Cheney says, "They will follow us ..."

Sounds pretty creepy, doesn't it? Here's the full quote:

"The worst possible thing we could do is what the Democrats are suggesting "... "It doesn't matter where we go. This is a global conflict. We've seen them attack in London and Madrid and Casablanca and Istanbul and Mombasa and East Africa. They've been, on a global basis, involved in this conflict."

"And it will continue -- whether we complete the job or not in Iraq -- only it'll get worse. Iraq will become a safe haven for terrorists. They'll use it in order to launch attacks against our friends and allies in that part of the world." [my emphasis]

So - damned if we do, damned if we don't, and no timetable required. Seeing as the tururists are already here, that makes the decision real easy: we just pull up the stakes, fold the tents, and bring our boys home now.

Noam Chomsky speaks at West Point

Well, this is a fine thing to come to pass: the leading, most vocal critic of American foreign policy addresses the future leaders of our military forces at our most important military school.

When one thinks of Mr Chomsky, one usually imagines that he will castigate any man in uniform that happens to come near, but you would be wrong; in the Q&A of an originally hour-long video, Mr Chomsky is polite, if not deferential to our boys in uniform, and they return the favor.

Indeed, the boys appear to be hanging on Mr Chomsky's every word. Verrry interesting.

From YouTube, Via Red State Son (5m20s).

Missing US soldiers found in Iraq

This is terrible news: Privates Thomas Lowell Tucker, 25, and Kristian Menchaca, 23, were found by a joint US-Iraqi force on Monday, dead. They had been "brutally" tortured before being killed, according to Iraqi Defence Ministry official Major General Abdul Aziz Mohammed.

The two soldiers had gone missing Friday evening after their patrol had been ambushed at a checkpoint in Yusufiya, in the so-called "Triangle of Death," an area believed to be controlled by al-Qaeda. They had been the object of a massive S&R effort involving thousands of troops as well as aircraft over the weekend.

Their bodies were recovered Monday by Coalition forces involved in the search.

My condolences to their families.

Sony BMG sued over questionable royalty payments

One of the ways that corporate America manages to wring profits out of consumers is through the creative interpretation of the English language. Recently (April 27), Sony BMG music was sued by the rock bands Cheap Trick and the Allman Brothers, for playing fast and loose with definitions of what constitutes a "sale' versus what is a "license."

Apparently, Sony BMG is paying only about 4.5 cents for music downloads that they charge 99 cents for, rather than the 30 cents the bands' contracts call for, claiming that the downloads aren't sales, they're licenses.

Personally, when I have to give up my hard earned cash for something, it makes little difference to me what the transaction is called, it's money out of my pocket. With Sony's creative use of the English language, it's money out of the artists' pockets, too.

Sony was in the headlines recently when it was revealed that several of its CD releases were installing "root kits" on consumers' harddrives without permission.

Source: International Musician, the Official Journal of the American Federation of Musicians