There’s been a bit of Internet buzz today with word that the Council on American-Islamic Relations has been named in court filings by the Feds as one of 300 “unindicted co-conspirators” in an upcoming trial of the Dallas-based HAMAS front-group the Holy Land Foundation.

LoneStarTimes.com has gotten a hold of a copy of the full list, which as a general service to the blogosphere, we are providing to all for download (11 pages, pdf).

If you like that we do this sort of thing, feel free to hit the “tip jar” badge below. Consider it a down-payment on the “CAIR vs. LST Legal Defense Fund.”

This is pretty messed up:

Knight acknowledges there’s nothing funny about his likely execution later this month for the fatal shooting of his neighbors, Walter and Mary Werner, almost 16 years ago outside Amarillo. But to help him come up with his final statement, Knight is accepting jokes mailed to him on Texas’ death row or e-mailed to a friend who has a Web site for him. The friend then mails him the jokes.

Knight said the joke he finds the funniest will be his final statement the evening of June 26.

He said he prefers jokes that don’t have a prison or death penalty theme.

“That depresses me,” he said.

Poor guy…leave your death-row jokes in the comments.

By the way, I’d also like to point out the Chronicle’s questionable taste in linking to the condemned scumbag’s MySpace profile.

Shortly before Memorial Day, Brig. Gen. William Troy, the acting commanding general of Fort Lewis in Washington state, wrote the following memo, which outlines a new policy for the base regarding memorial services for soldiers killed in action in Iraq.

From: Troy, William J BG MIL USA FORSCOM
Sent: Tuesday, May 22, 2007 17:20
Subject: Memorial Ceremonies
Commanders and Staff,

After considerable thought and seeking the advice of Rear Detachment Commanders, Commander’s Spouses, and forward Commanders, both here at Ft Lewis and at other posts, I have decided we will start holding monthly memorial services for our fallen warriors beginning in June.

As much as we would like to think otherwise, I am afraid that with the number of Soldiers we now have in harm’s way, our losses will preclude us from continuing to do individual memorial ceremonies.

I see this as a way of sharing the heavy burdens our spouses and Rear Detachments bear, while giving our fallen warriors the respect they deserve. It will also give the families of the fallen the opportunity to bond with one another, as they see others who share their grief.

I want to begin this in the latter part of June and I have asked the Corps Chaplain, COL (CH) Van Dyken, to lead the effort to get this started, please give him your support. I see the Corps Headquarters, as well as our deployed brigades and battalions, all sharing the load on this solemn duty.

Please give this plan your support. I welcome your thoughts on how best to accomplish the mission.

BG Troy
Acting CG

This is outrageous. It shows the extent to which we have become callous and desensitized as a nation to the deaths of the men and women that WE send to fight our battles. For a base commander to decide that routine jobs, such as typing memos, cleaning toilets, taking out trash, repairing vehicles and any one of a thousand other things that are happening at any one time on a large military base are more important than stopping for a brief moment in time to remember WHY you doing these tasks is beyond comprehension.

The justification that other bases are doing it and have been doing it this way is no justification at all. If anything, it should be a clarion call for the other bases to stop this practice. There are times when a group memorial service is appropriate, such as this case in which six Fort Lewis soldiers were traveling together when they were killed. For all others, the military should take a moment to reflect upon their losses individually, if for nothing else than to make them steel their resolve to prevent further losses.

The chaplain in charge of implementing the new policy had this to say:

“This is not an intent to streamline the process or in any way detract from honoring the soldiers,” Van Dyken said. “It’s just being cognizant of the fact that when you have this many, the time involved in doing each one individually is just prohibitive.”

The time involved is prohibitive? It’s your freaking job! Make the time, moron.

Army life is replete with ceremonies that mark promotions, changes of command, awards, homecomings and so on. Van Dyken pledged that saying farewell to fallen soldiers won’t become part of the routine.

“My commitment would be that we never allow it to become just another ceremony,” he said.

You’ve made it “just another ceremony”, another date on the calendar, with the change in policy. Don’t you get that? These men and women are someone’s child, sibling or parent. But what the hey, we’re busy, no need to stop what we are doing today, that’s inconvenient, let’s just throw them all together on, say, oh I don’t know, what looks good on the calendar? Hmm, the third Thursday looks good, let’s do that. Oh, wait, the general plays golf on Thursdays, let’s make it the third Tuesday of each month.

Disgusting. If only our military leaders would spend as much time devising ways to win and protect our troops as they do on the environment. How about a Zero Net Death Generation policy, General?

We turn to the paper’s corrections for the answer:

In some of today’s editions, the answers to the Sunday crossword on Page G5 do not match the puzzle on Page G4.

Wow. Next week, maybe they’ll blow the coupon section, too.

Edd and Pat are interviewing Annie Jacobsen in the 8:00 hour today; here are some background links to help give you a fuller picture.

• “Terror in the Skies”– Jacobsen’s story that recounted for the first time her experience witnessing an apparent terrorist “dry-run” on her passenger flight
• DHS Incident Review Memo– A just-released copy of the Homeland Security Department’s confirmation of the suspicious behavior Jacobsen witnessed

Make of it what you will.

Courtesy David Bauder, television writer for AP:

With all the women in television news on both sides of the camera, you would think sexism was an issue relegated to the 20th century.

Yet recently a CBS News executive, herself a pioneer for women in the industry, said she believed that Katie Couric was having trouble catching on with the public as “CBS Evening News” anchor because she was the first solo female anchor for a network nightly news show.

Well, maybe… or perhaps the problem is this.

Anyway, the facts don’t lie:

… Couric has twice set records in the past month for smallest “CBS Evening News” audience in at least 20 years. The network hardly believed she’d have lower ratings than predecessor Bob Schieffer at this point in her tenure.

In an interview with the CBS News Web site Public Eye, [News division standards chief Linda] Mason said she had no idea that a woman delivering the news would be a handicap.

“I’m afraid that Katie’s paying a price for being the first woman,” she said. “But I think it’s a great trail she’s blazing, and I think if the broadcast continues to be as good as it has been … people will start to watch. It takes time, I think. But I was surprised that there was an obvious connection between a woman giving the news, and the audience wanting to watch it.”

Much later in the article we learn…

The chief weakness in her argument? Brian Williams.

The NBC “Nightly News” anchor has been sinking in the ratings, too, over recent months. ABC “World News” anchor Charles Gibson has vaulted to the top.

Oh, so the issue isn’t sexism. Well, why let that stop us from writing an article leading our readers to believe that it is.

We also like this passage–written in Mr. Bauder’s “voice”, remember.

To be fair to CNN, Christiane Amanpour and Candy Crowley have earned prominent roles for their skills as reporters, even without movie-star looks.

I “get” that this is an attempt to compliment the reporting skills of Amanpour and Crowley… but it just strikes me as a bit of “Lookism” to note (or even judge!) that they don’t have “movie-star looks.”

Just what type of movies are you watching, Sir?

Perhaps if you’d expand your viewing horizens to include art-house, documentary, and other independent cinema (as we here at LST regularly do), you’d realize that Amanpour and Crowley have just as much a right to claim “movie-star look” status as anyone.

RACIST, SEXIST, HOMOPHOBIC PIG!

[Editorial Note: With permission from the office of Texas Senator John Cornyn, LST is re-publishing the following op-ed, which originally appeared in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram last Saturday.]

HEADLINE: As is, immigration bill a recipe for failure
By John Cornyn, United State Senator, R-TX

As Congress debates overhauling our broken immigration system, the bottom line should be this: Will the new system be enforceable and restore respect for our laws? Or will it be unenforceable and lead to even more illegality in the future?

This is not a minor matter. America is successful because it is a nation of laws. We now have a situation in which some laws are routinely ignored. If we approve yet another law that promises reform yet again fails to deliver on its promises, our precious heritage as a nation of law will be in serious jeopardy.

Our recent experience is not reassuring. In 1986, we approved an amnesty for an estimated 3 million people here illegally but promised that we would enforce the law in the future. That promise was never honored. Unsurprisingly, we now have at least 12 million here illegally, and more watching how we handle this situation.

Even after 9-11, our record of enforcement is sadly lacking. For example, in 2004, demanding better control of our border, Congress approved a Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative that requires a U.S. passport starting this spring for anyone visiting Canada, the Caribbean, Bermuda, Mexico and other parts of Latin America.

The State and Homeland Security departments had three full years to prepare for an easily foreseeable flood of new passport applications. However, we are seeing the results. Planning and staffing for the new law has been woefully inadequate.

Tens of thousands of U.S. citizens who applied for passports in January and February of this year, anticipating travel this summer, have not yet received their documents. The passport office is in near-chaos. All over the United States, people are turning to congressional offices seeking help.

Some critics are justifiably asking: If the federal government cannot even handle routine passport applications for U.S. citizens, how can it possibly do thorough background checks and issue visas for millions of foreign-born applicants?

An oversight report last year declared that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services already is overworked and stretched to its breaking point. Under the immigration reform bill being debated, that USCIS work-load would be tripled — without any significant increase in resources.

For example, the new bill gives the USCIS all of 24 hours to grant a probationary “Z” visa to any undocumented alien requesting it during the first year that the law is effective. If 12 million apply as expected, that means USCIS would have to process an average of 48,000 applications every day.

But the USCIS has only 3,000 staffers to process and review applications, including background checks. The current legislation would add only 100 new adjudicators each year for five years.

Clearly, the agency is being set up for failure. We are ensuring that the new system will not be workable. Law enforcement personnel assure me that there is no way a reliable background check could be conducted within 24 hours even if sufficient personnel were available.

Other aspects are equally troubling. The 1986 amnesty failed in part because of massive document fraud. The current Senate legislation, rather than learning from the 1986 experience, instead duplicates its errors.

Under the bill, the Department of Homeland Security is again prohibited from using all information from Z visa applications to weed out ineligible applicants.

It also forbids crucial information-sharing among law enforcement agencies. For example, if an applicant is denied a Z visa on noncriminal grounds, the bill does not allow DHS to use information supplied — such as a home address — to locate and deport the illegal entrant.

As I traveled throughout our state last week, I found Texans profoundly skeptical about this immigration bill. Their suspicion is justified. The federal government in recent years has proven that it is not serious about securing our borders and enforcing our laws. Passing yet another law that cannot be enforced will merely add to our broad disillusionment.

Last week, President Bush asserted in a speech that those of us who have raised questions about this bill “don’t want to do what’s right for America.” I respectfully disagree. Working to secure our borders and restoring respect for our laws is exactly what is right for America. Repeating the mistakes of 1986 is not.

David Benzion–
Willing to submit to any humiliation
in exchange for your dollars…

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