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Heavy-Handed Politics

"€œGod willing, with the force of God behind it, we shall soon experience a world
without the United States and Zionism."€ -- Iran President Ahmadi-Nejad

Saturday, September 30, 2006

Got wine at the airport? It's harder to grab a cab

In a story appearing in our local liberal rag we find this: "When flight attendant Eva Buzek returned to Minneapolis from a trip to France, five taxi drivers refused to take her home from the airport. The reason? She had two bottles of wine in her suitcase -- and the drivers were Muslims, who don't drink and refuse to have alcohol in their taxis."

Now what I need to know is this. Why is it ok for a person (the cab driver) under the banner of their Islamic faith to deny 'customers' rides to their destinations because it violates their religious beliefs, yet ... yet ... it is not ok for Christian pharmacists to deny 'customers' the 'right' to purchase the morning-after pill even though it goes against their religious beliefs?

Syria threat over Golan puts Israel on war alert

Telegraph : "Israel has gone on heightened alert over a possible war with Syria amid reports that President Bashar Assad may be considering military strikes to regain the Golan Heights.

For years Israeli military intelligence has down-played Syria's capacity to launch a meaningful attack against Israel, and the threat level has been kept 'low'.

But Israeli reports have revealed that the threat level had been raised after intelligence assessments that Damascus is 'seriously examining' military action." Read on.

City sued: Didn't teach cop Spanish

WorldNetDaily
Attorney seeking over $1 million says officer who assaulted Hispanic couldn't communicate"

Begging Your Pardon, Mrs. Clinton

"We have another simple question perhaps Hillary could answer: If your husband was so intent on fighting terrorism and killing bin Laden, why did he, on Aug. 11, 1999, grant clemency to 16 members of the hard-core Puerto Rican terrorist group Armed Forces for National Liberation (FALN)? And to repeat a question former Clinton guru Dick Morris asked earlier this year: 'Did (you) know that Bill was pardoning the FALN terrorists to help (you) win Puerto Rican votes in New York?'

FALN terrorists carried out more than 150 bombings in the U.S., including the lunchtime bombing of Fraunces Tavern in New York on Jan. 24, 1975, that killed four. Before this pardon, Clinton had denied clemency in 3,039 out of 3,042 cases. Why this one, if he was serious about fighting terrorism?

As recounted in a Nov. 10, 1999, Washington Post story, this politically motivated pardon of terrorists was also designed to help Al Gore's 2000 presidential bid.

A White House memo written by Jeffrey Farrow, co-chairman of the White House's interagency working group on Puerto Rico, said on March 6, 1999: 'The VP's Puerto Rico position would be helped' if the terrorists were granted clemency. The memo noted that clemency was also a priority for three congressional Democrats with large Puerto Rican constituencies."

Read the rest at Investor's Business Daily

TOXIC HONOR

"The more I travel, study history and read the papers, the more convinced I become of the superiority of rationalism. With that attitude, I should spend all my time traveling to northern Europe and Japan.

However, fate has also seen fit to send me to many places where people think with their viscera and gonads instead of their brains. The more I see it in action, the more convinced I become that societies that place personal 'honor' before everything else are truly cursed.

Nothing better illustrates this 'honor' mentality better than the fury directed by Islamic militants against Danish and Norwegian cartoons of Mohammed, or most recently the Regensburg speech of Pope Benedict XVI.

Sacrilegious art in other cultures can offend and get people angry but the lunatic response of radical Islamists is in a class by itself. It's the shrieking, out of control petulance of a three-year old throwing a tantrum.

People infected with this attitude will be utterly incapable of recognizing wrongdoing by their own society, utterly incapable of taking criticism or recognizing the need for correction.

This is remarkably close to the image of Hell painted by C. S. Lewis in his books Perelandra and The Screwtape Letters: a paralyzing self-absorption that imprisons the individual in hate and impotent rage while simultaneously blinding him to any possibility of escape."

-- Steven Dutch

WHAT AILS CASTRO?

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF FIDEL CASTRO
By Dagny D'Anconia
To The Point News (By paid subscription only)

"The official statement from Cuba is that Fidel Castro was overworked and required surgery as a result. How fitting for the leader of the Island Workers' Paradise to work himself sick. How noble an illness. Though Castro's actual ailment was declared a state secret, the publicly available information points conclusively to a very different cause for his illness, however.

If he had an operation, then he should have recovered by now. In a photo released on September 1, about five weeks after his illness began, Castro was very pallid. Weeks into his illness, something was still causing him to lose blood to the degree that transfusions could not keep up with the loss. Furthermore, he was wearing a long-sleeve red shirt in the photo. Such a shirt in summer in Cuba is rare - and even more so in a hospital, where red clothing is not used because it does not show bleeding and long sleeves are not used because they do not allow access for IV lines. He must still have been bleeding freely and his people wanted to hide that fact. Something mysterious was causing his continued bleeding.

Castro is not the only famous Stalinist to experience unexplained bleeding. Fifty years after Joseph Stalin died of a brain hemorrhage, studies finally came out of Russia suggesting that he was poisoned by comrades in the Politburo and then bled to death in his dacha.

Now, 53 years later, another rat may have been poisoned. Once again there are plenty of people with both motive and opportunity."

Blair for the U.N.?

I could get behind this idea:
"When Kofi Annan steps down as U.N. secretary-general later this year, Tony Blair should replace him.

It won't happen, mind you. He's not on anyone's list of diplomatic names in the running. But he's just the kind of voice the world body could use right now."

By Kathryn Jean Lopez

The gap between Islam and peace

"The experts tell us militant Islamic fundamentalists, or 'Islamists,' represent a narrow, if murderous, fringe. They number no more than 10, maybe 15, percent of all Muslims. That estimate works out to somewhere between 100 million and 150 million people. Which is a lot of murderous fringe."

By Diana West

Campaign effort stirs GOP criticism

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review: "Westmoreland County Republicans on Friday accused county government officials of promoting the campaign of U.S. Rep John Murtha using taxpayer resources."

The week's revelations

"Tolerance has been one of the virtues of western civilization. But virtues can be carried to extremes that turn them into vices. Toleration of intolerance is a particularly dangerous vice to which western nations are succumbing, both within their own countries and internationally."

By Thomas Sowell

What Clinton didn't do about terror, and when he didn't do it.

BY RICHARD MINITER

“The bottom line is that Bill Clinton, the commander-in-chief, could not find the will to order the military into action against al Qaeda, and Bill Clinton, the head of the executive branch, could not find the will to order the CIA and FBI to act. No matter what the former president says on Fox, or anywhere else, that is his legacy in the war on terror.”
—Byron York

“There’s nothing commendable about being so impartial between truth and falsity that we split the difference between the two and call it objectivity.”
—Paul Greenberg

“If anything, liberals are even more dangerous than Islamacists. The terrorist attacks with bombs and bullets. The liberal saps our will to resist. He rationalizes evil. In the name of civil liberties, he constantly seeks to undermine national security and make it impossible to safeguard our people from another 9/11.”
—Don Feder

Jay Leno: "Radical Muslims are still angry at the Pope. They say the Pope insulted a whole people and their religion. Then they went back to calling for the destruction of Israel and killing everyone."

Illegal alien shoots Houston police officer

"Houston police Officer Rodney Johnson made what should have been a routine traffic stop last Thursday when Juan Leonardo Quintero, an illegal alien with a criminal record, shot and killed him. Quintero was deported in 1999 for sexually abusing a 12-year-old girl and DWI, but had snuck back in the country sometime in the interim. Though Quintero was handcuffed, he was able to get his hands over his head and reach a concealed handgun, and then shot Officer Johnson four times in the back of the head from the back seat of the patrol car. Execution should supersede deportation this time.

This tragic crime reminds us again why immigration reform is so critical to our security—both national and local."

--Source: Patriot Post

Officer Johnson left a wife, also a Houston officer, three daughters and two sons.

“There’s nothing wrong with getting angry if you’re right, as Chris Matthews put it. But when Clinton went after Wallace, he inadvertently allowed his mask to slip. America got a glimpse not just of a former president who feels mischaracterized, but of a man filled with contempt for the lesser mortals who would seek to undo him. His inner Gollum was visible beneath a roiling rage... Experience tells us, too, that manipulators are always contemptuous of those they manipulate... Clinton’s marmish scolding of Wallace was a telling moment, much like another time he wagged his finger on television.”
— Kathleen Parker

“On the Contrary, when People are universally ignorant, and debauchd in their Manners, they will sink under their own weight without the Aid of foreign Invaders.”
—Samuel Adams

Harold Ford Behind in Tennessee

"Republican Bob Corker now leads Democratic opponent Harold Ford Jr. by five percentage points in the race for a U.S. Senate seat from Tennessee, a new poll reveals."

Friday, September 29, 2006

One Has to Ask 'Why'?

Mexico Opposes Border Wall
First of all, I could not care less whether Mexico opposes the fence or not. Secondly, you have to ask why. Why do they oppose it? On what grounds is their opposition founded and why do they think they have a say in the matter?

The reasons given in the article by Mexico were inane.

RIGHT TO PRIVACY WHEN IT ONLY SUITS US

How can the Left and the Democrats wail about violating our rights to privacy when they lambast our efforts to stop terrorists through measures like The Patriot Act, NSA and then turn around and see nothing wrong with this?

In case you missed it, Dick Morris had a rebuttal to Clinton's meltdown with reporter Chris Wallace, and did a thorough vetting of all of Clinton's claims about the 'wonderful job' on the war on terror he did during his presidency.

Talking Points

Once again, the terrorists are using Democrats' talking points.

PUT UP YOUR DUKES

Why is it the Democrats will fight George Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, all Republicans, conservatives, WalMart, "Big Oil" (Who is that by the way? Anyone ever ask directory assistance for their phone number? I cannot seem to find it in the phone book.), tobacco companies, fast food restaurants, pharmaceutical companies, (maybe I should just say capitalism), Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Fox News, and anti-infanticide legislation, (oh, I give up there's too many to list) harder than they will fight the terrorists?

Misleading the World on the Darfur Conflict
By Frank Salvato
Recently, a group calling itself Save Darfur initiated a media campaign calling for President Bush to “stop the genocide now” referring to the ethnic cleansing that is currently taking place in Darfur, Sudan. While any movement to halt the slaughter of innocents in Darfur should be considered a noble endeavor, the message conveyed in the commercial now running in the mainstream media is misleading because it implies that Bush either has more power over the situation than he actually has or is doing nothing to stop the slaughter. Both notions are false…

Fear of Iran Pushing Saudi Arabia Toward Israel, Experts Say

Jerusalem - "Seeking regional allies to make a stand against Iran and the growing Shi'ite Muslim radicalization, Saudi Arabia sees Israel as a likely ally, experts here said on Thursday."

McCain Encourages UK Conservatives to Move to the Center
As a resurgent Tory Party prepares to hold its annual conference this weekend, Senator John McCain praised its leader David Cameron as a breath of fresh air and as a worthy successor to Margaret Thatcher. McCain said the Conservative Party was becoming more attractive to independent voters in the way he wants the Republican Party to be...

California Governor Vetoes Two More ‘Gay Agenda’ Bills
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has vetoed all three “sexual indoctrination” bills passed earlier this year. Conservative activists said Schwarzenegger was responding to election-year pressure from “irate parents and grandparents.” Advocates for homosexuality said the veto leaves California students “vulnerable to bias and intimidation based on sexual orientation and gender identity.”

Survivor of Jihad Issues Challenge to Muslim-Americans

"A survivor of Islamic Jihad in the 1970s is challenging Muslim Americans who reject radical teachings to 'raise their voices' and to hold demonstrations in public venues across the country denouncing violent behavior."

Michigan woes fuel GOP election hopes
The fever among voters to throw incumbents out of office -- furiously stoked by Democrats in Washington -- might backfire in Michigan, where Republicans are riding a surge of voter discontent.

Bush scolds 'party of cut and run'
President Bush yesterday said Democrats have ditched the tradition of the great war-fighting presidents of the 20th century to become "the party of cut and run," and accused them of using leaked excerpts of a recent intelligence estimate to mislead voters

As Election Day Nears, Races Are Tightening
By Paul M. Weyrich
Republicans have been in a better mood in the waning days of the 109th Congress. They think there is a much better chance they will continue in power after the November elections. However, if polling is any indication, Republicans remain in deep trouble. One nasty little surprise Democrats intend to enact if they gain control of Congress is the reinstatement of the “Fairness Doctrine.” While purporting to be an instrument of democracy, the Fairness Doctrine was in truth the instrument by which democracy was stifled…

Muslims Intimidating the West
By Daniel Pipes
The violence by Muslims responding to comments by the pope fit a pattern that has been building and accelerating since 1989. Six times since then, Westerners did or said something that triggered death threats and violence in the Muslim world. Looking at them in the aggregate offers useful insights…

Rockets Still Hitting Southern Israel
Jerusalem
– The war in Lebanon is over, but Israel is still under attack from terrorists firing rockets from the Gaza Strip. A female Israeli soldier was wounded Tuesday in yet another rocket attack on the southern Israeli city of Sderot...

Few Americans Satisfied with United Nations
Angus Reid Global Scan - Vancouver,BC,Canada
- Fewer adults in the United States hold positive views on the United Nations (UN), according to a poll by Rasmussen Reports. 31 ...

Murtha and the FBI: The Director's Cut

From The American Spectator:

"For more than 26 years, Congressman John P. 'Jack' Murtha (D-Penn.) has not been truthful about his involvement in Abscam, court records and the complete video of his meeting with the FBI show.

In recent years, only a 13-second video of Murtha's videotaped meeting with the FBI agents was publicly available. TAS has obtained a copy of the full, original video from a source close to the Abscam investigation on the condition of anonymity. The court transcript is publicly available at the National Archives. (To see the full video, click here. For a transcript of the meeting, click here.)

Murtha has repeatedly maintained his innocence in the Abscam sting operation, even as recently as this year. However, his November 20, 1980 testimony in the trial of Congressmen Frank Thompson (D-N.J.) and John Murphy (D-N.Y.) and the FBI's complete undercover video of his January 7, 1980 meeting with its agent and informant reveal a man showcasing his political influence and apparently tempted to take a $50,000 bribe. On the tape, Murtha appears eager to arrange his own, long-term deal with the supposed representatives of Arab sheiks, and to cut out Thompson and Murphy. His testimony reveals that after his January 7 meeting, he looked into helping the sheiks enter the country, rather than contacting the FBI or the Ethics Committee, of which he was a member. Through the years, Murtha has maintained that he only met with the FBI agents to discuss investments in his district. His testimony, the video, and the cases of other congressmen snared in Abscam suggest that 'investments in the district' was a common Abscam defense for those accused of bribery." Go the the American Spectator to read the whole article.

Experts Deem Hezbollah A Threat To US Interests
All Headline News - USA
Jerusalem (AHN) - Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's claims of having neutralized Hezbollah as a fighting force notwithstanding, leading US counter-terrorism ...

Syria defies US threat and backs Hamas, Hezbollah
Gulf Times - Doha,Qatar
DAMASCUS: Syria will keep supporting Hamas and Hezbollah despite US threats to impose more sanctions on it, a government newspaper said yesterday. ...

Thursday, September 28, 2006

“Those who never retract their opinions love themselves more than they love the truth.” —Joseph Joubert

Republicans Accuse Democrats of ‘Coddling’ Terrorists

The House of Representatives passed a bill Wednesday that would set up special military tribunals to try enemy combatants, but 160 Democrats voted against it. Hastert accused those Democrats of continuing to coddle the terrorists... Full article.

THE GRAND DELUSION

Excellent penning by David Brooks.

"To his eternal credit, after 9/11 George Bush quickly understood that the terror threat was fundamentally an ideological threat, a product of deep historical consciousness. To his eternal discredit, he didn't commit enough resources to successfully defeat and discredit that ideology. The chance to deliver the sort of blow that the Six Day War delivered to an earlier version of Arab nationalism may now be lost.

As a result, as the National Intelligence Estimate makes clear, the West now faces a diverse and metastasizing set of foes. The report also makes clear that while the Iraq war has so far enhanced the prestige of the terrorists, Iraq remains the crucial battleground where they will either gain glory or face humiliation.

If we lived in a serious political culture, we'd be discussing what we've learned from Iraq and how to proceed. Instead, all of Washington is involved in a juvenile game of gotcha. Bill Clinton is fighting about what did or didn't happen 10 years ago. The White House is still exaggerating the positive. Democratic senators purr like happy kittens as retired generals slam Donald Rumsfeld, and then stop up their ears when those same generals call for more troops and a longer war.

Voters now confront a Republican Party that understands the breadth of the threat but has bungled the central campaign, and a Democratic Party that is quick to criticize but lacks an understanding of the jihadists and a strategy for confronting them.

Worse, more and more people are falling for the Grand Delusion — the notion that if we just leave the extremists alone, they will leave us alone. On the right, some believe that if we just stop this Wilsonian madness of trying to introduce democracy into the Arab world, we can return to an age of stability and balance. On the left, many people can't seem to fathom an enemy the U.S. isn't somehow responsible for. Others think the entire threat has been exaggerated by Karl Rove for the sake of political scaremongering.

Perhaps it's understandable that many Americans would fall for this Grand Delusion. The Israelis, who have more experience with Islamic extremism, recently did. They imagined that they could build a security barrier and unilaterally withdraw from their historical reality. It took the war in south Lebanon to make them see there is no way to unilaterally withdraw. There is no way to become a normal society. Even if they pulled out of Lebanon, Gaza and the West Bank, they would still have to confront an existential foe, so long as the forces of political Islam continued to wage their competition for anti-Semitic glory all around.

The blunt fact is that groups of Islamic extremists will continue to compete and grow until mainstream Islamic moderates can establish a more civilized set of criteria for prestige and greatness. Today's extremists are not the product of short-term historical circumstances, but of consciousness and culture. They are not the fault of the United States, but have roots stretching back centuries. They will not suddenly ignore their foe — us — when their hatred of us is the core of their identity.

The National Intelligence Estimate predicts terror violence will get worse in the years ahead. The scarier estimate was made by a veteran of the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, in conversation with his grandson who now lives in Boston: "This is forever."

Fair Use.

Row over Hezbollah delays troop pullout
Gulf Times - Doha,Qatar
JERUSALEM: Disputes over how the Lebanese army and UN peacekeepers will deal with Hezbollah fighters are holding up the withdrawal of Israeli troops from ..."

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Gas Hysteria: Prices are Falling, ‘But …’

What goes down must come up.

"That’s what many reporters have been saying since gas prices started falling. Gas prices have dropped a total of 68 cents, dropping every business day for the past 35 straight business days since August 11.

But after they started dropping, journalists continued referring to them as “rising,” “soaring” and “high” almost half the time. And even when reporters admitted prices were falling, the news was often undermined by reminders that prices could go back up." Continue reading.

Debra J. Saunders: Angry white man meets the smirk
The smirk is the new angry. Remember the '90s, which Dems spent putting down "angry white men?" Now the Dems are angry.

Cal Thomas: Clinton gives us another finger
Clinton apparently is coming out about this now because of the recently aired ABC film "The Path to 9/11," which portrayed him and his top aides as indecisive at best, and incompetent at worst...

Who makes the terrorists hate us?
David Limbaugh

What other nation in history has obsessively investigated itself during time of war? When are we going to quit beating ourselves up and move down the road?

Fake or real, Clinton's rage shores up his base
By Ben Shapiro

Bill Clinton has always been a master of manipulation. Smooth. Articulate. Unflappable.

Must we put up with the United Nations?
By William Rusher

The United Nations cannot be reformed, and cannot be ignored. But there is no reason why the United States must continue to dignify the antics that characterize it.

Bill Clinton, Pampered Prima Donna
By Brent Bozell III

Pundits are pondering Bill Clinton's feverish attack on "Fox News Sunday," laying into Chris Wallace for alleged oh-so-clever smirking and pounding the host's leg with his pointy finger for emphasis.

Wrong-way court
By Terence Jeffrey

The San Francisco-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has strangely shifting views on freedom of expression. It seems to depend on who expresses what.

Wag the finger
By Kathleen Parker

Republicans saw a guilty, purple-faced ex-president desperately trying to deflect attention from his administration's failings. Democrats saw an overdue smack down of a partisan hack by a brilliant statesmen fed up with slanderous disinformation.

A battle lost in the war on terror
By Tony Blankley

With little reporting, and almost without media or governmental comment, the United States has suffered a substantial defeat in the war against radical Islam.

Execution sought for two D.C. men

"Federal prosecutors have filed a notice of intent to seek the death penalty against two D.C. men charged with running a violent drug gang in Southeast."

Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Karzai defends war on terror

'Do you forget people jumping off the 80th floor or 70th floor when the planes hit?'
--Fox News

Karzai nails it; sets reporter straight.

Listen to it here.

George Clooney: I'm not running for office

Well, by golly, now finally, there is one thing that George Clooney and I agree on:
'Believe me, you don't want me in politics,' Looney Clooney says.

Hezbollah moving rockets near Israeli border

Lebanese government notes trucks coming, going from Palestinian camps.

WorldNetDaily

JERUSALEM – "Hezbollah has been transporting rockets and heavy weaponry to Palestinian camps in south Lebanon just a few miles from the Israeli border, according to Lebanese officials."

Hezbollah leader Sheik Hassan Nasrallah (aljazeera.net)




Condi Rice: Clinton lying about bin Laden

'We were not left a comprehensive strategy to fight al-Qaida'
--New York Post

'Voices of Heaven' ordered not to sing sacred music

Ruling from Michigan school administrator leaves visiting artists upset

"The all-star choir visiting from Europe was called 'Voices of Heaven' but members were told by a Michigan school district not to sing sacred songs while on campus, leaving the artists bewildered and district parents enraged that the German singers would return home with such an impression of the United States."

WorldNetDaily

Documents disclose 'shadow government'

Indicate U.S. far advanced in constructing
bureaucracy united with Mexico, Canada


Government documents released by a Freedom of Information Act request reveal the Bush administration is running a "shadow government" with Mexico and Canada in which the U.S. is crafting a broad range of policy in conjunction with its neighbors to the north and south, asserts WND columnist and author Jerome R. Corsi.

The documents, a total of about 1,000 pages, are among the first to be released to Corsi through his FOIA request to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, or SPP, which describes itself as an initiative "to increase security and to enhance prosperity among the three countries through greater cooperation."

"The documents clearly reveal that SPP, working within the U.S. Department of Commerce, is far advanced in putting together a new regional infrastructure, creating a 'shadow' trilateral bureaucracy with Mexico and Canada that is aggressively rewriting a wide range of U.S. administrative law, all without congressional oversight or public disclosure," Corsi said.

Among the initial discoveries, said Corsi, is the existence of an internal Intranet website that never has been revealed to Congress or the public.

(Fair use.) Full story here.

Related: CFR's Plan to Integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada

A North American United Nations?

Sabotaging U.S. Sovereignty

Merger with Mexico

Bush sneaking North American superstate without oversight?

U.S.-Mexico merger opposition intensifies

North American merger topic of secret confab

North American confab 'undermines' democracy





GOING BACK IN TIME

"Frankly, we need a debate over countries like North Korea and Iran and what we are going to do. Are we prepared to lose one or two cities before we decide to act?"
-- Newt Gingrich, March 25, 1994

"I believe that these two challenges -- Islamic totalitarianism and Iranian dictatorship and the danger of nuclear weapons in Iranian hands are the single biggest near-term national security problem. I put that at the top of the list; it's a problem that the United States should be working to solve."
-- Newt Gingrich, January 8, 1995

Speaker Newt Gingrich said today that the CIA under John Deutch has not anticipated terrorist threats very well. Gingrich told CNN that Deutch "is not doing a very good job anticipating the future" as far as threats to the US involving potential terrorism. Gingrich also said the Clinton Administration has had a very poor record on terrorism.

-- The White House Bulletin
July 25, 1996, Thursday

AIN'T GOT IT

No wonder our government is in such shambles.
"If men of wisdom and knowledge, of moderation and temperance, of patience, fortitude and perseverance, of sobriety and true republican simplicity of manners, of zeal for the honour of the Supreme Being and the welfare of the commonwealth; if men possessed of these other excellent qualities are chosen to fill the seats of government, we may expect that our affairs will rest on a solid and permanent foundation."

-- Samuel Adams

AN UNBELIEVER

Yes, I must admit I am an 'unbeliever' when I see stories like this:
Iran close to nuclear suspension / Bill Gertz
Iran is close to an agreement that would include a suspension of uranium enrichment but wants the deal to include a provision that the temporary halt be kept secret, according to Bush administration officials.

Now, I like Bill Gertz. Don't get me wrong. He's a fine writer and reporter. It's simply Iran I do not trust. Am I wrong to think this way? Why should I think otherwise? Maybe it's because, in part, I took a Pollyanaism 101 course many years ago - and flunked. My fate in this course was similar to Bill Clinton when he was briefed on terrorism while in office (as recounted by Dick Morris), we both suffered from MEGO (my eyes glazed over).

But for you out there that have excelled in this area and are a degreed Pollyana, go ahead and believe. I don't care to jump onboard, thank you very much.

Indonesian Christians await fate of Muslims
Indonesian Christians, deeply troubled by the executions of three Christians last week, say they are watching closely to see whether the government will be equally firm in dealing with three Muslims facing the ultimate sanction for their roles in the 2002

GOP's uptick just in time for Election Day
There has been a palpable shift in the mood in Washington in recent weeks. No longer are insiders in both parties sharing predictions of a Democratic rout of Republicans.

Afghan leader slams Musharraf's policies
The political divide between Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf became increasingly acerbic yesterday, with the Afghan leader accusing his counterpart of pursuing policies that foster terrorism.

Monday, September 25, 2006

Officials say Abbas might dismantle PA government

Could form emergency leadership independent of Hamas

"A senior representative for Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas over the weekend told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office that Abbas is considering dismantling the Palestinian government, diplomatic officials told the Galil Report.

The officials said Abbas was feeling out Olmert's office to determine whether Israel would back his Fatah party with gestures if it had to go to new elections against Hamas. Abbas specifically is interested in the release of Fatah leader and jailed terror group founder Marwan Barghouti, who enjoys widespread Palestinian support and largely is considered highly electable.

As PA president, Abbas has the authority to dismantle the Palestinian government, which came under the control of Hamas after the terror group won the majority of parliamentary seats. If the government is dissolved, Abbas, as president, would then form an emergency government, which could be independent of Hamas and would govern for up to three months, after which new elections would be held. Under certain conditions, an Abbas emergency government technically could govern indefinitely."

From the Galil Report.

“I believe this war of civilizations... is one of the most important wars we have ever fought. In the Revolutionary War back in 1775-1783, we had extraordinary leaders, including George Washington... We forget that he lost almost every battle at that time, but he ultimately won the war... In World War II, American casualties totaled 291,577 dead and 671,846 injured. Under the extraordinary leadership of F.D.R., the Allies ultimately won the war, despite losing a number of battles... Why do I recite these historical facts? Because I believe that the U.S. is faltering in the current war... and we are losing our will to prevail. We are losing our fighting spirit as a result of fighting between Republicans and Democrats on just how to prosecute the war... [Making] our involvement in Iraq a partisan issue and characterizing the president’s efforts to protect the homeland from terrorists in an adversarial manner is endangering the country at a moment in time when we are facing an existential threat to our very survival as a nation.” —Ed Koch, former Democrat mayor of New York City

“Whether it’s the pope’s comments or some Danish cartoons, self-appointed spokesmen for the Islamic street say, ‘You have offended a billion Muslims,’ which really means, ‘There are so many of us, you should watch out.’ And if you didn’t get the message, just look around for the burning embassies and murdered infidels. They’re not hard to find. In response, the West apologizes and apologizes. Radical Muslims, who are not stupid, take note and become emboldened by these displays of weakness and capitulation. And the next time, they demand two pounds of flesh. Meanwhile, the entire global conversation starts from the assumption that the West is doing something wrong by tolerating freedom of speech, among other things. This week, French President Jacques Chirac explained that everyone in the West must avoid everything that sparks tensions. In other words, we must forever be held hostage by the tactical outrage of a global mob.” —Jonah Goldberg

“[N]othing the pope has ever said comes even close to matching the vitriol, extremism and hatred that pour out of the mouths of radical imams and fanatical clerics every day, all across Europe and the Muslim world, almost none of which ever provokes any Western response at all. And maybe it’s time that it should... [I]f stray comments by Western leaders—not to mention Western films, books, cartoons, traditions and values—are going to inspire regular violence, I don’t feel that it’s asking too much for the West to quit saying sorry and unite, occasionally, in its own defense. The fanatics attacking the pope already limit the right to free speech among their own followers. I don’t see why we should allow them to limit our right to free speech, too.” —Anne Applebaum

“There are many millions of decent and kind Muslims in the world. But there are also at least a hundred million Muslims (i.e., 10 percent) who support killing innocents in the name of Allah and Islam. And there are more than that who believe in the ideal of using force to spread Islam throughout the world. So the question is this: How many kind and decent Muslims are kind and decent because of Islam, and how many evil Muslims are evil because of Islam? I do not claim to have an answer. I only claim that the question is a legitimate one that all the decent Muslims need to answer. The evil ones repeatedly tell us how Islam is the source of their support for murder and torture. We need to know from the good ones how Islam has made them good. So far we have only heard from one side.” —Dennis Prager

“Forced belief does not persuade people to love God with their hearts, any more than a forced marriage creates love for another human being. God and relationships must be freely chosen to be meaningful and herein lies the fundamental difference in world views. One sees their God as an angry enforcer who needs goon squads to whip people into line. The other sees God giving humanity free will with blessings and consequences for each choice, but with ultimate judgment reserved for Himself.” — Cal Thomas

CAMERA: New York Times Mangles Sheba Farms Issue

New York Times Mangles Sheba Farms Issue
"In this Sunday’s New York Times, reporter Craig Smith wrote 1179 words on the so-called Sheba Farms issue, and still managed, once he got past the basics, to omit virtually every key fact." More.

United Nations has become a sustained crab session

"It's time for the United States to officially give up on the United Nations.

Simply put, the organization is incapable of doing anything worthy of the attention and resources we give to it. Nor is there any prospect of it improving in the foreseeable future.

In fact, the organization will inevitably get worse, not better.

This is not just an overreaction to Hugo Chavez calling the president of the United States the devil from the floor of the United Nations, although his rant is illustrative of the problem. The United Nations has become one sustained crab session."

Calif. Gov. Vetoes Universal Health Bill

"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a universal health care bill Friday, saying it would create a 'vast new bureaucracy.'

The bill would have provided every California resident with health insurance through a program administered by a new entity, the California Health Insurance Agency."

Retiree Health Care May Overwhelm Gov'ts

"SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The bill is coming due for years of generous benefits bestowed upon the nation's public employees, and it's a stunner: hundreds of billions of dollars over the next three decades, threatening some local governments with bankruptcy and all but guaranteeing cuts in services like education and public safety." Read more at the Las Vegas SUN.

McConnell: Democrats AWOL in terror war

"As Republicans patch up their differences over how to handle the terrorism suspects held at U.S. Naval Base Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, they are turning their sights on Democrats in time for the November elections.
Senate Majority Whip Mitch McConnell on Friday took issue with Minority Leader Harry Reid over his comments earlier in the week that Democrats were 'on the sidelines watching the catfights' among Republicans on terrorism legislation.
'The minority leader indicated that they were sitting on the sidelines during our internal discussion about how best to craft this proposal,' the Kentucky Republican told reporters gathered in his office. 'I don't think sitting on the sidelines in the war on terror is a good idea. We have to have as much bipartisan cooperation as possible.' "

Read more at The Washington Times.

Specter objects to provision of detainee bill

WASHINGTON — "The chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Sunday he has a problem with the Republican agreement on rules for the interrogation and trial of suspects in the war on terror.

President Bush is pushing Congress to put the agreement into law before adjourning for the midterm elections, but Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., said Sunday he 'vigorously' disagrees with the habeas corpus provision of the bill."

Liberal Seniors’ Group Praises New Wal-Mart Drug Plan
A “nonpartisan” senior citizens’ organization that boasts of its social activism found itself in an unusual position on Friday -- praising the country’s largest retailer, which has been blasted by liberal Democrats and labor unions...

Living Wage: More Not Always Better, Study Finds
The so-called "living wage" -- a higher minimum wage -- may be more of a hindrance than a help, suggests a recent study issued by the Employment Policies Institute...

Dems Whack Bush With Leaked Intelligence Info
Democrats are seizing on another leak of classified information to the New York Times -- information not yet seen by Members of Congress and not formally divulged to the House and Senate intelligence committees, the newspaper said. The leaked information, like previous leaks before it, is being used against the Bush administration and Republicans politically, just five weeks before the midterm elections...

The Meltdown

James Taranto of the WSJ's Opinion Journal does a good job of wading through Bill Clinton's meltdown on Sunday during his interview with Fox's Chris Wallace in his piece You Take My Self, You Take My Self Control.

Yes, one can make the argument that it is time to move on. And yes, all administrations (including the present administration) has made mistakes, and all administrations going back to Jimmah' Carta' could have done more than they did.

But as long as the war on terrorism remains a political football with the Dems (and Clinton) continue to blame Bush for all the "ills of the world", and won't support our efforts in this war, and want to shift blame, and absolve themselves of all responsibilities and accountabilities, it will continue to haunt us.

The best recipe is for all parties to step up to the plate, recognize what we are fighting, the seriousness of the fight, and join together in this effort. I am not holding out much hope.

But what strikes me the most about this interview is Clinton's boorish behavior. It was very unbecoming of a President, or in this case an ex-President.

"I pronounce it as certain that there was never yet a truly great man that was not at the same time truly virtuous." --- Benjamin Franklin

I thought maybe the timing could not be better for this quote. Heh, heh. Connect the dots, anyone?

Slick Willie

I thought Bill Clinton's interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News was both funny and disgraceful on Clinton's part. Certainly his behavior throughout the interview could not be described as 'presidential.' Gee, the party of the "victim mentality," which spawned from its' loins, this president, portrayed himself ... well, as a victim. What a shock.

Messages to vanish in virtual vapors

"A hallmark of 'Mission: Impossible' was the message that would self-destruct in five seconds after a spy played it. Now a startup communications company promises that same level of secrecy with an Internet messaging system designed to leave no traces."

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Hands off the Electoral College

"The other evening, while awaiting my table in a local restaurant, I overheard a Republican and Democrat agreeing with one another about the elimination of the Electoral College. It’s one area where many Liberals and some uninformed Republicans can reach common ground – a public swimming pool, if you will, where diverse political philosophies can frolic ephemerally together in peace and harmony."

More from: The American Thinker

Londonistan

The British police go to Muslims on bended knee
By TigerHawk
"If you hunt through the world's newspaper's for the most depressing story of the day, it would be hard to do worse than a story from the Times of London, 'Police to brief Muslims before terror raids.'

This is, of course, the single worst idea in law enforcement since Prohibition. For starters, why wouldn't the principle behind it, if it can be said there is a principle, extend to all groups? Did the British meet with the Irish before raiding the IRA so as to avoid offending Irish sensibilities? If this concept is valid in the country that gave us our legal system, it is hard to see why American police shouldn't meet with Italians and Russians before raiding the Mafia, Columbians before busting cocaine dealers, and a panel of CEOs before pursuing Sarbanes-Oxley violations. Otherwise there might be consequences for 'community relations.'"

[snip]

If Islam and terrorism have nothing to do with each other, why seek the approval of Muslim leaders? The only thread that ties together the "multiculturalist" position of the police with today's decision to consult with Muslims is the political requirement to appease a minority group. The British police have done so, on bended knee."
This is just getting too weird for me. It's sickens me, actually.

Row erupts over 'PC' cemetery where headstones face Mecca

News | This is London

"A row has erupted over a new cemetery where all the graves will be aligned to Mecca even though Muslims will take up only a small minority of the burial plots." More.

WHAT ELSE NEEDS TO BE SAID?

"Death to America".

Iran subversion in Balkans

KLA support gives Tehran foothold in Europe

"Iran has been successful in supporting and extending its Shiite influence in Iraq and, most recently, in Lebanon.

Now, the 'Land of the Aryans' as the name Iran means has embarked on spreading its brand of Islamic radicalism into another region that threatens all of Europe: The Balkans.

In the mid-1990s, Iran quietly began supporting the mujahadeen along side Osama bin Laden and Hezbollah in Bosnia. They succeeded in providing needed arms, financial support and other logistics to the Muslim militants fighting against the Serbs.

Iran and bin Laden then provided support to the Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Clinton administration also supported." Read more.

Saudis plot Syria coup

Assad: Days numbered?
Tensions between Assad, Riyadh reach new high

"When Bashar Assad, the second-generation dictator of Syria, gave a speech blasting Arab leaders for failing to support Hezbollah in its war with Israel, the primary target of his wrath was clear - Saudi Arabia.

But that speech - along with Assad's other slights of the kingdom -- may soon backfire on Damascus.

According to G2B's Mideast intelligence sources, the Saudis have made a decision Assad must go.

It wasn't just Assad's reference to the unnamed Arab leaders as 'half-men' that got to Saudis. A rift has been growing since Assad succeeded his father, Hafez, in 2000."

-- The G2 Bulletin

Britain hub of terror

Report calls for 'rethinking how UK views Muslim radicals'

LONDON -- "A restricted intelligence report to be submitted to the European Union has identified Britain as still a key base for terrorists to plan and launch attacks against the world.

The report has been prepared by intelligence advisers to a number of EU countries. One of those involved described the report's conclusions as: 'Very sensitive. The conclusions call for a rethinking of how the United Kingdom views its Muslim radicals, while at the same time not losing further ground within the overall Muslim community.'

He confirmed: 'Virtually every terrorist attack in the past 10 years has a direct link to the United Kingdom. The increasing number of those involved are British-born terrorists. Well educated at some of Britain's best schools, they have been quick to embrace the latest information technology to achieve their goals. It was these post-graduate students who have launched asymmetric warfare to spread their messages of hate across cyberspace.' "

--G2 Bulletin

Al-Qaida tours nuke site

"Two al-Qaida operatives visited the world's most accessible nuclear facility, where more than two tons of highly enriched uranium and weapons-grade plutonium are store behind a rusty bard-wire fence protected by a handful of guards with light weapons, MI6 agents have learned.

An intelligence report described the facility as 'the dream target for terrorists.' The view is shared by Michael Durst, a senior manager at the Vienna-based International Atomic Energy Agency.

'The site is top of our global priority list of unsecured uranium sources,' said Durst. 'At present it is easily accessible to an organized attack.'

Once a jewel in the former Soviet arsenal, the National Science Institute at Vinca, 10 miles south of the Serbian capital, Belgrade, was closed in 1984 and its reactor switched off. Since then the 48-acre site has steadily fallen into decay."

Source: G2 Bulletin

"Here's a photo of Chavez holding up the Chomsky book. We missed the speech but watched some of the cable-TV commentary, in which it seemed that liberals were forced to say things along the lines of, Well, whatever you think of Bush, this guy is really awful.








As Churchill once said, 'If Hitler invaded hell I would make at least a favorable reference to the devil in the House of Commons.' But the Angry Left won't be happy about having to take Bush's side. How long before they start claiming that Karl Rove wrote Chavez's America-hating diatribe?"

- - James Taranto

Why liberals love adultery

By Kevin McCullough

"Liberals are always cheering for the wrong people.

Have you ever noticed?

In our war on islamo-facism they ask America to withdraw. When Hugo Chavez smells sulfur at the United Nations, liberal democratic Senators 'understand' him (i.e. Tom Harkin). But no one is a liberal's hero the way an adulterer is." Continue.

In Beirut, large rally against Hezbollah

"BEIRUT, Lebanon - An anti-Syrian Christian leader dismissed Hezbollah's claims of victory in its war with Israel as tens of thousands of his supporters rallied Sunday in a show of...."

REFLECTIONS ON LIBERTY

“Each year since 2004, on Sept. 17, we commemorate the 1787 signing of the U.S. Constitution by 39 American statesmen. The legislation creating Constitution Day was fathered by Sen. Robert Byrd and requires federal agencies and federally funded schools, including universities, to have some kind of educational program on the Constitution. I cannot think of a piece of legislation that makes greater mockery of the Constitution, or a more constitutionally odious person to father it—Sen. Byrd, a person who is known as, and proudly wears the label, ‘King of Pork.’ The only reason that Constitution Day hasn’t become a laughingstock is because most Americans are totally ignorant of, or have contempt for, the letter and spirit of our Constitution. Let’s examine just a few statements by the framers to see just how much faith and allegiance today’s Americans give to the U.S. Constitution. James Madison is the acknowledged father of the Constitution. In 1794, when Congress appropriated $15,000 for relief for French refugees who fled from insurrection in San Domingo (now Haiti) to Baltimore and Philadelphia, James Madison said disapprovingly, ‘I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents.’ Today, at least two-thirds of a $2.5 trillion federal budget is spent on ‘objects of benevolence.’ That includes Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, aid to higher education, farm and business subsidies, welfare, etc., ad nauseam... Constitutionally ignorant people might argue that the Constitution’s ‘general welfare’ clause justifies today’s actions by Congress. Here’s what James Madison said: ‘If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions.’ Thomas Jefferson echoed, in a letter to Pennsylvania Rep. Albert Gallatin, ‘Congress has not unlimited powers to provide for the general welfare, but only those specifically enumerated’ James Madison explained the constitutional limits on federal power in Federalist Paper No. 45: ‘The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined... [to] be exercised principally on external objects, as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce.’ Here are my questions to you: Has our Constitution been amended to authorize federal spending on ‘objects of benevolence’? Or, is it plain and simple constitutional contempt by Congress, the president, the courts and, worst of all, the American people? Or, am I being overly pessimistic and it’s simply a matter of constitutional ignorance?”

—Walter Williams

Look out for supremacist judges on lower federal courts

By Phyllis Schafly

"Each year, the U.S. Supreme Court grants fewer and fewer petitions for review, and now hears only about half the cases it heard 25 years ago. This means that many lower federal court decisions are final.

Because lower-court federal judges know how unlikely it is that the Supreme Court will reverse them, they are becoming increasingly aggressive in handing down supremacist decisions that are biased against parents' rights and religion, and in favor of feminist and gay-rights agendas."

Let the Battle Begin

By Jay Sekulow

"On November 8, the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral argument in both cases involving the challenge to the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003. I have had the privilege of assisting in the trial partial-birth abortion case that originated out of New York City. The testimony that took place during that hearing reinforced the barbaric nature of this procedure. On November 8, the Justices of the Supreme Court will be confronted with a statute banning constitutionalizing infanticide."

Do the right thing

By Frank Gaffney, Jr.

"For some politicians, it is tough under the best of circumstances to do the right thing when it comes to national security. Posturing about “peace dividends” chronically results in defense budgets and end-strengths insufficient to deter future acts of aggression – and fight the wars that ensue. Intelligence programs are compromised by self-serving leaks and press-driven legislative responses. Pentagon leaders are savaged in public by legislators who thereby underscore their lack of understanding of the threats besetting our country, and the fact that they have no better answers to the challenges thus posed."