With all the talk about Libya re-entering the so-called family of nations, I decided to take a look back at the fateful day when Ronald Reagen bombed various targets within that nation after determining it was behind a terror attack that killed US servicemen back in 1986. Twenty years on, it seems as if "the more that things change...
....21-year-old Army Sergeant Kenneth Ford of Detroit was slain when a bomb blast ripped through Berlin's La Belle discotheque, a nightclub frequented by American servicemen.
The National Security Agency used high-tech eavesdropping equipment to intercept three secret messages between Tripoli and European-based Libyan agents. Libya's diplomatic code had been broken, and the messages made it clear that Gaddafi was behind the bombing of the Berlin disco
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher signed off on the use of British bases in the operation, but Spain and France refused to grant American warplanes overflight permission; this meant the planes would have to fly 2,800 miles to reach their targets, and be refueled five times in the air. Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi spoke for many European leaders when he expressed concern that any American retaliation would simply trigger more terrorist acts in reprisal. But the Reagan administration was determined to act. It felt that someone had to take a stand against worldwide terrorism that had run rampant in the Eighties. Gaddafi and others like him, said the president, had to be given "incentives . . . to alter [their] criminal behavior."
....For a time there was widespread concern that terrorist revenge attacks would occur on American soil, and experts warned that the U.S. was woefully unprepared to deal with such a contingency. The attacks never came.
...Gaddafi, described by Reagan as the "mad dog of the Middle East," was strangely subdued in the aftermath of the raid. According to Secretary Shultz, the administration's leading proponent of strong action against Libya, Gaddafi "retreated into the desert."...For whatever reason, Gaddafi acted with uncharacteristic restraint in the years that followed. According to a 1989 Department of State Bulletin, while terrorist activity continued on the rise in 1987 and 1988, Libyan-sponsored terrorist acts declined significantly.
Well, it would never have come to pass had a certain Senator John Kerry had been able to get his way back in '86 - does this doublespeak sound familiar?
"While I stated that my initial inclination was to support the President,” Kerry wrote in a letter, “I pointed out that two essential tests had to be met in determining whether or not the U.S. action was appropriate. First, the United States had to have irrefutable evidence directly linking the Gadhafi regime to a terrorist act and, second, our response should be proportional to that act.”
Admitting that the evidence tying Tripoli to the disco bombing was “irrefutable,” the U.S. had failed the proportionality test, Kerry argued:
“It is obvious that our response was not proportional to the disco bombing and even violated the Administration’s own guidelines to hit clearly defined terrorist targets, thereby minimizing the risk to innocent civilians. ...
“There are numerous other actions we can take, in concert with our allies, to bring significant pressure to bear on countries supporting or harboring terrorists.”
Of course, history has shown Kerry to have been dead wrong...
...the more they stay the same".
วันพุธ, พฤษภาคม 17, 2549
วันอังคาร, พฤษภาคม 16, 2549
Iran: Entering the Fray in Iraq?
Two tales of Iran taking part in fighting against America in Iraq - first, DEBKA reports:
In the past two weeks, Iran has been pumping into Iraq two types of extra-lethal weapons in very large quantities. They have already taken their toll in the shooting down of two military helicopters - one American and one British – and an estimated 19 deaths of US military personnel.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources estimate the delivery to Iraqi insurgents as consisting of around 1,000 SA-7 Strela ground-air missiles made in Iran, and a very large quantity of a newly-developed roadside bomb, loaded with compressed gas instead of ball bearings and cartridges, to magnify their blast and explosive power.
In Iraq, the new weaponry has had three major effects:
1. The guerrilla-terrorist groups which received the shoulder-carried, highly mobile Strela missiles have scored three hits in fourteen days. On May 6, they fired a missile from one of Basra’s crowded alleys and downed a British military helicopter, killing all four military personnel aboard. Sunday, May 14, Iraqi insurgents shot down an American helicopter, killing its two crewmen over Yussifiya, inside the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad.
2. The number of roadside bomb attacks, their precision and lethality is going up all the time. Sunday, May 14, four US soldiers died in these blasts in the western Anbar province...In seven days, the British force stationed in southern Iraq lost seven men, a record for that space of time in the three-year war.
3. Together with the new Iranian weapons, a new array of Shiite terrorist groups has sprung up and is hitting American and British troops....
Apparently, not only is Iran arming America's enemies with ever more sophisticated weapons, but they are actually shelling America's Kurdish allies - from the Independent UK:
Shell craters and dead branches torn off the trees by explosions mark the places in the mountains of northern Iraq targeted by Iranian artillery firing across the border in a serious escalation of the confrontation between Iran and the US.
Frightened villagers, whose farms cling to the sides of the deep valleys below Kandil mountain, ran for their lives as Iran opened fire on Iraqi territory for the first time since the US invasion in 2003. Local officials said about 2,000 shells were fired in four hours.
It's time for us to show a little muscle against Iran; actually, a more forceful "warning" has been long overdue. These attacks against the Kurds, and the covert arming of the terrorists insurgents, will only get more brazen unless America shows it is unafraid of engaging Iran. At this point, there is no reason for Iran to fear the United States - we have allowed their nuclear program to proceed apace, taken no concrete steps against their support for terrorism worldwide, and have not responded to their provocations in Iran.
Perhaps we ought to escalate a bit - say, the nighttime sinking of a few of those vaunted Iranian navel vessels, a little daytime flight by US fighters over Iranian territory, or perhaps a stroll across the border by a few platoons of Marines. Might just give the Iranians some pause; you know, perhaps remind them that maybe they cannot believe all of their own propoganda...?
In the past two weeks, Iran has been pumping into Iraq two types of extra-lethal weapons in very large quantities. They have already taken their toll in the shooting down of two military helicopters - one American and one British – and an estimated 19 deaths of US military personnel.
DEBKAfile’s military and intelligence sources estimate the delivery to Iraqi insurgents as consisting of around 1,000 SA-7 Strela ground-air missiles made in Iran, and a very large quantity of a newly-developed roadside bomb, loaded with compressed gas instead of ball bearings and cartridges, to magnify their blast and explosive power.
In Iraq, the new weaponry has had three major effects:
1. The guerrilla-terrorist groups which received the shoulder-carried, highly mobile Strela missiles have scored three hits in fourteen days. On May 6, they fired a missile from one of Basra’s crowded alleys and downed a British military helicopter, killing all four military personnel aboard. Sunday, May 14, Iraqi insurgents shot down an American helicopter, killing its two crewmen over Yussifiya, inside the Triangle of Death south of Baghdad.
2. The number of roadside bomb attacks, their precision and lethality is going up all the time. Sunday, May 14, four US soldiers died in these blasts in the western Anbar province...In seven days, the British force stationed in southern Iraq lost seven men, a record for that space of time in the three-year war.
3. Together with the new Iranian weapons, a new array of Shiite terrorist groups has sprung up and is hitting American and British troops....
Apparently, not only is Iran arming America's enemies with ever more sophisticated weapons, but they are actually shelling America's Kurdish allies - from the Independent UK:
Shell craters and dead branches torn off the trees by explosions mark the places in the mountains of northern Iraq targeted by Iranian artillery firing across the border in a serious escalation of the confrontation between Iran and the US.
Frightened villagers, whose farms cling to the sides of the deep valleys below Kandil mountain, ran for their lives as Iran opened fire on Iraqi territory for the first time since the US invasion in 2003. Local officials said about 2,000 shells were fired in four hours.
It's time for us to show a little muscle against Iran; actually, a more forceful "warning" has been long overdue. These attacks against the Kurds, and the covert arming of the terrorists insurgents, will only get more brazen unless America shows it is unafraid of engaging Iran. At this point, there is no reason for Iran to fear the United States - we have allowed their nuclear program to proceed apace, taken no concrete steps against their support for terrorism worldwide, and have not responded to their provocations in Iran.
Perhaps we ought to escalate a bit - say, the nighttime sinking of a few of those vaunted Iranian navel vessels, a little daytime flight by US fighters over Iranian territory, or perhaps a stroll across the border by a few platoons of Marines. Might just give the Iranians some pause; you know, perhaps remind them that maybe they cannot believe all of their own propoganda...?
The Hague Rises For Ayaan Ali !!
Seems like the attempt to appease the fascist multi-culties in the Hague has backfired on Secretary Rita Verdonk; as her plot to essentially deport free-speaking heroine Ayaan Hirsi Ali is causing an uproar:
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's fellow members of the VVD free-market party are in an uproar. The normally hugely loyal Dutch VVD MP Bibi de Vries has said that 'if anything happens to AHA, her blood will be on the hands of members of my party'.
What will happen next?
• AHA will hold a press conference, which is starting right now.
• The political opposition is preparing a parliamentary condemnation of Verdonk's action. Such a condemnation will effectively end Rita Verdonk's tenure if it gets a majority.
• The condemnation may very well get that majority, because of the open revolt within the VVD. Also, the right-of-centre CDA party, which supports the current administration, has expressed doubts about Verdonk.
• If Verdonk has to go, then the entire Balkenende administration may have to resign, if it turns out that Balkenende was informed of Verdonk's decision.
Also, the Dutch law philosopher Afshin Ellian, a colleague of mine at Leiden University (I've never met him though), is preparing legal action against Rita Verdonk.
And from the press conference:
13.56: Vice prime minister Gerrit Zalm openly supports AHA during her press conference, thus adding further fuel to speculations about Rita Verdonk's political future.
14.04. Zalm sneers at Verdonk, hinting at the extreme speed with which Verdonk decided to revoke AHA's citizenship: 'If she always works with this speed, the immigration service will soon be rid of all backlogs.'
Sweet. Ms. Verdunk, in her attempt to de-person Ms. Ali, will soon become a non-person herself.
Live by multiculturalism, die by it...
Ayaan Hirsi Ali's fellow members of the VVD free-market party are in an uproar. The normally hugely loyal Dutch VVD MP Bibi de Vries has said that 'if anything happens to AHA, her blood will be on the hands of members of my party'.
What will happen next?
• AHA will hold a press conference, which is starting right now.
• The political opposition is preparing a parliamentary condemnation of Verdonk's action. Such a condemnation will effectively end Rita Verdonk's tenure if it gets a majority.
• The condemnation may very well get that majority, because of the open revolt within the VVD. Also, the right-of-centre CDA party, which supports the current administration, has expressed doubts about Verdonk.
• If Verdonk has to go, then the entire Balkenende administration may have to resign, if it turns out that Balkenende was informed of Verdonk's decision.
Also, the Dutch law philosopher Afshin Ellian, a colleague of mine at Leiden University (I've never met him though), is preparing legal action against Rita Verdonk.
And from the press conference:
13.56: Vice prime minister Gerrit Zalm openly supports AHA during her press conference, thus adding further fuel to speculations about Rita Verdonk's political future.
14.04. Zalm sneers at Verdonk, hinting at the extreme speed with which Verdonk decided to revoke AHA's citizenship: 'If she always works with this speed, the immigration service will soon be rid of all backlogs.'
Sweet. Ms. Verdunk, in her attempt to de-person Ms. Ali, will soon become a non-person herself.
Live by multiculturalism, die by it...
วันจันทร์, พฤษภาคม 15, 2549
Europe Reverts To Form
To quote Tom Wolfe for the second time today:
"...the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States, and yet lands only in Europe"
For all of those convinced that the Bush administration is working tirelessly to squelch your freedom of speech, well, ladies and gentleman, I give you....Europe. Paul Belian of the Brussels Journal, whom we have excerpted from on many occasions on these pages, is under attack by the Belgian quasi-authorities for speaking his mind:
During the past few weeks I have been under attack from the Belgian Left and the media.... In February the editor in chief of the mass circulation weekly Knack wrote a piece entitled “Paul Belien and His Pals,” claiming that I was part of a neo-con conspiracy, led by Daniel Pipes (whom until then I had never met or spoken) and the Danish journalist Flemming Rose (of the Muhammad cartoons), who wanted “to anger radical but also moderate Muslims into violent action..."
Today Father Johan Leman, a Catholic priest of the Order of Saint Dominic (the inquisition order) and a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, has joined the chorus. Father Leman is the previous president of the CEOOR (Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism), the inquisition center of the Belgian government. In today’s news broadcast on the national radio he says that the CEOOR has been negligent because it has not already started prosecutions against me.
According to Father Leman I have incited racial hatred, with the result that extremist or unbalanced people, such as Hans Van Themsche, have decided to take the law into their own hands and shoot immigrants. Father Leman blames the Belgian authorities and the CEOOR for not punishing me...
That's correct, Belgium's foremost blogger is being threatened with prosecution for simply writing about Muslims - but in the twisted word of the EU, writing about the bad behavior of a few Muslims is causing the bad behavior of even more Muslims, therefore if we incarcerate the writer, the antisocial actions will stop!
It cannot believe that anyone is quite stupid enough to buy into this line of reasoning. No, it is a new form of European fascism, a 21st Century mutation; where if you do not abide by the worldview of the multicultural elite, you are silenced though government prosecution. The twisted reasoning displayed here is typical of the blanket rationale they throw over their henious actions, not unlike the false crimes that the Eurofascists of the 30's and 40's used to eliminate their political and social enemies.
Yeah - just like George Bush's America, right?
And in the Netherlands, those "tolerent" Dutch are going to strip the brave Ayaan Hirsi Ali of her citizenship, lest she upset any more Muslims...from Die Welt:
Minister Verdonk of Immigration of the Netherlands announced that Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be stripped of her citizenship. A legal procedure will be started to do so.
Holland turned into a disgraceful country.
Die Walt believes that Ms. Verdonk found her rationale for the excommunication of Ms. Ali in the Koran:
'The just retribution for those who fight GOD and His messenger, and commit horrendous crimes, is to be killed, or crucified, or to have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or to be banished from the land. This is to humiliate them in this life..."
-Sura 5:33
From Dutch blogger Zact Ei, a post containing a timeline entitled The Machiavellian assassination of an MP:
Secretary Rita Verdonk has legalized many, many illegal aliens out of the 26,000 that the left in the Netherlands has claimed were prosecuted unduly.
Now, Rita Verdonk has ruled that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is probably no longer Dutch.
Literally, Ms. Ali has become a non-person in the classic Orwellian sense: She is being disappeared, stripped of employment, identity, and citizenship - not for crimes against society, or acts of violence, but for speaking out against the horrors committed in the name of Islam. The sin of speaking politically incorrectly is just as fatal in Europe today as it was throughout the last century.
This foul Continent, for all of its fine trappings, still holds within in the soul of a meglomanical beast. May America distance itself from its eventual fall into chaos, despair, and death...
"...the dark night of fascism is always descending in the United States, and yet lands only in Europe"
For all of those convinced that the Bush administration is working tirelessly to squelch your freedom of speech, well, ladies and gentleman, I give you....Europe. Paul Belian of the Brussels Journal, whom we have excerpted from on many occasions on these pages, is under attack by the Belgian quasi-authorities for speaking his mind:
During the past few weeks I have been under attack from the Belgian Left and the media.... In February the editor in chief of the mass circulation weekly Knack wrote a piece entitled “Paul Belien and His Pals,” claiming that I was part of a neo-con conspiracy, led by Daniel Pipes (whom until then I had never met or spoken) and the Danish journalist Flemming Rose (of the Muhammad cartoons), who wanted “to anger radical but also moderate Muslims into violent action..."
Today Father Johan Leman, a Catholic priest of the Order of Saint Dominic (the inquisition order) and a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, has joined the chorus. Father Leman is the previous president of the CEOOR (Center for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism), the inquisition center of the Belgian government. In today’s news broadcast on the national radio he says that the CEOOR has been negligent because it has not already started prosecutions against me.
According to Father Leman I have incited racial hatred, with the result that extremist or unbalanced people, such as Hans Van Themsche, have decided to take the law into their own hands and shoot immigrants. Father Leman blames the Belgian authorities and the CEOOR for not punishing me...
That's correct, Belgium's foremost blogger is being threatened with prosecution for simply writing about Muslims - but in the twisted word of the EU, writing about the bad behavior of a few Muslims is causing the bad behavior of even more Muslims, therefore if we incarcerate the writer, the antisocial actions will stop!
It cannot believe that anyone is quite stupid enough to buy into this line of reasoning. No, it is a new form of European fascism, a 21st Century mutation; where if you do not abide by the worldview of the multicultural elite, you are silenced though government prosecution. The twisted reasoning displayed here is typical of the blanket rationale they throw over their henious actions, not unlike the false crimes that the Eurofascists of the 30's and 40's used to eliminate their political and social enemies.
Yeah - just like George Bush's America, right?
And in the Netherlands, those "tolerent" Dutch are going to strip the brave Ayaan Hirsi Ali of her citizenship, lest she upset any more Muslims...from Die Welt:
Minister Verdonk of Immigration of the Netherlands announced that Ayaan Hirsi Ali should be stripped of her citizenship. A legal procedure will be started to do so.
Holland turned into a disgraceful country.
Die Walt believes that Ms. Verdonk found her rationale for the excommunication of Ms. Ali in the Koran:
'The just retribution for those who fight GOD and His messenger, and commit horrendous crimes, is to be killed, or crucified, or to have their hands and feet cut off on alternate sides, or to be banished from the land. This is to humiliate them in this life..."
-Sura 5:33
From Dutch blogger Zact Ei, a post containing a timeline entitled The Machiavellian assassination of an MP:
Secretary Rita Verdonk has legalized many, many illegal aliens out of the 26,000 that the left in the Netherlands has claimed were prosecuted unduly.
Now, Rita Verdonk has ruled that Ayaan Hirsi Ali is probably no longer Dutch.
Literally, Ms. Ali has become a non-person in the classic Orwellian sense: She is being disappeared, stripped of employment, identity, and citizenship - not for crimes against society, or acts of violence, but for speaking out against the horrors committed in the name of Islam. The sin of speaking politically incorrectly is just as fatal in Europe today as it was throughout the last century.
This foul Continent, for all of its fine trappings, still holds within in the soul of a meglomanical beast. May America distance itself from its eventual fall into chaos, despair, and death...
Fools!! All of Them!!
Canada's national sport (behind curling) is America-bashing; and if you venture into sub-catagories, right behind "Foreign policy, criticisms of..." you would find "Enviornment; US destruction of..."!
Which makes this morsel all the more ironic:
Canada defended its leadership of U.N. talks on fighting global warming on Monday despite admitting that Ottawa will not meet its own goals under the Kyoto Protocol.
Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, who is chairing the May 15-26 meetings in Bonn, has suggested that Kyoto should be softened for Canada in a second period from 2012 saying Ottawa had no chance of reaching its goals.
"We have very onerous targets that were set for us, negotiated for us," Ambrose told a news conference of Canada's goals under Kyoto, which entered into force last year.
"We will have great difficulty in meeting those targets. We believe they are unachievable," she said of Canada's Kyoto goal of cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases from factories, power plants and cars by 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
When the Americans say these goals are unreachable, we are chastised as evil polluters of Gaia bent on the destruction of the world. Canada gets off a bit more softly, but not entirely:
Environmentalists said Canada was not the right nation to try to persuade other nations to rein in fossil fuels.
Ambrose "must live up (to Canada's Kyoto goals) or stand down," said Jennifer Morgan, climate policy director of the WWF environmental group. "Vague statements about 'commitments to international efforts' are not serious."
Hey Jenny - welcome to European-style diplomacy - it's all about vague statements ! Concrete action is usually left to us vulger Americans. And speaking of which, it seems as if we will lead the way, as usual:
The United States pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it would cost jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations from a first round. Washington is instead making big investments in new technologies, ranging from hydrogen to solar power.
Actually ,we were never in Kyoto (Bill Clinton signed the treaty, but Congress rejected it 98-0. Ah, bipartisanship!). We saw through this BS years ago...
Fools, Part II: Those willfully blind Europeans, again:
The European Union said Monday it will propose a "bold package" of incentives, possibly including security guarantees, to persuade Iran to accept international oversight of its disputed nuclear program. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana made his comments a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected any economic and political incentives that required Tehran to stop enriching uranium, a process that many experts consider a first step toward producing nuclear weapons.
What flippin' cowards...still trying to buy off Tehran, one day after this:
...on Sunday Mr Ahmadinejad said the Europeans "know that any proposal that requires a halt to our peaceful activities will be without any value".
He said Western powers "behave like masters who still believe they are in the colonial era".
And when the war on Europe begins, I guarentee we will still hear words like this:
"We have said over and over again that we think a diplomatic solution is a good way, and we are going to continue on that line and ... we are going to prepare a very serious package that will make it difficult for them to say no," Solana said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Maybe they should beg for Ahmadinenjad's forgiveness for their colonial past, or better yet, show their multicultral values by converting to Islam!
And those security guarentees? Would the United States be forced to sign a type of non-aggression pact? And pray tell, who would enforce it? Would we be forced to wait until Iran nukes Israel for Europe to free us from our obligations under their treaty?
I can see Hillary Clinton getting her signing pen ready as we speak...
Which makes this morsel all the more ironic:
Canada defended its leadership of U.N. talks on fighting global warming on Monday despite admitting that Ottawa will not meet its own goals under the Kyoto Protocol.
Environment Minister Rona Ambrose, who is chairing the May 15-26 meetings in Bonn, has suggested that Kyoto should be softened for Canada in a second period from 2012 saying Ottawa had no chance of reaching its goals.
"We have very onerous targets that were set for us, negotiated for us," Ambrose told a news conference of Canada's goals under Kyoto, which entered into force last year.
"We will have great difficulty in meeting those targets. We believe they are unachievable," she said of Canada's Kyoto goal of cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases from factories, power plants and cars by 6 percent below 1990 levels by 2008-12.
When the Americans say these goals are unreachable, we are chastised as evil polluters of Gaia bent on the destruction of the world. Canada gets off a bit more softly, but not entirely:
Environmentalists said Canada was not the right nation to try to persuade other nations to rein in fossil fuels.
Ambrose "must live up (to Canada's Kyoto goals) or stand down," said Jennifer Morgan, climate policy director of the WWF environmental group. "Vague statements about 'commitments to international efforts' are not serious."
Hey Jenny - welcome to European-style diplomacy - it's all about vague statements ! Concrete action is usually left to us vulger Americans. And speaking of which, it seems as if we will lead the way, as usual:
The United States pulled out of Kyoto in 2001, saying it would cost jobs and wrongly excluded developing nations from a first round. Washington is instead making big investments in new technologies, ranging from hydrogen to solar power.
Actually ,we were never in Kyoto (Bill Clinton signed the treaty, but Congress rejected it 98-0. Ah, bipartisanship!). We saw through this BS years ago...
Fools, Part II: Those willfully blind Europeans, again:
The European Union said Monday it will propose a "bold package" of incentives, possibly including security guarantees, to persuade Iran to accept international oversight of its disputed nuclear program. EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana made his comments a day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad rejected any economic and political incentives that required Tehran to stop enriching uranium, a process that many experts consider a first step toward producing nuclear weapons.
What flippin' cowards...still trying to buy off Tehran, one day after this:
...on Sunday Mr Ahmadinejad said the Europeans "know that any proposal that requires a halt to our peaceful activities will be without any value".
He said Western powers "behave like masters who still believe they are in the colonial era".
And when the war on Europe begins, I guarentee we will still hear words like this:
"We have said over and over again that we think a diplomatic solution is a good way, and we are going to continue on that line and ... we are going to prepare a very serious package that will make it difficult for them to say no," Solana said ahead of a meeting of EU foreign ministers.
Maybe they should beg for Ahmadinenjad's forgiveness for their colonial past, or better yet, show their multicultral values by converting to Islam!
And those security guarentees? Would the United States be forced to sign a type of non-aggression pact? And pray tell, who would enforce it? Would we be forced to wait until Iran nukes Israel for Europe to free us from our obligations under their treaty?
I can see Hillary Clinton getting her signing pen ready as we speak...
วันอาทิตย์, พฤษภาคม 14, 2549
Larry Darby comes to Jersey!
...and speaks to a small group of hatemongers, while the good folk of New Jersey heckle:
About 20 activists held a peaceful protest Saturday outside a meeting hall that featured a controversial Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general who has denied that the Holocaust occurred.
Larry Darby was the guest speaker at the National Vanguard New Jersey's monthly meeting... The National Vanguard, which describes itself as a white nationalist group, is a splinter group of the white supremacist organization, National Alliance.
Darby is general counsel for the Atheist Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. He has denied the Holocaust took place, telling The Associated Press that "there was no systematic extermination of Jews" and claiming most Jews during World War II died of typhus.
More than 20 people attended Saturday's closed-door meeting with Darby, which began shortly after 6 p.m. Many National Vanguard members, who blocked their license plates with plywood to conceal their identity, hurried inside and refused to speak to a reporter.
I would replace the word "hurried" with "scurried", 'cause that's what rodentia do...
Outside, protesters held placards and heckled people headed into the building. Some of those attending the meeting stopped and exchanged words with protesters, but discussions never became heated. A half dozen police officers stood outside of the hall to keep protesters at bay.
The demonstrators said they wanted to call attention to a hateful organization they say is tarnishing the image of Elmwood Park.
"The fact that so many prominent people are coming to their meetings indicates that we should do something about them," said protester Daryle Lamont Jenkins. "They are giving this city a black eye. The bottom line is – this is going to stop."
Meeting attendees included Kevin Alfred Strom, the founder of the National Vanguard, and teenage twins who are members of Prussian Blue, a band whose songs express "white pride," according to their Web site.
Lamont-Jenkins is pretty well known radical lefty around these parts, but a quick internet search will show you that he has been a thorn in the side of the National Alliance and other supremicist groups for years.
Read about Prussian Blue here, in an ABC News article entitled "Young Singers Spread Racist Hate". They take their name, incidentally, from the type of pigment/dye used in German Army uniforms. They're the Olsen twins of hate, but that's another story...again, look at whom our Alabama Democrat attracts...
More on Darby at A Bama Blog; wish I could find more in the New Jersey papers, but they have tax increases to drool over...
About 20 activists held a peaceful protest Saturday outside a meeting hall that featured a controversial Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general who has denied that the Holocaust occurred.
Larry Darby was the guest speaker at the National Vanguard New Jersey's monthly meeting... The National Vanguard, which describes itself as a white nationalist group, is a splinter group of the white supremacist organization, National Alliance.
Darby is general counsel for the Atheist Law Center in Montgomery, Ala. He has denied the Holocaust took place, telling The Associated Press that "there was no systematic extermination of Jews" and claiming most Jews during World War II died of typhus.
More than 20 people attended Saturday's closed-door meeting with Darby, which began shortly after 6 p.m. Many National Vanguard members, who blocked their license plates with plywood to conceal their identity, hurried inside and refused to speak to a reporter.
I would replace the word "hurried" with "scurried", 'cause that's what rodentia do...
Outside, protesters held placards and heckled people headed into the building. Some of those attending the meeting stopped and exchanged words with protesters, but discussions never became heated. A half dozen police officers stood outside of the hall to keep protesters at bay.
The demonstrators said they wanted to call attention to a hateful organization they say is tarnishing the image of Elmwood Park.
"The fact that so many prominent people are coming to their meetings indicates that we should do something about them," said protester Daryle Lamont Jenkins. "They are giving this city a black eye. The bottom line is – this is going to stop."
Meeting attendees included Kevin Alfred Strom, the founder of the National Vanguard, and teenage twins who are members of Prussian Blue, a band whose songs express "white pride," according to their Web site.
Lamont-Jenkins is pretty well known radical lefty around these parts, but a quick internet search will show you that he has been a thorn in the side of the National Alliance and other supremicist groups for years.
Read about Prussian Blue here, in an ABC News article entitled "Young Singers Spread Racist Hate". They take their name, incidentally, from the type of pigment/dye used in German Army uniforms. They're the Olsen twins of hate, but that's another story...again, look at whom our Alabama Democrat attracts...
More on Darby at A Bama Blog; wish I could find more in the New Jersey papers, but they have tax increases to drool over...
Dig Deeper !
When The Washington Post's Dana Priest won a Pulitzer for sharing classified information detailing strategies on the war on terror, the partisan CIA agent who spilled the beans was fired, instead of being hung for treason as she ought to. As honest debate ensues about the propriety of printing such information during wartime (as Ms. Priest held onto her Pulitzer and screamed, "Mine! All mine!"), it seems as if the Post is clarifying their position, by printing a front-page story claiming the CIA has been lying to Congress, all based on more dubious claims made by fired CIA agent Mary McCarthy:
A senior CIA official, meeting with Senate staff in a secure room of the Capitol last June, promised repeatedly that the agency did not violate or seek to violate an international treaty that bars cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, during interrogations it conducted in the Middle East and elsewhere.
But another CIA officer -- the agency's deputy inspector general, who for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was startled to hear what she considered an outright falsehood, according to people familiar with her account. It came during the discussion of legislation that would constrain the CIA's interrogations
That CIA officer was Mary O. McCarthy, 61, who was fired on April 20 for allegedly sharing classified information with journalists, including Washington Post journalist Dana Priest...
McCarthy was not an ideologue, her friends say, but at some point fell into a camp of CIA officers who felt that the Bush administration's venture into Iraq had dangerously diverted U.S. counterterrorism policy.
She "was not an ideologue"? What do you call someone who spills government secrets they are sworn to protect because they do not like the policies they represent?
Well, if you are a WaPost liberal, you call her a "patriot", I guess, but I would have less trouble with her credibility of she quit the CIA and then came out, as opposed to whispering secrets to a rabidly anti-Bush columnist while still collecting government paychecks.
The WaPost goes on with a whole laundry list of McCarthy's claims and complaints, but fails to note that the whole basis of her first set of leaks, and Ms. Priest's Pulitzer, was based on a story of secret prisons that is apparently completely false. The European Union, not the most American-friendly of international organizations, has repeatedly found no evidence of these so-called rendition flights and secret incarceration centers that Priest and McCarthy used to undermine America's policies abroad while obtaining glory and self-satisfaction for themselves.
Yet the Washington Post rolls on, dancing as fast as it can, using discredited sources to print even more unsubstantiated allegations, all in an attempt to bring down an administration voted into office twice by the American people. After all, their editorial board knows better than us common folk, right?
And as the final laugh, again in today's Washington Post, the paper that has brought us more agitprop lies and deception about the war on terror than any other media outlet in the world (including al-Jazeera and the NY Times), their so-called ombudsman wastes a whole column today talking about the right way to use the "corrections" section in cases of grammatical errors.
Unbelievable.
A senior CIA official, meeting with Senate staff in a secure room of the Capitol last June, promised repeatedly that the agency did not violate or seek to violate an international treaty that bars cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment of detainees, during interrogations it conducted in the Middle East and elsewhere.
But another CIA officer -- the agency's deputy inspector general, who for the previous year had been probing allegations of criminal mistreatment by the CIA and its contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan -- was startled to hear what she considered an outright falsehood, according to people familiar with her account. It came during the discussion of legislation that would constrain the CIA's interrogations
That CIA officer was Mary O. McCarthy, 61, who was fired on April 20 for allegedly sharing classified information with journalists, including Washington Post journalist Dana Priest...
McCarthy was not an ideologue, her friends say, but at some point fell into a camp of CIA officers who felt that the Bush administration's venture into Iraq had dangerously diverted U.S. counterterrorism policy.
She "was not an ideologue"? What do you call someone who spills government secrets they are sworn to protect because they do not like the policies they represent?
Well, if you are a WaPost liberal, you call her a "patriot", I guess, but I would have less trouble with her credibility of she quit the CIA and then came out, as opposed to whispering secrets to a rabidly anti-Bush columnist while still collecting government paychecks.
The WaPost goes on with a whole laundry list of McCarthy's claims and complaints, but fails to note that the whole basis of her first set of leaks, and Ms. Priest's Pulitzer, was based on a story of secret prisons that is apparently completely false. The European Union, not the most American-friendly of international organizations, has repeatedly found no evidence of these so-called rendition flights and secret incarceration centers that Priest and McCarthy used to undermine America's policies abroad while obtaining glory and self-satisfaction for themselves.
Yet the Washington Post rolls on, dancing as fast as it can, using discredited sources to print even more unsubstantiated allegations, all in an attempt to bring down an administration voted into office twice by the American people. After all, their editorial board knows better than us common folk, right?
And as the final laugh, again in today's Washington Post, the paper that has brought us more agitprop lies and deception about the war on terror than any other media outlet in the world (including al-Jazeera and the NY Times), their so-called ombudsman wastes a whole column today talking about the right way to use the "corrections" section in cases of grammatical errors.
Unbelievable.
วันเสาร์, พฤษภาคม 13, 2549
France Joins the Fray in Iraq !
Only on the wrong side....from E-Nough!
At least 21 people have gone from France to Iraq to join the anti-coalition fighters since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, national police said Thursday.
National Police Chief Michel Gaudin told The Associated Press that nine of them had been killed, and 10 were believed to be alive and still in Iraq.
Five of those killed were French citizens, while the other four had traveled to Iraq from France. "We are working with international authorities to determine their identities," Gaudin said.
With these French "fighters" teaching them about the nuances of surrender, appeasement, and the value of idleness, we should be bringing our troops home by Christmas...
At least 21 people have gone from France to Iraq to join the anti-coalition fighters since the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, national police said Thursday.
National Police Chief Michel Gaudin told The Associated Press that nine of them had been killed, and 10 were believed to be alive and still in Iraq.
Five of those killed were French citizens, while the other four had traveled to Iraq from France. "We are working with international authorities to determine their identities," Gaudin said.
With these French "fighters" teaching them about the nuances of surrender, appeasement, and the value of idleness, we should be bringing our troops home by Christmas...
Hate is Comin' to Jersey!
Look who is coming to visit New Jersey today - a Holocaust-denying, white-supremist, atheistic Democrat running for AG of Alabama:
Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general denies the Holocaust occurred and said Friday he will speak this weekend in New Jersey to a "pro-white" organization that is widely viewed as being racist.
Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Darby said he believes no more than 140,000 Jewish people died in Europe during World War II, and most of them succumbed to typhus. Historians say about 6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, but Darby said the figure is a false claim of the "Holocaust industry."
"I am what the propagandists call a Holocaust denier, but I do not deny mass deaths that included some Jews," Darby said. "There was no systematic extermination of Jews. There's no evidence of that at all."
Ahh....Aushwitz? Treblinka? The tens of thousands of photos and records the Germans kept? Someone hook Darby up with the nutjob that rules Iran...
Well, at least the Jersey Democrats have some sense:
New Jersey's Democratic State Committee chief on Friday decried Darby's planned visit, and said in a statement that denying the Holocaust was "historical blasphemy." " Hate and prejudice are destructive qualities that are not welcome in New Jersey and should be condemned wherever they occur," said party Chairman Joe Cryan. "Mr. Darby should turn around before crossing the Jersey stateline and then give thought to turning his abhorrent attitudes around as well."
A poll published last month indicated the Democratic race for attorney general was up for grabs...aside from his views on race and the Holocaust, Darby also has publicly advocated legalizing drugs and shooting all illegal immigrants.
To think that a race with this type of candidate is "up for grabs" does not speak well for the people of Alabama. For once I can strongly agree with a Democrat; hatemonger Darby should keep his sorry ass out of my state...
Note how his local media does not even mention his anti-semitism or "white power" views - they highlight his liberal policies, simply speaking of his efforts at decriminalizing marijuana, and noting:
As an atheist leader, Darby helped lead protests against former Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument being in the state judicial building, and he opposed a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in Alabama. Darby said it was writing religious doctrine into the constitution.
And National Vanguard, the organization that Darby is coming to New Jersey to address? Well, here is their mission statement:
National Vanguard is an organization of racially-conscious Whites who seek to maintain the cultural and biological qualities of our race, and ensure that they exist forever to be handed down to future generations. National Vanguard members and supporters view the White race as a distinct nation, worthy of preservation, and we unabashedly reject the absurd notion that "diversity", i.e., the mixing of the races, is a beneficial trend for White societies to follow...
They praise Mr. Hayden's anti-Semitism here.
Well, this white man says: To hell with you all.
I'll update with any coverage I can find in the Jersey media, if they can take a breath from fawning over Jon Taxzine...calling Congressman Rush Holt! You stepped up once before for me, remember?
More coverage at Gateway Pundit; Little Green Footballs questions the AP coverage of this story
UPDATE 5/14 here
Democratic candidate for Alabama attorney general denies the Holocaust occurred and said Friday he will speak this weekend in New Jersey to a "pro-white" organization that is widely viewed as being racist.
Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press, Darby said he believes no more than 140,000 Jewish people died in Europe during World War II, and most of them succumbed to typhus. Historians say about 6 million Jews were slaughtered by the Nazis, but Darby said the figure is a false claim of the "Holocaust industry."
"I am what the propagandists call a Holocaust denier, but I do not deny mass deaths that included some Jews," Darby said. "There was no systematic extermination of Jews. There's no evidence of that at all."
Ahh....Aushwitz? Treblinka? The tens of thousands of photos and records the Germans kept? Someone hook Darby up with the nutjob that rules Iran...
Well, at least the Jersey Democrats have some sense:
New Jersey's Democratic State Committee chief on Friday decried Darby's planned visit, and said in a statement that denying the Holocaust was "historical blasphemy." " Hate and prejudice are destructive qualities that are not welcome in New Jersey and should be condemned wherever they occur," said party Chairman Joe Cryan. "Mr. Darby should turn around before crossing the Jersey stateline and then give thought to turning his abhorrent attitudes around as well."
A poll published last month indicated the Democratic race for attorney general was up for grabs...aside from his views on race and the Holocaust, Darby also has publicly advocated legalizing drugs and shooting all illegal immigrants.
To think that a race with this type of candidate is "up for grabs" does not speak well for the people of Alabama. For once I can strongly agree with a Democrat; hatemonger Darby should keep his sorry ass out of my state...
Note how his local media does not even mention his anti-semitism or "white power" views - they highlight his liberal policies, simply speaking of his efforts at decriminalizing marijuana, and noting:
As an atheist leader, Darby helped lead protests against former Chief Justice Roy Moore's Ten Commandments monument being in the state judicial building, and he opposed a proposed constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages in Alabama. Darby said it was writing religious doctrine into the constitution.
And National Vanguard, the organization that Darby is coming to New Jersey to address? Well, here is their mission statement:
National Vanguard is an organization of racially-conscious Whites who seek to maintain the cultural and biological qualities of our race, and ensure that they exist forever to be handed down to future generations. National Vanguard members and supporters view the White race as a distinct nation, worthy of preservation, and we unabashedly reject the absurd notion that "diversity", i.e., the mixing of the races, is a beneficial trend for White societies to follow...
They praise Mr. Hayden's anti-Semitism here.
Well, this white man says: To hell with you all.
I'll update with any coverage I can find in the Jersey media, if they can take a breath from fawning over Jon Taxzine...calling Congressman Rush Holt! You stepped up once before for me, remember?
More coverage at Gateway Pundit; Little Green Footballs questions the AP coverage of this story
UPDATE 5/14 here
วันศุกร์, พฤษภาคม 12, 2549
The Media Piles On !
Drudge pointed this out to me - was USA Today's big story yesterday on the government's collecting of phone data simply a rehash of old news printed in the NY Times last year?
USA Today:
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.
New York Times:
Dec. 23 - The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials.
The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.
As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.
This has already been beaten to death, no? Actually, if I recall at the time, a large majority of Americans approve of this surveillance - more than 2/3rds, I believe...
So what happened? Did the Democrats and/or the MSM feel that Bush was regaining some steam; and with no fresh distortions handily available, just re-hashed an old issue in order to distract the electorate? After all, it is hard to defeat the party in power when you are winning a war, the economy is going gangbusters, and the opposition has no cognizant governing plan besides promising to raise taxes and investigate the President....
Shame on USA Today; and shame on the rest of the media for re-reporting old news for partisan political gain...
UPDATE 1145P: Michelle Malkin in today's New York Post quotes the USA Today article and makes her point:
According to the newspaper's piece (a naked attempt to derail former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden's nomination as CIA chief):
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews."
Note, please: "This program does NOT involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations."
They're looking at massive amounts of numbers and phone-call patterns, not eavesdropping on teenage lovers' quarrels or your neighbor's pizza order or Susan Sarandon's heart-to-hearts with Cindy Sheehan.
And: "The spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity."
Translation: The counterterror experts at the NSA are - gasp - doing their job. And - to their credit - some American companies are stepping up to the plate to help them.
The paper admits the kind of data collection involved is not new. The Clinton administration's Echelon program was far more intrusive.
Michelle is right - not a smack at Bush, but a smackdown attempt at his nominees...partisan, and pathetic.
USA Today:
The National Security Agency has been secretly collecting the phone call records of tens of millions of Americans, using data provided by AT&T, Verizon and BellSouth, people with direct knowledge of the arrangement told USA TODAY.
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans — most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews.
New York Times:
Dec. 23 - The National Security Agency has traced and analyzed large volumes of telephone and Internet communications flowing into and out of the United States as part of the eavesdropping program that President Bush approved after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to hunt for evidence of terrorist activity, according to current and former government officials.
The volume of information harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged, the officials said. It was collected by tapping directly into some of the American telecommunication system's main arteries, they said.
As part of the program approved by President Bush for domestic surveillance without warrants, the N.S.A. has gained the cooperation of American telecommunications companies to obtain backdoor access to streams of domestic and international communications, the officials said.
This has already been beaten to death, no? Actually, if I recall at the time, a large majority of Americans approve of this surveillance - more than 2/3rds, I believe...
So what happened? Did the Democrats and/or the MSM feel that Bush was regaining some steam; and with no fresh distortions handily available, just re-hashed an old issue in order to distract the electorate? After all, it is hard to defeat the party in power when you are winning a war, the economy is going gangbusters, and the opposition has no cognizant governing plan besides promising to raise taxes and investigate the President....
Shame on USA Today; and shame on the rest of the media for re-reporting old news for partisan political gain...
UPDATE 1145P: Michelle Malkin in today's New York Post quotes the USA Today article and makes her point:
According to the newspaper's piece (a naked attempt to derail former NSA head Gen. Michael Hayden's nomination as CIA chief):
The NSA program reaches into homes and businesses across the nation by amassing information about the calls of ordinary Americans - most of whom aren't suspected of any crime. This program does not involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations. But the spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity, sources said in separate interviews."
Note, please: "This program does NOT involve the NSA listening to or recording conversations."
They're looking at massive amounts of numbers and phone-call patterns, not eavesdropping on teenage lovers' quarrels or your neighbor's pizza order or Susan Sarandon's heart-to-hearts with Cindy Sheehan.
And: "The spy agency is using the data to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity."
Translation: The counterterror experts at the NSA are - gasp - doing their job. And - to their credit - some American companies are stepping up to the plate to help them.
The paper admits the kind of data collection involved is not new. The Clinton administration's Echelon program was far more intrusive.
Michelle is right - not a smack at Bush, but a smackdown attempt at his nominees...partisan, and pathetic.
วันพุธ, พฤษภาคม 10, 2549
Blame the Jews, Part 63:
The tenor and wording of this article is not to be believed:
Israeli fuel firm halts Palestinian gas supply
-sounds political, right? Let's see -
Palestinian gas stations began shutting down and motorists lined up at pumps after an Israeli fuel company cut off deliveries Wednesday, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has followed Hamas’ rise to power.
An end to fuel supplies could cripple hospitals, halt food deliveries and keep people home from work — a devastating scenario for an economy already ravaged by Israeli and international sanctions.
-Note how Israel is seperated out for emphasis, despite the fact that most of the Western world is shunning Hamas-
Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel would “absolutely not” bail out the Palestinians. Shariv said that since the Palestinian government resells gasoline to consumers, there is no reason for it not to have money to pay its debts.
But Palestinian officials said their cash-strapped government is one of the biggest users of gasoline and unable to pay the bill.
Mujahid Salame, head of the Palestinian petrol authority, predicted fuel supplies would run out in many areas by Thursday. “If this happens, there will be a humanitarian crisis,” he said.
This is simple business, for God's sake!! The Palestinians are buying fuel from a private Israeli company, reselling it, and not paying the supplier! Furthermore, if the primary purchaser is Hamas, than an Israeli company is already selling fuel to a group that has vowed to destroy them! But that is still not good enough for MSNBC, the Jews must continue to sell fuel to the Palestinian government at a loss, so that they may eventually be destroyed by them.
Otherwise, there might be a "humanitarian crisis"!
One may think that the very existence of Hamas is a humanitarian crisis in and of itself; but it is just so much more politcally correct to blame those godawful Jews...
Israeli fuel firm halts Palestinian gas supply
-sounds political, right? Let's see -
Palestinian gas stations began shutting down and motorists lined up at pumps after an Israeli fuel company cut off deliveries Wednesday, deepening the humanitarian crisis in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that has followed Hamas’ rise to power.
An end to fuel supplies could cripple hospitals, halt food deliveries and keep people home from work — a devastating scenario for an economy already ravaged by Israeli and international sanctions.
-Note how Israel is seperated out for emphasis, despite the fact that most of the Western world is shunning Hamas-
Asaf Shariv, a spokesman for Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said Israel would “absolutely not” bail out the Palestinians. Shariv said that since the Palestinian government resells gasoline to consumers, there is no reason for it not to have money to pay its debts.
But Palestinian officials said their cash-strapped government is one of the biggest users of gasoline and unable to pay the bill.
Mujahid Salame, head of the Palestinian petrol authority, predicted fuel supplies would run out in many areas by Thursday. “If this happens, there will be a humanitarian crisis,” he said.
This is simple business, for God's sake!! The Palestinians are buying fuel from a private Israeli company, reselling it, and not paying the supplier! Furthermore, if the primary purchaser is Hamas, than an Israeli company is already selling fuel to a group that has vowed to destroy them! But that is still not good enough for MSNBC, the Jews must continue to sell fuel to the Palestinian government at a loss, so that they may eventually be destroyed by them.
Otherwise, there might be a "humanitarian crisis"!
One may think that the very existence of Hamas is a humanitarian crisis in and of itself; but it is just so much more politcally correct to blame those godawful Jews...
That Wacky Letter...
USA Today presents some insights derived from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad 's letter to W. the other day:
Part anti-U.S. diatribe and part religious screed, the letter Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent to President Bush on Monday is a window into the mind of a little-known U.S. adversary.
The letter shows Ahmadinejad, 49, as a naive leader whose beliefs stem from resentment and ignorance of the Western world, according to political psychologists and Iran experts who have read or seen descriptions of the 18-page letter...
Stanley Renshon, a political psychologist at the City University of New York, called the letter "both cheeky and presumptuous."...Ahmadinejad's lack of understanding of the West is reminiscent of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein when he was in power, Renshon said. Saddam "also had some very odd ideas about the United States," he said.
Ahmadinejad's "humble background" has added to feelings of resentment, Renshon said....Ahmadinejad also may be insecure about his own position in Iran, where religious leaders make most decisions.
Ahmadinejad's letter shows "the hubris of a committed Islamicist," Takeyh said.
Well, the USA Today piece certainly is preferable to the New York Times' defense of terrorists like al-Zarqawi, at the very least ...
But the Washington Post finds a reason to praise the man who has vowed to wipe the Jewish nation off the face of the earth - after all, he has entered the nineteeth century by allowing women to attend soccer matches:
...the co-optation of middle-class women was also a demonstration of the deftness with which this militant is mobilizing public support behind a once-beleaguered regime as it prepares for a confrontation with the West. Ahmadinejad practices the populism of aggressive nationalism, made familiar by the dictators of the 20th century. He pours Iran's ballooning oil cash into wage and pension increases, cheap loans and debt cancellations for farmers. He barnstorms the provinces, mixing promises of prosperity, folksy jokes and fiery denunciations of the American and Zionist enemy.
While there is no reliable polling in Iran, even the bitterest of dissidents say the president's campaign is working.
I'm just kidding about the "praise" thing - realistically, Jackson Diehl's article about the current popularity of Iran's president does present a good case for Ahmadinejad's current strength, and concludes by giving him about a year's worth of rope before the Iranian people get ready to tie it into a noose.
About a year...I believe that is a sufficient time to wait; too much longer and the job becomes significantly more difficult. In the meantime, if I was an Israeli especially, I would be planning for the worst...I hope the Pentagon is too.
UPDATE: Seriously this time, LGF refers us to an AP scribe who is absolutely smitten with Iran's man of letters:
With his 18-page letter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered President Bush a history lesson, philosophy lecture and religious sermon laced with references to Jesus Christ.
The document gives rare insight into a man who has largely been a mystery to the West, showing him as fixated on a long list of grievances against the United States and seeking to build on a shared faith in God.
In places, he strikes a soft, almost fatherly stance. On its first page, Ahmadinejad strikes a tone of a man who is troubled by a friend's actions and decides to sit down and give him a little advice.
He ends the letter with what appears to be a last-ditch plea to Bush.
"How long must the people of the world pay for the incorrect decisions of some rulers?" Ahmadinejad writes...
The mind boggles...
Part anti-U.S. diatribe and part religious screed, the letter Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad sent to President Bush on Monday is a window into the mind of a little-known U.S. adversary.
The letter shows Ahmadinejad, 49, as a naive leader whose beliefs stem from resentment and ignorance of the Western world, according to political psychologists and Iran experts who have read or seen descriptions of the 18-page letter...
Stanley Renshon, a political psychologist at the City University of New York, called the letter "both cheeky and presumptuous."...Ahmadinejad's lack of understanding of the West is reminiscent of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein when he was in power, Renshon said. Saddam "also had some very odd ideas about the United States," he said.
Ahmadinejad's "humble background" has added to feelings of resentment, Renshon said....Ahmadinejad also may be insecure about his own position in Iran, where religious leaders make most decisions.
Ahmadinejad's letter shows "the hubris of a committed Islamicist," Takeyh said.
Well, the USA Today piece certainly is preferable to the New York Times' defense of terrorists like al-Zarqawi, at the very least ...
But the Washington Post finds a reason to praise the man who has vowed to wipe the Jewish nation off the face of the earth - after all, he has entered the nineteeth century by allowing women to attend soccer matches:
...the co-optation of middle-class women was also a demonstration of the deftness with which this militant is mobilizing public support behind a once-beleaguered regime as it prepares for a confrontation with the West. Ahmadinejad practices the populism of aggressive nationalism, made familiar by the dictators of the 20th century. He pours Iran's ballooning oil cash into wage and pension increases, cheap loans and debt cancellations for farmers. He barnstorms the provinces, mixing promises of prosperity, folksy jokes and fiery denunciations of the American and Zionist enemy.
While there is no reliable polling in Iran, even the bitterest of dissidents say the president's campaign is working.
I'm just kidding about the "praise" thing - realistically, Jackson Diehl's article about the current popularity of Iran's president does present a good case for Ahmadinejad's current strength, and concludes by giving him about a year's worth of rope before the Iranian people get ready to tie it into a noose.
About a year...I believe that is a sufficient time to wait; too much longer and the job becomes significantly more difficult. In the meantime, if I was an Israeli especially, I would be planning for the worst...I hope the Pentagon is too.
UPDATE: Seriously this time, LGF refers us to an AP scribe who is absolutely smitten with Iran's man of letters:
With his 18-page letter, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad delivered President Bush a history lesson, philosophy lecture and religious sermon laced with references to Jesus Christ.
The document gives rare insight into a man who has largely been a mystery to the West, showing him as fixated on a long list of grievances against the United States and seeking to build on a shared faith in God.
In places, he strikes a soft, almost fatherly stance. On its first page, Ahmadinejad strikes a tone of a man who is troubled by a friend's actions and decides to sit down and give him a little advice.
He ends the letter with what appears to be a last-ditch plea to Bush.
"How long must the people of the world pay for the incorrect decisions of some rulers?" Ahmadinejad writes...
The mind boggles...
Europe and America: Seperated, or Divorced?
Via an amazing essay from Mark Steyn:
Most nations in Europe can never again be American allies – not because of anything America’s done, but because of a huge number of profound changes, voluntary and not so, upon which the Continent is embarked:
1) It’s changing in its formal structure, as its elites merge their countries into one pan-European political entity.
2) It’s changing economically, as its people decline and age and its cradle-to-grave welfare systems become unsustainable.
3) It’s changing demographically, with the importation of large unassimilated Muslim populations that make it all but impossible for political leaders to be seen supporting America or Israel.
4) It’s changing in its political tempo, as populations hostile to European integration look for neo-nationalist parties to express their discontent.
Exhibit A - Germany:
Europe is dying, demographically and economically. Take the onetime economic powerhouse of the Continent – Germany – and pick any of the usual indicators of a healthy advanced industrial democracy: Unemployment? The highest since the 1930s.
House prices? Down.
New car registration? Nearly 15 per cent lower in 2005 than in 1999.
General nuttiness? A third of Germans under 30 think the United States government was responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
My God; read it all!
Most nations in Europe can never again be American allies – not because of anything America’s done, but because of a huge number of profound changes, voluntary and not so, upon which the Continent is embarked:
1) It’s changing in its formal structure, as its elites merge their countries into one pan-European political entity.
2) It’s changing economically, as its people decline and age and its cradle-to-grave welfare systems become unsustainable.
3) It’s changing demographically, with the importation of large unassimilated Muslim populations that make it all but impossible for political leaders to be seen supporting America or Israel.
4) It’s changing in its political tempo, as populations hostile to European integration look for neo-nationalist parties to express their discontent.
Exhibit A - Germany:
Europe is dying, demographically and economically. Take the onetime economic powerhouse of the Continent – Germany – and pick any of the usual indicators of a healthy advanced industrial democracy: Unemployment? The highest since the 1930s.
House prices? Down.
New car registration? Nearly 15 per cent lower in 2005 than in 1999.
General nuttiness? A third of Germans under 30 think the United States government was responsible for the terrorist attacks of September 11th.
My God; read it all!
The work of Phyllis Chesler
I was turned onto this post-feminist feminist by the good people at No Parasan!; she speaks truth to the liberal multicultural monolith that controls so many of our public institstions today. A few samples of her thoughts:
...the "Left" is aggressively secular and anti-religious; considers pornography to be "protected" hate speech; considers prostitution and trafficking to be forms of "sex work" which should be de-criminalized or legalized; views paternal sole-custody of children as the feminist solution to the problems that mothers have when they juggle child care and career responsibilities; believes that men and women are actually the "same"; has absolutely no foreign policy except that of opposing whatever President Bush and America do or ever have done...
I mourn the Stalinization and Palestinianization of the feminist postcolonial and postmodern academy and media. Because such feminists refuse to "judge" Islamic gender apartheid, they and their institutions and
organizations have become anti-activist, anti-American, anti-Israeli, isolationist, and, at best, tools of the Democratic party. At worst, they are apologists for Islamist jihad. To avoid the McCarthyite charge of "racism," such feminists have been willing to sacrifice the victims of Islamism on their "multicultural" altars. …
Today, the level of anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda in the Islamic world is lethal, toxic, and has unleashed a global jihad against both Israel and the West. We cannot afford to tolerate the intolerant nor can we afford to minimize the dangers to our civilization posed by Islamist fanatics who have successfully hijacked their religion and peoples. There were also "good" and moderate Germans during Hitler's reign. What matters is that they did not stand up to Hitler. What matters is that otherwise "good" people appeased him as well....
If someone thinks for herself in an independent and creative way and dares to come up with non-party-line conclusions, she or he is then, in classic Orwellian style, deemed the enemy, a traitor, a non-person. Their work will not be read or discussed. They will not be invited to debate or to debate in a civilized and honorable way. They will be called a "racist" and a "neoconservative." If a feminist dares raise the specter of Jew-hatred and the demonization of the Jewish state among leftists and feminists, she will quickly discover that she has become unwelcome in the mainstream media and among leftists (who actually think of themselves as liberals), and among feminists. Palestinianized Western feminists are more concerned with the so-called occupation of a country that does not exist (Palestine), than with the occupation of women's bodies worldwide under Islam. The fact that feminists and leftists still continue to call for boycotts of Israel and to actively demonstrate against a war-time president even after 9/11, 3/11, and 7/7 tells me that they have literally been brainwashed and that reality has no defining role in determining their thoughts or their actions.
Find Phyllis Chesler's books here and here; her website can be found here.
With thoughts of Ms. Chesler and Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in my head, I am left to wonder...where is the intellectaul bravery of the 21st Century male? Yes, we do have Amir Taheri and Mark Steyn, but why is it that only the John Kerrys and Al Gores of the world get any media attention? Or is this just an example of Ms. Chesler's Orwellian blacklisting of those whom do not fall in line with the MSM's doctrine?
...the "Left" is aggressively secular and anti-religious; considers pornography to be "protected" hate speech; considers prostitution and trafficking to be forms of "sex work" which should be de-criminalized or legalized; views paternal sole-custody of children as the feminist solution to the problems that mothers have when they juggle child care and career responsibilities; believes that men and women are actually the "same"; has absolutely no foreign policy except that of opposing whatever President Bush and America do or ever have done...
I mourn the Stalinization and Palestinianization of the feminist postcolonial and postmodern academy and media. Because such feminists refuse to "judge" Islamic gender apartheid, they and their institutions and
organizations have become anti-activist, anti-American, anti-Israeli, isolationist, and, at best, tools of the Democratic party. At worst, they are apologists for Islamist jihad. To avoid the McCarthyite charge of "racism," such feminists have been willing to sacrifice the victims of Islamism on their "multicultural" altars. …Today, the level of anti-American and anti-Jewish propaganda in the Islamic world is lethal, toxic, and has unleashed a global jihad against both Israel and the West. We cannot afford to tolerate the intolerant nor can we afford to minimize the dangers to our civilization posed by Islamist fanatics who have successfully hijacked their religion and peoples. There were also "good" and moderate Germans during Hitler's reign. What matters is that they did not stand up to Hitler. What matters is that otherwise "good" people appeased him as well....
If someone thinks for herself in an independent and creative way and dares to come up with non-party-line conclusions, she or he is then, in classic Orwellian style, deemed the enemy, a traitor, a non-person. Their work will not be read or discussed. They will not be invited to debate or to debate in a civilized and honorable way. They will be called a "racist" and a "neoconservative." If a feminist dares raise the specter of Jew-hatred and the demonization of the Jewish state among leftists and feminists, she will quickly discover that she has become unwelcome in the mainstream media and among leftists (who actually think of themselves as liberals), and among feminists. Palestinianized Western feminists are more concerned with the so-called occupation of a country that does not exist (Palestine), than with the occupation of women's bodies worldwide under Islam. The fact that feminists and leftists still continue to call for boycotts of Israel and to actively demonstrate against a war-time president even after 9/11, 3/11, and 7/7 tells me that they have literally been brainwashed and that reality has no defining role in determining their thoughts or their actions.
Find Phyllis Chesler's books here and here; her website can be found here.
With thoughts of Ms. Chesler and Ms. Ayaan Hirsi Ali in my head, I am left to wonder...where is the intellectaul bravery of the 21st Century male? Yes, we do have Amir Taheri and Mark Steyn, but why is it that only the John Kerrys and Al Gores of the world get any media attention? Or is this just an example of Ms. Chesler's Orwellian blacklisting of those whom do not fall in line with the MSM's doctrine?
วันอังคาร, พฤษภาคม 09, 2549
British Universities to Bar Jewish Lecturers?
Oh, if only poor Adolf had lived to see this day; he would have been so proud...he was ahead of his time, I guess, and it seems as if a mere half-century later, his ideals have caught on in Britian:
The largest university and college lecturers union in Britain is likely to decide shortly to recommend that its 67,000 members boycott Israeli lecturers and academic institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the territories.
A boycott of Jews unless they renounce their own nation? Yup.
"The conference invites members to consider their own responsibility for ensuring equity and non-discrimination in contacts with Israeli educational institutions or individuals, and to consider the appropriateness of the boycott of those that do not publicly dissociate themselves from such policies," the NATFHE motion states. It also encourages lecturers to hold meetings on the issue on campus.
'The motion explicitly says NATFHE will recognize Israeli policies, while at the same time denigrating them as "apartheid policies, including construction of the exclusion wall and discriminatory educational practices."
Yes, that wall again...how dare those Jews protect themselves!
And I wonder what "discriminatory educational practices" they refer to - the fact that Arabs in Israel get an opportunity to be educated is far more than they would likely receive in any other Muslim state; I know of no instances where Israeli Arabs are barred from attending schools. Unless they are referring to their right to preach jihad?
In closing, a taut testament to British anti-Semitism:
In the past decade, the only country whose academia NATFHE has considered boycotting is Israel.
The inner soul of Europe is foul, rotten, and decayed; 'ol Adolf knew well the fertile fields he was 'a planting...
The largest university and college lecturers union in Britain is likely to decide shortly to recommend that its 67,000 members boycott Israeli lecturers and academic institutions that do not publicly declare their opposition to Israeli policy in the territories.
A boycott of Jews unless they renounce their own nation? Yup.
"The conference invites members to consider their own responsibility for ensuring equity and non-discrimination in contacts with Israeli educational institutions or individuals, and to consider the appropriateness of the boycott of those that do not publicly dissociate themselves from such policies," the NATFHE motion states. It also encourages lecturers to hold meetings on the issue on campus.
'The motion explicitly says NATFHE will recognize Israeli policies, while at the same time denigrating them as "apartheid policies, including construction of the exclusion wall and discriminatory educational practices."
Yes, that wall again...how dare those Jews protect themselves!
And I wonder what "discriminatory educational practices" they refer to - the fact that Arabs in Israel get an opportunity to be educated is far more than they would likely receive in any other Muslim state; I know of no instances where Israeli Arabs are barred from attending schools. Unless they are referring to their right to preach jihad?
In closing, a taut testament to British anti-Semitism:
In the past decade, the only country whose academia NATFHE has considered boycotting is Israel.
The inner soul of Europe is foul, rotten, and decayed; 'ol Adolf knew well the fertile fields he was 'a planting...
Iran's Love Letter !
So that letter that President Ahmadinejad sent to George Bush - the first contact between the Iranian and American government in over a quarter-century - has been opened, and its contents are as vile as one would expect from the man at the return address:
Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government.
it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
How about if the Arab regimes' petrodollars had been spent on improving the lives of their citizens instead of being used to fund terrorism?
Liberalism and Western-style democracy "have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity," said the letter, obtained late Monday by The Associated Press. "Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems."
The Iranian government spokesman who disclosed the communication did not mention the nuclear standoff and said the missive spoke to the larger U.S.-Iranian conflict. Gholam-Hossein Elham said the letter proposed "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world."
Yet the document makes no concrete proposals and does not suggest new talks. Instead, Ahmadinejad suggests that Bush should look inward, saying there was an increasing hatred worldwide of the United States, and that history shows how "repressive and cruel governments do not survive."
"How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over their heads? Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? Do you think present policies can continue?"
This is Ahmadinejad's manifesto, his abridged version of Mein Kampf: Democracy has failed, the Jews and Americans are the world's enemies, hated by all, and the new world order will come from a Muslim theocracy, led by a nuclear-armed Iraq.
In Turkey, Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said the Iranians were looking for a positive response but would be patient.
"Perhaps it could lead to a new diplomatic opening. It needs to be given some time," Larijani said in a television interview.
"Looking for a positive response"? Iran has made its ideology, and intent, clearer than ever. Their hatred of America, and Israel, must be taken very seriously - based on this letter, there is no doubt that Ahmadinejad feels morally justified in using nuclear weapons against democratic states. It appears now that there can only be one response to the cuel path Iran has chosen to take, and it will probably take nothing short of a full-blown war to deliver the message.
How utterly depressing...
Iran's president declared in a letter to President Bush that democracy had failed worldwide and lamented "an ever-increasing global hatred" of the U.S. government.
it lambasted Bush for his handling of the Sept. 11 attacks, accused the media of spreading lies about the Iraq war and railed against the United States for its support of Israel. It questioned whether the world would be a different place if the money spent on Iraq had been spent to fight poverty.
How about if the Arab regimes' petrodollars had been spent on improving the lives of their citizens instead of being used to fund terrorism?
Liberalism and Western-style democracy "have not been able to help realize the ideals of humanity," said the letter, obtained late Monday by The Associated Press. "Today these two concepts have failed. Those with insight can already hear the sounds of the shattering and fall of the ideology and thoughts of the Liberal democratic systems."
The Iranian government spokesman who disclosed the communication did not mention the nuclear standoff and said the missive spoke to the larger U.S.-Iranian conflict. Gholam-Hossein Elham said the letter proposed "new solutions for getting out of international problems and the current fragile situation of the world."
Yet the document makes no concrete proposals and does not suggest new talks. Instead, Ahmadinejad suggests that Bush should look inward, saying there was an increasing hatred worldwide of the United States, and that history shows how "repressive and cruel governments do not survive."
"How much longer will the blood of the innocent men, women and children be spilled on the streets, and people's houses destroyed over their heads? Are you pleased with the current condition of the world? Do you think present policies can continue?"
This is Ahmadinejad's manifesto, his abridged version of Mein Kampf: Democracy has failed, the Jews and Americans are the world's enemies, hated by all, and the new world order will come from a Muslim theocracy, led by a nuclear-armed Iraq.
In Turkey, Ali Larijani, Iran's top nuclear negotiator, said the Iranians were looking for a positive response but would be patient.
"Perhaps it could lead to a new diplomatic opening. It needs to be given some time," Larijani said in a television interview.
"Looking for a positive response"? Iran has made its ideology, and intent, clearer than ever. Their hatred of America, and Israel, must be taken very seriously - based on this letter, there is no doubt that Ahmadinejad feels morally justified in using nuclear weapons against democratic states. It appears now that there can only be one response to the cuel path Iran has chosen to take, and it will probably take nothing short of a full-blown war to deliver the message.
How utterly depressing...
New Jersey: Hopeless?
The Home-Tribune, an excuse of a local New Jersey paper, had an editorial on Sunday lamenting the sorry state of the state's finances:
The bad news for the state last week got worse. At a hearing before legislators, the state treasurer said tax collections in the new year were running behind projections by as much as $500 million, which means a budget already criticized for increasing taxes and cutting spending may have to have more of both.
Note the only solution they can even concieve of is tax increases, which is part of what created this horrible situation to begin with. How bad is it?
The $500 million tax shortfall also was something of a clarion call, coming in the same week as a new study that showed the state was losing its economic strength. In the last decade, New Jersey has lost more high-tech jobs than any other state. A Brookings Institute report commissioned by New Jersey Future also found that the state was replacing those jobs with lower-skilled, lower-paying ones. The jobs leaving the state paid an average salary of $36,000 a year; the jobs being created here paid an average of less than $23,000. The anticipated shortfall therefore seemed somehow prophetic. In years past, even during recession, the state's tax revenues have often exceeded projections. Just last year, New Jersey bailed itself out of a gloomy budget season with much higher than anticipated tax receipts. Now seems the time to wonder whether those days have gone.
Two weeks ago, Rutgers University economists James Hughes and Joseph Seneca published an op-ed contending that New Jersey's taxes on businesses — hiked in order to pay for ever larger state budgets — were turning it into a state hostile to business. The men noted that the state's business tax climate was now ranked 49th in the nation by a Washington-based tax policy group.
This is the result of years of liberal policies, from McGreevy to Corzine (yea, he's only been in office for a few months, but he has only offered more of the same poisonous liberal medicine of increased taxes and fees on businesses and the middle class). All of these progressives are now starting to see the fruit of their labors - a state that is going bankrupt because it can no longer afford the social model that it has set up. Milking the rich and middle class is great fun, but when they have had enough and leave, who is going to pay for your failed philosophies? Local businesses? Er, no...see the line about losing high-tech jobs? How are you going to raise your revenues now that you have driven the best-paying companies out of town, to be replaced by low-rent jobs paying on average one-third less?
But the leftists writing at the Home-Tribune are locked in the same mental box that most so-called "progressives" are: there is no other option to economic distress other than continuing to raise taxes. Note the tenor of the two following sentences from the editorial:
The Legislature has yet to instill much confidence that it has grasped the seriousness of the situation. It already has signaled its unhappiness with the governor's tax hikes...
...the best news for the state by far has come from the governor's office, where the Corzine administration seems particularly committed to trying to right the ship
Bad: Fighting tax hikes, a policy that has brought New Jersey to its current state of disrepair
Good: More tax hikes!
Isn't someone who performs the same action over and over, hoping each time for a different result, displaying behavior that falls under the textbook definition of insanity?
What a great place for the New Jersey Government, and its local media, to find itself...
The bad news for the state last week got worse. At a hearing before legislators, the state treasurer said tax collections in the new year were running behind projections by as much as $500 million, which means a budget already criticized for increasing taxes and cutting spending may have to have more of both.
Note the only solution they can even concieve of is tax increases, which is part of what created this horrible situation to begin with. How bad is it?
The $500 million tax shortfall also was something of a clarion call, coming in the same week as a new study that showed the state was losing its economic strength. In the last decade, New Jersey has lost more high-tech jobs than any other state. A Brookings Institute report commissioned by New Jersey Future also found that the state was replacing those jobs with lower-skilled, lower-paying ones. The jobs leaving the state paid an average salary of $36,000 a year; the jobs being created here paid an average of less than $23,000. The anticipated shortfall therefore seemed somehow prophetic. In years past, even during recession, the state's tax revenues have often exceeded projections. Just last year, New Jersey bailed itself out of a gloomy budget season with much higher than anticipated tax receipts. Now seems the time to wonder whether those days have gone.
Two weeks ago, Rutgers University economists James Hughes and Joseph Seneca published an op-ed contending that New Jersey's taxes on businesses — hiked in order to pay for ever larger state budgets — were turning it into a state hostile to business. The men noted that the state's business tax climate was now ranked 49th in the nation by a Washington-based tax policy group.
This is the result of years of liberal policies, from McGreevy to Corzine (yea, he's only been in office for a few months, but he has only offered more of the same poisonous liberal medicine of increased taxes and fees on businesses and the middle class). All of these progressives are now starting to see the fruit of their labors - a state that is going bankrupt because it can no longer afford the social model that it has set up. Milking the rich and middle class is great fun, but when they have had enough and leave, who is going to pay for your failed philosophies? Local businesses? Er, no...see the line about losing high-tech jobs? How are you going to raise your revenues now that you have driven the best-paying companies out of town, to be replaced by low-rent jobs paying on average one-third less?
But the leftists writing at the Home-Tribune are locked in the same mental box that most so-called "progressives" are: there is no other option to economic distress other than continuing to raise taxes. Note the tenor of the two following sentences from the editorial:
The Legislature has yet to instill much confidence that it has grasped the seriousness of the situation. It already has signaled its unhappiness with the governor's tax hikes...
...the best news for the state by far has come from the governor's office, where the Corzine administration seems particularly committed to trying to right the ship
Bad: Fighting tax hikes, a policy that has brought New Jersey to its current state of disrepair
Good: More tax hikes!
Isn't someone who performs the same action over and over, hoping each time for a different result, displaying behavior that falls under the textbook definition of insanity?
What a great place for the New Jersey Government, and its local media, to find itself...
A Gentle Reminder...
...from Israel:
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday that "the president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map."
"Teheran is making a mockery of the international community's efforts to solve the crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear program," Peres told Reuters, adding that "Iran presents a danger to the entire world, not just to us."
Peres throws down the gauntlet in front of the UN:
"We can prevent all of this threat, without weapons, if there will be unity," Peres said, adding that the Security Council had to act on the matter. "If the crucial moment comes and they are incapable of taking [action] or making a policy...then they endanger their existence as an important world body," he said.
Peres is being charitable (if not a bit suicidal), if he considers the UN, an organization that condemns his nation on a daily basis, "an important world body". Their only relevance is to allow liberals of all nationalities an excuse not to act upon threats to world peace, and to participate in, and help facilitate, the next genocide of the Jewish people.
Iran needs to be reminded what the consequences of their actions are going to be, with or without UN approval. Thank you, Mr. Peres!
Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Monday that "the president of Iran should remember that Iran can also be wiped off the map."
"Teheran is making a mockery of the international community's efforts to solve the crisis surrounding Iran's nuclear program," Peres told Reuters, adding that "Iran presents a danger to the entire world, not just to us."
Peres throws down the gauntlet in front of the UN:
"We can prevent all of this threat, without weapons, if there will be unity," Peres said, adding that the Security Council had to act on the matter. "If the crucial moment comes and they are incapable of taking [action] or making a policy...then they endanger their existence as an important world body," he said.
Peres is being charitable (if not a bit suicidal), if he considers the UN, an organization that condemns his nation on a daily basis, "an important world body". Their only relevance is to allow liberals of all nationalities an excuse not to act upon threats to world peace, and to participate in, and help facilitate, the next genocide of the Jewish people.
Iran needs to be reminded what the consequences of their actions are going to be, with or without UN approval. Thank you, Mr. Peres!
วันอาทิตย์, พฤษภาคม 07, 2549
Counting Their Chickens...
...before they hatch, as always...the Democrats give us a glimpse into a future where they control Congress; and they promise us vengence upon one George W. Bush:
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House's first-term energy task force and probably including the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, "You never know where it leads to."
So the San Francisco lefty denies that she is planning to impeach Bush, but promises investigation after investigation in order to facilitate that result. First an impeachment, than an apology to Saddam, then a quick demilitarization, right, Nancy? Hello, reality check:
Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, said his most expansive estimate classifies 52 seats as "unsafe," 40 of them Republican, 12 of them Democratic. But, he said, only a tidal wave would dislodge the incumbent party from many of those seats, and more realistically, 30 Republican seats and five Democratic districts are vulnerable...
As I said yesterday, if the Republicans do not get their act together in the next few months, they may in fact lose Congress. But at least the Democrats are being honest in what they will provide to the American people if elected:
Pelosi also vowed "to use the power to investigate" the administration on multiple fronts, starting with the task force convened in secret by Vice President Cheney to devise the administration's energy policy. The administration has successfully fought lawsuits since 2001 that sought to reveal the names of energy company executives tapped to advise the task force.
"Certainly the conduct of the war" in Iraq would be the subject of hearings, if not a full-fledged House investigation, Pelosi said. Another subject for investigation could be the use of intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make the case for the 2003 invasion.
Hoyer added that he would like to see investigations into the extent of domestic wiretapping by the National Security Agency....
And I am sure that many other Democratic officials will have axes to grind with the administration; and they will have their own committees, panels, and inquiries as well. I guess that is the result when you have a party whose only priority is to grind axes, unveil conspiracies, and usurp the democratic processes; all courtesy of election contributions by the trial lawyer lobby.
And as usual, note how national security is nothing more than an afterthought...
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) said in an interview last week that a Democratic House would launch a series of investigations of the Bush administration, beginning with the White House's first-term energy task force and probably including the use of intelligence in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq. Pelosi denied Republican allegations that a Democratic House would move quickly to impeach President Bush. But, she said of the planned investigations, "You never know where it leads to."
So the San Francisco lefty denies that she is planning to impeach Bush, but promises investigation after investigation in order to facilitate that result. First an impeachment, than an apology to Saddam, then a quick demilitarization, right, Nancy? Hello, reality check:
Stuart Rothenberg, editor of the nonpartisan Rothenberg Political Report, said his most expansive estimate classifies 52 seats as "unsafe," 40 of them Republican, 12 of them Democratic. But, he said, only a tidal wave would dislodge the incumbent party from many of those seats, and more realistically, 30 Republican seats and five Democratic districts are vulnerable...
As I said yesterday, if the Republicans do not get their act together in the next few months, they may in fact lose Congress. But at least the Democrats are being honest in what they will provide to the American people if elected:
Pelosi also vowed "to use the power to investigate" the administration on multiple fronts, starting with the task force convened in secret by Vice President Cheney to devise the administration's energy policy. The administration has successfully fought lawsuits since 2001 that sought to reveal the names of energy company executives tapped to advise the task force.
"Certainly the conduct of the war" in Iraq would be the subject of hearings, if not a full-fledged House investigation, Pelosi said. Another subject for investigation could be the use of intelligence on Saddam Hussein's alleged weapons of mass destruction to make the case for the 2003 invasion.
Hoyer added that he would like to see investigations into the extent of domestic wiretapping by the National Security Agency....
And I am sure that many other Democratic officials will have axes to grind with the administration; and they will have their own committees, panels, and inquiries as well. I guess that is the result when you have a party whose only priority is to grind axes, unveil conspiracies, and usurp the democratic processes; all courtesy of election contributions by the trial lawyer lobby.
And as usual, note how national security is nothing more than an afterthought...
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