Newark Star-Ledger Hates America, Loves the UN

Sometimes the brave stand alone...other times it is the incredibly stupid who find themselves shouting into an empty room. May I introduce you to the editorial board of the Newark Star-Ledger, who find U.N deputy secretary-general Mark Malloch Brown's anti-American speech praiseworthy, while finding John Bolton's defense of America to be "undiplomatic":

It was, as the U.N.'s deputy secretary-general, Mark Malloch Brown, acknowledged, "a rather un-U.N. speech" in which he offered a "constructive critique" of American attitudes toward the U.N. Undoubtedly he knew it would cause a flap. But U.S. Ambassador John Bolton's rageful response seems both disproportionate to the offense and counterproductive.

Not a very U.N. speech, true, but one tailored for Americans, who prefer their opinions unvarnished. Malloch Brown bluntly chided the U.S. for working closely with the U.N. on many issues while subverting it publicly and withholding funding. That the speech notably failed to concede some spectacular U.N. failures or weaknesses, administrative and ethical, doesn't detract from the merits of some of its criticism.

Note how the Star-Ledger does not mention exactly what Brown said:

-he criticized the United States for "failing to stand up for" the UN "against its domestic critics."
-by saying 'The U.N.'s role is in effect a secret in Middle America even as it is highlighted in the Middle East and other parts of the world,'' Brown quite clearly buys into the liberal Eastern elites/European Union's certainty that the bulk of the United States is made up of rednecked idiots.

And if the Star-Ledger had any courage, instead of alluding to "spectacular UN failures", they might have listed some of them clearly, so that their obviously dim-witted Middle American readership could understand them better - for instance:
-taking bribes from Saddam Hussien in order to ignore his flagrant violations of UN Sanctions
-deploying peacekeepers whose best skill seems to be raping underage girls
-engaging in hateful anti-semitism at a level that would make Herr Goebbels proud
-allowing the most egregious human rights offenders to chair the Council on Human Rights

The list goes on and on, but why bother when you can just turn around and bash Bolton (and by extension, the very Americans he is defending)?

Bolton could have responded with an invitation to lunch to sort out these charges. Instead he unleashed rhetorical shock and awe....
Too bad Bolton chose such a U.N.-like response. It's at least partly the failure of U.N. members to move beyond the airless formality of diplomatic kabuki that has made the organization static, timid and, often, hypocritical. Malloch Brown's speech was an effort to open a window, which Bolton promptly closed again.

So you see, the Star-Ledger believes that is is OK to bash America with an admittedly "un-UN speech"; however, it is wrong to reply in an "UN-like " style. When someone questions your integrity and intelligence (and the UN has shown little of either), don't defend yourself - buy them lunch and meet them halfway! Maybe the editorialists at this Jersey rag would like to shake hands with Brown and agree that "Americans are not stupid; they're just really, really, slow!"

This wasn't an "open window" - it was an attack by a high-level UN official, one with strong ties to the Democratic party and lefties like George Soros - from the New York Sun:

[Brown] has had well publicized run-ins with several press critics, and his Washington contacts have proved to be mostly Democrats. Republicans were irked at his close ties with his landlord, the financier George Soros, who last year reportedly financed a campaign to oppose the nomination of Mr. Bolton as U.N. ambassador.

Obviously, this Brown is a man only the Star-Ledger can love. Personally, I'd rather be standing with John Bolton than with the man who throws rhetorical bombshells at my country. But hey, I'm not an editorial writer at the Ledger....

John Murtha, House Majority Leader?

Well, that's exactly what we might get, should the Democrats recapture the House in November. I wouldn't put it past that staunch defender of America, that true patriot, John Murtha, who in the past has said such things as the following...

“Our troops have become the primary target of the insurgency. ... We have become a catalyst for violence. It's time to bring them home.”
{Of course, Zaqawri would be running Iraq now, but...}

"We're the targets ... we're uniting the enemy against us,”
{No shpit, genius - we are fighting the insurgents}

“We're overextended worldwide, ... We have too small an Army for the job that we're doing, yet we can't increase the size of the Army because it's volunteer and we can't enlist anybody"
{a lie - enlistment is up}

"The troops don't know what to do."
{that's really supporting the troops, Johnny boy!}

"All of Iraq must know that Iraq is free. Free from United States occupation. I believe this will send a signal to the Sunnis to join the political process for the good of a "free" Iraq. "
{Osama bin Ladin calls for Iraq to be free from US occupation! No, wait, that was House majority leader John Murtha!)

...the Army is "broken, worn out" and "living hand to mouth,"
(more lies..}

'Marines over-reacted... and killed innocent civilians in cold blood,' Congressman John Murtha, a former marine, told the Washington Post.
{Whatever happened to "innocent until proven guilty? Or does that only apply to terror suspects at Gitmo?}

....to be given the opportunity by the Democratic party to run the House of Representatives! The Washington Post reports:

Rep. John P. Murtha (Pa.), one of the Democrats' leading antiwar voices, startled his political colleagues yesterday by announcing he would seek a senior leadership position if the Democrats win control of the House in November.
In a letter that he circulated on the floor during a series of votes, Murtha said he is eyeing the No. 2 position. "If we prevail as I hope and know we will and return to the majority this next Congress, I have decided to run for the open seat of the Majority Leader," Murtha wrote.

Just remember, when you pull the lever next to the (D) in November, you are voting for John Murtha as well, and all of the miserable, hateful things (and outright lies) he has said about our troops and our country.

Please think twice!

The Nick and Cindy Show!

Seems like Mr. Michael Berg, father of Nicholas Berg, whose throat was cut open in front of the cameras by al-Zarqawi, is trying to outdo Cindy Sheehan...from Daimination:

The father of Nicholas Berg, a U.S. contractor believed to have been beheaded by Abu Musab al-Zarqawi in Iraq, said Thursday that al-Zarqawi's killing will only perpetuate the cycle of violence in the Middle East.
"I think al-Zarqawi's death is a double tragedy," Michael Berg told The Associated Press after learning a U.S. airstrike had killed the leader of al-Qaida in Iraq. "His death will incite a new wave of revenge. George Bush and al-Zarqawi are two men who believe in revenge."
[...]
Berg said the blame for most deaths in Iraq should be placed on President Bush, who he said is "more of a terrorist than Zarqawi."
"Zarqawi felt my son's breath on his hand as held the knife against his throat. Zarqawi had to look in his eyes when he did it," Berg added, pausing to collect himself. "George Bush sits there glassy-eyed in his office with pieces of paper and condemns people to death. That to me is a real terrorist."

That's what he told the Associated Press. Here's what he told Reuters:

"I don't think that Zarqawi is himself responsible for the killings of hundreds of thousands of people in Iraq," Berg said in a combative television interview with the U.S. Fox News network. " I think George Bush is.
"George Bush is the one that invaded this country, George Bush is the one that destabilized it so that Zarqawi could get in, so that Zarqawi had a need to get in, to defend his region of the country from American invaders." [Zarqawi was from Jordan - DJP]

When an Islamist Web site showed the video of a man severing Berg's head, the CIA said Zarqawi was probably the one wielding the knife. The father said he was not convinced.
"I have been lied to by my own government," he told Reuters on Thursday.

These are some really off the wall, hateful remarks. But I am starting to wonder about folk like Michael Berg and Cindy Sheehan...how badly psychologically damaged have they been by the deaths of their children?
There is no doubt that the loss of a child has to be one of the most gut-wrenching emotional events that can occur in one's lifetime; it is simply unnatural:

A rich man asked a Zen master to write something down that could encourage the prosperity of his family for years to come. It would be something that the family could cherish for generations.

On a large piece of paper, the master wrote, "Father dies, son dies, grandson dies."
The rich man became angry when he saw the master's work. "I asked you to write something down that could bring happiness and prosperity to my family. Why do you give me something depressing like this?"

"If your son should die before you," the master answered, "this would bring unbearable grief to your family. If your grandson should die before your son, this also would bring great sorrow. If your family, generation after generation, disappears in the order I have described, it will be the natural course of life. This is true happiness and prosperity."

So it would not surprise me if Mr. Berg and Ms. Sheehan have lost some touch with reality; it is probably not uncommon in this case. But that would make them mentally unbalanced, a little sick, a little disturbed. If that is the case, what does one say about the left-wing groups like MoveOn and CodePink, as well as the idiots on Kos, who exploit these people and their tragic pain/illness in order to further their own political agenda?
And what does that say about the media, who constantly follow these folks around, annointing them with "absolute moral authority", and giving them attention way out of perspective with the limited following they have, all in order to push their own anti-war agenda?

It is a sad day, a sad time, when political movements, aided by mainstream media outlets, exploit and abuse emotionally damaged individuals in this way. There is no doubt that in short order, these two will be disposed of by all except the hardcore lefties, and Nick and Cindy will find themselves alone, utterly alone, except for a deep-set psychological void that will become a chasm; one that they will most likely fall into and lose themselves in for the rest of their lives.
If the people who are using the Bergs/Sheehans of the world had an ounce of shame, they would be feeling it right about now.

For me, well, I have bashed Cindy and Michael Berg in the past, but I will try to avoid doing so in the future. I will continue to hate the message, but I will feel only sadness and pity for the messenger.

As for those whom use and exploit sick people for their own selfish ends...they are beneath my contempt.

al-Zarqawi Eliminated; Satan prepares a spot...

Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, al-Qaida's leader in Iraq who led a bloody campaign of suicide bombings and kidnappings, has been killed in an air strike, U.S. and Iraqi officials said Thursday, adding that his identity was confirmed by fingerprints and a look at his face. It was a major victory in the U.S.-led war in Iraq and the broader war on terror.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said al-Zarqawi was killed along with seven aides Wednesday evening in a remote area 30 miles northeast of Baghdad in the volatile province of Diyala, just east of the provincial capital of Baqouba, al-Maliki said.

The announcement came six days after the Jordanian-born terror leader issued an audiotape on the Internet, railing against Shiites in Iraq and saying militias were raping women and killing Sunnis and the community must fight back.
Al-Maliki said the air strike was the result of intelligence reports provided to Iraqi security forces by residents in the area, and U.S. forces acted on the information.

A Jordanian official said that Jordan also provided the U.S. military with information that helped in tracking al-Zarqawi down. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was addressing intelligence issues, would not elaborate, but Jordan is known to have intelligence agents operating in Iraq to hunt down Islamic militants.
Some of the information came from Jordan's sources inside Iraq and led the U.S. military to the area of Baqouba, the official said.

Baqouba has in recent weeks seen a spike in sectarian violence, including the discovery of 17 severed heads in fruit boxes. It was also near the site of a sectarian atrocity last week in which masked gunmen killed 21 Shiites, including a dozen students, after separating out four Sunni Arabs.

Points to ponder:

-Good thing we didn't cut and run John Murtha-style a few months back, otherwise this spitbag would be running Iraq instead of being laid to rest in a pressboard coffin.
-since apparently some of the intelligence came from inside the province he was holed up in, there is much less support for the insurgents (and their horrific practice of murder and mayhem) than the media would have you believe.
-we are getting help from Jordan, an Arab state - I guess they don't hate us after all. But we are still unilateralists until France gets on board, right?
-how soon will the media tell us that the offing of al-Zarqawi has "created even more terrorists in his stead"? Or how quickly do they push it aside to tell us the "real issue" is the show trial of the Marines in Haditha?

It doesn't matter. Today is a good day.

Oh, Canada!

Bud Talkinghorn speaks of the Canadian media's response to the raids which netted a home-grown Islamist terror cell, and points out the (lack of) response of Canada's Muslim community as well:

...the usual spokesmen for the Islamic diaspora maintained that this was an isolated incident, thus had nothing to do with "true" peaceful Islam. CBC's role in pumping out this message, while secretly trying to cast doubt on the entire raid was rather obvious. One method was to yoke reportage on the Canadian terrorist cell to a possibly botched anti-terrorism raid in England. Then there was the notorious Monday interview with Ali Hindy, the radical imam from the Salaheddin Islamic Center. The CBC interviewer mostly just let Hindy rant away about the Canadian security forces, which he claimed were targeting young Muslim men for no reason. His best denunciations were "[The raids were] just so departments can justify their budgets...This is to keep George W Bush happy, that's all." The only surprise was, not that the interviewer didn't vociferously attack his illogical, paranoid interpretations--that was expected--but that Hindy didn't claim that all the arrested were actually undercover Mossad agents....

Where are the urgent cries from our Muslims to disband the virulent terror blog sites, or to investigate the anti-western rhetoric flowing out of their mosques and education (indoctrination) centers? Or even for a call to Muslims to end their self-imposed exile from mainstream Canadian attitudes? What we are getting instead is this self-serving pap about Canadian racism and Islamophobia. Meanwhile Fahim Bukari, the Director of the Missasauga Islamic Center admitted that Qayyam Jamal, a volunteer there, was a close friend of five of the arrested youths. He had been warned by numerous people, including a Liberal MP, that the man was dangerous radical. Bukari admitted he wasn't surprised by the raid and Mr. Jamal's role in it. Yet no attempt was made to ban him from the center. Rather suspicious behaviour for a director who claims to be a moderate.

Come to think of it, I've rarely heard any overt criticism of the worldwide atrocites committed in Allah's name...

No, no, NO, Bud - you obviously don't get it...you see, it's a "Religion of Peace"....whatever the problem is, it cannot, must not, originate from the Muslims...so it has to be you, you - you - racist SOB!

Yeah, that's the ticket...

UPDATE: Rachael Mardsen, where have you been? A conservative Canuck concurs:

As the authorities have said, "It's important to note this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community or ethnocultural group" - right before revealing a list of suspect names that read like a cast list for Osama bin Laden's "E! True Hollywood Story."

Some suspects are "Canadian citizens," authorities say. Right - nothing but toque-wearing, maple-syrup-loving, Wayne "Mohammed" Gretzkys.

They know how to play us, anyway. A lawyer for one suspect is already threatening civil lawsuits. Another complained about tactical police officers with guns just outside the courthouse during the suspects' first appearance....

Up until the recent election of a Conservative government, Canada has been the doofus who keeps getting shoved into lockers, but still figures that if he gives up more lunches and bus money, the haranguing will end.

Yet the new Conservative government under Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already denounced Iran and Hamas, deported illegal immigrants and told anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan to shove it during a recent visit.

There's a new sheriff in town. But will the townspeople will back him up?

Today's Best!

Oh, those wacky "enviornmentalists" ...Tim Blair reports:

Puzzling thing about environmentalists; for folks dedicated to Gaia, they’re oddly given to analysing the planet according to narrow human-centric measures. For example:

The world’s deserts are being threatened “as never before”, particularly by climate change, but can still be used as a key resource if action is taken to protect them, according to a report released on Monday.

Those deserts were formerly lakes or forests or something else other than deserts. But it is their current status—as deserts, during the relatively brief time in which environmentalists are alive to stare at them—which must be preserved. Weird, no? Same deal with the once-tropical North Pole, now forbidden to return to its previous Gaia-ordained condition. Change is the planet’s normal state; why do environmentalists wish to arrest it? Why are they anti-nature?

And Damian Penny gets an answer to " What would Jesus drive?":

A letter from Jack Wolock of Columbus, Ohio - wonder if Ranald knows him? - in the July Car and Driver:

Would Jesus drive an SUV? Of course. Here's why: The total gas consumption of three VW Beetles - or six Mazda Miatas - to haul Jesus and his apostles would be far greater than if he drove the largest SUV. (Only Judas would have had to walk.)

Not quite. The Chevy Suburban has seating for eight, and the much-maligned Ford Excursion only carries nine passengers. (In any event, the Excursion ceased production last year.) On the other hand, if our Lord had an extended-body Ford E-350 van, he could chauffeur around not only his disciples - including Judas, who presumably would be relegated to the back row - but even his wife and kid.

American Marines are brutal baby killers! Wait, they're not!

"A reader captures what has been in my mind and gut for the last few days: 'The BBC just released a video alleging yet another covered-up massacre of civilians by American personel [sic] in Iraq. 5 women, 4 children, and 2 men in Ishaqi in March. Just when I think I'm totally numb, I find out a fellow American may have executed a 6 month-old baby in the name of protecting me, and I can't hold back tears. What country are we in?' The same country that now practices torture. Cheney country."--Time magazine's Andrew Sullivan, June 2, 2:55 p.m.

"The conclusions about Ishaqi also seem to me to be provisional. More evidence may yet emerge. We should be cautious about drawing any firm conclusions yet."--Time magazine's Andrew Sullivan, June 2, 7:54 p.m., responding to the news that an investigation has cleared U.S. troops of wrongdoing at Ishaqi

Finally...is Iran's spiritual leader reading the Washington Post?

Ayatollah Khamenei called on America's ruling administration to compare it with the Iranian government and its president with the Iranian President so that it realizes its status in the world.
"At present, the American administration is one of the most abhorred administrations in the American history, while the Iranian serving administration is one of the most popular administrations since the Mashrooteh constitutional revolution a century ago ," the IR Leader said.

Nothing like starting your week off with a little treason!

Thank You, Bill Clinton !

MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Islamic militia said Monday it has seized Somalia's capital after weeks of bloody fighting and 15 years of anarchy in this Horn of Africa nation, raising fears that the nation could fall under the sway of al-Qaida....

The militia appeared in control of Mogadishu. Most of the leaders of a secular alliance that opposed them — and was rumored to be backed by the United States — appeared to have fled the city by Monday afternoon...
U.S. officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter, said recently that three al-Qaida leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania are being sheltered by Islamic leaders in Mogadishu.
The same al-Qaida cell is believed responsible for the 2002 suicide bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed 15 people and a simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner...

Mogadishu residents expressed relief at Monday's relative peace, but had mixed responses to the Islamic militia's advance.
"The Somali people are afraid of Islamists' new wave of hatred and renewed fighting. The Islamic clerics want to be like Taliban regime in Afghanistan" said Abdulqaadir Bashir, a computer engineer.
But Somali economist Abdinasir Ahmed disagreed, saying: "The victory of Islamic courts is a major step toward a lasting peaceful settlement in Mogadishu. We are tired of the deception and rhetoric of the warlords."

Ralph Peters warned us of this eventuality just a few days ago; take a look back at that post dated 5/31:

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.

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...

Anyone listening yet?

Islamists Conquer England!

While fighting Islamic fundamentalism abroad, the British have allowed it to win at home. A nation that had been protect by the fortitude of its spirit and the ocean around it has been destroyed by the cancer of liberal multiculturalism, which allowed the sickness of Islamofascism to take hold.

Hyperbole, you say? Well, the state run news organ, the venerable BBC, seems to be completely under the control of the Islamists...how else does one explain this piece "In Pictures: remembering Khomeini", a slideshow glorifying the father of Islamist terrorism, without one word of his hate, his evil, his antisemitism, his inner sickness?

All we get is is beatific visage, gracing us with his good:

And via LGF, we get this:

England afraid to fly its own flag

Following warnings by extremist Islamic group al-Muhajiroun, in which the group said that the red cross in the England flag symbolizes the 'blood thirsty crusaders' and the occupation of Muslims, some of the largest companies in England have ordered their workers not to wave the flags.

...the Islamic protest forced some corporations, such as cable companies NTL, Heathrow airport in London, and even the Drivers and Vehicles Licensing Agency to ban the flag in every form due to fears from reactions of Muslims.
The Sun tabloid newspaper has in recent days launched a campaign to bring back the flag, and has published a blacklist of companies preventing their workers from expressing their patriotism at work.

So the BBC is spewing terrorist propoganda, the nation has essentially pulled down its flag, and the jihadis work unabated to strengthen their position through fear:

British anti-terrorist officers searched a house and two workplaces on Saturday for traces of a possible chemical bomb they fear could be used in an attack in Britain.
The search followed a police raid on the house in the east of the capital a day earlier in which a 23-year-old suspect was shot and wounded.
Behind a wall of plastic sheeting, police scoured the house in an ethnically mixed area of east London for signs of toxins or explosives following a dawn raid at the property on Friday.

"What we are looking for is some form of viable chemical device," a police source told Reuters of the search at the house.
"A device that would have a fatal effect on someone standing nearby both from the explosion and from the chemical it contained," the source said, adding that the device being sought was a type of conventional bomb surrounded by toxic material.

Just about game over, folks - we've moved beyond Dunkirk, there is no one who dares fight anymore. Melanie Phillips (finally getting some recognition here in the States) writes of Londonistan in today's New York Post:
London was dubbed "Londonistan" because, during the 1990s, Britain allowed its capital to be turned into the principal hub of Islamist radicalism and terrorism outside of Saudi Arabia. But Londonistan is more than the physical presence of Islamist extremists: It is also a state of mind. A systematic, decades-long assault on Britain's values from within has created a cultural vacuum that Islamist extremism has exploited from without.

Islamist radicals have poured into Britain since the 1980s precisely because of Britain's tradition of free speech, reluctance to impose immigration controls and generous welfare state.
At the same time, British culture was steadily disintegrating.

Unlike America, which still believes that its values are a beacon to the rest of the world, Britain has been consumed by a loss of cultural nerve that has all but destroyed its belief in itself as a nation with values of which it can be proud.

Instead, its governing class believes the nation is the source of all ills from prejudice to war, and that legitimacy resides instead in supranational institutions such as the United Nations and European Union and in "universal" values like the European Convention on Human Rights, which must trump Britain's own.
In the past, the strategy was to integrate immigrants into the majority culture. No longer. The doctrine of multiculturalism holds that all groups have equal status. Except they are not in fact equal, because the majority is said to be inherently racist and illegitimate - so there can be no majority culture into which immigrants are encouraged to integrate.

MULTICULTURALISM plus radical Islam is an explosive cocktail...

Indeed it is, Ms. Phillips....methinks the fallout from Britain's misguided policies has not yet even begun...

Radical Islam's War against The West - Sunday Roundup

Well, we can start with radical Islam's war against slightly less radical branches of Islam:

Gunmen dragged passengers off a buses northeast of Baghdad and killed 21 people, including a dozen high school students. The attackers spared four Sunni Arabs... The 12 slain students were apparently headed for Baqouba to take exams.
Of the dead, 19 were Shiite Turkomen and two were Kurds....

In Baghdad, gunmen in a car opened the fire on a minibus carrying telecommunications employees to work in the Shiite slum of Sadr City, killing four and wounding two, Col. Hassan Challoub said.
On Saturday, a suicide car bomber blew himself up in a crowded market late in Basra, killing 28 people and wounding 62.

Hey, where is the word "massacre", by the way? Why do I hear it applied against the Marines who are alleged to have shot civilians after a firefight, but not against terrorists who execute high school students and slaughter shoppers in a market?

And in Canada, our sweet, peaceful, and somewhat gullible neighbors to the North found that certain kinds of cancer flourish best in those conditions:

Seventeen Canadian residents were arrested and charged with plotting to attack targets in southern Ontario with crude but powerful fertilizer bombs, the Canadian authorities said Saturday.

At a news conference in Toronto, police and intelligence officials said they had been monitoring the group for some time and moved in to make the arrests on Friday after the group arranged to take delivery of three tons of ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer that can be made into an explosive when combined with fuel oil.
"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," said Mike McDonell, a Royal Canadian Mounted Police assistant commissioner. He said that by comparison the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people, was carried out "with only one ton of ammonium nitrate."

The 17 men were mainly of South Asian descent and most were in their teens or early 20's.

Now, I specifically used the New York Times as the source here because, besides the oblique reference to "South Asian descent", there is no mention at all in the article that this group was made up of Muslim extremists. It isn't until the end of the story, when the Times lists the names of the arrested, that one infers that this is a Muslim terror cell. Again, the Times protects the enemy - had this group been comprised of Jews, or Republicans, it would have been part of the headline, of course....

Quick Question - how had the group been "monitored"? The article mentions that internet exchanges had been under scrutiny for some time; where telephone calls monitored as well? 'Cause if so, then these poor terroris - I mean poor victims - have had their civil rights violated and should be freed immediately!

Sexion has some excellent commentary - here:

This is happening in Canada, the flag of which Americans supposedly affix to their backpacks when traveling abroad. For anyone who understands what this terrorist threat is all about, this is no surprise. Those who don’t, what will they attribute this to? Will they claim it is Canadian imperialism, military oppression, unilateralism, or involvement in Afghanistan? Of course they won’t. So what then?

And points out the liberal's silence on the surveillance issue here-

The Toronto Star also reports that the arrests resulted by use of internet surveillance by Canada’s intelligence service, CSIS, which was also one of the targets of those arrested. This comes a day after prominent liberal blogs were beside themselves that the US government wants to enact similar legislation as exists in the EU, forcing Internet Service Providers to keep records about their members’ usage for up to two years

And while the jihadis in North America and abroad work to commit mass murder, the Washington Post helps them out by putting sweeping conclusions about Haditha on its front page:

Who lied about the killings, who knew the truth and what, if anything, they did about it are at the core of one of the potentially most embarrassing and damaging events of the Iraq war, one that some say may surpass the detainee abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison.

Hmmm..."damaging events"? How about dragging kids off of school buses to be shot in the head, or killing 40 people shopping for food in a market? How "damaging" is that? That's one day's worth of work to your precious insurgents, and yet apparently it pales to a few smacked-around Iraqi prisoners and the "event" in Haditha, where very, very few of the facts have even come to light...

And where is John Murtha today ? I would like to hear him explain how leaving Iraq in the hands of the butchers of Baghdad and Basra is in any way a good thing....

Finally, Kathy Shaidle at Relapsed Catholic has some sound advice for her fellow Canadians:

Regardless of whether or not immigration built this country, it may now destroy it. If you persist in believing all your "Heritage Moment" pieties you are a delusional coward. Female fetuses are being selectively aborted, buildings are targeted for destruction, elected officials are harrassed by "refugee rights" activists, innocent bystanders are being shot by gangs because we refuse to acknowledge that all cultures are not created equal and not everyone can be allowed into our country.

(And if you are one of my many American readers: please stop basing your immigration policy on a bad poem engraved on an ugly French statue...)

Liberal guilt and decades of brainwashing has blinded even the best of us. And it will cost you the very culture you so cherish. Dear "socially liberal" conservatives: There will be no "gay marriage" under sharia. All those "cute" exotic cafes will be riddled with bullets. Your daughters will wear burquas. Secular humanism will not save you -- it is in fact the very cause of our problem. You think being nice will save you. Remember what Perry Smith told the cops: "I thought Mr. Clutter was a very nice gentleman. I thought so right up to the moment I cut his throat."

For once in your life, get mad about something...

Alas, for the folks at the Times, or the WaPost, or in the Democratic party, the only folks permissible under PC doctrine to get mad at are those lousy Americans...

Haditha - Who Broke the Rules?

John Bambenek at BlogCritics points out the devious double-standard - when there is even an accusation that U.S. Marines may have broken some of the rules of engagement, the whole world gathers 'round while the foreign press ties knots in the rope. The terrorists, however, whose whole modus operendi revolves around the horror that results from the breaking of said rules, seem to enjoy limitless sympathy from the same media outlets and politcal commentators. Not to mention how hard it is to obey the rules when one side flouts their disregard for them:

...At each step, the terrorists (and they are terrorists) have not only violated the laws of war, but used those laws of war against us to further attacks on our soldiers...

The terrorists simply don't care about the civilian population. If the military mistakenly engages civilians or they hit civilian buildings after taking fire from them, the terrorists mark up another public relations victory because of the willingness of their allies on the American left to use these incidents for political gain. In this way, the terrorists are extremely intelligent… and incredibly evil.

So those who wish to sit in judgment over the Marines at Haditha (before the investigation is even completed, mind you) manage to put on the blinders and refuse to consider how the actions of the terrorists almost guarantee these events will happen. If these Marines did snap and break the laws of war, they will be tried and punished. It is a shame, however, that no one seems to stand up for the soldiers who have to put up with an enemy who consistently breaks those laws.

You would hope that the media would help us to understand these distinctions, but alas, that is not to be - Michelle Malkin tells us how the UK Times used this picture next to a headline entitled "Massacre Marines blinded by hate:"

The only problem is that the identical photo ran in Newsweek in May of 2005, months before the alleged massacre, with a caption reading:

Insurgents in Haditha executed 19 Shiite fishermen and National Guardsmen in a sports stadium.

So our friends in the foreign press, with no hard facts to back up these juicy allegations of Marine miscounduct, are forced to use photos of slaughters perpetuated by the insurgents in order to properly horrify their readers.

Malkin calls it slander - I call it enemy propoganda; and I believe the rules of law that the media is trumpeting so loudly here should apply to the UK Times as well.

What is the penalty for Treason these days in Great Britain?

Iran, and the Media's Disconnect from Reality

The Washington Post today has a story by Karl Vick extolling the charismatic leadership of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and how his people just love him so! Hmmm...I might add something here about how charismatic one Mr. Adolf Hitler was, and how beloved he was by the German Volk at one point, but I digress....anyway, from the article:

The ordinary Iranians who poured into the local soccer stadium to hear President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad one day last month arrived carrying high hopes and handwritten letters. They left with just the hopes. The letters were collected in oversize cardboard boxes, then hoisted into the postal van Ahmadinejad has taken to parking prominently when he barnstorms the provinces, in an audacious campaign to make every Iranian's wish come true.
"I asked for a proper house," Vaziolla Rezaei, 57, said of the appeal he addressed to His Excellency the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran. "And I also told him about my financial situation."
I mainly wrote about my husband's lack of work," said Kobra Hedyatti, 30. "And also about our poor house and how far the children have to walk to school."
"I actually wrote him two letters," said Reza Karimi, 41. "One was about the problems we have in this neighborhood. The other was about my problems.

If his image in the West is that of a banty radical dangerously out of touch with reality -- "a psychopath of the worst kind," in the words of Israel's prime minister -- the prevailing impression in Iran is precisely the opposite.
Here, ordinary people marvel at how their president comes across as someone in touch, as populist candidate turned caring incumbent

Ordinary people marvel at their president, huh? OK, now let's see what Gateway Pundit is reporting form Iran at this moment:

Despite repression and undeclared martial law over 10,000 Iranians took to the streets to protest the regime on Wednesday in Tabriz, Iran:
People took to the streets of central Tabriz chanting anti-regime slogans, NCRI informs. Special guards intervened to disperse the crowd but they faced stiff resistance which led to clashes in many parts. According to eye witness accounts the sound of fire arms did not stop throughout the demonstration which lasted for hours. People attacked banks and other government buildings and broke their windows. To neutralize the effect of tear gas, the young people set fire to tires on streets and clashed with the suppressive forces. Similar protests were reported in Orumieh, Naghadeh and Ardabil, major cities in Azeri speaking provinces in northwestern Iran. Security forces have been going door to door in Naghadeh in search for young people. Those found have been transferred to unknown locations. The regime is refusing to hand back corpses of those killed in Naghdadeh during riots over the past week and the lives of many wounded are threatened as they do not receive medical attention.

The Iranian regime sent in 3,000 suppressive forces to contain the continuing protests against the regime in the Tabriz region:
Up to 3,000 reinforcements had to be brought in from other parts of the country, NCRI reports. Reports from Tabriz indicate that dozens of banks and government buildings have been attacked and their windows shattered by young people in total defiance of the repressive measures enforced in the city. In one incident a woman protesting against the regime was attacked and badly beaten up by the suppressive forces before the eyes of her husband and passers-by. The government forces are taking away mobile phones with cameras in a bid to stop reports and photos leak out. Even so some pictures have been sent out with great risks.

Hey, Karl Vick! These are "ordinary Iranians" too!

Notice the woman on the right with the cellphone camera? No wonder the "charismatic followers" of the Iranian President were confiscating them!
Ah, the beating of female protesters...the sign of a loving regime! But hey, they are allowed to attend soccer games now! What could they be complaining about?

I wonder if Mr Vick has a true grasp of what is going on in Iran, or if he is only speaking with people that his government-approved handlers permit him to.

Or is it all part of an agenda, trying to create a perception within Americans that Ahmadinejad is not really dangerous, but a good liberal (like Hugo Chavez!) with the full support of his people? A man whom it would be morally wrong to ever use military force against, no matter how insane and belligerent his speech may be, and no matter how many nuclear weapons he intends to build?

The final kicker, the coda, the last laugh line, especially when considering the pictures above and the reporting from Gateway Pundit, is the title of Vick's story in the WaPost:

"A Man of the People's Needs and Wants"

Haditha !

Well, the JerseyNut prefers to withhold judgement until all the facts are out - unlike John al-Murtha:

"Who covered it up, why did they cover it up, why did they wait so long?" Murtha said on "This Week" on ABC. "We don't know how far it goes. It goes right up the chain of command."

John says we don't know how far it goes, than claims it goes right up the chain of command...how long until Murtha accuses Bush of pulling the trigger? Anyway, while the good people of NCIS are trying to sort out the facts, Sweetness and Light has a few facts of her own, about some of the people making the accusations against the Marines:

Given the breathless coverage (actually only repetition of the same paltry facts) from our one party media about the civilian deaths in Haditha, I am surprised that we have heard nothing about the curious background of one of the first journalists to report the story, Ali Omar Abrahem al-Mashhadani, from the "restive town" of Ramadi.
It turns out Mr. al-Mashhadani might not have felt the kindliest intentions towards the US, having been imprisoned for five months mere weeks before his Haditha scoop.

Indeed, al-Mashhadani has since been detained by the US again, for two weeks. In fact he was only released today.
From his employer, Reuters:

Though again no specific allegation or charge was leveled against him, U.S. officials said last week he was held as a security threat. Marines interrogated him intensively about his work as a journalist in the restive Sunni province of Anbar.

Mashhadani, who reports and provides video and pictures, is one of a small number of journalists providing news from Anbar province, where U.S. Marines and Sunni Arab insurgents, including al Qaeda militants, are locked in a fierce conflict...

Among Mashhadani’s recent stories was reporting from the town of Haditha in March. Following Time magazine’s revelation of accusations that U.S. Marines shot dead 24 civilians there in November, he filmed fresh interviews with local officials and residents that were widely used by international media

So we have an al-Reuters employee with obvious terrorist ties and a deep grudge against the United States as the world's primary provider of information about the alleged massacre of civilians in Haditha. Again, I will use the word alleged, until more facts are out and charges are brought to bear. But it reminds me of the "massacre" of Palestinian citizens in Jenin; a big lie put out by terrorist news services and eagerly lapped up by a foreign media eager to believe any allegation of atrocities by the Israelis, no matter how thinly sourced.

And how about the doctor, one Dr. Walid Al-Obeidi, who filled out the death certificates claiming the civilians of Haditha were executed at point-blank range? Why, he has some interesting allegations of his own:

Dr.Walid said "they [the Americans] arrested me in my house in front of my family, covered my eyes, and tied my hands to the back on Oct 5 2005 morning, during the last attack on Haditha (360 kilometers west of Baghdad). They occupied the hospital for 8 days and made it their office. The first day they beat me on my eyes, nose, back, hands, legs… My face was covered with blood . When they removed the tie I could not see. They investigated me until the afternoon. I realized later that I was arrested in the hospital store. Then they tied my hands to the front, and left me for two days...

Sounds like another impartial observer! Sweet Jeebus, the guy runs a hospital in a town wholly owned and operated by Sunni insurgents and outside terrorist groups - what do you expect him to do, sing "America the Beautiful"?
While his hostility towards the U.S. is most likely genuine, his story is most likely false, but that won't stop the media from making him their number one quote machine, behind the terrorist-sympathizer Mashhadani and his videotape full of "testimonials"...

Herr Goebbels must be smiling at his proteges....

UPDATE 6/2: The Mudville Gazette tears the reporting on Haditha apart - it is Jenin, all over again...

Snatching Defeat from Victory: A Democrat's Tale...

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...

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.

It's gonna be a long, hot summer in Paris this year as the jihadis feel their oats...better make your vacation plans elsewhere....

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...

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...

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:

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...

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?

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?