N.Z. Bear is picking on the Amish. Okay not really, but he is taking exception to the state of Ohio for granting an legal exception for jury duty to the Amish. It seems that the Amish as a tenet of their faith don’t want to judge others, citing Matthew 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.” As a result potential Amish jurors are excused by the court. So far, so good. If someone has a reasonable reason, like a religious objection or a medical condition, for not wanting (or being able) to participate in our justice system as a juror then we shouldn’t (and in reality, we can’t) force them to participate.

The reason for the law is an attempt to increase voting participation among the Amish.

Ohio courts pick prospective jurors from lists of registered voters or licensed drivers.

The Amish, who don’t drive and aren’t on the license lists, often forgo voting. Studies put Amish voter participation at less than 10 percent.

“They’re being disenfranchised from their voting rights because of concerns about jury duty,” said Grendell, whose district includes a sizable Amish settlement around Middlefield east of Cleveland.

N.Z. Bear believes this exchange to be an acceptable one.

This actually seems a reasonably satisfactory outcome, to me. In an ideal world, the Amish would be deprived of the right to trial-by-jury, to balance their refusal to participate in providing that same right to their fellow citizens. But sacrificing the right to vote will do, I suppose.

But the problem with this is that it allows a “backdoor” disenfranchisement of the Amish. They shouldn’t be forced to lose their right to vote, because they can’t (or won’t) participate in as a juror in our trial system due to religious reasons.

A better solution, rather than setting a legal precedent that enshrines the Amish as some sort of protected class, would be to change the method of choosing prospective jurors. If the concern is that the Amish won’t participate due to concerns over jury duty, then don’t use voter rolls to choose jurors. Use property tax lists, or something similar to that. That would alleviate any concerns that tie jury duty to voter rolls and maintain the status quo. The Amish, then able to participate in voting freely, would not be disenfranchised, and the precedent for exempting people from jury duty or other unpopular civic duties would not be set.

Ultimately, I think that this law will have little effect in increasing voter participation among the Amish. They strike me as wanting as little to do with the outside world as possible, and I suspect that includes politics as well.

I heard about this on the radio while I was out earlier today doing some last minute Christmas shopping. Islamic militants struck a mess hall on a military base in northern Iraq near Mosul.

Rockets struck a mess tent at a military base in Mosul where hundreds of U.S. soldiers had just sat down to lunch Tuesday, and military officials said at least 20 people were killed and more than 60 were wounded. A radical Muslim group, the Ansar al-Sunnah Army, claimed responsibility.

The dead included U.S. military personnel, U.S. contractors, foreign national contractors and Iraqi army, said Brig. Gen. Carter Ham, commander of Task Force Olympia in Mosul.

The number of casualties is unclear, but within moments of the attack soldiers where tending to the wounded.

The force of the explosions knocked soldiers off their feet and out of their seats as a fireball enveloped the top of the tent and shrapnel sprayed into the area, Redmon said.

Amid the screaming and thick smoke in the tent, soldiers turned their tables upside down, placed the wounded on them and gently carried them into the parking lot, [Jeremy] Redmon [Richmond, Va., Times-Dispatch reporter] said.

Scores of troops crammed into concrete bomb shelters, while others wandered around in a daze and collapsed, he said.

Other sources: FOX News, Reuters, and MSNBC.

Old media, having failed to take down President Bush, now seems to have its sights set on Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. First, came the up-armor non-story. Here’s what one National Guardsman serving with the 278th in Northern Iraq thinks about the up-armor controversy.

Now comes the revelation that, Rumsfeld didn’t sign the letters of condolence sent to the families of U.S. service members killed in action.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has decided to personally sign condolence letters to the family members of U.S. troops killed in action rather than letting a machine affix his signature.

Republican and Democratic members of Congress criticized the embattled Pentagon chief on Sunday for not signing the letters himself all along.

Let me make sure I understand this. Rumsfeld is not fit to be Secretary of Defense because he didn’t put pen to paper when signing these condolence letters. In what way does this impact his ability to lead the nation’s armed forces?

What it amounts to is a political jihad to get Rumsfeld’s scalp by some politicians sniffing the wind and noticing that Rumsfeld’s approval rating is falling. If the issue is with the composition of the armed forces, or the number of troops in Iraq, or the failure to anticipate a guerilla war in Iraq, or some other factor Rumsfeld had (or should have had) control over, fine. Maybe he deserves to be run out of Washington for any (or all) of these reasons. But to focus on a completely manufactured and bogus issue, or one as trivial as whether the signature on a letter was ink from a pen or ink from a stamp seems ridiculous to me.

Well, at least President Bush is sticking by his Secretary of Defense.

Rumsfeld over the weekend was accused of being insensitive after admitting he did not personally sign letters of condolence to families of more than 1,000 soldiers killed in Iraq but instead had them signed by auto-pen.

Rumsfeld later said he would now sign them by hand.

“Sometimes, perhaps his demeanor is rough and gruff. But below that rough and gruff, no-nonsense demeanor is a good human being who cares deeply about the military and deeply about the grief that war causes,” Bush said.

Other reactions:

• Captain’s Quarters, more here

• Power Line

• One Hand Clapping

• Stephen Bainbridge, more here and still more here

• PunditGuy

• Outside the Beltway

Linked to Outside the Beltway Traffic Jam

Ben Stein relates what brings him the most joy in life:

I have worked for two Presidents in the White House, been in dozens of movies, played in one of the best sitcoms of all time, The Wonder Years, won Emmies for my quiz show. I have been married to a glorious wife for almost 40 years and we have a handsome, rugged son. This is all good stuff, even great stuff….But….

None of this gives me the serenity that being next to a sweet, loving big furry dog gives. There is a magical connection between dog and human that offers a glimpse of heaven.

And, it seems that Dave Barry’s well reasoned arguments in favor of a dog haven’t been able to convince his wife of the benefit having a dog brings.

My wife, who would not touch the Special Toy with a barge pole, is less impressed. She fails to see the appeal of an animal that appears to be less intelligent than its own parasites. Oh, I’ve tried to explain the advantages of having a dog. For example:

A DOG IS ALWAYS READY. It doesn’t matter for what: Dogs are just ready. If you leave your car window open, the dog will leap into the car and sit there for hours. It will sit there for DAYS, if you let it. Because the dog knows that sometimes the car just starts moving, and you have to be ready! Usually the dog will sit in the driver’s seat, in case (You never know!) the dog is called upon to steer.

A DOG IS VIGILANT. One time, on a movie set, I watched a small dog walk past a line of six metal light stands. When the dog came to the sixth light stand – which was EXACTLY the same as the other five light stands – the dog stopped and began barking furiously at it. The dog would NOT stop. The owner finally had to drag the dog away, with the dog yanking wildly at its leash, still enraged by the light stand. Clearly the dog had detected some hostile intent in this particular light stand, something that we humans, with our inferior senses, were not aware of. We humans were thinking: “What’s WRONG with that dog?” Whereas the light stand was thinking: “Whew! That was close!”

Now, I must admit that I have never owned a dog. (I grew up with cats, lots of cats.) But my wife is an unabashed dog lover, and she has repeatedly shared with me the special joy a dog brings its owner. Her last dog died of old age while we were dating. She (the dog, not my wife – although my wife is pretty special too!) had such a wonderful personality that she transformed my aversion to dogs into an affinity for them. Unfortunately, we currently live in an apartment and aren’t allowed to have pets, but we do plan on being a home for a special dog when we own a house with a yard.

If you are concerned about immigration reform or the lack thereof, Diggers Realm has a roundup of posts about this issue.

In a separate post he also details the shell game Congress is playing regarding securing our borders. It is irresponsible of lawmakers in Congress to call for a doubling of the size of the Border Patrol without allocating the funds to make such an increase reality. Once again, Washington politicians want to look strong on an issue, while doing nothing to really address the problem.

Arthur Chrenkoff has posted another roundup of good news from Iraq.

I had wondered aloud whether or not those nations that did not support the war in Iraq would participate in preparing Iraq for the January election and in securing the success of the election. One of the most positive signs for the upcoming election is the participation of nations who opposed U.S. military intervention in Iraq:

Other foreign assistance for the election continues to flow in. Canada has offered to train election officials in Iraq and to help monitor the vote. Japan will be training 10 Iraqi electoral officials from Baghdad and Muthana province. Germany, meanwhile, is assisting with electoral education: “A new radio program is about to hit the airwaves in Iraq focusing on the upcoming elections scheduled for the end of January. It’s radio for Iraqis, by Iraqis, with a little help from [the German broadcaster] Deutsche Welle.” The report continues:

“Even getting to this hotel conference room in Amman, Jordan was at times a life-threatening trek for some of the young Iraqi journalists. Those who came from southern or central Iraq had to make long detours around hotspots like Fallujah or Ramadi. Those from the north had to travel through Turkey and Syria to Jordan.

“But they were willing to embark on the sometimes dangerous journey because they are all committed to one thing: making radio for their fellow Iraqis.

“In this case, they’ll be making Election Radio, a project funded by Germany’s foreign ministry and coordinated by Deutsche Welle. Starting in mid December, the Iraqi journalists gathered in this hotel will be sending in reports from the ground daily to create a 30-minute program of current information over the upcoming vote in Iraq.

“The 19 journalists taking part in the project come from all 18 of Iraq’s provinces. When they return, they will start producing radio packages and interviews that have been discussed with coordinators at Deutsche Welle.

“The reporters will then send their finished pieces in MP3 digital format to Berlin, where they are turned into the half-hour moderated program in Deutsche Welle’s studio. The completed program is then sent back to Iraq, again by MP3, to local partner stations where it is broadcast.”

While Canada and Japan are training electoral officials, Denmark is providing training for some of the candidates:

“About 100 candidates for Iraq’s first popular election in decades traveled to Kuwait on Saturday for a seminar about the democratic process.

“The men and women were bused from the southern Iraqi city of Basra for the two-day event organized by Denmark’s government. Two of the candidates are running for the national assembly, while the rest are candidates for local offices.

“The candidates will attend lectures by experts from the United Nations and Denmark about Iraq’s election law, the role of political parties, campaigning and how the vote will be conducted.”

It is heartening to see Canada, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland providing support to the democratic hopes of the people of Iraq. The story has many more examples of international aid helping the Iraqis to rebuild their country. One effort worthy of particular note is a seminar held in the Czech Republic to aid Iraqi judges to rebuild Iraq’s justice system. But that’s just a taste – you really should read it all.

I have not yet had the opportunity to visit Europe, although I have the desire to travel there sometime in my life. Among the places I would like to visit are the beaches at Normandy and Bastogne.

These are sacred places and I would very much like to honor the memories of the men who died in these places for their sacrifice in defeating a great evil in their time.

Last week, Chevy Chase got himself in hot water over a colorful rant.

After actors Alec Baldwin and Susan Sarandon delivered speeches accepting their Defender of Democracy awards, Chase took the stage a final time and unleashed a rant against President Bush that stunned the crowd. He deployed the four-letter word that got Vice President Cheney in hot water, using it as a noun. Chase called the prez a “dumb [expletive].” He also used it as an adjective, assuring the audience, “I’m no [expletive] clown either… . This guy started a jihad.”

Chase also said: “This guy in office is an uneducated, real lying schmuck … and we still couldn’t beat him with a bore like Kerry.”

Now, we’ve got the appropriate response.

(From INDC Journal)

President George Bush has been selected by Time Magazine as its 2004 Person of the Year.

President Bush’s bold, uncompromising leadership and his clear-cut election victory made him Time magazine’s “Person of the Year” for 2004, its managing editor said on Sunday.

Time chose Bush “for sticking to his guns (literally and figuratively), for reshaping the rules of politics to fit his 10-gallon-hat leadership style and for persuading a majority of voters this time around that he deserved to be in the White House for another four years,” Jim Kelly wrote in the magazine.

Congratulations also to Power Line, which was chosen as the first ever Blog of the Year.

Power Line is certainly an excellent choice, although both LGF and INDC Journal played significant roles in the breaking of Rathergate. Also, blogs were instrumental to getting the story of the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth coverage from the MSM and keeping the MSM honest in its reporting of that story and many others. Perhaps, a better choice for Person of the Year would have been “Bloggers”. An strong argument can be made that a great deal of credit for the success of President Bush and the Republican party in this year’s election was due to the right half of the blogosphere.

Power Line points to the transcript of a press conference where the issue of up-armoring the vehicles in the unit of the National Guardsman who asked the question of Donald Rumsfeld about the lack of armor on various military vehicles was addressed. As the transcript makes clear, the Army was already deploying armor kits to the vehicles in Iraq, as part of a program over the past 18 months.

Now, we’re going to focus today on up-armoring tactical wheeled vehicles, but what I want to do is remind you also that what we’re doing today when we talk about tactical wheeled vehicles is only a part of a very broad strategy that’s been in effect for many months now, as all of us work under the Secretary of Defense’s direction to ensure that we properly protect Soldiers. So up-armoring is only a part of a comprehensive strategy. And although we won’t address these topics today, what we also need to bear in mind is that we have very important efforts that are going on and have been long-standing programs over the course of the last 18 months to ensure that we counter IEDs with an IED task force; that we properly ensure that we give Soldiers more fire power, more armaments so that they can shoot more effectively and with more effect, and then also to protect them, both not only their vehicles but also the personal equipment that they wear on their body.

…

Level two force protection says that you have an existing fleet of many thousands of vehicles out there, and what you have to do is put additional protection on vehicles that are already in use out across the Army’s inventory. And so that has been the other principal focus that we have. We can’t automatically or magically swap out all of the equipment that we have out in the theater, but what we can do is develop programs where we take kits and put them onto existing pieces of equipment.

Now this is not a trivial process. We’ll talk to you about the testing that goes into these level two kits, so that we put the right things on pieces of equipment. We’ll talk about making sure that the actual system can continue to operate with many thousand more pounds on it, in some cases.

For example, for a humvee, the typical add-on armor kit is just over a thousand pounds. And so you could imagine, if I took and put a thousand pounds more weight on your – the vehicle you drive back and forth to work, it would have secondary impacts in terms of your suspension and your powertrain. We have to test those things out to make sure that we’re giving a soldier something that can endure in combat; it won’t just break the minute he starts to operate it. So the level-two kit is a sophisticated requirement and one that we’ve been very successful in adapting, not just for humvees but, as we’ll show you, for a variety of systems. And then level three is locally fabricated armor.

…

But over time now we’ve grown to a very, very high standard, and when you go, for example, and visit the fabrication facilities that we have in Kuwait today, what you’ll see is, first of all, the Defense Logistics Agency-approved steel being used. You’ll see actual templates that have been designed in part by the drivers who operate the equipment. And you’ll see very, very experienced machinists and welders who are putting this stuff on. And we’ll show you some pictures of what high-quality work this is. This is an interim solution, but it’s a darn good solution that’s been very, very effective as we take a look at what we’ve done to protect the force.

This process isn’t limited solely to Iraq either.

So for example, right now, if you go to Fort Carson, the 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment is executing up-armoring this week, and they will have that effort complete here in the course of the next several weeks. The goal then being that when they deploy, the majority of the pieces of equipment that they’re going to deploy will already have up-armoring added to them. They will then complete that operation with fewer pieces of equipment when they actually get into combat zones. So we will have taken care of the bulk of their requirement at home station.

We have a similar effort under way in U.S. Army Europe. As you’re aware, we have forces there that are going to deploy to Afghanistan, and when they deploy to Afghanistan, what we want to try to do once again is get up-armoring solutions to them now instead of waiting till they get to the combat zone.

And here is the current status of the up-armored vehicles in Iraq:

Now, where are we today? We’ve had a discussion here about the level one, level two and level three. This is the status of forces today with respect to what has been armored in theater, okay? As General Speakes mentioned, we’re doing everything we can with respect to getting level one and level two there. At this point in time, because of the production requirements, we have actually begun to install level three. And between the two of them combined, today we have about 61 percent of the vehicles taken care of.

I would point out here, though, that with respect to the light tactical vehicles, and that’s the vehicles that have been suffering the majority of casualties and the majority of incidents, we’re now at 80 percent, and the plan is by March to actually have not only these vehicles taken care of but also the heavy truck fleet, so we’ll have those installed in theater.

And in regards to the unit of the National Guardsman who asked the up-armor question of Donald Rumsfeld:

Q Thank you. I was wondering if we should be thinking about the difference between soldiers who are going to be headed into Iraq and Soldiers who are already there. A lot of the concerns about who did and didn’t have were from soldiers who were going in, and I didn’t – I personally didn’t get a sense of what the people who are already there are using and what their needs and gaps are.

GEN. SPEAKES: Very, very good question. The first point is that you’ll recollect that one of the questions was the status of the 278 ACR; in other words, the date that we had the visit by the secretary of Defense, we had a question about their up-armoring status. When the question was asked, 20 vehicles remained to be up-armored at that point. We completed those 20 vehicles in the next day. And so over 800 vehicles from the 278 ACR were up-armored, and they are a part now of their total force that is operating up in Iraq.

Q When you say they’re 100 percent up-armored, does that mean 100 percent of their requirement or 100 percent of their vehicles?

GEN. SPEAKES: Yes, what we did is there was a total of 804 vehicles that were identified as part of our up-armoring strategy. That’s the wheeled vehicles that they brought north with them or drew when they got up in country. And so at this point the vehicles that they’re operating, that they’re driving, are all up-armored. There were a few vehicles that were put on heavy equipment transporters and moved up. The example would be, for example, the shop van, which is a large, essentially static vehicle. And it was taken up by a truck and dropped in position, but it was not operated on the way up there. So at this point, if you’re in Kuwait and you’re headed north up into Iraq, General Schoomaker’s guidance is real clear: you’re not going north of the berm, which means north of the border, in a non-up-armored vehicle, and that’s our requirement. And so what you now have is an accountability process during the reception, staging and onward movement where every vehicle’s accounted for and it gets up-armored or it doesn’t go north.

So no soldiers will leave Kuwait without the up-armoring of their vehicles being completed. And the specific unit of the Guardsman who questioned Donald Rumsfeld was up-armored within twenty four hours of the question being asked.

There is no up-armoring issue, nor in my opinion was there one to begin with. The issue was created by a planted question by a newspaper “reporter” who wanted to make Donald Rumsfeld and the U.S. military look bad.

The remarkable point of all this “controversy” has been the fact that the Secretary of Defense would take unscreened questions from the men under his command. When was the last time you heard bin Laden fielding questions from the Al-Qaida grunts in Iraq? Have any of them asked him why the United States hasn’t cut and run from Iraq or Afghanistan? The answer is the difference between America and her enemies. In America the military is answerable to the people; bin Laden answers to no one but himself.