Bloggers Unite !

"Bloggers for Piglet"

Piglet's under attack. See here, here, and here.

"Hans Britz?! Oh, No!! Oh, Hi, Hans!"

US politician praises North Korea.

North Korea is committed to dismantling its nuclear weapons programme, an unofficial US envoy has said, after a visit to the capital Pyongyang.

Bill Richardson said he was "very pleased" with North Korea's willingness to make progress in six-nation talks.

Pyongyang has already pledged to abandon its nuclear weapons in an earlier round of the talks.

Mr Richardson, former US ambassador at the UN, said North Korea now wanted to focus on a civilian nuclear programme.

This is encouraging; we've never heard anything like this before from Iran North Korea. (Dripping in sarcasm)

Mr Richardson, the governor of the US state of New Mexico, spent several days meeting North Korean officials and touring their nuclear facilities last week.

He later told the South Korean foreign minister that the North had indicated it was willing to comply with international non-proliferation treaties and to allow UN monitoring of its nuclear programme.

"I was impressed with their tone, and their commitment to principles," he told reporters in the South Korean capital, Seoul.

Can you say gullible naive?

Forbidden fruits create many jams.

A Telling Chart on the ROP

Go and check out: " The List " of Islamic Terror Attacks For the Past 12 Months

Some minds are like concrete, thoroughly mixed up and permanently set.

Chavez and Tehran Getting Chummy

Several months ago, President Hugo Chavez announced his friendship with Iran, then made a March visit to Tehran; and now recently a number of Iranian military officers were spotted in Caracas .

Naval analysts believe the Iranians are interested in using Venezuela’s access to French and Spanish submarine technology, and Iran’s strong desire to weaponize her submarines with a variety of rockets and missiles cannot come about without acquiring classified technical data and technologies.

Shortages of Arab Interpreters Still a Problem

Arab interpreter security breach - got classified material while operating in Iraq.

An Arabic interpreter assigned to Iraq, fabricated his identity to gain regular access to classified material, and was arrested and jailed on October 13. He had been granted a "high-level clearance to access classified information."

He has worked with U.S. military forces in Iraq for the last two years but was actually employed by a private Pentagon contractor. He has been charged with making a number of false statements to FBI and Department of Defense officials, in addition to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. His real identity is unknown.

The interpreter claimed to be a Lebanese citizen who fled to the U.S. from Beirut in the late 1970s after his home was bombed. He was deployed to Iraq in late-2003; and he is believed to be 45 years of age and of Moroccan descent.

In 1993, he was granted permanent resident status by the INS as part of an amnesty program for aliens who had lived in the U.S. for more than 10 years. He was naturalized in February 2000.

BACK TO THE FUTURE

Al Qaida's new safe haven - -- Somalia -- again!

Despite the U.N. Security Council's prolongation of a weapons embargo (extending it by six months) on Somalia no more than a week ago, a move that gained very little media attention, it has had no real impact on the gunrunners; and the arms business proceeds to prosper in the lawless Horn of Africa.

Sources say at least three governments are actively involved in shipping weapons and other military equipment to Somalia. Ethiopia and Eritrea denied any involvement.

However, the Yemeni government divulged that its air force participated in nine missions -- flying to Somalia 5,000 guns, magazines and ammunition, and 15,000 sets of uniforms. They made these shipments to the "Somali interim federal government," a vacuous body habitating principally in Kenya, where you will also find the Somali parliament.

This wildly disordered state of affairs has been going on for 14 years -- ever since the 1991 downfall of Muhammad Siad Brre, the dictator (and olympian washout of the U.N.), to establish peace in the country. Prime Minister Yussuf Abdulhai, age 72, and a former warlord of Puntland, and "his government" continue to play the role, not only of a legitimately elected government, but also as the official body representing an alleged "national agenda" to the 3.5 million Sunni Muslim population divided (not surprisingly) into groups and clans.

This unstable situation is causing further deterioration and is slowly developing into a serious security threat, a concern to those fighting global terrorism, predominantly that of the jihadi kind.

As if dealing with a government in control of a real army and real law enforcement agencies, the Yemeni government received new orders from Abdulhai and his chief of staff. Their extensive list included an undisclosed number of RPG anti-tank rocket launchers, anti-aircraft SAM-7 shoulder operated rockets, 85mm anti-tank guns, mortars and even a number of helicopters, all available in Yemen’s military storage or junkyards.

Against the backdrop of illegal arms shipments landing in Somalia it is obvious supplying governments and independent gunrunners, some of whom fly over the Indian Ocean or from North Africa via Niger, Chad, Sudan and Ethiopia, to Somali destinations, have more clients in mind. Among them are Somali breakaway governments, warlords and jihadi elements, setting up shop in the country.

The most important concern is over Somalia becoming a strong supplier of hardware, training and recuperation, for African al-Qaida supporters. The independent breakaway republic of Somaliland, the only well organized and democratic entity in the once united Somalia, announced its police force had arrested al-Qaida operatives, among them a Comoro Island native by the name of Fazul Abdullah Muhammad with at least four of his colleagues. Immediately following the September 29 elections, Somaliland sources said they had apprehended more al-Qaida and Jamaa Islamiah loyals who were on a mission to assassinate leading members of the Union of Democrats Party, UDUB. No details were given about the hit team’s full identity but a source in the capital Hargeisa told visiting analysts from Kenya the assassins had also targeted leaders of other political parties in the 82-seat parliament.

The nature of al-Qaida’s involvement became clear as a leading Muslim clergy, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said in Mogadishu he and other hard line clergy envision a Somali Muslim entity based on the Taliban model -- in other words a new al-Qaida stronghold.

Local warlords and gang leaders in Mogadishu and in the countryside say Sheikh Aweys is gradually receiving a legendary Osama bin Laden-like image. One gang leader involved in the weapons’ business as well as in piracy and robbery said, according to a British analyst: “Aweys is the only one who can bring all of us together and even lead a jihad, not only in Somalia but also against the traitors in breakway Somaliland and Puntland, who cooperate with the Christians of Ethiopia and Eritrea.”

According to Shabtai Shavit, a former head of the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad, quoted by Michel Moutot on a South African news website, there is a growing danger Somalia will become an al-Qaida stronghold. Shavit warned that sooner or later terror leaders such as Jordanian born Musab al-Zarqawi, the man behind most of the terror campaign in Iraq, will have to move out of Iraq or even opt to do so voluntarily since “a terrorist organization cannot exist without territory, al-Qaida cannot stay in Iraq forever, they (will) have to find another place.” Jiuseppe Pisano, Italy’s interior minister, expressed similar views in the same article, cautioning the Horn of Africa is becoming al-Qaida’s next comfort zone and said: “…where, in stateless lands, al-Qaida has arrived and settled and from where it tends, in various ways, to dispatch its followers into Europe and the rest of the world.”

Sitting idle, watching a brewing disaster in the making, is an unfortunate and dangerous position to hold. It is possibly not too far fetched to assume the need to re-enter Somalia with a full force, under a U.N. or coalition flag, will dictate some sort of pre-emptive action to eradicate a new al-Qaida territorial safe haven before it dominates the whole country. --- G2 Bulletin

The Smoking Gun

From The American Thinker:

Little Green Footballs brings us news of incrdible bungling in covering up Kofi Annan’s efforts to protect the guilty parties in Syria:

Someone at the United Nations apparently doctored the report on the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri—and was stupid enough to release a version of the MS Word document with the “Track Changes” feature enabled: UN office doctored report on murder of Hariri.

Let’s put the cover-up on the agenda of the Security Council meeting President Bush wants held.

Painting a Grim Picture

China is the next superpower and the West is losing its grip fast.

This collective loss of nerve in the European democracies is partly the result of government gridlock in Great Britain, the US, France, Germany and Italy because of internal power struggles at the top (Britain, Germany, America) or because the governments are on their last legs (France, Italy, America); the result is that five of the Group of Seven richest countries are all but incapacitated, leaving only Canada, which is not important enough to make a difference, and Russia, which has its own backyard to sort out, to give a lead.

Make no mistake: the democracies are about to pay a high price for this power vacuum, which will leave them twiddling their thumbs as problems mount, from the fall-out from this weekend’s referendum in Iraq to the looming trial of Saddam Hussein, fundamentalist Iran’s blatant power grab in the Middle East, the spectre of nuclear proliferation in more and more failed states, the future of North Korea, the security of international energy supplies, the increasingly difficult economic conditions plaguing the West and the growing imbalances and strains in the international financial system.

Full article. Registration required.

OKC BOMBING FALLOUT

Oklahoma City FBI surrenders documents to court
Source: WorldNetDaily

Suit seeks information that could prove prior knowledge of blast plot.

More than 53 million Muslims in Europe

Survey shows Islam on the rise across continent
Source: WorldNetDaily

The Central Institute's Islam Archives in Soest, Germany, says the number of Muslims in Europe has increased by 800,000 over the last two years, reports the German evangelical news agency IDEA

U.S., South Korea bolster military alliance

The United States and South Korea yesterday reaffirmed the decades-long military alliance between the two countries, including continued plans to use nuclear weapons to deter North Korean aggression.

Insiders see hint of Miers pullout

The White House has begun making contingency plans for the withdrawal of Harriet Miers as President Bush's choice to fill a seat on the Supreme Court, conservative sources said yesterday.

Cell injections target brain disease

STEM CELLS from aborted foetuses are to be injected directly into human brains in a procedure that could open the door to treating a host of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and motor neurone disease.

Scots cities 'must wake up' to terror threat

SCOTTISH cities have to accept that they are a likely target for al-Qaeda bombers, a leading terrorism expert warned last night.

Source: The Scotsman
Excerpts:

Nigel Churton, vice-chairman of the Control Risks Group, and former military intelligence and kipnap expert, said Edinburgh's financial sector, its status as the seat of government and its "picture postcard" image all made the capital an ideal location for terrorists to strike.

Control Risks Group is a worldwide business security firm, staffed largely by former military and government personnel, which advises businesses on all types of threat.

He said all major cities have to consider themselves potential targets, particularly places such as Glasgow and others south of the border, like Manchester, with big commercial centres.

He warned that the war against al-Qaeda would take at least a dozen years to win; that the bombers were now more isolated and harder to track down than they had been and that there were at least 100 al-Qaeda terrorists ready to strike in the UK, with another 100 ready to take their places.

He said: "Al-Qaeda desperately wants any attack, wherever it is, to generate the maximum amount of casualties. It has got to the stage where, to get the headlines, it has to be worse than what has gone before.

"They are not like the IRA or ETA, who have a political aim. They want to get the US and its allies out of the Middle East, they want Saudi Arabia to return to being a land of milk and honey and they want to destroy Israel. There is nothing to negotiate with them on."

He added: "This has not just been going on since 9/11 in 2001; this has been going on since 1993, when they launched their first attack on the World Trade Centre. This has been going on for 12 years and the general expectation is that it will take another dozen years to sort out."

He said: "They have not just hit capital cities. Look at Washington and New York, Bali and Jakarta, Mombassa and Nairobi. It is not unreasonable to assume they will look outside London, and you can't afford to be complacent in any city.

"If you have targets like a financial centre, and picture postcard targets like in Edinburgh, you are a potential target."

(Emphasis mine - H.H.)

INVASION USA

3 illegals beat pregnant woman
Trio held for Arizona mayhem rampage

Three illegal immigrants are being held on $50,000 bonds for a vandalism and mayhem rampage that included beating a pregnant woman with a hose. Full story.

Liberal elites ruined Britain as a hyperpower.

Could America meet the same fate?

WHAT DOES MODERN HISTORY have to teach us about the age of American empire? The final chapters of the British Empire offer lessons and parallels aplenty. Empires don't last forever, and the combination of martial victory, popular ennui, and liberal anti-patriotism is a dangerous mix for a superpower. MORE.

Terrorist Safe House Destroyed; Police Station Attack Thwarted

Source: American Forces Press Service

WASHINGTON, Oct. 21, 2005 – Coalition forces detained five terrorists and seized a large weapons cache today when they raided a suspected al Qaeda safe house northwest of Qaim, Iraq, military officials reported.

The cache consisted of weapons, ammunition, mortars and bomb-making materials, officials said.

Intelligence sources and tips from local citizens led coalition forces to the location. Coalition aircraft, using precision guided munitions, destroyed the safe house and weapons cache after coalition forces left the scene. Elsewhere in Iraq, Iraqi police and coalition forces stopped short a coordinated attack on the Khalis Iraqi police station Oct. 20, in Diyala. One Iraqi police officer was killed and two children were wounded.

Full details.

In Italy, Al Qaeda Turns to Organized Crime for Protection

Go to New America Media to read full story.

Editor's Note: Italian media report that Al Qaeda is moving operatives through Italy on their way to North Africa and Europe with the help of a Naples-based criminal network similar to the Mafia.

Italian investigators say Osama Bin Laden's Al Qaeda organization is moving deep into the Mediterranean peninsula's underworld of organized crime.

Was Joe Wilson / Valerie Plame Affair a CIA Plot?

Excerpt from the National Ledger:

Former prosecutor Joseph E. diGenova theorizes the real story is that "the CIA launched a covert operation" against the President when it sent Wilson on the mission to Africa to investigate the Iraq-uranium link. DiGenova, a former Independent Counsel who prosecuted several high-profile cases and has extensive experience on Capitol Hill, including as counsel to several Senate committees, is optimistic that Special Prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald will figure it all out.

“It seems to me somewhat strange, in terms of CIA tradecraft, that if you were really attempting to protect the identity of a covert officer, why would you send her husband overseas on a mission, without a confidentiality agreement, and then allow him when he came back to the United States to write an op-ed piece in the New York Times about it,” asks DiGenova.

That mission, he explained, leads naturally to the questions: Who is this guy? And how did he get this assignment? “That’s not the way you protect the identity of a covert officer,” he said. “If it is, then [CIA director] Porter Goss is doing the right thing in cleaning house” at the agency.

If the CIA is the real villain in the case, then almost everything we have been told about the scandal by the media is wrong. What’s more, it means that the CIA, perhaps the most powerful intelligence agency in the U.S. Government, was deliberately trying to undermine the Bush Administration’s Iraq War policy. The liberals who are anxious for indictments of Bush Administration officials in this case should start paying attention to this aspect of the scandal. They may be opposed to the Iraq War, but since when is the CIA allowed to run covert operations against an elected president of the U.S.?

DiGenova first made his astounding comments about the Wilson affair being a covert operation against the President on the Imus in the Morning Show, carried nationally on radio and MSNBC-TV. I wondered whether these serious charges would be refuted or probed by the media. Imus, a shock jock who has spent several days grieving and joking about the death of his cat, didn’t grasp their significance. But the mainstream press didn’t seem interested, either.

DiGenova told me he believes there has been a “war between the White House and the CIA over intelligence” and that the agency, in the Wilson affair, “was using the sort of tactics it uses in covert actions overseas.” One has to consider the implications of this statement. It means that the CIA was using Wilson for the purpose of undermining the Bush Administration’s Iraq policy.

If this is the case, then one has to conclude that the CIA’s covert operation against the President was successful to a point. It generated an investigation of the White House after officials began trying to set the record straight to the press about the Wilson mission. At this point, it’s still not clear what if anything Fitzgerald has on these officials. If they’re indicted for making inconsistent statements about their discussions with one another or the press, that would seem to be a pathetically weak case. And it would not get to the heart of the issue—the CIA’s war against Bush.

(Emphasis mine - H.H.)

Rest of article

DISTURBING...............CHILLING...............

"Columnist Jon Sanders of the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, NC, has written a blog entry that reveals just how easy it is to get a job teaching Africana Studies at North Carolina State University. It also demonstrates how the diversity movement is bringing people together in the great state of North Carolina."

Please go here to FrontPage magazine to read this chilling tale.

UPDATE:
Thinking back to the overblown hysteria by the media over Bill Bennett's remarks, Michelle Malkin asks where is the media outrage now.

Is the CIA a Liberal Think Tank?

HeavyHanded says, "You bet your sweet @&&!"

Go here to read an analysis of the CIA by Jim Kouri, CPP

Mr. Kouri: "is currently fifth vice-president of the National Association of Chiefs of Police. He's former chief at a New York City housing project in Washington Heights nicknamed "Crack City" by reporters covering the drug war in the 1980s. In addition, he served as director of public safety at a New Jersey university and director of security for several major organizations. He's also served on the National Drug Task Force and trained police and security officers throughout the country. He writes for many police and crime magazines including Chief of Police, Police Times, The Narc Officer, Campus Law Enforcement Journal, and others, and he's a columnist for TheConservativeVoice.Com. He's appeared as on-air commentator for over 100 TV and radio news and talk shows including Oprah, McLaughlin Report, CNN Headline News, MTV, Fox News, etc. His book Assume The Position is available at Amazon.Com, Booksamillion.com, and can be ordered at local bookstores. Kouri holds a bachelor of science in criminal justice and master of arts in public administration and he's a board certified protection professional."

Cut & paste: America-haters turn a blind eye to the killers in Iraq

East Timor's Foreign Minister and Noble Prize winner Jose Ramos-Horta pays tribute to US troops in The Asian Wall Street Journal

"TIME and again as I watch the barbarity inflicted on innocent Iraqi civilians, often women and children, pass with seeming silence and indifference from the rest of the world, I ask where are those who are so quick to take to the streets to protest every alleged US sin, be it real or imaginary?

If they are so appalled at the graphic photos showing the depraved acts committed by a small number of American servicemen – photos that, never let it be forgotten, were unearthed as a result of the US Army's own investigation – surely they should be even more appalled by the daily carnage inflicted on the Shiah majority in Iraq.

Instead, those who hate the US seem to believe that every wrong committed by an American serviceman must not only be loudly condemned but portrayed as a deliberate act by the US Government, while the systematic and daily barbarities perpetrated predominantly by Sunni Muslims upon their fellow Muslims pass without comment. Such hypocrisy and unwarranted attacks increase the pressure on the US to cut and run from Iraq...

For all the present violence, in a few years Iraq could easily evolve into a peaceful and democratic country. Whether that transpires ultimately rests in the hands of the millions of Iraqis. But they cannot succeed if they are abandoned. And the brave, young American soldiers whom we today see cruising the treacherous streets of Iraq, sometimes battling the terrorists, sometimes conversing with ordinary Iraqis, will be remembered as the heroes who made this possible."

Thanks to Dr. Demarche for the tip on this article.

Have You Heard This in the Mainstream Media?

I'll bet not.

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has been sent a letter from a group of prominent Arab intellectuals, signed by over 4,000 Moslem authors, scholars, poets, and journalists worldwide, requesting the establishment of an International Criminal Court for the prosecution of Islamic freedom fighters terrorists and the Moslem leaders who rally incite them -- calling such leaders -- the "Sheiks of Death."

I cannot believe that the mainstream media is not all over this bit of news.
(End of sarcasm)

Herndon group to monitor illegal laborers
Herndon, Virginia-area residents concerned about illegal immigration met last night to organize a new chapter of the Minutemen, a group that gained notice across the country when its members began patrolling the U.S.-Mexico border.

"The freedom and happiness of man...[are] the sole objects of all legitimate government."

-- Thomas Jefferson

Lebanese, Syrian Officials Implicated in Hariri Murder
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) - Syria on Friday rejected a United Nations report implicating senior Syrian and Lebanese security officials in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Not surprisingly, Syria called the report politically motivated.

Bush Declined PA’s Request for Road Map Timeline
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – President Bush declined the Palestinian Authority’s request to establish a timeline for implementing the road map peace plan, a P.A. Minister said on Friday. Bush also said he didn’t know when a Palestinian state would be established...

Gun Maker Shield Bill Has Anti-Gun Provisions
(CNSNews.com) – Legislation passed Thursday to protect the gun industry from liability lawsuits includes anti-gun amendments that could have been blocked in the House, according to one pro-gun organization. The group believes failing to block those amendments could haunt gun owners in the future...

DeLay ‘Charged for Defeating Democrats,’ He Says
(CNSNews.com) – Rep. Tom DeLay did not speak during his first court hearing on conspiracy and money laundering charges Friday morning. But afterwards, he told reporters gathered outside the Austin, Tex., courthouse that he will be totally exonerated -- and that the prosecutor who's out to get him won't succeed...

Dems Complain About DeLay’s Smiling Mug Shot
(CNSNews.com) – There it is, front and center on the Democratic National Committee’s webpage: a full-color mug shot of a smiling Rep. Tom DeLay, not bad as mug shots go, with the caption, “DeLay Booked.” The flattering photo bothers some DeLay haters...

DON'T GET STUCK ON STUPID...

OOOPS, TOO LATE....

"[I]n fact, Iraq is a great American success story. You know, free Iraq... it's done. Free Afghanistan... it's done. Democrats have been driving around with free Tibet stickers for fifty years, and it's no nearer than it was when they stuck them on their 1962 Volvos."

---Mark Steyn

TODAY'S HUMOR

A seven-year-old boy was at the center of a Minneapolis, MN. courtroom drama yesterday when he challenged a court ruling over who should have custody of him.

The boy has a history of being beaten by his parents and the judge initially awarded custody to his aunt, in keeping with child custody law and regulations requiring that family unity be maintained to the degree possible.

The boy surprised the court when he proclaimed that his aunt beat him more than his parents and he adamantly refused to live with her. When the judge then suggested that he live with his grandparents, the boy cried out that they also beat him.

After considering the remainder of the immediate family and learning that domestic violence was apparently a way of life among them, the judge took the unprecedented step of allowing the boy to propose who should have custody of him.

After two recesses to check legal references and confer with child welfare officials, the judge granted temporary custody to the Minnesota Vikings, whom the boy firmly believes are not capable of beating anyone.

SIGH!

We're Stunned! Most Fun U.S. City Is...

It's not New York, New Orleans, or even Las Vegas. The city where you'll have the most fun is...Minneapolis.

Hooray for us!

That's the word from game maker Cranium, Inc., which commissioned Bert Sperling, who masterminded the "Best Places to Live" feature for Money magazine, to rank 50 cities for their fun factor. This was determined by the city's number of sports teams, restaurants, dance performances, toy stores, and the amount of the city's budget that is spent on recreation, among other factors.

And why did Minneapolis beat out cities known for the classic fun factors of sin and sun? According to Cranium, the goal was to find a city that is an "outrageously fun experience with something for everyone." Minneapolis won because it's the home of Mary Tyler Moore, four professional sports teams, and the best mall in America. Minneapolis has more theaters than Boston, more parks than Denver, more golfers per capita than any other city in America, and with 10,000 lakes in the state, Minnesota, has more coastline than California, Florida, and Hawaii combined. It even has 15 dog parks. Woof! Cranium CEO Richard Tait said, "It's almost a no-brainer" to crown Minneapolis the Most Fun City.

Perhaps even more startling than the fact that Minneapolis is No. 1 is that New Orleans is No. 50. Does that mean a trip to the Mall of America is more fun than Mardi Gras? You decide.

Here are the top 50 fun cities, ranked from top to bottom:

1. Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota
2. Orange County, California
3. San Jose, California
4. Atlanta, Georgia
5. Chicago, Illinois
6. Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, North Carolina
7. Washington, DC
8. Oakland, California
9. Salt Lake City-Ogden, Utah
10. Seattle-Bellevue-Everett, Washington

11. Portland-Vancouver, Oregon-Washington
12. San Francisco, California
13. Baltimore, Maryland
14. Milwaukee-Waukesha, Wisconsin
15. Denver, Colorado
16. Detroit, Michigan
17. St. Louis, Missouri
18. San Diego, California
19. Indianapolis, Indiana
20. Cincinnati, Ohio

21. Columbus, Ohio
22. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
23. Sacramento, California
24. Nashville, Tennessee
25. Las Vegas, Nevada
26. Los Angeles-Long Beach, California
27. Kansas City, Missouri-Kansas
28. Nassau-Suffolk, New York
29. Charlotte-Gastonia-Rock Hill, North Carolina
30. Omaha, Nebraska

31. Norfolk-Virginia Beach-Newport News, Virginia
32. Houston, Texas
33. Cleveland-Lorain-Elyria, Ohio
34. Dallas, Texas
35. Memphis, Tennessee
36. Orlando, Florida
37. Louisville, Kentucky
38. Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas
39. Riverside-San Bernardino, California
40. Greensboro-Winston-Salem-High Point, North Carolina

41. New York, New York
42. Boston, Massachusetts
43. Hartford, Connecticut
44. Austin-San Marcos, Texas
45. Newark, Newark
46. Miami, Florida
47. Bergen-Passaic, Newark
48. Fort Lauderdale, Florida
49. Phoenix-Mesa, Arizona
50. New Orleans, Louisiana

US, UK teams search quake rubble for Osama Bin Laden

Daily Times (Pakistan)

PESHAWAR: An MI6/SAS team has joined US Special Forces in earthquake-devastated Balakot to search for Osama Bin Laden among thousands of victims still buried, British newspaper the Sunday Express reports.

US President George W Bush approved a full-scale surveillance operation along the remote Afghan-Pakistan border where extremists have training camps. The team, flown in from a high-security base in Afghanistan, is equipped with imagery and eavesdropping technology, high-tech weapons systems and MI6 linguists to try to locate the most wanted “terrorist” in the world.

Bin Laden has a $20 million bounty on his head. Security officers in London and Washington are anxious not to discuss whether Bin Laden is dead or has escaped the devastation from the 7.6-magnitude earthquake. But days before it struck, an American satellite had spotted an Al Qaeda training camp in a remote area and obtained high-resolution close-ups.

A senior intelligence officer in Washington told the Sunday Express: “One of those photos bore a remarkable resemblance to Bin Laden. His face looked thinner, which is in keeping with our reports that his kidney condition has worsened.”

In recent weeks, both MI6 and the CIA have established that Bin Laden has received a portable kidney dialysis machine from China but it requires electricity to power it. Drones, unmanned aircraft that US Special Forces launched from Afghanistan last week, have reported that the area along the border has lost all power supplies. President Bush, who has said he wants Bin Laden ‘dead or alive’, is closely monitoring the operation.

One Washington terrorism expert, Bruce Hoffman at the Rand Corporation, said that if Bin Laden had managed to escape the earthquake, he might have made his way to the disputed Kashmir region. There is also the possibility that he could have made his way back to the Toba Kakar Range in Afghanistan. But veteran CIA officer Milt Bearden said: “If Bin Laden is dead, the world will never know. We just have to wait until somebody drags out his body and says; this is Bin Laden. My bet is that won’t happen.”

Jailed Official Predicts More Indictments

No we're not talking about Tom Delay, or Karl Rove, or Scooter Libby, or Dick Cheney, it's .........

Kelvin Ellis, a former East St. Louis official on his way to prison for vote fraud and other convictions, says he's sure there are more indictments to come. "I'm certain there are other targets," Ellis said with a trademark, gap-toothed grin. He declined to name one, but insisted, "I can't be the be-all, end-all. There has to be something else."

In June, a jury convicted Ellis, along with the city's Democratic Party chairman, Charles Powell Jr., and three others of a conspiracy to commit vote fraud in 2004. Prosecutors said the five handed out $5 bills to get key Democrats elected.

Ellis had been a top aide to Mayor Carl Officer in the 1990s, and previously served 18 months in prison for using his position in city government to get kickbacks. He eventually found his way back to power in City Hall.

A former choirboy, Ellis now has accumulated four felony convictions.

FULL STORY

If a word means everything, then it means nothing. Stretching words like "marriage" and "family" to include all sorts of things that they never meant before is reducing these words -- and the institutions they represent -- to nothing.

--Thomas Sowell

While I cannot disagree with this assertion, the purpose for doing so should be clear -- that is their (the left's) intent.

"Some of the most vocal critics of the way things are being done are people who have done nothing themselves, and whose only contributions to society are their complaints and moral exhibitionism."

--Thomas Sowell

Democrats Gleeful Over DeLay’s Arrest
(CNSNews.com) – In an update on Tom DeLay’s legal situation, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee wants fellow Democrats to know that the Texas Republican – “now twice indicted, will face the humility of a mug shot.” The message, sent Thursday, called it "hard to believe."

Republicans Trying to ‘Stop the Spending Spree’
(CNSNews.com) – House Republicans leaders have postponed a vote, originally scheduled for Thursday, on a budget-cutting amendment that House Democrats strongly oppose. The measure – which would cut federal benefit programs by $50 billion over five years – will be taken up next week instead...

GOP Facing More Budget Heat, Left and Right
(CNSNews.com) - With the U.S. House Republican leadership now pushing $50 billion in budget savings over the next five years in programs like Medicare, Medicaid and student loans, Democrats charged Wednesday that the GOP budget plan was “immoral and irresponsible.”

House Passes ‘Cheeseburger Bill’
(CNSNews.com) – The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would prevent people from blaming food companies and restaurants for their weight problems...

"Would it not be better to simplify the system of taxation rather than to spread it over such a variety of subjects and pass through so many new hands."

-- Thomas Jefferson

"Nothing just happens in politics. If something happens you can be sure it was planned that way."

---Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I am certain that nothing has done so much to destroy the juridical safeguards of individual freedom as the striving after this mirage of social justice."

---Fredrich August von Hayek

"Any fool can make a rule, and any fool will mind it."

---Henry David Thoreau

"We may be tossed upon an ocean where we can see no land—nor, perhaps, the sun or stars. But there is a chart and a compass for us to study, to consult, and to obey. That chart is the Constitution."

---Daniel Webster

GMC BEHIND THE TIMES

Auto Workers’ Benefits: Catching Up with the Times
The United Auto Workers union and General Motors Corp. are embroiled in a legal battle over health benefits. The media have tried to suggest that the automaker’s attempt to have its workers pay a portion of their health coverage is something new and terrible that will bring trouble to other industries and the economy in general. The problem with that reasoning is that GM is only catching up with what other companies have been doing.

MORE OF THE SAME

Flat-Out Un-Fair: Tax ‘Fix’ More than a Four-Letter Word
The president’s panel on tax reform was supposed to simplify the tax code. Instead, it’s suggesting more of the same – having government pick the winners and losers in the economy. Its proposals won’t aid growth or create jobs, but they will disappoint taxpayers who thought the panel could make a difference.

Bush vows to oust 'every single' illegal

President Bush said yesterday that his goal is eventually to expel "every single" illegal alien from the United States as his administration pressed Congress to pass a guest-worker program. Full story at The Washington Times.

I yearn for this to be true, BUT color me skeptical.

Trial of Saddam

Now that his trial is about to be under way, and he is back in the news, has anyone been wondering what he has been up to lately. As many of you already know, Saddam took up writing. He came out with a book awhile ago.

Rumor has it that he is about to publish his newest work entitled,
" The Rapes of Baathists."

"And it proves, in the last place, that liberty can have nothing to fear from the judiciary alone, but would have everything to fear from its union with either of the other departments."

-- Alexander Hamilton

A 2 Story Outhouse

A PICTURE IS WORTH A 1,000 10,000 WORDS.

Time to Pause... and say Thanks

From Faithmouse

Judge Blocks Georgia's Voter Photo Identification Law

Another case of judicial activism. When I saw the headlines, a couple of thoughts came immediately to mind. One, I was confident that the basis of the decision would be that somehow it was "unconstitutional". That's standard fare. If you, as a judge, don't like the law, claim it's unconstitutional. Problem solved.

Secondly, I knew race would enter into the decision. Sure enough. The law was unjust to the elderly, the poor, and African-American voters. Not Cuban-Americans. Not Mexican-Americans. Not Hmong-Americans. Not Vietnamese-Americans.

The goal was to help prevent fraud during the voting process.

C'mon people. We're talking $20.00 -$30.00. One time. Oh, maybe you might have to renew it 5 years down the road. But c'mon people? 20 bucks? Besides, the governor said ID cards would be given FREE to those who cannot afford them.

Sounds like the objection, quite honestly, isn't because of its prohibitive cost, does it?

Why else would someone object to photo id's? Hmmmmmm?

QUAKE KILLED OVER 3,000 MILITANTS

Intelligence sources have confirmed that over 3000 terrorists who were waiting for an opportunity to cross into India from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir were killed in the October 8 earthquake.

A top intelligence officer told rediff.com that while hundreds of terrorists were killed because of the huge buildings crumbling, most others were killed due to massive explosions that took place because of fire breaking out in their ammunition dumps. STORY.

"Why has government been instituted at all? Because the passions of men will not conform to the dictates of reason and justice without constraint."

-- Alexander Hamilton

Drug cartels' battle keeps tourists out of border city

A violent war between two powerful drug cartels over control of a lucrative trade route for Mexican cocaine and marijuana bound for the United States has turned many Americans away from Nuevo Laredo and nearly gutted the city's tourist economy.

I Ain't No "Bruce Lee".........but.......

I'll kick your @#!@#.......

Heh, heh. This is pretty good.

Nurses to be trained in hand-to-hand combat
NURSES are to be trained in close combat skills as part of Britain's first zero tolerance campaign against violent patients.

ID cards will lead to 'massive fraud'

THE government's case for identity cards has been dealt a serious blow on the day of a crucial Commons vote after the software giant Microsoft warned that the proposals could generate "massive identity fraud" on a scale as yet unseen.

Mexico - borders, relationships, and future prospects

When I ran this post, I decided to fire off an email to Smiley and Dr. Demarche at The Daily Demarche. They are a frequent read for me. They describe their site as:

A blog by members of the State Department Republican Underground- conservative Foreign Service Officers serving overseas commenting on foreign policy and global reactions to America.

I asked them if they could comment on the subject of my post, the "Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America Prosperity Agenda", since Heavy-Handed is concerned about our southern border with Mexico, and they being in the State Department, I figured well maybe they just might be able to share some insight into this matter.

That led them to post a fine piece (albeit not a glowing prospect) on Mexico, and our borders with them. It should be noted that in Mexico you can be elected president only once to a 6 year term. And, the party Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) (The Institutional Revolutionary Party) whom Vincente Fox defeated last time around, and which spent many years as a corrupt and repressive regime, appear poised to be voted back into power this summer. Despite Fox's failings, this would not be a positive development for us.

I suggest you pay The Daily Demarche a visit and read their post, " Return of the perfect dictatorship"?

Understanding the Left

I found this piece to be insightful. It is written by Dr. Jack Wheeler. I have edited it heavily so I hope it flows together well enough. If it doesn't, I apologize; it's my fault, not his.

WHY LIBERALS ARE INCAPABLE OF DEFENDING AMERICA
By Dr. Jack Wheeler

Envy is the source of tribal and traditional cultures’ belief in Black Magic, the fear of the envious Evil Eye. The fundamental reason why certain cultures remain static and never evolve (like present-day villages in Egypt or India that have pretty much stayed the same for a thousand years) is the overwhelming extent to which the entire lives of the people within them are dominated by envy and envy-avoidance.

Just like the culture of the Left today, which represents a philosophy of the Stone Age. For the Left is fundamentally characterized by a resentment of prosperity – and all forms of such resentment – from the leftist university professor who considers himself to be in the progressive vanguard of sophisticated contemporary thought to the terrorist in a cave wanting to take us all back to the Dark Ages – are nothing but an atavism, a regression to a primitive tribal belief in Black Magic.

The crux understanding of Moslem terrorism or Jihadism, for example, is that it is a pathology of envy.

All three of the great barbarisms of modern times have been pathologies of envy. Naziism, preaching race-envy toward “rich exploitative Jews”; Communism preaching class-envy toward “rich exploitative capitalists”; Jihadism preaching culture-envy toward “rich exploitative America/Israel/the West.” In all three cases, the belief in exploitation is a primitive belief in voodoo Black Magic.

What gives envy its enormous destructive capacity is the fear of it, fear of the Evil Eye. It is envy that makes a Nazi, a Communist, or a Moslem Terrorist. It is the fear of being envied that makes a Liberal.

This is most easily seen in the children of wealthy parents. Successful businessmen who have made it on their own normally have a respect for the effort and the economic system that makes success possible. Their children, with their unearned inheritance, are easier targets for guilt-mongering by the envious.

So they assume a posture of liberal compassion as an envy-deflection device: “Please don't envy me for my father's money -- look at all the liberal causes and government social programs I advocate!” Teddy Kennedy is the archetype of this phenomenon.

Envy-appeasement explains why Hollywood is so liberal. The vast amounts of money entertainment stars make is so grossly disproportionate to the effort it took them to make it that they feel it is unearned. So they apologize for it. The Liberal strategy is to apologize for his success, his country’s success, his civilization’s success, in order to appease the envious.

Liberalism is thus not a political ideology or set of beliefs. It is an envy-deflection device, a psychological strategy to avoid being envied. Liberalism is the politicalization of envy-appeasement.

One definitive characteristic of both envy and the fear of it is masochism. Envy is not simply hatred of someone for having something you don't -- it is the willingness to masochistically hurt or deprive yourself as long as the person you are envious of is also hurt or deprived. The penultimate example is the Palestinian suicide-bomber.

Similarly, the more one fears being envied, the more one is driven to masochistic self-humiliation in attempts at envy appeasement.

The lethality of liberal envy-appeasement is that personally-felt guilt is projected onto the various social or tribal collectives to which the liberal belongs and are a part of his self-identity. Self-loathing is transformed into a loathing of one's society or race.

White male liberals become auto-sexist, sexist toward their own sex. White liberals become auto-racist: racist toward their own race (such as white writer Susan Sontag who denounced her own race as “the cancer of human history”).

Dime-store demagogues like eco-fascist environmentalists, feminazis, PETA animal rights fanatics, homosexual marriage promoters, race hustlers like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton all get their strength from the liberals' fear of their Evil Eyes.

All the passions of the Left are frenzies of masochism. What could be more idiotic and masochistic than to oppose missile defense? This opposition cannot be understood unless one dispenses with its rhetoric and rationales and realizes that such folks at their emotional core do not want their country defended.

The “global warming” hoax cannot be comprehended other than that its masochistic advocates do not want their civilization to prosper.

The entire Political Correctness movement is nothing but masochistic envy-appeasement advocated by those who do not want their culture to survive.

The pro-abortionists’ crazed determination to prevent any attempt to stop mothers from murdering their children by the millions, or the equally crazed mission of the environmentalists to prevent DDT from saving millions of children from dying of malaria, means that they do not want their species to exist.

This is why liberals always root for those who revile America. Liberals are incapacitated from being able to defend America because of their primitive fear of the Evil Eye of America’s enemies. Liberals are incapable of pride, deep pride, in being American. Instead they feel embarrassment.

You and I feel that pride. You and I think it is the coolest thing in the world to be American. I’ve been to some 180 countries, and whenever and wherever someone asks me, “Where are you from?”, it is just so totally cool to answer, “America – I’m an American.”

Liberals are embarrassed rather than proud to be American, they want to apologize for being American, to wallow in the goo of moral relativism and multiculturalism, because they have a compulsion to appease the envious.

Yet we cannot defeat Moslem terrorism unless we reject Moslem envy. Such rejection then enables us to target the Jihadis’ numerous Achilles Heels.

One, for example, is women’s rights. It needs to be stated publicly by public figures for consumption in Moslem media: We just don’t care that men having more rights than women is sanctioned by Allah in the Koran, any more than we care that slavery is so sanctioned. If slavery and lack of women’s rights is sanctioned by Allah in the Koran, then too bad for Allah.

We need to go on the moral offensive. The moral currency of Islam is debased. Islam is infected with a moral virus that has rendered it a morally inferior religion as it stands in the world today. It no longer deserves our respect and if Moslems want our respect back they must earn it by disinfecting their religion of moral poison.

Such a moral offensive requires moral confidence. Not only are liberals are incapable of moral confidence (with one exception: the sacred right of a mother to murder her unborn children), they are terrified of it, claiming it to be the path to tyranny.

Yet moral relativism was Benito Mussolini’s rationale for fascism:

If relativism signifies contempt for fixed categories and those who claim to be the bearers of objective immortal truth, then there is nothing more relativistic than Fascist attitudes and activity. From the fact that all ideologies are of equal value, we Fascists conclude that we have the right to create our own ideology and to enforce it with all the energy of which we are capable.

Moral relativism, the denial of moral truths, is the primary rationale for fascism, yet liberals remain terrified of moral certainty and confidence because they are so terrified of envious Evil Eyes.

It was 20 years ago that I realized Liberal Envy-Appeasement was why liberals couldn’t be proud to be American and had no passion for defending Western Civilization.

This is the request we must make to Liberal Democrats today. Stop taking out your need for mortification upon your country. Flagellate yourselves all you want – just get out of the way of those of us who are proud to be Americans, and stop trying to prevent us from defending the greatest political achievement in the history of humanity – our country, the United States of America.

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SPOILED BRAT POLITICS

"The idea that what I want overrides what you want has increasingly become part of our thinking, our policies and even our laws. There is literally a federal case before the Supreme Court over the fact that many colleges and universities refuse to allow military recruiters on campus. Why? Because, as the academics will tell you, they are opposed to the military, either in general or because they think the military are discriminating against homosexuals or for whatever other reasons they have. These academics have every right to be against the military, for any reason or for no reason. If they don't like the military, they can stay away from the military, since there is no draft. But what they want is to keep other people away from the military, by preventing students from hearing what the military recruiters have to say, as students hear what recruiters from all sorts of other institutions and movements have to say on campus. The reason there is a legal issue is that a federal law has been passed, saying that colleges and universities that forbid military recruiters from coming on campus are no longer eligible to receive federal money. Academics are outraged. They see this law as a violation of their freedom—including their right to violate their students' freedom. It is classic spoiled brat politics, based on the idea that what I want overrides what you want."

---Thomas Sowell

Call it what it is.......

"[W]e are not, in fact, fighting a global war on terror. It is a global war, alright. But it should instead be called the 'War for the Free World.' Such a designation has the following advantages: It is accurate. We who love freedom are locked in a struggle to the death with totalitarian enemies who subscribe to ideologies that require our destruction. Sound familiar? The Nazis, Fascists, Imperial Japanese and Soviet Communists had in mind for us the same fate. We had to wage war effectively (using non-military as well as military means) on a global scale to defeat each of them in turn. Today, the immediate threat to the Free World comes from Islamofascism—yet another totalitarian ideology, this time masquerading as a religion... By demonstrating our resolve to resist the Islamofascists and to help non-Islamist Muslim to do so as well, we can enlarge the Free World and secure the allies we will need to prevail."

---Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.

A VIEW ON CULTURE

"Do poor blacks really need to hear 'millions more' excuses why black men can't be faithful to one woman and be responsible for the children they bear? Or why they can't get an education because white people hate us? Do poor blacks really need another venue for hip-hop multimillionaires to explain, in four-letter epithets, that blacks suffer because George W. Bush doesn't care about them? This while these moguls get richer by the day peddling black booty on BET, inspiring black kids to live the life that guarantees to keep them poor?

Despite [Louis] Farrakhan's supposed objective to 'empower' poor folks, he should understand, as more and more blacks are beginning to understand, that he, and other long-standing traditional black leaders, really promote quite the opposite. Poor blacks do not need to be 'mobilized' to turn even more responsibility for their lives over to others. They need to go to school and take care of their families. The place where this needs to take place is within a couple-mile radius of where they live. It certainly won't take place on the National Mall in Washington... The work that blacks need to do in Washington today is to reduce government interference with black individual lives, families and communities to solve our own problems... Black problems today are in individual hearts, minds and homes. This is where they need to be solved."

---Star Parker

"The propitious smiles of Heaven can never be expected on a nation that disregards the eternal rules of order and right, which Heaven itself has ordained."

---George Washington

Cuba Regards Ibero-American Summit as Victory Over US

(CNSNews.com) – Leaders from Latin America, Spain and Portugal ended a summit over the weekend calling for an end to the U.S. embargo against Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Cuban media described it as a “defeat” for the United States...

New Orleans Corrupt 'Down to the Bone,' Former Pol Charges

(CNSNews.com) - A former president of the New Orleans City Council and member of the Orleans Levee Board blames corruption and "unbelievable ineptness" for the loss of life and injuries during and after Hurricane Katrina. The Republican politician also fears the worst for her city if local officials are allowed to manage the federally funded rebuilding efforts...

Israel Suspends Talks With Palestinians Following Terror Attacks

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Following Israel’s pullout from the Gaza Strip, the international community hoped that Israel and the P.A. would be able to return to the negotiating table, but Sunday’s terrorist attacks have threatened to return the two sides to a new stalemate...

Israel Seeks Diplomatic Ties With More Muslim States

Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Considered a “pariah” state in much of the Arab and Muslim world, Israel now is hoping to establish diplomatic ties with more Muslim-majority countries -– Afghanistan, for instance...

Britain-Iran Tensions Escalate Over Bombing Accusations

(CNSNews.com) – In a deepening diplomatic row, Iran has accused Britain of responsibility for two bomb blasts Saturday that killed at least four people near the country’s border with Iraq. It’s the second time in four months Tehran has blamed Britain for terrorist attacks in the same, southwestern part of the country...

HARRIET MIERS

"And what about some of you conservatives flying off the handle on Harriet Miers? Suddenly you cannot trust the president? Suddenly, you favor ideological litmus tests? Suddenly you don't want people who have had success in the private sector joining the government? Suddenly you want a judiciary of the judiciary by the judiciary and for the judiciary?"

--- DON SURBER
(Emphasis mine - H.H.)

"Law and liberty cannot rationally become the objects of our love, unless they first become the objects of our knowledge."

-- James Wilson

NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION

Venezuela seeks nuclear technology
Washington Times

The Venezuelan government has made overtures to various countries about obtaining nuclear technology, according to U.S. officials, who worry that President Hugo Chavez might be taking the first steps in a long road to develop nuclear weaponry.

LOOKING GOOD

Constitution headed for win in Iraq
Washington Times

Early ballot returns yesterday indicated that Iraqis had approved a new constitution in a weekend referendum, with majorities voting in favor of the basic law in at least two of four Sunni-majority provinces.

Hey, I Got an Idea (or two) for You......

Democrats weigh strategists' critique

House and Senate Democrats have asked the authors of a sharply critical analysis of their party's strategic election weaknesses to brief them on their political proposals in preparation for the 2008 presidential campaign cycle."

......Get a plan. Put forth some ideas. Speak the truth. Quit dividing the nation (i.e. there's two Americas) with your rhetoric. Quit alienating "fly over country" residents with your elitism. Quit your condescension of Christians and Christianity. Tell Michael Moore and his ilk that they don't represent "main stream American" values. (Telling Michael Moore to shut up and stay home would probably do wonders for your party.)

Support the military. Support the troops. Support the war on terror. Support stronger border control and protection. Support legal immigration. Don't support illegal "border crossers." Support the President of the United States regardless of party affiliation. (By supporting the President, you are actually -- shock -- shock -- supporting your country.) Disassociate yourselves from mainstream media - - let them become news reporting agencies again, instead of the public relations arm of your party.

Tell your high profile party leaders/supporters (Kerry, Clinton, Carter, et al.) to quit bashing our country and/or our President every time they go overseas and have a receptive socialistic audience. It takes guts to defend yourself when your outnumbered. Show some class, dignity, and respect to yourself, your country, your President, and your fellow citizens.

I know I have just scratched the surface. Readers? Join in. More ideas for them? They apparently are looking for suggestions.

BUSH APPROVAL RATING

Rasmussen has President Bushs' approval rating at 47%.

TWAIWAN'S COAST GUARD THWARTS SMUGGLING PLOT

BYE-BYE BIRDIES:Amid fears of avian flu spreading to Taiwan, officials discovered -- and will destroy -- more than 1,500 birds and other animals on a ship from Fujian

The Coast Guard Administration (CGA) yesterday intercepted a Panama-registered cargo ship carrying more than 1,500 smuggled birds and other animals from China as it entered Taichung Harbor.

[ FULL STORY ]

CARPETBAGGING....IN VENEZUELA

Jackson and Glover go carpetbagging in Venezuela

Gustavo Coronel has a superb essay on the utter strangeness of the likes of Jesse Jackson and Danny Glover taking their race-grievance show on the road to Venezuela. Neither showed any interest in this country earlier in their careers, but all of a sudden, now that Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez has gotten flush with oil money and shown an eagerness to fling it around, these people have suddenly started signalling their lifelong devotion to Venezuela. What could that possibly mean? These nouveau carpetbaggers are truly subjects for Mark Twain, all tears and flapdoodle – but they are bringing in to Venezuela a destructive idea about race relations based on U.S., and only U.S., experience. Latin America doesn’t have any history of racial strife, but given Chavez’s need to amass power, it may be starting.

I Am Not a Global Citizen

by John Lawrence

"I have always despised multiculturalism, as I have seen it as one of the great plagues on our country. Sure, it is inherently good to know of other cultures, it is imperative that we are 'somewhat' tolerant of other cultures, and it is also important to be compassionate enough to open our doors when the need arises, such as the holocaust in the 1940's or the 'boat people' exodus following the Vietnam war.

It is another thing, however, to open one's doors so wide as to be flooded by everything out there. It is not only fiscally irresponsible, it is culturally suicidal and foolish. One seems to want to cower away from an anti-multicultural stance as we have been inundated with accusations of racism so much in our lives that it has become an ingrained thought process. I am not racist, but I hate multiculturalism. There, I can finally say it."

You can read his entire article here.

PROBLEMS MOUNT FOR GEORGIAN ARMY

Almost every day, Georgian television airs government-sponsored ads inviting Georgians to join the mighty Georgian army. While, this patriotic display tries to create a rosy picture of Georgia's military potential, the reality is more alarming than inspiring. This week over 40% of the Georgian military's 1st Brigade, elite commandos drilled under the U.S.-sponsored Train and Equip program, refused to renew their military service contracts, branding them "unacceptable." More

A Castro Clone

Flush with oil money and political power, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is firmly implanting his socialist -- and anti-American -- vision at home and buying influence in Latin America and the Caribbean. Story.