New Jersey: Jihad's Favorite Training Base !

By now, I am sure you know about this:

FORT DIX, N.J. - Six foreign-born Muslims were arrested and accused Tuesday of plotting to attack Fort Dix and slaughter scores of U.S. soldiers — a scheme the FBI says was foiled when the men asked a store clerk to copy a video of them firing assault weapons and screaming about jihad.

The defendants, all men in their 20s from the former Yugoslavia and the Middle East, include a pizza deliveryman suspected of using his job to scout out the military base.
Their goal was "to kill as many American soldiers as possible" with mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and guns, prosecutors said.

Ah, that's the religion of peace for you! But here's a fact that most of the liberal media is trying to sweep under the proverbial rug:

Four of the men were born in the former Yugoslavia, one was born in Jordan and one came from Turkey, authorities said. All had lived in the United States for years. Three were in the United States illegally; two had green cards allowing them to stay in this country permanently; and the sixth is a U.S. citizen.

Illegal aliens! The hell you say! I thought they only came here to earn an honest living?

And why have so many of the terrorist-type aliens - like the fellows above, and oh yeah - the 9/11 hijackers - found New Jersey to be a safe haven? Maybe because of useful idiots like these, who make this state an illegal immigrant paradise:

In the aftermath of a series of raids in 2004, the town council in this historic borough of 5,300 --unanimously approved a sort of immigrant bill of rights. Joining a growing list of cities enacting a no-questions-asked policy on immigration status, Hightstown now allows its undocumented residents to officially interact with local police and access city services without fear of being reported to federal authorities.

And how about these dopes in Hackensack, who are concerned about rights - not yours or mine, of course, but:

New Jersey's illegal immigrant population has grown so dramatically in size and impact in the last decade that the League of Municipalities has formed a task force to study the community and its effect on the state in general.
Advocates believe New Jersey could have close to 1 million illegal immigrants...

Bill Dressel Jr., executive director of the league, said the task force must decide how to balance the rights of illegal immigrants against the quality of life issues that affect all state residents...

Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa knows what he will tell the task force if he is asked for input:
"My main challenge as police chief is to make sure everybody in my community feels connected, if they're here legally or not. I don't want anyone to feel left out or left behind," Zisa said.

Great job, Chief ! You stay concerned with the "feelings" of folks, and "rights" of people whose very presence is illegal, and we'll just keep dodging the bullets from the jihadis !

More reports from paradise here...ask Chief Zisa about the rights of the raped women, OK? The illegal perp knows his rights; he's using his fifth lawyer, on my dime. How much will this Fort Dix jihadi case cost New Jersey taxpayers? After all, we need to be concerned about the rights of our illegal alien American-hating terrorists, too!
And in the meantime, let's just keep the "Welcome" mat out in New Jersey for any criminal who wishes to wander in, regardless of their motivations and intentions. And let's not forget to keep funneling them our tax dollars, as well!

Michelle Malkin has more on New Jersey's contribution to the war on America...and if you think Muslim extremists are not part of the illegal alien debate, I dare you to look here.

UPDATE: More Jersey stupidity here - back from '06, but the attitude shown is a direct causation of New Jersey's status as jihad homeland:

Two state assemblymen, Joseph Vas and Douglas C. Fisher, have partnered to offer legislation that would allow undocumented immigrants to obtain special driving certificates in an effort to tackle rising concern about unlicensed and uninsured motorists on New Jersey's roadways...

"Undocumented immigrants"?
Is a drug dealer an "unlicensed pharmaceutical distributer"?
Somewhere, George Orwell smiles grimly...

The Nefarious Trooper Davey Jones - A Roundup

Lots of news and opinion in the blogosphere regarding the hateful vengence taken by New Jersey state trooper and union leader Davey Jones against folks that dare to speak out against his corrupt minions; in particular, his recent actions regarding "The Jersey Guys" on FM101.5 (WKXW).

Here, Jones tries to justify his public blackmail of "The Jersey Guys" - from the Liberty Post:

Jones said in his press conference that ever since the media reported on the circumstances surrounding Corzine’s high-speed crash, motorists are arguing more with police when they are stopped.
“People are immediately becoming confrontational as to the lawful authority and to the probable cause that happens with why these stops are taking place,'’ Jones said

People arguing with police over a traffic stop? Unheard of! They should be dragged to the shoulder of the Turnpike and shot!
Of course, Jones doesn't provide any proof of his alleged "escalation" (the New York Times investigates and dismisses Jones' claim), although based on the shakedowns the state police conduct of law-abiding citizens on a daily basis, it is long overdue. But hey, since when do fascists need proof, anyway?

Reaction on WKXW’s “Late Night With Tommy G” radio program was swift and harsh.
“It all comes down to intimidation and retaliation. In Communist countries they control the media and people’s opinions using intimidation as a tool....said Tommy G during his radio program.
One caller, who identified himself as a U.S. Navy veteran, said “This guy sounds like a street thug. Free speech is something we’re fighting for.”

See what happens in a state where government employees and union bosses run the show? Toe the "party line", or else...remember, we know where you live!


Great comments at Homeland Stupidity:

- If David Jones has no problem harassing such a public person, what would he do to a private citizen?
- This guy shouldn’t just be fired. Davy Jones needs to be put in prison. His actions violate not only the public trust, but the spirit (if not the letter) of the US and NJ Constitutions.
His actions are reprehensible and are more line with a mafia boss, than police officer …
- Isn’t making a terroristic threat a felony? Last time I heard it was.

MarchDecember has more posts from the trooper's message boards:

Let's really give them something to complain about.... We must all do this together. Don't let the brass tell us any different.... When they were on the road, they could deal with people the way they needed to be treated, but unfortunately it is a different time.... Crush 'em in May."

"Crush the whole month of May and slow down for the next 5-7 weeks."

"Just hang out in the right lane doing 70 and pick off the first (expletive) that goes by, shouldn't take long considering our plummeting respect."

Well, jeez, Trooper Jackrod...that plan will really help you regain respect!

The Radio Equalizer has a theory:

In this post- Imus environment, it's clearly open season on talk show hosts. Disagree with one? It's now apparently okay to make threats and intimidate their families. What's next?

The editorial page of the Courier-Post:

Jones and the anonymous troopers who want to "hammer" motorists might represent many state police, but they don't represent the people they are paid to protect. Rabner should rein in these renegades and punish Jones, who has put the safety of a radio host at risk to satisfy his own anger. It's a sheer abuse of power.

Want to see some defense of Davey Jones? Why, just go to the NJLawman.com Police and Law Enforcement Forum! Their comments on the story, in a thread entitled "The War has Begun!":

-hahaha, i love that the jersey boys are running and hiding like the bitche$ they are. Its easy to sit behind a mic and be a harda$$, but when it comes down to it, they are two little girls.
-28 years on the job, its called a get out of jail free card
-At least Jones had the balls to say what was on his mind.

More Monmouth Musings has some advice, and wisdom:

If you happen to be pulled over by a state trooper, turn off the radio on your way the the glove box for your registration and insurance card.

Jones made an already tough job, State Trooper, tougher. Animous between the general public and the State Police is not generally warranted and not healthy. He should resign, for the benefit of his members and for the benefit of the people of New Jersey.

Could you imagine something like this happening in New York City? Yeah, me neither, because they have a professional policing force, not a bunch of whiny, self-indulgent thugs who gleefully brag about planning to abuse their power. And who can blame them, with leadership like trooper Jones? Is he just typical of the State Police, or have they been molded in his own image?

And whose image does it remind you of, incidentally?



And I would bet that Jones is most surprised of all at the resulting uproar - who are we to question him, a State Trooper and a Union Boss? He's the power in the People's Republic of New Jersey! We're nothing!

Either way, the state would be better off if this man's career was sent to "Davey Jones' locker"...

Sorry - I couldn't help myself....

New Jersey State Police: Crushing Dissent, Spreading Fear, Engaging in Crimes?

No room for reasoned debate in New Jersey, not if you are talking about two of their most nefarious and corrupt organizations: the State Police, and state employee unions. Even worse when they are both mixed into one - it's a lethal cocktail; watch how it explodes ...

Mr. Craig Carton, host of FM101.5's afternoon program "The Jersey Guys", disclosed information he got from a police message board in which some anonymous posters discussed launching a ticket-writing campaign as retaliation for criticism police faced in the aftermath of Gov. Corzine's recent auto accident. A brave citizen whistle-blower, right? Not in the eyes of the State Police union chief; and he took revenge like the vicious thug that he is:

State Police union leader David Jones agreed Friday to stop publicizing personal information about New Jersey 101.5 FM radio hosts and executives, after an afternoon meeting with State Police Superintendent Col. Joseph "Rick" Fuentes.

The union leader and superintendent sat down a day after an enraged Jones held a news conference at which he displayed for cameras the home address and license plate number of "Jersey Guys" host Craig Carton. Jones said Thursday he would continue disseminating personal information about other 101.5 employees and the show's sponsors.

The state Office of the Attorney General is reviewing Jones' actions. Della Fave said the police sought an opinion from the office about whether Jones violated any laws or ethical rules during his news conference.

Carton, who left the air Thursday, hours after Jones' news conference, was back on his regular show Friday afternoon and spent his time railing against the president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association of New Jersey. Carton said he felt Jones had threatened him and his family.

I guarantee Jones will get off the hook, free to intimidate and destory the lives of any citizen who dares criticize him or his foul union.
Imagine if Carton was revealing a plan by some big business to rip off its customers - he would be hailed as a hero. Spill the beans about a police plot to essentially steal from New Jersey's middle class, and watch threats to you and your family go ignored, while the state's Democratic machine turns the other way,willing to sacrifice your freedom for their votes.

Be aware, Right, Wing Nut! is not some kind of "F**k the Police" website. But let it be said, that after living in New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Missouri, and Los Angeles, I have found New Jersey's police to be by far the most rude, corrupt, and inept of the lot - not to mention the most overtly hostile to the citizens they allegedly "protect and serve". And they are backed by a court system that realizes their number one priority is to collect revenues and to protect their pathetic revenue collectors - masquerading as law enforcement agents - and "justice" is thus dispensed accordingly.

Again, your humble blogger is no reflexive cop-hater. As a matter of fact (in a story that will not be told here!), I was once arrested, cuffed, processed and hauled in front of the court system in New York City, and I left the experience with more respect and regard for the police and judges in New York than I had prior to my little "indiscretion". The NYPD are the quintessential policing professionals; in comparison, the New Jersey state police are hidebound rednecks, taking their cues from small-town Southern sheriffs and other assorted jerkwater law enforcement thugs. And their leader, Davey Jones, epitomizes their attitude in its entirety, by implicitly threatening any whom dare expose the dirty work his cadres are up to. Do you think this lesson will not be learned by the next person who can produce evidence of possible malfeasence by Jones' Imperial Troopers? Davey is laughing right now, he knows he wins...

Want to know what it was like for a black man to be stopped down in Alabama in the Jim Crow '60's? Try dealing with a New Jersey police officer on any given Sunday....

UPDATE 5/6: The remarks, which Carton reported, on the trooper's message board - via Freedom for Some:

- "Great idea, Absolutely hammer everyone (obviously except cops and family) who does 1 m.p.h. over the limit., Let's really give them something to complain about."
- "I am all for the May 1st blitz, Better start pre-signing my summonses."
- "Everyone has to take part in this, We are taking an absolute beating from the public and media, and so-called officers are doing nothing about it to protect or support us in any way. May 1st, spread the word. It's go time."

Freedom (who has audio links to Jone's tirade) comments:

Rogue state troopers in New Jersey are not uncommon. If I were Craig Carton... I'd be scared, very scared. Let's remember, this is NJ, and we all know people don't care about the law, especially people of power...

Racism in the NBA? Not a Slam-Dunk...

Maybe we should just call it "Revenge of the Nerds" - all those scrawny white kids (like me!) who just didn't have what it takes to compete in athletics are now sequestered in the elite's ivory towers, trying to take down sports as a measure of achievement once and for all:

Justin Wolfers, an assistant professor of business and public policy at Penn's Wharton School, and Joseph Price, a graduate economics student at Cornell, have written a paper saying white referees call fouls at a greater rate against black players than against white players. They also state that the findings of their research worked the other way, too, but that black officials don't do white players wrong as much.

Ooooh! An assistant professor and a grad student! Towers of the intellect, they are! In the same article, Washington Post sports columnist Mike Wise applies common sense (unheard of in liberal circles) to take these punks down:

Ask any old-time referee, most of whom are white: The two most reviled players in the history of the NBA by officials were Rick Barry and Christian Laettner. It had nothing to do with their race, which is white. It had everything to do with the content of their on-court character, which ran between whiny and insufferable.
Rasheed Wallace is well on his way to supplanting both players, but not because he's black; Wallace morphed into a persecuted fool every time he got called for a foul.

When you get through the data, this is nothing more than a numbers facade, an extrapolation of facts employed to meet a desired end. At the center of the study is a huge fallacy: that referees want to punish players who don't look like them.

Meanwhile, it seems as if the New York Times is gearing up for saturation coverage (like their ill-fated Augusta Crusade of a few years back) of a perceived discrimination issue in sports, the one field where their leftist viewpoint holds such little water. For analysis of the issue, they go to an obviously unbiased source:

Ian Ayres of Yale Law School, the author of “Pervasive Prejudice?” and an expert in testing for how subtle racial bias, also known as implicit association, appears in interactions...

He tells us we are ALL racists, and our mean little selves just can't help it:

When you force people to make snap decisions, they often can’t keep themselves from subconsciously treating blacks different than whites, men different from women.”

Is every ball/strike call made over the course of a baseball game defined by the race of the batter/umpire? According to Ayres, it must be....

Timeswatch mocks the shoddy opportunistic ethics used in reporting this story:

Would the Times have publicized an anti-global warming paper on its front page with these loose standards? The paper by Mr. Wolfers and Mr. Price has yet to undergo formal peer review before publication in an economic journal...

Ooops! Minor detail, that!

Longtime New York Post sportwriter Peter Vecsey slaps this silliness away as well, and calls it what it is:

I'm writing off a "study" by a University of Pennsylvania assistant professor and a graduate student - claiming white whistleblowers mark up foul calls on African-American ballers - as just another ivory-tower educator and his runner stirring up counterfeit controversy and justifying salary.
Yup, it doesn't get any more scientific than collecting data by perusing box scores and viewing pictures of refereeing crews.

Next on tap for the New York Times:
* An exclusive front-page report claiming money is the root of all evil.
* Most penalties in the NHL are called on white players.
* Michael Jordan left baseball because he kept getting his strike zone squeezed by white umpires.
* NBA female referees only call fouls on male players.

Thank our liberal elite for finding racism and discrimination under every rock, and in every nook and cranny, of American life - whether it is there or not. If they knew anything about sports (or the military, for that matter) they would realize that the playing field (or the battlefield) is the ultimate equalizer - it's only about winning (or living), and picking your 'mates based on race is suicide, plain and simple.

But that is common sense - and real life - neither of which exists in the ivory tower...

UPDATE 5/5: NBA Commissioner David Stern trashes the study, and the Times, here.

Fashion Sense

Ah, those wacky Brits...

People - including celebrities like Keira Knightley - were lining up for hours to buy an 'eco-friendly' grocery bag emblazoned with the words "I'm Not a Plastic Bag". You know, because you're not REALLY a friend of the earth unless you're telling everyone how very virtuous and unselfish you are.

Well, they "queue" up in Britain, don't they?

Marked with the slogan "I'm not a plastic bag" - the bag (reusable cotton) is part of a campaign to make consumers more aware of the perils of plastic bags.

By the time the bags went on sale at 8am queues were snaking around buildings with thousands of women, and a few men, hoping to snap up a Hindmarch creation. As tension grew, one woman was heard declaring, "You know I will fight for one of these bags don't you?"
Some 20,000 of the bags, selling for £5, were up for sale. But with just a small number of bags in each store, only the most devoted of shoppers were successful.

By 9am many stores had already sold out and by lunchtime they had sold out at all 450 stores...

Ah, but leave it to a cheeky American expat in stodgy old England to put this gaggle of self-rightous poseurs in their proper place:


The "I'm NOT a smug twat" bag is a reaction to the it-bag phenomenon, a reaction to the faddishness of fashion...and it helps you avoid using plastic bags! As seen in the London Evening Standard and the Daily Mail, the "I'm NOT a smug twat" bag has become a phenomenon in turn. Work the irony out for yourself...Not available in major multiple retailers. Not made halfway across the world...

At post time, this product is sold out....

Should be paired with "'Merchants of the Myth'"...

Maybe if it was listed as a comedy...but no, Virgin Atlantic Airways is offering passengers a viewing of paranoid-wacko-conspiracy 9/11 truther flick Loose Change. Virgin describes this bilge-fest as a documentary, and provides us with a teaser:

Was 9/11 a government set up? You decide.

Everyone’s talking about it so we thought you’d like to see the film that started out as a home movie and became one of the most downloaded documentaries of all time. Was 9/11 a government set up? Were the twin towers brought down in a controlled explosion for an insurance payday?

These questions and more are posed in this controversial film, seen by millions, derided by many. Now it’s your chance to make up your own mind.

"Everyone's talking about it"? Maybe in the Virgin boardroom...TIm Blair can tell you how to contact the decision-makers here....

Incidentally, 'Merchants of the Myth' is a Iranian Holocaust-denial flick, and a perfect match for "Loose Change" ...Virgin should just run it as a double feature, since, you know, everyone's talking about it...

Anti-Americanism, examined...

David Medienkritik posts a translation from the German magazine Die Zeit, where a pretty fair evaluation of the phenomenon of anti-Americanism is laid out...some excerpts:

Everything American has become radioactive in (Western) Europe – whoever comes into contact with it too closely and for too long becomes contaminated to the point of unelectability...

....something potentially universal, a form of worldwide bellyaching in varying strengths, is to be seen in the criticism of the United States. Anti-Americanism is a new global ideology, the “Leitkultur” for protest against prevailing conditions....

...it is today, above all, the unfortunate consciousness of the Arab world that, in contrast to the American dominated West, is experiencing its own backwardness, in a paradoxical mixture of disgust and fascination: “Yankee, go home, but take me with you!”

Medienkritik is the best German blogger out there; his site does a magnificant job in exposing some of the purile anti-American biases that persist in the European media. The above post is a positive example of the type of sober analysis that has long been lacking from the German media in particular (although that could apply broadly across the Continent). Click over and take a read...

Speed Racer Returns!

Glenn Reynolds notes the following:

N.J. Gov. Jon Corzine has a terrible accident after going 91 mph without a seatbelt in the rain. On the way home from the hospital today, still wheelchair-bound, he speeds:

"No one in the motorcade used emergency lights, as his driver had been doing at the time of the accident. They kept to a pace of about 70 miles per hour, even though the posted limit is 55 on the stretch of Interstate 295 that leads to Drumthwacket, the governor’s official mansion in Princeton, where Mr. Corzine will spend the next stage of his recovery."

Nice example. I mean, 70 in a 55 isn't huge, but under the circumstances. . . .

And I note the following:

Pamela S. Fischer is paid $125,000 a year to oversee 23 employees and a $10 million annual budget as director of the Division of Highway Traffic Safety [of New Jersey]. Did you know you were financing such an operation? Do you know what it does? Probably not.
Anyway, when Corzine announced her appointment, it came in a press release touting her work in — are you ready for this? — toughening the state's seat belt law. Yep, that would be the law Corzine broke just before he went to intensive care.

Mr. Reynolds seems surprised by Corzine's chutzpah; I realize the professor is a busy man, but if he had time to keep up with the foibles in this godforsaken state, he would be harder to shock...

New Jersey Follies...Starring "The Supremes" !

Jeez, it just gets worse and worse and worse around these parts...

Bob Ingle, in Sunday's Asbury Park Press, lets us in on a recent New Jersey Supreme Court ruling - no, not the one instituting gay marriage, this one:

The Supremes recently reinstated a Garden State Parkway toll collector to his old job, reversing an appeals court ruling that the collector was properly fired for shooting a paint-ball gun at a moving car while the collector was leaving work.
The collector's excuse — he was feeling stressed and annoyed. An arbitrator reinstated him, but the appeals court reversed that, saying he deserved to be fired. The high court bench warmers reversed that. It must have been too logical for them

So according to this Supreme Kangeroo Court, it is permissible for state employees to blast automobiles passing through toll plazas with paint guns in the State of New Jersey if said employees are feeling annoyed that day. And who can blame them? After all, making almost $45K/year (see this grade-school level article printed by a "toll collector advocates" group of some sort) collecting change from passing cars is certainly a mentally challenging, and extremely stressful job, is it not? Sweet Jeebus, what do you do if you have to make change for a twenty???

As we have always said, New Jersey is simply a welfare state for lazy government employees who earn their undeserved salalry via the Democratic Party's gleeful rape of the middle class.
And Ingle calls a spade a spade when referring to the union cronies and political appointees on the State Supreme Court (who are currently clamoring for a raise, if you can believe it):

If they don't like their salary, let them go get one of those better-paying jobs they claim they sacrificed to be on the court. Most of them are political hacks. There certainly is no shortage of hacks to replace them.

These are the same hacks whom, in order to placate a key New Jersey Democratic constituancy (here it comes), ordered that illegal aliens are entitled to uninsured drivers benefits when they get into car accidents within the state. Yup - sneak into the country, drive without a licencse or insurance, get into an accident, and get paid. With my money, of course.

What a racket. Methinks even Tony Soprano would blush...

Gag Me

Gates of Vienna tells a most depressing tale; that of a man losing his job for calling a Mexican coworker a...Mexican:

Pipe welder Bill Hendeley Jr. said he was fired from his job Wednesday for using the word “Mexican” in describing a person from Mexico at a group safety meeting.

Hendeley, who recently moved to Burlington, said he has never been fired, has never even been reprimanded for making inappropriate comments, and co-workers describe him as a model employee.

At a group safety meeting Wednesday, however, Hendeley singled out supervisors and a Hispanic worker for smoking in inappropriate places. Smoking is only allowed in a designated area across the road from the plant.“ I guess if you’re a supervisor or a Mexican, you can smoke anywhere you like,” Hendeley reportedly told an Hispanic safety supervisor...

May I comment with the following?

Free speech is intended to protect the controversial and even outrageous word; and not just comforting platitudes too mundane to need protection. - Colin Powell

There is no more fundamental axiom of American freedom than the familiar statement: In a free country we punish men for crimes they commit but never for the opinions they have. - Harry S. Truman

And we already know what Jean-Luc Picard has to say on this subject....

In the same post, Gates of Vienna gives us this laugher from Britain:

Use of the word immigrant as an insult can amount to proof of racial hostility, the court of appeal ruled yesterday.

I'll reply by endorsing these words spoken by FDR:

If the fires of freedom and civil liberties burn low in other lands, they must be made brighter in our own. If in other lands the press and books and literature of all kinds are censored, we must redouble our efforts here to keep them free. - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Somewhere, George Orwell is smiling; he was prescient, albiet 20-odd years late...

Even our victories must be shameful...

One would think the capture of al-Qaeda's #1 guy in Iraq, Abd al-Hadi al-Iraqi, would be good news for America. After all:

...his most recent assignment was as the successor to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed by U.S. forces last summer. Officials said al-Iraqi hoped to lead Sunni insurgents in Iraq and coordinate their efforts with al-Qaeda's global operation. The Pentagon said he traveled to Iran, meeting with al-Qaeda operatives to urge them to do more against U.S. troops in Iraq.

We captured an enemy military commander in a time of war, one responsible for directing the deaths of possibly hundreds of American troops and Lord knows how many Iraqi civilians; isn't that big news? Er...not really. Check out the headline:

CIA Held Al-Qaeda Suspect Secretly

You see, this is not about a key military and strategic victory on the battlefield, it is simply another way to attempt to scandalize the Bush Administration, and somehow discredit the United States. The Washington Post's lead to this story of an American victory in wartime has to be read to be believed:

An Iraqi man accused of being a key aide to Osama bin Laden and a top leader of al-Qaeda was arrested late last year on his way to Iraq and handed over to the CIA, the Pentagon announced yesterday, in what became the first secret overseas detention since President Bush acknowledged the existence of such a program last September.
The disclosure revealed that the Bush administration reopened its detention program within three months of announcing that no secret prisoners remained in the CIA's custody. The program has been criticized by human rights organizations and U.S. allies.

Scandal! Bush might have misled the media! Hang him high, and release al-Iraqi, victim of American human rights abuses!
Actually, this happened three months after Bush made his "announcement", so what do they expect? A press release stating the CIA is holding a secret prisoner? Has the media gone completely insane?

The WaPost makes no secret of their favorite horse in this race:

....human rights groups challenged the Bush administration and the CIA to publicly reveal their interrogation methods and disputed the legality of secret detention.
Yesterday's announcement "raises worrying questions about how long he has been detained by the CIA, where he was held, what kind of treatment he endured, and whether other prisoners still remain in CIA detention," the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch said in a statement, referring to al-Iraqi. The group called the secret detention "a blatant violation of international law."

What about the capture of the man guilty of slaughtering hundreds, maybe thousands, of innocent Iraqi civilians? No comment on that, I notice, from "Human Rights Watch". What a joke...next stop Gaza, to denounce Israel, while keeping their backs smartly turned to the Quassam rockets being fired by Hamas at civilian targets.

Meanwhile, and not unrelated, we have this:

U.S. forces detained 17 suspected insurgents in raids targeting al-Qaida in Iraq on Saturday, the military said, a day after the Pentagon announced the capture of one of the terror network's most senior and experienced operatives.
The insurgent group has claimed responsibility for some of the deadliest attacks in Iraq, including the bombing last year of a revered Shiite mosque in Samarra that touched off a fierce cycle of retaliatory sectarian violence.

Seems like the capture and "secret detention" of HRW's fuzzy little al-Qaeda leader has paid some dividends, and saved some lives. No mention of this in the Washington Post; they have an agenda to follow, and the truth has absolutely no part in it...

More on the big picture here.

Europe opens their arms to their status as Dhimmis....

First, The Brussels Journal refers us to an interview with author Bat Ye'or, who understands and has written insightfully on the fall of Europe:

The core problem is connected to the satellization of Europe by the Arab and Muslim world....
Britain was humbled and did not react firmly to the kidnapping of fifteen of its sailors by Iran. Instead, British journalists and academia turned with violent hatred against Israel to appease Muslim governments and particularly the Palestinians who had abducted, for ransom, a BBC journalist. Such behaviour is typical of dhimmitude: the Christian dhimmi, being too afraid to attack his Muslim oppressor, directs his impotent frustration against a weaker and innocent dhimmi victim, the Jew. Those triangular relationships are constant in the social and political fabric of dhimmitude for more than a millennium and till today.

It's not just the British that have taken up Jew-bashing as a way to make themselves feel better (and to gain nods of approval from their Muslim masters), the French have long been on board this ship - via Melanie Phillips, the following report on the state of Jews under seige in France:

A more basic problem also exists: the way French society reacted to these attacks, always beginning by denying, refusing to accept the reality and accusing the Jewish community of being the instigator of aggression. As always, the Jews have been accused of being responsible for the outbreak of antisemitism. The same reaction occurred some years afterwards, in 2006, even after Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy came to power, when the young man Ilan Halimi was murdered. These reactions are the symptom of a profound crisis: a permanent, not temporary, crisis of the Jewish condition in France.

My thesis is that the Jewish identity born after World War II is no longer backed up by French society. It became a thing of the past. The Jews are at a crossroads and will have to choose which road they will take.

I'm sure the French would love to see their nation become "Juden-frei" in the hopes it would settle down those pesky car-burning "youths" of unknown nationality in the suburbs...the fact that they will turn on the rest of the French population once this occurs never seems to enter their minds...

And is the revitalized European anti-semitism and pro-Arabism all about...guilt?

In short, the Palestinian cause has provided a humanity weary of apologizing for having abandoned six million Jews to their deaths the unhoped-for opportunity to relieve itself of the burden of repentance.

Is erasing the burden of their guilt worth sacrificing the Jews to the 21st century's Nazis? Apparently, the Europeans believe so. For all of their moral posturing, their collective soul remains mean, dark, hateful, and small. Internally, though, it seems as if the French are at least on some level aware of how contemptible they really are:

The French dislike themselves even more than the Americans dislike them, according to an opinion poll published on Friday.
The survey of six nations, carried out for the International Herald Tribune daily and France 24 TV station, said 44 percent of French people thought badly of themselves against 38 percent of U.S. respondents who had a negative view of the French.

Based on their embrace of their imminent status as dhimmis under Islamist rule, their feelings of self-loathing are correctly expressed....

Captain Jean-Luc Picard Speaks!

From the future, he comments on current affairs...from Best of the Web:

High school senior Allen Lee sat down with his creative writing class on Monday and penned an essay that so disturbed his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct. . . .Lee, an 18-year-old straight-A student at Cary-Grove High School, was arrested Tuesday near his home and charged with disorderly conduct for an essay police described as violently disturbing but not directed toward any specific person or location.

James Taranto comments:

....the real point is this: What in the hell are police doing arresting someone for a piece of writing merely because someone was "disturbed" by it? This is the most obvious violation of the right to free speech we've heard of in a long time.

Jean-Luc Picard says:

"With the first link the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably... "

Brilliant! Jean-Luc, what do you say to Harry Reid, who provides propoganda to our enemies by declaring the war in Iraq is "lost", and tries to blame his treasonous statements on our commander in the field? Listen, Captain Picard, listen:

BASH: The phrase “the war is lost” really touched a nerve. Do you stand by that — that — that comment?
REID: General Petraeus has said that only 20 percent of the war can be won militarily...
BASH: But, sir, General Petraeus has not said the war is lost. I just want to ask you again…
REID: General — General Petraeus has said the war cannot be won militarily. He said that.< ...>
BASH: Is there something to that, an 18- and 19-year-old person in the service in Iraq who is serving, risking their lives, in some cases losing their life, hearing somebody like you back in Washington saying that they’re fighting for a lost cause?
REID: General Petraeus has told them that.

BASH: He also said that General Petraeus is going to come to the Hill and make it clear to you that there is progress going on in Iraq, that the so-called surge is working. Will you believe him when he says that?
REID: No, I don’t believe him, because it’s not happening.

The highest Congressional official in the land, in a time of war, declaring our nation defeated and calling a four-star general a liar! Yes, I know, a Federation officer would never dare speak so, but...what say you about such a man, Captain Picard? What say you?

"Villains who twirl their mustaches are easy to spot. Those who clothe themselves in good deeds are well camouflaged, waiting for the right climate in which to flourish, spreading fear in the name of righteousness."

Ah, more stoic insightfulness from our beloved Captain!

And the calls for Reid to resign are mounting...thoughts, Jean-Luc?

"Make it so"

Oh Captain, my captain, if only it were that easy....

If it's Wednesday...

...then it is time for some good old-fashioned Hillary Clinton bashing! Ah, I've avoided the 'ol gal for a while, but there are too many tasty treats out there to resist!
First, I'll give a Jersey guy a crack - from Enlighten, we hear a tale of how Hillary is not simply a privileged white woman who has partnered in law firms, earned dollars from shady land deals, and make the laws of the land while living in one of America's most exclusive suburbs...she's actually a struggling black slave woman, a modern-day Moses!

You see, Hillary was faced with a faulty microphone at a recent Manhatten speaking engagement. Gathering her tattered minions around her, she spoke thusly:

"This reminds me of one of my favorite American heroines, Harriet Tubman," the senator told 1,800 cheering supporters when her mike was restored."

She made it to freedom after having been a slave and she got to New York and she could have been so happy . . . but she kept going back down South to bring other freed slaves to freedom."

And she used to say, 'No matter what happens, keep going,' " Hillary Clinton said. "So we're going to keep going until we take back the White House!"

Yes! Whenever I see Hillary Clinton, I think of Harriet Tubman!

And as Michelle Malkin notes, Hillary has even developed a "blackccent"! Speaking to the shakedown organization known as the National Action Network, she spoke thusly:

You know, when I walk into the Oval Office in January of 2009, I'm afraid I'm gonna lift up the rug and I'm goin' to see so much stuff uh-nder thar . . . You know, what is it about us always havin' to clean up after people? . . . But this is not just going to be pickin' up socks off the floor. This is going to be cleanin' up the government."

You know, I work with an office full of black women, and none of them - none - speak like that. Condoleezza Rice doesn't speak like that. Neither does Barak Obama. Maybe Hillary ought to wipe off the blackface and realize that doing a minstrel show while standing with the buffoonish Al Sharpton is not earning her as many points as she thinks. Then again, Hil, never mind... you're doing just fine!

And here's something to note, while speaking of blackface: Hillary has taken up blogging, just like the rest of us pajama-wearing, tinfoil-hat twisting loners! But does Hillary really share the views held on firedoglake?

It's the online home for Jane Hamsher, producer of the 1994 cult classic film "Natural Born Killers" and author of a bestselling, tell-all book "Killer Instinct" on the making of the controversial movie.

In Democratic political circles, though, Hamsher is better known as the author of a racially offensive attack against Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). The incident occurred last summer when Lieberman still officially carried a "D" after his name but was running an ultimately unsuccessful primary race against Ned Lamont.
Hamsher, who was supporting Lamont in the race, posted a doctored photo of Lieberman in black face on HuffingtonPost.com

Based on Hillary's new manner of speaking, one thinks that she has a lot in common with the racist Hamsher indeed...incidentally, the WaPost describes firedoglake as "smart", "edgy", and "progressive", but the first post I saw when I clicked on the link was this...does using the phrase 'beat-off' in bold caps now qualify as "edgy"? Oh, Don Imus, you wuz railroaded... !

Finally, no doubt taken from the stalls in the Parkway Rest Stop, we get the cure for those Hillary blues:

1. Open a new file in your computer.
2. Name it “Hillary Rodham Clinton”
3. Send it to the trash.
4. Empty the trash.
5. Your PC will ask you, “Do you really want to get rid of “Hillary Rodham Clinton?”
6. Firmly Click “Yes.”
7. Feel better.

Yeah, that's the stuff....

Is this the French Presidential Election? Or Ours?

The Baseball Crank catches the New York Daily News practicing some of its themes for the upcoming 2008 presidental contest, using the candidates in the upcoming French elections as stand-ins for the expected Rudy vs. Hillary bout:

French pick woman to face rightist in prez race

Nicolas Sarkozy and Segolene Royal advanced yesterday to a runoff vote that will pick a president unlike any France has seen before: a hard-edged reformer pledging a new start, or a woman promising a healing touch...

Royal, 53, perfectly coiffed and dressed in a chic white suit, urged supporters last night to choose a path to a "new France" that cultivates "human values" and cares for the less fortunate.
"I refuse to cultivate fear," she said in a slap at Sarkozy, whose law-and-order image has made him a hated figure in Paris' troubled suburbs, rocked by riots that spread across France in the fall of 2005....

Many are predicting violence anew if Sarkozy is elected. Some voters blamed a strong anti-Sarkozy vote for yesterday's unprecedented 84% voter turnout...

Yeah, just like that strong anti-Bush vote helped Kerry win the 2004 election!

And who, exactly, are the "many" that are " predicting violence" ? The Daily News won't tell you - it runs counter to the storyline - but I can. Look here, scroll down towards the bottom...

Ah, Paris in the Spring !

See the hatemongering racists come out to play, especially during the election season...E-nough! as usual provides an insight into the French soul, and like their armpits and body odor, it ain't pretty. The following comes from an anti-Sarkozy group; E-nough! provides more links and info:

What is he standing for? The Axis of Hatred!

What is it that psychologists say about "projection? Anyway... more fun stuff from Herr Goebbel's vault:

Washington - Tel Aviv - Sarkozy - The Infernal Triangle

In France, it is always 1938 - anti-Semitism with your coffee, and white flags ready for hoisting.

Well, they'd better be ready, because as those pesky French "youths" - you know, those car-burning, Jew-bashing, stone-throwing folks of unknown ethnic and religious origin - will honestly tell you:

"If Sarko wins on May 6, this is war"

I, for one, believe them.

Corzine Crash: More Broken Laws, More Broken Hearts

Yeah, we know that Corzine's 's vehicle was going 26 mph over the speed limit (a mandatory court appearance in some townships, in addition to a hefty fine/ticket), and we know that he wasn't wearing a seat belt (which quota-hungry Jersey cops pull over soccer moms and working dads for exclusively), but let's go for the Jersey Trifecta, shall we: three broken laws, and a sex scandal!

The State Police are investigating whether the trooper driving Gov. Jon Corzine at the time of last week's crash was distracted by an ongoing, bitter dispute with another police officer over a woman.

As to [Trooper Robert] Rasinski, investigators are now looking into whether he was communicating with the unidentified officer from Union County, either by phone or mobile e-mail device, while he was driving the governor or just before, according to Davy Jones, president of the State Troopers Fraternal Association.
"Rob's dating a girl, whose soon-to-be-ex is a cop in Union County. That guy made an allegation. Affairs of the heart are always very, very difficult," Jones said.

Rasinski has already been questioned about the dispute and possible distractions and additional questioning is anticipated, Jones said.
"What I do know is that they asked the obvious questions about distractions: 'Were you on the phone?' Or that the kid was on his BlackBerry," Jones said. "I can tell you, they don't get BlackBerries. Only the supervisors get BlackBerries...

Only the supervisors get "Blackberries" [nice edit, Star-Ledger].

My God, was has this f*ck'd-up state wrought?

More state-trooper mayhem here {may need to scroll up a bit}...

And some additional analysis on a state's angry response to a still virtually comatose governor here...

Guns, Guns, Guns...(Part II)

Final word goes to Mark Steyn, who illustrates the stupidity of "gun-free zones" more clearly than I:

Virginia Tech, remember, was a "gun-free zone," formally and proudly designated as such by the college administration. Yet the killer kept his guns and ammo on the campus. It was a "gun-free zone" except for those belonging to the guy who wanted to kill everybody. Had the Second Amendment not been in effect repealed by VT, someone might have been able to do as two students did five years ago at the Appalachian Law School: When a would-be mass murderer showed up, they rushed for their vehicles, grabbed their guns and pinned him down until the cops arrived...

I live in northern New England, which has a very low crime rate, in part because it has a high rate of gun ownership. We do have the occasional murder, however. A few years back, a couple of alienated loser teens from a small Vermont town decided they were going to kill somebody, steal his ATM cards, and go to Australia. So they went to a remote house in the woods a couple of towns away, knocked on the door, and said their car had broken down. The guy thought their story smelled funny so he picked up his Glock and told 'em to get lost. So they concocted a better story, and pretended to be students doing an environmental survey. Unfortunately, the next old coot in the woods was sick of environmentalists and chased 'em away. Eventually they figured they could spend months knocking on doors in rural Vermont and New Hampshire and seeing nothing for their pains but cranky guys in plaid leveling both barrels through the screen door.
So even these idiots worked it out: Where's the nearest place around here where you're most likely to encounter gullible defenseless types who have foresworn all means of resistance? Answer: Dartmouth College. So they drove over the Connecticut River, rang the doorbell, and brutally murdered a couple of well-meaning liberal professors. Two depraved misfits of crushing stupidity (to judge from their diaries) had nevertheless identified precisely the easiest murder victims in the twin-state area.

To promote vulnerability as a moral virtue is not merely foolish. Like the new Yale props department policy, it signals to everyone that you're not in the real world....

"Not in the real world" - like the so-called "progressives" touting energy solutions that would set developed nations back by centuries, the so-called "reality-based community" posits violence-reduction policies that simply do not close to addressing the world in which we live in today...to quote the professor who came in so handy yesterday in helping to illustrate my thoughts:

"The logic was impeccable, the empirical evidence not at all."

Guns, Guns, Guns...

A former Miss America gets medieval on the asses of a few intruders down on her Kentucky farm:

Eighty-two-year-old former Miss America Venus Ramey shot out the tire of an SUV after she found trespassers on her land allegedly there to steal scrap metal, according to a report in the Interior Journal.

The Lincoln County newspaper reported that Ramey, a Kentucky native who was Miss America in 1944 and a former resident of Cincinnati, got her snub nose .38 after hearing noises about 6 p.m. on Friday, April 13.
The vehicle had backed up on her property where in one building she stores old machinery - some of it dating to the 1800s - that she inherited from her brother, the newspaper reported.

When she asked the men what they were doing, she said they told her they were "scrapping," in other words looking for scrap metal to sell to recyclers.
"I said, this happens to be my equipment, and they said, if you'll move your truck, we'll leave. I said, no you won't, and I shot one of their tires," Ramey told the newspaper.

That's some fine shooting, ma'am.

And while the old lasses in Kentucky get it, the ivory-tower eggheads in Yale show their ruthless cluelessness by....banning fake guns in school plays. That's correct...fake:

In the wake of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech in which a student killed 32 people, Dean of Student Affairs Betty Trachtenberg has limited the use of stage weapons in theatrical productions.

Students involved in this weekend's production of "Red Noses" said they first learned of the new rules on Thursday morning, the same day the show was slated to open. They were subsequently forced to alter many of the scenes by swapping more realistic-looking stage swords for wooden ones, a change that many students said was neither a necessary nor a useful response to the tragedy at Virginia Tech....

Brandon Berger '10, who plays a swordsman in the show, said the switch to an obviously fake wooden sword has changed the nature of his part from an "evil, errant knight to a petulant child."

No, Brandon - the only petulant child is your emotionally retarded dean...
Mr. Volokh adds the following thought:

Do Yale students have a hard time telling theater from reality? Are they so emotionally fragile that they would be traumatized by seeing a realistic sword on stage?

Equally lost on the meaning - and results of - gun control is the Japanese. Despite some of the world's tightest gun control laws, the mayor of Nagasaki was shot to death by an angered member of the Yakuza. The well-thought out response of the Japanese government? Why, even MORE gun control! Isn't it obvious?

We want to call on all ministries and agencies concerned to take proactive gun-control measures,” Mr Shiozaki, the top spokesman for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, said…
Japan already strictly controls guns, with only police and licensed hunters and some sportsmen allowed to own firearms.

Boy, that'll scare the Yakuza! Why don't you make the whole Japanese nation a "Gun-Free Zone"? For sure, that will convince the bad guys to lay down their arms! I mean, they certainly wouldn't want to be the only ones with weapons, would they?

Hmmm...wait a minute.....I mean.....

And the liberals, in their utter moral blindness, continue to insist that it's only because of the evil gun lobby that stricter gun laws are not on the books. Someone tell E.J. Dionne to call Miss Venus Ramey down in Kentucky, and see if they agree on the definition of "evil"...

UPDATE: From an editorial in the Washington Post, bemoaning Virginia's "lax" gun laws:

Just this year, a bill in the legislature to prohibit people from carrying guns into day-care facilities died quietly in a Senate committee.

If anyone, God Forbid, would want to go on a shooting spree in a day care center, would a law saying "no, no !" prevent them?
The only thing that could stop him would be an armed provider.
And that's the person whom the WaPost wants to disarm.

There's another article, on a completely different subject, where a liberal Poli-Sci professor utters the following inanity (regarding female legislatures and term limits):

"The logic was impeccable, the empirical evidence not at all."

The problem with the left is that they think their logic is impeccable, when it is flawed from the outset. And when the emperical evidence proves them wrong? They close their eyes, stamp their feet, plug their ears and sing, "Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb..."

And we all suffer for it.

Final note here...