The Economy is Great, Women and Minorities Hurt Most

The New York Times has finally discovered that the US economy is booming.

"By most measures, the economy appears to be doing fine. No, scratch that, it appears to be booming."

But, this is the New York Times and we have a Republican president, so there are alway dark clouds looming.

Many analysts, including Mr. Shapiro, say a housing slowdown is already under way. Along with rising interest rates and anemic job growth, any such drop-off could sap the economy next year - by just how much is still subject to debate.

Oil For Food In Massachussetts?

A couple of Massachusetts Democrat politicians are collecting their rewards for sucking up to Venezuela's communist dictator, Hugo Chavez.

Last week Venezuela announced that its U.S.-based Citgo Petroleum would sell 12 million gallons of home heating oil at a 40% discount to help the poor in Massachusetts. The deal was announced by [Congressman William] Delahunt on the lawn of a beneficiary before Thanksgiving, with Congressman Ed Markey at his side. "This today is about people, it's not about politics," Mr. Delahunt said with a straight face. Massachusetts-based Citizens Energy, run by the Kennedy clan, will be one of the distributors.

As the Wall Street Journal phrased it, "how French."

No wonder John Kerry thrives in that environment.

France Has All the Streetsweepers and Maids it Needs Anyway

In the wake of the French intifada, France is tightening immigration controls.

The French government Tuesday proposed tightening immigration controls to make it more difficult for foreign students and foreign-born relatives of French residents to enter the country. The plan was fueled by concern over unrest in immigrant neighborhoods, the scene recently of three weeks of street violence.

And, if they ever do need more waiters, their current Muslim population is outbreeding native French anyway.

Back To Coverup Mode

Believe it or not, the United Nations plans to start shredding Paul Volcker's Oil-for-Food investigative findings. They've even informed the world in advance of their plans.

And you liberals are afraid of John Bolton?

My Creativity Has Never Helped Me

According to scientists, artists and poets get laid more often than the rest of us.

"Professional artists and poets have about twice as many partners as other people, British psychologists have found.

Their creativity seems to act like a sexual magnet."

I personally think it has more to do with the subculture they move in. But, the news isn't all good for the artsy-fartsy types.

“Poets and artists have more sexual partners but they also have high rates of depression,” Dr. Daniel Nettle, a psychologist at Newcastle University’s School of Biology told Reuters.

Light Blogging Today

We got a load of snow last night. I'm gonna have to do a bunch of shovelling before I can go to work. I have two very elderly couples and a single mom as neighbors, so when it snows, I don't just have my own driveway to shovel.

I'll probably put on my boots and coat and go out, as soon as I finish my coffee.

Clemency Hell! Execute the Whole Family

Nobel Peace Prize nominee Tookie Williams son is accused of raping his girlfriend's daughter at gunpoint.

The Second Coming

Clearly, Iran's theotyranny is about to come apart. The country's president, Mahmud Ahmadinejad, is claiming that Allah surrounded him with light during his maniacal UN speech last month, and that during the speech, the audience was so rapt that no one even blinked.

Ahmadinejad said that someone present at the UN told him that a light surrounded him while he was delivering his speech to the General Assembly. The Iranian president added that he also sensed it.

"He said when you began with the words 'in the name of God,' I saw that you became surrounded by a light until the end [of the speech]," Ahmadinejad appears to say in the video. "I felt it myself, too. I felt that all of a sudden the atmosphere changed there, and for 27-28 minutes all the leaders did not blink."

Ahmadinejad adds that he is not exaggerating.

"I am not exaggerating when I say they did not blink; it's not an exaggeration, because I was looking," he says. "They were astonished as if a hand held them there and made them sit. It had opened their eyes and ears for the message of the Islamic Republic."

How long with the Iranian people allow themselves to be tyrannized and humilated before the world by madmen?

Another Example of BS Reporting From New Orleans

It seems that yet another of the tales told by the press after Katrina hit New Orleans is false. This is the one about the nursing home where the residents were abandoned to drown or starve.

For a few moments after Katrina barreled through on the morning of Aug. 29, it seemed the Manganos had made the right decision: The parking lot was dry, the roof intact. Then disaster struck. When Sal Mangano and several other men stepped outside to inspect the grounds, they heard a low rumbling sound. A wall of water appeared, rolling toward them. The men raced back inside and fortified the doors and windows. The water hit the building, rose up the sides and then burst inside.

"We were like in a sinking ship," says Gene Alonzo, a retired fisherman who stayed at St. Rita's to be with his disabled brother, Carlos, a resident. "I never did see water come up like that."

Within 20 minutes, the water inside rose almost to the ceiling and nearly three dozen residents were drowning, some in their beds, in one of the signature scenes of horror wrought by Katrina.

Alonzo's account of the ordeal, together with new details from government officials, survivors and the Manganos' attorney, James Cobb, paint the most complete picture so far of what happened at St. Rita's before and after Katrina struck - and shed light on why the Manganos did not evacuate.

Their descriptions also debunk some of the myths that grew out of the chaotic aftermath of the hurricane, including reports that the Manganos abandoned their nursing home during rescue efforts there.

BS is seems. I wonder if this was another example of the stellar reporting that Al Gore highlighted in his speech about the decline of the MSM.

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, there was - at least for a short time - a quality of vividness and clarity of focus in our public discourse that reminded some Americans - including some journalists - that vividness and clarity used to be more common in the way we talk with one another about the problems and choices that we face. But then, like a passing summer storm, the moment faded.

It's a Christmas Tree! What's So Hard About That?

There's a big, new Republican-inspired scandal erupting in Washington. House Speaker Dennis Hastert has decreed that the lighted and decorated tree erected each year at the capital this season will henceforth be known as a "Christmas tree."

"It was known as the 'Holiday Tree' for several years and just recently was changed back to the 'Capitol Christmas Tree.' This was a directive from the speaker," said Capitol architect Matthew Evans.
"The speaker believes a Christmas tree is a Christmas tree, and it is as simple as that," said Ron Bonjean, spokesman for the Illinois Republican.

Apparently, it's been some time since anyone has had the balls to call it what it is. As Matthew Staver, president and general counsel of Liberty Counsel points out, "Government officials, either because of misinformation, or private retailers, for politically correct reasons, are trying to secularize Christmas.
"To rename a Christmas tree as a holiday tree is as offensive as renaming a Jewish menorah a candlestick," Mr. Staver said.

Boston recently renamed its Christmas tree a "holiday tree," in reaction to which the logger who cut it down fumed, "I'd have cut it down and put it through the chipper," if I had known what Boston was going to do," Donnie Hatt told a Canadian newspaper. "If they decide it should be a holiday tree, I'll tell them to send it back. If it was a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter."

Is Dorgan Corrupt, or Just Stupid?

A day after Nancy Pelosi condemned the Republican Party as immersed in the "culture of corruption," Byron Dorgan has been fingered as one who received money in exchange for support of a tribal school.
The irony is that Dorgan has been leading the investigation of Jack Abramoff, the guy accused of steering these bribes.
Dorgan claims he knew nothingk. Nothingk!

By the way, if one crooked congressman makes the Republicans the party of corruption, then we can say that the Democrats are the party of blowjobs from interns and homosexual prostitution rings.

Voices In The Wilderness

I have only heard from two Democrats who seem to have the faintest glimmer of understanding of the stakes involved in Iraq or the consequences of surrender. One is Joe Lieberman, who lays it all out today in a cogent, non-hysterical, and therefore incomprehensible (to most Democrats) piece in today's Wall Street Journal.

"It is a war between 27 million and 10,000; 27 million Iraqis who want to live lives of freedom, opportunity and prosperity and roughly 10,000 terrorists who are either Saddam revanchists, Iraqi Islamic extremists or al Qaeda foreign fighters who know their wretched causes will be set back if Iraq becomes free and modern."

Who's the other Democrat? Curiously, it's Hillary Clinton. Winning this war is so important that I would vote for her over a dovish Republican.

The Myth Of The Underpriviliged Soldier

Another liberal myth blown to smithereens. You've probably heard over and over that our military is composed of the underclass who joined simply to escape the grinding poverty of their class.
Turns out that it's pure liberal trash.

"According to a comprehensive study of all enlistees for the years 1998-99 and 2003 that The Heritage Foundation just released, the typical recruit in the all-volunteer force is wealthier, more educated and more rural than the average 18- to 24-year-old citizen is. Indeed, for every two recruits coming from the poorest neighborhoods, there are three recruits coming from the richest neighborhoods.

Yes, rural areas and the South produced more soldiers than their percentage of the population would suggest in 2003. Indeed, four rural states - Montana, Alaska, Wyoming and Maine - rank 1-2-3-4 in proportion of their 18-24 populations enlisted in the military. But this isn't news.

Enlistees have always come from rural areas. Yet a new study, reported in The Washington Post earlier this month, suggests that higher enlistment rates in rural counties are new, implying a poorer military. They err by drawing conclusions from a non-random sample of a few counties, a statistically cloaked anecdote. The only accurate way to assess military demographics is to consider all recruits."

Will the left stop reciting their lies in the face of these facts. Of course not! When has the truth muzzled a liberal?

Maybe Liberals Will Find This Offensive

Robert Mugabe is one of the world's worst despots. But you'll rarely find any criticism of his tyranny in the NY Times or then Washington Post. CBS, NBS, ABS and CNN-BS don't bother either.
But, now he's causing an endangered species die-off and creating environmental damage.

The scale of the devastation is disputed. According to environmental activists, 250 elephants and hundreds of other animals have died from starvation, thirst and blackleg—an infectious disease caused by unusually arid conditions and stress—over the past two months. Zimbabwe's minister of Tourism, Francis Nehma, acknowledges a problem in Hwange, but says that only 40 elephants and 53 buffalo have died. Virtually everyone agrees that more needs to be done to stave off a larger catastrophe. Over the last month, a few private individuals have been making emergency runs to supply the park with needed fuel and spare parts. The first heavy rains fell last week, alleviating thirst but creating new problems: many of the dry pans have turned into mud holes, trapping sick and weakened animals in the sticky muck. Barry Wolhuter, who manages a Hwange safari camp called The Hide, says: " [The] national parks [department] just doesn't have its act together."

It's George Bush's Fault

The homeless are dying on the streets of Paris.

Frank Rich Gets Fisked

A rival New York paper reads Frank Rich and compares his vision to the documented truth. Rich comes out looking like, well, like a New York Times columnist.

That the president spoke the truth has been sadly confirmed in free Iraq. The Associated Press's Nadia Abou El-Magd interviewed Firas Adnan, whose tongue had been cut off with a box cutter by a Saddam loyalist. Mr. Adnan, "his slurred words barely comprehensible," said of Saddam, "He is a despot, the biggest despot, Iraq will be much better without him." Susan Sachs of Mr. Rich's own New York Times reported from the mass graves of Hilla: "On April 11, 1991, a few weeks into the Shiite rebellion, Iraqi helicopters dropped leaflets over Karbala ordering everyone to leave or be attacked with chemical weapons. Mr. Mohani piled his relatives into a pickup truck and a car and fled. About four miles south of the city, the escape route was blocked. There, he said, he saw Mr. Hussein's son-in-law, Hussein Kamal, executing people randomly at a checkpoint. 'He was telling people to get out of their cars and then he would shoot them, shoot them until his arm was too tired to do it anymore.'"

Does Mr. Rich think his own colleague and the Associated Press are also part of what he derides as "propaganda" and "the disinformation assembly line"? And when it comes time for a new generation to ask their elders what they did during the war to end the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, what are the editors of the Times going to have to say for themselves?

Kerry Votes For It, Before He Votes Against It, AGAIN

John Kerry is back to his old tricks.

"A Democratic measure, which the Senate rejected, called for a timetable for withdrawing troops. A Republican alternative, which the Senate ultimately passed, urged the Bush administration to explain "its strategy for the successful completion of the mission in Iraq" but omitted a timetable.

Kerry, last year's Democratic presidential candidate who is said to be considering another run, first voted for the GOP resolution. He then left the chamber and was seen just steps off the Senate floor talking briefly to his senior home state colleague, Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass. Kerry walked back into the chamber and changed his vote."

Allah's Crusades

Muslims and their useful idiots in the West point to the crusades as the original source for Islamic hatred and violence toward the western civilization.
But, Christianity endured more than 4 centuries of Islamic agression before the first crusade.

Most Americans Still Alert

You wouldn't know it if you got your news from the mainstream press, but most Americans believe that the Democrats's war criticism is (A) harmful to troop morale and (B) inspired solely for partisan political advantage.

Sympathetic Vibrations

By Chris Cillizza and Peter Slevin
Sunday, November 27, 2005; A04



Democrats fumed last week at Vice President Cheney's suggestion that criticism of the administration's war policies was itself becoming a hindrance to the war effort. But a new poll indicates most Americans are sympathetic to Cheney's point.

Seventy percent of people surveyed said that criticism of the war by Democratic senators hurts troop morale -- with 44 percent saying morale is hurt "a lot," according to a poll taken by RT Strategies. Even self-identified Democrats agree: 55 percent believe criticism hurts morale, while 21 percent say it helps morale.

The results surely will rankle many Democrats, who argue that it is patriotic and supportive of the troops to call attention to what they believe are deep flaws in President Bush's Iraq strategy. But the survey itself cannot be dismissed as a partisan attack. The RTs in RT Strategies are Thomas Riehle, a Democrat, and Lance Tarrance, a veteran GOP pollster.

Their poll also indicates many Americans are skeptical of Democratic complaints about the war. Just three of 10 adults accept that Democrats are leveling criticism because they believe this will help U.S. efforts in Iraq. A majority believes the motive is really to "gain a partisan political advantage."

This poll is one of the few pieces of supportive news the administration has had lately on Iraq. Most surveys have shown significant majorities believe it was a mistake to go to war, as well as rising sentiment that Bush misled Americans in making the case for it.

Even so, there is still support for Bush's policy going forward. A plurality, 49 percent, believe that troops should come home only when the Iraqi government can provide for its own security, while 16 percent support immediate withdrawal, regardless of the circumstances.

Take That! You Organic Vegan Weenies!

Fruits and vegetables fertilized "organically" cause more foodbourne illness than eggs or poultry.

Contaminated fruits and vegetables are causing more food-borne illness among Americans than raw chicken or eggs, consumer advocates said a in report released Monday.

Even As His Polls Fall, Cheney Tells the Truth

Rejection of 'Revisionism' Comes as His Standing Drops in Polls

That's sort of a wierd way to start a story, don't you think? Aren't people whose poll standings are low have a right to speak? And don't their words deserve to be judged on their merit and not upon the personal popularity of the speaker?

Thank God that people listened to Winston Churchill in the 1930's, even when his poll numbers were low.

This is what the story should be about: "In remarks before the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative research organization where he once served as a research fellow and a trustee, Cheney said Democratic critics of the war are lying when they say Bush lied about prewar intelligence to justify the invasion of Iraq.

"Any suggestion that prewar information was distorted, hyped, fabricated by the leader of the nation is utterly false," Cheney said, decrying the "self-defeating pessimism" of many Democrats. He added that to begin withdrawing from Iraq now, as some lawmakers have suggested, "would be a victory for the terrorists."

But this is what the Washington Post wants the story to be about: The speech came amid a determined White House effort to answer critics of a war that polls show is growing increasingly unpopular, and that in recent weeks has helped erode Bush's standing with the public to the lowest of his presidency.

But the war has hurt Cheney's reputation even more. A recent Newsweek poll found that only 29 percent of Americans regard him as honest and ethical. The same poll found that more than one in four Republicans agreed with that dim assessment of Cheney's integrity -- a finding that surprised some top White House aides, who were already concerned about how the public views the vice president.

Beyond Iraq, Cheney's popularity is sagging under the weight of the indictment of his former chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, in the CIA leak case and by his determined campaign to exempt the CIA from anti-torture standards, which has provoked opposition even from Republicans on Capitol Hill.

You tell me: Will the course of history turn more on Cheney's popularity or the outcome of this war?

An Honest Conversation on Race? Hah!

I think that we can now safely dispense with all that nonsense about having an “honest conversation” on race in America. Conservatives knew all along that this invitation to conversation was nothing more than bait for a poorly disguised trap. And any doubts about that trap were dispelled when leftists tripped the jaws too early.
After Hurricane Katrina exhausted itself over New Orleans, television revealed to us that the surviving victims were predominately poor blacks who, we were told, were unable to escape before the storm struck. Democrats immediately pounced, declaring that the racial disproportionality of the victims revealed something about our deficiencies as a nation. And, it was high time we talked about it.
Of course, the trap was never very well disguised. Democrats immediately accused the Bush Administration of abandoning New Orleans precisely because the city was predominantly black. That was a good start to an honest conversation, wasn’t it?
To get a taste of just how honestly liberals can discuss race, one only needs to look at the manufactured controversies this last month involving two football coaches who noted that black football players are generally fleeter afoot than their pallid teammates.
"You have to be careful the way you say things sometimes," Penn State head football coach Joe Paterno said. "Poor [Air Force coach] Fisher DeBerry got in trouble, but the black athlete has made a big difference. They have changed the whole tempo of the game. Black athletes have just done a great job as athletes and as people in turning the game around."
DeBerry got himself into trouble by noting that a recent opponent ran right past his team because they had more black athletes on their roster who, “ran a lot faster than we did.”
That both of these coaches got into deep politically correct difficulties for remarking the obvious reveals more about how impossible it is to discuss race honestly with liberals than the hurricane exposed about racial disparities.
Never mind that every four years the Olympic Games provide incontrovertible support for Paterno and DeBerry’s theses. Who wins the 100-meter dash every four years? How about the 200-meter dash, the 400 and usually even the 800? It’s been 25 years since a white guy won an Olympic sprint, and that required a United States boycott of the Moscow games. Are Olympic results racist?
What DeBerry and Paterno need to work on is polishing their clichés. They should have said that they needed more black athletes to advance diversity. To win, a football coach needs a defensive backfield and a receiver corps that looks like America.
Before DeBerry and Paterno had the forces of liberalism screaming for their hides, Bill Bennett learned just how impossible it was to discuss race honestly. On his radio show, Bennett was having a conversation with an economist who was arguing that abortion should be opposed because Social Security’s funding difficulties were traceable to the millions of Americans who had not been born and would now be taxpayers were it not for abortion. Bill Bennett objected saying that one should not reduce moral questions to expediency. If one were to reduce the debate to expediency, then one could take the wholly immoral position in favor of abortion, arguing that aborting blacks would reduce crime rates.
Bennett was employing an extreme position to make a point. But quite predictably, liberals pounced accusing Bennett of racism. Never mind that the crime rate among blacks is significantly higher than whites and therefore, Bennett’s blunt appraisal was uncomfortably honest.
One reason that we will never have an honest conversation on race is because liberals will never permit any discussion that does not begin by blaming white racism for all the ills that plague blacks. That would be dishonest, as black culture is often self-destructive.
For example, if one takes more than a cursory glance at those who were suffering post-Katrina in the Superdome, one would have noticed that the victims were not just predominantly black, but also disproportionately females with children. People of pallor have nothing to do with the prevalence of fatherless households in black neighborhoods.
Let’s face it. If we cannot even acknowledge that, on average, blacks run faster than whites without the race bullies trying to intimidate the speaker, what chance is there that we can conduct a genuinely substantive discussion of race? Absolutely none.

He Should Have Called It "Performance Art"

He probably could have gotten a grant for this.

"A teenager has been charged with indecent exposure after he was caught trying to have sex with a female mannequin on display at an arts centre."

Do They Include The People He Killed?

Such luminaries as Snoop Dogg are demanding clemency for Stanley Tookie Williams, founder of the Crips gang, which is responsible for uncountable deaths and the destruction of neighborhoods across the country.

"The question here is if you don't give clemency based on his personal redemption, based on the thousands of people he has touched, who would you give it to?" asked Jonathan Harris, a New York-based lawyer working for Williams.

Yes, he has touched people. Thousands of them. Many are dead, orphaned or widowed.

John Murtha, Serial Defeatist

Turns out that John Murtha has a history of quitting when the going gets tough.

After terrorists attacked U.S. troops in Mogadishu, Somalia 12 years ago, anti-Iraq war Democrat, Rep. John Murtha urged then-President Clinton to begin a complete pullout of U.S. troops from the region.

Clinton took the advice and ordered the withdrawal - a decision that Osama bin Laden would later credit with emboldening his terrorist fighters and encouraging him to mount further attacks against the U.S.

"Our welcome has been worn out," Rep Murtha told NBC's "Today" show in Sept. 1993, after the Mogadishu battle cost the lives of 18 U.S. Rangers.

How To Lose A War

"QUIT. It's that simple. There are plenty of more complex ways to lose a war, but none as reliable as just giving up.
Increasingly, quitting looks like the new American Way of War. No matter how great your team, you can't win the game if you walk off the field at half-time. That's precisely what the Democratic Party wants America to do in Iraq. Forget the fact that we've made remarkable progress under daunting conditions: The Dems are looking to throw the game just to embarrass the Bush administration.

Forget about the consequences. Disregard the immediate encouragement to the terrorists and insurgents to keep killing every American soldier they can. Ignore what would happen in Iraq — and the region — if we bail out. And don't mention how a U.S. surrender would turn al Qaeda into an Islamic superpower, the champ who knocked out Uncle Sam in the third round."

Read all of Ralph Peters' column today. Have your liberal friends read it. And, if they won't, then tie them to a chair and read it to them.

But This Guy Didn't Get the Memo

There is one cheery headline in today's Washington Post, and it's a positive story about the politically very incorrect Boy Scouts.

U.S. Muslim scout troops have been increasing in the past two decades, said Donald York, director of the relationship division of the Boy Scouts of America: 112 troops with 1,948 members are chartered through an Islamic school or mosque.

"What's happening now in the Islamic community is very similar to what was happening in the 1920s and '30s in Boy Scouts . . . with the Jewish community," York said. "They used scouting to assimilate their young people into America."

York said scouting values -- which include an adherence to faith -- mesh well with Muslim ones. "Islamic families and clergies want the same thing for young people," he said. "They want them to grow up in their faith and learn their histories and cultures," he said. "Things like trustworthy, obedient, clean and helpful" -- elements of Scout Law -- "these are predominant Muslim ideas. They're very attractive to an Islamic family."

Washington Post in an Unusually Sour Mood This Morning

The Post really seems to have its panties in a knot. Maybe it's the Woodward-Plame thing that has them so grumpy, but just look at this morning's headlines.


Bush's Asia Trip Meets Low Expectations

Under U.S. Design, Iraq's New Army Looks a Good Deal Like the Old One

Perhaps they wear similar uniforms, but I'm pretty sure that this one doesn't gas its citizens.

This Should the Democrats

Army officers say that the anti-war movement is harming morale.

Blood in the water for Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi.

The French Disconnection

Don't imagine that the United Nations is done trying to sieze control of the internet. Too many despots, who still make up the United Nations' majority feel threatened by free speech. Heck, as the recent vote on internet free speech showed, Democrats in this country feel threatened by free speech.

But even among supposed democracies, there is a French-style resentment of U.S. control. As European Union spokesman Martin Selmayr put it, the U.S. must "give up their unilateral control and everything will be fine."

Old Europe and the despotic nations want exactly that--international Internet content control. And they have convinced the EU establishment that U.N. control of the Internet would be just and appropriate. The last United Nations World Summit on the Internet--held in 2003--concluded that "governments should intervene . . . to maximize economic and social benefits and serve national priorities." The report of the U.N. Working Group on Internet Governance says it would have "respect for cultural and linguistic diversity, " explaining that meant "multilingual, diverse, and culturally appropriate content" on the Internet.

And what is "culturally appropriate" content? If your nation is a free society--America, Ireland, Australia--a free and unregulated-content Internet is a good thing. For dictatorships and state controlled societies--the former USSR, China or Cuba--it is a catastrophe, for allowing citizens free access to information puts your government at risk. And if you are in between--a socialist government like France or Germany--U.N. control is a good thing because government control is always better than unregulated markets.

As with freedom everywhere, the price of internet freedom will always be vigilance.

Zarqawi Dead?

It just might be. We have 8 bodies, and we're trying to determine if one on them is Zarquawi's.

Insurgents killed an American soldier near Baghdad and a British trooper in the south on Sunday, and U.S. forces sealed off a house in the northern city of Mosul where eight suspected al-Qaida members died in a shootout — some by their own hand to avoid capture.

In Washington, a U.S. counterterrorism official said the identities of the suspected al-Qaida members was unknown. When asked if they could include terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the official replied: “There are efforts under way to determine if he was killed.”

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Enjoy your virgins asshole!

Democrats Are Considering What They Believe

Rep. Rahm Emanuel of Illinois, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee reports that, "at the right time, we will have a position" on the Iraq War.

In other words, Democrats are waiting for the polls to tell them what they need to think and when they need to think it for maximum political advantage. Nothing new here. Howard Dean laid out the Democrats complete absence of principle on Meet the Press last Sunday.

MR. RUSSERT: But there's no Democratic plan on Social Security. There's no Democratic plan on the deficit problem. There's no specifics. They say, "Well, we want a strong Social Security. We want to reduce the deficit. We want health care for everyone," but there's no plan how to pay for it.

DR. DEAN: Right now it's not our job to give out specifics.

Leave Legislation to the Courts

Our illegitimate governor was not in the least ambiguous where she stands on the separation of powers. She's all for judicial dicatorship.

After addressing the Gay and Lesbian Leadership Conference, she was asked if she would press for legislation legalizing gay marriage in Washington.

"I hope the court rules soon," Gregoire said. "I'll let the courts make the ruling; as a former lawyer, I'm going to respect the court's timeliness, and I'm going to respect the decision that they reach. ... We need to ensure that everyone in the state of Washington is treated with respect and gets equality."

I'm certain all the homosexuals in the audience appreciate that one doesn't have to go to France to find weasels.

This Can Only Be Good News

So, it's no surprise that the MSM has neglected to report it.

The suicide bombing in Jordan last week reveals much about how effective we have been in eradicating Zarquawi's terrorist network. Here's a taste. Click on the link and read it all. Then, ask yourself, why hasn't CNN,CBS,NBS,ABS the Al-New York Times etc covered this?

"Mrs. Al-Rishawi’s sister had been married to a Jordanian explosives expert, Nidal Mohammed Arabiyat, also killed by U.S. forces in Iraq, according to Agence France Presse.

Though the American media is slow to report it, U.S. forces are relentlessly destroying Zarqawi’s senior leadership. A November 2 air strike killed two senior al Qaeda operatives in Iraq: Abu Zahra, the so-called Emir of Husaybah, ran all insurgent operations in that Iraqi city, and Asadallah, Zarqawi’s key recruiter. U.S. forces have now confirmed the identities of both dead terrorists.

On October 23, U.S. forces captured Abu Hassan, the head of al-Zarqawi’s media cell. Hassan was responsible for producing video tapes of insurgent attacks to give to al-Jazeera and other television networks. Hassan even produced forged police and press passes to allow insurgents to case targets and film the devastation following insurgent attacks.

Following these air strikes and captures, Zarqawi ordered the Amman attacks. Was it a sign of desperation? Was he trying to regain the initiative from weeks of reverses?

Another sign of desperation: Consider who Zarqawi sent to run the Amman operation, Mrs. Al-Rishawi’s husband. He also a member of Zarqawi’s inner circle. He is now dead. Why did Zarqawi send a top officer to die? He has already lost so many. It suggests that either he’s running short of suicide bombers (typically Saudi recruits) or he’s running short of people he trusts. Either way, it’s a sign of desperation.

Meanwhile, Mrs. al-Rishawi is alive and apparently talking. She can certainly tell her interrogators the location of the other insurgents and perhaps Zarqawi’s hiding place."

Who Shot You? Nobody!

Somebody shot gansta rapper Cameron Giles. But none of the witneses, included Giles, will identify the shooter.

Cam isn't going to do it," said Juelz Santana, Cam'ron's rapping buddy and protege. "It's not in our nature. He isn't going to stand up and point out a guy in a witness line and say, 'That is the dude who shot me.' We all came from the street."

Ah, honor among thugs. It warms my heart. Sort of reminds me of Frank Gusenburg and the Valentine's Day Massacre in Chicago, circa 1929.

Soon, real policemen came to the garage and saw Frank Gusenberg, on the floor, dying from twenty-two bullet wounds.

"Who shot you?" Sergeant Sweeney asked him.

"No one --nobody shot me," whispered Gusenberg. His refusal to implicate his executioners continued until his death a short time later.

Don't Sweat The Bird Flu?

Michael Fumento, who is usually right, doesn't think we need to be all that worried about the bird flu. And, he points out that we've been down this road before.

“The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus,” warns the nation’s top health official. “The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans . . .” A quote ripped from today’s headlines about an impending “bird flu”pandemic? No, the year was 1976 and the prediction for the “swine flu” fell 9,999,999 deaths short.

That’s something to remember as we endure the current hysteria. Another is that we’ve been here before with the same virus everybody is currently squawking about – avian influenza type H5N1 – which hit Hong Kong in 1997. Typical headline: “Race to Prevent World Epidemic of Lethal ‘Bird Flu.’” I was there too, with a piece that was anti-hysteria (and therefore grossly irresponsible).
The world death toll from that “wave?” Six.

Old News

Rep. John P. Murtha (D-Pa.) want to surrender in Iraq. The MSM is making a big deal of this. Mickey Kaus, and many other with long term memories (and my long term, I mean longer than a couple of days ago) wonder why this is news.

From May 6, 2004: Signaling a new, more aggressive line against the Bush administration’s policy on Iraq, Rep. John Murtha (Pa.), the House Democrats’ most visible defense hawk, will join Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) today to make public his previously private statements that the conflict is “unwinnable.”

The Disloyal Opposition

Daniel Henninger gets to the point of why we are in Iraq and points the bony finger of indignation at those liars who would undermine a good, long term policy in favor of immediate political advantage.

We are trying to democratize this country so they don't try to kill us. That Iraqis should "get their freedom" is genuinely good and desirable. But I wish President Bush would say more often that Iraqi democratization is in our raw self-interest. It doesn't much matter to me whether the country we democratize is Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia or Syria. The theory that democracies don't attack other democracies is as strong as such notions get, and what the world most needs now is a new, large Islamic democracy. A democracy, however "imperfect," is less likely than an authoritarian state to detonate a nuclear device in someone else's territory.

A Target Rich Environment

As General Douglas MacArthur once observed, “there is no substitute for victory.” And, as President Bush has finally discovered, not even a new tone substitutes. For 5 years now, President George W. Bush has done his best to avoid responding to Democratic slanders, apparently hoping that, by setting a good example himself, Democrats might evolve some semblance of civility. But we can now longer wait for Democrats to rise up on two legs. Achieving victory in Iraq is too important. The consequences of failure are too severe. A peaceful and stable Iraq will contribute more to a tolerable future than will polite debates in Washington, D.C. Victory or defeat in Iraq is no longer a matter to be decided by force of arms, or superior training, or better soldiers. The outcome of the war on terror will pivot upon winning the rhetorical battle against Democrats who have hitched their political fortunes to bringing a humiliating defeat upon the United States.
Successfully undermining the U.S. in a war worked for the Democrats a generation ago and gave us Jimmy Carter. Democrats are looking to that glorious past as their template for the future.
For more than two years now, Bush has does his best to ignore those who have accused him of intentionally exaggerating the case for war. But finally, he has realized that the war of words must be won against an unscrupulous enemy at home before victory can be won over a vicious enemy on the battlefield. Fortunately, the Democrats have presented Bush with a target rich environment, because it is very easy to recall that almost all of his critics have taken precisely the opposite stand from what they occupy now.
We don’t need to speculate on Democratic intentions here. Their intentions were revealed on paper two years ago, when a memo circulated by the staff of the minority ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee Jay Rockefeller laid out in detail how the Democrats intended to exploit pre-war intelligence issues for partisan advantage. While the memo spelled out the Democrats’ intention to spring their trap before the 2004 election, the tactics described are just those in operation today.
[W]e have an important role to play in revealing the misleading — if not flagrantly dishonest methods and motives — of the senior administration officials who made the case for a unilateral, pre-emptive war.
"The approach outlined above seems to offer the best prospect for exposing the administration's dubious motives."
Mind you, all this was before the Senate Intelligence Committee’s investigation had even begun. The Democrats had formed their conclusions around strategy, not testimony.
Since then, Democrats have ignored the investigation’s findings and have sung the “Bush lied” chorus. Fortunately for Bush, before they decided to sing in unison, each sang solo, and their words are a matter of public record.
For example, search Jay Rockefeller’s own website, you can find these words, spoken on the Senate floor, October 10, 2002, as Rockefeller explained his vote for war against Iraq: “I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11, that question is increasingly outdated. It is in the nature of these weapons, and the way they are targeted against civilian populations, that documented capability and demonstrated intent may be the only warning we get. To insist on further evidence could put some of our fellow Americans at risk. Can we afford to take that chance? We cannot!”
One may easily recall many other prominent critics’ words as well. Carl Levin stated on Dec. 12, 2001, "The war on terrorism will not be finished as long as [Saddam] is in power," and, "There was plenty of evidence that Saddam had nuclear weapons, by the way. That is not in dispute. There is plenty of evidence of that." Hillary Clinton stated that Saddam "has also given aid and comfort and sanctuary to terrorists, including al Qaeda members." And John Kerry said in his characteristically inarticulate prose soon after we attacked Afghanistan, that, "I think we clearly have to keep the pressure on terrorism globally. This doesn't end with Afghanistan by any imagination. And I think the president has made that clear. I think we have made that clear. Terrorism is a global menace. It's a scourge. And it is absolutely vital that we continue, for instance, Saddam Hussein."
Shortly, the Democrats might well recall the Japanese WWII Admiral Yamamoto, General MacArthur’s opponent at the beginning of the war who, after executing the attack upon Pearl Harbor, is supposed to have worried aloud, "I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve."
George Bush may not be well practiced with words, but he doesn’t have to be. Democrats have provided him with all the words he needs – their own.

Will Democrats Pelt Him With Cookies?

The head of the Florida NAACP has switched his voter registration to Republican.

Katrina, Democratic Voter Fraud Opportunity?

Louisiana Democrats are trying to loosen voter identification laws in their state to make it easier for displaced Louisianans to vote. This, of course, would allow a loophole big enough for Democrats to bus thousands of fraudulent votes through. We know that Democrats can start buses for elections, if not for hurricanes.

But considering that many Louisianans have indicated that they do not intend to return to their squalid home state, shouldn't they be required to produce some sort of evidence that they are still Louisananan? Otherwise, Democrats will stuff ballot boxes with votes from people who are now actually Texans.

The Times Still Can'lt Handle the Truth

The New York Times couln't quite bring itself to present a story honestly. It actually carried Adminstration rebuttals of Democratic slanders, but had to include this line at the bottom.

In his speech, Mr. Cheney echoed the argument of Mr. Bush and Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld in the past week that Democrats had access to the same prewar intelligence that the White House did, and that they came to the same conclusion that Mr. Hussein was a threat.

The administration, however, had access to far more extensive intelligence than Congress did. The administration also left unaddressed the question of how it had used that intelligence, which was full of caveats, subtleties and contradictions. Many Democrats now say they believe they had been misled by the administration in the way it presented the prewar intelligence.

For anybody who cares to read it, the bipartisan Sentate Intelligence Committee's report is available. It blames the intelligence community for errors in intelligence collection and interpretation, finds no effort by the administration to distort intelligence, and was signed by some of Bush's harshest critics. Perhaps someone should provide the New York Times with a copy so their reporting may be more informed.

Throw Walter Pincus In Jail

If Scooter Libby is facing jail time because he couldn't keep his memories straight, then the Washington Post Walter Pincus deserves an indictment too.

In today's Post story, by reporters Jim VandeHei and Carol Leonnig, Woodward is quoted as saying he told Pincus that he knew about Plame's true identity as a CIA operative in 2003. Pincus said, in the same story, that he did not recall Woodward telling him that, but believed he might have confused the conversation with one they had in October 2003 after Pincus wrote a story about being called to testify.

"In October, I think he did come by after I had written about being called and said I wasn't the only one who would be called," Pincus said, adding that he believed Woodward was talking about himself, but did not press him on it. "Bob and I have an odd relationship because he is doing books and I am writing about the same subject."

BS. Democrats Simply Want To Cheat

If you haven't heard, there's big stink going on in Georgia over voting. The Georgia legislature passed a law requiring that voter present identification to prevent fraud. Democrats, who feast on fraud are comparing it to a poll tax.
A drivers' license will do. If you don't have a drivers license, you can purchase an ID for $20 and it's good for five years. What the heck? Democrats spend more than that per vote busing and bribing drunks. If Democrats are willing to invest in fraudulent votes, then why won't they spend a bit on honest votes?

World To End, Poor and Minorities Hurt Worst ...

The Washington Post caricaturizes itself.

Health and climate scientists at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, who conducted one of the most comprehensive efforts yet to measure the impact of global warming on health, said the WHO data also show that rising temperatures disproportionately affect poor countries that have done little to create the problem. They reached their conclusions after entering data on climate-sensitive diseases into mapping software.

"Those most vulnerable to climate change are not the ones responsible for causing it," said the study's lead author, Jonathan Patz, a professor at the university's Gaylord Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies and its department of population health sciences. "Our energy-consumptive lifestyles are having lethal impacts on other people around the world, especially the poor."

Hear No Incompetence, See No Incompetence ....

One of the strangest episodes in all of the post 9/11 navel gazing is the Able Danger saga. Louis Freeh weighs in in today's Wall Street Journal. Whatever one thinks about the credibility of this story, it certainly deserves a hearing as public as anything else. Either somebody's covering for the Clinton Administration and possibly their own asses as well, or there's a conspiracy theory out there that needs to be knocked down. Without a full inquiry, this one will have a life that will exclipse grassy knolls.

Will, Not Since Saddam Anyway

This is the first truly dispiriting news I have heard from Iraq since the liberation.

Conditions — including the use of torture — at a secret Baghdad detention facility run by the Iraqi Interior ministry were so “horrific” that some of the scores of men held there “looked like Holocaust survivors” when they were found, NBC News has learned.

Reporting on the developing story from Baghdad, NBC News correspondent Mike Boettcher on Wednesday said sources close to the investigation of the facility told him that photos of the detainees show “people covered in welts from torture. They show torture devices. They show men so emaciated they look like Holocaust survivors.”

Iraq’s deputy minister of the interior, in whose headquarters building the secret prison was found by U.S. forces Sunday, told Boettcher that “he had never seen anything like this in his life.”

A Nation of Kooks?

Last night, Tucker Carlson made a dreadful mistake and had a conspiracy theorist on his show. This moonbat's thesis is that the World Trade Center Twin Towers were brought down by the US government.

The guy was crazy, but since then Tucker Carlson has been deluged with e-mails from people who agree with the moonbat.

[H]e seemed to connect with a huge number of viewers. Some who e-mailed were offended that Jones would dare question the official version of 9-11. Some were confused by what he was trying to say. But the overwhelming majority wrote to thank me for my "courage" in putting him on, and to complain that we didn't give him more time to explain the conspiracy.

In other words, a lot of people seem to think it's possible that the U.S. government had a hand in bringing down the World Trade Center buildings.

Ponder that for a second: The U.S. government killed more than 3,000 of its own citizens. For no obvious reason. Then lied about it. Then invaded two other countries, killing thousands of their citizens as punishment for a crime they didn't commit.

Who are these nuts? Of course we know they're out there. Moveon.org, the Democratic Underground and the Daily Kos frequently give vent to those who think similarly lunatic thoughts, like it was Israel in collusion with the US government. But, do the people who post there watch Tucker Carlson?

It makes me nervous when I walk down the street to think that the next person I pass might be one of these nuts.

Clearly, The Press (Democrats) Fear The Pushback

Now that the Bush Administration has finally started fighting back against Democratic revisionism and the outright falsehoods that comprise the entire Democratic Party's "Bush lied us into war" meme" the press is very concerned - about the Bush Administration.

President Bush's efforts to paint Democrats as hypocrites for criticizing the Iraq war after they once warned that Saddam Hussein was a grave threat could backfire on Republicans.

Polls show marked declines in support for the war, notably among moderate Republicans, especially Republican women, and independents — voting blocs that the GOP needs to woo or keep in their camp.

If Bush castigates Democrats for changing their minds on the war, he might wind up alienating Republicans who have done so, too.

The administration has been engaging in a rhetorical high-wire act in its efforts to defend its use of prewar intelligence — so much that some analysts have likened it to President Clinton's remark in his deposition on the Monica Lewinsky case: "That depends on what the definition of 'is' is."

How touching. After repeating and even amplifying Democrat lies, the press is worried about how this might play in America. The fact is that, the only way to reverse the decline in public support is to remind people why we went to war in the first place and make sure that the American people understand the consequences of failure.

Democrats, The Party of Predators?

One columnist has had quite enough of Democrats coddling sexual predators. I'd much rather belong to the party of big oil than the party of big perverts.

Beers and Ales, Health Food

I always knew that my occasional brew was doing me some good.

Scientists at Oregon State University's Linus Pauling Institute have found a class of compounds called flavonids neutralize "free radicals" — rogue oxygen molecules that can damage cells.

One of those flavonids, a compound called xanthohumol, is found only in hops. It may help prevent some forms of cancer, researchers say.

I recommend this one, or any product from the Rogue Brewery.

War Monger and Tool of Halliburton, Hillary Clinton

"(I)ntelligence reports show that Saddam Hussein has worked to rebuild his chemical and biological weapons stock, his missile delivery capability and his nuclear program," said this national leader.

"(I)f left unchecked," the politician argued, "Saddam Hussein will continue to increase his capability to wage biological and chemical warfare and will keep trying to develop nuclear weapons. Should he succeed in that endeavor, he could alter the political and security landscape of the Middle East, which as we know all too well, affects American security."

"This much is undisputed,"

So said Hillary Clinton.

Theft, Corruption and Oppression, For The Children

Claudia Rosett pronounces BS upon Kofi Annan's attempt to seize control of the internet.

United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan betook himself recently to the pages of the Washington Post to argue that the main aim is "to ensure that poor countries get the full benefits that new information and communication technologies--including the Internet--can bring to economic and social development." Mr. Annan concluded with what I suppose was meant to be a clarion call: "I urge all stakeholders to come to Tunis ready to bridge the digital divide," etc., etc.

But, as Ms. Rosett points out, "The United Nations' so-called World Summit on the Information Society opens today in Tunis, Tunisia, proposing to set up U.N. sway over the Internet under the slogan of bridging the "digital divide." But that's the wrong metaphor. This three-day jamboree is a U.N. turf grab: the latest case of the U.N. misinterpreting its noble mandate to promote peace as a license to take a piece of anything it can get.

And, Worse, the corruption and incompetence at U.N. headquarters, however disturbing, are the least of the problems linked to the U.N.'s bid to control interconnectivity. The deeper trouble is that the U.N. has embraced the same tyrants who in the name of helping the downtrodden are now seeking via Internet control to tread them down some more.

We can trust the UN. Just ask John Kerry.

Senate's French Solution Gains Key Endorsement

The Senate Republicans' "compromise" plan to abandon Iraq picked up a key endorsement today.

Howard Dean Condemns Racism

It took him a while, but Howard Dean has reluctantly come around to the public position that Democrats shouldn't engage in racism, with qualifications of course.

"I oppose any effort to make an issue of a candidate's ethnicity in a political campaign, including in the Maryland Senate race," Mr. Dean said.

The issue surrounds a U.S. Senate race in Maryland, where the Democratic Party has taken the official position that darkies aren't capable of independent thought. The Democrats have gotten so shrill and panicky about this race that they've even engaged in illegal identity theft in their attacks on Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele, the colored guy who refuses to know his place in Maryland politics.

By the way, the New York Times has yet to inform its readers that New York's senior senator is embroiled in that identity theft scandal.

Bad News For Democrats

One of the Democratic Party's most reliable voting demographics will not be casting ballots in Florida anytime soon.

The Jimmy Carter of France

The riots "bear witness to a deep malaise," Chirac said. "It is a crisis of meaning, a crisis of reference points and an identity crisis."

The Pecksniffian Chirac proposes that empoyers hire more minorities, but avoids the dreaded "Q" word.

Chirac turned aside calls for affirmative action programs to boost opportunities for minorities, saying the solution was "not a question of applying quotas."

The biggest problem is that, the French economic model does not create jobs, and hasn't for a very long time.

Painted Into A Corner

In last Saturday's Washington Post, veteran reporters Dana Milbank and Walter Pincus do their best to pick apart President Bush's Veterans' Day thesis that Democrats who are now trying to rewrite history had access to the very same intelligence that he had and by their vote, arrived at the same conclusions.

For example, Milbank and Pincus note that Senators did not have the president's daily briefings. Well, that argument is absurd on its face but falls completely apart in light of the Sentate Intelligence Committee's findings that the intelligence that the senators saw was actually less strident that Bush's, meaning that they drew their conclusions from less alarmist distillations.

As Chris Wallace noted in his Sunday interview with the ranking minority member of the Senate Intelligence Committee: WALLACE: OK. Senator Rockefeller, the president says that Democratic critics, like you, looked at pre-war intelligence and came to the same conclusion that he did.

In fact, looking back at the speech that you gave in October of 2002 in which you authorized the use of force, you went further than the president ever did. Let's watch:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROCKEFELLER: I do believe that Iraq poses an imminent threat, but I also believe that after September 11th that question is increasingly outdated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALLACE: Now, the president never said that Saddam Hussein was an imminent threat. As you saw, you did say that. If anyone hyped the intelligence, isn't it Jay Rockefeller?

Christopher Hitchens makes another point. According to Milbank and Pincus, who are obviously following marching orders and repeating arguments handed them by the Democrat Party make fools of themselves and their puppet masters with this line: "But in trying to set the record straight, [Bush] asserted: "When I made the decision to remove Saddam Hussein from power, Congress approved it with strong bipartisan support."

The October 2002 joint resolution authorized the use of force in Iraq, but it did not directly mention the removal of Hussein from power."

Hitchens then issues the following challenge: A prize, then, for investigative courage, to Milbank and Pincus. They have identified the same problem, though this time upside down, as that which arose from the passage of the Iraq Liberation Act, during the Clinton-Gore administration, in 1998. That legislation—which passed the Senate without a dissenting vote—did expressly call for the removal of Saddam Hussein but did not actually mention the use of direct U.S. military force.

Let us suppose, then, that we can find a senator who voted for the 1998 act to remove Saddam Hussein yet did not anticipate that it might entail the use of force, and who later voted for the 2002 resolution and did not appreciate that the authorization of force would entail the removal of Saddam Hussein! Would this senator kindly stand up and take a bow? He or she embodies all the moral and intellectual force of the anti-war movement. And don't be bashful, ladies and gentlemen of the "shocked, shocked" faction, we already know who you are."

Bingo. Pink mist, as they say.

Police, Not Islam, Obstructs Democracy? NY Times

The New York Times has discovered the greatest imepediment to democracy in the Middle East, and it's not Islam. It's heavy handed police.

And, of course, it's Bush's fault: "Although the Bush administration has cited the need for democratic change in the Middle East as a reason for going to war in Iraq, the threat of instability on Jordan's border may actually be restricting democratic freedoms there."

It seems to be another case of Bush Derangement Syndrome.

Religion of Convenience

When dirty bomber Jose Padilla was arrested in 2002, I started to wonder: Why in the world would a lifetime loser like this embrace such a strict religion?

Guys like this have absolutely no chance of ever adhering to the discipline that fundamentalist Islam demands. And, who in Islam would want scum like this as their public face?

The it finally occurred to me. It's all about hate. Islam and losers like Padilla agree that they hate their fellow man. If fundamentalist Islam were to conquer the west, losers like Padilla would be among the first to be marched before the firing squad, or to have his neck on the beheader block. But, guys like Padilla can see no further than their hate.

That seems to describe the French rioters as well.

[W]hile American gangs like the Hispanic Mara Salvatrucha, the Jamaican Posse, and the Crips or Bloods are racist (anti-white, anti-Hispanic or both, as the case may be), violent, and antisocial, their exclusive goals are money and turf control. That is also true of their French (or British) confreres, but in the latter cases Islamist beliefs play or could soon play a decisive justifying role.

Is Al Gore For Nuclear Power?

I've always said that I won't take global warming alarmists seriously until they drop their opposition to nuclear energy.

Al Gore seems to have relaxed his opposition to nuclear energy. He now only questions its sustainability.

Gore says investing in uranium mining also comes down to sustainability. Although concerned about nuclear waste and the possibility of spent fuel rods falling into the wrong hands, he says he is not "reflexively against" nuclear energy.

Does that mean he's in favor of fast breeder reactors?

Global Warming Worse Than Terror, Or Bird Flu

On the other hand, Al Gore accelerates in his loopy trip over the edge.

"I don't want to diminish the threat of terrorism at all, it is extremely serious, but on a long-term global basis, global warming is the most serious problem we are facing."

This Is Probably Bush's Fault Too

The feared bird flu epidemic seems to be drawing closer as more human cases emerge.

Adding to the sense of alarm, researchers in Vietnam say the H5N1 avian flu virus has mutated allowing it to replicate more easily inside humans and other mammals. Taiwan said it had detected another bird flu strain that can infect people.

Avian influenza is known to have infected 125 people in Asia, killing 64, and is endemic in most poultry flocks in the region.

There are at least a dozen other suspected cases as governments in Asia struggle to control outbreaks in poultry to prevent more people from catching the virus, which experts fear could trigger a pandemic.

No End In Sight?

France has extended its state of emergency until February. Didn't I just see something last week about this was all settling down?

BB Balls

The loud mouthed Chairman of the Democratic Party, Howard Dean, doesn't have the balls to face the Chairman of the Republican Party, man to man, on Meet the Press.

Tells you something about the confidence that Dean has in his own rhetoric, doesn't it?

Ward Churchill Reveals More About Higher Ed's Rot

By himself, Ward Churchill is an irrelevant piece of noisy crap. What makes him consequential is what he reveals about the corruption of higher education.

Since he was busted for, among other things, falsifying his ancestry for professional gain, plagiarism and falsification of scholarship, he's been the subject of an official inquiry by his employer, the University of Colorado.

Lately though, we've learned that UC has done all it can to stack the deck in Churchill's favor by appointing some of his most slavish admirers to his jury.

Investigations by the Denver Post has forced fo Churchill groupies to resign from the committee, Robert Williams and Bruce Johansen.

Williams said Churchill, "through sheer force of intellect, energy and a radical reformer's zeal, has established himself as a major scholar and public intellectual."

Johansen said he read some of Churchill's books and found them "well-argued and intensively documented in a scholarly manner."

Couldn't the University of Colorado have investigated these guys to verify their impariality before appointing them? And, if these guys possessed the slightest scrap of integrity, couldn't they have informed UC that they'd already made up their minds?

Five Questions For Muslims

Dennis Prager asks five questions of all Muslims. They are perfectly reasonable inquiries that Muslims should be asking of themselves.

(1) Why are you so quiet?

Since the first Israelis were targeted for death by Muslim terrorists blowing themselves up in the name of your religion and Palestinian nationalism, I have been praying to see Muslim demonstrations against these atrocities. Last week's protests in Jordan against the bombings, while welcome, were a rarity. What I have seen more often is mainstream Muslim spokesmen implicitly defending this terror on the grounds that Israel occupies Palestinian lands. We see torture and murder in the name of Allah, but we see no anti-torture and anti-murder demonstrations in the name of Allah.

The other questions are below. Follow the link for elaboration and a good column.

(2) Why are none of the Palestinian terrorists Christian?

(3) Why is only one of the 47 Muslim-majority countries a free country?

(4) Why are so many atrocities committed and threatened by Muslims in the name of Islam?

(5) Why do countries governed by religious Muslims persecute other religions?

Intifada Spread To Lyon

While violence subsides a bit in Paris, it worsens in France's second largest city, Lyon.

Ten people were arrested in France's second city after 50 youths attacked stalls and damaged vehicles, police and witnesses said, adding that the situation later calmed down.

After violence rose slightly on Friday, the 16th night of clashes, regional authorities for the first time declared a curfew for minors in Lyon, a city of 1.2 million southeast of Paris.

And this is interesting, the French have less confidence in their appeaser in chief than they do in his tough guy interior minister, 53% to 29%.

When The Players Judge Themselves

The Washington Post this morning reviews the president's speech and finds deficiencies.

In particular, the Post attacks Bush's assertion that Democrats had access to the same intelligence he did and they voted for the war. The problem is that the Post, the New York Times, etc. are all complicit in the Democrats' attempt to rewrite history. It's like asking Terrell Owens to write a thoroughly balanced appraisal of himself.

Arrogance? Cowardice?

The New York Times asks, "What Makes Someone French?"

Apparently, it's blindness.

The idea behind France's republican ideal was that by officially ignoring ethnic differences in favor of a transcendent French identity, the country would avoid the stratification of society that existed before the French Revolution or the fragmentation that it now sees in multicultural models like the United States. But the French model, never updated, has failed, critics say. "France always talks about avoiding ghettoization, but it has already happened," Mr. Sabeg said, adding that people are separated in the housing projects, in their schools and in their heads.

The country's colonial legacy has only deepened that alienation. Rachid Arhab, one of the only well-known minority broadcast journalists in France, says that he lives with the resentments touched off by the bloody war of independence that Algeria won against France in 1962. "Unconsciously, for many French, I'm a reminder of the war," he said, adding, "now they see images of second-generation Algerian children in the streets burning cars and buildings, and that brings out the resentment even more."

In France's favor, and to the disappointment of the Times, France does not officially segregate itself statistically.

"People have it in their head that surveying by race or religion is bad, it's dirty, it's something reserved for Americans and that we shouldn't do it here," said Yazid Sabeg, the only prominent Frenchman of Arab descent at the head of a publicly listed French company. "But without statistics to look at, how can we measure the problem?"

Bush To Fight Back?

It's about damned time I say. Bush's plunging approval number can be traced back to two things. First, it's attributable to the MSM's ability to distort reality and President Bush's predelection to simply provide his critics with a unresisting target.

No more. Bush is starting to push back.

"The president is going to directly take on the false attacks that Democratic leaders have been making," a senior administration official told Reuters.

Democrats in recent weeks have been accusing the White House of manipulating intelligence on Iraq and leaking classified information to discredit critics of the war.

Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, was indicted last month for obstructing justice, perjury and lying after a two-year investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.

Opinion polls show Bush's approval ratings sinking as the public becomes increasingly wary of the Iraq war.

Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada said on Thursday Democrats were insisting that Americans "get the truth about why the White House cherry-picked and leaked intelligence to sell the war in Iraq."

He added: "The president may think this matter can be swept under the rug or pardoned away, but Democrats know America can do better."

Bush was expected to fight back in a speech on the U.S. war against terrorism at the Tobyhanna Army Depot in Pennsylvania that will also pay tribute to military veterans.

Bellweather Election

It would appear, from these results, that grownups are in serious political trouble in next year's midterm elections.

An 18-year-old high school student held on to a two-vote lead to become mayor of this southern Michigan town.

County Clerk Thomas C. Mohr on Thursday announced the official tally: Michael Sessions received 670 votes. Mayor Doug Ingles had 668.

Gasoline On The Fire

I'm certainly not for coddling French rioters, no matter how much I think France deserves it.
But, it's probably not a good idea and certainly not a mark of an advanced civilization to taunt rioters with racist slurs, as French police did.

TF1, the television channel, showed a young Arab in the outskirts of Lyons objecting politely about the insulting manner of an officer who had demanded his identity papers.

“You want me to take you to a transformer?” the officer sneers back, referring to the electricity station where two teenagers were electrocuted while fleeing an identity check. The incident sparked the riots.

“So you want to go and fry with your mates? You want to go into the transformer? Shut your ugly mug, we’re going to give you a going over”

“We don’t give a s*** if your estate calms down,” added the officer, using the disrespectful “tu” rather than “vous”. “In fact, the more it gets f****d up the happier we are.”

Building Slums on the French Model

A quick look at any Muslim country reveals that Muslims don't need anyone else's help to create squalor. Nevertheless, the Wall Street Journal blames the French economic and social model for "creating" Muslim slums.

I prefer to blame the French for not providing escape routes.

Liberals Can Find Buses, When It Suits Their Politics

Okay, okay. The Democrat mayor of New Orleans couldn't find these buses when he needed to move his citizens out of Katrina's path.

But, when there's an anti-Bush rally in Los Angeles, liberals there can get the buses started to ferry high school students to the demonstration.

When hundreds of Los Angeles high school students told administrators they planned to walk out of school to attend last week's protest by the liberal "World Can't Wait" group calling for President Bush's impeachment — the L.A. school district decided not to discipline them. Instead, the district provided school buses and a staff escort to transport some 800 students from 10 schools to the rally and back. School officials said students would attend the protest with or without their permission, and the district's chief operating officer told KNBC, "Our issue...was safety, and I think we fulfilled our mission."

At Least He Knew What He Was Doing

The former commander of an elite fire fighting unit was busted for arson yesterday.

"Van Bateman, 55, was indicted Wednesday for allegedly setting the fires in the Coconino National Forest in 2004. He faces two federal counts of setting timber afire and two counts of arson on public lands. The first charge carries a maximum prison sentence of five years, while arson is punishable by up to 20 years, prosecutors said Thursday.

Bateman was a Type I incident commander, the head of a wildfire management crew that is called in for the biggest and most severe wildfires. His four-year term in that position expired in 2004 and he became leader of a slightly lower level team until he was indicted and put on paid leave, according to Forest Service officials.

Bateman is accused of setting a tenth-of-an-acre (0.04 hectare) fire on May 8, 2004, and a 21-acre 8.4-hectare) fire on June 23, 2004."

Or maybe, he didn't know what he was doing. I think that, if I wanted to start a wildfire, I could do better than a tenth of an acre.

It's 1998 All Over Again

Slick Willy is still trying to wipe Monica Lewinsky's stain off his presidency.

"Former president Bill Clinton called Congress' impeachment of him an "egregious" abuse of the Constitution and challenged those who say history will judge him poorly because of his White House tryst with Monica Lewinsky.

Speaking at an academic conference examining his presidency here Thursday, Clinton challenged historian Douglas Brinkley's comments in a newspaper interview that Clinton would be deemed a great president were it not for his impeachment.

"I completely disagree with that," Clinton said in his speech at Hofstra University. "You can agree with that statement, but only if you think impeachment was justified. Otherwise, it was an egregious abuse of the Constitution and law and history of our country."

Let's see. Clinton admitted to perjury, suborning perjury, and obstruction of justice. He was almost certainly guilty of more. I think that easily clears the constitutional hurdle of "high crimes and misdemeanors."

I also think that Douglas Brinkley's full of shit. Tell one great thing that Bill Clinton accomplished. How can one be a great president without achieving anything great? Or ever good?

Open Season On Sea Monsters

It is now legal is Sweden to hunt sea monsters.

Previously, the mythical "Storsjo monster," a serpent-like beast said to inhabit Lake Storsjon in the northwestern province of Jamtland, Sweden was protected by the Swedish equivalent of the Endangered Species Act.

No more.

"The regional council agreed to remove the listing this month, but declined to rule out that a monster lives in the 300-foot deep lake.

"It exists, inasmuch as it lives in the minds of people," the council's chief legal adviser Peter Lif said about the purported beast. "But I guess we'll have to agree that it cannot be proved scientifically, and then it should not be listed as an endangered species."

Environmentalist wackos and animal rights activists are, of course, appalled.

Storsjo monster aficionados said lifting the endangered species protection was a mistake, and appeared insulted by the decision.

"We are not fanatics," said Christer Berko, of the Storsjo monster association. "We see this as very interesting phenomenon that we unfortunately have not been able to document."

My only question is: should I use solid bullets, or soft points?

Who Will The French Surrender To?

No one can doubt that France will find some way to capitulate to the intifada raging within its borders. All that is left to the greatest minds in Gaul is how to go about surrendering to their own citizens. Surrendering is treasured tradition in France, although France’s habit of ignominious defeat has usually required at least a gesture of aggression from a foreign enemy. This time the barbarians already live within the gates and many have French citizenship.
Indeed, French President Jacques Chirac has begun to prepare his fellow countrymen for the surrender that all recognize as inevitable. Earlier this week, he was excusing the jihadists by admitting that France "has not done everything possible for these youths, supported them so they feel understood, heard and respected."
Chirac blamed his fellow Frenchmen for the "ghettoization of youths of African or North African origin" and recognized "the incapacity of French society to fully accept them."
Yep! And if only the French had been nicer to the Nazis….
Just over two weeks ago, Muslims marginalized by racism and their own self-isolation, began rioting nightly on the fringes of Paris and the fun has now spread throughout the country. Riots have even flared in other European Axis of Weasels countries like Germany and Belgium. In the fine tradition of liberalism, the rioters have been spared blame and instead elite criticism has targeted Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy for calling the lawbreakers, “scum.”
Long before this intifada gained the notice of CNN and the New York Times, or inconvenienced any tourists, it had been simmering out of sight for years. But as it was targeted almost exclusively at synagogues and Jewish delicatessens, the French elite was happy to content itself with nibbling cheese while surrendering in slow motion. Why not buy a little time for themselves by serving up its Jewish population for sacrifice?
“First, they came for the Jews, but I was not a Jew…” and all that. Hey! It worked so well last time it was tried.
That the French will yield is certain. The reason that the French still celebrate Charles Martel’s victory over the Moors in 732 and Roland’s heroic defense of Charlemagne in 778 is that there has been precious little French military success to celebrate since. The closest that the French have come to victory in centuries was the French Revolution where, of course, they warred with and ultimately surrendered to themselves.
The French surrender solution of course, has already been composed in the form of the advice that the French have given to others. The French only have to reference the model for concession that they drew up for Israel while that country was suffering under a Muslim intifada of its own. In early 2000, while French foreign policy was all but cheerleading for Yasir Arafat, former French Prime Minister Lionel Jospin famously advised Israel to make peace with its rock and bomb throwers by exchanging land for peace.
Fine idea Frenchy! If such advice is good enough for Israelis, it should be just as suitable for the French. The Alsace-Lorraine region might suffice. France has surrendered it before in exchange for peace with Germany. The French only possess it now because, on two occasions, Great Britain and the United States restored it to France from Germany at the cost of their own blood and treasure. Perhaps France and Germany could both solve their little intifada problems by renouncing for all time any claim to that real estate and handing it over to their troublesome Muslim population in exchange for a promise never to firebomb another Citroen or Mercedes.
But, to actually surrender, the French might have admit who it is they’re surrendering too. As of yet, the French have shied from this.
The head of the French Police Union lamented, "it's obvious by these continuing acts of violence tonight that there is a total rupture between certain French youths and the state. There is no dialogue at all."
Certain French youth? If you’re certain of who it is, then why not say it? When one reads French official statements, one finds a reluctance to speak aloud the identity of those “certain French youth.” Lord Voldemort’s name gets more mention at Hogwarts.
Get to know your enemy Jacques. You’ll have to write it on the instruments of surrender.

French Brain Drain

Yes, there are such things as French intellectuals. And, they're getting fed up with France. They'd rather be here.

It’s no wonder that many French scientists are heading for greener pastures outside of France. Their destination of choice is the United States, where a talented researcher can work on the cutting edge of his chosen discipline, have more autonomy and earn three times or more what he could back home. Japan, Canada and Ireland are also popular destinations.

$25 Million For This

Who in their right mind would pay $25 million for this?


Makes this piece of shit on the Washington State University Campus seem like a real bargain. But, it's still ugly.

Don't You Dare Say Muslim

"Certain French youths" are rioting in France. But don't you dare say who they are.

Quick! Who Will Accept Our Surrender?

During the first Gulf War, Iraqis were running around trying to find someone to surrender too. One battalion surrendered to a journalist (acting like a Republican when you think about it). Another surrendered to a surveillance drone.

But who do the French surrender to? They've been brought to their knees by an amorphous mob of scum. And no one person or entity speaks for them or controls them.

Oops! They Might Get Mean If We Make Them Mad

This didn't take long. We are supposed to coddle terrorists because, if you hang the dirty scum, their buddies might get pissed off and do somthing awful, like blowing up a nightclub killing hundreds, I suppose.

A Good Start!

What do you call the deportation of 122 rioters?

People Get the Government They Deserve

I think that it was Benjamin Franklin who said that.
In that case, the gods must really be pissed at New Jersey and Virginia.

New Jersey: "Most voters say the state is moving in the wrong direction. Hard to argue with that. And they blame Democrats for corruption by a margin of 2-1.

For Republicans to lose when they had all this is remarkable.

"We dodged a bullet," says U.S. Rep. Rob Andrews, a Democrat from Camden."

Virginia: "Democrat Timothy M. Kaine was elected governor of Virginia last night, defeating Republican Jerry W. Kilgore in a bitter and costly battle for the state's top post."

Up In Flames

The Jerusalem Post reminds us of the obvious.

In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the US media became preoccupied with a key question: "Why do they hate us so much?" A fair-minded people, the Americans believed there must be a good, rational explanation why 19 educated, economically comfortable young men would ram planes into buildings, killing themselves along with thousands of innocents.

Among the many reasons proffered, one that appeared frequently - and drew concern in Jerusalem - was that it was all due to US support for Israel. If the US would only toe a more pro-Arab, pro-Palestinian line, this argument ran, then the Arab and Muslim masses wouldn't hate it so.

The events in Paris over the last 12 days have confirmed the vacuity of this argument.

Indeed. Has any western country been more reliably anti-Israel than France? The answer is "no."

The reason they hate us is because they are taught from birth to hate anyone who is not Islamic. Islam is not, by any stretch of the imagination, a religion of peace.

Vive' la France!

Tony Blankley is hoping that the French can suddenly rediscover their backbone and win the first skirmish in his predicted battle of civilizations.
I don't entirely agree with him. I think it's a clash between civilization and barbarism.

The New York Times, on the other hand, suggests surrender.

The Silence of the Times

New Yorkers who rely upon the New York Times as their sold source of news still have no idea that their senior US Senator is embroiled in an identity theft scandal in Maryland.

Chirac Gets Tough

Jacques Chirac has finally decided how he's going to deal with his intifada.

Monday the government planned to restore some of the budget cuts made to academic institutions in the country's poorest communities and would increase tutors and scholarships for students in those areas. He provided no details, however. He also said it was "the responsibility of parents to calm" their children who were taking part in the violence.

The Name That No One Dares To Speak

According to Jean-Christophe Carme, head of a "certain" police union "It's obvious by these continuing acts of violence tonight that there is a total rupture between certain French youths and the state. There is no dialogue at all."

What "certain" French youths do you suppose he's talking about? And why do you suppose he can't bring himself to say, "Muslim?"

Ward Churchill, Is The Fix In?

It may well be that the preponderance of evidence presented against Ward Churchill during the University of Colorado's investigation into academic misconduct may not matter, as it seems that University's administration has stacked the board of inquiry with Churchill's cheerleaders.

[I]t turns out that two members of the investigating committee are on public record extolling Churchill and his work. "A major scholar and public intellectual," gushed Professor Robert Williams of the University of Arizona. Churchill's books are "well-argued and intensively documented in a scholarly manner," enthused Professor Bruce Johansen of the University of Nebraska at Omaha.

Couldn't the University of Colorado have just asked the Ward Churchill fan club - one surely exists in this age of celebrity worship - to rule on the charges of research misconduct that have been leveled against him and saved itself time and trouble?

For that matter, why go through the motions at all? Why not announce the pro-Churchill verdict right now and be done with it?

73% of Danes Are Stupid

According to a poll taken recently, 27% of Danes have a lower opinion of Islam as a result of terrorism.

Jarhead

I saw the movie yesterday and loved it. Neither pro-war nor anti-war. It simply showed what it was like to be a Marine who spent 6 months in the Saudi desert waiting for Desert Storm to finally get going.

This movie would have done great things for Jake Gyllenhaall's career, if it weren't for this.

At least liberals won't be able to use "cowboy" as a term of derision anymore.