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Labels: conservative Christians, Dearborn Michigan, freedom of religion, Muslims in America, NFL, Super Bowl, Tim Tebow
Labels: MR
We need to rise above fear, hesitation, and partisan politics–to give the government all the power it needs to solve all our problems.That is it, in a nutshell. What are “our problems”? Obama waved the usual shopping list of them that required government action and government spending, representing powers not granted to his office or to Congress in the Constitution, and wealth extorted from productive Americans and redirected to subsidize or finance statist ends.
“No one will live in America without working for our country. There is no other work.”And,
“The Democratic Party proclaimed [or was moved by] only two principles: first, it is a Party with a world view; and second, it wanted sole power in America, without compromise.”The “world view” is that Americans should abandon their individual rights and liberty and defer to their masters in Washington. And the Democratic Party has demonstrated that it wants sole power in America. The Republican Party, on the other hand, has shown that it is willing to compromise its nonexistent principles.
"With all due deference to separation of powers, last week the Supreme Court reversed a century of law that, I believe, will open the floodgates for special interests, including foreign corporations, to spend without limit in our elections," Obama said.It is tempting to dwell on the hypocrisy of his words vis-à-vis Obama’s own connections to “special interests,” such as George Soros, numerous other wealthy individuals who contributed to his campaign in 2008, and foreign parties who also contributed to his campaign, all totaling some $800 million. (Thus outspending Republican rival John McCain, who accepted matching federal funds and spent about $10 million; but the subject of the propriety of forcing taxpayers to pay for the election campaigns of candidates for federal office is separate issue). That is aside from the issue of corporations and individuals who stand to benefit from stimulus money and “green” and “clean energy” contracts. The floodgates of inflation, trillion dollar deficits, and spendthrift government spending -- all sanctioned by the administration and Congress -- promise to drown Americans for generations to come.
"I don't think American elections should be bankrolled by America's most powerful interests or, worse, by foreign entities. They should be decided by the American people. And I urge Democrats and Republicans to pass a bill that helps correct some of these problems."Not true? Justice Alito’s words could be interpreted one of two ways: That Obama was wrong about the ruling, that it would unleash a horde of cash-rich ogres to sway voters and elections, and that the president was misinterpreting the thrust of the ruling, and that its conclusion was based on the founding principle of the separation of the economy from state. But the incredulous expression on the justice’s face, together with the shaking of his head, I am certain he was accusing Obama of lying. One wishes that Alito had risen in protest and left the chamber. It would have been a proper punctuation mark to the growl of naked thuggery.
Democratic lawmakers and Obama Cabinet members, surrounding the six of nine justices who turned out for the event, stood and applauded. The justices, in the front and second rows of the House chamber, sat motionless and expressionless. Except for Alito. "Not true, not true," he appeared to say (other lip readers think he said, "That's not true") as he shook his head and furrowed his brow. It is unclear what part of Obama's statement he was objecting to, although he started shaking his head after the president said "special interests."
I am not an ideologue. I'm not. It doesn't make sense if somebody could tell me, “You could do this cheaper and get increased results,” that I wouldn't say, “Great.” The problem is, I couldn't find credible economists who would back up the claims that you just made.Meaning: He did not search for any economists of a non-Marxist ideology who would substantiate Pence’s claims -- not that Pence’s claims had any shred of validity to them, either. Tax relief? Why not propose the abolition of those taxes? It isn’t relief from those taxes that Americans need, but freedom from them.
Obama said Republican lawmakers have attacked his health care overhaul so fiercely, "you'd think that this thing was some Bolshevik plot." His proposals are mainstream, widely supported ideas, he said, and they deserve some GOP votes in Congress. "I am not an ideologue," the president declared.Yes, he is an unrepentant, dedicated ideologue of the Marxist kind. No amount of televised “give-and-take” joshing with his enemies is ever going to disguise that he is committed to “remaking” America according to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. The rudderless Republicans fall for it every time.
I very much am appreciative of not only the tone of your introduction, John, but also the invitation that you extended to me. You know what they say, ”Keep your friends close, but visit the Republican Caucus every few months.” (Laughter.)It is no laughing matter. This is the “gangster-government” way. However, it is factually significant that he also made this observation, one of his few honest, truthful ones:
I know many of you individually. And the irony, I think, of our political climate right now is that, compared to other countries, the differences between the two major parties on most issues is not as big as it’s represented.Beneath the excelsior of badinage with his alleged enemies, one finds a kernel of truth. That is something Americans can believe in.
Go read the whole thing.One of the most disturbing outgrowths of the global warming controversy over the last twenty or so years has been the increased politicization of science. Of course, this is far from the first time this has occurred, but it may be one of the most important, because we are at a particularly fragile moment in the global economy. Indeed, had it not been for the release of the Climategate emails and documents in November, the recent Copenhagen conference might have succeeded in reallocating billions, even trillions, of dollars, possibly leading to a form of global bankruptcy. Less than two months later, with the so-called science now unraveling on an almost daily basis, the whole thing seems close to insane. How could we have done it?
Well, how could we have done it?
Okay, I’ll take a pass at that – with the caveat that this is a very early narrative of a story that many will tell and examine in the future, undoubtedly in book form. In fact, it deserves several books.
But let’s start with the obvious. Most of us love Mother Earth. It’s a beautiful planet to live on with many extraordinary places and creatures “in’t.” Most of us want to preserve it. And for decades we have been trying to do so – liberals and conservatives in sometimes different ways – via governmental and non-governmental means. To greater or lesser degrees, some of these means worked – or at least improved things. Anyone who lives in Los Angeles, as I do, knows the benefits of air quality legislation. You can actually see the hills and your eyes don’t tear, as they once did, when you walk into the back yard.
As we know, while these things were going on, organizations were growing and forming in protection of the Earth, or what was perceived to be the protection of the Earth. Many of these groups would phone us or go door-to-door asking for money, which many of us, I among them, gave. We were all good servants of Gaia. No matter what our religion – or lack thereof – it was the right thing. The Earth was in jeopardy. We had to defend it.
And these organizations continued growing. Being “green” became the normative behavior, in practically every aspect of our existence, from the school to the supermarket. We lived in a “recycling world.” (Yes, I know there were many environmental errors and misidentifications of endangered species, etc., but mistakes are the way of the world. Let’s pass over that for the moment.) Environmentalism had become for many a replacement religion rather than the simple common sense that it is.
Enter Al Gore. Recently having lost a highly-disputed election for the most important position in the world, he was ripe for a cause and became influenced by a small group of scientists who had deep and sincere beliefs in an impending catastrophe from CO2 caused Anthropogenic Global Warming.
The most prominent of these scientists is James Hansen of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, who is said to have a general dislike for industrial civilization and what it has wrought. Whether this is true or not or whether Gore knew it, I don’t know, but it doesn’t appear to have mattered. Gore – who had no scientific training and indeed had an exceptionally poor academic record in general – seized upon the information proferred by Hansen and the others, not questioning them, as far we know, for a second. (As you will see from this link, many, including director superiors, are questioning Hansen now.)
Barack Obama admitted yesterday that democrats “snuck” a provision into their nationalized health care bill that will force government bureaucrats between you and your doctor.Real Clear Politics reported on this shocking admission:
“The last thing I will say, though — let me say this about health care and the health care debate, because I think it also bears on a whole lot of other issues. If you look at the package that we’ve presented — and there’s some stray cats and dogs that got in there that we were eliminating, we were in the process of eliminating. For example, we said from the start that it was going to be important for us to be consistent in saying to people if you can have your — if you want to keep the health insurance you got, you can keep it, that you’re not going to have anybody getting in between you and your doctor in your decision making. And I think that some of the provisions that got snuck in might have violated that pledge.“
Labels: MR
It is very well known that most of our politicians do not have the courage to speak the truth about Islam. But the list of those that do is slowly growing, and more are on the way. We are finally heading in the right direction my friends! Keep on speaking out!Councilwoman accused of racist Muslim comment
Sid Garcia
(KABC) — A diverse group of Antelope Valley religious and political leaders are asking for Lancaster City Councilwoman Sherry Marquez, to apologize for what she wrote on her Facebook page about Muslims.“Why this is of such great concern is that it isn’t something that was said to somebody or was overheard on an open microphone. It is because it went on the World Wide Web,” said Valerie Elliott of the Antelope Valley Interfaith Council.
A portion of what Marquez wrote on her Facebook page after reading a story about a Buffalo New York man accused of beheading his wife reads, “This is what the Muslim religion is all about. The beheadings, honor killings are just the beginning of what is to come in the U.S.A. We are told this is a small majority of Muslims in America, but it is truly what they are all about.”
“We need her apology to come from the heart, and that comes with education,” said Kamal Al-Khatib of the American Islamic Institute of A.V.
Hey, Kamal al-Khatib, FUCK YOU!
There ought be no apology here, because, from all the evidence, what she says is the absolute truth.
And, in fact, part of the evidence is that we don't see people like Kamal al-Khatib speaking out against Jihadism, nor do we see them speaking out against Islam's call to kill gays, apostates, and adulterers, or against Islam's granting women only second-class status.
Instead, all people like Kamal al-Khatib will speak out against is Infidels who tell the truth about Islam.
If you want us to stop saying such things about Islam, then Muslims need to organize themselves into large groups and make unequivocal public statements against the above Islamic atrocities.
But, Muslims do not do this. Instead, organizations like CAIR, the Muslim American Committee, and the Islamic Society of North America, actually support Sharia, never condemning it's abuses.
We are only left to think that that is the true voice of the Muslim community.
So, like I said, FUCK YOU!
people to take a moment to write the city council communication's director in support of this City Council woman.
Email for Communications Director, City of Lancaster, CA
jcabral@cityoflancasterca.org
Web page with further contact phone numbers, info on communications director:
http://www.cityoflancasterca.org/Index.aspx?page=31
Sherry's council member webpage:
http://www.cityoflancasterca.org/index.aspx?page=215
Write this council. Disseminate the information. Support Sherry!
Midnight Rider butting in (because I already had this written when I saw Pasto's post)
Brave Enough to Speak the Truth And of course get hammered for it.
What Sherry Marquez said is no different than what we say here a thousand times a day.
If the Muslim Community REALLY want to disavow the less attractive aspects of their cult then they need to stand up and openly disavow all those who practice it. After they've started talking about the Threat of Jihad the free world faces, after they've started talking about SHaria and Honor Killings and openly proclaimed not just that Islam doesn't preach that, but actively work to end it, then MAYBE we can start talking about how we Infidels see it. But not until then.
Clean up their own fucking house first before complaining to the homeowners association about ours.
Marquez exercised her First Amendment. The comments are not racist because, of course, Islam is not a race. She deserves support.
Here's a solution to all the controversy over full-body scanners:That's Infidel Creativity at it's finest.
Have a booth that you can step into that will not X-ray you, but will detonate any explosive device you may have on you. It would be a win-win for everyone!
Just the excuse Israel would need...
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama's national security adviser is citing a heightened risk that Iran will respond to growing pressure over its nuclear program by stoking violence against Israel.
The adviser, retired Marine Gen. James Jones, said history shows that when regimes are feeling pressure they can lash out through surrogates.
He said that in Iran's case that would mean facilitating attacks on Israel through Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. Iran helps arm Hezbollah and Hamas.
Go to Atlas Shrugs for the whole story and to see the Captured image of the paperwork Obamanots are handing to our children.An Atlas reader, Chuck, has a student in the eleventh grade in an Ohio High School. Her government class passed out this propaganda recruiting paper so students could sign up as interns for Obama's Organizing for America (OFA is the former mybarackobama.com site.)
Obama is using our public school system to recruit for his Alinsky-inspired private army. Organizing for America is (and I quote) recruiting in our high schools to "build on the movement that elected President Obama by empowering students across the country to help us bring about our agenda" ............of national socialism.
The Ohio High School is Perry Local in Massillon, Ohio.
This is incredible. And evil. Suffer the little children -- enlisted like SS youth. This is no accident. Obama is poisoning our public school system. He acts as if it's his own private breeding farm. Once again academic learning and achievement is hopelessly abandoned, and supplanted by radical leftist activism from the leftwing Alinsky indoctrinators in the perversepublic school system.
Children must be advised to expose this ugly propaganda. Children must tell their parents how they are being used and manipulated. Parents, warn your kids. Better yet, home school.
Check out the recommended reading list page 4:
- Rules for Radicals, Saul Alinsky
- The New Organizers, Zack Exley
- Stir It Up: Lessons from Community Organizing and Advocacy, Rinku Sen
- Obama Field Organizers Plot a Miracle, Zack Exley, Huffington Post
- Dreams of My Father Chicago Chapters, Barack Hussein Obama
This internship program is geared towards the 2010 elections. Using our kids as their goons. Can you imagine if the Republicans attempted such a fascist stunt?
Remember the children singing heil Obama songs? The Obama youth regiment brigade.
How about being forced to listen to his creepy speech?
During the election he had those freaky kids parades.
And video after video of kids singing brainwashed tunes of Obama praise here and here.
Labels: education, the Obama administration
Labels: culturism culturist economics, Haiti, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, rights
From Weasel Zippers:
A recently released New Jersey prisoner was yanked off an Amtrak train in Colorado after fellow passengers heard him mention Al Qaeda and make threatening comments, authorities said.Ojore Nuru Lutalo, 64, was free on $30,000 bond Friday after his arrest earlier this week at a Colorado train station.
The Elizabeth, N.J., man was traveling to Chicago after reportedly attending the Los Angeles Anarchist Book Fair last weekend.
Passengers riding with him Tuesday heard Lutalo speaking on his cell phone, declaring he hadn't killed anyone yet and demanding cooperation from a purported cohort.
"We have to work in small groups," he was quoted as saying in an affidavit. "They can hold you for 18 months. Do they have security on these trains? Are you with me or not?"
Lutalo later mentioned Al Qaeda before saying "17th century tactics won't work. We have 21st century tactics."
The train conductor said Lutalo was covered in a tan blanket during the trip, raising concerns since Amtrak personnel couldn't see what he was doing.
(The Hill)- Amid fears that the White House may move the terrorist trials connected with September 11, 2001, to the Washington, D.C., region, GOP lawmakers are planning to introduce legislation that would bar the use federal funds for their prosecution in any U.S. civilian court.
The move comes as the White House, met with growing opposition, has reportedly begun considering alternative locations to the originally planned federal district court in downtown Manhattan to try the professed 9/11 “mastermind” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four co-defendants.
The legislation expected to be introduced early next week is sponsored by Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.), whose district borders Washington, D.C., and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), and would prohibit funding for any Justice Department prosecution in civilian courts of a person being tried in connection with the 9/11 attacks
Labels: MR
From Creeping Sharia (click on the title above to see the whole thing):
W.T.F. If true, why is a U.S. federal judge meeting with a Pakistani Ambassador regarding an ongoing trial? Why are they having any private meetings at all? What was discussed? From the Ibrahim Sajid Malick Blog.
Federal Judge, Richard Berman, has also ruled on the side of the prosecution in nearly every motion. One of the most surprising, say legal experts, is when he allowed statements that Dr. Siddiqui made while at a hospital in Bagram to be used against her although she had not been “Mirandized” This refers to the Miranda Laws that direct law enforcement officials to identify themselves to an arrested individual and to advise that individual of their rights, including the right an attorney.
This ruling came a day after Pakistani Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, had a private meeting with Judge Richard Berman, which he described as “positive”.
The lone comment at the blog suggests doing exactly what Siddiqui is accused of, killing Americans.
Posted on January 30, 2010 by creepingW.T.F. If true, why is a U.S. federal judge meeting with a Pakistani Ambassador regarding an ongoing trial? Why are they having any private meetings at all? What was discussed? From the Ibrahim Sajid Malick Blog.
Federal Judge, Richard Berman, has also ruled on the side of the prosecution in nearly every motion. One of the most surprising, say legal experts, is when he allowed statements that Dr. Siddiqui made while at a hospital in Bagram to be used against her although she had not been “Mirandized” This refers to the Miranda Laws that direct law enforcement officials to identify themselves to an arrested individual and to advise that individual of their rights, including the right an attorney.
This ruling came a day after Pakistani Ambassador Hussain Haqqani, had a private meeting with Judge Richard Berman, which he described as “positive”.
The lone comment at the blog suggests doing exactly what Siddiqui is accused of, killing Americans.
Go read the whole thing.It is blatantly wrong “to equate all of the Muslim religion to evil.” To say that is “tantamount to a former Baptist going to Saudi Arabia and equating all Baptists with abortion-doctor killers.”
So says Mr. J. Todd Foster, the managing editor of the Bristol Herald Courier, in a Nov. 8, 2009, article against me.
Can one even rightfully compare Evangelicals or Catholics to Muslims?
Here is my challenge to Foster: I am willing to go to the largest mass at the Vatican in Rome dressed up in Muslim garb with a Koran in hand if Foster agrees to go to the Hajj in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, with a visible cross around his neck. If Foster turns up unscathed I will pay him the sum of $15,000, apologize and repent publicly from saying anything against Islam or Muslims.
From Gateway:
Hero Tony Blair stood trial today in Great Britain over his brave decision to send troops to Iraq to free the people from the mass murderer Saddam Hussein. Blair made the decision back in 2003. Since then the US and allies have secured the nation and won the war thanks to the leadership of George W. Bush.
150 moonbat protesters gathered outside with their astroturfed signs. (Reuters)The trial was set up to humiliate Former Prime Minister Tony Blair for his decision to bring freedom to the persecuted Iraqis and stability to the Middle East. Blair stood his ground saying he would make the same decision today as he did back in 2003. He also took a couple of swipes at the current weak leadership in Washington and the UK.
The Daily Mail reported:Mr Blair insisted: ‘This isn’t about a lie or a conspiracy or a deceit or a deception. It’s a decision.
‘And the decision I had to take was, given Saddam’s history, given his use of chemical weapons, given the over one million people whose deaths he had caused, given ten years of breaking UN resolutions, could we take the risk of this man reconstituting his weapons programmes or is that a risk that it would be irresponsible to take?
‘The decision I took – and frankly would take again – was if there was any possibility that he could develop weapons of mass destruction we should stop him.’
…He warned that Iran’s nuclear weapons programme now poses an even greater threat.
And, in an apparent rebuke to Gordon Brown and Barack Obama, suggested that if he was still in power he would be championing military action.
Godspeed, Tony Blair.
Thank you for being a friend to America, a friend to the Iraqis and a champion of freedom.
Stop by The Blogmocracy and vote
The superb award graphic above, by the way, is the work of the excellent anti-jihad artist, and fellow IBA contributor, Bosch Fawstin.
(NY Post)- The trial of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheik Mohammed won't be held in lower Manhattan and could take place in a military tribunal at Guantanamo Bay, sources said last night.Click on the title to get the story at Weasel Zippers.
Ace concludes:Nancy Pelosi Stopped One Useful CIA Operation in 2004. So, Um, If Waterboarding Was So Bad, How Come She Couldn't Stop That?
She "came unglued." Unstitched might be a better metaphor.
In mid-2004, then-House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi learned something from a CIA briefing that made her blood boil. Pelosi reportedly "came unglued" at the revelation and had "strong words" with national security adviser Condoleezza Rice, demanding that the CIA abandon its plans. As a result, a top-secret finding that President George W. Bush signed to authorize the CIA's activities was revised. Pelosi succeeded in stopping the agency from moving forward with the controversial operation.What drove Pelosi to action? Not the CIA's waterboarding of suspected al-Qaeda terrorists. In a 2009 interview, a former senior Bush administration official directed me to a little-noticed item from Time magazine. According to this 2004 report, Pelosi objected to a CIA plan to provide money to moderate political parties in Iraq ahead of scheduled elections, in an effort to counter Iran, which was funneling millions to extremist elements.
Why is this important? Because on May 14, 2009, Pelosi, now speaker of the House, declared in a Capitol Hill news conference that she had opposed CIA waterboarding but was powerless to stop it.
That move -- stopping the funding of moderate parties -- seemed to have no other point than to try to sabotage the entire war effort.
The father says he didn't really threaten to kill his son's family. Instead, God did.Alcoa pastor's son accuses him of pulling gun during argument at church
Colquitt reportedly told officers that his father — Joe Colquitt, 60, Evergreen Farms Lane, Greenback — called him to St. John Missionary Baptist Church, 178 Bessie Harvey Ave., Alcoa, “so they could talk.” Joe Colquitt was listed in the Alcoa report as being pastor at the church.Once Michael Colquitt arrived to meet his father, he said Joe Colquitt was upset because he wasn't attending church like he should, and at some point alleged the argument came to a head with the pastor pulling out a handgun.
“(Michael) Colquitt stated (Joe) Colquitt pulled out a handgun and stated he would kill him, his wife and family,” the report said. “(Michael) Colquitt stated (his father) was upset because he cussed him.”
NYT
ON A WARM, cloudy day in the fall of 1999, the town of Daphne, Ala., stirred to life. The high-school band came pounding down Main Street, past the post office and the library and Christ the King Church. Trumpeters in gold-tasseled coats tipped their horns to the sky, heralding the arrival of teenage demigods. The star quarterback and his teammates came first in the parade, followed by the homecoming queen and her court. Behind them, on a float bearing leaders of the student government, a giddy mop-haired kid tossed candy to the crowd.
Omar Hammami had every right to flash his magnetic smile. He had just been elected president of his sophomore class. He was dating a luminous blonde, one of the most sought-after girls in school. He was a star in the gifted-student program, with visions of becoming a surgeon. For a 15-year-old, he had remarkable charisma.
Despite the name he acquired from his father, an immigrant from Syria, Hammami was every bit as Alabaman as his mother, a warm, plain-spoken woman who sprinkles her conversation with blandishments like “sugar” and “darlin’.” Brought up a Southern Baptist, Omar went to Bible camp as a boy and sang “Away in a Manger” on Christmas Eve. As a teenager, his passions veered between Shakespeare and Kurt Cobain, soccer and Nintendo. In the thick of his adolescence, he was fearless, raucously funny, rebellious, contrarian. “It felt cool just to be with him,” his best friend at the time, Trey Gunter, said recently. “You knew he was going to be a leader.”
A decade later, Hammami has fulfilled that promise in the most unimaginable way. Some 8,500 miles from Alabama, on the eastern edge of Africa, he has become a key figure in one of the world’s most ruthless Islamist insurgencies. That guerrilla army, known as the Shabab, is fighting to overthrow the fragile American-backed Somali government. The rebels are known for beheading political enemies, chopping off the hands of thieves and stoning women accused of adultery. With help from Al Qaeda, they have managed to turn Somalia into an ever more popular destination for jihadis from around the world.
Just how stupid does he imagine we really are?When Georgia congressman Tom Price charged that
Obama had repeatedly accused Republicans of offering "no ideas and no
solutions," Obama shot back, "I don't think I said that."
BEIJING — A China Southern Airlines flight had to turn around Saturday, returning to the capital of China's restive Xinjiang region after a passenger burned toilet paper in the washroom, state media reported.
The crew of the flight from Urumqi, in the west, to the central city of Wuhan, discovered the passenger's actions after take-off, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
Police said a man and a woman were arrested after the flight landed, according to Xinhua.
The case is under investigation, the report said, giving no further details.
The security situation is more tense in Xinjiang than other parts of China because Beijing says it faces a serious separatist threat in the region.
Exiled members of the region's Muslim Uighur majority say Beijing exaggerates the threat to justify harsh controls in the region, which is rich in energy reserves and borders several central Asian countries.
Earlier this year, authorities also issued orders to step up identity checks and monitor religious activities in Xinjiang in a renewed bid to quash terrorism, separatism and extremism, state media reported.
Bye bye.China must account for the whereabouts of ethnic Uighurs forcibly repatriated from Cambodia, a US-based rights group has said.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said such groups had "disappeared into a black hole" on their return to China.
The Uighurs fled to Cambodia after mass ethnic riots in China in July. Beijing has referred to them as criminals.
In December, a group of 20 Uighurs were put on a plane to China despite opposition from the UN and US.
They said the group were likely to face persecution in China.
"Uighur asylum seekers sent back to China by Cambodia have disappeared into a black hole," said Sophie Richardson of HRW.
"There is no information about their whereabouts, no notification of any legal charges against them, and there are no guarantees they are safe from torture and ill-treatment."
For too long, extraordinary feats of feminist moral blindness have gone unrecognized. But now, those dark days are finally over.
Today, I am pleased to introduce The Naomi Wolf Award, affectionately known as The Howler. read more…
Charles Blow of the NYT:It's hard to take their rhetoric seriously
Gail Collins on the KSM Trials:The president simply couldn't seem to escape his professorial past, to convey his passion and convictions in the plain words of plain folks, and to breach the chasm between the People's House and people's houses.
As I was saying, last November, the Justice Department announced that the terror trial of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed would be held in Manhattan. Almost everyone in New York rallied around. This was seen as standing up to terrorism.
These confused, unrealistic pleading sort of whines are very informative.In case he wasn't fully aware that Republicans are impervious to his political charm, President Obama saw it early in his first State of the Union address. After ticking off a list of taxes he'd lowered, the chamber was in cheers -- except for the GOP side of the aisle, where traditionally tax-cutters have clustered. Obama smiled and ad-libbed, "I expected some applause for that one."
Obama administration may take action on College Bowl System
The Obama administration is considering several steps that would reviewthe legality of the controversial Bowl Championship Series, the Justice Department said in a letter Friday to a senator who had asked for an antitrust review.
In the letter to Sen. Orrin Hatch, obtained by The Associated Press, Assistant Attorney General Ronald Weich wrote that the Justice Department is reviewing Hatch's request and other materials to determine whether to open an investigation into whether the BCS violates antitrust laws.
"Importantly, and in addition, the administration also is exploring other options that might be available to address concerns with the college football postseason," Weich wrote, including asking the Federal Trade Commission to review the legality of the BCS under consumer protection laws.
More airport security won't do much to stop terrorists. Leaving the Middle East would.
Ending US interference, including military support for Israel, could significantly reduce the rationale for terrorist acts.
Earlier this week, Osama bin Laden praised the Christmas Day attack in which a Nigerian-born man living in London attempted to blow up a Detroit-bound airplane by igniting explosives in his underwear.
Mr. bin Laden's endorsement, along with recent attacks in Baghdad, raise concerns about a new round of attacks against the United States. Politicians, security experts, and pundits have therefore called for heightened security measures at airports and on airplanes.
It won't work without addressing why there are attacks to begin with.
Additional security measures may prevent a few attacks, at least until terrorists learn to circumvent the new policies. But these measures will have little lasting impact, as with many past tactics, because they do nothing to reduce the demand for terrorism against the US.
If the desire to engage in a certain activity is not reduced, attempts to raise the costs (such as harsher punishment) of such an activity do not matter much.
Continue reading Suppose Hizballah, Hassan Nasrallah, and the Mullahs of Iran understand the American People far better than we think?.
My conclusion:
This entire thesis rests on the arrogant anthrocentric assumption that it's ALL ABOUT US. This entire mode if thinking ignores 'insignificant' items of indisputable history:
Labels: Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies, culturism, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, New York City
Right now, I'm reading two books; Thomas Mann's Dr. Faustus, and a biography of General George S. Patton.NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) – During tough economic times when U.S. consumers are trying to cut back the indulgence they can't seem to live without is books.
Three-quarters of adults questioned in an online poll said they would sacrifice holidays, dining out, going to the movies and even shopping sprees but they could not resist buying books.
The handling of the Christmas Day bombing suspect: the scandal grows
The real scandal surrounding the failed Christmas Day airline bombing was not the fact that a terrorist got on a plane — that can happen to any administration, as it surely did to the Bush administration — but what happened afterward when Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was captured and came under the full control of the U.S. government.After 50 minutes of questioning him, the Obama administration chose, reflexively and mindlessly, to give the chatty terrorist the right to remain silent. Which he immediately did, undoubtedly denying us crucial information about al-Qaeda in Yemen, which had trained, armed and dispatched him.
We have since learned that the decision to Mirandize Abdulmutallab had been made without the knowledge of or consultation with (1) the secretary of defense, (2) the secretary of homeland security, (3) the director of the FBI, (4) the director of the National Counterterrorism Center or (5) the director of national intelligence (DNI).
The Justice Department acted not just unilaterally but unaccountably. Obama’s own DNI said that Abdulmutallab should have been interrogated by the HIG, the administration’s new High-Value Detainee Interrogation Group.
Perhaps you hadn’t heard the term. Well, in the very first week of his presidency, Obama abolished by executive order the Bush-Cheney interrogation procedures and pledged to study a substitute mechanism. In August, the administration announced the establishment of the HIG, housed in the FBI but overseen by the National Security Council.
Where was it during the Abdulmutallab case? Not available, admitted National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair, because it had been conceived for use only abroad. Had not one person in this vast administration of highly nuanced sophisticates considered the possibility of a terror attack on American soil?