US Tackles Syria on Human Rights

The United States has called on Syria to stop what it calls the arbitrary detention of pro-democracy and human rights activists.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made the call at a summit of foreign ministers in Bahrain aimed at promoting reform in the Arab World.

Riot erupts in French city centre

Police in the French city of Lyon have used teargas to disperse youths throwing stones and attacking cars.

Two people were arrested on the city's famous Place Bellecour square, in the first rioting in a major city centre.

The unrest, which followed more than two weeks of violence in France's poor suburbs, occurred hours before a curfew for minors came into force in Lyon....

TO THE BIG HOUSE INSTEAD OF THE WHITE HOUSE?

Written by Dr. Jack Wheeler
Friday, 11 November 2005

That the Washington Post is traitorously on the side of the Jihadi terrorists and against America was further demonstrated on November 2^nd when the paper ran the front page headline story, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons.

To disclose supremely classified information that the CIA operates a number of prisons for Jihadis in Eastern Europe is an unbelievable compromise of national security. The WaPo reporter who wrote the story, Dana Priest, should go to jail for treason, along with the WaPo editors who approved it.

The CIA has requested a formal Justice Department inquiry into the source of the classified information to the press. The House Intelligence Committee has announced it will hold hearings to investigate the leak. This is infinitely more serious than the Plamegate farce.

Note, however, that the Senate will not, as of yet, hold hearings. That’s because the leak to the WaPo has been traced to a meeting of Republican Senators – no staffers, just the Ego Boys themselves. In a story about Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist’s reluctance to join with the House, the Capitol Hill newspaper The Hill revealed:

“GOP aides conjectured privately that Frist’s delay… may have been caused by concern over the possibility of endangering a Republican senator by calling for the investigation.”

That Senator is John McCain.

If it turns out that John McCain leaked classified information incredibly damaging to American security to a Washington Post reporter about a CIA program – McCain is not only finished as a candidate for the presidency. He is going to jail.

I don’t know for sure if the leaker was McCain. What I can tell you is that’s the major buzz right now among Republican staffers on the north side of Capitol Hill. You heard it here first, and if it’s true, it could happen to a bigger jerk – oh, I mean nicer guy.

Ps: There are some things heading Johnny’s way that will simply annihilate his candidacy (for the president). Annihilate as in Hiroshima or the horde of Genghiz Khan. This isn’t it. There’s more yet to come.

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THE WAR FOR THE FREE WORLD
Written by Frank Gaffney and Alex Alexiev
Friday, 11 November 2005

Not too long ago, the conventional wisdom was that Europe would emerge as a unified and mighty economic and political superpower. We were told it would engage in earnest, if friendly, competition with the United States, but that -- thanks to its substantially larger population and productive capacity -- the European Union (EU) would inevitably displace America on the world stage.

It took less than a fortnight of rioting in France, and now in several other countries of what Donald Rumsfeld has called "Old Europe," to lay bare the preposterousness of this prospect. Even before Islamists took to the streets of Paris' suburbs, the EU was a house of cards waiting to be toppled or burned down.

As usual, underlying conditions are clearer with hindsight. It is now unmistakable that Europe faces a "perfect storm" of socioeconomic, demographic, military and Islamist challenges.

Read the rest here.

ABLE DANGER

New Skirmish in War Over 9/11 Information

BY RORY O'CONNOR

Internet threats prompt Paris to step up security

By Elaine Ganley

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PARIS -- Authorities stepped up security yesterday and placed restrictions on some public gatherings after tip-offs from Internet and text messages suggested "violent actions" over the weekend in central Paris.

But as France marked Armistice Day commemorating the end of World War I, calls for peace in the restive poor neighborhoods of France rang out -- from demonstrators in Paris to religious leaders at a Lyon-area mosque in the southeast.

With a state of emergency in place, several hundred people gathered at the glassy Wall of Peace near the Eiffel Tower to call for an end to the unrest that erupted Oct. 27 and spread across the country.

The demonstration drew elderly Parisians and youths from its poor working-class suburbs along with curious onlookers, all engaging in heated debate over how to stem the violence and solve the causes. Full story.

Breaking Up Is Hard to Do

Should the U.S. or the U.N. control the Internet? Here's a third way.
BY BRIAN M. CARNEY

It's been a good ride, this whole Internet thing. To hear its boosters tell it, the Net has, in addition to the porn, online poker and cheap drugs, given us democratized information, become a tool for the undermining of totalitarian regimes and given people in the farthest corners of the Earth a window on the wider world that would have been unthinkable before Al Gore invented the Internet (sic).

But all that is about to change--starting tomorrow. The bad news is that we can't really do anything about it. The good news is that the changes that are coming probably won't bring about the end of the Information Age, but merely its evolution. Complete article.

TORTURE OR INTERROGATION ?

A ban on aggressive interrogation would amount to unilateral disarmament in the war on terror.

If Osama bin Laden is alive and looking for signs of flagging U.S. will to fight the war on terror, he need look no further than our national debate about interrogating his compatriots and others who would do us harm.

Better Men

"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things; the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing is worth a war, is worse. A man who has nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety is a miserable creature who has no chance at being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself." *
--John Stuart Mill

*.......better men than himself.......

*Veterans: That means you. Happy Veterans Day and thanks for all that you have done for us.

"If there must be trouble, let it be in my day, that my child may have peace." —Thomas Paine

"It is foolish and wrong to mourn the men who died. Rather we should thank God that such men lived." -- General George S. Patton, Jr.

--GOD BLESS OUR VETERANS--

ABOUT MSM

HeavyHanded on the mainstream media:

It is a sad plight. In communist countries, the media is state owned. Propaganda is their game. We (free countries) supposedly deplore this abuse of governmental power and the resulting freedom-lacking media.

Here in the US we have this great love affair between the media and one party (the Dems). So what is it we get when the media machine supports only half of our government?

Half-assed propaganda?

Key fugitive Saddam aide 'dead'

One of Saddam Hussein's closest aides, Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri, has died, Iraq's former ruling Baath party says.

The leader of the resistance... died on 11 November, at 0220 [Thursday 2320 GMT]," the statement said.

There are no other details. Relatives - as well as Iraqi and US officials - could not confirm Mr Douri's death.

Mr Douri, 63, was the most senior figure in the former regime still at large. The US had offered a $10m reward for information leading to his capture.

In recent years he was accused of financing insurgent groups in Iraq.

More details at BBC News.

N.K. fighter planes briefly cross border

Two North Korean fighter planes violated South Korean airspace over the West Sea yesterday afternoon, the ...

Cuba Says US aid offer looked like funding for dissidents
Cuba's Communist government on Thursday disputed the Bush administration's version of events over possible U.S. disaster relief to the island, saying Washington's offer appeared to be an attempt to continue backing dissidents "using the hurricane as a pretext."

Three Muslim teenagers with 'marked' city map detained
Security officials have detained three male Muslim teenagers for questioning following their arrest at a Bangkok amusement park with a map of the capital with 43 large public gathering spots and the Defence Ministry marked out.

BALKANIZATION

"....There are people who will not stop until they get stopped -- and much of the media, the political classes, and the cultural elites of the West cannot bring themselves to even criticize, much less stop, the dangers or degeneracy among groups viewed sympathetically as underdogs......

"....Balkanization has been glorified as "diversity" and diversity has become too sacred to defile with anything so gross as hard facts. But reality is not optional. Our survival may in the long run be as menaced by degeneration within -- from many sources and in many ways -- as was that of the Roman Empire."

---Thomas Sowell

Multiculturalism

By Robert Tracinski

"What touched off the recent riots, for example, was not a heavy-handed presence of the police and French authorities in Muslim neighborhoods. It was the fact that the police had, until recently, treated these areas as "no-go zones," left to be run by the Muslims themselves. It was the re-assertion of some degree of French control after years of Multiculturalist tolerance that set off the riots.

It is not just that French Muslims need to assimilate into French culture. It is that there has to be a self-confident culture for them to assimilate to. One cannot assimilate with self-annihilation.

In a nation like America, the acceptance of Multiculturalism leads to a kind of slow rot, as the distinctive ideas at the root our culture — the Enlightenment ideals of our Founding Fathers — slowly die from neglect. But such a nation can ride on its previous cultural momentum for generations, taking many years to collapses from within — and that gives us a long time to fight Multiculturalism before it is too late. A nation like France, which finds itself host to a large minority of religiously strident Muslim immigrants thoroughly untouched by Enlightenment intellectual and political traditions, will not be allowed the luxury of a death by slow rot. It must act much more quickly to save itself.

It is in the streets of the Parisian suburbs that one can now see the ultimate effects of Multiculturalism — and sense a premonition of the dark and murderous future that lays ahead for Europe."

Read "Multiculturalism and the Self-Liquidation of Europe" here.

ON FRANCE

"Unless the invertebrates in charge can grow spines, France seems poised to become what Spain was before Ferdinand and Isabella, a patchwork of principalities where Moors ruled some communities, Christians others, with constant tension between them.

It seems inconceivable that a civilized Western nation would bargain away to a handful of thugs its democratic principles and sovereignty over much of its territory. But the Islamists may well succeed. For though what the Islamists believe in is vile and reactionary, it is something. The French believe in nothing."

--- Jack Kelly

Read "Why the Islamists may well succeed" in its entirety here.

Subverting the Constitution

By Henry Mark Holzer
FrontPageMagazine.com

The retirement of Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor (contingent upon her replacement being seated), and the ensuing nominations of John G. Roberts, Jr. and Samuel Alito, exposed once again the ongoing moral, political, and legal schism between liberals and conservatives over such hot-button constitutional law issues as abortion, affirmative action, prisoners’ rights, establishment of religion, and the power of Congress.

Liberals were desperate to extend, or at least retain, their hegemony on the Court.

Conservatives saw an opportunity for the President to return the Court to a proper constitutional balance, where respect for federalism, separation of powers, and judicial restraint was not the exception but the norm. Complete Details

WMD's

Front Page Magazine has an interview with Bill Tierney, "a former military intelligence officer and Arabic speaker who worked at Guantanamo Bay in 2002 and as a counter-infiltration operator in Baghdad in 2004. He was also an inspector (1996-1998) for the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) for overseeing the elimination of weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missiles in Iraq. He worked on the most intrusive inspections during this period and either participated in or planned inspections that led to four of the seventeen resolutions against Iraq."

The general overlying question that the interview was seeking an anwer to was where the WMD's went. In one part of the interview in which Mr. Tierney was addressing the First Gulf War, he responded:

We topped one mistake with another, expecting Saddam Hussein and the Baath Party, a criminal syndicate masquerading as a political party, to abide by any arms control agreement. *Gun control and Arms control both arise from the “mankind is good” worldview. If you control the environment, i.e. get rid of the guns, then man’s natural goodness will rise to the surface.* I hope it is evidence after more than a decade of Iraqi intransigence how foolish this position is. The sobering fact is that if a nation feels it is in their best interest to have certain weapons, they are going to have them. Chemical weapons were critical to warding off hoards of Iranian fighters, and the Iraqis knew they would always be in a position of weakness against Israel without nuclear weapons.

*HeavyHanded presupposes that the city of San Francisco, and its' residents share in this "mankind is good" worldview.*

But, I digress. It is an interesting interview. Go to FrontPage and read Where the WMD's Went.

SETTING THE BAR

Setting the bar high low:

"I can't deny I'm a better ex-president than I was a president." —Jimmy Carter

ABLE DANGER

Curt Weldon: Second Datamining Operation Aware of Atta Before 9/11

WELDON: ”But we have something new….. Dr. Bob Johnson is a professor and IT expert. Dr. Bob Johnson was the manager and operator of the Garland Unit of Data Mining separate from the Army’s [leeway?]. Dr. Bob Johnson has not talked to any of the Able Danger players since the efforts that were taking place in ‘99 and 2000 and Dr. Bob Johnson told me that his unit also identified Mohammed Atta not by photo but by name before 9/11..”

Other points: -Garland’s Data was sent to SOCOM. -Able Danger’s Data was destroyed because Army did not want SOCOM to have info.

Weldon has asked for a criminal investigation. View video here.

Source: Political Teen

SAN FRAN - YOU'RE ON YOUR OWN

On Tuesday’s The Radio Factor:

BILL O’REILLY: "You know, if I’m the president of the United States, I walk right into Union Square, I set up my little presidential podium, and I say, “Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead.” And if Al Qaeda comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead."

Hat tip to The Political Teen

The House in Franceland

No jobs, no future, why not riot?

I am prepared to entertain the notion that France's second-generation Muslims are burning down those lovely French towns because Muslims can't or won't integrate into European societies. I'm also inclined to believe that if you are 18, male, live in a scuzzy neighborhood and have not much better to do from 9 to 5 than hang with the boys, nothing good can come of it. The solution to the first theory of France's riots is to round up all the young Muslims, put them on trains and ship them "home." Plan B would be for France to output a better 9-to-5 culture than it's got. My guess is the Chirac government would prefer the first solution.

Read the rest at Opinion Journal

French Lessons

How to create a Muslim underclass.

Rioting by Muslim youth in some 300 French cities and towns seems to be subsiding after two weeks and tougher law enforcement, which is certainly welcome news. The riots have shaken France, however, and the unrest was of such magnitude that it has become a moment of illumination, for French and Americans equally.

In particular, some longstanding conceits about the superiority of the French social model have gone up in flames. This model emphasizes "solidarity" through high taxes, cossetted labor markets, subsidies to industry and farming, a "Ministry for Social Cohesion," powerful public-sector unions, an elaborate welfare state, and, inevitably, comparisons to the alleged viciousness of the Anglo-Saxon "market" model. So by all means, let's do some comparing.

Read the rest at Opinion Journal

Woo - hoo! .... I Passed Again

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

"....I do think that what's pathetic about all Western countries, including the United States, including France, including Canada, and a lot of other countries, is that they (legislative bodies, parliaments, etc.) make these sort of high school sophist arguments about terrorism, as if it's some sort of theoretical debate. It's not. We're dealing with a very difficult situation here. And if you accord to terrorists all the rights of somebody who gets arrested for holding up a liquor store in Des Moines, you are going to lose to the terrorists, because when you accord them the full rights of somebody who is a criminal, you make it impossible to prosecute this as a war, which is what it is."

--- Mark Steyn (in an interview with Hugh Hewitt.) Transcript available at Radio Blogger.

The Spectator.co.uk has some interesting reading in this most recent edition.

Will London Burn Too?
The process of migrating and establishing a Muslim community in a non-Muslim context has an important place in Islamic theology. The word hijra is used to describe such a migration, in particular the migration of Mohammed and his followers in ad 622 from Mecca, where they were persecuted, to Medina where they established the first Islamic state. Eight years earlier another hijra occurred when Muslim refugees found freedom of worship in the Christian kingdom of Abyssinia.

It’s the demography, stupid by Mark Steyn
It’s possible that, as Europeans often say, the American century is over, and the hegemonic lardbutt is about to keel over and expire. Anything might happen. Was it Timothy Garton Ash or Will Hutton who suggested that giant space monkeys might suddenly descend and eat Cleveland? Could be. I wouldn’t rule it out. But the point is that, while one can draft all sorts of hypothetical apocalyptic scenarios for the Great Satan, the European catastrophe isn’t hypothetical, but already under way.

The crescent of fear
As France burned, the mullahs arrived on the scene, shook their heads sadly and immediately issued a fatwa. However, for the many Frenchmen who may have shuddered inwardly when they heard the term so invoked, this was a good fatwa, a nice fatwa, a fatwa to be proud of. The ...

Anti-immigration leader feels vindicated by riots
Far-right politician Jean-Marie Le Pen insists that the riots rocking French cities have vindicated his anti-immigration views, but opinion polls give a slight boost to Premier Dominique de Villepin for his handling of the crisis.

All Right ! It's About Time

13 motel owners charged with housing illegals
Federal authorities have accused 13 Arizona motel owners of harboring illegal aliens brought by smugglers into the United States and will seek to seize their businesses as part of a nationwide investigation into a network of hotels and motels being used a....

Jordanians revile Zarqawi
Thousands of Jordanians rallied in the capital and other cities, shouting "Burn in hell, Abu Musab Zarqawi" a day after three deadly hotel bombings that killed at least 59 persons.

Hijab crisis in Russia

INTELLIGENCE BRIEFING
Muslim activists student defy dress codes

The ministry of education has warned Muslim activist female students attending public schools are not to wear the traditional Muslim head cover known as Hijjab.

In some cases young Muslim girls refused to obey the directive and were removed from their schools by force. A group of students who planned an Islamic demonstration were warned they would face stiff punishments including long jail terms.

Thailand declares martial law

GLOBAL JIHAD
Terrorism in south prompts military response

As jihadi terrorism in southern Thailand is on the increase, the Fourth Army Region’s command, with the approval of the government in Bangkok, declared martial law in the districts of Chana and Thepha.

This move widened the previous military zone in the south, mostly in the nearby southern provinces of Narathiwt Pattani and Yala. The recently imposed martial law is strongly affecting community and business life in the region but the army command insists these measures are necessary to prevent an all-out secessionist Muslim jihad against the predominantly Buddhist Thai nation.. Currently there are some 14 million Muslims out of 66 million Thais.

HOMELAND INSECURITY

Al-Qaida ops busted at Mexican border?

Congresswoman drops bomb in announcing bill to halt issuance of driver's licenses to illegals.

WASHINGTON – In announcing the introduction of legislation aimed at preventing illegal aliens from getting driver's licenses yesterday, a North Carolina Republican member of the House of Representatives casually dropped a bombshell that went over the heads of most of the media covering the event – that three members of al-Qaida were recently captured trying to enter the U.S.

"This isn't aimed at any one race," said Sue Myrick, who is being mentioned as a potential candidate for governor of the state. "Our main concern is: Who's in our state? This is a critical issue today. They just arrested, down on the border, a couple of weeks ago, three al-Qaida members who came across from Mexico into the United States."

Full article at WND

France's Underreported Problem

If you have not already, please go read Tony Blankley's "Islamist threat in France" op-ed piece in the Washington Times.

To Libby's Defense?

To Libby's Defense?

From Gary at Let Freedom Ring :

It appears that some sizeable holes are getting opened in Patrick Fitzgerald's indictment against "Scooter" Libby.

Go read the rest.

Stephen Green at VodkaPundit:

Germany lost WWI because they couldn't match our manpower. They lost again in 1945, because they couldn't match Allied productive might. We could very well lose this war, because our leadership has so far failed to recognize the power of the media. We might also lose because our enemies are oftentimes more media-savvy than we are. We could lose also because our mainstream media seems to find terrorists less unattractive than having a conservative Texan in the White House.

Hat tip: Hammerswing75

ABLE DANGER

CAPTAIN ED at Captain's Quarters:

"With the DIA smearing one of the whistleblowers and the Pentagon blocking Congressional investigations, it certainly appears that Weldon is right about the cover-up. If Able Danger was "simply irrelevant", we would have had a hearing in no time on it and allowed it to pass discredited into history. Instead, both the Pentagon and the Congress appear scared to death of Able Danger. Why?"

Yes, why indeed.

You Just Can't Make This Stuff Up

Man accused of stealing fire truck.

What a long, strange trip it was: Deputies in Stanley, N.M., say a 25-year-old man went on a joyride with two fire trucks.

Deputies say Colin Bruneni, 25, broke into the town’s volunteer fire department and seemingly made himself at home.

They say it looks like he made a drink of coffee, sugar and cocoa – stirring the concoction with a tampon. He also apparently tried to move some equipment from one vehicle to another.

Then, deputies say, he got in a fire engine and drove off – to the town’s other fire station.

Bruneni allegedly pried open the door of the other station and took a brush truck from the station for a spin.

Volunteer firefighter Jamie Morris says he spotted the man and confronted him: “I said, ‘Well, what’s your name?’ He said, ‘I can’t tell you that. It’s classified. I’m with the fire department.’ “

Morris says he didn’t recognize the man as part of the town’s thirteen-member all-volunteer department.

Deputies later found Bruneni hiding in some brush, still wearing reflective fire gear from the station.

Bruneni will undergo a psychiatric evaluation, according to Santa Fe County Sheriff Greg Solano.

Ever Growing, Invasive Government

"Massachusetts politicians last week rose to new heights of holier-than-thou arrogance. House members on Thursday—just three days after the 80-page bill was introduced—voted overwhelmingly to tax businesses that do not provide health insurance for their employees, and to require all residents who can afford it to buy health insurance... No doubt, buying health insurance is a good idea. But so is buying a car with a five-star safety rating, brushing after meals and not running with scissors. And yet government lets people decide whether to do these things... If the state can order people to buy health insurance, then where does that authority stop? Why can't it order people to exercise a half-hour a day, quit smoking, and floss regularly?"

--- New Hampshire Union-Leader

Happy Birthday, USMC. Semper Fi.

TOO BAD FOR BRITAIN, REALLY

In all seriousness, you would think with what's been going on it France for the last 2 weeks, they would have had a little different take on this matter.

Blair's 3,115-day reign unravels as terror rebels win

TONY Blair last night suffered a shattering Commons defeat that spells the beginning of the end of his premiership, as MPs rejected a terrorism law he said was vital to keep Britain safe from attack.

Public School as Sex Surveyor

By Janet Parshall

The Ninth Circuit recently handed down yet another stunningly bad decision. This time the case involved six parents who sued the Palmdale, California school district after children in the first, third and fifth grades were given a sexually-charged survey.

The survey asked children how often they thought about having sex or how frequently they wanted to touch someone else's body parts.

But the Ninth circuit ruled against the parents, saying in effect parents have no fundamental right "to be the exclusive provider of information regarding sexual matters for their children." It also said parents have no right to dispute whatever the public schools choose to teach in sex education.

The Ninth Circuit is wrong again. Schools are funded by tax-paying parents who do have the last word when it comes to their children. It doesn't take a village to raise a children--it takes a family.

SOURCE: BEYOND THE NEWS

Oil executives defend profits, high gas costs
Top oil company executives yesterday told Congress that their companies have little effect on the gas prices that consumers pay and said a new tax on their record-breaking profits would backfire by cutting domestic production.

Only half see press as fair to Bush
About 50 percent of Americans say the Bush administration is being treated fairly by the press, the lowest number since President Bush was elected, and an increasing percentage say the press is too critical of the president, according to the Pew Research

Shhhhhhhhhhh.... I see French people.

Rioters are Muslims, but don't say it
The rioters who have burned out neighborhoods in cities across France for a fortnight are overwhelmingly of North African and Arab ancestry, overwhelmingly young, overwhelmingly male, overwhelmingly cut off culturally and economically from the larger French ......

Are they really the (right) ones......

that should be "giving perspective" on how illegal immigration affects "their communities"?

Members of Congress to Testify About Illegal Immigration
(CNSNews.com) – Several U.S. lawmakers will testify before a House immigration subcommittee on Thursday, giving their perspective on how illegal immigration affects their communities...

NRA Challenges San Francisco Gun Ban
(CNSNews.com) – One day after 58 percent of San Francisco voters passed a ban on handgun possession, the National Rifle Association announced that it would challenge the ordinance in court. “Lawful residents of San Francisco are being stripped of their freedom because of an illegal measure that defies common sense,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre...

FRIENDS ?

US Stance on ‘Our Friends the Saudis’ Under Scrutiny
(CNSNews.com) – The State Department has come under fresh criticism for its refusal to participate in a Senate committee hearing into Saudi Arabia’s alleged links to terrorism. At Tuesday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, a Treasury Department official said that Saudi Arabia has worked to block funds to al Qaeda, but not to Palestinian terror groups such as Hamas...

It is Doubtful that....

Al Qaeda really cares all that much who the victims were.

Al Qaeda Targeted ‘Jews and Crusaders’ in Jordan
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Thursday for bombing three hotels in the Jordanian capital, saying that its target was “Jews and crusaders.” At least 57 people were killed, and most of them were not Israelis or westerners, but Palestinian Muslims...

Dick Morris wrong again ?

Probably.

Bush, GOP Must Address Global Warming, Analyst Says
(CNSNews.com) - For Republicans to regain the upper hand before next year's mid-term elections, President Bush needs to embrace a new agenda that includes "straight talk" to the American people about global warming, according to political analyst Dick Morris. A conservative analyst responded that Morris is wrong about climate change...

STANDING TALL -- NOT

Fox News CEO Warms to Climate Change After Heat From Left
(CNSNews.com) - A Fox News Channel documentary on "global warming," set to air Sunday night, provides only the liberal take on the controversial issue and was approved after environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. reportedly "dragged" Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to a lecture by former Vice President Al Gore, "kicking and screaming."

Way to stand your ground, Roger. How your position could be swayed by the likes of R.F. Kennedy, Jr. and Albert Gore is beyond me.

"Civil rights cannot include everything that is done by government which benefits particular groups, individually or collectively. The whole case for civil rights is that every American is entitled to them. Civil rights are not about doing special things for special groups."

---Thomas Sowell

"We do Muslims no favors by excusing attitudes or practices that ought always to be deemed inexcusable."

--- Jeff Jacoby

A GOOD ANALOGY

"What the Democrat leadership is asking for is an Instant Replay of all that was discussed and debated before hostilities commenced. But this isn't the NFL, it's war. Unfortunately, the Republican leadership in the Senate doesn't seem to know it either."

--- Oliver North

"The northeast Republicans are often called moderates. They are in fact Democrats, if not in name, certainly in substance."

---Robert Bork

"The continued success and viability of our democratic Republic depends on our fidelity to, and the faithful exposition and interpretation of, this Constitution."

--- Edwin Meese III

"The real measure of your wealth is how much you'd be worth if you lost all your money."

--- Bernard Meltzer

"Liberalism isn't a political philosophy. It's a vile combination of sickness and evil."
--- Rabbi Mayer Schiller

"Propaganda is persuading people to make up their minds while withholding some of the facts from them."

--- Harold Evans

Heavyhanded thinks it sounds much like America's present day MSM and it's love affair with the Democratic party.

- INFO ON HAROLD EVANS -

Sir Harold Matthew Evans (born 1928) is a British-born journalist and writer who was editor of The Sunday Times from 1967 to 1981. He has written various books on history and journalism. Since May 2005, Evans has been a contributor to The Huffington Post, and since July 2005, he has been contributing a weekly radio commentary BBC Radio 4.

Source: WIKOPEDIA

Harold Evans established new standards of investigative reporting at The Sunday Times and later moved to the United States, where he was an editor, publisher and journalism teacher. He is working on two writing projects.

Source: INTERNATIONAL PRESS INSTITUTE (More from IPI)

Also author of the book "The American Century."
Evans' epic recounts the story of a nation.

ATLANTA (CNN) -- It's a big book that recounts an epic tale. It's also a love story from one man to his adopted country.

"The American Century" tells the unique story of modern America -- how diverse people with different beliefs, languages and ideals came together to forge a democratic world power that remains the beacon of freedom the world over.

"The purpose of the book is to see what happened to America; both to the people in it, and to its relationships with the rest of the world," says author Harold Evans, who got his first glimpse of America in 1956 as an English journalist and academic fellow. More from CNN

Internet Freedom

A thorough overview into the history of the internet, and why a U.N. takeover of it would be disastrous.

TAX REFORM

A Simple Plan?
The president's tax panel delivered a complicated proposal that would merely shift the tax code's winners and losers. Still, the media bought into the idea that it was ‘simplifying,’ focusing on deductions ‘scrapped’ and, like the panel, avoiding the issue of real reform.

RELATED:
Commentary: R. Glenn Hubbard offers a comprehensive look into the tax panel findings and where reformers should go from there.

Man of Steele

Commentary
By Cal Thomas

What would you call a man born into poverty who became a success despite many obstacles? You would probably call him an inspiration and invite him to speak at your next business convention.

Suppose that man from humble roots is African-American? He might be a keynote speaker at the next NAACP gathering, or the 2008 Democratic National Convention.

Except that this man is not a Democrat. He's a Republican and a conservative. What would you call him now -- an "Oreo," an "Uncle Tom," a "token"?

Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, who is running for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Paul S. Sarbanes, has been called these names, and worse, by Democratic leaders in his state.

Full Commentary

Good Riddance

Asia terror leader 'kills himself'

• Special ReportJAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- One of Asia's most wanted terrorists is believed to have blown himself up Wednesday to escape capture by a U.S.-trained elite police unit who attacked his Indonesian hideout, the national police chief said. Full details

Islamists see opportunity with unrest in France

By Bill Gertz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

Street riots in France do not appear to be instigated by overseas terrorists, but there are growing fears that Islamic extremists are exploiting the unrest, U.S. officials and private specialists said.
"At this point, it doesn't appear to be foreign-inspired," one U.S. security official said. "But the concern in France is that Islamists might take advantage of it." Details

Commentary from Opinion Journal

On the Editorial Page
An Iraqi democrat is welcomed in Washington--finally.

Extra BY REUEL MARC GERECHT
The Plame kerfuffle illustrates the CIA's sloppiness.

A Prayer for Women

Dear Lord, I pray for Wisdom to Understand my man; Love to Forgive him; And Patience for his Moods; Because Lord, if I pray for Strength, I'll beat him to Death.

Amen!

France's Flawed Experiment with Secularism

By Albert Mohler

The world has watched as France has been thrown into a state of emergency, with riots, street fighting and arson enveloping entire neighborhoods of Paris--and now the riots are spreading to other European nations. While they have declared a state of emergency, French authorities still deny the extent of the disorder.

Many in the media are censoring the fact that these are Muslim youth, who have gone on a rampage against the secularist society of France. As writer Mark Steyn writes, this may be the outbreak we have all dreaded--a civil war for the soul of Europe.

Ever since the French Revolution, France has attempted to create a truly secular society. In one sense, they have been hugely successful. Active Christianity is embraced by very few French citizens. But, as is always the case, secularism creates a vacuum at the very center of civilization. These rioting young men want to fill that vacuum with Muslim rage. Secularism has consequences.

Source: Beyond the News

Time to Act Against Saudis Over Religious Persecution
(CNSNews.com) – Unless the U.S. takes punitive steps against Saudi Arabia, the designation of Saudi Arabia as a religious freedom violator is “pointless and actually counterproductive,” said one critic of the regime...

No Surprises Here

US Names Religious Freedom Violators
(CNSNews.com) – A new State Department report on global religious freedom cites eight countries for particularly severe abuses. They include three Islamic states, three ruled by communists, a military regime and a one-party state in Africa...

At Least They are Honest

Talk Now, Demolish Israel Later, Hamas Says
Jerusalem (CNSNews.com) – Hamas is ready negotiate with Israel as a means of achieving its goals, which include the end of the Jewish State, a Hamas leader said on Wednesday...

Australia terror link to 7 July attacks

MEMBERS of a group accused of plotting a devastating bombing campaign in Australia trained with the same Pakistani terrorist network linked to the London bomb attacks on 7 July.

PM urged to pressure China over abuses

TONY Blair came under renewed pressure last night to press China over its appalling human rights record on the first day of the president Hu Jintao's state visit.

Chinese get prison time for Bible delivery
Religious persecution in China has reached the point that distributing Bibles is earning a three-year prison sentence.

Poll: 83% want English state's official tongue

THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A recent poll shows that 83 percent of Maryland voters favor legislation that would require most state and local government business to be conducted in English.

The poll by nonpartisan Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies bolsters Maryland lawmakers seeking to make English the official state language.

"For a liberal state like Maryland to have those dramatic numbers makes it clear that we have to have a vote on it," said Delegate Patrick L. McDonough, Baltimore County Republican, whose bill to make English the official state language was voted down in committee this year. "The legislators should go on record in an election year."

Most Americans favor border fence; 3/4 say a candidate's stance on immigration will influence vote

Nearly two-thirds of Americans would favor the construction of a fence along the entire U.S.-Mexico border, while three out of four say a politician's stance on immigration will influence the way they vote in coming elections.

According to a new survey by Rasmussen Reports, 60 percent of those surveyed like the idea of a barrier along the U.S. Southwest border as a means of dramatically reducing illegal immigration from Mexico and elsewhere in Latin America.

From WND

Oh, no. Say it ain't so..........

If we elected Jesse Ventura as governor, well then I guess anything is possible. But this would be too much.

French "Anti-Riot" Fatwa: Weasel Words in Action

Lost Budgie laments the use of half-ass fatwas that leave wiggle room. You can read his post here.

Fox Declares 'Muslim Riots'

Lost Budgie blogs "It took twelve days, but this is the first major television broadcast that I've seen where the 'unrest' has been called "Muslim Riots".

The 'Toe Sucking Bandit' Strikes Again

Story here. (Complete with news video)

Credit Card Solicitation Enters Twilight Zone

NBC5.com

"Have you ever had one of those off-the-wall experiences when you thought, "no one will ever believe this just happened?" Well, Monday was my day in bizarre-o-world.

At 5:30 on Monday afternoon, I stepped into an elevator in a friend's condominium, and the phone started to ring. Not my cell phone, but the emergency phone in the elevator.

That in itself was a bit odd. After all, when was the last time you heard an elevator phone ring? But that’s not the bizarre part.

The unbelievable part happened when I decided to answer the phone that wouldn’t stop ringing. I know that "curiosity killed the cat," but I wanted to know who in the world was calling an elevator.

So I reached down, opened the little door, and picked up the big brown elevator phone. I answered with an inquisitive and slightly tentative "hello." Turns out, it wasn’t a call telling me the building was on fire or that my car was being towed from the parking garage. No, after the brief but heightened anticipation, it turns out it was a solicitation for a credit card!

Has it really come to this? Cold-calling elevators to see if some desperate soul will succumb to yet one more credit card solicitation before reaching the ground floor?

When I told the person on the other end of the line that, "they had just called an elevator," there was dead silence. Imagine that -- I rendered a telemarketer speechless." More

Cat survives traffic, 70-foot fall, 600-foot swim

Associated Press

WENATCHEE, Wash. - One plucky cat is waiting to go home. But no one knows where home is.

The cat is resting up at an animal shelter in Washington state after leaping from a pickup, scampering through traffic, plunging 70 feet into the chilly Columbia River and swimming 600 feet to shore.

Officials at the Wenatchee Valley Humane Society say the cat "ate ravenously" after its ordeal.

Now they're trying to figure out whose cat it is. The gray, long-hair calico has no collar.

Witnesses say the cat came off a pickup truck that was driving across a bridge. It managed to dash through traffic, and Humane Society officials found it cowering in the center of the bridge. But before they could catch it, it leaped over the railing.

They watched the kitty hit the water below, go under, surface, then swim like mad. A man in a kayak helped guide it to shore.

Overlooked Facts

Regarding the French rioting:

"......the [French]Interior Ministry released a report on the deaths that touched off the newest rioting, asserting that a third boy who survived the incident had said he and his friends were not being chased and were aware of the danger when they entered the substation enclosure. The report suggested that the boys were hiding from the police because one of those who died had a record of armed robbery and the other was part of a group that had broken into a construction site that evening. But those points have been lost amid the ensuing violence."
SOURCE: TimesWatch

But why lets facts get in the way? Right?

Arrests Foil ‘Catastrophic’ Terror Attack in Australia
(CNSNews.com) – In what officials are calling the biggest counter-terrorism operation ever in Australia, 17 men were arrested early Tuesday in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia’s two largest cities, just days after Prime Minister John Howard’s government pushed through emergency counter-terror legislation. “The police forces of this country may just have prevented a catastrophic act of terrorism,” New South Wales police minister Carl Scully told reporters...

I'm Failing to Make the Connection

Animal 'Rights' Activists Stage Bird Flu Publicity Stunt
(CNSNews.com) – Members of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals say they will lie naked in flower-decorated coffins outside the Department of Agriculture in Washington on Wednesday to “remind consumers that an addiction to poultry could lead to a bird-flu pandemic.”

Heavyhanded is asking, "What is the connection?" Bird flu > getting naked. Somebody help me.
What am I missing?

Activist Judges Usurping Parental Rights, Petition Says
(CNSNews.com) – The American Family Association is urging like-minded conservatives to sign a petition asking the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn the “crazy ruling,” which is expected to reach the nation’s highest court eventually...

Saudi Arabia Still Persecuting People for Their Faith
(CNSNews.com) – Just days before Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is due to visit Saudi Arabia, the State Department on Tuesday will release a report naming the oil-rich Islamic kingdom as one of eight violators of religious freedom around the globe...

Granny Patrol

Grannies on border patrol
"The "Granny Brigade," Carmen Mercer and Connie Foust, sits silently in the pitch-black desert night at their Minuteman observation post just a few yards from the dirt road and four-strand barbed-wire fence that separates the United States and Mexico."

Heh, heh.

Riots spread across borders
"Hoodlums stormed into the streets across France for a 12th night yesterday, burning schools, cars and public buildings in defiance of government threats of curfews and the call-up of police reserves."

I'm thinking France is in big trouble. They don't seem to have the moxie to handle the problem, nor do I think they understand what they are dealing with.

Why Immigramts Don't Riot Here

Over at Opinion Journal, their featured opinion piece entitled "Why Immigrants Don't Riot Here" does a pretty good analysis, supported with some statistics, on the French economy, their socialistic system, and it's serious flaws. Worth reading.

"If individuals be not influenced by moral principles; it is in vain to look for public virtue; it is, therefore, the duty of legislators to enforce, both by precept and example, the utility, as well as the necessity of a strict adherence to the rules of
distributive justice."

-- James Madison

Aussie Police shoot terror suspect

POLICE have shot and wounded a terrorist suspect who allegedly opened fire on them this morning after he disobeyed an order to stop on a Sydney street.

The man had been under surveillance by counter-terrorist police and was carrying a backpack when ordered to stop by officers.

The suspect tried to flee, reportedly firing gunshots at police before they returned fire, hitting him in the chest.

The incident, just before 9am, came just hours after hundreds of police officers raided houses in Sydney and Melbourne, arresting 16 people who were allegedly planning a "catastrophic" terrorist attack in Australia.

The suspect has been taken to hospital and is in a serious but stable condition.

This morning's raids involved around 400 police officers in Australia's two largest cities this morning.

Police and government officials said the raids had "disrupted ... the final stages of a large-scale terrorist attack".

Beware a 'Digital Munich'

By SEN. NORM COLEMAN

It sounds like a Tom Clancy plot. An anonymous group of international technocrats holds secretive meetings in Geneva. Their cover story: devising a blueprint to help the developing world more fully participate in the digital revolution. Their real mission: strategizing to take over management of the Internet from the U.S. and enable the United Nations to dominate and politicize the World Wide Web. Does it sound too bizarre to be true? Regrettably, much of what emanates these days from the U.N. does.

The Internet faces a grave threat. We must defend it. We need to preserve this unprecedented communications and informational medium, which fosters freedom and enterprise. We can not allow the U.N. to control the Internet. Full story.

Auto-Genocide

"There are some 8 million of these folks in France now, over 12% of the total French population of 60 million. They have a 50% growth rate per decade, while that of non-Moslem French is either zero or negative, as French women refuse to have babies. In less than 20 years, Moslems will comprise over 30% of the people in France.

As the riots are making clear, the crisis is far more immediate – for in many Parisian suburbs and entire French cities like Lyon, Marseilles, Lille, Strasbourg, and Montpellier, Moslems are already a majority of the youth (folks under 30).

It is very hard to see a way out of this, for the Moslemification of France seems baked into the demographic cake. It is one of the greatest ironies of our time. There is no nationality more insufferably arrogant than the French regarding the superiority of their culture – their history, their language, their cuisine, their sophistication, their savoir faire, their unique importance to humanity, the whole cultural mélange.

And they are giving it all up, turning it over to Moslems – Moslems not even from France! The French, of all people, are committing auto-genocide upon their own culture."

--- Dr. Jack Wheeler

France to Impose Curfews to Quell Rioting

Yahoo News

PARIS - France will impose curfews under a state-of-emergency law and call up police reservists to stop rioting that has spread out of Paris' suburbs and into nearly 300 cities and towns across the country, the prime minister said Monday, calling a return to order "our No. 1 responsibility."

The tough new measures came as France's worst civil unrest in decades entered a 12th night, with rioters in the southern city of Toulouse setting fire to a bus after sundown and pelting police with gasoline bombs and rocks. Full story.

Is it Rioting or Civil War?

James Taranto has written a good article for the Opinion Journal on the rioting (civil war?) entitled "The French Conflagration."

You can read it here.

"If the Republican majority in the Senate cannot bring themselves to act like a majority, they may no longer be a majority if their base of support stops supporting them at the ballot box. The brutal fact is that Senate Republicans have not had the stomach for a fight, either during this administration or during the Democrat administration under Clinton... Democrats understand that they were elected to do what those who elected them wanted. But Republicans seem to think they were elected to make deals with Democrats and gain media applause for doing so. Senate Democrats are a united minority, while Senate Republicans are a divided majority, with prima donnas and opportunists ready to leave their fellow Republicans in the lurch when a showdown comes—even if that means risking the whole party's loss of support among voters who feel betrayed."

--- Thomas Sowell

"Just as it would be madness to settle on medical treatment for the body of a person by taking an opinion poll of the neighbors, so it is irrational to prescribe for the body politic by polling the opinions of the people at large."

---Plato

Attack on Cruise Liner: Piracy or Anti-US Terror?
(CNSNews.com) – Gunmen who attacked a luxury cruise liner off the east coast of Africa may have been terrorists targeting Americans and other Westerners rather than pirates, the Australian government said Monday...

The Disadvantaged Yutes in Paris

I had not yet wandered over to Victor David Hanson's website, but was perusing FlexBlue and he had noted that on Hanson's site, "Bruce Thornton writes a hard-edged essay about the French riots."

I would encourage you to skip on over there and read it. But don't forget to "com' on back, ya hear?"

PROJECTING AN IMAGE OF WEAKNESS

From the New York Sun:

It's a barely kept secret that Mr. Chirac led the opposition to the Iraq war out of fear of how his Muslim population would react. This fear is a big part of why France portrays itself as America's counterweight and why it criticizes Israel at every turn and coddled the terrorist Yasser Arafat right up to his death. This doesn't elicit thanks from Muslim radicals in France. It turns out to project an image of weakness. Unsurprisingly when faced with some unhappiness they believe they can pressure the French state into submission.

A number of observers of the French scene have looked at population trends and suggested that France is on its way to becoming a Muslim country (one that would, let it be noted, be armed with hydrogen bombs).

Hat tip FlexBlue

Biden says filibuster on Alito unlikely
Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. said yesterday that he expects an up-or-down vote by the full Senate on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Samuel A. Alito Jr., without the parliamentary blockades that Democrats used against 10 of President Bush's appellate...

Steele decries black critics as racists
Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele said black Democratic leaders who call racially tinged attacks on him fair game because he is a conservative Republican have exposed themselves as racists and cast shame upon the state.

Paris police fear rioters' heavy arms
Police officers, exhausted and dispirited after 11 nights of street battles, say their mainly young African and Arab adversaries have access to sophisticated weapons including grenades and could soon begin using them.

France in flames as riots wreak havoc

FRENCH President Jacques Chirac has promised arrest, trials and punishment for those sowing "violence or fear" as an 11th night of urban violence erupted across France last night, with police and rioters clashing south of Paris and in other towns.

I'm in this weird (socialistic) place

Conservatives are constantly asking what makes Hollywood so liberal; and why is it that such a large number of actors and actresses turn out to be so liberal and posses socialistic tendencies. One of the more popular theories espoused is that while they enjoy their wealth, fame, lifestyle, and (perceived) importance, they feel guilty for having these "riches", while the majority of the population does not, and having "it all" without having to work that hard for it.

George Clooney recently was quoted in NEWSWEEK as saying, "I'm in this weird place. I have this beautiful house in Italy and I have these social agendas. I don't want to give up that lifestyle because I enjoy it, but I also feel that I have a responsibility. So the way I try to rationalize that... is for instance, with [my new] casino, 25 percent of anything it makes will go to the "Make Poverty History" campaign. It's the only way I can reconcile being successful."

It all makes sense, does it not?

European Sensibility

"I've always been drawn to Europe. America [has] an adolescent swagger about it. But I feel that I have a more European sensibility, a greater respect for the multicultural nature of the globe."
--- Gwenyth Paltrow

That which has served France so well.

GAG ME

"I had a huge grin on my face yesterday when I was getting arrested...the officers lifted me out [and] I was afraid America would see my underwear and that tickled me."

--- Cindy Sheehan

Muslim Riots Break Out in Denmark As Well

(IsraelNN.com) As Muslim riots spread across France, Denmark is also beginning to see its own Islamic Intifada. In Arhus, Denmark, young Muslims were heard chanting, “This land belongs to us!”

A masked spokesman for the rioters told Danish reporters that Muslims were tired of being oppressed and harassed and warned the police to stay away. "This is our area. We rule this place,” he said.

The riots have increased following a cartoon in Danish paper The Jyllands Pos involving Mohammed. Rocks and firebombs have become commonplace in many neighborhoods and firefighters are afraid to enter them to put out the fires.

THE LIE OF THE DAY

“If you look at the Ginsburg nomination, for example, she'd been a judge, I think, for 12 years. She'd been, actually, a pretty conservative liberal judge, if you can be such a thing.”

--- Nina Totenberg of NPR on today's (Nov.6th) NBC’s “Meet The Press” commenting on Justice Ginsburg, former general council for the conservative radical ACLU.

Makes you think that they would only be happy if Lenin, Stalin, Mussolini, Marx, and Hitler could join Ginsburg, Breyer, Kennedy, and Souter on the SCOTUS.

GETTING TOUGH

What do you do when a country (Iran) continues to pursue nuclear weaponry, and also this same country (Iran) threatens and seeks help to wipe another country (Israel) off the face of the map?

What kind of measures, what kind of pressure (sanctions, maybe?) do you use to let them know you are serious and they need to do a 180 (degrees) quickly?

You do this.

That'll get their attention. No doubt. The message is "We do not mess around."

US-Iraqi 'Steel Curtain' operation continues
Baghdad - A joint military operation by 3,500 US and Iraqi troops continued Sunday in western Iraq near the border with Syria, the US military said. Operation Steel Curtain, which began Saturday, continued ...

Chirac calls crisis meeting as rioting spreads
Paris - French President Jacques Chirac called an emergency meeting of the government's Homeland Security Council for Sunday evening after rioting and arson spread across France. Chirac's office announced ......