from Mike at Flopping Aces

Reality Check: We ARE at War!

With the foiled attack in the heart of London and the flaming car driven into the airport in Glasgow, Scotland, our friends in the United Kingdom are on alert for more attempts to kill, main and sow terror.

In the London attempts, two vehicles filled with gasoline and propane with nails designed to shred anyone in range of the blast could have killed hundreds in London’s nightclub district had the bombs gone off. (larger image here)

Bombs in London’s Underground in July 2005 used hand carried devices which also contained nails for maximum carnage. (post here)

The Sin of Appeasement

It’s a sad day for our friends in Britain and sadder still that the spirit of appeasement is still alive for some who prefer to blame anyone but the terrorists. The following comment from a story in the Evening Standard newspaper is proof that appeasement is not just a phenomenon of supporters of U.S. presidential candidate Ron Paul.

Comment at "This is London:"

This government is still involved in the biggest foreign policy disgrace ever and shows no sign of either admitting the error or apologising for the suffering they’ve caused. Iraq was based on lies and the conceipt of a few men (Bush, Cheney, Blair) all of whom are deeply religious nutcases who believe that all’s well because God says so. ‘We’ need to understand that we’ve caused this blowback, which is based on a justified reaction to our actions, and as long as we deny this we’ll be bombed in the streets of London, as thousands are in Iraq. Bush and Blair said this was ‘war’, what the hell did we expect?

- Bobby Smith, Surrey, London

Apparently Bobby Smith and the Islamist apologists and appeasers prefer to remain willfully ignorant of the number of terrorist attacks that Al Queda and related groups launched against innocent civilians long before the U.S. and our allies, including Britain, invaded Iraq.

Shortly after the 7/7 bombings in London in 2005 another key U.S. ally, Australian Prime Minster John Howard, paid a visit to British Prime Minster Tony Blair. In his remarks afterward, he ticked off a list of attacks against innocent civilians, citing especially the 88 Australians murdered in Bali, which occurred before we invaded Iraq.

Ron Paul and his cult of followers beg that we should "listen to the people who attacked us and the reason they did it." We have done so continually. Bin Laden’s "Letter to the American People" in 2002 (again, BEFORE we invaded Iraq) made it clear that Al Queda felt justified in committing acts of terror against innocent civilians in ANY land where the population resisted domination by Muslims under the extreme version of Sharia Law.

At Mike’s America we’ve constantly reminded readers of the Muslim attacks against Buddhists in Thailand. No sane individual would suggest that the peaceful Buddhists of Thailand have anything to do with the U.S. invasion of Iraq, or U.S. support of Israel.

Beheadings of Christian school girls in Indonesia (warning: graphic images) had nothing to do with Iraq. Nothing to do with the United States or Israel. Nor did the massacre of school children at Beslan in Russia (warning: graphic images). Appeasers and apologists should speak to this Russian man at Beslan and explain why the infant in his arms was murdered because of U.S. or British foreign policy.

No evil self deception, delusion or willful ignorance will save countless innocent lives from the nightmare and horror that the Islamists would unleash. And those who continue to prefer their demented prejudices should be called to account for enabling this nightmare to continue rather than join in a stronger, more unified effort to defeat this evil.

Another Attempted Attack In Scotland (more…)

by Regina Sztajer

As a blogger I often wondered if we had a voice and would the citizens of this great nation of ours rise up if need be to protect their rights and privileges given to them by an enduring Constitution written by our Founders? The answer is YES! Talk- radio, the Internet and the ever present bloggers who diligently read the 300 pages of the immigration bill, and made public it’s faults, while Senators failed to do so, letters to editors of newspaper around the country and Alexander Graham Bells telephone broadcasted the bills flaws and demanded Senators vote against it. The phone lines to the Senate broke down during to voting because the aroused citizenry was determined to be heard. Good for them!! Take heed members of the House of Representatives and the Senate we are watching and are ready to act again if need be because we now realize we have the power in the grassroots organizations to make a difference.

Trent Lott (R-Miss.) was upset that talk radio had dissected the immigration bill pointing out its flaws and accused it of “running the country,” and George Voinovich (R-Ohio) on the Sean Hannity radio show complained he was being “intimidated” by voters because they were calling his office opposing the bill. ( www.townhall.com 6/29/2007, Rich Lowery.) These people do not seem to understand the reason for their 14 % approval rating. Maryland’s Senators Ben Cardin and Barbara Milkulski are still living in the past and do not get it because they voted for the bill.

Hurrah there will be no amnesty but there must be something done soon on our borders to stop illegal immigration. So wake up America and feel the power of having your voice heard. Conservative grassroots does have people power and we welcome LiberaL Democrats and Independents to join us in protecting America by insisting our borders are secured.

Bloggers can not rest easy because there is yet another threat on the horizon in the form of global warming advocate Al Gore who wants to be elected president in 2008, as a liberal Democrat. Do not be fooled into complacency he will run against Hillary and he could just beat her with his $100 million makeover. At 59, he has become a rock star as a concert promoter at this year’s Grammy Awards, as a best selling author, academy award winner for his film on global warming and a front runner for a Noble Peace Prize. It will be amusing to watch Hillary Clinton, the unbeatable candidate and Al Gore the rock star battling it out for the nomination. (more…)

from Mike at Flopping Aces

A car bomb was found and defused early this morning in London:

Police thwarted a terror attack Friday near the famed Piccadilly Circus in the heart of London, defusing a crude bomb made of gasoline, propane gas, and nails after an ambulance crew spotted smoke coming from a silver Mercedes outside a nightclub.

A British government official told FOX News that a number of people "were seen making their way away from the car," leading Scotland Yard to believe detonation would have been accomplished remotely.

Britain’s Sky News also quoted a police source as saying the device was to be set off remotely by cell phone. A police officer risked his life by removing the remote trigger from the vehicle before the device could be set off, the source was quoted as saying.

And ABC News thinks this may be related to the Jihadist graduation a few weeks ago:

The discovery of a massive car bomb set to detonate in central London comes just three weeks after what was described as an al Qaeda graduation ceremony of suicide bomb teams to be dispatched to Europe and the United States. …

On the tape, the leader of the British team speaks of the mission in broken English, "Let me say something about why we are going along with my team to tell a suicide attack in Britain."

That was just 20 days ago, and the existence of the tape first reported by ABC News put British and German security experts on edge.

Of course this doesn’t appear to have been a suicide bombing since the police believe it was set to go off with a cell phone.  Doesn’t mean this isn’t part of the wave sent by al-Qaeda tho since it is more then feasible that AQ sent bomb experts with the suicide teams.  Maybe the person driving it was indeed a suicide bomber and chickened out.  There were also initial reports saying that the driver crashed which may have caused him to abandon ship.  Also, everything I have read on these suicide deals point to the fact that each bomber has a handler with a remote trigger.

Either way, it’s a sign that this is indeed a war…..of course it won’t be long before the left and their cheerleading squad, the MSM, start to dismiss this bomb as too small or ineffective….blah blah blah.

Or maybe they can blame Bush for this too.

Another side story to this thing is that London is full of camera’s, one camera for every 14 people inside the city, and those camera’s may very well have taken pictures of the terrorist.  Pretty cool tool to have to investigate these types of attacks.

While many are thinking that the timing of this bomb is coinciding with the July 7th bombings it appears to me to be linked to the change in leadership.  July 7th is still more then a week away but Blair just now stepped down.  Makes more sense that this thing was intended to send a message that new leader or not, they can’t be stopped.

(more…)

from the Opinion Journal

An anti-Republican tide turned out Republican Gov. Bob Ehrlich last year after one term even though Maryland voters gave him high approval ratings. But Mr. Ehrlich is keeping his hand in public life with a foundation and a radio talk show that he hosts. This week he also took the unusual step of lending a hand to a conservative primary challenger to moderate GOP Congressman Wayne Gilchrest.

Robert Hug, Mr. Ehrlich’s chief fundraiser, is now openly working for State Senator Andy Harris, a former Navy doctor and anesthesiologist, and Mr. Ehrlich even put in an appearance at a reception for the state senator in Baltimore last week. Mr. Ehrlich has also recently interviewed Mr. Harris on his radio show at least twice.

All of this is quite a turnaround for Mr. Ehrlich, who in both 2002 and 2004 supported Mr. Gilchrest over conservative primary opponents.

One explanation for the shift may be Mr. Gilchrest’s continued drift to the left. The National Journal reports that last year the eight-term incumbent voted more liberally than 48% of House members on economic issues. Once a reformer of some note, Mr. Gilchrest is now tight with environmental lobbyists and only makes rhetorical nods at being a fiscal conservative. He often casts liberal votes that are out of step with his district, such as supporting statehood for the District of Columbia and voting against compensating landowners for the cost of wetlands regulations. (more…)

by Kathy at Mister Politics

Obama to Pass Clinton in Money Raised, Her Aide Says
Eager to cast its fundraising total for the second quarter in a positive light, the presidential campaign of Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) said it expects to report raising less than Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.), taking in about $27 million, roughly equivalent to what Clinton drew in the first…

Possibly more interesting than the fact the Queen of Cringe’s campaign announced she will be outdone in fund raising by the Obama campaign this quarter is the fact her Communications Director’s top resume item is crisis management. And it is funny that the Dems will not debate on Fox yet Howard Wolfson’s association with The Glover Park Group featured NewsCorp as a client. You know, Rupert Murdoch, NewsCorp, Fox News, Fox Broadcasting, etc. And the connections to Rupert Murdoch are just the beginning of Hillary Rodham Clintons’s contradiction in alliances. Glover Park Group has much to do with that.

Her Communications Director, Howard Wolfson, a New York native who started in politics working for his hometown Congresswoman Nita Lowey. He has worked for Chuck Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton before as well as the DCCC. But HRC’s association with Glover Park and the firm’s history in politics and business runs counter to Hillary Rodham Clinton’s contrived image, liberal appeal and strengthen claims of her dark side.

“She’s got a deeper bench of big money and corporate supporters than her competitors,” says Eli Attie, a former speechwriter to Vice President Al Gore. Not only is Hillary more reliant on large donations and corporate money than her Democratic rivals, but advisers in her inner circle are closely affiliated with unionbusters, GOP operatives, conservative media and other Democratic Party antagonists.

Dick Morris introduced the Clinton’s to a couple of pollsters named Doug Schoen and Mark Penn. Their firm, PSB, introduced to consulting the concept of “inoculation”: shielding corporations from scandal through clever advertising and marketing. Hillary Rodham Clinton has been associated with them ever since. But even Al Gore would not risk a continued relationship with Penn. He didn’t trust him and fired him during the 2000 campaign. (more…)

Excellent news: the Fairness Doctrine is history. And that’s where it belongs.

Because in the end it was just an attempt by liberals to silence Conservative Free Speech.

from LGF

from Mike at Flopping Aces

And somehow the Democrats didn’t see this coming?

President Bush, moving toward a constitutional showdown with Congress, asserted executive privilege Thursday and rejected lawmakers’ demands for documents that could shed light on the firings of federal prosecutors.

Bush’s attorney told Congress the White House would not turn over subpoenaed documents from former presidential counsel Harriet Miers and former political director Sara Taylor. Congressional panels want the documents for their investigations of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales’ stewardship of the Justice Department, including complaints of undue political influence.

The Democratic chairmen of the two committees seeking the documents accused Bush of stonewalling and disdain for the law, and said they would press forward with enforcing the subpoenas.

"With respect, it is with much regret that we are forced down this unfortunate path which we sought to avoid by finding grounds for mutual accommodation," White House counsel Fred Fielding said in a letter to the chairmen of the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. "We had hoped this matter could conclude with your committees receiving information in lieu of having to invoke executive privilege. Instead, we are at this conclusion."

Thursday was the deadline for surrendering the documents. The White House also made clear that Miers and Taylor would not testify next month, as directed by the subpoenas, which were issued June 13. The stalemate could end up with House and Senate contempt citations and a battle in federal court over separation of powers.

"Increasingly, the president and vice president feel they are above the law," said Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt. He portrayed the president’s actions as "Nixonian stonewalling."

Above the law?  Classic. 

(more…)

by Kathy at Mister Politics

This ought to start cranking up that Congressional approval rating. Senator Jeff Sessions may take the prize for unparalleled determination and tenacity fighting the good fight against illegal immigration and the unjust amnesty aimed at illegal aliens by the liberal fringe. Mr Sessions would be the Ted Kennedy antidote.

If everyone who is overwhelmingly satisfied with Senator Sessions work on behalf of all Americans opposed to amnesty would spread the word, Sessions success this month against amnesty may become contagious. We could use more Congressmen doing this fine work. Thanks again, Senator Sessions. There is congratulations to be bestowed on not just Senator Sessions but this post features his press release and we’ll let him steal the show right now.
Thursday, June 28, 2007

WASHINGTON—U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-AL) made the following comments today after the U.S. Senate voted 46 – 53 not to invoke cloture on the immigration bill:

“Today’s crushing defeat of the flawed immigration bill is a victory for the American people.

“The Congressional Budget Office found that this legislation would have allowed 8.7 million more illegal aliens in the United States over the next twenty years. We would be squandering a historic opportunity to reform our immigration system if we accepted policies that reduced illegality by only 13 percent. We can and must do better.

“As the public learned more about this immigration legislation, it became clear that the bill did not meet their expectations. The American people overwhelmingly rejected it. Senators heard the voices of their constituents and voted accordingly. (more…)

Typical sad behavior on the part of Democrats once again when it comes to Ann Coulter.  Here she is in a interview the other day, watch from about the 50 second mark to about the minute and a half mark:

AC – So about the same time Bill Maher said, by the way I did not call John Edwards the F word, I said I couldn’t talk about him because you go into rehab for using that word. 

UNK – You say you were joking

AC – Yeah, I wouldn’t insult gays by comparing them to John Edwards, that would be mean.  But about the same time Bill Maher was not joking and saying he wished Dick Cheney had been killed in a terrorist attack, so I’ve learned my lesson if I’m going to say anything about John Edwards in the future I’ll just wish he had been killed in a terrorist assassination plot.

So out of that we get this:

Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards said Wednesday that conservative author Ann Coulter’s attacks are hurtful as his campaign used her remarks in an appeal for money.

Edwards made his first comments to The Associated Press in response to Coulter’s suggestion that she wished he would be "killed in a terrorist assassination plot." His campaign cited her remarks in two e-mails to supporters for donations, with the fundraising deadline on Saturday.

And this:

Ms. Edwards Asks Coulter to Stop Attacks Elizabeth Edwards pleaded Tuesday with Ann Coulter to "stop the personal attacks," a day after the conservative commentator said she wished Edwards’ husband, Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, had been killed by terrorists.

"The things she has said over the years, not just about John but about other candidates, lowers the political dialogue [sic] at precisely the time we need to raise it," Edwards said by phone on MSNBC’s "Hardball" program, where Coulter was a guest.

Which has just proven Ann’s point once again.  Do we hear any comment about Bill Maher and Olbynutcase lowering the political dialogue?  Nope.  Instead we get John Edwards, whose wife writes at KOS, decrying the "hateful" rhetoric.  Here is Hot Air’s splice job on Edwards interview today in which Allah took out the references to Ann, which makes it that much more delicious to watch:

Ah the irony.

by Kathy at Mister Politics

By Stanford Matthews
Blog @ MoreWhat.com

GOP support for Iraq war Slips

By ANNE FLAHERTY -AP

Lugar and Voinovich are not the first GOP members to call for U.S.
troops to leave Iraq. Sens. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Olympia Snowe of
Maine and Gordon Smith of Oregon made similar remarks earlier this
year. But their public break is significant because it raises the
possibility that Senate Democrats could muster the 60 votes needed to
pass legislation that would call for Bush to bring troops home.

Why is it that some people have such difficulty understanding the fact that those who refuse to learn the lessons of history are doomed to repeat them? That’s right, this is a commentary on the war in Iraq and other issues facing the United States. It applies to illegal immigration, terrorism, ethics, the rule of law and other critical topics as well. But this commentary is limited to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan in light of another irresponsible statement by a member of the US Senate.

One may be able to forgive such a statement from a freshman politician but that is not the case with a Senator who may have just exposed the fact he has been there too long. That would be an excessively generous appraisal of the reason for this Senator’s improper use of his office. Senator Richard Lugar (R–IN) is the latest in a small group of GOP legislators without the sense to understand what should be said publicly and what should be reserved for private discussions.

No matter how it is dressed up, whether as ‘redeployment’ or ‘changing the course’ or ‘a new strategy’, that is surrender. Any reservations one may have had in regard to war should have been considered before authorizing the US to use military force in Iraq. That most Senators did not even bother to read the intel reports before voting to go to war is a clear indication of their incompetence. But to compound that failure by suggesting surrender is totally irresponsible.

The US reluctance to enter both World Wars early on is one historic fact that should enlighten these same Senators to the folly of poor decision making. What advantage went to the enemy by delaying the inevitable confrontation? How many lives could have been saved if the combined effort of allies were present at the beginning? Why was the late entry to WWI not understood before WWII was underway? Why have we consistently allowed our military readiness to be less than adequate leading up to each worldwide conflict? And why have we not learned the lessons yet in dealing with a world
faced by terrorism? (more…)

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

The conventional wisdom says that we have two choices in confronting and containing Iranian nuclear ambitions – United Nations sanctions and diplomacy, or a military strike to knock out key nuclear sites. But neither option is a good one. U.N. sanctions are relatively tame and don’t go to the heart of how to cripple the Iranian theocracy. A military strike, meanwhile, would solve the regime’s major problem: how to gin up popular support and stay in power. Any attack risks causing nationalism in Iran to soar, rallying the public around a now-unpopular governm ent.

But there is a way to strike hard at Iran and encourage a change in regime or at least in policies: We can stop investing in companies that invest in Iran. Frank Gaffney, a former Reagan Pentagon official, and his group disinvestterror.org list 485 companies that do business in Iran.

Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East negotiator, told me recently that he felt that disinvestment “could be important in bringing about a change in Iranian policy” on nuclear weapons.

Of course it could: The Tehran regime gets 85 percent of its revenues from the energy sector and needs the cash to pacify the population. With high unemployment and low job growth, the government hangs on by the skin of its teeth by subsidizing prices – gasoline costs 30 cents a gallon in Teheran.

But oil exports have dropped year after year as domestic demand has grown 10 percent annually. Despite rising oil and gas prices, energy revenues to the government have dropped from $55 billion in 2006 to an estimated $44 billion this year.

Current estimates are that Iran’s oil exports will drop in half by 2011, and hit zero three years later. The regime desperately needs new investment to prop up its oil production.

It’s up to the public – and to our leaders – to see that Western companies don’t provide that investment.

Already this month, California, Ohio and Florida have passed bills requiring their state pension funds to cut off any investment in these companies. State Sen. Jeff Klein (D-Bronx/Westchester) has proposed similar legislation in New York. He says that $20 billion of our state pension-fund assets are now invested in companies that invest in terror sponsoring nations. (The list includes most major oil companies and international banks.)
(more…)

Well, they can’t use the Bush lied line on this one…..

The Hill reports on the growing number of Congressional Democrats who are willing to say out loud that they want to abandon Afghanistan to the terrorists:

When they won control of Congress in November, Democrats pressed their case to withdraw troops from Iraq and refocus on Afghanistan, but some are growing impatient with U.S. operations in Afghanistan as well. A few congressional Democrats go so far as suggesting that the Pentagon should pull out of Afghanistan now, while others say that troop withdrawal will be addressed after the military is out of Iraq.

Afghanistan has long been an uncomfortable issue for the Democrats, because the arguments for staying there are not materially different from the arguments for staying in Iraq:

Yet making the argument that the U.S. needs to get out of Iraq and stay in Afghanistan can be politically challenging. While Democrats regularly note that the war in Iraq has now gone on longer than World War II, the U.S. has been in Afghanistan longer than it has been in Iraq. And arguments that Iraqis need to take control of their own country can be applied to Afghanistan as well.
Democrats are adamant that they don’t want a terrorist training ground in Afghanistan, though al Qaeda and other factions are battling the U.S. in Iraq.

Of course, an al Qaeda training ground in Iraq would be even worse than one in Afghanistan, given Iraq’s oil resources and central location.

There is no doubt that at the first opportunity, the antiwar organizations and the nutroots will start agitating for abandonment of Afghanistan:

Code Pink Women for Peace spokeswoman Dana Balicki said that her organization would like to see soldiers withdraw from Afghanistan.
“The combat forces should be replaced by international peacekeeping forces,” she said. “We should push for peace talks in the area with all groups that have power.”

MoveOn.org did not respond to repeated attempts for comment on the issue.

Meanwhile, several anti-war members, including Reps. Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.), Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), stress that any troop withdrawal from Afghanistan is inextricably linked to the military’s first leaving Iraq.

The truth is that most Democrats have no intention of using military force to promote U.S. security under any circumstances. They prefer to live in a fantasy world in which “diplomatic initiatives” and “multi-national peacekeeping forces” can keep us safe. (more…)

by Kathy at Mister Politics.

From Reuters:

Administrators of a U.S. state school system apologized to a graduating student on Monday for blacking out a picture of him kissing his boyfriend in a high school year book.

Marion Bolden, superintendent of Newark Public Schools in New Jersey, said she “personally apologizes” to 18-year-old Andre Jackson, a student at East Side High School, “and regrets any embarrassment and unwanted attention the matter has brought to him.”

The decision to black out the photo was based in part on misinformation that Jackson was not an East Side student, and that led officials to focus on the “suggestive nature” of the photograph, the statement added.

Gay-rights group Garden State Equality said it was “speechless” that what it called a homophobic act had been committed by officials at Newark Public Schools, the largest school district in New Jersey with 42,000 students.

The group said Jackson had been humiliated by the school district’s efforts to black out the photo using markers, and that he would not accept the apology.

Garden State Equality called for a meeting between school district officials and a gay-rights committee that includes Jackson.

The district, which said it supports all students regardless of race, gender or sexual orientation, offered to provide original copies of the year book to any student who asks for one.

It is not discriminating against a student’s sexual orientation to NOT put a photo in the yearbook of personal moments. We do not need to see any students kissing anyone in the yearbook. Since when are we putting personal moments in the yearbook anyway?

What is wrong with highlighting the school achievements and extracurricular activities like football, basketball, and cheerleading? This school went outside the bounds and set themselves up for this; then tried to fix the problem at the last minute…. with magic markers…(that was stupid!)… they deserve what they get with this case.

from Mike at Flopping Aces

Each of these news nuggets warrants a post in their own right.

• CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez urged soldiers on Sunday to prepare for a guerrilla-style war against the United States, saying that Washington is using psychological and economic warfare as part of an unconventional campaign aimed at derailing his government.
  Dressed in olive green fatigues and a red beret, Chavez spoke inside Tiuna Fort—Venezuela’s military nerve-center—before hundreds of uniformed soldiers standing alongside armored vehicles and tanks decorated with banners reading: "Fatherland, Socialism, or Death! We will triumph!"
  "We must continue developing the resistance war, that’s the anti- imperialist weapon. We must think and prepare for the resistance war everyday," said Chavez, who has repeatedly warned that American soldiers could invade Venezuela to seize control of the South American nation’s immense oil reserves.

"Fatherland, Socialism or Death." Sound familiar?

And let’s not forget the ties between Chavez and Iran. Two peas in a pod!

• Mark Steyn reminds us that the war against Islamic fascism started with Iran. Steyn suggests that when we did little or nothing to oppose the "fatwa" against Salman Rushdie, we set the train in motion to where we are today.
  

  Mark Steyn: We’ve replaced Rushdie in hiding

  …In 1989 Salman Rushdie went into hiding under the protection of the British police. A decade later he decided he did not wish to live his life like that and emerged from seclusion to live a more or less normal life. He learned the biggest lesson of all – how easy it is to be forced into the shadows. That’s what’s happening in the free world incrementally every day, with every itsy-bitsy nothing concession to groups who take offense at everything and demand the right to kill you for every offense. Across two decades, what happened to Rushdie has metastasized, in part because of the weak response in those first months. "Death is perhaps too easy"? Maybe. But slow societal suicide is easier still.

• Following up on that theme, Christopher Hitchen’s writes about how "Rage Boy" pictured below seems to show up whenever Muslims in Pakistan perceive some offense against Islam. In fact he’s become quite famous for his outrage act.

  

  Hitchens makes the point so many of us have that we cannot appease these crazies. I’d go further and say we cannot appease them, but we can defeat them. "Rage Boy" got his big break in the outrage industry with the publication of the Danish cartoons. It reminds us of this funny, offensive flash cartoon from YAFM. See it again to refresh your memory.

• Or, see the latest contribution from the brave Danes who instead of burning a witch as the symbol of evil for their harvest rites burned Mohammed in effigy instead. The American Israeli Patriot brought it to our attention.
  
  Translation of the text: Saint Hans’ Eve has always celebrated the tradition of burning away the evil, in earlier times symbolized by the witch, who was supposedly directly connected to Satan. And if the witch was not burned then the harvest could not be safely brought into the house.

  Now a new evil has arrived in Europe, an evil that lies and kills in the name of their so-called God. An evil that springs from the so-called Prophet Mohammed. Therefore, in our time, it is he who symbolizes evil and it is not just one harvest that will disappear, but all of Western Europe’s future that will vanish if this evil is not dispatched to Hekkenfeldt [i.e. Hell, literally the Hekla volcano in Iceland.

• Following up on Mark Steyn’s observation on Western weakness encouraging the Muzzies, The Sun (U.K.) reports that Iranians are ferrying soldiers into Iraq with helicopters. Iranian agents continue to kill British and American allies in Iraq.
• None of Iran’s acts would surprise Joshua Muravchik writing in Opinion Journal.Com. Muravchik goes right down the line from Iran, Syria, Hamas, Hezbollah and more describing how the weakened position of the U.S. in the Middle East (thanks to Democrats) has emboldened Iran to threaten a war outside the shadows of their usual proxy terrorists.

The clock is ticking folks! How much longer will we sit and watch as dangers gather?

How the CDC spends billions of tax dollars:

Did you know that as a U.S. taxpayer you have helped fund a transgender beauty pageant? That is just one on a long list of bloated expenses by the tax-funded Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

CDC director Dr. Julie Gerberding recently told the U.S. Senate that her agency needed an additional billion dollars. Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) decided to see how the CDC had spent its last $10 billion. What he found will make you sick.

The CDC has wasted millions of taxpayer dollars during the past few years on everything from vegetable statues to zero gravity chairs. Sen. Coburn shows in his report, “CDC Off Center,” that the CDC has spent millions on lavish facilities, questionable conferences, and new offices in the home states of committee members who oversee its funding.

Tony Perkins, president of Family Research Council, points out some of the more outrageous line items:

The CDC used syphilis prevention funds to host a “safe sex” event with a porn star.

It spent $45 million for conferences, including some that featured prostitutes and beach parties.

On the HIV/AIDS front, one grantee hosted a “bar night” with instructions on “how to throw a good party with lots of alcohol.”
Sen. Coburn reports that the CDC spent enough money on trips for employees to international AIDS conferences to underwrite drugs that would have prevented mother-to-child AIDS transmission in over 115,000 babies.

For other examples of how the CDC spends your tax dollars, read Coburn Report: CDC Off Center. (more…)

by Kathy at Mister Politics

From CNSNews:

A judge in Washington, D.C., ruled Monday in favor of a dry cleaner who was being sued for $54 million over a pair of misplaced pants. The administrative law judge who filed the lawsuit, Roy L. Pearson, claimed that the cleaners’ “satisfaction guaranteed” sign misled customers who were dissatisfied with their service.

But D.C. Judge Judith Bartnoff, who dismissed the case, saw it a different way: “A reasonable consumer would not interpret ‘Satisfaction Guaranteed’ to mean that a merchant is required to satisfy a customer’s unreasonable demands.“

That’s the right description of this lawsuit. It was a frivolous lawsuit that should have never have been allowed to proceed. The fact that the plantiff in this case is a Judge makes it even more offensive.

The highpoint of this whole case is Judge Pearson will be forced to pay ALL the legal bills for the Chung’s for wasting everyone’s time in this ridiculous case.

by Regina Sztajer

Strange as it may seem we might just have a New Yorker in the White House because Senator Hillary R. Clinton (D- N.Y.), former Mayor Rudy Guiliani (R-.N.Y.), and Mayor Michael Bloomberg (I- N.Y.), may be running for president in 2008, against each other. Bloomberg last week announced he was leaving the Republican Party and becoming unaffiliated because he was unsatisfied with the partisan politics in Washington. This eccentric multi-billionaire once a liberal Democrat, next a Republican is now an independent who wants to be taken seriously.

How have third party candidates faired in the past? To mention a few in 1912, Teddy Roosevelt after two years in the White House ran as Progressive Party candidate and while popular as president lost his bid for another term. In 1968, George Wallace ran as an independent and in 1992, billionaire Ross Perot also ran on a third party ticket and lost. Perot’s undoing was that he refused to spend money on his candidacy and ignored the media, accept for the Larry King Show.

In New York City Bloomberg as mayor attacks problems by raising taxes and spending money to give people what they want. This sounds like liberal politics as usual. He talks like a Democrat, walks like a Republican and quacks like an Independent!

He insists Washington is ducking health care, social security, budget deficits, global warming and immigration because of partisan politics. He has a solution of New Politics in a perfect society, a Utopia, a good place to live. He seems to be exploiting a dramatic affect by offering a brand of new politics or is it really politics as usual under a new theme song? Bloomberg considers himself a man of action. “We do not have to accept the tired debate between the left and right, between Democrats and Republicans, between Congress and the White House,” Bloomberg said.(http://article.nationalreview. com 6/22/2007, Jonah Goldberg.) His third party will call for managerial competence to make political decisions such as John F. Kennedy called for the best and the brightest when he came to power.

The Founders of this nation did not anticipate political parties but rather factions expressed by Alexander Hamilton. A Democratic Republic can not exist without factions because Congress and the White House were designed to compete in a Democracy. It’s called checks and balances and separation of powers. It’s about disagreement and agreement in a Democracy. While Bloomberg has been mayor he has had a high approval rating but can he garner 270 electoral votes to become president? Can a divorced man with a steady companion be elected to the White House where the people favor a president who is family oriented? If Bloomberg runs as a third party candidate he can afford to pay for his candidacy but will that be enough to satisfy the American people?
(more…)

yep, the Dems love free speech…..

Diane Fienslime, the war profiteer, is in favor of reviving ‘The Fairness Doctrine’ to combat the influence of Conservative Talk Radio. She goes so far as to say…

“Well, apparently, there have been problems. It is growing. But I do believe in fairness. I remember when there was a fairness doctrine, and I think there was much more serious correct reporting to people.”

Did she not get the memo that talk radio is opinion based? Does she not understand that talk radio show hosts do not pretend to be objective reporters? Apparently not.

What would the Senator from California to do to bring back balance on the alphabet networks and the dead tree media? Those formats are dominated by leftist opinion that creeps its way into reporting that is disguised as objective news. Don’t thinks so? Need I mention Dan Rather and Memogate?
from Stop the ACLU

No one forces the public to listen to talk radio….so to sum it up, getting the Dems talking points out is more important to the libs then free markets and free speech.

The Republicans really annoy me sometimes, but I really cannot stand anything about the Dems. And this is just another reason why…

from Curt at Flopping Aces

While this MAY be big news, this report pretty much only portrays the defense side of things:

EVIDENCE used against Abdelbaset Ali Mohamed al-Megrahi, the Libyan convicted of the Lockerbie bombing, was subject to deliberate destruction and manipulation for political reasons, according to leaked documents from his defence team.

The allegations suggest authorities on both sides of the Atlantic attempted to mislead the original inquiry into the 1988 disaster to divert attention away from the original Iranian-backed suspects to Libya, with evidence apparently tampered with, destroyed and overlooked.

In a decision that could send shockwaves through the Scottish legal system, the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) is expected to conclude this week that the conviction of Megrahi – jailed in 2001 for his part in the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 which killed 270 people – is unsafe.

Amid claims from his defence team of a "co-ordinated effort to mislead the court", tantamount to a perversion of the course of justice, the SCCRC is studying hundreds of documents and photographs that suggest evidence was deliberately fabricated, manipulated or ignored by police and CIA operatives.

Megrahi’s team believes the evidence was manipulated to avoid antagonising Iran at the time of the first Gulf War.

And while it’s a bit too early to jump on this bandwagon, knowing what we know now about the CIA would any of this surprise anyone?

Meanwhile Joshua Muravchik points out how the new improved Iranian regime has conducted itself in the region:

Several conflicts of various intensities are raging in the Middle East. But a bigger war, involving more states–Israel, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, the Palestinian Authority and perhaps the United States and others–is growing more likely every day, beckoned by the sense that America and Israel are in retreat and that radical Islam is ascending.

Consider the pell-mell events of recent weeks. Iran imprisons four Americans on absurd charges only weeks after seizing 15 British sailors on the high seas. Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is caught delivering weapons to the Taliban and explosives to Iraqi terrorists. A car bomb in Lebanon is used to assassinate parliament member Walid Eido, killing nine others and wounding 11 more.

At the same time, Fatah al-Islam, a shady group linked to Syria, launches an attack on the Lebanese army from within a Palestinian refugee area, beheading several soldiers. Tehran trumpets further progress on nuclear enrichment as President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeats his call for annihilating Israel, crowing that "the countdown to the destruction of this regime has begun." Hamas seizes control militarily in Gaza. Katyusha rockets are launched from Lebanon into northern Israel for the first time since the end of last summer’s Israel-Hezbollah war.

Two important inferences can be distilled from this list. One is that the Tehran regime takes its slogan, "death to America," quite seriously, even if we do not. It is arming the Taliban, with which it was at sword’s point when the Taliban were in power. It seems to be supplying explosives not only to Shiite, but also Sunni terrorists in Iraq. It reportedly is sheltering high-level al Qaeda figures despite the Sunni-Shiite divide. All of these surprising actions are for the sake of bleeding the U.S. However hateful this behavior may be to us, it has a certain strategic logic: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

What is even more worrisome about the events enumerated above is that most of them are devoid of any such strategic logic.

Many inside this country may not believe we are at war with Iran, but Iran definitely understands that they are indeed.  Many on both sides of the aisle tell us that the only way this thing is going to be solved is through negotiations.  Nevermind that this tactic has gotten us nowhere since 1979.  Nevermind the fact that the leadership in that country cannot be trusted.  Nevermind the fact that Iran cares little what carrots we dangle in front of them, they don’t need any carrots since they just take or do what they want.

But hey, lets throw all this out the window and put that carrot in front of their face while we hope that a nuke doesn’t hit Israel and begin the next World War.

Leaders on both sides of the oceans dangled carrots and prayed in 1937….you see how well that worked out.

by Kathy at Mister Politics

This will make your blood boil…

The excuse for hiring immigrants is “Americans do NOT want these jobs”, yet here we see that it’s really the American employers that have the problem with American workers…

Immigration attorneys from Cohen & Grigsby explains how they assist employers in running classified ads with the goal of NOT finding any qualified applicants, and the steps they go through to disqualify even the most qualified Americans in order to secure green cards for H-1b workers. See what Bush and Congress really mean by a “shortage of skilled U.S. workers.”

Microsoft, Oracle, Hewlett-Packard, and thousands of other companies are running fake ads in Sunday newspapers across the country each week.