To all those Democrats that screech for an immediate pullout from Iraq (yeah, I'm talking to YOU, John "traitor" Murtha, Lynn "lefty" Woolsey and fellow San Fran Sickos Sam Farr of Carmel, Pete Stark of Fremont and Barbara Lee of Oakland...I'm talkin' to Jose Serrano of New York, Robert Wexler of Florida and Cynthia "Cop-Hater" McKinney of Georgia, as well as fellow lunatic fringers Jim McDermott of Washington; Jerrold Nadler, Maurice Hinchey and Major Owens of New York; Michael Capuano of Massachusetts and William Clay of Missouri), I present to you a brilliant analysis by Ralph Peters comparing Somolia of 1993 with the Afghanistani government that helped launch a brutal assault against America on 9/11:
THIRTEEN years ago, our troops won a lopsided battlefield victory in Mogadishu. President Clinton declared defeat and pulled out. We've been paying the price in terror ever since - and it might be about to soar.
We were close to finishing it. And a cowardly president quit.
Osama bin Laden repeatedly cited the pullout from Somalia as evidence that Americans were weak and wouldn't fight. Our rewards for quitting were the attacks on our troops housed in the Saudi Khobar Towers complex and on our embassies in Tanzania and Kenya - next door to Somalia - followed by the USS Cole bombing.
Dead Americans.
The Clinton administration could not have cared less, as long as its poll numbers were good. As for the attack on the USS Cole, our dead sailors were easily dumped in the lap of the incoming Bush administration.
Now there's fighting in Mogadishu again. With several hundred dead in a week... A movement fronted by Somali-Muslim judges and clerics is gobbling up Mogadishu. It's the Taliban, Somali-style.
Check the déjà vu block: The Taliban seized power in Afghanistan after the Americans walked away...
Meanwhile, the remains of al Qaeda dream of building a new Afghanistan in Somalia. A terrorist organization our military smashed is being allowed to rebuild itself.
There's a vital lesson here: In the War on Terror, you've got to finish what you start. America quitting Somalia after suffering less than two dozen dead in the course of a battle won was the biggest single boost the terrorists ever received. The Clinton surrender in Mogadishu pointed al Qaeda straight toward 9/11.
Meanwhile, consider this: Somalia was a global sideshow. We walked away. Now it threatens to become a prime refuge for terrorists. And a much tougher nut to crack.
Get the point, "Get Out Now!" crew? As you probably don't, Peters will make it for you:
Imagine the price we'd pay if we quit Iraq.
Not one of the "Declare defeat and get out" crew has ever spoken publicly about what the results of their actions would be. They care not for the safety and long-term security of the nation; their only concern is getting re-elected to their cush job for another two years, and if that means jumping off a bridge and dragging God knows how many down with them, well, so be it.
Why hasn't the media focused on what the possible outcomes of this disasterous Democratic policy would be, and asked some of the protaginists of the movement (that the media so love to deify) to explain how the country would be better off if we chose retreat?
Oh, right...that is not the job of propagandists! Sorry for my confusion...
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Riots, Jew-Baiting Roil France !
Very little out on this in the English-speaking press (too busy digging up imaginary crimes against America), but France is burning, again. The first account, seemingly right out of 1939 Germany, is of gangs storming Jewish neighborhoods and tormenting the residents - No Parasan has a report, and Atlas has a rough translation of a report in French as follows:
Yesterday Sunday, at 5 p.m. 30, thirty members of a sect black which calls openly with violence anti-semite, “Tribe KA”, unloaded in the Street of the Rose trees, the heart of the Jewish district of Paris, armed with bats and other blunt objects.
During twenty minutes, they surveyed the street by intimidating the passers by, and while calling with the brawl: “where is the Bétar? How the Jews come to fight if they dare it! ”.
The Jews of the Street of the Rose trees do not have, naturally, militia deprived at their disposal and were not in a position to answer these provocations. The police force in uniform, called quickly, appeared twenty minutes after the beginning of the event.
The tradesmen reproached to the police officers the slowness of their intervention. These reproaches took a more accusing turn when a senior police officer awkwardly affirmed: “we knew that they were going to come - and in fact, that had been announced on Internet site of the “tribe” - but we had instruction of in top not to intervene”
Sacre Bleu! Jew-bashing in France? Time to issue a statement and wag a finger at the perpetrators! Then, just to be fair, we must talk about how the Jews have brought this all on themselves with their expansionist aparthied terrorist polices against the poor, sweet, Palestinian people!
And the violence against innocent automobiles continues apace:
Around 100 youths fought with police and torched cars and rubbish bins in a Paris suburb last night, close to the site of last November's Clichy-Sous-Bois riots.
French media reported that seven police were injured and six youths arrested in the clashes in Montfermeil, in the northern Seine-Saint-Denis region.
Youths wearing masks threw objects at officers and attacked them with baseball bats in the clashes, which began around 8.30pm after the arrest of a young man in a police operation earlier in the day. Police said the violence ended shortly after midnight.
The Reuters version of this story is a little different:
Youths clashed with police in a Paris suburb overnight and attacked the home of the local mayor in disturbances one police union said were the worst since a wave of urban riots shook France in November.
French media said some 150 youths armed with baseball bats fought around 250 police for four hours in Montfermeil north of Paris after the arrest of a youth suspected of attacking a bus driver, an incident witnessed by the local mayor Xavier Lemoine.
Youths smashed windows, hurled two petrol bombs at the town hall and stoned the mayor's home, the media reports said.
Yesterday Sunday, at 5 p.m. 30, thirty members of a sect black which calls openly with violence anti-semite, “Tribe KA”, unloaded in the Street of the Rose trees, the heart of the Jewish district of Paris, armed with bats and other blunt objects.
During twenty minutes, they surveyed the street by intimidating the passers by, and while calling with the brawl: “where is the Bétar? How the Jews come to fight if they dare it! ”.
The Jews of the Street of the Rose trees do not have, naturally, militia deprived at their disposal and were not in a position to answer these provocations. The police force in uniform, called quickly, appeared twenty minutes after the beginning of the event.
The tradesmen reproached to the police officers the slowness of their intervention. These reproaches took a more accusing turn when a senior police officer awkwardly affirmed: “we knew that they were going to come - and in fact, that had been announced on Internet site of the “tribe” - but we had instruction of in top not to intervene”
Sacre Bleu! Jew-bashing in France? Time to issue a statement and wag a finger at the perpetrators! Then, just to be fair, we must talk about how the Jews have brought this all on themselves with their expansionist aparthied terrorist polices against the poor, sweet, Palestinian people!
And the violence against innocent automobiles continues apace:
Around 100 youths fought with police and torched cars and rubbish bins in a Paris suburb last night, close to the site of last November's Clichy-Sous-Bois riots.
French media reported that seven police were injured and six youths arrested in the clashes in Montfermeil, in the northern Seine-Saint-Denis region.
Youths wearing masks threw objects at officers and attacked them with baseball bats in the clashes, which began around 8.30pm after the arrest of a young man in a police operation earlier in the day. Police said the violence ended shortly after midnight.
The Reuters version of this story is a little different:
Youths clashed with police in a Paris suburb overnight and attacked the home of the local mayor in disturbances one police union said were the worst since a wave of urban riots shook France in November.
French media said some 150 youths armed with baseball bats fought around 250 police for four hours in Montfermeil north of Paris after the arrest of a youth suspected of attacking a bus driver, an incident witnessed by the local mayor Xavier Lemoine.
Youths smashed windows, hurled two petrol bombs at the town hall and stoned the mayor's home, the media reports said.
It's gonna be a long, hot summer in Paris this year as the jihadis feel their oats...better make your vacation plans elsewhere....
Monday, May 29, 2006
Memorial Day 2006
A special thanks to every American who has ever fought, or is currently serving, in our nation's military. I know that it is only due to your vigilance, bravery, and strength that my family and I are able to sleep peacefully at night here in New Jersey.
May God bless you, and Protect you.
The Case for Appeasement...
...is laid out by Joschka Fischer, Germany's Foreign Minister from '98-2005, in an essay in today's Washington Post called "The Case for Bargaining With Iran". It's all about giving Iran everything it wants, while promising the West will never interfere militarily, even should Iran break the treaty. OH, and it's also all the United States' fault, in case you didn't know:
In this crisis, the stakes are high, which is why Germany, Britain and France began negotiations with Iran two years ago with the goal of persuading it to abandon its efforts to close the nuclear fuel cycle. This initiative failed for two reasons. First, the European offer to open up technology and trade, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology, was disproportionate to Iran's fundamental fear of regime change on the one hand and its regional hegemonic aspirations and quest for global prestige on the other. Second, the disastrous U.S.-led war in Iraq has caused Iran's leaders to conclude that the leading Western power has been weakened to the point that it is dependent on Iran's goodwill and that high oil prices have made the West all the more wary of a serious confrontation.
Well, Joschka, we are actually winning that war pretty handily...maybe if you had told the truth instead of trying to paint it as a "disaster" at every turn it would not be perceived as such. And incidentally, could it be that America's abilty to overthrow Saddam in 15 minutes (something that Iran couldn't do even after eight years of warfare), has made the Iranians think, "Oh sh*t, we may be next", and have led them to act belligerent, hoping for the very European instinct of appeasement to help them take a tactical step forward?
It doesn't matter, the German F-minister makes excuses for Iranian nukes anyway:
There is no guarantee that attempts to destroy Iran's nuclear potential and thus its capability for a nuclear breakout would succeed. Moreover, as a victim of foreign aggression, Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions would be fully legitimized.
So Israel's nukes then should be fully justified, right, Joschka? Better not hear another word about it...
So here is his surrender offer to the nuclear Nazis of Tehran:
There remains a serious chance for a diplomatic solution if the United States, in cooperation with the Europeans and with the support of the U.N. Security Council and the non-aligned states of the Group of 77, offers Iran a "grand bargain." In exchange for long-term suspension of uranium enrichment, Iran and other states would gain access to research and technology within an internationally defined framework and under comprehensive supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Full normalization of political and economic relations would follow, including binding security guarantees upon agreement of a regional security design.
And if Iran does not comply?
Should no agreement be reached, the West would do everything in its power to isolate Iran economically, financially, technologically and diplomatically...
No threat of military action, of course. Joschka is a coward to the end, finally throwing all the onus for his surrender plan onto the United States, of course:
...But such an initiative can succeed only if the American administration assumes leadership among the Western nations and sits down at the negotiating table with Iran.
So unless the US negotiates with Iran, all bets are off. Joschka needs America to crawl to the Iranian bargaining table in order to lend legitimacy to his apeasement agenda.
George Bush will not do it - but does Iran wait instead, perhaps stall for two years, knowing a Democratic president will kowtow to Euro-pressure? Don't be surprised...
In this crisis, the stakes are high, which is why Germany, Britain and France began negotiations with Iran two years ago with the goal of persuading it to abandon its efforts to close the nuclear fuel cycle. This initiative failed for two reasons. First, the European offer to open up technology and trade, including the peaceful use of nuclear technology, was disproportionate to Iran's fundamental fear of regime change on the one hand and its regional hegemonic aspirations and quest for global prestige on the other. Second, the disastrous U.S.-led war in Iraq has caused Iran's leaders to conclude that the leading Western power has been weakened to the point that it is dependent on Iran's goodwill and that high oil prices have made the West all the more wary of a serious confrontation.
Well, Joschka, we are actually winning that war pretty handily...maybe if you had told the truth instead of trying to paint it as a "disaster" at every turn it would not be perceived as such. And incidentally, could it be that America's abilty to overthrow Saddam in 15 minutes (something that Iran couldn't do even after eight years of warfare), has made the Iranians think, "Oh sh*t, we may be next", and have led them to act belligerent, hoping for the very European instinct of appeasement to help them take a tactical step forward?
It doesn't matter, the German F-minister makes excuses for Iranian nukes anyway:
There is no guarantee that attempts to destroy Iran's nuclear potential and thus its capability for a nuclear breakout would succeed. Moreover, as a victim of foreign aggression, Iran's nuclear weapons ambitions would be fully legitimized.
So Israel's nukes then should be fully justified, right, Joschka? Better not hear another word about it...
So here is his surrender offer to the nuclear Nazis of Tehran:
There remains a serious chance for a diplomatic solution if the United States, in cooperation with the Europeans and with the support of the U.N. Security Council and the non-aligned states of the Group of 77, offers Iran a "grand bargain." In exchange for long-term suspension of uranium enrichment, Iran and other states would gain access to research and technology within an internationally defined framework and under comprehensive supervision by the International Atomic Energy Agency. Full normalization of political and economic relations would follow, including binding security guarantees upon agreement of a regional security design.
And if Iran does not comply?
Should no agreement be reached, the West would do everything in its power to isolate Iran economically, financially, technologically and diplomatically...
No threat of military action, of course. Joschka is a coward to the end, finally throwing all the onus for his surrender plan onto the United States, of course:
...But such an initiative can succeed only if the American administration assumes leadership among the Western nations and sits down at the negotiating table with Iran.
So unless the US negotiates with Iran, all bets are off. Joschka needs America to crawl to the Iranian bargaining table in order to lend legitimacy to his apeasement agenda.
George Bush will not do it - but does Iran wait instead, perhaps stall for two years, knowing a Democratic president will kowtow to Euro-pressure? Don't be surprised...
Sunday, May 28, 2006
It's Over; Give up, We've Lost...
...the battle to control our borders and our national sovereignty. At least that's according to the editorial page of today's Washington Post, which beats us over the head with this theme. First, Moises Naim tells us it is not about maps:
Governments and citizens are used to thinking of a border as a real, physical place: a fence, a shoreline, a desert or a mountain pass. But while geography still matters, today's borders are being redefined and redrawn in unexpected ways . They are fluid, constantly remade by technology, new laws and institutions, and the realities of international commerce -- illicit as well as legitimate. They are also increasingly intangible, living in a virtual and electronic space.
So illicit commerce of people and goods now determines where our borders lie? Claiming borders do not "matter" much anymore doesn't make it so, but by enforcing our physical borders we can at least gain some control of the movement of commerce, technology and people. All it takes is a fence and men to guard it - see, Moises, it isn't that hard after all!
Moises presses his case by comparing the United States to North Korea:
If a paranoid police state such as North Korea is incapable of controlling its borders and deterring illicit trade, there seems to be little hope for open, democratic and technologically advanced nations seeking to uphold their sovereign borders.
Er...maybe because with all of North Korea's hostility, they are still realistically at least a quarter century behind us in technology, and have no hope of controlling their border due to a lack of resources. Now South Korea has plenty of technology, as well as food, jobs, and freedoms most North Koreans would jump for in a heartbeat. But it is because that border is so heavily guarded that these people don't just slip in, like Mexicans do into America.
Sorry Moises, nice try, but your "borders without borders" arguement is a stoner study hall conversation, and nothing more.
Next, Richard Rodriguez tells us to not even bother trying to stop the influx of illegal immigrants, since we are all about to be one country in fairly short order:
I think historians will come to recognize the illegal immigrant as the great prophetic figure within the Americas.
The extent of the Mexicanization of U.S. culture renders any notion of a fortified border irrelevant.
But a recent poll taken twice (over several months) by the Pew Hispanic Center found that more than 40 percent of Mexicans would emigrate to the United States if given the opportunity. Twenty percent would be willing to emigrate illegally.
A nation that cannot feed its young with dreams but cuts its milk with memory and sand is going to starve the future; it is going to die. The only place where people will continue to hold on to Mexico will be in the United States.
So, let me see if I get this straight - because Mexico is a failed nation-state, America should just open its gates to all its inhabitants and abandon our culture, and submit to being Mexicanized - after all, it has been prophisized!
Hmm...if a family's home is falling apart, and they have no desire to fix it, should they be allowed to simply move into their neighbor's house, without permission, and live there? Of course, Spanish would now need to be spoken in their new home and Mexican cusine would now become mandatory. And for the law-abiding family that has worked hard, payed taxes, and obeyed the law? Sorry, folks! It's destiny, according to Rodriguez...
Governments and citizens are used to thinking of a border as a real, physical place: a fence, a shoreline, a desert or a mountain pass. But while geography still matters, today's borders are being redefined and redrawn in unexpected ways . They are fluid, constantly remade by technology, new laws and institutions, and the realities of international commerce -- illicit as well as legitimate. They are also increasingly intangible, living in a virtual and electronic space.
So illicit commerce of people and goods now determines where our borders lie? Claiming borders do not "matter" much anymore doesn't make it so, but by enforcing our physical borders we can at least gain some control of the movement of commerce, technology and people. All it takes is a fence and men to guard it - see, Moises, it isn't that hard after all!
Moises presses his case by comparing the United States to North Korea:
If a paranoid police state such as North Korea is incapable of controlling its borders and deterring illicit trade, there seems to be little hope for open, democratic and technologically advanced nations seeking to uphold their sovereign borders.
Er...maybe because with all of North Korea's hostility, they are still realistically at least a quarter century behind us in technology, and have no hope of controlling their border due to a lack of resources. Now South Korea has plenty of technology, as well as food, jobs, and freedoms most North Koreans would jump for in a heartbeat. But it is because that border is so heavily guarded that these people don't just slip in, like Mexicans do into America.
Sorry Moises, nice try, but your "borders without borders" arguement is a stoner study hall conversation, and nothing more.
Next, Richard Rodriguez tells us to not even bother trying to stop the influx of illegal immigrants, since we are all about to be one country in fairly short order:
I think historians will come to recognize the illegal immigrant as the great prophetic figure within the Americas.
The extent of the Mexicanization of U.S. culture renders any notion of a fortified border irrelevant.
But a recent poll taken twice (over several months) by the Pew Hispanic Center found that more than 40 percent of Mexicans would emigrate to the United States if given the opportunity. Twenty percent would be willing to emigrate illegally.
A nation that cannot feed its young with dreams but cuts its milk with memory and sand is going to starve the future; it is going to die. The only place where people will continue to hold on to Mexico will be in the United States.
So, let me see if I get this straight - because Mexico is a failed nation-state, America should just open its gates to all its inhabitants and abandon our culture, and submit to being Mexicanized - after all, it has been prophisized!
Hmm...if a family's home is falling apart, and they have no desire to fix it, should they be allowed to simply move into their neighbor's house, without permission, and live there? Of course, Spanish would now need to be spoken in their new home and Mexican cusine would now become mandatory. And for the law-abiding family that has worked hard, payed taxes, and obeyed the law? Sorry, folks! It's destiny, according to Rodriguez...
Note how so many of the people making the above arguement are hostile to American culture, or are "multiculturalists". See, when all cultures are created equal, than there is no reason why we shouldn't submit to the language and value system of another! Comprende?
Seems like Mexico's President Vincente Fox believes it too:
Saturday, May 27, 2006
Who's the Taxman, Baby?
New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine is ! Check out the animated video at Stop the Tax Man, and sign the petition if you dare ("...think a 7% increase is to high? I'm going to tax you until you die!"). There is lots of good info on the sight, including an insight into the lies Corzine told on the campaign trail:
Voters were likely heartened when, during his campaign in 2005, Corzine stressed, "I'm not considering raising taxes. It's not on my agenda. We have a very high-rate tax structure. I'm not considering it." Voters elected him with a 239,280-vote margin over his Republican opponent Doug Forrester, and five months later (in March) Corzine added during his budget address that "tax increases are a last resort." Thus, Garden State voters might have been a bit startled when Corzine proposed a massive $1.8 billion tax increase (including $1.5 billion in direct taxes and over $300 million in other revenue enhancements). New Jersey previously had the ignominious reputation of a tax-hiking state, but the new budget makes even the most die-hard revenue raisers blush.
Corzine must have learned his stupid Democratic tricks from predecessor Jim McGreevy - the disgraced former governor tries to lie to the public in a letter printed in today's New York Post, but the paper's editorial board calls them on it posthaste!
First from the letter from McGreevy's lapdog, Jonathan Capehart, who is a spokesperson for Jim McGreevey:
Golan Cipel was not the governor's "state homeland security chief." ...His title was "Counselor to the Governor," where he consulted on foreign trade, security, commerce and other issues.
The Post smacks this BS down ASAP:
Today's letters column contains a message from former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's high-priced p.r. spokesman that sets a new standard for disingenuous political spin...
At the time of his appointment at the start of McGreevey's term, Cipel's title was publicly identified as "special counsel to the governor on homeland security." Indeed, the governor himself bragged in an interview with The (Hackensack) Record that Cipel was "my eyes and ears on security issues."
Cipel, added McGreevey, is "a super-bright and super-competent individual who brings a great wealth of knowledge on security." His service in Israel's Navy, McGreevey said, left Cipel "uniquely qualified to point out weaknesses" in the state's defenses.
So much for "foreign trade, commerce and other issues" - none of which McGreevey mentioned back in 2002.
The point of this letter is not only to help hype McGreevey's book sales, but to further evade responsibility for the real reason the governor was obliged to resign: not because he is a "gay American," but because he abused the public trust.
McGreedy did too much damage to the state of New Jersey in his short tenure - bloating the budget, putting our state security in the hands of his gay lover, and further tarnishing the name of New Jersey with the perverted antics which led to his resignation. Click the link on top of the post, and let's get the tax-raising, girlfriend-bribing, string-pulling Corzine out of office before he drags us even deeper into the swamp...
Voters were likely heartened when, during his campaign in 2005, Corzine stressed, "I'm not considering raising taxes. It's not on my agenda. We have a very high-rate tax structure. I'm not considering it." Voters elected him with a 239,280-vote margin over his Republican opponent Doug Forrester, and five months later (in March) Corzine added during his budget address that "tax increases are a last resort." Thus, Garden State voters might have been a bit startled when Corzine proposed a massive $1.8 billion tax increase (including $1.5 billion in direct taxes and over $300 million in other revenue enhancements). New Jersey previously had the ignominious reputation of a tax-hiking state, but the new budget makes even the most die-hard revenue raisers blush.
Corzine must have learned his stupid Democratic tricks from predecessor Jim McGreevy - the disgraced former governor tries to lie to the public in a letter printed in today's New York Post, but the paper's editorial board calls them on it posthaste!
First from the letter from McGreevy's lapdog, Jonathan Capehart, who is a spokesperson for Jim McGreevey:
Golan Cipel was not the governor's "state homeland security chief." ...His title was "Counselor to the Governor," where he consulted on foreign trade, security, commerce and other issues.
The Post smacks this BS down ASAP:
Today's letters column contains a message from former New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's high-priced p.r. spokesman that sets a new standard for disingenuous political spin...
At the time of his appointment at the start of McGreevey's term, Cipel's title was publicly identified as "special counsel to the governor on homeland security." Indeed, the governor himself bragged in an interview with The (Hackensack) Record that Cipel was "my eyes and ears on security issues."
Cipel, added McGreevey, is "a super-bright and super-competent individual who brings a great wealth of knowledge on security." His service in Israel's Navy, McGreevey said, left Cipel "uniquely qualified to point out weaknesses" in the state's defenses.
So much for "foreign trade, commerce and other issues" - none of which McGreevey mentioned back in 2002.
The point of this letter is not only to help hype McGreevey's book sales, but to further evade responsibility for the real reason the governor was obliged to resign: not because he is a "gay American," but because he abused the public trust.
McGreedy did too much damage to the state of New Jersey in his short tenure - bloating the budget, putting our state security in the hands of his gay lover, and further tarnishing the name of New Jersey with the perverted antics which led to his resignation. Click the link on top of the post, and let's get the tax-raising, girlfriend-bribing, string-pulling Corzine out of office before he drags us even deeper into the swamp...
Distortions are "Warming" up...
This piece in today's Washington Post op-ed page, written by an author of many tomes on the looming danger of global warming, has so many distortions in it neither time nor space permits me to dissect it all. So I'll just grab onto one:
Do they understand that technological change alone cannot achieve the 70 percent reductions in fossil fuel use needed to stabilize climate? We'll also need real shifts in attitude, behavior and habit. These changes are possible (the average Western European uses half as much energy as the average American while leading a quality life)...
Whoops, you've given away the liberal's secret agenda in pushing the global warming theorem - turning America into a copy of Europe!
Let's see - anyone who wants to turn this county into a replicate of a continent where everyone lives in tiny apartments (sorry, "flats"), pays taxes of over 50% on $40,000 worth of income, suffers with unemployment around 10%, pays $4-/litre for petrol, and has to fume in silence as Islamists riot and attempt to impose their ideology on a population governed by spineless PC bureaucrats, raise your hand!
OK, anyone who's not a raging lefty, raise your hand!
Beuller? Beuller?
Do they understand that technological change alone cannot achieve the 70 percent reductions in fossil fuel use needed to stabilize climate? We'll also need real shifts in attitude, behavior and habit. These changes are possible (the average Western European uses half as much energy as the average American while leading a quality life)...
Whoops, you've given away the liberal's secret agenda in pushing the global warming theorem - turning America into a copy of Europe!
Let's see - anyone who wants to turn this county into a replicate of a continent where everyone lives in tiny apartments (sorry, "flats"), pays taxes of over 50% on $40,000 worth of income, suffers with unemployment around 10%, pays $4-/litre for petrol, and has to fume in silence as Islamists riot and attempt to impose their ideology on a population governed by spineless PC bureaucrats, raise your hand!
OK, anyone who's not a raging lefty, raise your hand!
Beuller? Beuller?
Friday, May 26, 2006
Liberal Bizarro World
When they start telling you that North is South, Up is Down, and Evil is Good, you know you have walked through the portal and entered the liberal Bizarro world, where lies are told with an earnest expression and a straight face, and if you don't nod your head in agreement, than you are not one of us! Don't you want to be...progressive ???
First example comes from David Medienkritik:
It's hard to stay relevant these days. Even as a Nobel Prize winner. Just ask Jimmy Carter. Fortunately, Guenter Grass, who won the prize for literature in 1999, has a knack for staying in the news, even at the ripe old age of 78.
Grass blasted the Iraq war and emphasized that it was the duty of authors to give names to the faces of those killed in the conflict. Interestingly enough, the author never felt the need to give a face or name to those tortured, imprisoned and put to death by Saddam Hussein's murder regime, at least not in a way that received the same notice in the German media. He felt no need to blast North Korean mass murder and imprisonment or Iran's threat's to "wipe Israel off the map." He felt no need to highlight the thousands murdered by the fanatical car bombers and assassins of Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. He felt no need to speak out on genocide in Congo or Sudan.
No. The United States is the real enemy. Stand up and cheer. Bravo!
Like Pinter, Grass characterized the United States as a scheming power that has made others believe it is really fighting for good by putting on a "brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
See that? If you think the United States works on the side of good, you must have been hypnotized!
Er...no, Mr. Grass. If you think that to percieve America as good one must be brainwashed, then you, good sir, are certifiable insane. Buh-bye.
Another example, in an essay by Peter Wehner in the Wall Street Journal entitled Revisionist History :
Iraqis can participate in three historic elections, pass the most liberal constitution in the Arab world, and form a unity government despite terrorist attacks and provocations. Yet for some critics of the president, these are minor matters. Like swallows to Capistrano, they keep returning to the same allegations....
And what a strange world it is: For many antiwar critics, the president is faulted for the war, and he, not the former dictator of Iraq, inspires rage. The liberator rather than the oppressor provokes hatred. It is as if we have stepped through the political looking glass, into a world turned upside down and inside out.
With a media completely in the pocket of the Democratic party, the twisted realities put forth by America's critics are dutifully reported (as well as the applause they received) as fact, thus inverting reality even further. When the truth becomes irrelevant, and the only statements that matter are those that harm America or the president (substitute "America" with "Israel" and you have the Palestinian's propoganda machine in a nutshell - nice steal, liberals!), the whole foundation of the Republic is put at risk.
Who will be brave enough to stand up and shout that the world's liberal apologists "have no clothes"? Who will retort and reveal the baseless lies behind their vile accusations and recriminations? Who will point out the facts, and remind the people of Aristotle's basic tenet, "A is A"?
Based on the current crop of politicians we have representing us, we are a long way from that day...George Bush is running scared from the editorial pages, Dennis Hastert has grown mad with power, and the Democratic party is stuffing their refrigerators with wads of ill-gotten greenbacks.
Who will shine the light through this muck?
First example comes from David Medienkritik:
It's hard to stay relevant these days. Even as a Nobel Prize winner. Just ask Jimmy Carter. Fortunately, Guenter Grass, who won the prize for literature in 1999, has a knack for staying in the news, even at the ripe old age of 78.
Grass blasted the Iraq war and emphasized that it was the duty of authors to give names to the faces of those killed in the conflict. Interestingly enough, the author never felt the need to give a face or name to those tortured, imprisoned and put to death by Saddam Hussein's murder regime, at least not in a way that received the same notice in the German media. He felt no need to blast North Korean mass murder and imprisonment or Iran's threat's to "wipe Israel off the map." He felt no need to highlight the thousands murdered by the fanatical car bombers and assassins of Al-Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah. He felt no need to speak out on genocide in Congo or Sudan.
No. The United States is the real enemy. Stand up and cheer. Bravo!
Like Pinter, Grass characterized the United States as a scheming power that has made others believe it is really fighting for good by putting on a "brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis."
See that? If you think the United States works on the side of good, you must have been hypnotized!
Er...no, Mr. Grass. If you think that to percieve America as good one must be brainwashed, then you, good sir, are certifiable insane. Buh-bye.
Another example, in an essay by Peter Wehner in the Wall Street Journal entitled Revisionist History :
Iraqis can participate in three historic elections, pass the most liberal constitution in the Arab world, and form a unity government despite terrorist attacks and provocations. Yet for some critics of the president, these are minor matters. Like swallows to Capistrano, they keep returning to the same allegations....
And what a strange world it is: For many antiwar critics, the president is faulted for the war, and he, not the former dictator of Iraq, inspires rage. The liberator rather than the oppressor provokes hatred. It is as if we have stepped through the political looking glass, into a world turned upside down and inside out.
With a media completely in the pocket of the Democratic party, the twisted realities put forth by America's critics are dutifully reported (as well as the applause they received) as fact, thus inverting reality even further. When the truth becomes irrelevant, and the only statements that matter are those that harm America or the president (substitute "America" with "Israel" and you have the Palestinian's propoganda machine in a nutshell - nice steal, liberals!), the whole foundation of the Republic is put at risk.
Who will be brave enough to stand up and shout that the world's liberal apologists "have no clothes"? Who will retort and reveal the baseless lies behind their vile accusations and recriminations? Who will point out the facts, and remind the people of Aristotle's basic tenet, "A is A"?
Based on the current crop of politicians we have representing us, we are a long way from that day...George Bush is running scared from the editorial pages, Dennis Hastert has grown mad with power, and the Democratic party is stuffing their refrigerators with wads of ill-gotten greenbacks.
Who will shine the light through this muck?
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Heh.
A man arrived at at Ben Gurion International Airport with 2 large bags. The customs agent opens the first bag to discover it is full with money in different currencies. The agent asks the passenger, "How did you get this money?"
The man says, "You will not believe it, but I traveled all over Europe, and went into public restrooms. Each time I saw a man peeing, I grabbed his organ and told him: "Donate money to Israel or I'll cut off your [kibbles and bits].
"The customs agent is stunned and mumbles: " Well...that's a unique and very interesting story...and what do you have in the other bag?"
The man says, "You wouldn't believe how many people in Europe do not support Israel."
Found at The Corner
The man says, "You will not believe it, but I traveled all over Europe, and went into public restrooms. Each time I saw a man peeing, I grabbed his organ and told him: "Donate money to Israel or I'll cut off your [kibbles and bits].
"The customs agent is stunned and mumbles: " Well...that's a unique and very interesting story...and what do you have in the other bag?"
The man says, "You wouldn't believe how many people in Europe do not support Israel."
Found at The Corner
Came across these two thoughts at seperate times this evening; and in the mismash of my brain they jumped together like two long-lost lovers...maybe you agree? First, Mr. Roger Simon -
Maybe it's a symptom of living in Hollywood, but most of my left-leaning friends are rich. Very rich. They buy expensive (hybrid) cars, live in multi-million dollar homes with servants and "assistants" and take fancy vacations (often in second homes in upscale resorts). My left-wing media friends in New York aren't so badly off either. Nearly all of them (on both coasts) believe the current global problem is a result of Third World poverty and nothing more. They cannot conceive that it is not about material wealth because so much of life is about just that for them.
-meet one Milton Friedman:
“Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it does this task so well. It gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
-Milton Friedman 1962
Indeed.
Maybe it's a symptom of living in Hollywood, but most of my left-leaning friends are rich. Very rich. They buy expensive (hybrid) cars, live in multi-million dollar homes with servants and "assistants" and take fancy vacations (often in second homes in upscale resorts). My left-wing media friends in New York aren't so badly off either. Nearly all of them (on both coasts) believe the current global problem is a result of Third World poverty and nothing more. They cannot conceive that it is not about material wealth because so much of life is about just that for them.
-meet one Milton Friedman:
“Indeed, a major source of objection to a free economy is precisely that it does this task so well. It gives people what they want instead of what a particular group thinks they ought to want. Underlying most arguments against the free market is a lack of belief in freedom itself.”
-Milton Friedman 1962
Indeed.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Al Gore: Terrorist Enabler ?
Al Gore's got a new movie out! An Inconvenient Truth is essentially a filmed version of one of his famous eco-disaster slideshows. Hey Al, I have an inconvenient truth for you - from Slate:
...the film flirts with double standards. Laurie David, doyenne of Rodeo Drive environs, is one of the producers. As Eric Alterman noted in the Atlantic, David "reviles owners of SUVs as terrorist enablers, yet gives herself a pass when it comes to chartering one of the most wasteful uses of fossil-based fuels imaginable, a private jet." For David to fly in a private jet from Los Angeles to Washington would burn about as much petroleum as driving a Hummer for a year; if she flew back in the private jet, that's two Hummer-years.
Gore's movie takes shots at Republicans and the oil industry, but by the most amazing coincidence says nothing about the poor example set by conspicuous consumers among the Hollywood elite.
... "What I look for is signs we are really changing our way of life, and I don't see it," Gore intones with his signature sigh. As he says this, we see him at an airport checking in to board a jet, where he whips out his laptop. If "really changing our way of life" is imperative, what's Gore doing getting on a jetliner? Jets number among the most resource-intensive objects in the world.
Oh, those wacky liberals! Fly by private jet, hop a limo to the show, then bash me and my Jeep Liberty (17 city/20 highway) as "terrorist enablers"! Let them eat cake, Mr. Gore? No thanks, I'll have what you're having...
And when Mr. Gore finds the "truth" a tad "inconvenient" for his story line, well, he justs adjusts it, Day After Tomorrow- style:
...it's jarring that the movie was not scrubbed for factual precision. For instance, this 2005 joint statement by the science academies of the Western nations, including the National Academy of Sciences, warns of sea-level rise of four to 35 inches in the 21st century; this amount of possible sea-level rise is current consensus science.
Yet An Inconvenient Truth asserts that a sea-level rise of 20 feet is a realistic short-term prospect. Gore says the entire Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could melt rapidly; the film then jumps to animation of Manhattan flooded. Well, all that ice might melt really fast, and a UFO might land in London, too.
Well, I guess every Democratic generation needs it own Jimmy Carter - note the gushing praise heaped upon him at MSNBC:
– In Washington the other day, I got a chance to tell Al Gore something I’d meant to say for a long time, which was that I thought his real strength, his real contribution, was as an observer — writer, explainer, outsider — and not as a politician.
...Gore has a certain aura of nobility about him these days — a mixture of rue, acceptance and lofty goals that makes him almost, well, endearing.
Only qualities that can be possesed by a Democratic politician, I reckon...
...the film flirts with double standards. Laurie David, doyenne of Rodeo Drive environs, is one of the producers. As Eric Alterman noted in the Atlantic, David "reviles owners of SUVs as terrorist enablers, yet gives herself a pass when it comes to chartering one of the most wasteful uses of fossil-based fuels imaginable, a private jet." For David to fly in a private jet from Los Angeles to Washington would burn about as much petroleum as driving a Hummer for a year; if she flew back in the private jet, that's two Hummer-years.
Gore's movie takes shots at Republicans and the oil industry, but by the most amazing coincidence says nothing about the poor example set by conspicuous consumers among the Hollywood elite.
... "What I look for is signs we are really changing our way of life, and I don't see it," Gore intones with his signature sigh. As he says this, we see him at an airport checking in to board a jet, where he whips out his laptop. If "really changing our way of life" is imperative, what's Gore doing getting on a jetliner? Jets number among the most resource-intensive objects in the world.
Oh, those wacky liberals! Fly by private jet, hop a limo to the show, then bash me and my Jeep Liberty (17 city/20 highway) as "terrorist enablers"! Let them eat cake, Mr. Gore? No thanks, I'll have what you're having...
And when Mr. Gore finds the "truth" a tad "inconvenient" for his story line, well, he justs adjusts it, Day After Tomorrow- style:
...it's jarring that the movie was not scrubbed for factual precision. For instance, this 2005 joint statement by the science academies of the Western nations, including the National Academy of Sciences, warns of sea-level rise of four to 35 inches in the 21st century; this amount of possible sea-level rise is current consensus science.
Yet An Inconvenient Truth asserts that a sea-level rise of 20 feet is a realistic short-term prospect. Gore says the entire Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could melt rapidly; the film then jumps to animation of Manhattan flooded. Well, all that ice might melt really fast, and a UFO might land in London, too.
Well, I guess every Democratic generation needs it own Jimmy Carter - note the gushing praise heaped upon him at MSNBC:
– In Washington the other day, I got a chance to tell Al Gore something I’d meant to say for a long time, which was that I thought his real strength, his real contribution, was as an observer — writer, explainer, outsider — and not as a politician.
...Gore has a certain aura of nobility about him these days — a mixture of rue, acceptance and lofty goals that makes him almost, well, endearing.
Only qualities that can be possesed by a Democratic politician, I reckon...
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
No Mercy for Amnesty!
Econopundit says that the 2006 Amnesty International report "reads like an Onion satire"; sadly, he is on the mark - that's how far this organization has fallen. My favorite quote from whatever planet Amnesty lives on:
The increasing brutality of terrorist and militant attacks is a “bitter reminder that the ’war on terror’ is failing and will continue to fail until human rights and human security are given precedence over narrow national security interests,’’ Kahn said.
Ah! So there would be no terrorism if the United States simply forfeited its own life for..."human rights"???
And the brutality of the terrorists is a reminder that we have failed? Hmm, was the brutality of the Nazis a reminder that the Allies had failed? Just asking...
Well, at least the United States is giving the idiots whom released the above statement the what-for, and points out their glaring, hateful hypocrisy...from LGF:
{McCormack} went on to point out Amnesty’s role in documenting rights abuses during the 24 years of Saddam’s rule before he was deposed by the Americans in 2003 and later captured and charged with crimes against humanity.
“But when it came time to put Saddam Hussein on trial, which is happening right now, they (Amnesty) are absent. They’ve done zero, zip, nothing, to assist in those efforts,” McCormack said.
“So in terms of where they might focus some of their efforts, I would just offer the humble suggestion that they might follow through in actually assisting with or providing some support to this trial for what they acknowledge is one of the great human rights abusers of recent times.”
No, Amnesty can't support the United States (or Israel, for that matter, no matter how many Jews are blown up while Palestinians dance in the streets) against Saddam Hussien - they are so convinced that the US is a perpetrator state, that they have lost all sense of moral balance, and even in a clear-cut case of good vs. evil, cannot get their moral compasses to point towards true North.
Amnesty will live on, but the moral perversions it has tied itself up with has rendered it a useless organization, one that will live on for many years, spouting inanities for a hostile anti-American pres, but having completely failed in its mission to relieve the suffering of the innocent.
For shame, Amnesty.
The increasing brutality of terrorist and militant attacks is a “bitter reminder that the ’war on terror’ is failing and will continue to fail until human rights and human security are given precedence over narrow national security interests,’’ Kahn said.
Ah! So there would be no terrorism if the United States simply forfeited its own life for..."human rights"???
And the brutality of the terrorists is a reminder that we have failed? Hmm, was the brutality of the Nazis a reminder that the Allies had failed? Just asking...
Well, at least the United States is giving the idiots whom released the above statement the what-for, and points out their glaring, hateful hypocrisy...from LGF:
{McCormack} went on to point out Amnesty’s role in documenting rights abuses during the 24 years of Saddam’s rule before he was deposed by the Americans in 2003 and later captured and charged with crimes against humanity.
“But when it came time to put Saddam Hussein on trial, which is happening right now, they (Amnesty) are absent. They’ve done zero, zip, nothing, to assist in those efforts,” McCormack said.
“So in terms of where they might focus some of their efforts, I would just offer the humble suggestion that they might follow through in actually assisting with or providing some support to this trial for what they acknowledge is one of the great human rights abusers of recent times.”
No, Amnesty can't support the United States (or Israel, for that matter, no matter how many Jews are blown up while Palestinians dance in the streets) against Saddam Hussien - they are so convinced that the US is a perpetrator state, that they have lost all sense of moral balance, and even in a clear-cut case of good vs. evil, cannot get their moral compasses to point towards true North.
Amnesty will live on, but the moral perversions it has tied itself up with has rendered it a useless organization, one that will live on for many years, spouting inanities for a hostile anti-American pres, but having completely failed in its mission to relieve the suffering of the innocent.
For shame, Amnesty.
Monday, May 22, 2006
Dixie Chicks Tell Fans: Drop Dead!
When writing about these vainglorious ingrates over the last few days, I wasn't aware they had a Time cover story coming out, although I guess I saw it coming:
I'll take wagers, though - how soon until we see something in the New York Times' or Washington Post's Arts section, bewailing the "censorship" of these "fine young patriots"?
Well, the Time cover story leads with the following:
THEY'VE TAKEN THEIR HITS, AND NOW THE DIXIE CHICKS HIT BACK WITH WHAT MAY BE THE BEST ADULT POP CD OF THE YEAR. ER, WILL ANYONE BUY IT?
I can't access the rest of the article, but I would be surprised if it wasn't in the tone of what I expected above (I'll grab it at a newsstand tommorrow, take some notes, and put it back - I sure as hell ain't paying for that cover story!). As I reported in my earlier post, the first two singles have reached #36 and #50 respectively on the Billboard charts. I am sure the Time story will goose their sales quite a bit - having worked in a record store, I cannot tell you how many folks came in with clipped reviews on whatever band was a critic's fave at the moment, and declared they absolutely had to have their latest release.
So now the media is fixing the game at both ends - pimp the release of an anti-war album, then use its sales figures as proof that the population is actually anti-war. Sigh...
Anyway, some words of wisdom from Natalie Maines, via Wizbang: (with a tip of the cap to Gateway Pundit)
"I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
Nice - we must slavishly worship Miss Maines, or begone!
Hmmm...did Maines talk to her bandmates about this?
Maines bandmate Martie Maguire sounds as if she's looking for the sales, if not hits, to continue, controversy or no.
Says Maguire: "I'm not ready to fly coach."
Better grit your teeth for riding with the proletariat and their crying babies, Miss Maguire, if Maines keeps delivering up gems like these:
"I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President," Maines says in Time. "But I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever"
Nor do we owe you any respect whatsoever, you self-indulgent spoiled brat. I'm sure you'll make some easy money as Time Magazine's newest whores, but like the working girls you emulate, watch how quickly you will become used, and discarded...
I'll take wagers, though - how soon until we see something in the New York Times' or Washington Post's Arts section, bewailing the "censorship" of these "fine young patriots"?
Well, the Time cover story leads with the following:
THEY'VE TAKEN THEIR HITS, AND NOW THE DIXIE CHICKS HIT BACK WITH WHAT MAY BE THE BEST ADULT POP CD OF THE YEAR. ER, WILL ANYONE BUY IT?
I can't access the rest of the article, but I would be surprised if it wasn't in the tone of what I expected above (I'll grab it at a newsstand tommorrow, take some notes, and put it back - I sure as hell ain't paying for that cover story!). As I reported in my earlier post, the first two singles have reached #36 and #50 respectively on the Billboard charts. I am sure the Time story will goose their sales quite a bit - having worked in a record store, I cannot tell you how many folks came in with clipped reviews on whatever band was a critic's fave at the moment, and declared they absolutely had to have their latest release.
So now the media is fixing the game at both ends - pimp the release of an anti-war album, then use its sales figures as proof that the population is actually anti-war. Sigh...
Anyway, some words of wisdom from Natalie Maines, via Wizbang: (with a tip of the cap to Gateway Pundit)
"I'd rather have a smaller following of really cool people who get it, who will grow with us as we grow and are fans for life, than people that have us in their five-disc changer with Reba McEntire and Toby Keith. We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do."
Nice - we must slavishly worship Miss Maines, or begone!
Hmmm...did Maines talk to her bandmates about this?
Maines bandmate Martie Maguire sounds as if she's looking for the sales, if not hits, to continue, controversy or no.
Says Maguire: "I'm not ready to fly coach."
Better grit your teeth for riding with the proletariat and their crying babies, Miss Maguire, if Maines keeps delivering up gems like these:
"I apologized for disrespecting the office of the President," Maines says in Time. "But I don't feel that way anymore. I don't feel he is owed any respect whatsoever"
Nor do we owe you any respect whatsoever, you self-indulgent spoiled brat. I'm sure you'll make some easy money as Time Magazine's newest whores, but like the working girls you emulate, watch how quickly you will become used, and discarded...
Sunday, May 21, 2006
The Simpsons, The Sopranos...
...once two of my favorite shows, now virtually unwatchable due to the liberal bullspit they both try to jam down my throat...I don't know which was worse tonight:
The Sopranos - a season-long homosexual love affair is "ended" against the wishes of sensitive Mafia kingpin Tony Soprano, while his wife enjoys an episode-long postcard of beautiful Paris and its lovely, sophisticated French residents. Not complete without the requisite portrayal of all Catholics as mean-spirited hypocrites, of course, as they shun poor dead gay Vito's widow and children...
or
The Simpsons, which gave us this throwaway line tonight, from the Vin Scully-esque play-by-play man at the Springfield Isotopes game: "That ball is going, going, and it is - much like America's credibility on the world stage - gone!"
Can't I even enjoy a few minutes of freakin' TV without the liberal losers on the West Coast pushing their twisted values and ideology down my throat?
From now until October, it's strictly baseball (and maybe the Twilight Zone Marathon, and OK, just a little SpongeBob...)!
The Sopranos - a season-long homosexual love affair is "ended" against the wishes of sensitive Mafia kingpin Tony Soprano, while his wife enjoys an episode-long postcard of beautiful Paris and its lovely, sophisticated French residents. Not complete without the requisite portrayal of all Catholics as mean-spirited hypocrites, of course, as they shun poor dead gay Vito's widow and children...
or
The Simpsons, which gave us this throwaway line tonight, from the Vin Scully-esque play-by-play man at the Springfield Isotopes game: "That ball is going, going, and it is - much like America's credibility on the world stage - gone!"
Can't I even enjoy a few minutes of freakin' TV without the liberal losers on the West Coast pushing their twisted values and ideology down my throat?
From now until October, it's strictly baseball (and maybe the Twilight Zone Marathon, and OK, just a little SpongeBob...)!
Fleeing to Freedom
Prior to the second world war, the United States saw quite a bit of "intellectual" refugees from Europe; those who saw (like Albert Einstein) the doors of free speech, free thought, and free inquiry closing all around them. If we take their flight to be the precuser of the horrors that were about to unfold, what do we say about the state of Europe today? From The Gates of Vienna:
In addition to Hirsi Ali’s imminent departure from the Netherlands, there is a growing feeling that Europe is not safe for those who dissent even a little from the received wisdom of the bureaucratic state, or dare to confront the Muslim taqiyya so prevalent there..
An excerpt from the Wall Street Journal follows:
Across Europe, dozens of people are now in hiding or under police protection because of threats from Muslim extremists. Dutch police say politicians reported 121 death threats last year. The number this year will likely be much higher...
In Germany, several researchers, journalists and members of Parliament receive police protection because of threats by radical Muslims.
The Brussels Journal also quotes from the WSJ:
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, is also mulling a move to America, at the urging of friends and security contacts. He set off a global storm by publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Twelve Danish cartoonists who drew the caricatures are staying out of public for fear of attack.
Mr. Rose complains that Europe is going wobbly. At the height of the cartoon furor in February, Danish businessmen who criticized their publication were denounced as traitors to free speech. Since then, a segment of the public, eager for a return to calm, has favored a more conciliatory approach toward Muslim anger, Mr. Rose says.
We welcome all of those whom understand that freedom of speech, and freedom of thought, cannot be subjugated to either an Islamist doctrine or to politically correct multicultural groupthink.
Again, America will be enriched as the world's best and brightest arrive on our shores simply to enjoy the freedoms that we take for granted - I thank these refugees of the mind and soul for reminding us what a glorious land we have here...
And perhaps the lightheaded lefties whom claim Bush is creating a totalitarian state in our midst should talk to some of these new arrivals to get a bit of perspective...
In addition to Hirsi Ali’s imminent departure from the Netherlands, there is a growing feeling that Europe is not safe for those who dissent even a little from the received wisdom of the bureaucratic state, or dare to confront the Muslim taqiyya so prevalent there..
An excerpt from the Wall Street Journal follows:
Across Europe, dozens of people are now in hiding or under police protection because of threats from Muslim extremists. Dutch police say politicians reported 121 death threats last year. The number this year will likely be much higher...
In Germany, several researchers, journalists and members of Parliament receive police protection because of threats by radical Muslims.
The Brussels Journal also quotes from the WSJ:
Flemming Rose, the culture editor of the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, is also mulling a move to America, at the urging of friends and security contacts. He set off a global storm by publishing cartoons of the prophet Muhammad. Twelve Danish cartoonists who drew the caricatures are staying out of public for fear of attack.
Mr. Rose complains that Europe is going wobbly. At the height of the cartoon furor in February, Danish businessmen who criticized their publication were denounced as traitors to free speech. Since then, a segment of the public, eager for a return to calm, has favored a more conciliatory approach toward Muslim anger, Mr. Rose says.
We welcome all of those whom understand that freedom of speech, and freedom of thought, cannot be subjugated to either an Islamist doctrine or to politically correct multicultural groupthink.
Again, America will be enriched as the world's best and brightest arrive on our shores simply to enjoy the freedoms that we take for granted - I thank these refugees of the mind and soul for reminding us what a glorious land we have here...
And perhaps the lightheaded lefties whom claim Bush is creating a totalitarian state in our midst should talk to some of these new arrivals to get a bit of perspective...
But the question remains - is this emigration from Europe the harbinger of a greater evil on the horizon, as it has been in the past? Or is it just a blip on the radar? Either way, the bureaucrats of the EU will dismiss the loss of their best and brightest, as they have waved off the loss of some of their finest business minds to America, and continue to assure those whom remain that the best is still to come.
Who will be left to believe it?
Corrections, addendums, and Carnivals!
The story of the Iranian attempts to "badge" Jews and other non-Muslims seems to be unraveling a bit...via Little Green Footballs:
Iranian blogger Arash at Kamangir looked into yesterday’s National Post story that Iran planned to force Jews to wear yellow badges: Kamangir: Badges for Jews, A Hoax! (Hat tip: Adloyada.)
The National Post has also backed down from the story: Experts say report of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue.
...Here’s Allahpundit’s post on the story, with numerous updates: Is the Iranian yellow-badges story true?
I'll refer back to Friday's post as the one which contains much of the now in-dispute story, but I'll stand by Atlas' historical documentation of the badging of Jews by Muslims throughout history.
Yesterday's post has a roundup of thoughts on Islamic dress from Amir Tahari; I cannot say for sure that any of the remarks made by the Iranian minister quoted in this story have been refuted. And of course, the second part of that post regarding the proposed EU appeasement offer to Iran is one I still stand behind, although Condi Rice today has said that the United States has not been asked to provide any "security guarantees" to Iran:
European powers have not asked the United States to provide security guarantees to
Iran as part of a package the West is preparing to offer the Islamic republic to curb its nuclear programs, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday.
But never fear! The EU will come up with some way to guarantee a Fourth Reich:
Even though the United States does not want to offer its own guarantee, Europe may still find a formula that allows for some security pledge to Iran, political analysts have said.
Whew! Now I'm relieved...
I'll update the Iran "badging" story as more information makes its way out, but again, the fact that this story is so plausable speaks volumes about the nature of the Iranian state...
But most importantly - the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers #53 is up! Check it out at The Center of New Jersey Life...See if I am not the only "nut" produced by the Garden State!
Iranian blogger Arash at Kamangir looked into yesterday’s National Post story that Iran planned to force Jews to wear yellow badges: Kamangir: Badges for Jews, A Hoax! (Hat tip: Adloyada.)
The National Post has also backed down from the story: Experts say report of badges for Jews in Iran is untrue.
...Here’s Allahpundit’s post on the story, with numerous updates: Is the Iranian yellow-badges story true?
I'll refer back to Friday's post as the one which contains much of the now in-dispute story, but I'll stand by Atlas' historical documentation of the badging of Jews by Muslims throughout history.
Yesterday's post has a roundup of thoughts on Islamic dress from Amir Tahari; I cannot say for sure that any of the remarks made by the Iranian minister quoted in this story have been refuted. And of course, the second part of that post regarding the proposed EU appeasement offer to Iran is one I still stand behind, although Condi Rice today has said that the United States has not been asked to provide any "security guarantees" to Iran:
European powers have not asked the United States to provide security guarantees to
Iran as part of a package the West is preparing to offer the Islamic republic to curb its nuclear programs, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Sunday.
But never fear! The EU will come up with some way to guarantee a Fourth Reich:
Even though the United States does not want to offer its own guarantee, Europe may still find a formula that allows for some security pledge to Iran, political analysts have said.
Whew! Now I'm relieved...
I'll update the Iran "badging" story as more information makes its way out, but again, the fact that this story is so plausable speaks volumes about the nature of the Iranian state...
But most importantly - the Carnival of the New Jersey Bloggers #53 is up! Check it out at The Center of New Jersey Life...See if I am not the only "nut" produced by the Garden State!
Saturday, May 20, 2006
New Jersey Court Rewards Illegals, Punishes Taxpayers!
The Asbury Park Press uses the phrase "tourtured logic" to describe the thought process of the justices of the New Jersey Supreme Court, when they produced -
...a baffling 17-page opinion issued unanimously Thursday by the state Supreme Court that ruled an illegal alien has the right to collect damages from the state's uninsured motorists fund.
The fund is administered and financed by insurance companies that write automobile policies in New Jersey. Some of the cost of the fund is passed on to motorists who have liability insurance through surcharges.
So legal taxpaying residents should be penalized in favor of transients who have entered the nation illegally. That's progressive liberal thought for you!
Citing a previous case, the court found the fund was established out of a recognition that "there is an economic hardship resulting to those persons referred to in the statute who, without any fault of their own, suffer losses through motor vehicle accidents . . . ." The persons referred to in the statute must be residents of the state.
Now the leftist judges, virtually all Democrat-appointed, cry for our poor lawbreaker:
The case was brought by Victor Caballero, who followed his family from his native Mexico and illegally entered the country in March 2001 when he was 17. The court went out of its way to recount the plight of illegal immigrants seeking a better life here compared to their homeland and how Caballero, in particular, suffered physically and financially as a result of the accident. The opinion even went so far as to explain that Caballero now cannot eat some of the foods he previously enjoyed.
Not exactly using judical restraint, are we? I guess under this type of warped ideology, feelings now trump law...
Two lower courts decided against Caballero, but in reversing the trial court and appeals court, the Supreme Court found that for purposes of the fund, Caballero was a resident of New Jersey — even though Caballero crossed the border illegally and is subject to deportation.
NO, HE IS NOT A RESIDENT OF NEW JERSEY. I AM - I legally reside here, pay taxes here, and pay for my auto insurance here - unlike Caballero, who has no legal residence here, pays no taxes, and carries no insurance. But that's OK - hey, based on this decision, my auto insurance now goes up to pay for the damages incurred by this man, who has absolutely no legal basis to claim residency in this state! But wait - the Court dug deep enough, and came up with this gem:
The Supreme Court found that Caballero's determination to stay in New Jersey and work made his argument that he was a resident stronger. The court took no notice of federal law in this case, it said, because to consider whether Caballero was an illegal alien or not would assume, or possibly usurp, the role of the federal Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration.
Well, that is an insane arguement to make in order to ignore the laws of the United States - to claim that by applying federal law first and foremost, as they must, they are somehow usurping the very organizations for whom these laws were made? Now I understand why that Michael Savage guy says that "liberalism is a mental disorder". Seems like the Asbury Park Press is inclined to agree, and sets these elitist rapists of the New Jersey middle class straight:
So, seven lawyers sitting on the high court say they can't take judicial notice of federal law. In other words, find a way to get around the conclusion any clear-thinking person would reach: An illegal alien can't be a state resident. Plain and simple, the court chose to ignore the law of the land to legislate its social values in New Jersey. Who knows what floodgates have now been opened?
The court conveniently failed to apply the test of whether this person "without any fault of their own" suffered losses through a motor vehicle accident. Caballero was in the United States, illegally, of his own volition. He was not kidnapped. He deliberately broke the law. Clearly, had he not chosen to break the law, he would not have been in a car accident in New Jersey.
Clear as day, except to the progressives in the liberal New Jersey legal system, who somehow managed to turn this self-admitted lawbreaker into a victim. All at my expense, of course...
At what point will New Jersey drive out the last of its small business owners and middle class residents, all in the name of additional rights for folks like Mr. Caballero?
Watch the liberal disaster that is about to envelop New Jersey - I know, it's hard, but like craning your neck at the scene of an accident, you just will not be able to help yourself...
...a baffling 17-page opinion issued unanimously Thursday by the state Supreme Court that ruled an illegal alien has the right to collect damages from the state's uninsured motorists fund.
The fund is administered and financed by insurance companies that write automobile policies in New Jersey. Some of the cost of the fund is passed on to motorists who have liability insurance through surcharges.
So legal taxpaying residents should be penalized in favor of transients who have entered the nation illegally. That's progressive liberal thought for you!
Citing a previous case, the court found the fund was established out of a recognition that "there is an economic hardship resulting to those persons referred to in the statute who, without any fault of their own, suffer losses through motor vehicle accidents . . . ." The persons referred to in the statute must be residents of the state.
Now the leftist judges, virtually all Democrat-appointed, cry for our poor lawbreaker:
The case was brought by Victor Caballero, who followed his family from his native Mexico and illegally entered the country in March 2001 when he was 17. The court went out of its way to recount the plight of illegal immigrants seeking a better life here compared to their homeland and how Caballero, in particular, suffered physically and financially as a result of the accident. The opinion even went so far as to explain that Caballero now cannot eat some of the foods he previously enjoyed.
Not exactly using judical restraint, are we? I guess under this type of warped ideology, feelings now trump law...
Two lower courts decided against Caballero, but in reversing the trial court and appeals court, the Supreme Court found that for purposes of the fund, Caballero was a resident of New Jersey — even though Caballero crossed the border illegally and is subject to deportation.
NO, HE IS NOT A RESIDENT OF NEW JERSEY. I AM - I legally reside here, pay taxes here, and pay for my auto insurance here - unlike Caballero, who has no legal residence here, pays no taxes, and carries no insurance. But that's OK - hey, based on this decision, my auto insurance now goes up to pay for the damages incurred by this man, who has absolutely no legal basis to claim residency in this state! But wait - the Court dug deep enough, and came up with this gem:
The Supreme Court found that Caballero's determination to stay in New Jersey and work made his argument that he was a resident stronger. The court took no notice of federal law in this case, it said, because to consider whether Caballero was an illegal alien or not would assume, or possibly usurp, the role of the federal Bureau of U.S. Citizenship and Immigration.
Well, that is an insane arguement to make in order to ignore the laws of the United States - to claim that by applying federal law first and foremost, as they must, they are somehow usurping the very organizations for whom these laws were made? Now I understand why that Michael Savage guy says that "liberalism is a mental disorder". Seems like the Asbury Park Press is inclined to agree, and sets these elitist rapists of the New Jersey middle class straight:
So, seven lawyers sitting on the high court say they can't take judicial notice of federal law. In other words, find a way to get around the conclusion any clear-thinking person would reach: An illegal alien can't be a state resident. Plain and simple, the court chose to ignore the law of the land to legislate its social values in New Jersey. Who knows what floodgates have now been opened?
The court conveniently failed to apply the test of whether this person "without any fault of their own" suffered losses through a motor vehicle accident. Caballero was in the United States, illegally, of his own volition. He was not kidnapped. He deliberately broke the law. Clearly, had he not chosen to break the law, he would not have been in a car accident in New Jersey.
Clear as day, except to the progressives in the liberal New Jersey legal system, who somehow managed to turn this self-admitted lawbreaker into a victim. All at my expense, of course...
At what point will New Jersey drive out the last of its small business owners and middle class residents, all in the name of additional rights for folks like Mr. Caballero?
Watch the liberal disaster that is about to envelop New Jersey - I know, it's hard, but like craning your neck at the scene of an accident, you just will not be able to help yourself...
Dixie Chicks Spit into Wind !
I get more angry email when I write about music than virtually any other topic (save when I post on 9/11 conspiracy nuts), so I will tempt the fates in order to mock the Dixie Chicks. Another band that's a little to thick too realize that rabid anti-American sentiment is merely a niche market, they too struggle with their latest release:
Disappointing airplay for the first two singles from the new album by the Dixie Chicks exposes a deep -- and seemingly growing -- rift between the trio and the country radio market that helped turn the group into superstars...
"Taking the Long Way," due out May 23, is the band's first album since singer Natalie Maines sparked a major controversy in 2003 by declaring that she was ashamed to hail from the same state as fellow Texan President George W. Radio boycotts ensued, and many fans abandoned the band.
The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," peaked at No. 36 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, beginning its descent after just seven weeks. The second single, "Everybody Knows," is now at No. 50, down two places in its fourth week.
Hmmm....could it be because the Natalie Maines and the Chicks continue to throw fuel onto the fire with sneering, unapologetic lyrics -
The first single, which starts with a lone acoustic guitar and then builds in intensity, was co-written by the trio — which also includes banjo and guitar player Emily Robison and fiddle and mandolin player Martie Maguire.
It addresses the controversy head on, with Maines singing in the chorus, “I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to back down. I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go round and round and round.”
She also sings, “How in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge,” and “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby.”
In Denver, KYGO program director Joel Burke also was bothered by the lyrics. KYGO tested the song, and while Burke said listeners reacted favorably, he isn’t ready to add it to the playlist.
“...what concerns me about this song is it’s backward thinking,” he added. “I’d rather wait until the CD comes out and pick a song we can embrace and that doesn’t have any negative connection to it.”
-or because they disown the fans and genre that made them so big to begin with?
Maines was quoted in late January on entertainmentweekly.com, before the single went to country radio, saying: "For me to be in country music to begin with was not who I was ... I would be cheating myself ... to go back to something that I don't wholeheartedly believe in. So I'm pretty much done. They've shown their true colors. I like lots of country music, but as far as the industry and everything that happened ... I couldn't want to be farther away from that."
Maines also said, "I don't want people to think that me not wanting to be part of country music is any sort of revenge. It is not. It is totally me being who I am, and not wanting to compromise myself and hate my life."
At KNCI Sacramento, Calif., the Chicks' music weathered the 2003 controversy only to be pulled as a result of Maines' new Entertainment Weekly comments, coupled with poor scores in local music tests.
"When an artist says that they don't want to be a part of that industry, it made our decision a no-brainer," program director Mark Evans says. "There are too many talented new artists dying to have a song played on country radio, so I'd rather give one of them a shot."
What an immature group of no-nothing primadonnas!
I'll take wagers, though - how soon until we see something in the New York Times' or Washington Post's Arts section, bewailing the "censorship" of these "fine young patriots"?
Hey Maines! You "made your bed", right? You know what to do...
Disappointing airplay for the first two singles from the new album by the Dixie Chicks exposes a deep -- and seemingly growing -- rift between the trio and the country radio market that helped turn the group into superstars...
"Taking the Long Way," due out May 23, is the band's first album since singer Natalie Maines sparked a major controversy in 2003 by declaring that she was ashamed to hail from the same state as fellow Texan President George W. Radio boycotts ensued, and many fans abandoned the band.
The first single, "Not Ready to Make Nice," peaked at No. 36 on Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart, beginning its descent after just seven weeks. The second single, "Everybody Knows," is now at No. 50, down two places in its fourth week.
Hmmm....could it be because the Natalie Maines and the Chicks continue to throw fuel onto the fire with sneering, unapologetic lyrics -
The first single, which starts with a lone acoustic guitar and then builds in intensity, was co-written by the trio — which also includes banjo and guitar player Emily Robison and fiddle and mandolin player Martie Maguire.
It addresses the controversy head on, with Maines singing in the chorus, “I’m not ready to make nice. I’m not ready to back down. I’m still mad as hell and I don’t have time to go round and round and round.”
She also sings, “How in the world can the words that I said send somebody so over the edge,” and “I made my bed and I sleep like a baby.”
In Denver, KYGO program director Joel Burke also was bothered by the lyrics. KYGO tested the song, and while Burke said listeners reacted favorably, he isn’t ready to add it to the playlist.
“...what concerns me about this song is it’s backward thinking,” he added. “I’d rather wait until the CD comes out and pick a song we can embrace and that doesn’t have any negative connection to it.”
-or because they disown the fans and genre that made them so big to begin with?
Maines was quoted in late January on entertainmentweekly.com, before the single went to country radio, saying: "For me to be in country music to begin with was not who I was ... I would be cheating myself ... to go back to something that I don't wholeheartedly believe in. So I'm pretty much done. They've shown their true colors. I like lots of country music, but as far as the industry and everything that happened ... I couldn't want to be farther away from that."
Maines also said, "I don't want people to think that me not wanting to be part of country music is any sort of revenge. It is not. It is totally me being who I am, and not wanting to compromise myself and hate my life."
At KNCI Sacramento, Calif., the Chicks' music weathered the 2003 controversy only to be pulled as a result of Maines' new Entertainment Weekly comments, coupled with poor scores in local music tests.
"When an artist says that they don't want to be a part of that industry, it made our decision a no-brainer," program director Mark Evans says. "There are too many talented new artists dying to have a song played on country radio, so I'd rather give one of them a shot."
What an immature group of no-nothing primadonnas!
I'll take wagers, though - how soon until we see something in the New York Times' or Washington Post's Arts section, bewailing the "censorship" of these "fine young patriots"?
Hey Maines! You "made your bed", right? You know what to do...
The Fourth Reich (Pt. 2)
So the New York Post stole my post title from yesterday to use on their front page; that's cool, though...as far as events unfolding in the Fourth Reich, Amir Tahari fills us in on the particulars of the sickness that prevades the current Iranian regime:
The law...envisages separate dress codes for religious minorities, Christians, Jews and Zoroastrians, who will have to adopt distinct color schemes to make them identifiable in public. The new codes would enable Muslims to instantly recognize non-Muslims so that they can avoid shaking hands with them by mistake, and thus becoming najis" (unclean).
The new law, drafted during the presidency of Muhammad Khatami in 2004, had been blocked within the Majlis. That blockage, however, has been removed under pressure from Khatami's successor, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
One aim of the new law is to impose a total ban on imports of clothes and dress designs from the West. The Majlis hopes that all jeans will disappear form the Iranian scene within five years. The boutiques selling haute couture Western gear for men and women will also be closed over the next few years. A total ban on designer items, marked by logos, will come into force by the end of the year.
'There is no sense in a Muslim man or woman wearing something that is, in fact, an advertisement for an infidel designer or clothing merchant," says Pourhardani [Mostafa Pourhardani, minister of Islamic orientation - ed.].
Another aim of the new law is to abolish the chador, the overall piece of cloth that Iranian women have tucked themselves in for centuries. The reason is that the chador existed before the Khomeinist revolution and thus cannot be regarded as "properly Islamic." Women must wear clothes that would, in fact, transform them into advertising billboards for the regime's ideology.
What is already labeled "the Islamic clothes revolution" will not be limited to Iran. Tehran has already sent a team to Lebanon to inform the Hezbollah of the new law and train cadres to impose it on Lebanese Shiites.
"Our aim is to make sure that every Muslim, wherever he or she happens to be on this earth, is a living and walking symbol of Islam," says Pourhardani.
And what do the sophisticated Europeans propose in the face of a danger that almost swallowed them whole a mere half-century ago? Why, they wish to feed and protect the beast, just as they did in 1939 - you know, like it may somehow be different this time:
The European Union and Washington are split over an EU proposal to offer Iran a generous package of incentives including nuclear reactors and security pledges if it stops enriching uranium, diplomats said on Saturday.
"We agreed to offer Iran a nuclear power plant and possibly more along with support for an international (nuclear) fuel consortium to guarantee fuel for civilian nuclear activity," the diplomat said on condition of anonymity.
And if they continue to build nuclear weapons?
The EU proposal also includes warnings about possible sanctions if, as the EU and Washington expect, Iran rejected the offer and continued enriching uranium at its Natanz plant.
Possible sanctions include visa bans for high-ranking Iranian officials and their families, freezing assets of Iranian individuals and companies and trade sanctions.
Scary! Of course, these sanctions are only "possible", not "probable".
The draft also offers Iran a kind of security guarantee, saying the EU would work toward "recognition of territorial integrity" of Middle Eastern countries, an EU diplomat said.
Translation:
"Territorial integrity" is a code phrase for "We will not allow the United States any justification to act against any Middle Eastern regime that threatens its security"
In other words, "Terrorize to your hearts content - we'll have a treaty saying no one can stop you!"
And if you guys break your end of the treaty, and build those nukes, well, you won't be allowed to visit Europe anymore - well, maybe....
God forbid any sane American elected official (or Foggy Bottom diplomat) endorse this Western suicide pact.
Interesting to note that very little reaction has been heard from Europe regarding the proposed branding of Iranian Jews...could it be that they wish they could get away with it themselves?
E.J. Dionne Knows What's Best...
...and that is for a Republican President, voted in by the right and center-right, to veer towards the left, in order to appease...whom, exactly? To bump up his approval ratings among the 80% of Democrats who hate his guts and would vote for a dead dog before pulling the switch next to a (R) candidate? Well, Dionne claims in the Washington Post that the conservatives are not the problem with Bush's low numbers:
The Post-ABC News poll released this week found the president with a 33 percent approval rating and suffering losses in esteem almost everywhere. Conservatives are by no means his biggest problem.
The middle of the middle is going south on Bush....
Let's look at some of the poll data that Dionne builds his half-baked politcal theorems around:
Are you registered to vote at your present address, or not?
Yes 83% No 17%
-So 20% of the folks polled are most likely unregistered to vote. Nice sample.
"Leaned Party":
Democrat 53%
Republican 39%
A little out of whack, considering that Republicans hold majorities in the executive branch, governerships, both houses of Congress, and local statehouses, wouldn't you think?
Additionally, Dionne blithely fails to notice some of the so-called "conservative" stances taken by those polled:
It's been reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. Acceptable?
Strongly 40%
Somewhat 22%
Unacceptable 24%
That is a 62%-24% margin for the Bush-CIA national defense agenda, EJ...
If you found out that the NSA had a record of phone numbers that you yourself have called, would that bother you, or not?
No 66%
A Lot 24%
Wow! That's a pretty "conservative" stance for a poll leaning towards Democratic respondents!
Do you think the United States is or is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from coming into this country?
Strongly- Not doing enough - 58%
Strongly - Doing enough - 9%
Wow! According to Harry Reid, close to 60% of us are racists!
Would you support or oppose using National Guard troops to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico?
Yes 74%
No 25%
EJ, read your own paper's miserable poll data - in a poll weighted close to 60% Democratic, with almost 20% of the respondents unregistered, the key issues of the day leaned heavily toward's the Bush Administration's policies.
Dionne is trying to fulfill his own prophecy that the right is moving left, so the left must be right! Sorry, buddy, but you are dreaming and your advice for the President is wishful liberal thinking. Bush, in order to hold the Republican's party control of the House, Senate, and eventually executive branch, must govern as the strong conservative he was elected to be.
Turn off your TV, close that newspaper, and read the actual poll data, Mr. President!
If Bush gets it right, EJ Dionne will be be "left" behind once again...
The Post-ABC News poll released this week found the president with a 33 percent approval rating and suffering losses in esteem almost everywhere. Conservatives are by no means his biggest problem.
The middle of the middle is going south on Bush....
Let's look at some of the poll data that Dionne builds his half-baked politcal theorems around:
Are you registered to vote at your present address, or not?
Yes 83% No 17%
-So 20% of the folks polled are most likely unregistered to vote. Nice sample.
"Leaned Party":
Democrat 53%
Republican 39%
A little out of whack, considering that Republicans hold majorities in the executive branch, governerships, both houses of Congress, and local statehouses, wouldn't you think?
Additionally, Dionne blithely fails to notice some of the so-called "conservative" stances taken by those polled:
It's been reported that the National Security Agency has been collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. Acceptable?
Strongly 40%
Somewhat 22%
Unacceptable 24%
That is a 62%-24% margin for the Bush-CIA national defense agenda, EJ...
If you found out that the NSA had a record of phone numbers that you yourself have called, would that bother you, or not?
No 66%
A Lot 24%
Wow! That's a pretty "conservative" stance for a poll leaning towards Democratic respondents!
Do you think the United States is or is not doing enough to keep illegal immigrants from coming into this country?
Strongly- Not doing enough - 58%
Strongly - Doing enough - 9%
Wow! According to Harry Reid, close to 60% of us are racists!
Would you support or oppose using National Guard troops to patrol the U.S. border with Mexico?
Yes 74%
No 25%
EJ, read your own paper's miserable poll data - in a poll weighted close to 60% Democratic, with almost 20% of the respondents unregistered, the key issues of the day leaned heavily toward's the Bush Administration's policies.
Dionne is trying to fulfill his own prophecy that the right is moving left, so the left must be right! Sorry, buddy, but you are dreaming and your advice for the President is wishful liberal thinking. Bush, in order to hold the Republican's party control of the House, Senate, and eventually executive branch, must govern as the strong conservative he was elected to be.
Turn off your TV, close that newspaper, and read the actual poll data, Mr. President!
If Bush gets it right, EJ Dionne will be be "left" behind once again...
Friday, May 19, 2006
Brawl at Guantanamo !
Those poor, sweet innocents that the cruel United States has illegally taken prisoner...look at what they're up to:
Ten Guantanamo prisoners lured U.S. guards into a room with a staged suicide attempt, then attacked them with broken light fixtures, fan blades and other improvised weapons before being overpowered, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Six prisoners were treated for "minor injuries" and none of the U.S. guards was seriously hurt, the officials said.
"The detainees had slickened the floor of their block with feces, urine and soapy water in an attempt to trick the guards. They then assaulted the guards with broken light fixtures, fan blades and bits of metal," said Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, who commands the detention operation.
U.S. guards used pepper spray and then blasted the inmates with several shots from a shotgun that fired rubber balls to gain control of the inmates and used an M203 grenade launcher that shot a blunt rubber object, U.S. officials said.
This New York Times story, gleefully reporting on a UN committee's calls for the closure of Guantánamo Bay (citing only tales told by terrorists held there, and of course unattributed "reports"), contains the following:
"The United States "should cease to detain any person at Guantánamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to the judicial process or release them as soon as possible," the report said.
Er...release them where? Most of the home countries of these "persons" want nothing to do with them and will not allow their return. Calling Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch (who "praised the report") - you wanna take these bad boys home with you?
Ten Guantanamo prisoners lured U.S. guards into a room with a staged suicide attempt, then attacked them with broken light fixtures, fan blades and other improvised weapons before being overpowered, U.S. officials said on Friday.
Six prisoners were treated for "minor injuries" and none of the U.S. guards was seriously hurt, the officials said.
"The detainees had slickened the floor of their block with feces, urine and soapy water in an attempt to trick the guards. They then assaulted the guards with broken light fixtures, fan blades and bits of metal," said Navy Rear Adm. Harry Harris, who commands the detention operation.
U.S. guards used pepper spray and then blasted the inmates with several shots from a shotgun that fired rubber balls to gain control of the inmates and used an M203 grenade launcher that shot a blunt rubber object, U.S. officials said.
This New York Times story, gleefully reporting on a UN committee's calls for the closure of Guantánamo Bay (citing only tales told by terrorists held there, and of course unattributed "reports"), contains the following:
"The United States "should cease to detain any person at Guantánamo Bay and close this detention facility, permit access by the detainees to the judicial process or release them as soon as possible," the report said.
Er...release them where? Most of the home countries of these "persons" want nothing to do with them and will not allow their return. Calling Jennifer Daskal of Human Rights Watch (who "praised the report") - you wanna take these bad boys home with you?
Iran: The Fourth Reich !
Adolf Hitler would be so proud of his proteges:
Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."
The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.
Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.
It would make religious minorities immediately identifiable and allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims.
..."The world should not ignore this," said Rabbi Hier. "The world ignored Hitler for many years -- he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power -- and we were all wrong."
Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described the Holocaust as a myth and earlier this year announced Iran would host a conference to re-examine the history of the Nazis' "Final Solution."
He has caused international outrage by publicly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
And to think there are people, plenty of them, who believe the world can live with a nuclear Iran...
UPDATE 5PM: Atlas Shrugs tells us of how the Religion of Peace has branded Jews for centuries:
Just for knowing, this is not new to Islam. Going back to the year 717.........
717 Caliph Omar II orders both Jews and Christians to wear a distinguishing mark. [1]
807 Persia Abbassid Caliph Harun al-Rashid orders Jews to wear yellow belt, blue for Christians.
853 Caliph Al-Mutavallil of Persia issues a yellow badge edict.
1005 Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim orders Jews of Egypt and the Land of Israel to wear bells on their garments and "golden calf" (made of wood) around the neck.
In 1301, they were obliged to wear yellow turbans.
1121 A letter from Baghdad describes decrees regulating Jewish clothes: "two yellow badges, one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes." (Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p.204)
Human rights groups are raising alarms over a new law passed by the Iranian parliament that would require the country's Jews and Christians to wear coloured badges to identify them and other religious minorities as non-Muslims.
"This is reminiscent of the Holocaust," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, the dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "Iran is moving closer and closer to the ideology of the Nazis."
The law, which must still be approved by Iran's "Supreme Guide" Ali Khamenehi before being put into effect, also establishes special insignia to be worn by non-Muslims.
Iran's roughly 25,000 Jews would have to sew a yellow strip of cloth on the front of their clothes, while Christians would wear red badges and Zoroastrians would be forced to wear blue cloth.
It would make religious minorities immediately identifiable and allow Muslims to avoid contact with non-Muslims.
..."The world should not ignore this," said Rabbi Hier. "The world ignored Hitler for many years -- he was dismissed as a demagogue, they said he'd never come to power -- and we were all wrong."
Mr. Ahmadinejad has repeatedly described the Holocaust as a myth and earlier this year announced Iran would host a conference to re-examine the history of the Nazis' "Final Solution."
He has caused international outrage by publicly calling for Israel to be "wiped off the map."
And to think there are people, plenty of them, who believe the world can live with a nuclear Iran...
UPDATE 5PM: Atlas Shrugs tells us of how the Religion of Peace has branded Jews for centuries:
Just for knowing, this is not new to Islam. Going back to the year 717.........
717 Caliph Omar II orders both Jews and Christians to wear a distinguishing mark. [1]
807 Persia Abbassid Caliph Harun al-Rashid orders Jews to wear yellow belt, blue for Christians.
853 Caliph Al-Mutavallil of Persia issues a yellow badge edict.
1005 Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim orders Jews of Egypt and the Land of Israel to wear bells on their garments and "golden calf" (made of wood) around the neck.
In 1301, they were obliged to wear yellow turbans.
1121 A letter from Baghdad describes decrees regulating Jewish clothes: "two yellow badges, one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes." (Paul Johnson, A History of the Jews, p.204)
Thursday, May 18, 2006
American Boy Dies; Palestinians Rejoice!
From Arnold Ahelrt in yesterday's New York Post:
ON Sunday, Daniel Wultz, a Florida teenager, finally succumbed to injuries sustained in an April 17 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. He was 16.
A tragedy? Consider the following:
* Abu Amin, Islamic Jihad leader in the northern West Bank, comparing Wultz to the suicide bomber who blew up the restaurant, killing 10 and injuring 60: "Our hero believed in Allah and died while fighting for Allah, but your pig was killed in a restaurant in an area full of prostitution."
* Abu Nasser, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which took "credit" for the bombing: "This is a gift from Allah. We wish this young dog will go directly with no transit to hell."
Once again the psychosis that apologists refer to as a "resistance movement" is revealed. Yet those who espouse the bankruptcy of "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" will no doubt characterize Daniel's death as a result of the ongoing war against "occupation."
Which is why no mentions of the above has appeared in most mainstream media outlets. Cannot let the facts get into the way of the storyline, can we? Jews as victims are so passe; Americans cannot by definition ever be victims (we are oppressors, after all), so let's keep rolling with the "occupation" theme. And let's keep Abu Nasser's "young dog" statement out of the papers, OK? After all, I am sure he probably doesn't really mean it, it is probably just pent-up rage from years of suffering at the hands of his Israeli occupiers and his American oppressors...
My heart goes out to the Wultz family; may they eventually find some peace. But I pray that Israel is turning a cold eye towards those whom killed him, and intend to mete out a justice that these animals can understand.
ON Sunday, Daniel Wultz, a Florida teenager, finally succumbed to injuries sustained in an April 17 suicide bombing in Tel Aviv. He was 16.
A tragedy? Consider the following:
* Abu Amin, Islamic Jihad leader in the northern West Bank, comparing Wultz to the suicide bomber who blew up the restaurant, killing 10 and injuring 60: "Our hero believed in Allah and died while fighting for Allah, but your pig was killed in a restaurant in an area full of prostitution."
* Abu Nasser, a leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which took "credit" for the bombing: "This is a gift from Allah. We wish this young dog will go directly with no transit to hell."
Once again the psychosis that apologists refer to as a "resistance movement" is revealed. Yet those who espouse the bankruptcy of "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter" will no doubt characterize Daniel's death as a result of the ongoing war against "occupation."
Which is why no mentions of the above has appeared in most mainstream media outlets. Cannot let the facts get into the way of the storyline, can we? Jews as victims are so passe; Americans cannot by definition ever be victims (we are oppressors, after all), so let's keep rolling with the "occupation" theme. And let's keep Abu Nasser's "young dog" statement out of the papers, OK? After all, I am sure he probably doesn't really mean it, it is probably just pent-up rage from years of suffering at the hands of his Israeli occupiers and his American oppressors...
My heart goes out to the Wultz family; may they eventually find some peace. But I pray that Israel is turning a cold eye towards those whom killed him, and intend to mete out a justice that these animals can understand.
Less Money in Bush-Bashing?
Funk-rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers topped the U.S. charts for the first time in its 22-year history on Wednesday, while Neil Young's tirade against President Bush failed to do much for his sales.
The veteran Canadian {Young} rocker's "Living With War" opened at No. 15 with sales of 60,000 units in the week ended May 14, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. His last album, "Prairie Wind," started at No. 11 last September with 72,000 copies sold its first week.
"Living With War," featuring the single "Let's Impeach the President," did do better than Young's 2003 concept album "Greendale," which opened at No. 22 with 42,000 copies.
And this is with the to-be-expected raves from those whom fancy themselves as pop-music critics writing for various mainstream media outlets...Are you listening, Hollywood? Or do you want to try Syrianna a few more times?
Gateway Pundit tells of some graduation speakers who are getting a similar response to what Neil Young is seeing. Jeez, makes you think that these polls might be rigged or something...
UPDATE: Time magazine darlings The Dixie Chicks fail to get the memo...
The veteran Canadian {Young} rocker's "Living With War" opened at No. 15 with sales of 60,000 units in the week ended May 14, according to data from Nielsen SoundScan. His last album, "Prairie Wind," started at No. 11 last September with 72,000 copies sold its first week.
"Living With War," featuring the single "Let's Impeach the President," did do better than Young's 2003 concept album "Greendale," which opened at No. 22 with 42,000 copies.
And this is with the to-be-expected raves from those whom fancy themselves as pop-music critics writing for various mainstream media outlets...Are you listening, Hollywood? Or do you want to try Syrianna a few more times?
Gateway Pundit tells of some graduation speakers who are getting a similar response to what Neil Young is seeing. Jeez, makes you think that these polls might be rigged or something...
UPDATE: Time magazine darlings The Dixie Chicks fail to get the memo...