mind nor could've possibly foreseen the times we now face. The drain on our economy (ask California), the effect on our diminishing culture ("press one for English, two for SPANISH!!!), not to mention the dangerous ease of passage for WHOEVER wants to jump aboard this American bandwagon - - be their intentions good or evil (even draconian) - - is one of the biggest threats we face in my opinion. We OWE our children and grandchildren better...much better...than what we're leaving behind.
Just another point of view...from one who's actually made hundreds and hundreds of felony arrests in his day of the other criminal filth in this country you rightfully mentioned. There are American citizens down near the border, on US soil, being slaughtered by illegals involved with the Mexican drug cartels...I care more about THEM and THEIR constitutional rights than I do ANY of these ILLEGALS, who show none of us an ounce of respect nor regard for our sovereignty...and then laugh at us by hiding behind such an out-of-step, antiquated law and DEMAND their "rights???" That's crap and WHY the Founding Fathers established the process to amend things in the first place.
So, I do not consider as "blockheads" those you mention just because they wish to address - - LEGALLY - - an ever growing, serious problem!
(Retired federal employee)

I am totally exasperated with SC Senator Lindsey Graham. Yes, and just when he was about to get on my good side for supporting Elena Kagan! If we want to punish evil doers let's start with some real, honest-to-God criminals and not pick on new-born babies simply because moma and papa came across the Rio Grande to cut lawns in Southern California, wash dishes at Aspen, Colorado or pick tomatoes in South Carolina. What the h@^l makes us think it's "our" country, anyway - just because we had the good sense to pick 'mericans for parents? And . . . .if we could bother to send some agricultural, educational, economic and health care foreign aid to countries that really need it (not talking bombs and guns here), most people would be happy staying where they are, if there was a way to have a meaningful life!
Yeesh!
(A SC Lady in the ministry)

That's the problem that RR, GB 1, and GB 2 left us who care about exploitation, justice, and mercy. The Democrats cannot ignore those problems just because the Republicans care to. All of us have quite a few tigers by the tail. I, for one, sure as hell don't have the answer. It seems to me there a’int no quick fix.
(Retired college president)

This little baby expresses my sentiments exactly!!!
(Graduate of my High School)

(See the complete blog here.)

Senator Edward Kennedy dies; he fought to make America fair, equal and just

For almost fifty years Senator Edward Kennedy carried the torch for Americans who needed it the most. He never lost his enthusiasm, his optimism, his core belief that America's best days always laid ahead. He was the premier Senator of the last half of the last century. He died today, August 26, 2009.

He was a rich man's son who carried the torch for those less fortunate. He never had to work for a laborer's salary but he fought always for those who did. Until late in life, he was generally healthy and robust, and he relentlessly found time and energy to work hardest for those who were sick and who depended on government assistance. He had a top-notch education himself and yet he fought to assure that "no child would be left behind" in this great nation.

Any domestic legislation in the last fifty years that benefits all Americans bears his imprint somewhere in the details. Americans owe "Teddy" a huge debt that can be repaid if we work together and remember his words at the 1980 Democratic convention: “For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”


We will miss you Teddy. God Bless you throughout eternity.

Leave gun laws to the states

The second amendment to the United States Constitution says "the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed." This is one of precious "rights" written more than two hundred years ago, long before the automobile, trains, airplanes and the Interstate Highway system. The founders could not have anticipated how easy it would be for people to travel from place to place; to travel long distances in short periods of time. Today, millions of Americans are on the road daily in a relatively free and safe atmosphere. So why does Senator John Thune of South Dakota want congress to make a law permitting gun owners to carry guns anywhere in the country without regard to the various states' laws?
Robert Morgenthau, the highly regarded district attorney for New York County since 1975, wrote (The Wall Street Journal, July 22, 2009) that Thune's bill would override the states' restriction on concealed-carry permits. Some states have more stringent laws than others. In Ohio and Missouri, for example, if you are not a felon nor been hospitalized for mental illness you can carry a gun. Under the Thune proposal the same carriers could take their guns into New York despite New York's more stringent rules.
Suppose a New Yorker can't get a permit in that state, could he travel to South Carolina, buy a gun and lawfully carry it in New York? And suppose, for argument's sake he was traveling by plane. Could he carry his South Carolina a gun on an airplane back to the Big Apple?
Years ago and probably still today servicemen being assigned to the Northeast have been cautioned not to carry weapons in their cars while traveling through Massachusetts. (It was suggested they include them in their personal goods shipments.) They have some strict rules on carrying guns in the Bay State. The folks in South Dakota might not like them but the people in Massachusetts do.
We hear a lot about states' rights and if these mean anything the right to regulate the carrying of weapons - concealed or otherwise - ought to be left to the states as they see fit.
Thune's amendment deserves to be defeated.

What happened to "love thy neighbor?"

I found it interesting that regular church goers in America are more likely to approve of state torture than those who go less regularly. This data came out in a Pew Research Center (see The Religious Dimensions of the Torture Debate) survey released April 30. White evangelical Protestants are most likely to tolerate torture. People who attend church at least once a week are also more inclined to support torture. White non-Hispanic Catholics and white mainline Protestants agreed torture is often or sometime justified. Are these good people focused on the harsh messages of the old testament and missing the message of the new testament about loving thy neighbor and doing unto others as you would be done unto?

Some say that information gathered under torture is not reliable: people under torture will tell you whatever you want to hear. Another thought about all this is the application of torture only works if the victim is convinced he or she will be killed unless they talk. When you have "guidelines" known to the world, friend and foe alike, that prohibit killing, then the victim need only be trained to hold out. That the victim may not be able to stand up indefinitely to torture is probably most true. The Gestapo proved this during World War II. Their prisoners were told that if captured they should try to hold out for at least 24 hours to give others the chance to get away. This is probably true to this day. But Bill Maher, HBO's resident political satirist, joked recently that one of the terrorists at Guantanamo had been water boarded so much he was showing up wearing a bathing suit, carrying a beach towel and a Danielle Steele novel under his arm.

Two views on the Navy brig in Hanahan

Thursday, March 26, 2009
Letters to the Editor, The Post & Courier, Charleston, SC

Brig leadership

Post and Courier reporter Tony Bartelme has done a valuable service to the newspaper's readers with his story on the Hanahan brig. The professionalism of the brig's leaders and staff comes across loud and clear. I believe this story ought to dissolve a lot of apprehension about housing "war on terror" prisoners in the Hanahan brig.

When the brig opened, I was the public affairs director at the S.C. Department of Corrections. The brig leadership and staff at that time came to Columbia to learn some of the ways a modern, well-run prison system operated.

I remember SCDC personnel stressing with brig personnel that "prisoners are sent to prison as punishment for their crimes, not for punishment." Again the attitude of the brig's current leadership, as reported by Mr. Bartleme, makes it clear they still understand this, even if other officials in the Department of Defense do not.

FRANCIS X. ARCHIBALD
Franke Drive
Mount Pleasant

No to terrorists

I am grateful to The Post and Courier for letting me know that terror suspect Al-Marri was relaxed and smiled during his recent court appearance. I think our nation needs to remember 9/11 every day and watch the videos of the sacrifices that were made on that day and the days after.

It has reached the point that terror suspects have more rights than anyone else. Now President Barack Obama wants to remove them from Guantanamo and put them somewhere else. Our state could possibly be the one picked to receive them.

I say if President Obama wants to put them on American soil, let it be in his home state. We do not want them in South Carolina.

PEGGY NICHOLS
Quail Hollow Court
North Charleston

Touche...

A friend asked: Where did President Obama get the cardboard cutout of Francis Archibald? (See "Fresh Sights and Faces", below). I also stopped long enough recently to be photographed near the FBI building, on Pennsylvania Avenue; our nation's monument to the now-controversial J. Edgar Hoover.

"Shut up, your dirty Baathist"

My nominee for Judge of the Week is Iraq's chief judge Mohammed Oreibi al Khalifa who this week told a defendant he had just sentenced to death to "Shut up, you dirty Baathist," referring to Saddam's Sunni-dominated Baath Party.

The judge's order was directed to a former Baath party official Abdul-Ghani Abdul-Ghafur, who shouted "Down with Persian-U.S. occupation" and "Welcome to death for the sake of Arabism and Islam" as the judge read his sentence of death, according to the Associated Press.

In America, we are accustomed to mainly tolerant judges who hold their tongues under difficult circumstances. It is refreshing - for at least a vicarious moment - to see one speak his mind.

Aim and Fire for $50 mil

A newspaper story this morning reports German people lifting a beer or lingering over a strudel at dessert are likely debating the question if a German soldier sees Osama bin Laden should he arrest him, call an American or aim and fire? Germans remain sensitive to the callous disregard for human life during the Hitler years and don't want to be seen as instant life-takers. In this scenario, however, let's give the whole German nation absolution in advance and urge option three: aim and fire. In fact, if Osama is with some of his buddies throw a grenade and take out the whole bunch. I believe the $50 million reward the American congress has offered for Osama would be payable to a German. As a public service a picture of the $50 mil target is shown here.

Patriotism and getting the message across

Two lawyers for the ACLU, Steven Watt and Ben Wizner, write in a letter in The Wall Street Journal (June 19, 2007, pg A15) that "defending human rights...is not an act of disloyalty in a nation committed to the rule of law" and that recent Supreme Court decisions squarely repudiate the government's position in three 'war on terror' cases. These are not cases involving mere legal technicalities but violations of American core values, according to the writers.

Americans are pre-occupied with salesmanship. Case in point. Gen. David Petraeus, the Army's top man in Iraq, says that sending military officers to civilian universities for Ph.D study opens their mind to four or five sides of an argument. A retired Lt. Colonel says anything beyond a Masters degree risks hurting an officer's battlefield judgement. He says such training led another Lt. Colonel to leave out of a counterinsurgency manual what he felt was an effective tactic: strapping dead insurgents to the front of tanks for locals to see.