A Halloween Tale of Terror; For My Democratic Friends...

Cue the Twilight Zone theme; fade to the stunned and slackjawed faces of Democrats and their media hacks, as the ground spins below them as the skies above - we awaken(?) to find ourselves in the year...2004???? HOW CAN THIS BE HAPPENING...AGAIN????

With less than a week until midterm congressional elections that will help determine the course of the final quarter of his presidency, the President is summoning the formidable campaign skills that helped him triumph in the primaries and general election of 2000, and win electoral and popular victories in 2004.
It's all back: The darkened halls that explode in spotlights as the President takes the stage. His frenzied hand-over-hand greeting of a few lucky audience members as he races to the podium. And the contagious country music, from Brooks and Dunn "dreaming in read white and blue" to Texan Pat Green proclaiming: "You came upon me, wave on wave. You're the reason I'm still here, yeah." The crowd in Sugar Land, formerly represented by Rep. Tom DeLay, was treated to one of the greatest shows on earth: the President's chopper taxiing up to the hangar door, an aide racing his speech to the podium with the engine still running, then the President entering to the theme from Harrison Ford's "Air Force One."

With the crowd waving pom-poms, Old Glory and little Lone Star flags, Bush said hoarsely that he's "looking forward to sprinting to the finish line," and declared that the Democrats were doing some premature celebrating.

Can the fiendishly clever, diabolically evil George W. Bush somehow steal another election that rightfully belongs to the Democratic Party? Will the twisted Spawn of Satan himself, the accursed Karl Rove, let loose his dark hordes of Evangelical Christians upon the voting booths, verily tilting them to the right? Will Lucy pull the football away from Charlie Brown one more time, leaving him sprawled upon the ground, foot and ankle asunder, forced to hear the gales of laughter emitting from his tormentor?

But fear not, my friends on the Left! This is only a spooky Halloween tale....OR IS IT?

Liberal Hot Air Causing Global Warming?

Unchecked global warming will devastate the world economy on the scale of the world wars and the Great Depression, a major British report said Monday.

British Treasury chief Gordon Brown, who commissioned the report, said former Vice President
Al Gore, who has dedicated much time to warning of the effects of global warming, would advise the British government on climate change.

So Al Gore is in the employ of a foreign government; one who wants to cut back 1% of the world's GDP in order to battle Mother Nature. Would be nice if they actually would put some of that same effort into, oh, I don't know....maybe fighting terrorism? Now there is a plauge that has demonstrably killed thousands of people; and can certainly devastate the world's economy with one suitcase nuke. But no, despite the piles of bodies all across the globe, we need to spend more time talking about terrorism, and trying to appease it. Kind of like combatting global warming with a sacrifice to the thunder gods at the stone temple.... that'll cool things off!

And lo! We have infidels at the gates!

Richard Tol, senior research officer at Ireland's Economic and Social Research Institute, called Stern's report alarmist, saying it overestimated the impact of climate change.

Stephen Milloy:

Stern’s report apparently claims that climate change could cause the worst global recession in recent history, according to a report in the UK newspaper The Guardian (Oct. 26).

This bizarre conclusion – which somehow spins the higher energy prices and reduced energy available associated with greenhouse gas regulation into an economic boon – should come as no surprise as Stern foreshadowed his thoughts earlier this year in a discussion paper entitled, “What is the economics of climate change?”
In that paper, Stern asserted that “the science… actually shapes all the economics that follows” and that “the overwhelming weight of scientific opinion supports the view that climate change represents a real and growing threat.”

There is no doubt that Stern’s first assertion is correct – science remains the pivotal point of the global warming controversy. But what about his latter point? Is the science settled?

Milloy uses scientific method to question the existence of global warming; but he's most likely wasting his time, as this movement has become a religious doctrine for the Left; with non-believers being shouted down and excommunicated from the faith for daring to ask questions. Somewhere, Copernicus and Galileo weep....

It astounds me - the fossil history of the globe clearly shows evidence of multiple climatic shifts over the eons; from warm streches lasting thousands of years to ice ages lasting twently times that length. Yet the liberals ignore this proven history of the globe (gonna deny the ice age? check out the Canadian rocks sitting in Central Park...) to insist with self-rightous smugness that a stray degree of global warming (which is not even a blink of the eye in the life of the Earth) is proof of a human-designed catastrophe, that coincidentally can only be undone by reorganizing the economic structure of every nation on Earth. How convenient!

I hate to interrupt the choir, but I have no more intention of converting to socialism to cool the globe than I would converting to Islam to prevent terrorism. Neither is effective; and both will rob us of our ability to face the real threat when (and if) it does arrive. Sorry for my inconvienent truth, Mr. Gore - and excuse me if I doubt the firebrand radicalism you are preaching, but your fear-mongering and dire warnings make the Christian Evangelicals you constantly rail against seem almost reasonable in comparison. At least some parts of the Bible can be authenticated, after all...

Election Tea Leaves !

I know, the media has already told us the fat lady has sung, and the Democrats will retake both chambers of Congress next week, and we will all be led into a blissful future by Nancy Pelosi. So stay home, Republican voters (please?), 'cause your vote won't count anyway.

Or will it? Some points to ponder, tea leaves to turn, tarot cards to be studied, I-ching trinkets to be gazed upon...first, from Gay Orbit:

The polls say Democrats. Karl Rove, appearing on All Things Considered today, says Republicans will win. So, who do you believe?
I’m somewhat more inclined to take Rove seriously. It’s not that I want Democrats to lose in November, but I know a lot about Karl Rove, and I know a bit about polls. Most of us look at national polls. But most political strategists will readily admit that Karl Rove is no idiot. He doesn’t look at national polls. He looks at local polls, district polls, neighborhood polls.

...districts are not divided up proportionately by population. A Congressional district in New York may have twice as many Democrats as a Congressional district in Alabama that is largely Republican. So while it may take a million Democratic votes to get a Democrat in in NYC, it may take a hundred thousand votes to get the Republican in in Alabama. If you took a poll of just those two districts, you’d have the Democrats winning by a landslide by virtue of their NYC votes.

That's simply Polling 101, but the media doesn't want to split hairs; it want to plant a perception, and set up a vote controversy should the Democrats fail once again.

Ann Althouse sifts through the box office reciepts, and sees Elephants:

Newmarket's very controversial Death of a President (91 theaters) did only $.06 mil Friday with a pathetic per screen average of $673 for should be a $0.21 weekend. The Weinstein Company's Dixie Chicks documentary Shut Up & Sing (4 theaters) took in $0.01 mil Friday and a disappointing $2,867 per screen average for what should be a $.04 mil weekend.

Where's the outrage? Or maybe less people have Bush assasination fantasies than the liberals think....
And is the media getting a bit nervous that despite all of their frantic spinning, their party might still lose it? From The Times:

Democrats are pushing into high gear this weekend a sharply expanded campaign to get their voters to the polls, even as some party leaders expressed anxiety that Republicans would again out-organize them in the approximately 20 House and 3 Senate races that both sides agree will determine the outcome of the midterm elections.

And here's where they agree with Gay Orbit:

Notwithstanding polls that show broad Democratic strength, control of Congress appears to rest on a relatively few races in which the candidates are separated by razor-thin margins. Those are precisely the kinds of races where turnout efforts can make a difference, and the Republicans’ track record on getting their supporters to the polls in districts they focus on is a primary reason that the White House continues to express confidence that it can at least limit Democratic gains this year.

Getting another million Democrats to turn out in NYC ain't gonna give you Congress, boys...
And more poll-fudging by the Washington Post, who obviously didn't get the memo....they bray about a ten-point Democratic lead in the Senate and Governer's races. Bo Harmon, campaign manager for incumbant Governer Robert L. Ehrlich Jr, goes justifiably nuts:

"It is simply unrealistic to think that a governor with approval ratings as high as this, who has provided record education funding and cut crime around the state is losing by 10 points to the mayor of the deadliest city in the country," said Bo Harmon, Ehrlich's campaign manager.
Harmon also called the poll's demographics "wildly skewed" since the results reflected few undecided voters...

The Corner notes:

From Rasmussen Reports: Maryland: Both races are getting a bit tighter in Maryland. Ben Cardin (D) now leads Michael Steele (R) 49% to 42%. However, when leaners are included, it's Cardin by just five points, 50% to 45%. Two weeks ago , it was Cardin by nine.

The Washington Post concedes:

In a follow-up question, about 15 percent of each candidate's supporters said there was a chance they could change their minds by Election Day....
The poll is not a prediction of Election Day but a portrait of the Maryland political landscape completed 12 days before voters go to the polls. Last-minute developments, campaign spending, get-out-the-vote efforts and enthusiasm for the candidates all could affect the final results.

So OK, your poll is just...bullspit. Thanks for burying it under your headline predicting a big Democratic win in Maryland, though. And from the poll itself, question #2 jumps right out at me:

2. Are you registered as (a Democrat), (a Republican), an independent or something else?
Dem. 56% Rep. 30% Ind. 11% Something else 3% No opinion 1%

Is the Democrat- to - Republican skew that high in Maryland? And if so, why is a state that claims to be only 30% (registered) Republican giving close to 45% of its votes (in this "poll") to Republican candidates? That's more than (allegedly) all of the Republicans and Independants combined...so what is up with that?

Now, there's a story that might be worth investigating...but I'll reckon that after some "November suprises", we'll more likely hear wide-eyed accusations of voter fraud than media admissions of inaccurate and/or lazy polling...

The Slippery Slope: From Gay Marriage to Polygamy

Thanks to the "wisdom" of the left-bent New Jersey Supreme Court, gays in New Jersey can now either legally marry or engage in civil unions - that's about the only choice the Court left to the Legislature to ponder. How they came to this conclusion is what one may call the "top of the slippery slope"; or where the fall begins. Just One Minute gives us Eugene Volokh :

I did want to note one thing -- this decision, whether you like it or not, seems to be an illustration that the slippery slope is a real phenomenon....

...for instance, an editorial in the Boston Globe, Oct. 15, 1989, at A30, said "[A proposed antidiscrimination law barring sexual orientation discrimination in credit, employment, insurance, public accommodation and housing] does not legalize 'gay marriage' or confer any right on homosexual, lesbian or unmarried heterosexual couples to 'domestic benefits.' Nor does passage of the bill put Massachusetts on a 'slippery slope' toward such rights."

And yet how did the New Jersey Supreme Court come up with its decision that homosexual marriage is a pre-ordained right? By citing the above laws as they apply in the state:

In addressing plaintiffs’ claimed interest in equality of treatment, we begin with a retrospective look at the evolving expansion of rights to gays and lesbians in this State. Today, in New Jersey, it is just as unlawful to discriminate against individuals on the basis of sexual orientation as it is to discriminate against them on the basis of race, national origin, age, or sex. Over the last three decades, through judicial decisions and comprehensive legislative enactments, this State, step by step, has protected gay and lesbian individuals from discrimination on account of their sexual orientation.

Yup - the protection of individuals from discrimination has led us to a place where we are forced to accept their perversions in any form, lest our opposition fall under the auspices of a "hate crime..."

But we haven't gotten to the bottom of the slippery slope yet; that dark place where we are simply sloshing around in the mud, wallowing in our own decadance - but we are on the way there. May I now make the case for polygamy?

The pro-gay marriage crowd will say, "If two people love each other, regardles of their sex, shouldn't they be allowed to be married? If two men or two women wish to marry, isn't denying them that right based on the sexual gender of the two partners discrimination?"

OK, fine then. The sex of the partners is now ruled as irrelevant - only love between two consenting adults matters.

Now, if the gender of the couple is irrelevant, why shouldn't other factors of the marriage compact be irrelevant as well? Why does it have to be "TWO consenting adults"? If a man and two women are in love, why should they be denied the opportunity to marry as a threesome? If the sex of the partners is now irrelevant, cannot one make the case that the number of people involved in the marriage compact are irrelevant as well?

Look at the opportunities polygamy provides! Why, a man making enough money could easily support two wives! Would you rather force one of these women out onto the streets, unloved and poor? Hey, if they both bear children, it helps raise the total birthrate in the country, something that can only strengthen the nation! Why, to help the family, while the man works full-time, the ladies can each work part-time (maybe job-sharing; a new right to be offered to women in polygamous relationships), adding a full income to the household and leaving at least one "mother" home at all time to care for the kids! What a win-win! Why not legalize it? Why would you discriminate against such a loving and economically feasable relationship between a man and his wives? Only a racist, discriminatory hater can be opposed to this beautiful "marriage"!

And that's the bottom of the slippery slope. Marriage is between a man and a women, period. Once you change that to make the sex of the partners irrelevant, all other articles of the compact can equally be argued as archaic and irrelevant. And so marriage, the great institution that holds families together and gives children the best opportunity to become functional adults (look at the communities where the out-of-wedlock birth rates are exponential; what happens to the life prospects of children born into those circumstances?) gets dissolved in a pornographic legal free-for-all.

But hey! We'll all wallow in the mud together, free of discrimination! Isn't that swell? Welcome to the liberal wonderland of the 21st Century!

The Ignorance of Ignatius

David Ignatius of the Washington Post posits the UN as a world government, with all subserviant to their doctrines. Yes, another liberal fantasy, but how Ignatius gets to this conclusion exposes the depravity of liberal thought. He starts by endorsing the thesis of a book written in every lefty's favorite decade, the sixties:

A theory that explains the chaotic world of 2006 -- one where people from Baghdad to Beijing seem unable to cooperate on projects that would make them better off -- was written more than 40 years ago by an obscure American economist named Mancur Olson Jr.

The problem, he said, is that although everyone would benefit from the collective good of, say, greater security, it's irrational for any individual to make voluntary sacrifices to achieve it.

Let's pause for a second.

The endorsement of this statement means that every American who signed up for military service after 9/11 was irrational. Those lines of folk we see in pictures from 1941 signing up at their local recruiting stations after the attack on Pearl Harbor? Irrational.
Every firefighter who runs into a burning building, every policeman who breaks up a crime - irrational.
There are no heroes in the liberal mindset; no one is capable of putting thier own immediate safety ahead of the well-being of a group . People are inheritantly selfish, and bad, and cannot be trusted to be left to their own devices.

Here it comes:

Olson's escape from this conundrum was his recognition that it's necessary to compel the collective behavior that is in everyone's interest. Workers must be compelled to join a union; otherwise, they'll freeload.....

Told ya! Only the liberals know what is best for us, and the freedom-loving democratic activist Ignatius is on board with compelling us to do what he feels is best for us. And what does he feel is best for the United States, and the world, when it comes to international security?

In the international arena, the appropriate instrument of compulsion is not, as the Bush administration has believed, the United States. It is the United Nations. Making the United Nations effective enough that it can compel the common good is the right answer to Olson's paradox.

The United Nations, folks, is a better arbitar of values than the United States; that's what Ignatius is telling us. What about the pervasive stench of anti-Semitism and anti-Israeli bias? What about the UN's podium being used as a bully pulpit to constantly bash the United States, who finances the whole stinkin' joint? What about the fact it cannot even agree to apply sanctions to the most obvious abusers of international law (Iran, North Korea) and when it does finally employ sanctions (Iraq), they are used not to punish, but to enrich UN functionaries and the bureaucrats of signatory nations? What about those Human Rights panels that strictly focus on two nations, the United States and Israel, while the rest of the world's mayhem goes ignored and effectively endorsed? I'll stop here, but you know I have barely scratched the surface...

Ignatius so hates his nation that he is willing to force us (for our own good, of course) under the wing of an organization that loathes our values, our strength, and our strong economy; yet covets them all. We would be destroyed as a people and a nation under its juristiction; our military placed at the hands of despots, our economy subverted and taxed to enrich the UN's favorite client-states, and our values replaced with whatever pervison, be it liberal doctrine or Islamist Sharia law, that is the fashion of the moment.

Ignatius statement about the UN is the conclusion of his essay; he offers no factual support for his declaration for a worldwide UN government. And that is the functional dishonesty of Ignatius' writing - he knows what a hellhole the United Nations is, yet he is willing to give them full power over his country. You cannot reconcile love for America with a desire to be ruled by Kofi Annan and his small-minded ilk. A United States, under the UN, would not resemble the world's greatest nation, a country which has saved the world with its ingenuity, its overflowing economy, and with the lives of its fighting men and women.

This is the nation that Ignatius wants to subvert to UN values, because according to his favorite book, the people who produced its greatness were "irrational". Oh, there is irrationality here, and it sits with Ignatius and his undefendable doctrine. But don't worry; I'm sure he is being toasted in all of the liberal palours and embassies of Washington right now, while our security becomes strengthened by the UN's strong actions in the Middle East, Iran, North Korea, and the Sudan...

BBC's Liberal Fantasy Land!

Biased BBC is one of the best "media bias" sights in the 'sphere, and even a quick read-thru goes a long way towards understanding the answer to that age-old question, "Why do they hate us?". Today we learn a little about a BBC-produced drama called "Spooks", which portrays the daring of Britain's own MI5. Only there something a bit interesting about their storylines:

I wouldn't know where to start in tackling the political correctness of BBC drama, but I think the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves would go to Spooks, BBC1's flagship series about impossibly right-on MI5 agents. The series was originally praised (by the BBC) for its accuracy about the real work of the Security Service. So what did it kick off with on the first episode? A pro-life extremist bomber out to cause mayhem. Come on, you must know about them! No? Well, what about episode two, which tackled the equally pressing issue of racist extremists in league with Right-wing politicians plotting mass murder of immigrants?

I lost interest in Spooks, but tuned in again a few weeks ago for the start of the fifth series. It was about homegrown al-Qa'eda terrorists taking over the Saudi embassy and murdering innocent people. Except that they weren't British Muslims at all, but undercover Israeli agents. Once again, the villains are a million miles away from the ones you might expect, and top-heavy with the forces of reaction.

Simply amazing - positing that Jews are actually the ones carrying out terror attacks, whilst in Muslim disguise. Maybe we can do a fictional WWII story where the Nazis were actually all Jewish, and herded Muslims, disguised as Jews, into the gas chambers. Yea!

Is this just a liberal escape fantasy, trying to come up with any desperate ploy to convince themselves that their theorems must be right, the Islamists must be victims, because they were exploited by colonial occupiers a few hundred years ago? Or is this Britain's contemporary version of the Occupied France of 1940, where citizens dutifully rounded up Jews for delivery to the Germans before the Nazis had even asked for them?

Does the BBC do the same today, throwing the Jews overboard to their Muslim oppressors ("We are a nation that drinks blood, and we know that there is no blood better than the blood of the Jews") in order to eagerly lick the hand of their new masters?

Neither scenario is pretty, and neither speak well for the BBC. But don't you just think that this anti-Israeli, anti-American programming that is put over the air all over Europe may have just as much to do with shaping the feelings of their citizens as, say, their understanding of U.S domestic and foreign policy? And isn't it more than likely that even in the policy arena, the BBC's framing of the dialogue is intended to turn Europeans against American policy, as opposed to understanding it?

The liberal fantasy is a nightmare for the free world...and just wait and see what happens here if the Europhile Democrats take ahold of Congress next week...

If one man's terrorists is another man's "freedom fighter"....

....then this thought, taken to its logical conclusion, brings us here:

More than a dozen Jewish student leaders met with Chancellor Michael Drake and Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel Gomez on Wednesday, October 18 to discuss the recent anti-Semitic vandalism here amidst a broader discussion about how Jewish students feel they are treated.

Many Jewish students at the meeting blamed the Muslim Student Union for creating an environment in which hate speech can prosper, which they felt had a direct connection to the vandalism. Some of the Jewish students at the meeting revealed that they and others had been subject to verbal and physical intimidation at the hands of MSU members, and that they had previously reported these claims to campus security.

Chancellor Drake told Jewish students at the meeting that he cannot restrict any club, that it would be “violation of law to prohibit certain speech.” Gomez emphasized that though hate speech may be present, he would not seek to curtail it, as “one person’s hate speech is another person’s education.”

Yup, you read that right - and from a University Chancellor, yet.

If a terrorist is a freedom fighter, then swastikas scrawled amongst the Jews is simply "education". I f A=B, then "B" must return to "A". And Lord, it has. How long until Jewish neighborhoods are defaced in this manner, for the sake of their own education?

See where liberal logic takes us? Right back to Kristallnacht, 1939....

Update: And the rewriting of history continues apace, from no less a luminary than Christopher Hedges, the New York Times's former Middle East bureau chief. He educates us as well:

...the real lesson of the Holocaust, which, as Christopher Browning illustrated in his book 'Ordinary Men,' is that the line between the victim and the victimizer is razor-thin. Most of us, as Browning correctly argues, can be seduced and manipulated into killing our neighbors.

Poor Nazi victims...if only the Jews weren't there to goad them into a Holocaust.

I'm Waiting for Bono's / CAIR's / France's Apology!

From EUROSOC we hear of going-ons in Glasgow...Bono thinks he's preaching to the faithful just because they come to hear him sing:

U2 were performing in Hampden Park, Glasgow, to a sell-out audience.

In the middle of the concert Bono hushed the crowd, asking for complete silence. Then he slowly started clapping his hands, clap-clap-clap-clap-clap.
Holding the audience in awestruck silence he says softly and seriously into the microphone "You know every time I clap my hands a child in Africa dies..."

A voice from the back row shouts "well f***ing well stop doin' it then!"

Ah, wisdom from the cheap seats...still better than lies from CAIR, who screams to the ceiling about Muslim persecution every time some birdsh*t lands on a beard...turns out that Muslims cannot hold a candle to the Jews when it comes to being a persecuted minority:

...of the 1,314 verified offenses motivated by religious bias, 68.5 percent were anti-Jewish.
Only 11.1 percent were anti-Islamic, despite claims of rampant anti-Muslim bigotry in the U.S. by groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations.
Across the board, hate crimes in the U.S. dropped last year by 6 percent...

Hugh Hewitt breaks down the numbers:

America’s Jews were the victims of 68.5% of 2005’s religiously motivated hate-crimes. Even though there are a lot less of us than there are Muslims, we incurred almost 7x more hate-crimes than America’s Muslim population in 2005. I am expecting CAIR to send every Jew in America a sympathy card in the very near future.

CAIR claims that the "alleged" crimes against the Jews were mere hoaxes concocted by the Jewish Lobby and the Mossad, and the few that were verified were "legtitmate Muslim response to Israeli aggression and terrorism within the Occupied Territories".

Meanwhile, the Daily News's resident racist, Errol Louis, parrots the CAIR line (not a word about the sevenfold higher number of anti-semetic incidents, of course) and bemoans the fact that 46% of all Americans have a negative view of Islam...but Errol informs us that the fault is not in the murderous terroristic acts launched worldwide in the name of Islam, but in the blind raging hate of the ignorant American people....of course! How did I miss that one?

Enviornmental Republican wants to know why the media isn't on this; I say it is because they are too busy planning the victory party for the Democrats this November. Or setting the stage for another "we wuz robbed!" scenario, when they fall just a bit short once again. Does "Election Day" become "Litigation Day" from now on? And if so, isn't this a victory for the Democrats and their large constituancy of lawyer-types?

Well, the media may have already consigned this election to the Democrats, but - and I am sorry to disappoint the New York Times here - I reckon that I am going to go out this November 7th and vote anyway...

And maybe the French need to apologize to the Japanese - not bloody likely, but still:

Around a dozen Japanese tourists a year need psychological treatment after visiting Paris as the reality of unfriendly locals and scruffy streets clashes with their expectations, a newspaper reported on Sunday.

"In Japanese shops, the customer is king, whereas here assistants hardly look at them ... People using public transport all look stern, and handbag snatchers increase the ill feeling."

A Japanese woman, Aimi, told the paper:
Fo"r us, Paris is a dream city. All the French are beautiful and elegant ... And then, when they arrive, the Japanese find the French character is the complete opposite of their own."

And how would you describe the Japanese character? Proud, honorable, humble, traditional, and respecting are words that come immediately to mind...now think of the complete opposite, and thus we have the French.

It's enough to send anybody to a psychiatrist...

France: Future Seat of the Caliphate

The French "youths" are rioting in the streets -

An average of 112 cars a day have been torched across France so far this year and there have been 15 attacks a day on police and emergency services. Nearly 3,000 police officers have been injured in clashes this year. Officers have been badly injured in four ambushes in the Paris outskirts since September. Some police talk of open war with youths who are bent on more than vandalism.
“The thing that has changed over the past month is that they now want to kill us" said Bruno Beschizza, the leader of Synergie, a union to which 40 per cent of officers belong. Action Police, a hardline union, said: “We are in a civil war, orchestrated by radical Islamists.”

- and the police are ordered not to arrest them - it is Ramadam, you see - the holy time for Muslims to fast, contemplate, and firebomb automobiles. Ah, France during the intifada... Gates of Vienna points out how sharia law now gets enforced in the schoolyard, Islamic-style:

"A schoolgirl was stoned Wednesday in a playground for non-observance of Ramadan."

'A schoolgirl at the Jean Mermoz college [secondary school] in the eighth district of Lyon was pelted with a hail of stones on Wednesday morning in a playground where she was eating a snack. The theory that the act was related to the non-observance of Ramadan has been confirmed by the prosecutor in Lyon on the strength of the earliest results of the investigation.

Dymphna at Gates follows up:

That was several weeks ago and though I searched for follow-ups to the story there don’t seem to be any. She probably went home, washed her wounds, and went back to school the next day, careful to eat in the lavatory next time.

Ironic now that the French are finally getting to know what it fees like to be a European Jew....

Well, no need to fret...probable next French President Nicolas Sarkosy has made his position clear on how he will handle the radical increases in robberies, rioting, and random destruction of innocent cars. You see, he's going to...disarm the citizenry. From the Brussels Journal:

...in what is my conception of the Republic, security is the responsibility of the State, I am against militias, I am against the private ownership of firearms, and I’m trying to make you think about that. If you are assaulted by an armed burglar, he’ll use his weapon more effectively than you anyway so you’re risking your life. If the criminal is not armed and you are and you shoot, your life will be ruined, because killing someone over a theft is not in line with the republican values that are mine. The private ownership of firearms is dangerous.

I understand your exasperation for having been burglarized two times, I understand the fear that your wife and daughter may have but the answer is in the efficiency of the police and the efficiency of the judiciary process, the answer is not in having guns at home.

No, actually the election of a politician like Sarkosy is dangerous. He'll disarm Pierre, and do nothing to quell the continuing rampage of Muhammed. The Muslim mobs, seething with resentment at being governed by those they consider their inferiors, will continue to advance...

Give it what, two years, maybe? before Iranian President Ahmadinejad, flush with nukes, takes his seat in Paris as ruler of the new Caliphate of Europe...and the likes of Sarkosy will still be there (with some type of authority, like the Vichy French) - bearded now, wagging his tail like a good dhimmi, continuing to do the bidding of his Islamic masters...

Why not? Things are actually moving quite nicely, actually...look, the French armed forces are already at the disposal of Hezbollah....

Sunday Book Review!

The nex time you should hear the tired refrain that "If only Isreal would withdraw from all of the "occupied lands", then there would be no need for terrorism....", I recommend that you point them towards this book - Lost Stories from the Holocaust's Long Reach Into Arab Lands - reviewed in today's New York Post.

Author Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, was hoping to find proof of Arab heroism during the Holocaust...in his words:

"If I could make Arabs see the Holocaust as a source of pride, worthy of remembering, not just something to avoid or deny," writes Satloff, perhaps it could bring Arabs and Jews closer together.

But alas, he finds something different:

The Holocaust is an Arab story as well as a European one...
There were no death camps, but there were brutal slave labor and concentration camps in such Arab North African countries as Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, over 100 in all, most solely for Jewish prisoners. In these same countries, and others, such as Libya, there was torture, execution - perpetrated by Arab guards and overseers - and a full complement of laws that stripped Jews of their homes, property and livelihood.

He writes, "At every stage of the Nazi, Vichy [French] and [Italian] Fascist persecutions of Jews in Arab lands, and in every place that it occurred, Arabs played a supporting role. At times, Arabs were essential to the process. At other times, the Arab role was passive, yet still critical."
And "without this measure of Arab support - and, certainly, without this level of Arab acquiescence - the extent of Jewish suffering in Arabs lands would have been much less."

Because so little was known of their role as Holocaust collaborators, Satloff argued in a recent Washington Post op-ed, Arabs "appear to have won a free pass when it comes to denying or minimizing the Holocaust." That, he argues, must change.

Yeah, sure it will change. Like when Israel reverts back to its tiny 1948 borders; then all the Arab peoples will love them again...like they used to in the past...

The Dance of Death on the Korean Penninsula

How many US troops are stationed in South Korea right now, around 35,000? Seems like 35,000 too many for me, as the South Korean government shows no signs whatsoever of changing its behavior toward its outlaw nuclear neighbor:

South Korea is still sending tourists to a mountain resort in the North and maintaining a joint economic zone, despite pressure to cancel the projects after Pyongyang's nuclear test...

The U.S. has scoffed at the tourism venture at the North's majestic Diamond Mountain resort, saying the project simply hands money to the North Korean government. Washington also has questioned labor practices in a joint economic zone where North Korean workers provide cheap labor for South Korean firms.
But Seoul has been reluctant to inflame North Korea as it pursues its policy of reconciliation that has led to unprecedented cooperation between the two countries that share a peninsula.

Amazing; it is a submission of the South to the North made out of fear; be it of Kim Jong's nukes or a collapse of the North Korean government, which would likely lead to a severe refugee influx into the South. Kim Jong has no reason at all to stop his nuclear program; his next door neighbor has not even bothered to eliminate the economic agreements that have funded his newfound arsenal; why should he believe that nations located even further away would be any more serious about sanction enforcement?

And let's talk about cowboy unilateralism, shall we?

But in the wake of the North's first-ever nuclear test, Seoul has faced new calls to cancel the landmark reconciliation projects in line with the U.N. sanctions.

Whoa! Going directly against UN sanctions that they were signatories to! Those South Korean cowboys are a threat to world peace, flouting the will of the international community and acting strictly in their own self-interest! How dare they!

Now if were Americans that acted this way, well...the World Court would be calling for George Bush's head right about now. And speaking of Americans, how exactly does the average South Korean feel about us?

The "favorable" view of the United States dropped from 58% in 1999-2000, to 53% in summer 2002, to 46% in summer 2003. Of those with unfavorable views of the United States, more than 80% thought the "problem" was not just Bush, but was at least partly the result of the American people themselves. This latter figure was an outlier among nations surveyed.

22% had started boycotting U.S. goods. 29% had considered it. This was the highest number outside the Muslim world.
Just 24% supported the U.S.-led War on Terror, also a result that fit within the number in the Muslim world.

And here's the kicker:

In the event of war between the U.S. and North Korea, 20% of South Koreans say their country should take the North's side; another 30% were undecided.

Not surprising, given the behavior of the South Korean government - from OneFreeKorea, a startling little story with a shocking photo:

The results we see today are a more focused version of the absurd and tragic story of North Korea since the mid-1990’s, when the North’s people experienced their lowest depths of misery, and when the policies of neighboring nations did so much to prolong it.

Of South Korea’s part in this, I have written extensively of the costs: the nearly complete destruction of its alliance with the United States, the cultivation of long-term enmity among North Koreans they chose not to welcome, and possibly, a contest with China over control of the North. The old expression just doesn’t do this one justice; a thousand words could not capture the metaphorical splendor of the head of South Korea’s ruling party dancing for the North Koreans’ amusement just days after their nuclear test provoked an international crisis.


The dancing buffoon is Kim Geun-Tae, and what I wouldn’t give for video of this. Kim heard that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was coming to coordinate South Korea’s compliance with Resolution 1718, which is designed to deny the regime funds to build more nukes and missiles. Denials notwithstanding, she was probably there to exert some pressure, too. It seems reasonable enough for Ms. Rice to ask the South Koreans to be sure they’re not funding the very weapons American taxpayers spend billions of dollars each year to defend South Korea from.

The South Koreans dance for Kim Jong's pleasure; and they expect the United States to dance for theirs. No dice; it is time to limit our military presence in S-K, and move our troops to friendlier nations where they are still deployable to international hotspots. It was done well in Europe; a large contingent of American forces are leaving Germany to take up new bases in Poland and Romania. And did you notice how Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was booted out of office soon after, to be replaced with the much more American-friendly Merkel governemnt? Coincidence? Hardly...

So since South Korea blatently ignores UN sanctions, and Russia intends to block any sanctions imposed upon Iran, perhaps it is long past time we give up the whole charade of a "united nations" and build alliances based on shared mutual interests, as Charles Krauthammer suggests we do with Japan. Creating "consensus" at the UN for the sake of appearances is actually quite detrimental to world peace, as renegade nations know that these coalitions have no backbone, no true support, and will collapse at the first whiff of a fistful of dollars waved under a diplomat's nose.

But the political left, in Europe and in America, know that, and they want Western Civilization to fail... so they support the UN. So does the Democratic Party, wholeheartedly. Can we imagine what will happen should they regain the halls of power come November 7th?

A French Clash With The IDF?

Not content to go Jew-hunting at home, French forces stationed in Lebanon are itching for a brawl...with Israel. LGF reports:

Commanders of the French contingent of the United Nations force in Lebanon have warned that they might have to open fire if Israel Air Force warplanes continue their overflights in Lebanon, Defense Minister Amir Peretz told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday.

Peretz said that nevertheless, Israel would continue to patrol the skies over Lebanon as long as United Nations resolution 1701 remained unfilfilled, adding that such operations were critical for the country’s security, especially as the abducted IDF soldiers remain in Hezbollah custody and the transfer of arms continue.
Over the past few days, Peretz said, Israel had gathered clear evidence that Syria was transfering arms and ammunition to Lebanon, meaning that the embargo imposed by UN Resolution 1701 was not being completely enforced.

No surprise here...in fact, back in early September when some were marvelling at the buildup of European forces around Lebanon, and speculating that it might be prelude to an Iranian offensive, your humble blogger noted thusly:

I still don't buy it...and who's to say that France is not intending to more forcefully step into a possible renewed Israeli-Lebanese conflict, given their longstanding colonial roots in that nation? Could their final dhimmitude be achieved by deploying the French armed forces against Israel?

Is it coincidence or by grand Gallic design, that just as mayhem wrought by Muslim youths is breaking out across France, the French government begins to discuss attacking the Jewish state? Appeasers to the end; the spirit of Munich 1938 is alive and well in France, where they would see Israel destroyed (as Czechoslovakia was ), to buy a few more minutes of freedom for themselves.

For trusting the safety of the Israel to the United Nations and to France, Ehud Olmert should face trial as a traitor, not only to his own country, but to the diaspora of Jews worldwide as well. For by weakening his own country -the homeland -the Jewish people may have lost their last safety net in this "enlightened" world that despises them for being....Jews.

France: A Jump in Jew-Bashing

Most unsurprising lead of the day, huh? Yup, things never change in Old Europe...via the Brussels Journal, we get this story from the UPI:

Anti-Semitic incidents have proliferated in France in recent times, but the news seldom makes it across the Atlantic and when it does, it must still fight to be heard above the constant melodrama of constant trivia. A Jewish sports club in Toulouse attacked with Molotov cocktails; in Bondy, 15 men beat up members of a Jewish soccer team with metal bars and sticks; the bus that takes Jewish children to school in Aubervilliers attacked thrice in the past 14 months, synagogues in Strasbourg and Marseilles and a Jewish school in Creteil firebombed in recent weeks; in Toulouse, a gunman opened fire -- all ignored in the mainstream media in the U.S.

The metropolitan Paris police tabulated 10 to 12 anti-Jewish incidents per day in the past 30 days throughout the country.

...In France, Jean-Marie Le Pen's far right National Front appears to have opted for a can't-lick-'em-join-'em strategy, a rapprochement with France's large immigrant Muslim community -- with undertones of anti-Semitism.

Nevertheless, the UPI knows who isn't to blame:

Muslim minorities are spawning rightwing extremism...

Oh, those poor "minorities"! Above article makes it seem like their mere existence is conjuring up these new far-right parties...as opposed to, possibly, the 7th Century mindset of some of these exploited, misunderstood ethnic groups...

Moderate Muslim voices cannot rise above radical hubbub.

Well, they might, if they actually existed...

And finally, an accidental blast of truth:

One prominent Belgian businessman conceded privately "no one knows what to believe anymore." Neither multiculturalism nor integration of Muslim communities seems to be working anywhere in Europe.

Nobody knows what to believe anymore because their leaders have been lying to them for years over the nature of the threat that faces them. Believe us, not your lying eyes has brought Europe to the brink of civil war as 1030's-era political movements/ideologies begin to fill the political spectrum on both the left and the right. And in the meantime, France's Jews are targeted, again....

And if the fact that the holy grail of multiculturalism isn't working anymore (as if it ever did), and that Muslim communities refuse to intergrate (and appear determined to force their way of life upon the Continent), isn't a wake up call to the people of Europe, then they are doomed to disappear as a civilization. They must confront the issue of radical Islam inside their borders without turning on themselves in an orgy of hate and violence, as they have done do often in the past. Wishful thinking, I kmow...

It is possible, even likely, that visitors to the great cities of Europe in ten years will see little difference between Paris, London, Brussels, and Madrid - they will all be Islamic cities, as opposed to European, ruled under the new Caliphate. And under their burkahs and beards, the Europeans will wonder, as they did in the 30's and 40's, "just how did we get here?"...

Liberal Policy Failure: The New York Yankees

I always thought George Will had a keener eye when it came to baseball, as opposed to his pompous political prognostications; but here he marries the two nicely. Never thought of the New York Yankees as a liberal basket case before, but here goes:

The Yankees' payroll of $206.4 million is 2.4 times the Tigers' payroll. The Yankees' third baseman earns 68.7 times the salary of the Mets' all-star third baseman (Alex Rodriguez, $25.7 million; David Wright, $374,000). The shortstop makes approximately what the Marlins' team makes (Derek Jeter, $20.6 million; Marlins, $20.68 million).

New York, the world's financial capital, takes money very seriously. And New York has been the intellectual epicenter of political liberalism, which has consistently preached, and has consistently disproved, the efficacy of pitching large sums of money at social problems. In the city where America's welfare state was first imagined and implemented, the entitlement mentality bred by the welfare state includes the assumption that the Yankees are entitled to be in the World Series, which they have not been since - gasp - 2003.

Remember when welfare was phased out; and rather than our streets teeming with the starving masses, we got lots of people gainfully employed instead? Perhaps the Yankees, just as a social experiment, should see how their GM would compose his team with a payroll cut, say, nearly in half?

Naaah...never would happen! Like all limousine liberals, New Yorkers would complain about how the cuts shouldn't be directed at their services (or team, in this case) and how it was an outrage and how the whole city would suffer a tremendous, immoral loss. And if the Yankees did win it all with a reduced payroll? Credit everything but the economics, and blame Bush for the bad years...

Apologies, in Perspective

Lance at The Muslim Question points out:

0.0000032% of World's Muslims Accept Pope's Apology

Thirty-eight Muslim scholars and chief muftis from numerous countries have accepted Pope Benedict XVI's apology for his remarks on Islam, the editor of a Muslim journal said.
The scholars have signed an open letter to this effect that will be delivered to a Vatican envoy in the hope of engaging the pope in a dialogue to counter prejudice against Islam....

Who says Islam is not a tolerant religion?

And as far as apologies go, we have this:

The Pope says that jihad violence is against God's nature, and officials fear that in response, Muslims enraged by this insult will commit . . . jihad violence.

Muslims murder 3,000 innocents in New York and expect no criticism.
Muslims murder 202 tourists in Bali and expect no criticism.
Muslims murder 333 schoolchildren and their teachers in Beslan and expect no criticism. Muslims murder 292 innocents, mainly Kenyans and Tanzanians at two US Embassies and expect no criticism.
Muslims murder 241 US and 58 French peacekeepers in Beirut and expect no criticism. Muslims fire 4,000 Katyusha rockets into Northern Israel killing over 50 innocent civilians and expect no criticism.
Muslims murder 52 in London and 191 in Madrid and expect no criticism. Muslims murde r 200 in Mumbai and expect no criticism.
Muslims behead Western hostages in Iraq, Buddhist monks in Thailand and Christian schoolgirls in Indonesia and expect no criticism.
Muslims murder 500,000 in Darfur and expect no criticism.
Muslims regard Jews as 'sons of pigs and monkeys', and vow to nuke Israel and expect no criticism.
Muslims force women to wear hideous sacks, stone to death women for getting raped and for leaving the home unescorted, engage in honor killings of sisters and daughters for unapproved dating, and expect no criticism.

Muslims danced in the streets and handed out sweets to their kids to celebrate the 9/11 atrocity, and still expected no criticism. Since 9/11 Muslims have killed over 26,000 and wounded over 50,000 in terrorist attacks worldwide since 9/11 and expect no criticism.

Since 9/11 Muslims have committed terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh, Belgium, Chad, Chechnya, Dagestan, Denmark, East Timor, Egypt, England, Eritrea, Ethiopia, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Ingushetia, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Jordan-Iraq, Kabardino-Balkans, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Netherlands, Nigeria, Pakistan, Gaza-Palestinian Authority, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Somalia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Arab Republic, United States, Uzbekistan and Yemen, and still expect no criticism.

Muslims have carried out over 5,800 fatal terrorist atrocities since 9/11, and countless thousands since Islamic conquest began in 623 AD and expect no criticism.

But if a Pope dares to tell the truth about Islam or Danes publish cartoons about Mohammed, then let the outpourings of Islamic hate and outrage begin. And, by some twisted reach of logic, the arrogant bastards demand the Pope issue an apology.

Allegedly penned by one John Alstad, U.S. Marine....obviously, this is all the fault of President Bush; if he never been elected (whoops! I mean selected) President none of this would have happened; we would all be singing Kum-bye-Ya like we used to in the good old days...

You know what? For the list of horror above, no apologies can suffice. The man who thinks it can, is the next one in line to be killed by the Islamists, right behind the one who is willing to prostrate himself at the knees of the Muslims to beg forgiveness for the words - words! - spoken by the Pontiff...

Air America goes under...

A harbinger for Democratic prospects in November?

Air America Radio, the liberal talk and news radio network that features the comedian Al Franken, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Friday, but will stay on the air while it reorganizes with funding from its investor group.
The network had denied rumors just a month ago that it would file for bankruptcy protection. On Friday, Air America spokeswoman Jaime Horn told the AP that the filing became necessary only recently after negotiations with a creditor from the privately held company’s early days broke down...

Air America has struggled financially since its inception. Documents filed with the bankruptcy court show that the company lost $9.1 million in 2004, $19.6 million in 2005 and $13.1 million so far in 2006.
Air America also disclosed in the court documents that two directors departed in the last two months, Douglas Kreeger and Tom Embrescia. Gary Krantz also departed as president in June, and executive vice president Tom Athans and chief operating officer Carl Ginsburg left in July.

Rats and the sinking ship, right? Guess American citizens don't want to hear from angry, self-loathing, blame-the-U.S.-first liberals...again, how does that bode for the party this station represents?

Brief blogging hiatus as the real world intrudes and demands a tad more of my attention...be back this weekend!

Senator Menendez to be Subpoenaed?

Interesting, if true:

Democratic Sen. Robert Menendez told The Associated Press Wednesday that he has not been subpoenaed in any federal investigation, a claim Republican opponent Tom Kean Jr. continued to maintain.

"There is a subpoena that has his name on it that was issued by an impaneled grand jury and delivered by the FBI " Kean said during an interview with the AP. "That's a fact."

In a separate interview with the AP later Wednesday, Menendez denied Kean's claim. No federal agency has publicly said Menendez has been subpoenaed, and a Menendez campaign spokesman said Kean has no proof to make such a serious accusation.
"There are no such subpoenas to my knowledge whatsoever," Menendez

The U.S. attorney's office has issued a subpoena seeking records from the North Hudson Community Action Corp. related to a lease agreement it had with Menendez, who rented a house he owned in Union City to the group, and also helped the nonprofit organization obtain federal funds.

Well, I hope Kean is right about this - and not just because I loathe Menendez - because if this turns out to be untrue, then it allows the Democrats to paint all of the well-documented ethical issues dogging Menendez with the same "another false Kean accusation" kind of brush. One thing is certain - Menendez has the AP in his corner; the above-linked article highlights his denials and pays no attention to the actual subpoena issued in regards to the Senator's earnings of over $300,000 from the so-called "North Hudson Community Action Corp."

Let's go to the videotape! Over at Enlighten New Jersey, they've got video of Menendez's appearance on ABC's This Week, during in which he acknowledged being under federal investigation, and his later denial of the existance of the nvestigation during a recent candidate debate.

How do you know when Menendez is lying? When his lips are moving, right?

John McCain on North Korea

The Senator is guest-blogging at Captain's Quarters, and speaks a truth the Democrats do not want to hear, and that the media is unwilling to report:

The worst thing we could do is accede to North Korea’s demand for bilateral talks. When has rewarding North Korea’s bad behavior ever gotten us anything more than worse behavior?

I would remind Senator Hillary Clinton and other Democrats critical of Bush Administration policies that the framework agreement her husband’s administration negotiated was a failure. The Koreans received millions in energy assistance. They diverted millions in food assistance to their military. And what did they do? They secretly enriched uranium.

Prior to the agreement, every single time the Clinton Administration warned the Koreans not to do something -- not to kick out the IAEA inspectors, not to remove the fuel rods from their reactor -- they did it. And they were rewarded every single time by the Clinton Administration with further talks. We had a carrots and no sticks policy that only encouraged bad behavior. When one carrot didn’t work, we offered another.

And this is the foreign policy the Democrats want us to return to; and the media casts as "the good old days", while refusing to connect the dots from Bill Clinton's appeasement to North Korea's nuclear test.

History will draw the lines that paint the picture, the way we see today how the European attempts to appease Hitler led directly to WWII. But it is amazing that with the hindsight of a historical parallel we absolutely refuse to learn the lesson, instead demanding that we be marched off the same cliff again. And the media will more than happily push us over the edge - it fears greatly printing anything that they feel might harm the chances of the Democratic Party in '06 and '08. Instead, it highlights criticism of the President's policies with little balance or perspective, and quotes John Kerry as if Americans view him as some sort of authoritative figure . Hey folks, he lost the election, remember? And quite deservedly so, if he so blithely uses an international crisis for momentary partisan gain.

But you'll never hear that point of view, either...only continued carping and sniping from the Democrats, without any offering of a logical alternative course of action. And with a media that is little more than their personal "amen' corner, any debate on these issues will more or less be silenced, and thoughtful analysis will be nonexistent. Just what the country needs in this time and place in history.

Will we wake up by November, without North Korea or al-Qeada having to do it for us?

UPDATE: It never ends in the media; in a Kafka-esque perversion of the truth, the Washington Post blames Bush for starting the whole thing with his "Axis of Evil" speech. I'll let Michael Rubin at The Corner answer for me:

To condemn the Axis of Evil speech is to condemn Bush for prescience. He didn’t create the Axis of Evil; rather, he voiced the problem. And if that shocked European diplomats, well too bad. If it’s a choice between national security and enabling European diplomats to remain secure in their illusions, I’d hope both Republicans and Democrats would favor the former.

Well, Galileo got life imprisonment for having the nerve to proclaim that the Earth revolves around the sun; seems like that's exactly what the incoming Democratic committee chairmen would like to impose upon W., if they can achieve victory in the fall elections...funny to see them acting so much like the Church they claim to despise...

What to Expect November 8th...

...if the Democrats take power of one or more chambers of Congress:

If Democrats win one or both houses of Congress in November's elections, as polls suggest is increasingly likely, President Bush's Washington will change dramatically.
Democrats will press to get out of Iraq. They'll mount investigations into the Bush administration's record that could rival those of Presidents Nixon in Watergate and Clinton in the Monica Lewinsky affair.
They'll push a boatload of social-welfare legislation, such as raising the minimum wage, that reflects their pent-up priorities, while blocking the Republican agenda on social issues such as gay marriage, abortion and religion.
Those are some of the top plans that Democrats would pursue if they won power, according to interviews with Democratic lawmakers, strategists, staff aides and lobbyists.

All of which have tremendous support among the American people. Jeez, gay marriage couldn't even pass in Oregon, for God's sake!

The tone and temper of the Democrats were reflected well by Rep. Henry Waxman of Los Angeles, the ranking Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, in a conference call in late August. He'll become the panel's chairman if Democrats take the House.
"The Republican-controlled Congress has worked with the White House to shield them and the government from any scrutiny of corruption and abuse," Waxman said. Democrats "plan to expose the truth about billions of taxpayers' dollars."

Yeah, OK, he's sane. Day Two: All prisioners at Gitmo get assigned to neighborhood work-release programs! Well, our neighborhood, not his....

But here's the bottom of the barrel:

Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., for example, could take over as the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. In June 2005, Conyers held an unofficial Democrats-only hearing on Iraq prewar intelligence that many saw as a potential building block for impeaching Bush.
Now Conyers is backing off such talk, while Republicans warn that he would pursue it if he gets power.

Conyers is a racist, anti-semetic terror-loving spitbag. Here's his first attempt at impeachment; the hearings described lovingly here were his second. He's a living horror show, and a proud Democratic Chairman-in-waiting.

Their staffs for several key panels are considering how they would investigate the Bush administration's preparation for and execution of the Iraq war, Hurricane Katrina, regulatory decisions involving contraception and science versus religion, and administration ties to energy and drug companies, government contractors and individual lobbyists.
Winning even one chamber of Congress would give Democrats a bully pulpit and enable them to hold hearings, issue subpoenas, put witnesses under oath and block Republican legislation.

Sounds lovely - re-instate the welfare state while supporting terrorists at home and abroad; spend spare time impeaching Bush and raising taxes, while the myth of global warming drives environmental, energy, and possibly foreign policy....

But if you feel sad and somewhat desperate (as do I, occasionally, these days) in these dark times, remember one thing: The media is on their side; and with 30 days to go, methinks they'll find a way to screw this one up for the Democrats(paging Dan Rather!) as artfully as they have done in the past...

We Dance the Dance of Dhimmitude...

Apparently, it is an Islamic world, and we are simply allowed (for the time being, anyway) to live in it:

In Minnesota, Muslim cab drivers are refusing service to passengers carrying alcohol—and the airport commission is allowing it to happen, instituting special rules to accommodate the intolerant drivers.
Now Britain has its own taxi scandal, as a Muslim driver refused to carry a blind passenger—and the cab company told the blind woman she should “respect other people’s culture:”

Mrs Vernon, 39, from Hammersmith, said: “This experience was very upsetting. I was tired and cold and just wanted to get home but this driver made me feel like I was a second-class citizen, like I didn’t count at all.”
Mrs Vernon, who works as a legal officer for the Royal National Institute for the Blind, added: “The owner of the minicab firm, Niven Sinclair, was also very insensitive, telling me that what had happened to me wasn’t really very important, and I should have more respect for other people’s culture.

Yup, they're reading right out of the liberal's playbook! But don't you dare question their patriotism! Sweetness and Light reports:

Victorian Taxi Association spokesman Neil Sach said ...."Muslims are good people and the community has to realise that the days of the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant are well and truly over" ....

Well, at least Sach recognizes reality; more than can be said for the appeasing left....

More respect from Islam - via Atlas:

MUSLIM yobs who wrecked a house to stop four brave soldiers moving in after returning from Afghanistan sparked outrage last night.
The house in a village near riot-torn Windsor had BRICKS thrown through windows and was DAUBED with messages of hate.
Four young Household Cavalry officers who had planned to rent it were also the target of phone THREATS.
They were yesterday forced to look elsewhere to live — after top brass warned them against inflaming racial violence near the Queen’s Windsor Castle home.

And more on the Windsor riots from the Brussels Journal:

Extra police are being drafted into the Windsor area today after three nights of violent clashes between white and Asian {ASIAN?? -ed.} youths.
Gangs have fought battles in the streets using baseball bats and pitchforks. A Muslim-run dairy which wants to build a mosque was petrol bombed.

Tensions have been growing between residents and the owners of the dairy, who have applied to convert an office building into a mosque for their workers.
Despite a lack of planning permission to use Technor House as a place of worship, workers and visitors have been praying there.

And how do the British police respond to this law breaking?

Police stopped cars full of white youths and searched them as other officers photographed and videoed them.

Good dhimmis! Here's more from Muslim-occupied Britian:

Scotland Yard said yesterday that Pc Omar-Basha, a member of the Metropolitan Police armed Diplomatic Protection Group (DPG), had been allowed to absent himself from armed patrols outside the Israeli embassy after expressing concerns about the effect it might have on the safety of his relatives in Lebanon during Israel's military campaign in August.
The decision provoked a debate about political correctness in the police force and drew accusations that Muslim officers were being treated differently to others.
The officer's father-in-law, Abdul Majid el-Katme, is a doctor and Muslim activist...

So if a second Kristallnacht should break out in England, Muslim officers now have permission to sit back and watch the rioting and murder of Jews....incidentally, this is the end result of liberal politcal correctness made into the force of law - new understandings are NOT forged; old hates are simply reinforced. Nice. Let's bring it to America!

Well, some are trying to speak the truth in France:

Radical Muslims in France's housing estates are waging an undeclared "intifada" against the police, with violent clashes injuring an average of 14 officers each day.

As the interior ministry said that nearly 2,500 officers had been wounded this year, a police union declared that its members were "in a state of civil war" with Muslims in the most depressed "banlieue" estates which are heavily populated by unemployed youths of north African origin.
It said the situation was so grave that it had asked the government to provide police with armoured cars to protect officers in the estates, which are becoming no-go zones...

But a good dhimmi knows that this type of assertion cannot go unchecked, so...they lie to protect their new masters:

Senior officers insisted that the problem was essentially criminal in nature, with crime bosses on the estates fighting back against tough tactics.

No surprise; any admission that race may be a factor would undermine the cult of multiculturalism, so the evidence is ignored in favor of absurd statements as the one seen above. See today's New York Times for a brilliant example; a West Bank resident writes an op-ed blaming Israel for all of the Palestinian's problems; of course, the words "terror" or "Hamas" never cross the page. A balancing, countering view might help make some sense of it all, and would be well-placed on this page, but a good dhimmi knows they cannot allow the Jew make his voice heard, so we only get one side - the Muslim side. Thus does the Times willingly allow istelf to provide cover to what many claim are the true motives of the Islamists:

...This hadith, or fundamental concept, states: "I have been ordered by Allah to fight and kill all mankind until they say, 'No God except Allah and Muhammad is the prophet of Allah' (Hadith Sahih)."
Based on this hadith, early Muslims used the sword to spread Islam throughout the world. The same hadith inspires contemporary Islamic terror including this summer's thwarted London airplane explosions. Other rationales that terrorists use to justify terrorism - the Arab-Israeli conflict, America's involvement in Iraq - are simply useful propaganda cover stories, not the actual causes or goals of terrorists' actions.

The media has been in full dhimmi mode since 9/11; their only allegiance is to preserving their own sorry lives for five minutes longer, so if that means avoiding the lash of their masters by selling us all down the river, so be it. As long as no one riots outside of the Washington Post....

Are we doomed to dhimmi-dance right off of a cliff, with all of our values, morals, and freedoms going screaming down with us? Seems like the media, elected officials, and Islamist mobs are all playing together in the band...