Saturday, September 29, 2007

What Ahmadinejad Was 100% Right About


After Columbia's President Lee Bollinger let fly with his `petty dictator' screed, Ahmadinejad made some remarks to the effect that this was a pretty lousy way to treat an invited speaker.

I agree with him. Once you invite someone into your house, abusing him is beyond the pale..which is why I'd never have invited Ahmadinejad in the first place. The preferred interaction with that particular species of varmint ought to be limited to sighting up through the crosshairs prior to squeezing off a round or three.

While Bollinger's remarks may have gotten him some slack with Americans, that's not at all how it looked in the Islamic world, where an invited guest is treated with hospitality and courtesy no matter what. To Ahmadinejad's real audiencein the Muslim umma, Bollinger looked like a rude , ill-mannered pig and Ahmadinejad came across as dignified and restrained...especially after the videos and transcripts were heavily edited and released via the controlled Muslim press.

As I've seen first hand, the concept of treating an invited guest well is deeply ingrained in this culture, and many Iranians, even those who don't particularly care for Ahmadinejad and his mullah bosses found his treatment by Bollinger a deadly insult.

As for Ahmadinejad, he realized that the legitimacy of being received at Columbia in the first place was a win, and that Bollinger's conduct only enhanced it, saying the U.S. only damaged itself with the rude reception he received in New York.

He has a point there....especially when you realize that he was playing to his real audience, not a handful of students at Columbia and their sadly clueless professors.

The Brits Destroy The Royal Navy


Whatever would Lord Nelson say?


Britain's Labour Government is in the process of doing what the Spanish, Napoleon,the Kaiser, Hitler and the Japanese found impossible.... sinking the British Fleet.

Britains' Telegraph has a sad, sad story on Labour's secret plans to slash the Navy to the bone:

"The Ministry of Defence has produced a plan to decommission five warships from next April, which would reduce the Navy's capability to the level where it could carry out only "one small-scale operation".

Separate documentation from inside the department suggests that the total number of ships in the Navy and Royal Fleet Auxiliary could fall from the present level of 103 to 76 in 2017 and only 50 in 2027 — a reduction of more than half.

The information has been supplied in an email from a whistleblowing official inside the MoD, who has given details of a row between senior officials in the department and Andy Burnham, the Treasury Chief Secretary, over the allocation of money to the MoD over the next three years.

The deal, sealed under the Comprehensive Spending Review and announced in July, gave the MoD an annual increase of 1.5 per cent above inflation for the years 2008-11.

However, it also contained a commitment to buy two 65,000-ton aircraft carriers, at a cost of £4 billion — meaning savings had to be found elsewhere if the MoD were to meet its "operational commitments."

The email reads: "The Chief Sec directed that no further money from the CSR would be allocated to Defence and to maintain force levels the Dept must find the savings/cuts.

"For the RN [Royal Navy], the poor CSR deal and the commitment to 2 carriers is such that a proposal for the immediate decommissioning of 5 ships (frigates and destroyers) from April next year has been considered.

"This would reduce the RN's capabilities to just one small scale operation and that is it."

Sources said that under the plan the Navy, once the pride of the Armed Forces, would be unable to provide anything like the 1982 Falklands task force."


I'd written a bit on this previously, around the time the British Navy pulled out of the Persian Gulf and apologized after after Iran took 15 of their sailors hostage.

Britain's Labour PM Gordon Brown has, like most of his party been historically anti-military. But since he attained office, he's been making noises as though he were a strong supporter of Britain's armed forces.

Obviously, he's running true to type, as Britain continues its historic retreat.

hat tip to Bookworm Room

Anti-Musharraf Riots In Islamabad

Pakistan's capitol was rocked by bloody riots less than a day after the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled in favor of President General Pervez Musharraf's eligibility to run for a second term.

More than 10,000 riot police and plainclothes officers were stationed around the court buildings and the nearby Electoral Commission offices, where the nomination papers for presidential candidates, including Musharraf, were being examined when a force of over 1,000 demonstrators attempted to storm the commission offices.

Baton wielding riot police charged the protesters, which included,apparently a number of lawyers.

When rocks were thrown, the police reportedly began throwing rocks of their own and securty forces fired tear gas shells directly into the crowd.

The police then charged the crowd and beat a number of the participants, while arresting hundreds. 45 people were hospitalized.

This came just two days after the Pakistani Supreme Court (led by Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, the man Musharraf tried to have removed form the court) had ruled
that the government could not blockade streets leading into the capital, prevent protests or stop the flow of traffic past government buildings.

The violence comes just after a victory for Musharraf in the Supreme Court, which essentially accepted Musharraf's offer to remain as head of the army until after the election, and to relinquish the post of army chief if he was re-elected. It also comes after al-Qaeda posted a video essentially ending the de facto armistice with the Musharraf government and calling for his ouster.

The parliamentary election for president is October 6th. Musharraf has a clear majority there and will likely win,but it remains to be seen whether he will be able to continue to govern.

Watcher's Council Results, 9/28/07

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels

I'm back in action, and there's a new list of Council winners...


This week's winner is Bookworm Room: Cosmic Ironies

In second place was Big Lizards: The Human Touch

For non-Council, the winner was Rafael Medoff: Columbia "Invites Hitler to Campus" -- As it Did in 1933

In second place for non-Council, the winner was Dr. Sanity:Islam and Marxism -- A Marriage Made In Allah's Socialist Paradise

Hearty Kudos to all the winners!

Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Sukkot



I'll be taking a hiatus for a few days to celebrate the holiday of Sukkot, which commemorates the forty-year period during which the children of Israel were wandering in the desert. Sukkot is also a harvest festival and the direct ancestor of the American Thanksgiving...William Bradford and the Pilgrims were very familiar with the Bible ( Bradford, like many other educated people of his dat spoke and wrote Hebrew) and likewise wanted to give thanks for their deliverance from the wilderness.

In honor of the sojourn of children of Israel in the wilderness, people live in or spend time and at least eat some of their meals in temporary shelters. These contraptions are called sukkahs. The sukkah has at least three sides and a partially open roof covered with palm fronds, reeds, or whatever. people normally adorn the sukkahs with various decorations. Essentially, it's a party, coming as a counterpoint to Yom Kippur and the Days of Awe.

Another observance during Sukkot involves what are known as The Four Species or the lulav and etrog. The lulav consists of a palm branch, a myrtle branch, and a willow branch bound together. They all have symbolic meanings relating to the land of Israel.The etrog is a citrus fruit native to Israel (and now, California) and is held separately. With these four species in hand, one recites a blessing and waives the species in all six directions (east, south, west, north, up and down).

Now, me, I'm off to build a sukkah....Chag Sameach!

Unky George Soros....And MoveOn

A nice bit by Michael Ramirez

Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Watcher's Council Nominations, 9/26/07




Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels


Do take the time and check out the non-Council links..they are always rewarding.


Here's this week's Council lineup....

1. JOSHUAPUNDIT : How The Arab Lobby Works There been a lot of talk lately about the `zionist lobby' here in America, and lately, this age old lie that dates back to the Protocals of Zion has even acquired a new pedigree courtesy of the likes of Mearshimer and Walt, Noam Chomsky and the wit and wisdom of Jimmy Carter, among others. What never gets discussed much is the enormously well funded and egregious buying and selling of influential Americans using Arab petro-dollars to shill for Islamist causes and the continued export of wahabism into America.

The dinosaur media isn't reporting it, for the most part, but the Holy Land Foundation trial in Texas is about all that and more, and it brought one of these creatures out of the woodwork to testify, someone frequently quoted as a `Middle East Expert' by the dino press. Who he is and who owns him provides a unique look at how the Arab lobby works here in America.


2. Done With Mirrors: What Do Wahabis Want? Callimachus asks the question, and explores the appeal of Osama bin-Laden to disaffected Muslims.

I would disagree with him on one small point, where he appears to say that most of Osama's symphathizers don't share his desire for an all encompasing Muslim caliphate.

That is in fact exactly what the Qu'ran and the hadiths say, what Mohammed told his followers to achieve, and bin-Laden is merely another proponent of this doctrine. Wahabism, the Twelvers in Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Deobandis all come from the same place...an Islamic `reformation' back to `pure Islam'and return to this dream of Muslim rule and domination over the earth. That's the core of its appeal.

It's not mere disaffection, but true religious ferver that fuels this..which is why it's so dangerous.

3. Soccer Dad: A Big Hole in the Desert (and in the story) This week Soccer Dad covers the Israeli strike in Syria on what appears to have been a nuclear/chemical weapons site and the farcical way some of the dinosaur media covered it.

To those so-called experts who persist in thinking this was phonied up, I offer the evidence that only a major threat to Israel's security would have prompted the likes of Ehud Olmert and some of the minions surrounding him to act and actually defend Israel for a change.

4. The Glittering Eye : The Point Of Inflection Dave uses a Paul Krugman NYT column and ponders the numbers on economic growth and change and comes up with some interesting conclusion.

5. Bookworm Room: Cosmic Ironies Ms. Bookworm allows us a peak into some fascinating family history and looks at how G-d and the universe sometimes work in strange ways..to say the least!

6. Rhymes With Right:Krugman Spews Race-Baiting Bile It appears that New York Times `economist' Paul Krugman had some readers on the Council this week! Greg's post deals with Krugman's frenzied attempt to attach the `racist' label to the Republican Party.

7.Colossus of Rhodey:"Jena 6" Update I confess to not having followed this story much. Hube does a good job of examining the salient points.

8. Cheat Seeking Missiles: Gate's Iraq Agenda Short On Democracy
Laer parses SecDef Robert Gate's plans for Iraq and is concerned over the lack of any agenda for democracy or for any longterm US bases in the country.

Here's a hint as to why Gates is taking this stance, Laer. While he was out of government, Robert Gates was the recipiant of a number of lucrative `speaking fees' and `honarariums' by the Saudis and the UAE..and he still sings their tune, so to speak, as does James Baker and other foreign policy `realists'.

The last thing people like the Saudis want is a functioning Arab democracy next door to give people ideas.

9. Columbia Dhimmis Get Ahmedinejad Earful! Some Applaud, Some Laugh -- We All Should Just Cry...by Okie On The Lam This week, Okie writes about Ahmadinejad's speech at Columbia.

He gloms on to the truth of the matter, something a number of other commentators have missed - that no matter what sort of `challenges' President Lee Bollinger came up with as an excuse for having him there, the questions and responses will be edited easily, given today's technology..and Ahmadinejad will be portrayed as a hero inthe Muslim world with its controlled press, answering Bollinger's questions corrctly and getting a round of applause from the students at one of America's most famous ( I will not say `prestigious') universities. I've already seen what some of the Iranian media has done with this.

Cozying up with Jew haters might almost be called a proud Columbia tradition. Please see an excellent post in the non-Council links, "Rafael Medoff: Columbia "Invites Hitler to Campus" -- As it Did in 1933" for further details.


10. Right Wing Nuthouse: The World Is Still Here Rick also covers Ahmadinejad's speech this week, and appears surprised that so many on the Left seemed to applaud what he had to say...with the exception of his single gaffe on homosexuals.

I'm not surprisd in the least. Ahmadinejad, like Osama has learned the talking points of the left quite well and uses them efectively, much the way Hitler manipulated the appeasers in the 1930's. For that matter, it's well to remember that the Left in America had few criticisms of Hitler..until he attacked their hero Stalin.


11.The Education Wonks:The Free Radical Approach to Education Reform EdWonk highlights some radical ideas for reforming education advanced by economist and former University of Georgia President Charles Knapp, chairman of the New Commission on the Skills of the American Workforce.

His proposals include "ending high school at age 16, taking schools away from school districts and school boards and giving them to hired private contractors, most likely liability corporations owned and run by teachers. Fund schools from the state rather locally. Pay teachers $95,000 a year, but demand quality."

Kapp also expects today's members of the NEA to abjure their pensions in exchange for the higher salaries....and says that it will take 15 years at least for his reforms to take effect.

I have a much quicker and easier solution, Edwonk..two words...`school choice'.
Break the educrats monopoly on public education and let working families ( and all those federal dollars) vote with their feet and watch how quickly the public schools start putting out a quality product and firing the incompetents in their midst.

12. Big Lizards: "Surge A Failure, Democrats Tell General" Daffyd Ab Hugh writes about the practical necessities of allowing people from nations sponsoring terrorism to come to the US..provided they're vetted properly.

That's this week's lineup..enjoy

Divesting from Iran

Today, the US House of representatives voted across party lines to pass a bill that would to tighten sanctions on Iran and brand Iran's Pasdaran ( Revolutionary Guard) a terrorist organization.

The bill passed 397 votes to 16 and sanctions foreign companies with US subsidiaries which invest in Iran, particularly in the oil and gas sectors.

It also prohibits any nuclear cooperation with nations that support Iran's nuclear program and calls on the US government to urge foreign states and banks to divest from Iranian interests.

Most interestingly, it takes away the power of the president to waive these sanctions.

The bill is also indirectly aimed at Russia. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen ( R-FL), the committee's ranking Republican, said: "Too many foreign energy firms have become functional allies in Tehran's efforts to build a nuclear bomb."

The bill, named the Iran Counterproliferation Act still needs to be reconciled with the Senate and then signed by the president.

One amusing bit in the AFP article I've linked to is it's mention of Iran's president Ahmadinejad as having `fought with the Guards during the Iran-Iraq War'.

What Ahmadinejad was actually doing during that war was working on the home front as a Baseji militia ( Iran's SA ) commander, training little kids as young as twelve years old to hang Khomenei's plastic `keys to paradise' around their necks and act as human minesweepers and cannon fodder against Iraqi tanks.

Vote For Lebanon's President Postponed by Hezbollah boycott



Well, it looks like I called it correctly.

Today's scheduled vote for Lebanon's new president was postponed until October 23rd by a boycott led by Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian opposition.

More than 65 MPs had attended - a simple majority in the 128-seat assembly, far short of the 85 necessary for the two-thirds quorum required to vote for president.

The Hezbollah politicians and the other members of the pro-Syrian bloc stayed in the parliament's hallways, ignoring a bell summoning members into the chamber to vote.

Beirut's downtown, government offices and parliament are reported under heavy security, while Anti-Syrian members of parliament remain sequestered in the Phoenicia Hotel.

As I reported previously, the election was designed to replace pro-Syrian tool Emil Lahoud, who's stepping down in November.

Lahoud's been valuable to Syria because he's been instrumental in blocking the efforts of the ongoing UN tribunal investigation into the murder of Lebanon's anti-Syrian prime minister, Rafik Hariri and others. That investigation has already found substantial evidence of the involvement of Syria in Hariri's murder that of other anti-Syrian figures....and the evidence implicates Basher Assad and the highest levels of the Syrian government.

This is the same country the Bush Administration just invited to a Middle East `peace' conference!

What the Syrians and their Hezbollah and Amal allies have been doing to ensure that their dominance of Lebanon continues and the UN tribunal goes nowhere has been to practice their own version of `Arab democracy'.......killing off members of the anti-Syrian March 14 majority one by one to reduce the Siniora government's majority in parliament and send a message to the others, especially any potential anti-Syria presidential candidates that voting for the wrong man, let alone accepting the job as president has some very real occupational hazards.

The latest victim was the anti-Syrian Christian MP Antoine Ghanem, who was assassinated in a brutal car bombing in Beirut last week, the eighth murder in two years.

Remember when the Europeans were touting Hezbollah as `just another political party' and not a terrorist group?

What Hezbolah and the Syrians are pushing for is a `compromise' candidate - one that would leave the Siniora government with the official trappings of power but would leave Syria and Hezbolah (and thus Iran) as the real power in Lebanon. The man they want as president is Michael Aoun, a long time Syrian puppet.

Some members of the Siniora government are leaning towards bending over for this, as an alternative to renewed civil war. But some aren't.

Druse leader Walid Jumblatt, a leading member of the majority, said it fairly simply. "I don't believe in dialog with murderers."

It remains to be seen whether the Siniora government will have the spine to use a simple majority to nominate their own presidential candidate while enough of them are still alive to vote for one.

Monday, September 24, 2007

Steve Emerson: "Jihad Is Jihad"


I've featured Steve Emerson on this site before,and regular members of Joshua's Army need no introduction. For those of you who do, Steve Emerson is one of the foremost experts we have on Islamic terrorism, an investigative reporter who predicted a major strike by jihadis on the US before 9/11 and a best-selling author, whose books include American Jihad: The Terrorists Living Among Us (2002) and Jihad Incorporated: A Guide to Militant Islam in the US (2006); he was also the creator of the prize-winning documentary film Jihad in America (1994).

Here we have an exclusive interview with Emerson in the Jerusalem Post, where he was in the middle of attending the 7th annual conference of International Institute for Counterterrorism (ICT) in Herzliya,Israel.

According to Emerson, radical Islam is alive and well in America -thanks to government agencies that embrace the every groups they should be investigating.

I urge you to read the whole thing, but here are a few juicy bits to whet the appetite:

{..}"The new book and documentary film I'm working on - The Grand Deception - is about how the US government, the media and the intelligentsia are witting and unwitting enablers of radical Islam, by accepting front groups for the Muslim Brotherhood or for Hamas as credible and legitimate. This is particularly egregious at the highest levels of the government - such as the State Department, Department of Homeland Security, Justice Department and the FBI - who meet and greet groups they should be investigating, not embracing. This sends a terrible signal to genuine Muslim moderates and the Muslim rank-and-file, reinforcing their sense that it is the radical groups who are respected by the government.

There is a criminal trial presently under way in Texas of a suspected Hamas charity. The revelations that have emerged in the trial - probably the most striking findings since those that came out in the 1949 Alger Hiss trials - are that the Muslim Brotherhood had secretly set up shop in the US under the cover of "charitable" organizations, with the specific purpose of waging jihad from within and subverting the United States until it became a Muslim country. Yet, neither The New York Times nor The Washington Post published these findings." {...}

"{...} dollar-for-dollar, Islamist terrorist attacks are cheaper than any other type of terrorism....because it's not done for profit. Take the 9/11 attacks. At a cost of $500,000, they caused $500 billion worth of damage. That's a great rate of return. Even though the US Treasury has done a good job of seizing terrorist assets, al-Qaida is on the resurgence, and Saudi Arabia, despite the ritual slap on the wrist, continues to pump tens of millions a year into radical Islamic groups." {...}

"The sad reality is that the vast majority of institutional organizations in the hierarchical Muslim spectrum represent the Muslim Brotherhood, the Wahhabis or the Salafists. It's a microcosm of the Muslim world. And we deceive ourselves into believing that the American Muslim community is somehow insulated from the "paranoia propaganda" that exists in the Muslim world as a whole - that which claims the Christians and the Jews are out to subjugate Islam.

"{..}There's virtually nobody in the established Islamic hierarchy that will support any Muslim who denounces holy war. Of course, there are the ersatz moderates who assert that jihad does not mean holy war - that it only means striving. These are the propagandists who whitewash Islamic extremism."


A true perspective by someone who really knows firsthand what he's talking about.

An absolute must read for Joshua's Army members.

Duncan Hunter: `Cut Off All Federal Funds To Columbia"


The magnificent Duncan Hunter strikes again, in a statement issued today:

"To host the leader of Iran when he supports terrorists that are moving deadly roadside bombs across the Iraqi border to be used against American troops is a slap in the face for the entire 165,000 men and women in Iraq and to those that have served before them."

"If President Lee Bollinger follows through with this hosting of the leader of Iran, I will move in Congress to cut off every single type of Federal Funding to Columbia University. If the left-wing leaders of academia will not support our troops, they, in the very least, should not support our adversaries."


The more I see and hear of Congressman Hunter, the better I like him....and just a reminder, he's running for President...

An Excellent Interview With Ahmadinejad..on Sixty Minutes


When I first heard that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was going to be interviewed on CBS' Sixty Minute, I assumed that it would be a farcical reprise of the last one, done by senile talking head Mike Wallace.

I owe Scott Pelly a major apology, and don't mind saying so. He did a fine job, given the limitations of the interview format, and did not shy away from asking the tough questions.....as can be seen from Ahmadinejad's attempt to dance around direct answers and retreat into talking points.

The transcript, in parts one and two is quite revealing of how closely Ahmadinejad follows events in this country and how throughly radical Islam has adopted the rhetoric of the Left.

A bit long. but a worthwhile read, and recommended.

Ahmadinejad In New York....






The pictures here ( OK, except the last one) came from the official Iranian news agency, ISNA...and show how Iranian president Ahmadinejad was feted by a certain portion of the population of New York City. Which leads to another question: who are these people and is the FBI watching them?

I understand that since America hosts the UN, he's entitled to come to New York to address it. But whatI don't understand is why the leader of a nation that's been in a state of war with us since 1979 should have freedom of movement in our country.

Of course, we could take him and other Iranaian diplomats as hostages.....but only a barbaric, fascist nation with no regard for international law would do something like that.

Friday, September 21, 2007

Columbia University And Hitler

Ahmandinejad is still headed to Columbia University to speak, as President Lee Bollinger has confirmed, and he defends the university's doing so as part of its `tradition of academic inquiry'.

Actually, he's perfectly correct It seems that coyly flirting with Jew haters is nothing new for Columbia University.One might almost call it a tradition.

The History News Network has a facinating recap of Columbia's flirtation with Hitler and the Nazis that bears looking at, written by Dr. Rafael Medoff, Director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies:


{...}"Seventy years before this week’s invitation to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Columbia rolled out the red carpet for a senior official of Adolf Hitler’s regime. The invitation to Iran’s leader may seem less surprising, but no less disturbing, when one recalls that in 1933, Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler invited Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, to speak on campus, and also hosted a reception for him. Luther represented "the government of a friendly people," Butler insisted. He was "entitled to be received ... with the greatest courtesy and respect." Ambassador Luther's speech focused on what he characterized as Hitler's peaceful intentions. Students who criticized the Luther invitation were derided as “ill-mannered children” by the director of Columbia’s Institute of Arts and Sciences.

Columbia also insisted on maintaining friendly relations with Nazi-controlled German universities. While Williams College terminated its program of student exchanges with Nazi Germany, Columbia and other universities declined to do likewise. Columbia refused to pull out even after a German official candidly asserted that his country’s students were being sent abroad to serve as “political soldiers of the Reich.”

In 1936, the Columbia administration announced it would send a delegate to Nazi Germany to take part in the 550th anniversary celebration of the University of Heidelberg. This, despite the fact that Heidelberg already had been purged of Jewish faculty members, instituted a Nazi curriculum, and hosted a burning of books by Jewish authors. Prof. Arthur Remy, who served as Columbia’s delegate to the Heidelberg event, later remarked that the reception at which chief book-burner Josef Goebbels presided was “very enjoyable.”

{...}

As Prof. Stephen Norwood of the University of Oklahoma has found in his research on the academic community’s response to Hitler in the 1930s, Columbia was not the only prominent U.S. university to behave shamefully with regard to the Nazis. Harvard hosted a visit by Hitler’s foreign press spokesman, Ernst “Putzi” Hanfstaengl. American University chancellor Joseph Gray visited and praised Nazi Germany. MIT Dean Harold Lobdell personally tore down posters for a rally against a Nazi warship docked in Boston’s harbor, and MIT participated in a 1937 celebration at the Nazi-controlled University of Goettingen. Yale, Princeton, Bryn Mawr, and others continued student exchanges with Nazi Germany into the late 1930s, and more than twenty U.S. colleges and universities took part in the 1936 Heidelberg event.

But Columbia is unique in one important respect. Its administration alone seems to have learned so little from the mistakes of the 1930s that it is prepared to welcome the leader of yet another antisemitic, terrorist regime."


I couldn't have said it better myself, Doc. Well done.

Lebanon On The Brink


Lebanon is in very real danger of collapsing as a free country.

With the parliamentary vote near on a president to replace out-going Syrian tool Emile Lahoud, the chances of a compromise that could avoid a political crisis, or even a return to civil war seems increasingly remote.

Lahoud's term as president was `extended' in a Syrian-promoted legislative session that took place literally under the guns of the Syrian army just before Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in 2005. Now, the the government and opposition have not been able to agree on a candidate and the possibility of the emergence of parallel governments or even a return to civil war is a real one.

Yesterday, Christian Phalange Party lawmaker Antoine Ghanem, 64, was killed in a bomb blast in Beirut that had Syria's fingerprints all over it. Ghanem, a possible presidential candidate left the country in June after Lebanese MP Walid Eido was murdered in a similar car bomb assassination. He had returned to the country from hiding just three days before to vote in the September 25 presidential election as the anti-Syrian March 14 Forces call in what's left of its faction in parliament.

Ghanem's murder serves two purposes. First, it reduces the anti-Syrian bloc's parliamentary majority to 68 of 127 MPs just a few days before the vote was scheduled to take place, a mere 4 seat majority.

The second reason was an attempt to scare the remaining anti-Syrian members of parliament witless and see to it that a pro-Syrian president is elected.

Due to Lebanon's arcane election laws, the parliament has to convene with a two-thirds quorum and agree on a president. After this latest murder,not only does the idea of being an anti-Syria presidential candidate have what we might refer to as sharply reduced job security, but even coming in to vote if you're part of the anti-Syria coalition in parliament is a tad risky, shall we say....which is exactly the message Syria wanted to send by taking out Ghanem.

In a desperate attempt to try to protect the others, the Siniora government is planning on housing the anti-Syrian MPs in Beirut's Phoenicia InterContinental under heavy security.

If there is no parliamentary quorum, Siniora's pro-government March 14 coalition is arguing that a simple majority vote should be held for the president.

And the idea of a simple majority vote for president is sending the pro-Syria/Iran opposition groups, led by Hezbollah and Amal, into violent apoplexy. If the March 14th coalition tries it, we could end up with two governments in Lebanon, or even civil war.

The crux of the matter, of course, is the ongoing UN tribunal investigation into the murder of Lebanon's anti-Syrian prime minister, Rafik Hariri. The investigation has already found substantial evidence of the involvement of Syria in Hariri's murder that of other anti-Syrian figures....and the trial points directly to Basher Assad and the highest levels of the Syrian government.

Lahoud, Lebanon's current president has been instrumental in blocking the efforts of the UN tribunal, which is why Syria badly needs to have a pro-Syrian president in Beirut.

Hezbollah, Amal and allied pro-Syrian ministers left the government after being refused a one-third blocking vote in the cabinet that would have allowed them to block government cooperation with the UN's tribunal.

Hezbollah and the pro-Syrian faction is supporting Michael Aoun, a long time advocate of Syrian dominance over Lebanon. The anti-Syrian opposition support is divided, mostly between Democratic Renewal Movement leader Nassib Lahoud and Rally of Independent Maronite leader Butros Harb.

This could go one of several ways.

The March 14 anti-Syrian bloc might just be intimidated enough by now to throw in the towel and allow Aoun to be elected...in which case the tribunal is pretty much over and Syrian can go to work on consolidating it's hold over Lebanon. As I've mentioned before, the Syrians can't be seen to directly invade Lebanon, so they're using their own interpretation of `Arab Democracy' to..umm....terminate the opposition.

Or, if the anti-Syrian majority elects it's own consensus candidate for president or Hezbollah, Amal and the other pro-Syrian parties boycott the presidential vote, the pro-Syrian parties would then elect their own president ( probably Aoun) and we would see two separate Lebanese governments and a likely chance of civil war.

There is another possibility, although it's a remote one. One of my notorious little birdies told me that there are ongoing negotiations going on right now between the Saudis and Syria to come to an agreement on a consensus candidate to preserve the status quo. March 14 leader and Sunni Future Movement head Saad al-Hariri's name is the one mentioned as the candidate the Saudis are supporting, which is interesting because by Lebanese law the president must be a Maronite Christian.

In the unlikely event these negotiations bear fruit, the Christian factions in Lebanon would have the choice of accepting al-Hariri and declining status in Lebanon, or a confrontation with the Syrians and Hezbollah.

If a civil war comes, rest assured that it would not stay in Lebanon. With the Syrians already in position in the Bek'aa Valley and Hezbollah re-armed and ready, it's doubtful that the Siniora government could survive for long..which would bring Hezbollah/Syria/Iran and Israel nose to nose again. The Israelis might even decide to take matters into their own hands and go back into Lebanon, especially if Hezbollah launches a few missiles or raids over the border.

As in Gaza, the Israelis made the classic mistake of giving up a strategic area simply for publicity purposes without ensuring that no future threat would emanate from there. Had the Israelis had the foresight to midwife the creation of a separate Christian/Druse State in south Lebanon before they precipitously pulled out, they not only wouldn't be facing a threat from Hezbollah, they'd have an ally and a buffer on their northern border.

And both the Druse and the Christians would be better off.

Today, in Lebanon's Daily Star, Druse leader Walid Jumblatt called on the international community to protect Lebanon "against the Syrian-Iranian alliance, which has brought nothing but harm to Lebanon."

True enough, Mr. Jumblatt. Unfortunately, it remains to be seen whether the international community would or could do anything meaningful at this point.

Meanwhile, Lebanon, once called the Switzerland of the Middle East is on the brink of disaster.

Watcher's Council Results, 9/21/07

The Council has spoken! A complete list of results can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels


This week's winner is Right Wing Nuthouse: Is War Withiran Now Just A Matter Of Time?

In second place was Bookworm Room: Freedom, But From What?

For non-Council, the winner was Acute Politics: Dead Eyes

In second place for non-Council, the winner was Hugh Hewitt: Iraq The Model

Hearty Kudos to all the winners!

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Portgate Redux: Dubai To Buy 20% Of NASDAQ

It's the ports deal all over again...our old friends in Dubai now want to buy a 20% stake in NASDAQ, and it has raised Congressional red flags...as well it should.

This would give Dubai, a country with major links to the funding of Islamic terrorism a key stake in ownership of a major U.S. stock exchange.

As part of the transaction, Dubai also will acquire 28 percent of the London Stock Exchange, one of the oldest and largest in the world.

As usual, the deal is being made through a front company, Borse Dubai, 100-percent owned by the government of the Emirate of Dubai and controlled by Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, the head of the Dubai ruling family.

This brand new holding company was only created as a corporate shell about a month ago as the holding company for Dubai Financial Market and Dubai International Financial Exchange, two other investment companies owned by Dubai's ruling family.

Unlike the ports deal, there's been scrutiny on this one from the day it was announced, to the point that President Bush was asked about it at a news conference today. According to Dubbyah, "We're going to take a good look at it, as to whether or not it has any national security implications involved in the transaction. I'm comfortable with the process to go forward."

I'm sure you are, Mr. President. Pity this one didn't slip through the cracks, hmm?

On July 26, Bush signed into law the Foreign Investment and National Security Act of 2007, a law passed as a direct result of the secretive attempt to sell control of 22 of our ports to Dubai Ports World, a company again wholly owned by the government of Dubai.

That law was passed to beef up the examination requirements of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS, a bureaucratic panel committee that's part of the Treasury Department, which is supposed to vet deals which involve foreign investments in terms of any national security aspects.

Senator Chuck Schumer (d-NY) is all over this one.

In a letter today, Schumer asked Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson to conduct the Borse Dubai CFIUS review under the standards imposed by the new law, even though most of the requirements of the new law don't take effect until later this fall.

"Nasdaq is not just any exchange, but one of the world's largest," Schumer wrote Paulson. "With approximately 3,200 companies, it lists more companies and, on average, trades more shares per day than any other U.S. market."

Not only that, but remember,this exchange deals with technological companies, including those involved in national defense. I'm with Schumer on this one...and more.

Do we really want a country like Dubai to have an ownership stake in such a crucial area? And what about the economic influence and the concurrent clout when it comes to US foreign policy?

It's simply outrageous that something like this would even be considered.

And here's another piece of the puzzle I somehow don't think is unrelated:Abu Dhabi, another one of the the United Arab Emirates ( the group of Sheikdoms Dubai belongs to)just went and bought a 7.5% equity stake in the Carlyle Group.

For those of you who aren't familiar with the Carlyle_Group, it is a major, privately held equities firm with over $75.5 billion in assets. The firm invests in a wide variety of investments and has a major stake in the US defense industry, and itself is now valued at around $20 billion, as opposed to about $3.5 billion prior to the invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan. I'll let you draw your own conclusions from those figures. The Carlyle Group also has some very intimate connections with the Bush family, as well as a number of other well known people.

Let's start with Bush Sr. The ex-president was a senior advisor to the firm from April 1998 to October 2003,specializing in bringing in investment capital from the Arabs,including a couple of million from the bin-Laden family, which was liquidated after 9/11. Bush Sr. is still a highly paid consultant to the firm and is said to have a large amount of the Bush family money invested here.

James Baker III,Bush family consigliere worked in the capacity of Carlyle Senior Counselor from 1993 to 2005,in between representing his Saudi masters in court against his fellow Americans.

Richard Darman, former Director of the U.S. Office of Management and Budget under George H. W. Bush, Senior Advisor and Managing Director of The Carlyle Group from 1993 to the present.

Mack McLarty, White House Chief of Staff under President Bill Clinton, President of Kissinger McLarty Associates, Carlyle Senior Advisor from 2003 to the present.

And of course, George W. Bush,the current U.S. President. He was appointed in 1990 to the Board of Directors of one of Carlyle's first acquisitions, an airline food business called Caterair, until he left in 1992 to run for Governor of Texas.

There are lots of other interesting personalities involved and fascinating details, if anyone's interested enough to do a little research, but the above should be enough to raise a few hackles.

Are the two deals connected? I dunno...but here we have two major stock deals, both involving government owned companies from the UAE, both involving deals that have a lot to do with the US defense industry, and one of the deals involving a major cash influx to a privately held equity company that the Bush family is heavily invested in.

What are the odds,hmmmm?

Just like the Dubai ports deal, there seems to be more to it than meets the eye.

Senate Democrats Endorse MoveOn and `Betray Us'



Senator John Cornyn (r- TX ) sponsored an amendment condemning the MoveOn ad that called General David Petraeus a liar and potential traitor. It passed with bipartisan 72-25.

The amendment did not mention MoveOn by name, but was merely to express the sense of the Senate that General Petraeus deserved the full support of the Senate and to strongly condemn personal attacks on his honor and integrity.

All 25 of the senators who voted against this amendment were Democrats. And not just any Democrats, but two presidential candidates who want to be commander-in-chief an dclaim to be qualified for the job, as well as the top leadership of the Senate Democrat Caucus, including Senators Hillary Clinton, Chris Dodd, Harry Reid, Dick Durbin,Barbera Boxer, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry, Carl Levin the head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Chuck Schumer....

Here's the full list:

Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Brown (D-OH)
Byrd (D-WV)
Clinton (D-NY)
Dodd (D-CT)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Harkin (D-IA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Kerry (D-MA)
Lautenberg (D-NJ)
Levin (D-MI)
Menendez (D-NJ)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Reid (D-NV)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Sanders (I-VT)
Schumer (D-NY)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
Wyden (D-OR)

Barack Obama and Joe Biden decided to try and straddle the fence by simply not voting.

This is the same general that these people voted to confirm in command and now refuse to support in the least, in time of war..because they'd rather appease the Angry Left. And those Democrats who decided that simple decency and honor were more important than kowtowing to the likes of Moveon deserve credit for taking that stand.

As for the others, it's a disgrace that the senators listed above couldn't even muster the courage to give a vote of confidence to someone who has put his life on the line many times to preserve their freedom. Instead, he was forced to endure an insulting grilling that not only questioned his integrity and patriotism, but his intelligence.

It's more and more obvious that MoveOn, Code Pink and the rest of the Angry Left control the Democrats, at least most of them, and especially the ones running for president.

MoveOn indeed has the right of free speech, and so do these senators ( courtesy of warriors like General Petraeus) . But it's also true that these people, by and large, despise the military, cannot be trusted to defend the country and are heavily invested in America's defeat, for their own sordid political purposes.

Nothing could be clearer

Ahmadinejad: `Won't Push For Ground Zero Visit'


That's the good news.

The bad news is that this revelation came as a `teaser' from an interview that CBS '( emphasis on the last two letters) Scott Pelley did with Ahmadinejad for `60 Minutes' in an exclusive interview conducted today in Iran.

That interview is scheduled to be aired this coming Sunday.

I'm sure that this latest interview will be every bit as revealing and as tough on Ahmadinejad as the last CBS one was, with senile talking head Mike Wallace at the microphone.

Bill To Extend Habeus Corpus to Terrorists Defeated in Senate

Even more bad news for the appeasement wing of American politics...today, the US Senate shut down a bill being pushed by Patrick Leahy(d-VT) and Arlen Specter ( r-PA), the respective Committee head and ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee.

A motion to close debate failed because it didn't get the required 60 votes - another reminder to be careful how you vote in November.

Virtually all the Senate Democrats voted for the measure, which would have allowed enemy combatants seized on the battle field the right to clog the court system with repetitive challenges to their confinement.

The last time I checked, these people weren't US citizens, and it amazes me that some of the people in charge of leading our country would want to present people who are in effect POW's in wartime the same rights given to citizens of the nation they are attempting to defeat and destroy.

A simply stunning display of political correctness and dhimmitude.

Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Ahmadinejad Won't Be Allowed to Visit Ground Zero


Apparently New York City officials have rejected Iranian President Ahmadinejad's request to pay a visit, real friendly like, to the site of the World Trade Center bombings at Ground Zero when he's at the UN.

Good. if I had a say, he wouldn't even be allowed in America.

Apparently there is still some diplomatic back-and forth going on about this between Washington and New York City. If President Bush and Condi Rice allow Ahmadinejad to visit Ground Zero, they will forfeit whatever credibility they have left in view of General Petraeus' testimony on Iran's activities against our troops.

Oh, by the way, Ahmadinejad is also scheduled to speak at Columbia University while he's here.
Lovely how these people support freedom of speech..unless you're talking about a conservative, a patriot, or someone like Jim Gilchrist of the Minutemen,

UPDATE: This continues to be in play...apparently the NYPD has refused to protect Ahmandinejad on a visit to Ground Zero, but the US Secret Service has apparently been drafted to do so!

If this goes down, I can only hope that a cadre of New Yorkers and our elected officials turn out to put a wall of in-your-face Americans between Ahmadinejad and Ground Zero. Having this enabler of Islamist terorism there is an insult to everyone who died in the attacks, as well as to the rest of us.

Enough is enough.

Dan Rather Sues CBS/Viacom for $70M

Courage, Dan..........



Y'know, theres an old saying: leave well enough alone. Apparently Dan Rather never learned it.

He's now suing CBS/Viacomfor $70 million over Rathergate, claiming that the network made him a`scapegoat' over the story about President Bush's military service during the Vietnam War that utilized those famous `fake, but accurate' documents.

According to Rather, CBS intentionally botched investigating the `true' story and made him a sacrificial victim to `pacify' the White House. And he claims that if the story wasn't accurate, it wasn't his fault for broadcasting it - even though he was in total control of what was aired on the news program.

Rather is upset also because he claims he was forced to apologize, when it was all CBS' fault.

Of course, the real scapegoats are the story's producer and the three other executives who were fired after a CBS internal review to allow Rather, who was making $6 million a year, to save face and bow out gracefully after he violated every principle of journalistic ethics, libeled President Bush and attempted to influence a presidential election using phony sources and documents.

I would have thought Rather would have been happy to crawl back into the crevice from which he came, but apparently he's going to be around as a blogger target for awhile longer....

Syria Continues To Assasinate Its Way To Control Of Lebanon


It's odd, but in a strange way, the Syrians too seem to be playing their version of the game of `Arab democracy'....by killing off the opposition so they can `democratically' take control of Lebanon with who's left.

Today's murder victims included Antoine Ghanem, a 64-year-old member of the Christian Phalange party, who was killed by a bomb set off at rush hour on a busy street in the Christian Sin el-Fil district in Beirut,along with six others. Ghanem was also a possible candidate for the presidency in an election to replace the pro-Syrian Emil Lahoud.

Ghanem was the eighth anti-Syrian politician assassinated since 2005, reducing Siniora's ruling coalition's margin to a bare minimum in Parliament.

The bomb was set in Ghanem's car and likely detonated by remote control according to Lebanese security sources. It was a large one severely damaging nearby buildings, setting several cars on fire and leaving the street littered with blood and debris.

Don't think Siniora and any other Lebanese politicos who think about opposing Syrian control of Lebanon haven't been getting the message.

Dems Attempt To Pull Troops Out Of Iraq By The Back Door Defeated


I can feel the rage and frustration from here...

Senate Democrats made an attempt to legislate what amounts to a de facto troop withdrawal today, and as always, it was done under the guise of `supporting the troops.'

Jim Webb ( d-VA) and Chuck Hagel (r-NE) were the co-sponsors of a bill that seems innocuous on the face of it, one that would have legislated troops as much time at home as they are deployed overseas, and in the case of National Guard or Reserve units, a three year moratorium on any deployment overseas after their return.

Sounds good, until you actually look at the number of troops it would effect and the havoc it would play with military necessity...and realize that the net effect would be a substantial withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and elsewhere.

Fortunately, a majority in the Senate realized that, and shut it down, by four votes.

The next funding battle will come in October, and at that time or before, Carl Levin (d-MI) has a bill he wants to present to the Senate that would order combat troops home in nine months. And of course, Senate Majority leader Harry Reid (d-NV)an dRuss Feingold (d-WI) are sponsoring a bill that would cut off funding for combat next year.

To quote John McCain, the top Republican on the Armed Services Committee a Webb's bill was just a 'backdoor method' by Democrats to force troop withdrawals.

"We have a new strategy. We have success on the ground..pulling out troops would spark chaos and genocide in the region, and we will be back," he said.

Watcher's Council Nominations, 9/19/07




Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one from the Council members and one from outside for consideration by the whole Council. The complete list of this week's Council nominations can be found at the site of our fearless leader, the infamous Watcher of Weasels


Do take the time and check out the non-Council links..they are always rewarding.


Here's this week's Council lineup....

1. JOSHUAPUNDIT : America Must be Defeated! I examine the blatant insults General Petraeus endured this week in the Senate, along with the Democrat leadership's attitudes towards the infamous MoveOn `Petraeus - Betray US' ad and come to the obvious conclusion - the Democrats, for the most part are invested in America's defeat. And since MoveOn and the rest of the Angry Left are now pretty much calling the shots for the Democrats, they're simply being more open about it.

Needless to say, defeat has consequences. Always.

I think you'll like the graphic that goes with this...


2. Done With Mirrors: What Did I Miss? Callimachus gets a major high five from me for expressing so well something in the first half of his essay that I'm sure all of us who are involved in what he calls the war of words have felt..frustration, boredom and ennui.

Nevertheless, it's the war we've got, this is our way of fighting it and opting out is defeat by default, I think. And for my part, I hope Callimachus continues on...I'd miss reading what he has to say.

In the other half of his post, Cal has brief takes on global warming, the likelihood of events taking over the conventional political wisdom,the likelihood of the Democrats actually convincing people they can be trusted to run national security and
1930's model and photographer Lee Miller's breasts.

3. Soccer Dad: Deterring the Deterrers Soccer Dad has a fine post that explores what happens when politics, paranoia and a fear of bad press take precedence over common sense...using, in this case, Israel's frequent vacillations on wiping out the murderers who plan and institute `operations' that kill innocent civilians and attack the country.

When democracies play this game, especially in the Middle East, here's what happens: First, instead of getting credit for restraint, it emboldens ones enemies to commit even greater atrocities, because the bar has been raised.Second, it makes one's own soldiers more reluctant to risk their lives for incomplete results, especially if some Leftist ideologue is going to use the legal system to pillory them, as Soccer Dad points out. And third, it results in a higher death toll, both from the increased casualties among ones own people as your enemies are emboldened to greater efforts to kill more, and among the enemy, particularly civilians, when the hammer finally comes down and a country like Israel is forced to take extreme measures.

I'm sure there were others, but the first person I'm aware of who noticed what happens with ill-considered restraint in these types of situations was Napoleon, talking about controlling riots in Paris when he was still a general for the revolutionary government of the Directoire. And he was dealing with the French, not Arabs!

So much simpler and more humane to do what needs doing the first time, save lives, and simply wait out the news cycle.

4. The Glittering Eye : Why? What? When? The Glittering Eye's Dave Schuler didn't like President Bush's last speech on Iraq, and it's hard for me to disagree with him. President Bush's strongpoint has never been communication, and at this point much of what he has to say has been compromised by some of his earlier dichotomies between rhetoric and action anyway. I always defer to my mom's wisdom when it comes to things like this...`if you don't have something constructive to say, zip it!'

5. Bookworm Room: Freedom, But From What? Ms. Bookworm has a fascinating post that examines the idea of privacy..what it is, the choices we make to compromise it and with whom, and most importantly the difference between the liberal and conservative attitudes towards privacy as it involves the government.

As Ms. Bookworm points out, while conservatives are willing to trust the government when it comes to running the job of security from our enemies while not wanting government more privy to the details of their private lives than absolutely necessary, the Left is just the opposite. They're willing to trust the government with the running and intimate details of their private lives, but distrust them to handle security:

"Liberals, on the other hand, who are willing to hand over to the government so many aspects of their private lives, are loath to surrender their security to the government. Instead, when it comes to security, they look at the same government they trust to examine their bodies, make their health care decisions, educate their children, rescue their poor, and control their businesses, and suddenly start ranting that it is out to get them, whether to destroy their buildings and their citizens, listen to their phone calls, or read the same library books they do."

6. Rhymes With Right:California Legislature Intent On Violating California Constitution Greg's post looks at the furor currently being directed at Governor Arnold Schwartznegger because he's told the Democrat-controlled state legislature that he will veto a measure that they passed to allow same sex marriages in California...because the people of California already voted on this issue when they passed Proposition 22, the Protection of Marriage initiative, by 61 to 39 percent.

I've got news for you, Greg ol' buddy... speaking as one who lives in California, the ilk who compose a majority in our legislature could care less what the average Californian thinks or what the state constitution says, since their seats are gerrymandered into virtual permanent party fiefdoms. Governor Schwartznegger isn't perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but to his credit he made an honest attempt to present the people of California with an honest choice by presenting four initiatives that would have helped end this lockstep - and they were all defeated, thanks to vast infusions of cash from various interested parties and partly because the governor took on two many people at one time, IMO.

This will probably end up as largely a charade...the governor gets points for adhering to principle, and the Democrats get a few political points with one of their constituencies while wasting the taxpayers' money creating meaningless legislation they don't have the votes to push through over a veto.

7.Colossus of Rhodey:I'd Like To Buy Into It, And Then I Read On...Hube does a good job of fisking a bogus study
that purports to address the racial achievement gap and supposedly shows that principals or teachers can have a bigger impact on achievement in one year than whether a child is poor or from a single-parent home.

Of course culture, or the attitudes expressed in the home towards the importance of education have nothing to do with the a child's academic achievement.....ri-ight.

8. Cheat Seeking Missiles: LA Times: "No Blood For Oil" Lackey This week,Laer provides an excellent example of why the dinosaur media's credibility is at an all time low.

The subject is the headlines and above the fold comment that occurred when Alan Greenspan, pimping his new book put out a soundbite that much of the dinosaur media glommed onto like a rat on cheese,that the Iraq war was `largely about oil'.

Greenspan, of course later clarified things by stating the obvious...that what he meant was that removing of Saddam Hussein had been "essential" for the security of world oil supplies, a point he claims to have emphasized to the White House in private conversations before the 2003 invasion.

9. Just When You Thought You Had Something Figured Out by Okie On The Lam This week, Okie compares the tough talk by French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner on Iran with his previous impression that France would be useless in the war against Islamists.

I agree with Okie's take that what's prompting the new hard line from Franc and other Europeans is the realization that they've been idiots up to now, and the real fear on their part that if the US doesn't curtail Iran's nuclear weapons program,Israel is likely to...which would force them to choose sides between the Jews and their Arab friends.

France in particular is trying to minimize their inevitable vulnerability brought on by years on pandering to Arabs, and is now involved in the deporting of Arab illegal immigrants ( and even some legal ones), passing new citizenship laws and curtailing immigration from certain areas.

10. Right Wing Nuthouse: Is War With Iran Now Just A Matter Of Time? Rick also has Iran and Kouchner's remarks on his mind, and wonders whether war can still be avoided.

Given that the Iranians have, by their own admission been at war with the US since 1979, and given their current activities it seems a moot question.

We could, of course, put this off for a while, but anyone who favors this needs to answer the following questions...first,if the Israelis hadn't destroyed Saddam's Osirak reactor, would you rather have taken on Saddam in the first Gulf War a few years later with Iraq armed with nuclear weapons or without?

Second, if one of the Democrat front runners wins the White House and becomes commander- in- chief in 17 months, is that whom you want as a war president?

I'd also point out, yet again that if we act now,the invasion/occupation scenario we used in Iraq isn't necessary in the least.

11.The Education Wonks: Exploitation? EdWonk takes on the story of Maddison Gabriel, the 12 year old Australian model who was chosen to front one of the world's largest fashion shows, the Gold Coast Fashion Week in Australia.

This is similar to the notion of child actors, in a way, since it involves putting a vulnerable child in a situation where the child is encouraged to exploit their sexuality while surrounded by a large number of sleazy people who are essentially amoral and are poor role models, to say the least.

While Maddison's mother is all for this and seems to think that nothing wrong is going on,one wonders how much monitoring and parenting she's actually able to do in this situation.

12. Big Lizards: "Surge A Failure, Democrats Tell General" Daffyd Ab Hugh finds the notion of Senate Democrats telling General Petraeus that his strategy is a failure without any kind of factual critique to be absolutely absurd, if not insulting.

So do I.

That's this week's lineup..enjoy

Tuesday, September 18, 2007

America Must Be Defeated!


(Hat tip to Rightlane for the graphic)

"There is nothing new under the sun" - Ecclesiastes

The Angry Left and many of the Democrats are dropping the pretense they kept up for a long time of `supporting the troops'. They've decided to sing a new version of the same old hit song they used in Vietnam. And that's appropriate, since many of the people in the forefront of the anti-War movement today were a part of the original version.

Of course, they never really stopped singing this particular tune - just ask one of our wounded warriors who had to put up with Code Pink taunting them while they were recuperating at Walter Reed. It's simply more out in the open these days.

The New York Times ran an amazing ad by MoveOn to `greet' General David Petraeus when he returned from Iraq to report to Congress, which rhymed his name with `betray us' and essentially accused him of lying to Congress, and committing treason.

The Times' owner and publisher Pinch Sultzberger saw to it that MoveOn got a handsomely discounted rate to run this garbage, $65,000 as opposed to a normal rate $118,000.

None of the Democrats now runing for president see fit to condemn the ad. And the ones in Congress essentially endorsed it during their questioning of General Petraeus, essentially calling him a liar to his face...when they weren't calling him an idiot.

Senator Hillary Clinton, the Democrat frontrunner for the nomination was fairly egregious, telling General Petraeus "The reports that you provide to us really require the willing suspension of disbelief."

Senator Barack Hussein Obama, that great military strategist wouldn't come right out and say that General Petraeus was a traitor, per se. Nah...Obama thinks General Petraeus is just stoo-pid. "Senator Obama's question is not about General Petraeus's patriotism," said Bill Burton, spokesman for Senator Obama, "It's about his logic. "

Of course, what it all comes down to is that the Democrats, for the most part are invested in America's defeat. And since MoveOn and the rest of the Angry Left are now pretty much calling the shots for the Democrats, they're simply being more open about it.

The number three ranking Democrat in the House, Majority Whip James Clyburn (d-SC) had it exactly right; good news in Iraq `would be a problem' for his party.

After all, if General Petraeus is correct then the Democrats indeed have a serious problem..so the solution, of course is to demonize the messenger rather than to dispute the message.

This is all very valuable, from a standpoint of clarity. No matter how much these people claim to suport the troops and to be qualified to lead America during wartime, no matter how artfully Mrs. Clinton dances and sways from one side to the other, the..umm...truth is out there, as they say.

For some reason,the Bush Administration seems simply unable or unwilling to make this point clearly to the American people,except in halting, ill-delivered speeches that sound unconvincing even as they're being uttered. Fortunately, some of the prospective GOP presidential hopefuls, most notably Rudy Giuliani have been more effective in spotlighting this.It's a shame that no Democrats saw fit to join him.

And it's necessary that this attitude on the part of the Democrats be spotlighted.

The stakes are far too high to have the inmates in control of the asylum just now.

Islamic Jihad Broadcasts Hatred Live From The Temple Mount

Israel recently caught their `partners in peace' facilitating Jew Hatred again.

They just found out that the official radio network of Islamic Jihad has been broadcasting daily from the Temple Mount in Jerusalem.

The Al-Quds network has been airing special nightly Ramadan and Tarawih prayers from the Mount's al-Aqsa Mosque since the beginning of the Muslim holiday last week....along with a few other items of interest. The prayer broadcasts have been preceded and followed by Islamic Jihad speeches featuring anti-Israel propaganda, calling for the destruction of Israel, the murder of the Jews and Palestinian solidarity with Iran.

No one seems to know whether Islamic Jihad had some kind of official permission from Israel or from the Waqf Islamic custodians of the Al Aksa Mosque on the Temple Mount to broadcast from the mosque.The Temple Mount jointly administered by the Waqf and Israeli police.

One things certain, though..the Palestinian Authority knew about it, since Islamic Jihad's Al-Quds radio has been using technicians from the Voice of Palestine, the official radio network of the Palestinian Authority, to engineer the Temple Mount broadcasts.

What likely happened is that the Palestinian Authority asked Israel, as a concession, to allow prayer broadcasts to succor all those poor, suffering Palestinians who couldn't make it to the annual services at the al-Aqsa Mosque...and the gullible Israeli government said `fine by us', after which Abbas and company took advantage to bring in the Islamic Jihad hatemongers while maintaining plausible deniability.

That's what happens when a fatally naive Israeli government continues to allow the holiest site in Judaism to be controlled by people who despise Jews and everything they stand for.

And why not? If I were a Palestinian and my enemies the Israelis lacked the confidence and fortitude to make the Temple Mount the Holiest site in Judaism again, why not take advantage? If the Jews had the opportunity to rebuild the Beit Hamikdash, the Holy Temple after recapturing the area and were willing to accept the humiliation of allowing others to control their holiest site , why reject that gift? Why not use their stupidity to put their entire claim to Jerusalem in doubt and use it as a wedge to eventually push the Jews out?

Only Israel is so disdainful of its own rights and national symbols in this manner. Is it any wonder much of the rest of the world is?

If Mecca had been conquered by non-Muslims, and the Arabs or Muslims had just reconquered it, does anyone imagine that the Muslims would allow non-Muslims to retain control of the Ka'aba, let alone allow the shrine of another religion to stand in that spot without razing it?

When the Palestinians retook Gaza after the Israeli retreat, did they leave a single synogogue standing? Did they respect Joseph's tomb?

Would the Catholics leave the Vatican in non-Christian hands if non-Christians had conquered Rome and the Catholics had retaken it?

Did the Spaniards allow the huge mosques at Cordoba or Valencia to stay as mosques after the reconquista?

Did the Turks keep St. Sophia in Constantinople as a church after they conquered it?

Only Israel has this essential crisis of confidence and vision that somehow forbids them to behave like any other nation would. And they will continue to suffer because of it until they are willing to change.

Or, to quote Hillel: `If I am not for me, who will be for me? And if not now, when?'

Monday, September 17, 2007

What's The Rush, Soldier?

U.S. General: Iranian Missile Used in Attack on U.S. Base in Iraq

It's long past time, Mr. President.....

How The Palestinans Celebrated 9/11 This Year



Osama V for victory. From al-Hayat, 9/12/07. The Arabic translates as `Exclusive to Al Hayat Al Jadida'

Most of us know how the Palestinians celebrated 9/11 when it happened..but after the Bush Administration's endorsement of a second Palestinian Arab State and all the money the US has given them, have things really changed much?

Courtesy of the good folks at Palestinian Media Watch , the above are cartoons that ran to celebrate 9/11 this year in the official Palestinian Authority controlled newspaper, Al Hayat, owned by the `moderate Palestinian Authority and controlled by the office of Mahmoud Abbas.

Lovely, aren't they?

And here's something else that just wonderful: The Bush Administration continues to fund these jackals with millions of your tax dollars, even though a large amount of that money has ended up being transmitted by Fatah to Hamas.

Yasir Arafat was a murderer, a thief and a bloodsucking vampire who fed off his own people by stealing the humanitarian aid given to the Palestinians by gullible Western donors, and he bears the primary responsibility for the miserable condition of these people today.

He did only one thing right as the Palestinian's leader - he picked the right enemy,the Jews.

And Arafat II Mahmoud Abbas is carrying on that legacy..

Frivolous Corrie Lawsuit Dismissed



Some of you are familiar with Rachel Corrie, one of the postergirls of the `anti-Zionist' Left. She was accidentally killed when getting in the way of an Israeli bulldozer involved in collapsing tunnels used to smuggle arms and explosives to Palestinian terrorists involved in murdering Israel's civilian population, and was part of the International Solidarity Movement,(ISM) which really, really likes the idea of killing of Israeli civilians as a `tactic for liberation'.

The myth of Corrie's death as a `peace activist' has been a real goldmine, both ideologically and financially. She's been the subject of a hit play in London, and become a small time cottage industry with a plethora of tee shirts, hats, posters and watches being sold with her image...which of course looks very different than the above ABC news photo of a screaming, hate filled haridan burning an American flag at a Hamas rally. There was even a fundraising `tour' by her parents.

In an effort to raise even more cash out of their daughter's death, the Corries decided to take Caterpillar, the American company that manufactures the bulldozers used by Israel to court and filed a wrongful death lawsuit, on the grounds that Caterpillar knew or should have known the Israeli government would use the bulldozer to commit `human rights violations' and therefore Caterpillar should be civilly liable.

This attempt to raid the deep pockets of an American company failed dismally, as the case was dismissed as being without merit by none other than the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Rachel Corrie hated America and was nothing less than a classic Jew hater, which she attempted to mask by turning it into `anti-Zionism'. I'd like to feel sympathy for her demise,but frankly, I think she's better off and doing less harm by not being around.

I do feel a certain sympathy for her parents. They obviously share Rachel Corrie's sentiments, but they did spend a lot of tee shirt, poster and merchandise money on this lawsuit.

As a gesture of sympathy, I thought I'd contribute my own idea for merchandising her image so that the Corries can recoup a bit: (scroll down)










Her real image, that is. Somehow, I just have a feeling this would sell.

John McCain: `MoveOn Should Be Thrown Out Of The Country'


Senator John McCain gets a high five from me for saying what I think the majority of Americans feel...that MoveOn.org and their ilk ought to condemned by their Democrat pals and thrown out of the country on their...uhhh...posteriors.

Speaking in New Hampshire, CBS News caught the old lion trashing MoveOn for the Petraeus ad in no uncertain terms. He displayed the ad and said: "It’s disgraceful, it’s got to be retracted and condemned by the Democrats, and MoveOn.org ought to be thrown out of this country."

Unfortunately, with the ambivalence that characterizes modern politics McCain's campaign issued an `explanation' afterwards:"Senator McCain, like most Americans, is appalled by the MoveOn.org ad. Last night he expressed his outrage in words that did not convey his intended meaning. What he meant to say was that MoveOn's smear of General Petraeus' character should have no place in the American political debate."

I know, First Amendment and all that. But the senator likewise has a right to say what he feels and remember, the US has thrown agitators and saboteurs out of the country before during wartime. Read up on the Vallandigham case sometime.

Meanwhile the majority of Democrats, especially those running for president and commander-in-chief continue to dance to the Angry Left's tune and happily smear a man who's put his life on the line many times to protect their freedom. Not one of them has condemned the ad in the least.

And in the case of Senators Obama and Clinton, this is someone who they voted to confirm as commander in Iraq after an extensive and often insulting grilling on Capitol Hill. If they're right about him being a tool and an idiot, doesn't that say something about their judgement?

Remember that when you vote in November.

hat tip to GateWay Pundit

Sunday, September 16, 2007

New Bush Attorney General :A Step In The Right Direction?

President Bush's prospective nominee for Attorney General to replace Alberto Gonzalez is retired judge Michael Mukasey.

He could be just what the doctor ordered.

Judge Mukasey has had an intimate familiarity with cases involving Islamic terrorism....and spent quite a bit of time getting around-the-clock protection from armed guards as a consequence.

A Reagan appointee to the federal bench in 1987, Mukasey played a major role after the 9/11 attacks, which occurred just a few blocks away from his courthouse. He spent the first few days after the attacks working behind closed doors and seeing some of the first material witnesses detained by the Feds.

Needless to say, this earned Judge Mukasey the ire of people like the ACLU, who said that the material witness cases were an illegal `roundup' and that the witnesses the Feds brought in were `abused' and their legal rights violated.

Mukasey also presided over the beginnings of the Jose Padilla case, before Padilla was declared an enemy combatant and eventually wound up in a different court before being convicted.

Interestingly, Mukasey wrote an opinion piece recently in which he examined how the US had dealt with wartime terrorism in the past, pointed out some of the shortcomings in our current way of doing things and argued for new laws to deal wth Islamic terrorists, based on his experience in the Padilla case. Judge Mukasey, in no uncertain terms feels that we need a major revamping of our system and perhaps new legislation to help the legal system deal with a large scale effort to fight domestic terrorists. Here's a sample:

"The history of Padilla's case helps illustrate in miniature the inadequacy of the current approach to terrorism prosecutions.
First, consider the overall record. Despite the growing threat from al Qaeda and its affiliates--beginning with the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and continuing through later plots including inter alia the conspiracy to blow up airliners over the Pacific in 1994, the attack on the American barracks at Khobar Towers in 1996, the bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the bombing of the Cole in Aden in 2000, and the attack on Sept. 11, 2001--criminal prosecutions have yielded about three dozen convictions, and even those have strained the financial and security resources of the federal courts near to the limit.

Second, consider that such prosecutions risk disclosure to our enemies of methods and sources of intelligence that can then be neutralized. Disclosure not only puts our secrets at risk, but also discourages allies abroad from sharing information with us lest it wind up in hostile hands.

And third, consider the distortions that arise from applying to national security cases generally the rules that apply to ordinary criminal cases.

On one end of the spectrum, the rules that apply to routine criminals who pursue finite goals are skewed, and properly so, to assure that only the highest level of proof will result in a conviction. But those rules do not protect a society that must gather information about, and at least incapacitate, people who have cosmic goals that they are intent on achieving by cataclysmic means.{...}

There have been several proposals for a new adjudicatory framework, notably by Andrew C. McCarthy and Alykhan Velshi of the Center for Law & Counterterrorism, and by former Deputy Attorney General George J. Terwilliger. Messrs. McCarthy and Velshi have urged the creation of a separate national security court staffed by independent, life-tenured judges to deal with the full gamut of national security issues, from intelligence gathering to prosecution. Mr. Terwilliger's more limited proposals address principally the need to incapacitate dangerous people, by using legal standards akin to those developed to handle civil commitment of the mentally ill.

These proposals deserve careful scrutiny by the public, and particularly by the U.S. Congress. It is Congress that authorized the use of armed force after Sept. 11--and it is Congress that has the constitutional authority to establish additional inferior courts as the need may be, or even to modify the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction.

Perhaps the world's greatest deliberative body (the Senate) and the people's house (the House of Representatives) could, while we still have the leisure, turn their considerable talents to deliberating how to fix a strained and mismatched legal system, before another cataclysm calls forth from the people demands for hastier and harsher results."


In short Judge Mukasey seems to understand that the Constitution was never intended to be a suicide pact. No argument from me there.

Mukasey would know about the inherent problems we face, as he's handled terrorist cases for more than a decade.

When he sentenced Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the `blind sheik' to life in prison, Mukasey accused him of trying to spread death "in a scale unseen in this country since the Civil War." He also was the presiding judge who sentenced Ramzy Youseff, the mastermind of the first World Trade Center bombing.

Because of his involvement with these and other high profile cases involving Islamic terrorism, he and his wife were given around-the-clock protection by deputy U.S. marshals for eight years, longer than any other federal judge.

Mukasey is also the judge who swore in Hizzoner, Rudy Giuliani both terms as mayor of New York. Both he and his son, Marc Mukasey, are justice advisers to Rudy Giuliani's presidential campaign. Marc Mukasey also works as an attorney at Giuliani's law firm.

Like Giuliani, Mukasey knows first hand what Islamic terorrism looks, feels and smells like when it happens...a major plus in my way of thinking.

Apparently he also is close to New York Senator Chuck Schumer, who previously recommended Mukasey for the Supreme Court.

Could it be that we're finally getting serious about the fifth column in our midst and are prepared to start doing something about it? Having someone with Mukasey's experience as attorney general could be a major step in doing so.

I'm cautiously optomistic.