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30.11.04

Failed multiculturalism in Wisconsin

Last Sunday, 8 American were shot by a man from Asia, known as a "Hmong". Quickly, 2 lawyers were called in to defend the accused shooter, claiming the act was in self defense, while suggesting that racial slurs were spoken by the dead men.

Quite frankly, I don't care about Hmong culture. Or Turkish culture. Or Japanese culture. Or Indian culture. Or Iranian culture. Or Chilean culture. I care about American culture, and when immigrants move here and haven't learned American ways after living here for a quarter century, 6 years of which spent in the California National Guard, there is a major problem. MAJOR. Reported in the Kansas City Star:
  • Nearly two decades later, both Hmong and longtime Wisconsin hunters say similar gaps in communication and culture happen often. Though the divide has existed for years, the question of how to address it is gaining new attention after last week's shootings in Sawyer County in which a Hmong hunter is accused of killing six people after being told he was on private land. Chai Soua Vang told authorities he was shot at first and insulted with racial slurs.
Let me tell you how I would address "the divide". Legal immigrants would have 6 months to pass a State issued examination pending arrival into this country. Failure results in immediate and permanent expulsion. Immigrants would be required to demonstrate a basic proficiency for and understanding of American culture before the immigrant is granted temporary residence status, and a basic conversational command of the English language would be required before the application for immigration is processed.

Once upon a time, we were a nation of immigrants, which some would say we still are. However, years ago, those who came here assimilated into America and learned our ways. While many held their own traditions inside the home, it was simply unheard of to arrive here and expect natives to accomodate you and your alternative habits.

We are not a great nation because we accept immigrants. We are a great nation because of what we offer the immigrants. A hope for a better life, a fair wage, a chance at religous freedom, personal security and fair treatment under the law. Sadly, immigrants in 2004 have realized that it is no longer necessary nor useful to merge into American culture, on the contrary, much benefit is to be gained by claiming discrimination, intolerance, bigotry, or cultural difference. Including a viable murder defense in the eyes of some.

When will there be enough evidence for the cultural elites who populate the Democrat party to realize we cannot continue offering asylum to legal and illegal immigrants from all around the globe? When will the radical left move beyond labeling those who seek protection and preservation of the American culture as racists and bigots? When will our government hear the cries from the men and women who make this country work that the load being placed on our backs is becoming unmanageable?
  • 19 immigrants who overstayed their welcome hijacked airplanes and killed 3000 innocent people.
  • Muslims in Hamtramck, MI have won the "right" to blast the islamic call to prayer over loudspeakers 5 times per day.
  • Politicians in Washington and several states are claiming that immigrants should be given work visas, driver's licenses, even the right to vote in local and state elections.
  • US citizens and legal immigrants are shouldering rising costs for health services, welfare programs and public education.
  • A US Marine, having gone missing from Iraq turns up in Lebanon claiming that he was kidnapped. Months later, his clothing and Passport turns up in Fallujah. His case was reopened.
  • A man in California went all the way to the United States Supreme Court alleging that the phrase "Under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance violated his right to be completely isolated from all religous intonations.
  • Maryland public school students are not permitted to say that they want to thank God during Thanksgiving.
  • A principal in California has stopped a teacher from issuing students a copy of our Declaration of Independence and other historical writings because they contain the word "God".
  • Enemy combatants scooped up in Afghanistan while fighting US military forces are now being granted protections under the US Constitution while thugs in Fallujah are being afforded Geneva convention protections. This while the perpetrators of relatively minor crimes at Abu Ghraib were sentenced to years at Fort Leavenworth.
  • The land that now houses the largest mosque in the Northeastern United States in Boston, MA was sold to a group by the city for a fraction of its worth, from which the group now preaches the overthrow of Europe and America.
  • Lawyers for Canadian and American chapters of the Council of American-Islamic Relations have filed or threatened to file libel suits against American journalists for publishing stories about questionable activities involving CAIR.
  • Sami al-Arian, a former professor at the University of Central Florida, was arrested after years of funneling money to overseas terror groups. He was virtually untouchable until the passage of the PATRIOT act. The woman who was the President of UCF, Betty Castor, nearly won a US Senate seat representing Florida this month.
  • Public schools from elementary through college are being used to educate students about islam. Students are given islamic names, taught that fasting makes good character, and even made to recite the islamic verse declaring allegiance to Allah.
  • Meanwhile, the Boy Scouts have been virtually disbanded and excoriated for exercising their right to exclude homosexuals and declare a faith in God, while using public buildings for events and meetings.
  • If all that's not enough, over in Holland, a filmmaker named Theo Van Gogh was recently murdered after releasing an 11-minute film illustrating his opinion about the mistreatment of women in islamic societies. He was shot and stabbed by a Moroccan-Dutchman who apparently didn't agree with the liberal freedom of speech offered in Holland.
  • Belgians and the Dutch are now openly discussing ceasing all immigration because they hav been overrun in recent years and the immigrants seem unwilling to accept the native customs. Some Dutch leaders have even called for closing mosques in Holland outright.
  • German leaders have raised the idea that preaching in German mosques must be done in German so that officials can monitor the messages being spread.
  • Muslims in Germany have even gone so far as to ask the government to officially recognize some islamic holiday.
  • Norway has recently been threatened, and is taking radical steps to ramp up security to prevent a similar incident like the murder of Theo Van Gogh. Norway is experiencing a high in flow of muslim immigrants in recent years.
  • 2 jetliners were downed, killing everyone on board in Russia, apparently by angry muslims who didn't care for Russian customs and cultures.
  • Hundreds of children and women were executed by Chechen muslims after they stormed a school in Chechnya. The muslims in this case seemingly felt murdering defenseless children would advance their political agenda.
  • Muslims in Canada have successfully manipulated Canadian legislatures into permitting judges to enforce Sharia law in instances where both parties are muslim.
  • Muslim rebels in southern Thailand are threatening to break the country apart because they cannot peacefully coexist with their countrymen from the north.
  • Overall, much of the Middle East, Africa, and Asia is simply unsafe for Americans, Christians or Jews.
  • 8 men were shot, 6 fatally, in Wisconsin by an Asian who claims he was defending himself from racial slurs.
On top of all of this, despite being told by our government that we are fighting World War 4, literally a fight for our very freedoms and survival, George Bush wants to grant virtual amnesty to the 10 million illegals currently in America, and he has nominated a man to be our next Attorney General who was once an affiliate of La Raza, a Mexican supremacy organization.

The 1st Amendment

Commonly misunderstood as an attempt by the authors of the Constitution to erect a wall of "separation between church and state", the first mention of said phrase seems to have come in 1801 in a letter sent by Thomas Jefferson to the Danbury Baptists.

The first appearance of the misleading phrase came in a Supreme Court decision handed down in 1947 in Emerson v. Board of Education of the Township of Ewing, the majority opinion written by Hugo Black.

Just who was Hugo Black, anyway?

He was at one time a KKK member, was nominated to the Supreme Court by President Franklin Roosevelt after serving in the US Senate as a Democrat representing Alabama for 11 years.

By many accounts, he was a strong supporter of FDR's "New Deal" policies, and he did join in the unanimous Brown v Board of Education decision ending "separate but equal" public school policies. Viewed by many to have strongly supported individual rights, including those of minority blacks, from the bench, ultimately he seems to have been regarded as a progressive Justice who helped move the country though difficult years.
  • In a rare 1968 public interview, Black reflected on his most important contributions. He put his dissent from Adamson v. California (1947) at the top of the list, but then spoke with great eloquence from one of his earliest opinions, his dissent in Chambers v. Florida (1940).

The New School Prayer

A principal in Athens, GA actually had to apologize for reading this over the school intercom after receiving complaints from parents claiming it violated the 1st amendment.

Now I sit me down in school
Where praying is against the rule
For this great nation under God
Finds mention of Him very odd.

If Scripture now the class recites,
It violates the Bill of Rights.
And anytime my head I bow
Becomes a Federal matter now.

Our hair can be purple, orange or green,
That's no offense; it's a freedom scene.
The law is specific, the law is precise.
Prayers spoken aloud are a serious vice.
For praying in a public hall
Might offend someone with no faith at all.

In silence alone we must meditate,
God's name is prohibited by the state.
We're allowed to cuss and dress like freaks,
And pierce our noses, tongues and cheeks.
They've outlawed guns, but FIRST the Bible.
To quote the Good Book makes me liable.

We can elect a pregnant Senior Queen,
And the 'unwed daddy,' our Senior King.
It's "inappropriate" to teach right from wrong,
We're taught that such "judgments" do not belong.
We can get our condoms and birth controls,
Study witchcraft, vampires and totem poles.
But the Ten Commandments are not allowed,

It's scary here I must confess,
When chaos reigns the school's a mess.
So, Lord, this silent plea I make:
Should I be shot; My soul please take!

Amen

What does the 2nd amendment mean?

The men who fought for and created this nation out of nothing seem to have thought that guns were an essential part of individual liberty.

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." ~Thomas Jefferson, 1776

"Before a standing army can rule, the people must be disarmed; as they are in almost every kingdom of Europe."
~Noah Webster, 1787

"To disarm the people is the best and most effectual way to enslave them."

"What is the militia? It is the whole people, except for a few public officials."
~George Mason, 1788

"The said Constitution shall never be construed to authorize Congress to prevent the people of the United States who are peaceable citizens from keeping their own arms." ~Samuel Adams, 1788

"The militia is our ultimate safety. We can have no security without it. The great object is that every man be armed."
~Patrick Henry

"Necessity is the plea of every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants, it is the creed of slaves."
~William Pitt, 1783

On the other hand, the new world order, global communists who want to enslave the American people don't understand why the average American needs a gun.

"I don't believe that assault rifles ought to be sold in America." ~Senator John Kerry

"Assault weapons in the hands of civilians exist for no reason but to inspire fear and wreak deadly havoc on our streets" ~President Bill Clinton, 1997

"You want an assault rifle? Join the Army!"
~Rep. Carolyn McCarthy

"Banning guns addresses a fundamental right of all Americans to feel safe."
~Senator Diane Feinstein, 1993

"We're going to hammer guns on the anvil of relentless legislative strategy! We're going to beat guns into submission!"
~Senator Charles Schumer, 1993

"Except for lawful police and military purposes, the possession of weapons by individuals is not constitutionally protected." ~ACLU policy statement #47, 1986

"If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have weapons at all."
~Rep. Henry Waxman

I think one need only compare the crime levels in Switzerland to those in England, or for that matter between Washington DC and Kennesaw, GA to understand why more guns do in fact directly correlate to less crime. John Lott's book would be a great read also if you need more concrete proof laid out.

(Quotes taken from here.)

Reading List 30 November 2004

Son of Chicago mayor enlists in the Army after earning an MBA.

Trouble in the multiculturalist utopia known as Holland.

As the US debt soars, so does the Chinese economy. Is this going to present a problem for struggling European economies?

Dan Rather is not THE liberal media, just a cog in the spinning wheel.

NAACP President steps down in the middle of an IRS investigation of the tax-exempt organization.

Pat Sajak opines about the deafening silence from Hollywood over the Theo Van Gogh murder.

Ann Coulter on drug legalization.

Michael Moore on why Bush won reelection.

29.11.04

Reading List 29 November 2004

Sweden: high taxes = best welfare system?

Political correctness run amok at universities and colleges across America.

A new take on the Saddam - al Qaeda connection, based on evidence in a book written byMichael Scheuer, former CIA head of the 'bin Laden' team.

I thought President Bush said his plan for reforming the health care crisis revolved around putting decisions back in the hands of doctors and patients. Why, then, is Justice taking a case to the Supremes, asserting federal anti-drug laws trump state laws permitting the use of medicinal marijuana? In all my readings of the US Constitution, I have not yet stumbled across the relevant section which empowers the federal government the authority to determine which substances I may and may not consume.

The "Educational Bill of Rights", do we need one for all public universities?

What about the "poor" people in Romania, won't they be "hurt" by the flat tax being proposed there?

Smoking bans: freedom for whom?

Sharia law says a person guilty of homosexuality shall be stoned to death. And the left still doesn't understand why it's important to force immigrants to assimilate into our culture? It's arrogant for me to suggest that American culture is more advanced than Sharia?

Buchanan weighs in on muslim tolerance for dissenting views as seen recently in Holland.

US Congressmen raising a bill to cut funding to the UN if it doesn't come clean about the oil-for-food scam.

Bill O'Reilly has lost it: The Swift Vets for Truth were liars, but Dan Rather made an honest mistake. Are those grapes a little sour, Bill?

Swift Boat Veteran Steve Gardner pays the price for telling the truth about John Kerry. Why isn't the good Senator reaching out to help one of his 'brothers in arms'?

Walter Williams discusses the pride of America's public schools.

The Quest for Cosmic Justice: by Thomas Sowell

More ideas about "equality".
Applied Economics by Thomas Sowell
8 more reasons why we need to cease immigration IMMEDIATELY. Why is this not being labeled a 'hate crime'?

28.11.04

Losers unite!

UN budget info

Here's the best info I can find from the UN's site.
  • How much does the UN cost?
    The regular budget of the UN is some $1.3 billion per year. It pays for UN activities, staff and basic infrastructure but not peacekeeping operations, which have a separate budget. All States of the UN are obligated by the Charter – an international treaty – to pay a portion of the budget. Each State's contribution is calculated on the basis of its share of the world economy.
  • How much does the entire UN system spend each year?
    The UN system spends some $12 billion a year, taking into account the United Nations, UN peacekeeping operations, the programmes and funds, and the specialized agencies, but excluding the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Just over half of this amount comes from voluntary contributions from the Member States; the rest is received from mandatory assessments on those States.
  • World military expenditures – some $800 billion a year – would pay for the entire UN system for more than 65 years. (And what do we actually get from that "UN system"?)
In 2002, the United States contributed 22% of the UN's "regular budget", or $283,000,000.

Reading List 28 November 2004

Canadian muslims not sure if they want to assimilate. Can't they be muslim AND Canadian?
  • The issue is especially difficult for young Muslims, said Imam Zijad Delic, head of the B.C. Muslim Association.

    "We know our kids in North America are living on the crossroads," he told the conference. "Many of them ask themselves, 'Who am I, Muslim, Canadian?' "

Extremism worries muslims in England - are there really "moderate" muslims, or just jihadis and non-jihadis?

"Moderate" European muslims getting sucked into the global jihad by radicals.

Less guns = less crime? Not in England.

Thai PM looks for democratization of region
to solve problems including radical muslims, and wants elections soon to prevent further attempts to affect elections by terrorists.

Iraqi Shiites want election to go forward as scheduled.

What is the UN doing to combat international terrorism?


23rd Psalm - Republicrat style

1 :The Government is my Shepherd, I need not work.
2: It alloweth me to lie down on a good job;
3: It leadeth me beside still factories; It destroyeth my initiative.
4: It leadeth me in the path of a parasite for politic's sake;
5: Yea, though I walk through the valley of laziness and deficit-spending, I will fear no evil, for the government is with me.
6: It prepareth an economic Utopia for me, by appropiating the earnings of my own grandchildren.
7: It filleth my head with Lies and false security;
8: My inefficiency runneth over.
9: Surely the government must care for me all the days of my life,
10 And I shall dwell in a fool's house forever.

26.11.04

Reading List 26 November 2004

Krauthammer says the Iraqi elections should proceed as scheduled, since there have been elections in US history which were boycotted by states.

Big brother to begin issuing passports containing microchips. Of course, those willing to trade liberty for security have no objection to the idea.

A survey of the Arab world organized by the Al-Arabia network website after the death of Yasser Arafat, showed 73.72% want a Hamas representative to replace Arafat, ITIM reported.

Is the Iraq war justifiable within Catholicism? St. Thomas Aquinas' criteria for a just war can be read here and here.

Should a Christian join the military? I think this article, while it does make several points with which I agree, ignores the objectives of war and whether or not war can be legitimate dependent on the purpose.

Why are we in Iraq? Frank Devine offers one theory in 'The Australian', and David Horowitz offers his opinion on Frontpage mag.

Dick Morris weighs in on the Ukrainian elections and the goals of Vladimir Putin.

World War 4: How it began, why me must win.

Zarqawi asks for help from other jihadists, is he on the verge of defeat after the arrest of a key lieutenant?

CAIR doesn't like free speech too much when it is critical of them. No wonder the islamic-radicals are on the same side as the Democrat party, free speech only covers that with which they agree.

25.11.04

Reading List 25 November 2004

Chemical weapons lab found in Fallujah by Iraqi National Guard?

'Don't impose your values' argument is bigotry in disguise.

The US government is afraid to implement racial and ethnic profiling, so instead it has given TSA screeners the privelege of sexually abusing airplane passengers.

Sean Hannity is a bigot.

Why did 75% of Jewish votes go to John Kerry when President Bush has been the best friend Israel has ever had in the White House?

Can the 'blue' states secede? I think so because the Constitution contains no language requiring a State to be forever joined, and therefore the 10th amendment says the people of each state retain the right.

Maryland public school students are free to thank anyone they want while learning about the 17th century celebration of Thanksgiving as long as it's not God.

The WTO has cleared the way for extortion against America. Let's withdraw from the WTO, NAFTA, UN, FTAA, ... these organizations exist to harm America and are leading us towards a global government in which Kenya and Latvia have equal authority as the US.

Are muslims taking over Italy?

24.11.04

Reading List 24 November 2004

The EU doesn't seem to care for the way Ukraine held its recent election. Does that mean if the "international" community doesn't like the outcome of an election they can levy fines or impose sanctions? In my mind, this totally violates sovereignty of the Ukranian people while elevating bureaucrats to the position of determining if election results suit their desires.
  • "The report of the electoral observation mission indicates Ukraine did not meet international standards of democratic elections", Barroso said.
Powell says US rejects the Ukranian election results. Can other countries reject our elections? Why aren't we more worried about elections in Cuba?

Want to use American public schools to spread islam? Join the crowd.

Should we negotiate with bin Laden, or just abandon Israel like he wants?

A preview of the January elections in Iraq: who is helping, what the problems are, why they are important.

72 year-old American woman prepares for deployment to Iraq.

Spain battling illegal immigration from Africa. What are these people running away from, and why are many of them trying to remake Europe into what they are fleeing?

Watch the "infamous" Theo vanGogh movie here.

A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence.

The Europeans must be bigoted homophobes too, like those in "red" America, since they want God mentioned in the EU Constitution.

"Submission"

The following is an email posted as a comment on a site which offers the opportunity to view the film which lead to the death of Theo van Gogh:
  • Date: 11/14/04 2:45 a.m.
    Subject: A very concerned relative of one of the actors
    I would to ask you to remove the film "Submission" from your site. I know it's very popular, but already one man has died because of it. As we speak some people (like you and me) who have been working on this movie (who regret this now very much) are being seriously threatened with their lives. These people are in hiding at this moment, it has changed our and their lives completely. Things will never be the same. I do not think that showing this movie any further will serve any cause.
Is this the islamic version of free speech that we should attempt to understand and appreciate in America? Showing a film can lead to murder by those who wish the message not be told?

Are we to honestly believe that they feel this way because Israel exists and America supports her?

When muslims takeover American society, what will the future be for our women? Will CBS or Fox News be permitted to exist, or will we only have access to Al Jazeera?

Condoleeza Rice

I've been thinking about her appointment to Secretary of State, and the reaction by the left. They are claiming that she either is not qualified for lack of experience or because she agrees with the President on most issues.

I was trying to understand why a constant clash between the Secretaries of State and Defense and the President would be a good thing in the eyes of the left. Finally I figured it out.

The left isn't interested in actually achieving progess or adopting policies which solve problems, to the Democrats, it's all about the process of governing. It's about carrying out bureaucratic procedures to demonstrate that they are competent and knowledgable in the "art" of governing.

President Clinton's repeated meetings with Arafat at Camp David produced nothing. Nor did the bill he signed into law in 1998 making Iraqi regime change the official American policy. For 12 years, 17 United Nations sanctions against Saddam Hussein achieved nothing. The "war on poverty" has produced more poor people while the social security system in teetering along towards bankruptcy. The World Court has been attempting to prosecute Milosevic for years on end. Jimmy Carter's "Agreed Framework" has proven disastrous and yet the left, led by EU dinosaurs France and Germany, wants us to follow the same path with the Iranian mullahs. Some global leftists have even begun suggesting that we need to negotiate with Osama Bin Laden to discuss "a settlement" to our "disagreements". John Kerry told us that we can't understand his voting history because Senatorial tenures are complicated and nuanced.

Time and again, these people on the left attempt to dazzle us with their attempts at diplomacy and sophisticated international relations. Time and again they fail. Now, they want to postpone the pending elections in Iraq while deriding the recent election in Afghanistan. Both events symbolize achievements which the left failed to accomplish repeatedly through summits and legislative action.

In order to keep themselves perched high atop the moral highway, they continue to insist that an effective government is one in which the implemented policies are neutered and laboriously adopted after endless debate and dissent. Unfortunately for them, President Bush seems to be realigning his cabinet so that his policies can be refined and implemented, and allowed to work. Whether or not they will succeed in reaching their goals, only time will tell, but one thing is for sure. The 50 year reign of bureaucratic gridlock in Washington seems to be coming to an abrupt and unwelcome end.

23.11.04

Congress doing what it does best

Even though the ruling Republicans' majority leader, Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, claimed the omnibus bill passed in Congress represented "holding the line" on the federal budget, $15.8 billion dollars worth of typical pork-barrel spending is included in the measure.

The US debt is higher in real dollars than ever before, and I see no signs of the trend reversing as the Medicare drug benefit bill is set to kick into gear soon, and of course the social security experiment gets closer to insolvency with each sunrise and Democrat promise "not to touch" their pet project.

Does this year's nearly $16 billion really matter to the bottom line? No.

Would there be any tangible benefits were the pork projects not included? Absolutely.

These spending bills contribute to the notion in the minds of Americans that the federal government exists to fund their projects, organizations, communities, and business interests. The sooner the feds cease filling the funding trough from which selfish opportunists feed, the better off we'd all be.

In the place of the "federal funds" (read: my tax dollars) would be citizen iniatives, community fund raising iniatives, and capitalist ventures. Until then, we can rest assured that the country music Hall of Fame in Nashville will get plenty of federal funding. So too will the merry go round playhouse in Auburn, NY and the American cotton museum in Greenville, TX.

Reading List 23 November 2004

Radek Sikorski (formerly Poland's deputy minister of defence and deputy minister of foreign affairs, currently the director of the New Atlantic Initiative at the American Enterprise Institute) interviews US Defense UnderSecretary Paul Wolfowitz.

Here's one opinion for how best to end the reign of terror in Iran.

Iraq's neighbors weigh in on the importance of the upcoming elections. Interestingly,
Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani Mulki earlier told AFP that "the dates are not sacred -- what is sacred is the democratic process." Oh really, since when?

It looks like Andy Rooney doesn't know that some Middle Eastern countries and people support the American intervention. Rooney did freely admit that "Rathergate" was a partisan attempt to undermine President Bush's campaign, and now Dan Rather has resigned.

Lawyers for ousted Iraqi president Saddam Hussein announced Monday that they were asking the International Court of Justice to prosecute the United States for war crimes. Some Canadians want President Bush charged as a war criminal also.

The United Church of Christ supports the Iranian regime in its bid to acquire nuclear weapons so it can remain safe from preemptive US attacks, but simulatenously argues that the world isn't doing enough to stop genocide in the Sudan. So, oppression by Iranian mullahs should not be dealt with but oppression by the Sudanese "government" should?

Interim Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas told parliament on Tuesday that he would follow in Yasser Arafat's footsteps and demand that Israel recognize the "right of return" of Palestinian refugees.

Florida Senator Bill Nelson stands up with the Boy Scouts in light of the recent ACLU attempts to ostracize the organization from military support.

Star Parker explains why blaming others for your problems never works, whether you're Yasser Arafat or a poor inner city mother in America.

22.11.04

American media lies about military, again

Long Live Free Fallujah
  • With the liberation of Fallujah and the fall of the jihadist regime in the town, it is apparent that American media intend to keep their story on message: the message being that the U.S. military operation there has failed and that Fallujans, and Iraqis in general, still hate the intervention forces.
  • At the same time, other reports tell a more significant and eloquent story: the jihadists had set up a Taliban-style dictatorship, in which women who did not cover their entire bodies, people listening to music, and members of spiritual Sufi orders -- that is, ordinary Fallujans -- were subject to torture and execution.
Pat Buchanan weighs in, wondering how Vietnam became "Nixon's war".

Belgians Waffle? A Ban to Worry About

The extreme right political party in Belgium has been shut down for being racist, but that isn't to say that Belgians are beginning to understand the growing threat to Europe by the inflow of radical muslims.
  • Now that the Cold War is over Western European countries ought to be role models for the East. What a farce, then, that Belgium has taken a cue from Vladimir Putin. In true autocratic fashion the high court banned Vlaams Blok -- the nation's most popular political party. The party has since been refounded and renamed Vlaams Belang, meaning "Flemish Interest."
  • Vlaams Blok isn't any party I'd want to belong to. They want to break Belgium in half along ethnic lines and completely shut down immigration. They even offered immigrants cash to leave and never come back. Still, banning a political party -- especially the one that's most popular -- is no way to behave in a democracy no matter how kooky the party in question may be. It's obviously, you know, undemocratic. And it will only make the targeted party (in whatever new form it takes) more popular than it was. Opinions can't be abolished by court order. Political grievances don't vanish just because party leaders have to slap a new label on an old bottle.
  • One member of Vlaams Blok wrote a political tract denouncing female genital mutilation in Muslim countries. The high court says the tract is racist. Nevermind that "Muslim" isn't a race, the person who wrote it is not ethnically Belgian. She's a Muslim woman from Turkey.

  • Denouncing female genital mutilation is the sort of thing liberals and feminists recently did -- and occasionally still find the courage to do. If the European ruling class wants to relegate this view to the right-wing lunatic fringe they'll only boost the clout of the real fringe by making it look more reasonable than in is.

Tokyo courts disaster

The Japanese government is facing the same economic shortfalls as their US counterparts.
  • A debate rages among advisers to the ruling party concerning the nature of reforms in Japan's tax regime. Unfortunately, some loud and influential voices propose the creation of new taxes or increasing the levies on income, consumption and corporate assets.
  • Phasing out tax cuts could be part of the tax revisions for fiscal 2005 and reflect a frantic search to raise tax revenue to help sort out Tokyo's debt-ridden finances. Another reason is to allow the state contribution to the national pension program to be raised from the current one-third to 50 percent by fiscal 2009.
  • Implementing these proposals would increase the overall tax burden and dampen economic activity by reducing business investments and household savings. Consider that Japan's economy recorded slow or no growth after capital-gains tax rate rose from 0% to 20% in 1990, and a national sales tax implemented in 1989 was increased during the late-1990s.

    By contrast, data from Holland and Ireland as well as the US and the UK indicate that reducing the tax burden can boost growth and cause beneficial changes in the structure of the economy. In all events, high rates induce evasion and avoidance that make it harder to meet revenue targets.

Alberto Gonzales is a racist?

NCLR (La Raza) welcomes nominatione of Gonzales to serve as Attorney General.
  • Janet Murguia, NCLR Executive Director and COO noted Gonzales’ ties to the Hispanic community throughout his career. “Alberto Gonzales served with distinction on the board of directors of one of NCLR’s oldest and most respected affiliates, the Association for the Advancement of Mexican Americans (AAMA) in Houston, Texas. Moreover, during his tenure as White House Counsel, he has been one of the most accessible members of the White House staff to NCLR and other Hispanic organizations,” added Murguia.

Illegal immigrants in Arizona

Washington Times:
  • An immigration initiative approved in Arizona that sets voting and public benefit standards no other state has yet adopted is expected to be vigorously challenged by civil rights groups and Hispanic advocacy organizations after the law is certified today by the Arizona Secretary of State's Office.
  • The initiative makes four key statutory changes in Arizona law, including proof of citizenship to register to vote, proof of identity to vote, verification of identity and eligibility to receive public benefits, and the mandatory reporting of illegal aliens to federal immigration officials.

15 ACLU positions

The ACLU repulses me. Here are 15 questions it answers in an official document in which it attempts to explain their positions. Individually, the issues seem reasonable and benign, but taken collectively, the ACLU seems to go out of its way unnecessarily in support of social misfits and those who harm the country.

1. Why do you defend Nazis and the Klan?

2. You’re all a bunch of liberals, aren’t you?

3. Why does the ACLU support cross burning?

4. Why does the ACLU support pornography? Why are you in favor of child porn?

5. Why doesn’t the ACLU support gun ownership/gun control?

6. Why does the ACLU support the rights of criminals but not victims of crime?

7. Why is the ACLU against God/Christianity/the Bible?

8. Why is the ACLU against drug testing of employees?

9. Why does the ACLU help rapists and child molesters?

10. Why doesn’t the ACLU want patients to know whether their doctor or dentist has AIDS?

11. Why are you challenging the state law ordering the re-insertion of Terri Schiavo’s feeding tube?

12. I heard you’re defending a Muslim woman who refuses to take a picture for her driver’s license. Isn’t driving a privilege and not a right?

13. What’s wrong with saying “Under God” during the Pledge?

14. Why does the ACLU oppose the ban on “partial birth” abortions?

15. Why did the ACLU defend NAMBLA?

Cross burning in New York

Awakened by a loud bang and the ring of their doorbell, an interracial couple peered out the front window of their Long Island home at 3 a.m. yesterday and saw a cross burning on the front lawn.

I thought this only happens in Alabama and Texas...?

Insensitivity

Counties want to limit aid to illegal immigrants
  • Idaho has joined the ranks of states looking at legislation to limit government benefits and services for illegal immigrants.

    The Idaho Association of Counties is working on a bill for next year's legislative session that would allow county governments to reject applications for indigent medical care or reimbursement when they are made by undocumented immigrants.

    The cost of caring for those who are in Idaho illegally was among many issues raised at a Wednesday night forum at Boise State University, a sometimes heated discussion on immigration.

19.11.04

Jennings gets tough with Clinton

In a prime-time television outburst, Bill Clinton ripped old nemesis Kenneth Starr and what the former president portrayed as a gullible media eager to report every "sleazy thing" leaked from a prosecutor bent on bringing him down.
  • "No other president ever had to endure someone like Ken Starr," Clinton said. "No one ever had to try to save people from ethnic cleansing in the Balkans, and people in Haiti from a military dictator that was murdering them, and all the other problems I dealt with, while every day an entire apparatus was devoted to destroying him."
(Waco, 3 failed opportunities to get bin Laden, selling nukes to China...)
  • The former president said he would go to his grave at peace that, while he had personal failings, he never lied to the American people about his job as president.

    Clinton added that he doesn't care about what his detractors think about him. Jennings then said it seemed to him that Clinton did care.

    The former president responded, "You don't want to go here, Peter. You don't want to go here. Not after what you people did and the way you, your network, what you did with Kenneth Starr. The way your people repeated every, little sleazy thing he leaked. No one has any idea what that's like."

    "You never had to live in a time when people you knew and cared about were being indicted, carted off to jail, bankrupted, ruined, because they were Democrats and because they would not lie," he said. "So, I think we showed a lot of moral fiber to stand up to that. To stand up to these constant investigations, to this constant bodyguard of lies, this avalanche that was thrown at all of us. And, yes, I failed once. And I sure paid for it. And I'm sorry. I'm sorry for the American people. And I'm sorry for the embarrassment they performed."

As usual, Clinton blames everyone but himself for the disastrous 8 years that were his Presidency. Sadly, many Americans think he did some really wonderful things for the country. Most often, they cite balancing the budget as his greatest achievement. The most powerful man in the world for 8 years, and the best thing he did was to raise taxes enough to cover huge spending programs. Wow.

Dutch to halt muslim immigrants

AP Interview: Popular Dutch lawmaker urges halt to non-Western immigrants, shutting down radical mosques
  • One of the most popular politicians in the Netherlands said Friday the country's democracy is under threat and called for a five-year halt to non-Western immigration in the wake of the killing of a Dutch filmmaker by a suspected Muslim radical.

    "We are a Dutch democratic society. We have our own norms and values," right-wing lawmaker Geert Wilders told The Associated Press in an interview. "If you chose radical Islam you can leave, and if you don't leave voluntarily then we will send you away. This is the only message possible."

    In his first interview with the foreign media since the slaying of filmmaker Theo van Gogh on Nov. 2, Wilders said his own life has been repeatedly threatened. He said he has begun living under state protection and has even had to stay away from his own home.

    Wilders split with the free-market coalition partner Liberal Party two months ago because it backed the candidacy of predominantly Muslim Turkey for the European Union.

    He formed his own conservative party, the Wilders Group, which has one seat in the 150-member parliament. But a recent poll suggested his anti-immigrant message was reverberating through the electorate, and he would win 24 seats if elections were held today -- up from 19 seats before Van Gogh's murder.

Intolerant Europeans?

EU officials implore new immigrants to learn European values
  • European Union justice and interior ministers agreed Friday that new immigrants to the 25-nation bloc should be required to learn local languages, and to adhere to general "European values" that will guide them toward better integration.
Meanwhile the American left thinks we should allow anybody to come here and force their native culture upon America. They tell us that it is "intolerant" for Americans to reject such cultural changes as multilingualism or gay marriage.

Dead Marines or dead terrorists?

Which do you prefer?

Which have you heard more about?

Left wing science

1. Since there is a chance the stem cell research could some day be helpful in developing treatments or cures to some awful diseases, we should pursue it at all costs.

2. Since there is a chance that human activity is causing global climate changes to occure, we should assume that global warming is our fault until we are sure it is not, which of course will never happen.

3. Since technology and medicine are improving all the time, and prematurely born babies are living more often than in past years, it's a woman's right to choose when her child is actually "alive".

UN Security Council adopts resolution on Sudan

I don't think giving money to the Sudanese "government" is a great idea unless the muslim radicals operating there are first rooted out and incarcerated for war crimes against humanity.
  • The UN Security Council on Friday unanimously adopted a resolution urging Sudan's warring parties to make peace and linking future massive development aid to the signing of a comprehensive accord between Khartoum and southern rebels.

    Aimed at fostering "lasting peace and stability and to build a prosperous and united Sudan," resolution 1574 urges the Khartoum government and the country's main southern rebel group, who first went to war in 1983, to cap two years of negotiations with a comprehensive peace accord by the end of 2004.

Police deploy to prevent Beirut anti-Syria protest

Freedom is only an idea for Americans and western culture. Most middle-easterners don't really want to be free. Or so the left tells us.
  • Lebanese security forces deployed in force on Friday at main roads in Beirut and around universities to prevent students holding an unauthorised protest demanding an end to Syrian influence in the country.

    Soldiers and police set up roadblocks at the northern, southern and eastern entrances to Beirut, checking identities of people in vehicles and causing long traffic jams.

    In the Lebanese capital, two sit-in protests were due to be held around midday against what students term "Syrian hegemony" and in favour of "real independence".

18.11.04

"Buried in the Sand" DVD

Actual footage of real torture at Abu Ghraib is documented in this recently released film.

Appearing on Hannity and Colmes tonight, one of the film's producers claimed that the US mainstream media already possessed much of the film's graphic footage when Ted Kennedy took to the floor of the US Senate to equate treatment of prisoners at Abu Ghraib under our control and under Saddam's control.

Repeat ad nauseam: there is no leftist media bias, there is no leftist media bias, there is no leftist media bias...

Russia arming China?

China may have lost the latest skirmish with the European Union to get the latter to lift its arms ban, but Beijing is still able to buy what it needs - solid, serviceable hardware and technology - from Russia, former Soviet-bloc nations and Israel. And the embargo gives China greater incentive to develop its own weapons systems.

Why don't the Americans who oppose isolationist policies offered by such thinkers as Pat Buchanan speak up louder about the apparent "do what is best for ourselves" approach taken by Israel, Russia and China?

It seems like everyone is looking out for themselves, except us, while we look out for them first too. Sooner or later, we have to make a fundamental choice in this country. Are the problems and goals of other nations to be prioritized ahead of our own?

Military Chiefs: Post-War Plan Lacking

United Press International says:
  • WASHINGTON - The Bush Administration did not adequately prepare for the post-war period in Iraq, the nation's top military officers told Congress Wednesday.

    The four chiefs of the armed services testified to the House Armed Services Committee that while they had adequately planned for combat operations, as evidenced by the quick advance to Baghdad, the U.S. government as a whole failed to put enough effort into planning for the peace.

    The military role is limited, or should be limited, in post-combat periods to security operations, they said. The lion's share of reconstruction and nation building should have been taken up by other agencies in the government.

I have no idea what the pre-war plans were at the upper levels, but I am fairly sure that building schools and repairing water pipes are not at the heart of military training. Militaries are designed to kill people and to break things.

And whatever happened to all that Iraqi oil money that was going to be used to fund the reconstruction effort?

A Few Good Men

After six months. We'd be dishonorably discharged, right sir?

Yes.

What do we do then, sir? We joined the Corps 'cause we wanted to live our lives by a certain code. And we found it in the Corps. And now you're asking us to sign a piece of paper that says we have no honor. You're asking us to say we're not Marines. If a judge and jury decide that what we did was wrong, I'll accept whatever punishment they give. But I believe I was riqht, sir . I believe I did my Job. And I won't dishonor myself, my unit, or the Corps, so that I can qo home in six months.
****************************
Why do you like them so much?

'Cause they stand on a wall. And they say "Nothing's gonna hurt you tonight. Not on my watch."
****************************
Private. Answer the Lieutenant's question.

Yes, Lieutenant. I was given an order by my squad leader, Lance Corporal Harold W. Dawson of the U.S. Marine Corps. And I followed it.
****************************
Ever served in a forward area?

Ever put your life in another man's hands, ask him to put his life in yours?

We follow orders, son. We follow orders or people die. It's that simple.
****************************
You can't handle the truth! Son, we live in a world that has walls. And those walls have to be guarded by men with guns.

Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lt. Weinberg?

I have a greater responsibility than you can possibly fathom. You weep for Santiago and you curse the Marines. You have that luxury. You have the luxury of not knowing what I know: that Santiago's death, while tragic, probably saved lives.

And my existence, while grotesque and incomprehensible to you, saves lives...You don't want the truth. Because deep down, in places you don't talk about at parties, you want me on that wall. You need me on that wall.

We use words like honor, code, loyalty...we use these words as the backbone to a life spent defending something.

You use 'em as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom I provide, then questions the manner in which I provide it! I'd rather you just said thank you and went on your way. Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon and stand a post.

Either way, I don't give a damn what you think you're entitled to!

Clinton library/sex museum opens in Little Rock today

From the NY Sun:
  • ... Earlier reports said the Saudi and Kuwaiti governments were among the early donors to Mr. Clinton's library. Asked if the Saudis and Kuwaitis had backed the museum financially, Mr. Rutherford urged a reporter to ask those governments or consult the display, which will not be accessible to the public until tomorrow.
Robert Novaks claims:
  • Bill Clinton not only received a $750,000 speaking fee for going to Saudi Arabia in January but came back with a hefty pledge for his presidential library in Little Rock, Ark., according to high-ranking Saudis. Estimates range from less than $1 million to $20 million.
And Newsmax claims that the Saudis Pledge up to $20 Million for Clinton Library.

Oil-for-food 18 November 2004

House Panel Questions Role of French Bank

Oil-food inquiry targets French bank

Uncovering Saddam's cover

House panel questions role of French bank in Iraq oil-for-food program

BNP exec denies mishandling Iraq oil program funds

The New Freedom Commission on Mental Health

Mandatory mental health screening on all Americans from the "Freedom Commission"? Sounds like a ponzi scheme to help drug companies sell more product. Does Bush think that we buy anything he sells if he says "freedom" or "liberty" enough times while discussing the initiative?
  • * Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, is making a final attempt this week to lessen the impact of a new program that calls for all the nation's children to be screened for mental-health problems, offering language to the federal omnibus spending bill that would require parental consent before such testing could be done.

    As WorldNetDaily reported, in September Paul attempted to have the program removed from Labor, HHS and Education Appropriations Act. His amendment failed the House of Representatives by a vote of 95-315.

    This week, Paul offered the following language to the omnibus bill:

    "None of the funds made available for State Incentive Grants for Transformation should be used for any programs of mandatory or universal mental-health screening that performs mental-health screening on anyone under 18 years of age without the express, written permission of the parents or legal guardians of each individual involved."

    The program in question was proposed by the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, which President Bush established in 2002. The New Freedom Initiative recommends screening not only for children but eventually for every American.
Aside from the corporate angle, which isn't in and of itself a bad thing, the US federal government simply has no legitimate, Constitutional authority to require me to submit to ANY health examination. I believe that such a requirement violates the 4th amendment of the US Constitution.

17.11.04

Germany dealing with muslim infestation?

Push to bar hate sermons in Arabic
  • Islamic preachers in Germany have been told they may be ordered to deliver their sermons in German instead of Arabic, in an effort to halt racist diatribes.

    The move reflects Berlin's fears that ethnic and religious unrest could jump from The Netherlands to Germany, a country with more than 3million Muslims.
Same story Washington Times...
  • Lawmakers began discussing the language requirement after German state TV broadcast a tape of a Berlin imam delivering a screed against infidel Germans, the Times of London reported Wednesday.
  • "Germans can only expect to rot in the fires of Hell because they are non-believers," said the Muslim cleric. "These nonbelievers, these Europeans, they do not even shave under their armpits, so that sweat gathers in their hair and makes them stink."
And Schroeder continues to insist that Bush and America are the enemy?

From the Middle East Online:
  • German politicians were on Wednesday grasping at solutions to better integrate the three and a half million Muslims who live in Germany in the wake of ethnic tensions in the neighbouring Netherlands.

    The anti-Muslim attacks that followed the murder of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh have prompted fears that the violence could spread to Berlin and the industrial towns of western Germany where most Muslims live.

Anger over call for Muslim public holiday
  • German opposition and government members reacted with anger Wednesday to calls by the Greens party - which serve in Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's coalition - for establishing a Muslim holiday in the country.

    Bavarian state Premier Edmund Stoiber, a member of the Christian Social Union, slammed the idea as "sending out a totally wrong signal."

    Opposition Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader Angela Merkel - who is the daughter of a Protestant pastor, said: "Germany is a country with Christian and Western roots. This identity must be reflected in our holidays."
I guess there isn't any German Civil Liberties Union...

Probe of Marine's disappearance re-opened

The Enemy Within?
  • Military investigators have re-opened the case of U.S. Marine Corps Cpl. Wassef Hassoun after several personal items -- including his military ID and civilian passport -- were found in Falluja, the city where he disappeared in June.

Russia Stalls UN Hunt for Iraqi Assets

Whose side is Putin on? I thought he may wake up after the school shootings in Beslan, and quite frankly I'd be happy to forgive his previous dealings with Saddam, corrupt and inhumane as they may have been, if he would just get on board 100% with us in the global battle against radical islam.
  • Moscow is shielding a former Iraqi ambassador to Russia and two top former Iraqi spies from a U.S.-led campaign to repatriate some of the billions of dollars in assets Saddam Hussein's regime stashed around the world, a senior U.S. official said.

    The United States, Britain and Iraq want the three men and a front company run by one of them added to a list of former Iraqi officials whose assets must be returned to the interim government in Baghdad under Security Council Resolution 1518, but permanent council member Russia won't allow it, U.S. Assistant Treasury Secretary Juan Carlos Zarate told a Senate committee investigating corruption in the UN's sanction program for Iraq.

    Of the 232 people, companies and other entities that Washington, London and Baghdad have asked to be put on the list, only four have been contested -- all by Russia.

US continues march towards depression

Senate OKs $800B debt limit hike
  • A divided Senate approved an $800 billion increase in the federal debt limit Wednesday, a major boost in borrowing that Sen. John Kerry and other Democrats blamed on the fiscal policies of President Bush.

    The mostly party line, 52-44, vote was expected to be followed by House passage Thursday. Enactment would raise the government's borrowing limit to $8.18 trillion — more than eight times the total federal debt that existed when President Reagan took office in 1981.

Well, the GOP earned a mandate in the recent election, and it looks like they thought it was a mandate to do what THEY want, not what we want them to do. I thought conservative and Republican voters were looking for fiscal discipline, stronger border security, and judges who read the Constitution as intended. If Arlen Specter gets the judiciary committee chair, it looks like a 3 pitch strikeout for conservatives before the new Senate even takes effect in January.

What happened to this? Does Bush think we're all going to go back to sleep for 4 years until it's time to show up and vote for the next Republican?
  • US President George W. Bush said Thursday economic growth and spending discipline would cut his record budget deficit in half, as he has promised.

    Bush has vowed to halve the 2004 budget gap of 413 billion dollars -- the shortfall between government spending and income -- by 2009 with a curb on spending, except for defense, and pro-growth policies.

This election was my first vote for President, and I pulled the Bush lever because I thought Kerry would be a disaster for several reasons, though I feared Bush wouldn't be much better. Looks like I was right.

Much of world off limits to westerners

I thought there was no terror threat?
  • LARGE swaths of the globe have become too dangerous for Westerners to visit or do business in, according to a report by a group of security experts.
  • The Middle East, much of the Islamic world and large parts of Asia and Africa are no longer safe, and attacks by Islamic militants against Western targets may increase, the RiskMap for 2005, published today by the Control Risks Group, says.

GOP seeks to repeal food labeling law

Cattlemen split over country-of-origin requirement
  • Telling consumers where their meat, fruit and vegetables came from seemed such a good idea to U.S. ranchers and farmers in competition with imports that Congress two years ago ordered the food industry to do it. But meatpackers and food processors fought the law from the start, and newly emboldened Republicans now plan to repeal it before Thanksgiving.

    As part of the 2002 farm bill, country-of-origin labeling was supposed to have gone into effect this fall. Congress last year postponed it until 2006. Now, House Republicans are trying to wipe it off the books as part of a spending bill they plan to finish this month.

I don't think that witholding information about products from consumers is a good idea. This scheme by the GOP is clearly designed to help corporate food distributors while ignoring the risks to the American people.

Remember the scallion debacle?
  • Apio Fresh, LLC has announced that it is asking its customers to withdraw from the marketplace all green onions sold by the company in light of concerns about a Hepatitis A outbreak in several eastern states which has been traced to green onions imported from Mexico.

Norwegian intolerance

Is there al-Qaeda in Norway?
  • The IISS, one of the most respected think tanks in the world, claims there's never been any doubt that the invasion of Iraq led to increased recruiting by al-Qaida and further motivated its existing activists.
  • Norway's agreement to send troops after the invasion, albeit for so-called "humanitarian" work, also put it on al-Qaida's list of targets, according to the institute. The man believed to be the terror group's deputy leader, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, has twice mentioned Norway as a probable terror target.
Al-Qaeda attacks the US, the US attacks Iraq (which had NO connection to al-Qaeda according to Dan Rather), and al-Qaeda responds by invading Norway. I don't even see how that follows logically.

In a related article, the Norwegian government apparently thinks their country could be the site of the next Holland.
  • Carl I. Hagen, outspoken leader of Norway's populist Progress Party (Fr.P), wants the government to consider tougher measures against fringe Muslim groups in the country. The Fr.P raises the issue in connection with a parliamentary White Paper on security, and also wants approval procedures for imams in Norway.
If al-Qaeda had no ties to Iraq prior to the war, why do they care so much that we invaded the country and overthrew Saddam?

Saddam bought suicide bombers

Clearly Saddam had ties to terrorists. Clearly al Qaeda is or has been in dozens of countries around the globe, including America. Somehow the left media claims that we are sure that Saddam had no ties to al Qaeda, and that it was not in Iraq with the permission of Saddam's government.
  • Saddam Hussein diverted money from the U.N. oil-for-food program to pay millions of dollars to families of Palestinian suicide bombers who carried out attacks on Israel, say congressional investigators who uncovered evidence of the money trail.

    The former Iraqi president tapped secret bank accounts in Jordan -- where he collected bribes from foreign companies and individuals doing illicit business under the humanitarian program -- to reward the families up to $25,000 each, investigators told The Associated Press.

Chris Matthews: spokesman for the hate-America crowd

Last night, Matthews interviewed a former CIA agent.
  • MATTHEWS: After 22 years with the CIA, Michael Scheuer left the agency this past Friday. It is fair to say few people there knew more about Osama bin Laden than did he and does. Yet Scheuer says his warnings about the threat that bin Laden posed to this country fell on deaf ears. His complaints were made public in “Imperial Hubris,” a book critical of the CIA and the Bush administration.

    Michael, you‘re a gutsy guy. When did you sense that bin Laden was going to be a danger to us?

    MICHAEL SCHEUER, FORMER CHIEF OF CIA BIN LADEN UNIT: I think we found out shortly after we began chasing him in January of 1996 that he was much more than any kind of terrorist we had ever seen before.

    MATTHEWS: What is his motive? Why does he want to kill us?

    SCHEUER: His motive—his motive is to change our policies, sir. Notwithstanding what the president or Mr. Kerry said during the campaign, he really doesn‘t give a darn about our democracy or our society. He is after a change in policies which he views as lethal to Muslims.

    MATTHEWS: Does he think, for example—let me try this—and I don‘t want to sound like an apologist. But suppose we had truly an even-handed policy in the Middle East. Suppose there was a Palestinian entity of some kind and it had reasonable borders and it was contiguous enough to be a working state, and we didn‘t back dictators like the Saudi royal family, people like that who are simply selling the oil to keep their fingers filled with rings and girlfriends in London, all right?

    Suppose we were a good country and an even-handed country, all right?

    Would that make him any less hostile to us?

This is current Democrat policy and mainstream thought among the American left. "It's our fault", or " what did we do to anger the muslim radicals" or "we should try to understand them more".

Sorry, but I have little patience and zero time to spend trying to understand people who strap bombs to their children and saw the heads off of innocent people to make political statements. NONE.

Single digit tax rate

From Arnold Kling at Tech Central Station:
  • In this essay, I will propose a tax system that from an economic perspective will seem flawed and peculiar. However, the intent is to accomplish two political objectives:
    1. Reduce the incentive of interest groups to lobby for special exemptions
    2. Reduce the incentive of Congress to spend money

Affirmative action hurts blacks

Professor assails anti-bias program:
  • UCLA law professor Richard H. Sander, author of a controversial new study concluding that affirmative action hurts black law school students, generally seems an unlikely candidate to challenge a leading liberal cause.
  • Yet Sander's latest research, to be published this month in the Stanford Law Review, already is drawing widespread criticism from liberal backers of affirmative action and is roiling law schools around the country.
I thought "real" compassionate people like Jesse Jackson and Ted Kennedy told us that blacks can't make it in 2004 America without extra help and lower standards?

Khomeini in Dearborn

Remember, the radicals think the whole globe is muslim land, and are working to impose their laws and culture upon all of us.
  • Last Friday, Muslims in Dearborn, Michigan, held an anti-American, anti-Israel demonstration. Protestors carried a large model of Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque and waved signs bearing slogans such as “US Hands Off Muslim Land.” But the most arresting image was of a Muslim woman carrying a large sign featuring the face of the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.
  • As Khomeini himself put it: “Islam makes it incumbent on all adult males, provided they are not disabled or incapacitated, to prepare themselves for the conquest of countries so that the writ of Islam is obeyed in every country in the world....But those who study Islamic Holy War will understand why Islam wants to conquer the whole world.”

16.11.04

Two shot dead in Thailand's restive south

Muslims, Buddhists Clash in Thailand

NPR weighs in on the muslim separatists in Thailand.
  • Violence continues in southern Thailand, where some say Islamic separatists are bent on splitting off the largely Muslim south from the Buddhist north. NPR's Michael Sullivan reports.

Thai PM denies overseas backing for insurgency in south

muslim radicals in Thailand spark violence.
  • Thailand's premier denied foreign extremists were involved in an insurgency in the kingdom's Muslim-majority south amid concerns the violence could spread.

    Thaksin Shinawatra blamed Thai Muslims who had studied abroad for stoking a separatist-inspired campaign that has left more than 540 people dead after it sparked back into life in January.

    "There has not been any support from foreign governments but it's our nationals who have studied aboard and established personal ties with hardliners," he told reporters in this northeastern province where he was chairing a cabinet meeting.

    "There was no interference from any international organisations. There wasn't any link with Al-Qaeda," he said.

  • Thai Muslims who have studied Islam abroad, not foreign militant groups, are behind the spate of bloody violence in the far south, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said on Tuesday.
  • There have been increasing reports of violence in southern Thailand, including serial bomb blasts and shootings on 12 and 13 November in which one person died and more than 25 people, including a seven-month-old child, were injured. In the latest violence, suspected Islamic militants on 14 November gunned down a former police officer and a migrant worker from neighboring Myanmar.

Muslims in Germany to protest radicals

From Reuters:
  • One of Germany's largest Muslim groups plans to hold an unprecedented protest against militancy later this month with up to 30,000 demonstrators.

The Geneva Convention

Click here to read it in full.

I don't see where it applies to our action in Iraq. It may very well apply to the Taliban, and those people fighting on behalf of the Taliban, however, I don't see where people without uniform who cut off heads off civilians and who hide behind women and children are protected by the GC.

World War 4: How We Can Win

Part One ... and ... Part Two

Marine "assassinates" a "prisoner"

Or so say the Democrats, CNN, and Peter Jennings. Keep in mind that the same people who criticize this Marine are the people who are telling us that Arafat is a hero and who nominated a candidate for President a man who admitted to doing these same types of things 35 years ago in Vietnam.

Boston mosque: rise of radical Islam in America?

The Christian Broadcasting Network has this article posted on its site.
  • A mosque is rising in the heart of Boston. Not just any mosque, but the largest mosque in the northeastern United States.
  • The Islamic Society of Boston is under scrutiny for ties to radicalism. But the society says it does not tolerate extremism. And yet, some former and present leaders of the society have been tied to extremism.
  • Dr. Yusef al-Qaradawi used to be listed as one of the society’s four directors, on IRS forms. In 1995, Qaradawi told his followers, "We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America!" The society says listing Qaradawi as a director was an “administrative oversight'' which, it says, “was subsequently corrected.''
  • Dennis Hale, a Boston College professor, said, "This is a smokescreen. This is deception."
    Hale heads Citizens for Peace and Tolerance, a group that wants the Islamic Society of Boston to come clean about its ties to radical Islam.

  • Hale remarked, "This is a mosque that combines Wahabbi theology, Muslim Brotherhood politics and lots of money, and that's a very dangerous combination. Everywhere in the world where that's been found, bad things happened."
  • But the mayor's office, as well as The Boston Globe newspaper, have brushed off concern over the mosque. In fact, the Boston Redevelopment Authority under Mayor Thomas Menino sold the ISB the land for the mosque for a song; one half or one quarter of its true value.
  • Former Harvard professor Dr. Ahmed Mansour says when he visited the present mosque in Cambridge with his wife, he found Wahabbi reading materials that preached hatred toward America.
Why can't the American left see that allowing people like the Islamic Society of Boston to set up shop will lead us to what's happening in Holland right now?

King Frog slams UK, US

The Times Online from England reports:
  • Jacques Chriac dealt a blow to Tony Blair’s attempt to heal the wounds between the US and Europe last night by saying that the Prime Minister had won nothing for supporting the war against Iraq.
  • “Well, Britain gave its support but I did not see anything in return. I’m not sure it is in the nature of our American friends at the moment to return favours systematically.”
In other words, the US didn't give money to the British government the way Saddam was giving money to the French government.
  • M Chirac said that there would be no division between Britain and France.
And apparently the chief Frog thinks the way to build unity in Europe is to alienate the United States.
  • The Prime Minister [Blair], aware that Mr Powell’s departure would be received with apprehension by European governments, bluntly told the US Administration to reach out to Europe and enlist its support in the war against terrorism.
You can lead a horse to water,... What are we supposed to do when the Europen countries can't or won't admit what is going on around the world, including many of there own countries, in terms of muslim violence and invasion? Are we supposed to wait for them to jump on board to help us overthrow dictators who are lining their pockets?

Besides the oil-for-food scam that the UN and Chirac were involved up to their eyeballs in, these "old" European countries are attempting to position themselves as the leaders of the EU, and they believe that the way to do so it to set themselves up as legitimate opposition to the United States. I find it very sad that the western Europeans don't have more respect for the country which twice saved their continent from takeover by Germans. Fortunately, the eastern European countries who we liberated from the Soviet communists understand America's world standing and our import to global security.

NASA 'Scramjet'

According to the Palm Springs (Cali) Desert Sun:
  • If successful, NASA’s third and last X-43A "scramjet" will fly at 7,000 mph for 10 or 11 seconds high over the Pacific Ocean off California and then, like the two other X-43As, plunge into a watery grave.
  • That will be the end of the X-43A project, which has cost more than $230 million and has no immediate follow-on program.
I'm sure that this project has some great implications for the future, but I think $230 million would be a great way to start building a large wall between Mexico and the United States. That way, when we finally implement the "scramjet" technology, the facility where the new aircraft gets stored is safe from nuclear attacks by illegals who weren't able to enter the US through Mexico.

Military should get rid of embedded reporters

From NBC/Reuters/Yahoo! News:
  • A television pool report by U.S. network NBC said on Monday that a U.S. Marine had shot dead an unarmed and wounded Iraqi prisoner in a mosque in Falluja.
Do we know if this man had already killed any Marines? Or helped those who did? What was he doing in Fallujah at this time anyhow, he should have left months ago if he were interested in peace and progress.

Of course, the MSM will run with this story as a follow-up to the Abu-Ghraib non-story as they try to paint the US military as reckless and uncontrollable.

How many Marines will be killed as a result of this because they hesitate in battle wondering what the CNN camera is capturing and how Peter Jennings will mischaracterize the fog of war from his comfy chair in New York?

15.11.04

No need to panic in Holland?

Apparently, this German columnist thinks that the Van Gogh murder in Holland was the first such event in history, and that we should just accept the inevitable nature of such violence between radical islamists and the civilized world.
  • Just as bad, if less so, was the opinion of other "experts", who have been calling for tolerance and liberalism since the Amsterdam murder while at the same time saying that a reason for the violence is that Holland let in too many Muslims -- with a little less than a million, still a higher per capita count than in Germany.

    Can you declare liberalism and tolerance for dead just because one fanatic committed a ghastly murder and because he became a fanatic in a radical Muslim community?

    As unsatisfying as this sounds: things like that can happen -- in every country. There are fanatics everywhere; especially in these times, where religion is increasingly being misused for political purposes.

Is this guy writing policy for the Democrat party in America? After all, the muslims who think the entire world should revert to 7th century islamic law have the right to their opinions. Of course, if we actually DID revert to that society, there would be no right to dissent. The ignorance and obtuse level of such opinions really frighten me. The muslims are silently taking over Europe and North America, while Jimmy Carter and the NY Times are busy celebrating Yasser Arafat with their heads buried deeply in the appeasement sand.

British Muslims must denounce terrorism

From The Hindu:
  • Muslim leaders in Britain should point out that the community has no time for terrorism, and the mainstream society will have to show genuine respect to them, Chairman of the Commission for Racial Equality, Trevor Phillips, said today.

    "It remains important for mainstream Muslim leaders to point out that British Muslims have no time for terrorism," Phillips said in a speech at the Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies.

Why? Is there reason to suspect otherwise?

Dutch ask EU for help

Reuters:

  • "The government has the situation firmly under control," he told foreign journalists. "What has happened in the Netherlands is not unique. It is a phenomenon that we face as individual members of the European Union."
  • Bot said Europe must do more to integrate immigrants, in particular young Muslims, and ensure their commitment to values such as freedom of speech. The Netherlands is home to almost one million Muslims, nearly six percent of the population.
This of course, while the American left wonders why conservatives are insisting that immigrants learn English and refuse alterations in our culture such as gay "marriage".

UN oil-for-food racket update

A column in the Chicago Sun Times by Robert Novak says:
  • "The extent of the corruption is staggering,'' Sen. Norm Coleman told me. He is a freshman Republican from Minnesota completing his second year in Washington, and he was talking about the United Nations and its pious secretary-general, Kofi Annan.
The Washington Post finally figured out that an investigation was being done about the oil-for-food program.
  • Benon Sevan, the official accused of improperly receiving lucrative rights to purchase oil from Saddam Hussein's government while he was running the U.N. oil-for-food program in Iraq, discouraged his staff from probing allegations of corruption and helped block efforts by the U.N. anti-corruption unit to assess where the program was vulnerable to abuse, according to senior U.N. officials
FoxNews also reports that:
  • Saddam Hussein's regime made more than $21.3 billion in illegal revenue by subverting the U.N. Oil-for-Food program and other sanctions — more than double previous estimates, according to congressional investigators.
But, hey, we should have continued the inspections because "they were working".

Kofin Annan is a fraud

Kofi is from Ghana. Ghana is next to the Ivory Coast, which is next to Liberia. The Sudan is next to Egypt and the Middle East. Any wonder why France and the UN are worried about the humanitarian crises in the Ivory Coast and Liberia, but not in Sudan, South Africa, or the eastern portion of Africa? I don't.

United Nations Tells Morocco to Decriminalize Abortion

The United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) concluded a review on Morocco's compliance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), demanding that the mostly-Muslim nation "liberalize" its abortion laws. The UN committee composed of 18 UN human rights "experts" issued its recommendation on November 5.

What about the American left who says that involvement in the UN won't lead to a loss of American sovereignty? Why doesn't the UN mandate sexual abstinence in Africa?

I think this is evidence to my assertion that the globalists who run the UN and similar international global agencies seek a dramatic reduction in world population via abortion, disease, famine or whatever means possible.

Did the 6-day war really happen?

I don't understand why the "Palestinians" continue to insist that the "occupied territories" which were seized by Israel during the 6-day war still belong to the "Palestinians". According to this article in the Jerusalem Post:
  • Islamic Jihad and Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigade leaders in the West Bank have said they will unilaterally cease all attacks in Israel proper for a 60 day period until the Palestinian Authority's elections on January 9.

    Hamas has not joined in the Fatah-led ceasefire, said its spokesman Sami Zuhri Monday evening.

  • The Islamic Jihad's Shura Council, essentially its decision making body, has been debating a declaration of ceasefire since former PA chairman Yasser Arafat took ill almost three weeks ago.

    The group, as well as the Aksa Martyrs Brigades, have vowed to continue fighting IDF troops within the West Bank and Gaza Strip. They consider both soldiers and settlers living in those territories as legitimate targets.

Let's see. These groups (Islamic Jihad, Al Aksa, Hamas) seem to be saying either the PLO elects another leader who agrees that Israel should be destroyed, or the groups will continue fighting anyway. And the UNSC continues to pass resolutions against Israel. Unbelievable.

Iran giving up nukes?

Iran's commitment to suspending activities that could be used to make nuclear arms appears to meets the demands of the UN atomic watchdog agency, but suspicions remain about the nature of Teheran's clandestine nuclear programs, an IAEA report said Monday.