THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS: 11/01/2004

Tuesday, November 30, 2004

IRAN and BUSH

CSM has a good commentary on the IAEE's deal with Iran, and why - perhaps - Bush is going along... for now.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:05 PM ; Permalink;

TROUBLE IN FATAH-ISTAN?

BBC: "A student leader of the Palestinian Fatah movement has been shot dead by gunmen in the West Bank town of Nablus, Palestinian officials have said. The officials said they did not know who killed him, but said it may have been the result of internal unrest. Israel said it had no troops in the area, while Palestinian sources said they did not believe the shooting was the result of any activity by the Israeli army."

If this is how the post-Arafat Fatah party - the biggest of Palestinian parties (which Mamoud Abbas, the next president of the PA now controls) - deals with "internal unrest," then it does not bode well how they will (continue to) treat Israelis.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:36 PM ; Permalink;

Has North Korea Reached the Tipping Point?

Here's a link to a thoughtful piece from the CSM on the current situation in North Korea - including further confirmations of the disappearing Kim Jong Il posters.

And here are two key graphs that make me think that North Korea has reached the tipping point:

"Refugees also indicate that opposition has become more open and daring. More and more pamphlets and banners are appearing calling for Kim's overthrow. Almost all refugees report seeing slogans such as "Down with Kim Jong Il" painted on walls, pylons, and railway carriages throughout the country. Statues and murals of the Kims have been defaced, and the halls erected for worship of the Kim family have been burnt down. Some officials have been found killed in their homes. Although the food crisis is easing, with the World Food Program reporting a good harvest for this year, the country remains on the brink of starvation."

If Kim can no longer payoff his Army or his cronies well enough to buy their loyalty and their willingness to punish dissenting Koreans - who are so bad off themselves that they no longer fear any further depredations if they get caught dissenting (IOW: courage is just another word for nothing left to lose) - then Kim has lost his carrot and his cudgel, and will soon topple. Good riddance.

(Other TAB posts on North Korea here and here.)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:30 PM ; Permalink;

RIDGE RESIGNATION PRESSER

I just watched the Ridge resignation presser on C-SPAN. He was very impressive. He seemed much more relaxed than he has when making those DHS security announcements (increasing the threat levels) - as would be expected. He handled all the questions with grace and enormous confidence, and was very informative and seemed absolutely totally informed..

In a word, he appeared... "PRESIDENTIAL." YUP - he looked and sounded like he'd make a GREAT president. And it brings to mind an absolutely UNBEATABLE GOP ticket in '08:

Ridge-Bush (Jeb, that is!). With PA and FA in the bag - so too would be the White House!

[ I know; I know: Many pundits post that the right-wing of the GOP would never accept or allow a candidate with Ridge's "pro-choiceness" to get the nomination, and that they would mobilize to deny him the nomination.

Perhaps. But perhaps Ridge can find a way to prove to the anti-abortion activists that he would use federal polices to diminish abortions (with the goal of making them virtually non-existent) without changing Roe v Wade, and without using the courts? After all: it is the fact that so many abortions occur, and not their legal status which is so troubling to so many of us all - isn't it?!

And it seems to me, that there might be a politically feasible way to accomplish this - and circumvent the activists. HOW? By finding and promoting ways to radically decrease the numbers of unwanted pregnancies and to radically increase the numbers of domestic adoptions - or (should science catch up to society, on this issue) find ways for "unwanted embryos" to be transplanted into the wombs of the women that want them, (but cannot produce them naturally or with IVF). This procedure is, as-of-now, science-fiction, but if researched, tested, and made feasible one day, it would transform this hot-button issue into a win-win-win-win: A win for Moderate GOP'ers, a win for the anti-abortion activists, a win for all the embryos, and a win for all the women who want to be moms (but cannot).

After all (as Bush understands): to eliminate abortion from the world we need to create a "A Culture of Life." And this cannot be brought into being by judicial fiat, nor by legislation, right now - without creating a very divisive battle at a time when we need to be coming together, and on an issue that we need to come together on. ]

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:33 PM ; Permalink;

Thanks for the L I N K S ! ! !

In the last week or so I have gotten linked to by Roger L. Simon, and Powerline, and Instapundit, and My Pet Jawa, and Dissecting Leftism, and Ace Pilots/Friends of Saddam and The Conspiracy to Keep You Poor and Stupid and Man Without Qualities and Outside the Beltway! Thank you all very much!

(In the preceding week (or so), others may have linked, too - but my referral-tracking function was down so I missed'em. So if I missed you: a belated and apologetic Thanks!)

I especially want to thank to everyone who stops by to read something! I try to link tostuff others aren't linking to, or to take an angle on things that others may be missing. So I hope you always find something different here - maybe even thought provoking...

Thanks again!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:56 PM ; Permalink;

TRIPPI OFF BASE

Trippi wrote an interesting op-ed in today's WSJ. He analyzes the results of the 2004 race, and makes some recommendations.

He gets the awful performance of the party pretty much right, but his prescription is lousy. He wants the party to become more of a grassroots organization - in structure and in policy.

I disagree: The Dems should not move away from the DLC center of the party (the southern moderates who have brought them their only presidential wins since WW2) and get back to their base - those wacky Lefties who turn out for the primaries.

Trippi blames the steady Democrat losses in the Congress on the DLC-center - committing a logical fallacy: he is ascribing causation to a coincidence. NEED PROOF!? Well, in EVERY CASE the Democrat who lost a seat in Congress lost it to someone more to the right than he. SO... if Democrats nominate more candidates who are also more to the Left (to satisfy their base) they will only do EVEN WORSE!

As far as the presidential races are concerned: The Democrats must undo the McGovern era "reforms" to the nominating process and un-frontload the primaries (a stupid thing done by moneyman McAuliffe). IOW: they have to take the party away from the Left and give it back to the adults in the middle. They should maybe even go to OPEN PRIMARIES.

They must do these things because America will never EVER elect a Leftist. And any process which increases the likelihood that the Democrats will nominate a Leftist will only hasten the demise of the party. As Zell Miller has so clearly been saying since he nominated Bill Clinton in 1992 - and as he wrote in his GREAT BOOK: A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE!

There's also a great post and thread up at the GREAT SITE POLIPUNDIT on this.

The core problem is that the Democrat Party is historically merely a coalition of disparate interest groups (each seeking to suck at the federal teat), and not a cohesive party of ideas and values, (as the GOP has been since the Civil War). And all that is left of this once great Democrat coalition is the vestigial urban machine. This will never be enough to win nationally. So the Democrats must BROADEN their appeal. That means expand BEYOND THE BASE!

This then is the battle within the Democrat Party: between the DLC and the Left. The Left won the party and the nomination in 2004 - and lost everything else. Another election like that, and it's all over for them...

GOOD RIDDANCE.

MORE HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:34 PM ; Permalink;

From one Blogger to another and another...

Here's a very good blog recommended to me by DISSECTING LEFTISM:

http://bussorah.blogspot.com Several good posts - go there and scroll...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 12:14 PM ; Permalink;

RELIAPUNDIT GETS RESULTS... well 10%... SO FAR!

According to the NYPOST, a Congressman (Rep Flake from Arizona) is proposing that Congress cut the UN's funding by 10% until the Congress gets cooperation with their investigations. This is 90% less than they should be threatening to cut - but we'll take it as a start!

SEE: here and here and here for my earlier proposals - also linked to by the professor here.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 12:07 PM ; Permalink;

Monday, November 29, 2004

Bush Adminstration Turns Up the Heat on Kofi

From VOA News:

Washington's ambassador to the United Nations has urged Secretary-General Kofi Annan to promptly release all information concerning the scandal-ridden Iraq oil-for-food program. The world body was rocked over the weekend by revelations that a key oil-for food contractor made regular payments to Mr. Annan's son. U.S. Ambassador John Danforth met privately with the secretary-general Monday to discuss the burgeoning investigation into alleged corruption in the oil for food program. [...] Ambassador Danforth called allegations of oil for food corruption "serious", and said he had advised the secretary-general to release all facts in the case promptly. "It is important to have the facts presented in a comprehensive way so the public, the international public but certainly the American public is convinced there has been no cover-up, nothing has been withheld, everything is out there, everything has been investigated, every lead has been run down, every relevant piece of paper examined," he said. "All the facts are out there, everything is known. I'm not for prejudging anything. I'm for the absolute laying out of all evidence." [...] But Ambassador Danforth Monday called on Mr. Annan to cooperate fully with U.S. congressional investigations. "Clearly it is within the right of Congress to conduct investigations on matters that pertain to national policy, the international affairs of the United States, the relationship between the U.S. and the U.N. All this is clearly within purview of the U.S. Congress," he said. "Congressional committees are going to insist on that right, they have that right."

There's a way for the Congress to make the UN more cooperative - see here. That's a link to an earlier post of mine called "Time for Helms Biden Redux." Basically: We withhold all dues until they cooperate. Works every time...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:06 PM ; Permalink;

A Clean Election Should be the Goal

Instapundit linked to a post by the invaluable Clogman , who wrote, "this is about an entire system, not about an election..." - the Professor also linked to a skeptic who placed the current turmoil in the framework of EU versus Russian hegemony. With all due respect to Instapundit and the others, I think the supporters of Yanukovych are sincere Ukrainians and part of humanity, too. YES: Even the Russo-Ukrainians are human. And they cannot all be as corrupt as their leadership.

And yes: They may in fact be a minority, and their leadership may have tried to steal the election, but they are part of humanity, too. We should not dehumanize them. We should support a free and fair election, and all the efforts underway to make sure that they are free and fair which are non-violent - if possible. But that doesn’t include denigrating the other side, IMHO. Not now, and not after a proper election, either.

And whichever way a fair election takes Ukraine - whether to remain in the fold of Russian hegemony, or to bond more fully with the Europe and EU - this is their decision. If a fair election was actually won by the pro-EU opposition, then this should be the course that the Ukraine takes. If this leads them and Europe to other difficulties (as the skeptical blogger opined), well such is life. But the difficulties which arise from the result of a fair election will "owned" by the Ukrainian people, as such the Ukrainians will be more likely to surmount them.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:33 PM ; Permalink;

GOODS NEWS FROM UKRAINE?

"KIEV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych said Monday he would support another vote if allegations of fraud are proven in last week's disputed presidential election, while Ukraine's Supreme Court said it will not come to a decision today on the political opposition's appeal challenging the validity of the vote. The nation's Central Election Commission declared Yanukovych the winner of the Nov. 21 vote, but opposition candidate Viktor Yushchenko claimed the vote was rigged. Justice Anatoliy Yarema said the court would give Yanukovych's lawyers until 10 a.m. Tuesday to study additional evidence presented by Yushchenko's team, and Yanukovych subsequently said he would back another presidential vote if the fraud allegations were proven. Yushchenko's team is asking the court to throw out the results, cancel the election commission's decision and name Yushchenko the victor because he narrowly won the Oct. 31 first round."

It's in the court's hands, now. They can do one of two things: call for a new election; or declare a winner. Stay tuned....

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:35 AM ; Permalink;

WHY CONDI'S NOMINATION ANGERED THE LEFT

The Left's anger at Bush's nomination of Condi gets to

the very core of the political dichotomy in out nation.

In a post today, Donald Luskin of THE CONSPIRACY TO KEEP YOU POOR AND STUPID linked to an article by A Burgess Jackson. Burgess Jackson opined that the Left has been critical about Condi’s appointment because it violates their preconceptions of how people in certain groups should behave. In Condi's case she violates the principle that blacks are liberal Democrats.

Luskin expanded: Luskin argued that the Left don’t like Condi’s appointment because it's a form of poaching - Bush is encroaching on Liberal turf - as if blacks and women "belonged" to the Left and the Democrat Party.

I want to expand what on both proffered, and offer what I think is the underlying reason for the Left’s critique of Condi, and Bush’s other high profile appointments of blacks Hispanics and women (see this post for a dramatic description of the breadth and depth of Bush’s appointments) :

The Left’s core beliefs are dominated by a post-modernist moral relativism which holds that a person’s identity and agency is defined by which groups they belong to –not by the “illusion” of the individual volition or agency.

Central to the Left’s worldview is that we are who we are because of which classes or groups we belong to: our economic class, or race, our gender, our sexual identity, our educational status, our religion and degree of religiousness – all of these define not merely who we are, but how we should behave. The Left wants an activist government to enforce equal results based on measuring achievements according to groups; the Left wants each of to "get" whatever anybody else "gets" as determined by analyzing results by group. (The Right expects each person to have the opportunity to EARN whatever they can based on their own individual merits and efforts.)

The Left argues against individual agency and individual rights – they do not believe in Natural Rights or Natural Law. This is a prime reason why the Left has always argued that criminals are made by their bad socio-economic situations and that therefore we shouldn’t hold them personally accountable for their actions: street gangs are the result of poverty and bad public school systems, not a bad value system based on broken families and the lack of a good father figure in the home.

To the Left, people do what their race and gender and class tells them to do – if they are “authentic.” When people go against that – do whatever they want to do based on who they are as individuals - they’re “selfish” and they violate their membership status in their group; they are inauthentic – they are traitors.

In Condi’s case, the Left says she’s an Aunt Jemima; they said Powell was a “house-slave;” and maligned Paige, too – indeed, the Left maligned the rest of the conservative women, blacks, and Hispanics in Bush’s administration or in the GOP as inauthentic traitors. HECK: When AARP endorsed Bush’s Medicare Prescription Plan, many on the Left said they were traitors to old people!

The GOP, and Bush – and the Right believe in Natural Law and Natural Rights - arguing that we are each unique, and that our individual rights are "OURS" because we are each endowed them by the Creator at birth. The Right argues that our rights are not bestowed upon us by the government or by our membership in any earthly or man-made group. That’s why the Right is principally opposed to Affirmative Action based on one’s membership in any group, whether it be race, or gender, or ethnicity. The Right believes that persons should be judged on their own merits, (in this case, Condi simply merits the appointment).

The Left believes that people should only be judged based on their membership and status in various groups (which, by the way, are mostly merely heuristic/epistemological concepts or constructs which they inflate into ontological categories with determinative power; this is a logical fallcy that A.N. Whitehead termed "The Fallacy of the Misplaced Concreteness," and it pervades Lefist thinking on many many matters. The Left's philosophy is permeated with "is/as" conflation - which is why they so often argue by using false analogies, rather than logic).

To the Left, people behave in ways that are infoirmed by their race and gender and class – if they are “authentic.” When people go against that – do whatever they want to do based on who they are as individuals - they’re “selfish” and they violate their membership and status in their group(s); they are inauthentic traitors.

Most people who believe in Natural Law believe in God, are pro-Life, and are for small government - and are on the Right. Most people who believe in the French concept of the Social Contract (as first described by Rousseau) are on the Left; they are pro-choice, and they want big government.

This - IMHO - is the core dichotomy which divides our electorate.

On this - and on everything else that flows from it - the Left is wrong, and the Right is right.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:18 AM ; Permalink;

Sunday, November 28, 2004

HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHIRAC!

Chirac is 72 tomorrow - which is today in France - so... we want to be the first to wish him ... a speedy retirement, and then - (once he no longer has immunity from prosecution) - a long stay in a prison.

To read a little bit about Chirac's long and utterly sleezy career start here and here and here and here and here! Then, go here and here and here.... and... oh you get the picture, don't you? Chirac's corruption makes Kojo Annan look like a piker! Heck, Chirac and his cronies - (like Juppe, a former PM convicted for corruption during the time Chirac was mayor of Paris) - probably out stole the ol' Tom Penderegast machine of the Prohibition Era K.C. .

Today - (it's still Sunday here in the USA) - Chirac just got pre-birthday slap in the face: his chief rival (and the only politican with a reasonable chance at saving France) Nicolas Sarkozy just became head of the UMP - the party that Chirac founded, and by a huge margin. Sark' - as he is known - has a huge approval rating, and destroys Chirac in head-to-head polls. So even if Chirac decided to run for the presidency again (so he could retain his immunity) - he won't get it! Chirac's days as a free man are numbered...

"SEVENTY-TWO years... that's about how many years Chirac should get in prison! That is if there was a real French judicial system, but - as we all know - French justice is about as good as French courage, French modesty, French gratitude, and (budda-bump-bump) French hygiene!" OUCH!

UPDATE: Reliable sources with a nose for news relate that French justice is like French cheese: IT STINKS!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:24 PM ; Permalink;

IS ZARQAWI IN BASRA?

FWIW: A Bulgarian news service has reported that we are also hunting for Zarqawi down south in Basra - Shia territory...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 4:30 PM ; Permalink;

MORE Ukraine updates... all more ominous....

Here and here and here... and here ... AND NOW TALK OF MARTIAL LAW?!?

AND NOW... PROTESTORS ARE BEGINNING TO SUCCUMB TO THE RIGORS OF CONTINUOUS OUTDOOR PROTESTS: ITAR/TASS REPORTS 38 HAVE BEEN HOSPITALIZED.... AND NOW: the opposition offers an ULTIMATUM: colaition government NOW, or else!

And the wooden clog fella is reporting - ominously - that special forces from eastern/Russian/Kuchma-Putin Ukraine are now in Kiev... (This a bad sign that things in Kiev may beginning to look more and more like Tiennamen... they bring in troops from the Russian part of the Ukraine because they hate Kiev-ites and won't mind shooting at them - like the Chinese bringing into Beijing army units made up of peasant-farmers to put down the urban student democrats... This is a very bad sign.)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:56 PM ; Permalink;

Hopeful words from Abbas in Cairo

(HAA'ARETZ and Services):

"Abbas, who was in Cairo with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia and interim Palestinian Authority Chairman Rauhi Fattouh, spoke to reporters after meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and other officials. Abbas said the talks with Mubarak and other officials focused on security in the territories, the Palestinian community, democracy and the election. Abbas also spoke Sunday about reining in various Palestinian organizations, saying the PA wants only its own security forces to be authorized to carry weapons, Israel Radio reported. 'We want only one legally armed Palestinian force,' the radio quoted Abbas as saying. Abbas has admitted, however, that the Palestinian Authority is not currently prepared to take security responsibility following an Israeli pullout. He said Egypt and the Palestinians would carry out previous agreements on security and training."

If Abbas is elected and does as he says - disarms the miltias and Jihadoterrorists - then there is hope. If he does not - then statehood is a sham.

As Shimon Peres said - some years ago, at the start of this 2nd Intifada (paraphrasing): "Israel is a state and only the state has an army. The parties do not have their own armies or militias; Labor has no army; Shinui has no army. Only Israel has an army. This is true of all states; no state allows the parties to be armed and independent of the elected goverment. The same must be true of a new state of Palestine; it is the bare minimum."

If and when he is elected: This will be the first test for Abbas.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 2:09 PM ; Permalink;

BESLAN INVESTIGATOR: "foreign state involved"

From this morning's Jeruslaem Post (INTERFAX):

"Moscow - The head of a parliamentary commission investigating the September hostage seizure at a school in southern Russia said there is evidence pointing to involvement by a foreign intelligence agency, the Interfax news agency reported Saturday. The statement was the latest of several in which Russian officials and politicians have alleged that foreigners were involved in the Sept. 1-3 attack on a school in the southern town of Beslan, which ended in bloody chaos and left more than 330 people dead, many of them children. 'For the moment the evidence that we have of this involvement is indirect, so I consider it premature to name exactly which special service it is,' INTERFAX quoted commission head Alexander Torshin as saying. Russians refer to intelligence and security agencies as special services. Torshin, deputy speaker of the Federation Council, Russia's upper parliament house, said that 'when we gather enough convincing evidence, we won't hide it.' ... Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials have cast the hostage seizure as part of a war against Russia by international terrorists _ not a product of the Kremlin's military campaign in Chechnya, where officials said several of the attackers were from. "

They DO NOT mean Chechnya - because the Russians do NOT consider Chechnya a separate, foreign state! So they must mean Iran or some other Jihadoterrorist aiding-and-abetting state with an effective spy service. If and when they officially announce it, they may seek some form of international sanctions - and/or a make retaliatory military strike... stay tuned...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:18 AM ; Permalink;

Saturday, November 27, 2004

PUTIN GIVING ADVICE ABOUT DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS IN THE UKRAINE IS LIKE...

Kofi Annan giving advice about stopping genocide to Rwandans or Bosnians or Sudanese... Or Kofi giving advice to Paul Volker on how to properly run an investigation into the corruption of the Oil for Food Program... Or Kofi giving advice to Ken Starr on how to investigate sexual harassment...

Why don't Putin and Kofi - and Jimmy Carter, while I'm at it - just sit down and shut up.

UPDATE: NOW GORBY IS MOUTHING OFF! He should shut up, too! What did he ever do besides try to prop up a decadent corrupt socialist tyranny?!?!?!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:14 PM ; Permalink;

THE LEFT'S FEAR OF RELIGIOUS PEOPLE

Betsy Newmark - of the GREAT BLOG Betsy's Page (a MUST READ EVERYDAY BLOG!) - has a fascinating post about how historically speaking religious presidents are common. Betsy concludes that therefore the Left's current harsh criticism of Bush, because he is religious, is phony and merely partisan. I disagree; I think it is not partisan.

I think most of the Democrats and all of the Left are moral relativists who look down on religious people because the Left believes that religious thinking is stupid, illogical, over-simplified un-nuanced. That's why they like to call themselves the "reality-based" party.

The Left believed this about religious people prior to 9/11 - but it did NOT bug them as much then as it does now. Lincoln, FDR, Truman, MLK Jr., Carter, Reagan and Clinton - for starters- all used a lot of religious language and images in their speeches -- as Betsy's post related - but the Democrats and the Left never complained about it then.

I think that the Democrats and the Left are more afraid of religiousness now because they blame "religious fanaticism" for 9/11 and they conflate the Jihadoterrorists - (who actually perpetrated 9/11, and decades of other less horrific but still horrible terrorism all over the world) - with any and all devoutly religious people of any faith - sects that have NEVER perpetrated any terror anywhere.

To the Left - Christian fundamentalists and Islamic Salafist/Qutbist/Wahabbist Jihadoterrorists are not merely analogical equivalents to each other, they're identical in essence, and they're to be equally feared to the Left. To the Left, it's "THAT you preach," and not "WHAT you preach" that matters.

Of course: this is ABSURD. But remember, it comes from the folks who call our president "BusHitler" and spell out our AG's name "AshKKKroft." Which is obviously equally absurd.

(On top of this absurd conflation, the Left's post-modernist bent makes them pre-disposed to be less tolerant of Western religious sects, than Eastern or non-Western sects.)

Sure: Many Democrats try to exploit Bush's religiousness for partisan gain - but as the election showed, this can only work among the Left, and the Left isn't enough to carry the nation.

Thank God.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:11 AM ; Permalink;

UPDATED BREAKING NEWS IN THE UKRAINE

UPDATED...

BREAKING NEWS FROM MOSCOW NEWS SERVICE:

The candidates in Ukraine’s disputed presidential election, after mediations that lasted nearly three hours Friday, agreed to set up a working group for further talks and declared the official poll results, which handed victory to pro-Moscow Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovich, invalid. The sides agreed to act in accordance with an upcoming ruling from Ukraine’s Supreme Court on the alleged voting violations.“To oversee the negotiating process, the sides have created a working group to reach a joint decision to resolve the political crisis,” outgoing president Leonid Kuchma said in the Mariinsky presidential palace, Reuters reported. Both Yanukovich and liberal challenger Viktor Yushchenko had agreed to renounce violence, Kuchma was quoted by Reuters as saying. “The group is to start working immediately ... We will without any doubt find a worthy way out of this complicated situation. We understand that we have but one Ukraine and if we fail to find a solution, the consequences will be most unfavorable.”

The two rivals beamingly shook hands at the end of the talks. After the meeting, which included mediators from Europe and Russia, Yushchenko announced to the thousands of demonstrators rallying for the fifth day on Kiev’s Independence Square that the results have been declared invalid after the talks, and that a new round of elections would be held, monitored by the OSCE, the Russian Information Agency Novosti reported. “The sides agreed that that the results of the second round that were announced earlier do not correspond to the will of the people and must be cancelled,” Novosti quoted Yushchenko as saying.

UPDATE: This news story seems to contradict the above, saying NO DEAL has been reached! BUT....... THIS POST from, Le Sabot Post-Modene, seems to WANT to confirm elements of it - but so far can only relay it as a rumor, with caveats. STAY TUNED!

UPDATE: "Reuters": UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT TO MEET SATURDAY TO DEBATE THE ELECTION... "We are counting on parliament to give its political assessment of the Central Election Commission," Yushchenko told a vast crowd assembled in Kiev's Independence Square for the fifth day. All groups backed the sitting, except Yanukovich's Regions of Ukraine party. A similar debate this week was closed amid pandemonium as Yushchenko symbolically took the oath of office. "

UPDATE 11/27 - UK Telegraph: Ukrainian Parliament Declares the Election Invalid... Most observers say this is largely symbolic - the Supreme Court will be final, though... stay tuned - they meet on Monday...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:27 AM ; Permalink;

How do you think the DU'ers and the LLL feel about the Ukraine?

I betchya many DU'ers and others on the loony Left must be looking at the doings in the Ukraine very JEALOUSLY, and wondering why oh why oh why didn't they do HERE what the opposition is doing THERE!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:30 AM ; Permalink;

Friday, November 26, 2004

SHARANSKY TO PALESTINIANS: "NO REFORM, THEN NO TERRITORY, NO STATE, AND NO PEACE"

NATAN SHARANSKY IN THE JERUSALEM POST:

"If the new Palestinian leadership seeks to build a democratic society, then the free world should support and encourage each step along the way. Such a leadership should be provided with international legitimacy, money and, yes, territory. But if the new leadership is not interested in building a democracy, then it should be given no legitimacy, no money, and no concessions. The formula for peace is simple: Embrace leaders who embrace democratic reform and reject leaders who don't. "

Sharansky suggest four ways we can measure Palestinian reform:

"We should should seek to find concrete means to determine whether Palestinians are making progress on democratic reforms, so we can link our policies directly to such reforms. First ... refugee camps should be dismantled as soon as possible and the refugees resettled in decent housing. Second ... Textbooks where Israel does not appear on the map and PA-controlled television programs where kindergarten children beckon their classmates to follow the path of suicide martyrdom should be replaced with an educational system that promotes peace. Third ... the new PA [must] embrace joint ventures that strengthen the Palestinian middle class while inevitably lessening the control the new regime has over its subjects. Finally, a new Palestinian leadership that is committed to reform will be our partners in fighting terror, for as long as terror continues no reform will be possible."

Sharansky continues: "We should be under no illusions about the upcoming Palestinian elections. ... Free elections can only be held in a free society where people can express their views without fear of being punished, let alone killed. ... Still, whoever emerges from the elections in January should be given an opportunity to win the trust of the free world, including Israel."

Sharansky concludes: "In the weeks, months, and years ahead, those who want to know the state of the peace process might want to tune out all the chatter and ask themselves one question: Is there more freedom today within Palestinian society than there was last week, last month, or last year? If the answer is yes, then we will truly be moving down the road to peace."

Read the whole article, then buy and read his new book: The Case for Democracy.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:40 PM ; Permalink;

PAKISTAN REMOVES CHECKPOINTS IN TRIBAL REGION

According to the BBC, Pakistan is removing all their checkpoints in the tribal regions. This might make it easier for al Qaida remnants continue to hide-out or to re-enter Afghanistan. AND/OR... it might strengthen their ties to tribal chiefs who might then be willing to do more to help the Pakistan government and army get al Qaida foreign fighters. Toward this end, the government of Pakistan is also releasing some tribal prisoners.

This seems like wishful-thinking, to me. And, I think it's unwise to prosecute the GWOT with strategies based on wishful-thinking. The tribal chiefs have screwed us before; they will probably again. After all, if Allawi's treatment by many of the tribal chiefs in the Sunni Triangle is any indication, then tribal chiefs are simply not reliable allies. Which means - to me at least - that Pakistan should instead be planning their own version of "Operation Plymouth Rock" inside their own "Tribal Triangle."

OKAY, okay - some tribal chiefs have been fine: the northern tribes of Afghanistan, the Shias in southern Iraq; the Kurds in northern Iraq... but it seems to me that all of these reliable tribal chiefs ALSO have another status, in less primitive/less nativistic organizations. So, I'd recommend that we only rely only the tribal chiefs who are also leaders in other more modern, Western civic organizations. Which rules out the tribal chiefs in the lawless western regions of Pakistan. Which means the Pakistan government should be cranking UP their overt military efforts, and NOT winding them DOWN. Musharraf needs to be even braver than he has been - more like Allawi...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:14 PM ; Permalink;

UKRAINIAN POLICE CADETS MARCH WITH OPPOSITION

According to BBC TV NEWS (links to the BBC video-player; then choose "Ukraine rivals meet to end crisis" for a 2:00 minute story): Ukrainian POLICE CADETS marched with the opposition tonight in Kiev - chanting "Police with the people!"

This comes after the biggest TV station - owned by a Putin/Kuchma supporter - came out and said that their news would no longer be biased against the opposition!

The momentum is clearly on the side of the people. The only question is: how long before the Putin/Kuchma status-quoists relent, and - if they don't relent - whether they will resort to violence to attempt to stem the tide of this popular (and so far non-violent) rebellion...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:56 PM ; Permalink;

IRAQ'S BRAVE INTERIM GOVERNMENT TAKES THE HARD-LINE

NASDAQ/AP - President Allawi: "The operations south of Baghdad, north of Hillah, is according to plans done by the government that gives priority to clearing these areas from the elements that want to inflict Iraq with death and destruction." Meanwhile, Defense Minister Hazem Shaalan said the Iraqi government intends to turns its attention to insurgents inside Baghdad once the current offensive south of the capital is completed: "There are pockets in Baghdad that we have to liquidate and confront."

I wish we heard this kind of talk from the Palestinians: They'll get a state and PEACE and prosperity - once the Jihadoterrorists are wiped out! This can only happen if the interim (and then new) Palestinian president takes as tough a stand as Allawi's has.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 2:05 PM ; Permalink;

THE COMING ELECTION IN IRAQ

Charles Krauthammer:

In 1864, 11 of the 36 United States did not participate in the presidential election. Was Abraham Lincoln's election therefore illegitimate? In 1868, three states did not participate in the election. Was Ulysses Grant's election illegitimate? There has been much talk that if the Iraqi election is held and some Sunni Arab provinces (perhaps three of the 18) do not participate, the election will be illegitimate. Nonsense. The election should be held. It should be open to everyone. If Iraq's Sunni Arabs - barely 20% of the population - decide they cannot abide giving up their 80 years of minority rule, tough luck.

RTWT.

UPDATE: Deacon over at POWERLINE has made an important criticism of Krauthammer's article - "I'm not a blind adherent to the pottery store view of Iraq -- 'you broke it, you bought it.' And I certainly agree that we should not lead the fight in Iraq indefinitely. However, I think that, in Krauthammer's institutionalized civil war scenario, our national interests would require more engagement than Krauthammer seems to envisage.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:33 AM ; Permalink;

Thursday, November 25, 2004

ON VIEW IN KIEV: the very soul of liberty

These words were written by Ivan Lozowy - President of the Institute of Statehood and Democracy in Kiev - and published in the INDEPENDENT:

"As I write these words, my wife has taken our elder daughter to demonstrate on Independence Square, if only for a few hours. If I hurry, I will be in time to join them. What is it like to protest publicly in a semi-authoritarian state, knowing there are thousands of specially trained riot police waiting around the corner? We know what is at stake today. Not just an election, but our very survival as citizens of a democratic country. ... I have never been prouder of my fellow countrymen than I am today. As Viktor Yushchenko said on the first day of the demonstrations, whatever tomorrow brings we have shown that we are a nation, proud and free."

RTWT.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:30 PM ; Permalink;

How America Has Been Aiding and Abetting Peaceful Democratic Revolutions

Here's a fascinating article - in the UK Guardian - about how the US government and US NGO's have been helping to spread democracy in Central America and in Eastern Europe - places like Sebia, Georgia, and now the Ukraine. From the intro: "But while the gains of the orange-bedecked "chestnut revolution" are Ukraine's, the campaign is an American creation, a sophisticated and brilliantly conceived exercise in western branding and mass marketing that, in four countries in four years, has been used to try to salvage rigged elections and topple unsavoury regimes."

RTWT.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:20 PM ; Permalink;

al Arabia poll: 74% of Arabs favor Hamas to succeed Arafat

Here's the article:

"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. In contrast only 0.7% expect that one of the PLO leaders will take over. 25.58% were in favor of an independent candidate. 113, 107 participants from across the Arab world took part in the survey. The organizers of the survey explained that the Hamas movement and the Islamic Jihad organization stand for the establishment of a Palestinian state on the land of historic Palestine, a concept that the PLO gave up on when the Oslo discussions began. "

IOW: Arabs prefer Hamas - which has never accepted the state of Israel - or the two-state solution - and which wants to destroy Israel and replace it with a Muslim Arab state.

This poll reveals a few things: first, that the vast majority of Arabs still do not want the state of Israel to exist; second that those in the West who believe that Arafat's passing increased the likelihood for a settlement of the dispute and a two-state solution ARE FLAT OUT WRONG. Unless and until the genocidal Jihadoterrorists - like Hamas, Hizb'allah and IJ, and the rest - are DEFEATED and forced to accept the state of Israel, there will be no peace, no settlement, no two-state solution, and no "state of Palestine."

The Bush Doctrine is based on two things: transparency, and democracy within the Palestinian Authority, and their full efforts to stop the Jihadoterrorists. This poll reveals that the vast majority of Arabs do NOT want to stop terrorism - indeed, they want the Jihadoterrorists enshrined into office. Which means that a unilateral separation from Gaza - and then from almost all of the West Bank - is the only way for Israel to maintain security (albeit in a virtual/perpetual state of war with its neighbors) and remain a Jewish state. Polls in Israel reveal that 60% of Israelis expect this is the only realistic outcome - and accept it.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:40 PM ; Permalink;

CHEM WEAPONS LAB FOUND IN FALLUJAH

Coalition forces - led by the Iraqi Army - have discovered a chemical weapons lab in Fallujah. "Soldiers from the Iraqi National Guard found a chemical laboratory that was used to prepare deadly explosives and poisons," Minister of State Kassim Daoud told a news conference. "They also found in the lab booklets and instructions on how to make bombs and poisons. They even talked about the production of anthrax."

Not surprising - after all, Zarqawi was known as al Qaida's chemist: "Abu Musab al-Zarqawi who is credited with being Al Qaeda's chemist-in-chief - an expert in weapons of mass destruction. It is Abu, too, who is credited with being the mastermind behind a plot to use ricin to poison food at a British military base and other Allied military sites across Europe."

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:33 AM ; Permalink;

CLOSING THE NET ON ZARQAWI

AP: Zarqawi's top lieutenant captured in Mosul. It's only a matter of time, now - a short time - before we GET Zarqawi!

UPDATE - AP / Les Temps Daily (Switzerland): Zarqawi's cellphone use has been traced. His sim-card was from Switzerland. He called all over Europe and Hong Kong and Chile. Cellphone tracings have led to the capture of other al Qaida leaders - including KSM. Others being tracked now...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:14 AM ; Permalink;

THE UKRAINE - UPDATED: will it be like Georgia or Tiennamen?

The Ukrainian people have taken to the streets. They want democracy. There is some likelihood - unless we warn Russia now (and threaten rebukes) - the Russians will act to install their stooge, and then send in their military, and then instigate violence - and blame it on the people. As of now, there have been NO TROOP MOVEMENTS, but we'll have to wait and see...

The West - the USA the EU and the UN - must make it clear that we will not accept any intervention, or the theft of the election - by threatening Russia and their stooges with sanctions.

So... I wonder, anxiously: Will it end like Georgia - with a victory for the forces of freedom? Or, will it end like Tiennamen Square - in failure for the Ukrainians, and shame for the rest of us for not doing enough to make a difference?

UPDATE: (ACCORDING TO FOXNEWS) - POWELL SAYS USA WILL NOT ACCEPT THE RESULTS OF THE UKRAINE ELECTION THAT CLAIM RUSSIA'S MAN HAS WON BECAUSE THE ELECTION WAS MARRED BY FRAUD.

UPDATE: C-SPAN HAS POWELL'S STRONG STATEMENT ON VIDEO - (9 minutes). He answers a few questions from the press, too. (Sec. of State Colin Powell Briefing on Ukraine - 11/24/2004).

UPDATE: OPPOSITION LEADER CALLS FOR A NATIONAL STRIKE! IF THE STRIKE WORKS THEN UKRAINE WILL BE LIKE GEORGIA. IF THE GOVERNMENT USES TROOPS AND POLICE TO BREAK THE STRIKE, THEN WE HAVE "TIANNAMEN REDUX." STAY TUNED...

UPDATE: Reuben F. Johnson has written an in depth article in the WEEKLY STANDARD...... He ends up with the same question I started out with: Will Ukraine end up like Tiennamen Square of like Georigia?

UPDATE - 11/25: (UPI): The OPPOSITION has filed a case with the Uklrainian Supreme Court. And Putin agrees with this move - so it's suspect; (maybe Kuchma and Putin control the Court?). Still no troop movements...

UPDATE 11/25: BBC - "Ukraine's top court has suspended publication of the disputed presidential election result until it considers the opposition's appeal."

UPDATE 11/25: ACCORDING TO "REUTERS," THIS RULING, BY UKRAINE'S HIGH COURT, EFFECTIVELY BLOCKS THE INAUGURATION OF PUTIN'S & KUCHMA'S HAND-PICKED SUCCESSOR.

UPDATE 11/25 - "RIA NOVOSTI": One of the leaders of the opposition in Ukraine Julia Timoshenko summoned the participant [s] in the rally on Independence Square in Kiev to blockade the buildings of government, the Parliament and the President’s Administration, reports RIA Novosti. 'We shall start a blockade of all authorities', announced Timoshenko in front of the marchers adding that this blockade will not be aggressive. "

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:54 AM ; Permalink;

NORTH KOREA WANTS TO URGENTLY RESTART MULTILATERAL NUKE TALKS

BREAKING NEWS FROM "REUTERS" -

"By Jack Kim / SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea wants urgently to restart six-party talks on its nuclear programs... [...] North and South Korea, the United States, Japan, Russia and China have met for three inconclusive rounds of the talks but a fourth round set for September did not materialize. Analysts said Pyongyang wanted to see the outcome of the U.S. election before resuming talks. [...] ...reports surfaced last week that some portraits of North Korean leader Kim Jong-il had been removed in the secretive communist state, triggering speculation that his grip on power may be slipping. North Korea experts said the move was likely Kim's own attempt to project a more rounded image of his leadership. Rumors circulated in currency and stock markets in Seoul and Tokyo early on Thursday that Kim had been shot dead."

Maybe Kim Jong Il is not dead; maybe he's only "RONERY!"? STAY TUNED...

UPDATE: YAHOO / AFP - North Koreans are no longer wearing Kim Jong Il badges, but only badges with his father's likeness (the late Kim Il Sung). This might be as significant as the disappearing pictures... [Hmm... when confronted about this, will the North Koreans reply, "Badges!? We don't need no steenking badges!" Heh.]

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:25 AM ; Permalink;

Giving Thanks

I thank God every day that I was born in America. There is so much to be thankful for. Every Thanksgiving I read Lincoln's 1863 Proclamation. Because so many of our fellow Americans are now serving in dangerous war-zones overseas, this is an especially important document to read this Thanksgiving.

There are other things to be grateful for - other people to be grateful to, people who made or are making a difference - people who help make the world a better place.

Here's story about one of them - one which you probably haven't heard about before. It's from The Scotsman, (11/25/04 edition - so, it's especially fitting to read on Thanksgiving!) It's about a British spy who was honored yesterday at the British Embassy in Berlin - on the 120th anniversary of his birth. He was honored because he saved TEN TIMES as many Jews from the NAZI camps than Schindler did. MORE THAN 10,000! Why did he do it? "'Foley was just a good guy doing what he could,' Mr Smith [his biographer] said." Some of the people he saved were at the ceremony - and gave thanks!

Of course, there's more to his story, so: RTWT. And have a Happy Thanksgiving!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 12:18 AM ; Permalink;

Wednesday, November 24, 2004

PENTAGON: Fallujah had enough weapons for sustained a nationwide armed insurrection

Looks like there's gonna be a huge payoff from the Fallujah operations: "We found enough weapons in Falluja for the insurgency to take over the whole country," Lieutenant Colonel Dan Wilson told a news conference at a U.S. base near the western city.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:21 PM ; Permalink;

IRAQ'S UN AMBASSADOR REBUKES KOFI ANNAN

Kofi Annan - by executive fiat - has taken $30 MILLION in funds from the UN's suspect "OIL FOR FOOD" account to pay for the internal UN investigation into bribery, embezzlement, and corruption. Not surprisingly, Iraq's UN Ambassador has lodged an official protest. The money - after all - belongs to the Iraqi people, not the UN. Another reason that Kofi MUST GO!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:18 PM ; Permalink;

IRAN'S CHEATS AND RETREATS THE IAEA... AGAIN!

The Iranians already want to renegotiate the EU/IAEA nuke deal. Story here.

I say: no deal with the Iranian mullagarchy is even worth the paper it's written on. It will be soon time for HARDBALL - I don't mean it's time to send them that rude blatthering Left-wing cable host, either (although I'm sure that Matthews would bug the merde out of them!); I mean the USA must get directly involved, and the matter MUST be brought to the UNSC for a sanctions resolution. NOW.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:04 PM ; Permalink;

HOT ON ZARQAWI'S TRAIL

Could we REALLY be close to getting Zarqawi? Roger L. Simon relayed the rumor from HAMMORABI. Now, the story has broken into the MSM:

"KIRKUK, Iraq - Security forces were Tuesday focusing their hunt for Iraq's most wanted man, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, on an area in north-central Iraq after receiving a tip-off, an Iraqi national guard officer said. 'We received concrete information from very reliable sources that Zarqawi was transferred today to Tuz Khormatu and is heading to Baquba,' Staff Brigadier General Anwar Hamad Ameed, the national guard chief in the northern city of Kirkuk, said."

Let's keep our fiungers crossed, and pray for our troops.

UPDATE: FOX IS REPORTING THERE'S A NEW AUDIOTAPE OF ZARQAWI - HE SOUNDS DESPERATE AND ANGRY AT THE CLERICAL COMMUNITY THERE FOR LETTING HIM DOWN!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:03 AM ; Permalink;

TIME FOR "HELMS-BIDEN" REDUX

In the 1990's, Congress passed a bipartisan bill - the Helms-Biden Act - which forced the federal government to withhold UN dues until the UN reformed. It worked. It's time to use that tactic again - to get UN cooperation with the Congressional committee investigating recent UN abuses - namely the OIL FOR FOOD SCANDAL.

Here's a letter I sent to the Chairman and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations committee - Senators Lugar and Biden. I also sent a few to a couple of other senators on the FR committee and one to Senator Norm Coleman - chairman of the Government Affairs committee - (which is the lead committee investigating the UN's Oil for Food scandal in the Senate), and to a few members of that committee, too.Read it. If you agree, copy it and send it to your senator. If a few Senators threatened to introduce the Bill, it might turn up the heat on the UN and get the Congress more cooperation. HERE'S THE LETTER:

Dear Senator;

In the 1990's Congress passed the Helms-Biden act - withholding dues fro the UN until they reformed. It worked.It's time to at least threaten the same thing now: Either the UN starts cooperating with the Congressional investigations in the "Oil for Food Scandal" or we will withhold dues.This is all about accountability. The American people expect the UN to beaccountable. Your committee should demand it on behalf of the American people - and Iraqis. The embezzled monies - maybe as much as $27 billion - must be found and returned to the Iraqi people. A Congressional investigation could help accomplish this - if the UN cooperated. IF YOU PASS A NEW BILL WITHHOLDING DUES UNTIL THEY COOPERATE! THEY WILL THEN COOPERATE!Thanks for your time.
Sincerely,

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:38 AM ; Permalink;

Tuesday, November 23, 2004

RATHER GOOD HAIKU

Rather is going
to retire from the news.
It's long overdue.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:20 PM ; Permalink;

We don't take a poll to determine what is right

POWERLINE has a great post on the current battle in Congress over the intelligence overhaul bill that was written as a result of ther 9/11 Commission Report. Two Republicans - Sensenbrenner and Hunter - backed by the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and charged by Congress with the constitutional oversight - are holding the whole thing up because they believe that a few provisions of the bill need to be fixed. IMPROVED. The Democrats are attacking them. WHY!?

POWERLINE asked it this way: "what reason is there to believe that Tom Kean, Lee Hamilton, and the others have a monopoly on good ideas for combating terrorism? Why should their opinions automatically trump those of serious elected officials like Rep. Duncan Hunter and Rep. James Sensenbrenner who are leading the opposition to the Commission's proposals?"

Here's the reason:

The Left - and the Democrat Party they dominate - prefer the 9/11 Commission's proposals to anything else because the Commission proposals were arrived at by consensus - across party lines. The Left believes that interventions into the status quo must be done ONLY after a consensus is reached across the "values divide" (a divide that can be political - as it is in this case - or cultural or national - as in the case of the UN, for instance).

The Left's belief in (and overvalue) of consensus is based on the fact that their meme is dominated by post-modernism - which denigrates Natural Law and universalism, and valorizes moral relativism.

Consensus is ersatz universalism for Leftists.

This is also why they think it was okay for the UN not to intervene in Rwanda (and Bosnia and elsewhere) because no consensus could be found. That's why the Left condemns the Iraq War: because no consensus could be found. Without consensus there is no "right thing to do" for the Left.

This is also the basis for the Left's revulsion of Bush: Bush has a conviction that there are such things as right and wrong, and good and evil. So do Hunter and Sensenbrenner.

We should all do what is right, not just what is popular. The right thing is not always the popular thing, and you can't always get a consensus to do the right thing. It was WRONG for the UN not to intervene in Rwanda with force - and failing to get a consensus is a poor "U.N.ACCEPTABLE" excuse.

Failure to find consensus is no excuse for failing to do the right thing. We did the right thing in Iraq, and Sensenbrenner and Hunter are doing the right thing now.

UPDATE: Deacon of POWERLINE linked to this post! Thanks! And Deacon made an important additional note in his link: the core problem with the Left - the basis of their dependence on consensus (as ersatz Universalism) is their MORAL RELATIVISM - which is at the core of post-modernism.

Our Universalism makes us look like fundamentalists to the Left - (to Leftists, only a simpleton could believe that such things as good and evil are real, and aren't subjective or culturally defined).

But - more importantly - the Left's moral relativism actually makes them incapable of doing the right thing when it requires an unpopular international intervention - which cannot find a consensus. In my mind this makes Leftism a morally bankrupt political philosophy. And, I'd rather be called a simpleton and intervene internationally to stop genocide, than be called a sophisticate and stand idly by as millions perish - as they did in Bosnia and Rwanda, and the Sudan, and for too long in Iraq.

(To POWERLINE readers: take a look around at my other posts - and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:25 PM ; Permalink;

FRANCE QUASHES CONGOLESE GENOCIDE CASE

The Chief Of Congo's Police was charged in French courts with murdering 350 of his citizens - who were returning refugees. France intercedes, on procedural grounds - and quashes the case. Need I say more!?

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:52 PM ; Permalink;

SOCIALIST SCUM OF EUROPE STILL REFUSE TO AID IRAQ

NATO IS SUPPOSED TO BE HELPING IRAQ TRAIN TRAIN THEIR MILITARY AND THEIR POLICE - BUT:

"France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg and Greece have refused to contribute personnel. ... The top U.S. military commander in Europe - [ Gen. James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander in Europe] - criticized NATO countries who refused to provide military instructors for a training mission in Iraq saying the result will be an increased burden on allies who are contributing. ... Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, speaking at a news conference at the Pentagon called the refusal by certain NATO countries to send personnel a problem."

MOST OF NATO'S 26 COUNTRIES ARE SENDING PERSONNEL. Old Europe and their cowardly friends are not. We know France's excuse: their army has their hands full killing unarmed Cote Ivoirians.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:41 PM ; Permalink;

RATHER OUT!!! Can Andrew Heyward be far behind?

I hope not! Heyward - the chief of CBS News - should be fired for Rathergate. NOW.

Or: as soon as the Thornburg investigation makes its report public.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:04 PM ; Permalink;

EVEN MORE "OLD MEDIA" BIAS

And it's always Left-wing bias, too.

According to GOOGLE NEWS searches, the UN scandals (UNSCAM/oil for food; Congo sex scandal, and the HQ sex harrasment cases) get a total of 649 hits. Abu Ghraib alone gets 6950 hits.

What makes this whole thing worse is the fact that the three UN scandals ARE WORSE than Abu Ghraib.

Abu Ghraib was a an isolated series of events done by two dozen rogues taking place over a month or two during the most dangerous time in occupied Iraq - and the crimes committed by these rogues were already under investigation by the Pentagon at the time the scandal was made public by the perpetrators' defense lawyers who were trying to discredit the Pentagon and exploited the Old Media who were predisposed to help them because the were always trying to hurt Bush.

The UN's scandals are bigger: (1) the Congo sex scandal was pervasive; HUNDREDS of UN workers systematically sexually abused people seeking refugee status and aid; it was "sex-for-aid." - and what makes it worse is that similar scandals were reported in Guinea and Sierra Leone a few years ago! (2) the UN oil-for-food scandal is ten times the size of ENRON - totally $22 BILLION, essentially stolen from the long-suffering people of Iraq. (3) the UN HQ sexual harrassment scandals not only show widespread sexual abuse of UN employees by UN big-shots; it shows that the UN big-shots - including Kofi - cover up for and defend their abusive buddies.

The Left and the Old Media have an obvious double standard. If Lefties do bad things they never get the same treatment from the Old Media as when others do similarly bad things - even when the Leftioes do even worse things, as thse instances of media bias prove.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:55 AM ; Permalink;

Interim Leader Abbas Demands Israel recognize "right of return"

President Bush made two historic breakthroughs in US Mid East policy in June of 2002: first, he was the first president to call for the establishment of a Palestinian state - he predicated that on Palestinian transparnecy and democracy; second, Bush was the first president to declare that Israel had the right to exist as a Jewish state.

The death of Arafat has given many people new hope that the predicates for Palestinian statehood might now finally be met: transparnecy and democracy.

I have had my doubts; I believe that Arafat's death gives the Jihadoterrorists no incentive for suddenly becoming "two-staters." They want to destroy Israel and replace it with a Muslim state.

Now there is another reason for grave doubt that peace and a two-state solution are any nearer now that Arafat is dead: the interim leader and leading candidate to replace Arafat, Abbas (who portrays himself as a two-stater, and was very involved in Oslo negotiations) declared before the Palestinian Parliament (so-called) that Israel MUST accept the "right of return."

"Right of return" is a deal-breaker - because "right of return" would mean that Israel would not remain a Jewish state. This goes against Bush's declaration in June 2002, and it is simply not acceptable to Israel. For Israel a "right of return" is a death sentence - and the palestinians know this; (it's why some Palestinians have publically given up on any two-state solution, and are now instead calling for one Israel - with citizenship for all "Arab Palestinians" in the occupied territories. The Arabs would soon outnumber the Jews and they would be able to use the democratic levers of state to destroy Israel from within. This is also why Sharon had udertake unilateral separation from Gaza - and will do the same in the West Bank - when the time is right -- a move supported by 60% of Israelis).

If Abbas is just posturing - to appear like a "hard-liner" to Jihadoterrorists before the upcoming election - it means he is essentially an appeaser, and that bodes poorly for the peace process on another front - because the single most important job that a Palestinian Authority has is to stop Jihadoterror against Israelis. If Abbas is already appeasing the Jihadoterrorists, then it probably means he will appease them after winning the election. Appeasing terrorists never stops terrorism; it only encourages them.

It will soon be time to accept the fact that short of destroying ALL the Jihadoterrorists in Gaza and the West Bank - (as we are finally doing in Iraq) - there can be no peace, nor self-rule for Palestinians. If the Palestinians will not destroy the Jihadoterrorists, then someone else will have to.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:01 AM ; Permalink;

SADDAM'S TRIAL TO START BEFORE END OF YEAR

Saddam's trial will start before the end of this year - according to the Iraqi Defense minister (as reported by Qatar's alJazeera).

I hope they convict - AND EXECUTE - the evil tyrant before the elections - which means before January 30th. WHY SO FAST!? It would be nice if this little bit of business was completed BEFORE the new Iraqi administration - THE FIRST DEMOCRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT IN IRAQ'S HISTORY (and in greater Arabia's history, too) - so that the new adminsitration could begin with a clean slate.

Which means Iraq needs to put on a simple, speedy trial. NOT LIKE THE ONE THE U.N. IS PUTTING ON AGAINST MILOSEVIC - WHICH HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR YEARS!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:08 AM ; Permalink;

JFK WAS A NEO-CON

From the Inaugural Address in 1961:

Let the word go forth from this time and place, to friend and foe alike, that the torch has been passed to a new generation of Americans--born in this century, tempered by war, disciplined by a hard and bitter peace, proud of our ancient heritage--and unwilling to witness or permit the slow undoing of those human rights to which this Nation has always been committed, and to which we are committed today at home and around the world.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to assure the survival and the success of liberty. This much we pledge--and more.

To those old allies whose cultural and spiritual origins we share, we pledge the loyalty of faithful friends. United, there is little we cannot do in a host of cooperative ventures. Divided, there is little we can do--for we dare not meet a powerful challenge at odds and split asunder. To those new States whom we welcome to the ranks of the free, we pledge our word that one form of colonial control shall not have passed away merely to be replaced by a far more iron tyranny. We shall not always expect to find them supporting our view. But we shall always hope to find them strongly supporting their own freedom--and to remember that, in the past, those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside.

[...] Finally, to those nations who would make themselves our adversary, we offer not a pledge but a request: that both sides begin anew the quest for peace, before the dark powers of destruction unleashed by science engulf all humanity in planned or accidental self-destruction. We dare not tempt them with weakness. For only when our arms are sufficient beyond doubt can we be certain beyond doubt that they will never be employed. [...] In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility--I welcome it. [...] And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you--ask what you can do for your country. My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:20 AM ; Permalink;

Between Fallujah And February...

The fighting in Iraq - right now - is incredibly intense.

Many reportorial accounts capture the bravery of our soldiers - and what's at stake. None better than these 3 : First, from a tip by HUGH HEWITT - a story from the NYTIMES; second, one from the UK's Independent - about the fighting that's following on from Fallujah - in the Triangle of Death. And here's another from the UK Independnent.

The battles fought between Fallujah and the First of February (after the votes in Iraq's first real election have been counted) are the battles that will determine the strategy and pace of the coming year or two in the GWOT.

YES: that much is at stake. Which is why the Jihadoterrorists are fighting so hard. And why we must utterly defeat them - now. A clear victory in Iraq will make it much less likely that we will have to use force to settle our problems with our other three foes in the GWOT - Syria, Iran, and North Korea. And it will buttress our precariously ambivalent allies in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, AND even… "Old Europe."

Using new and hard-won strategies - (initiated by the tough reformist Rumsfeld BEFORE 9/11) - we vanquished first the theocratic Taliban and then the socialist Saddam, and sent a crucial signal to all other regimes that would harbor or aid the Jihadoterrorists: We will dethrone you; we will destroy you. These two campaigns were frighteningly swift, and demonstrated our vastly superior weaponry and training - and our new strategies and tactics. We did in weeks what huge armies had failed to do for centuries.

Our victory over the Jihadoterrorists in the current phase - undertaking horrifically dangerous urban warfare - will send a powerful message to every Jihadi instigator and every would be Jihadi recruit in every street of every city in the uncivilized world: "We fear no evil and we are willing to suffer serious and sad casualties to destroy you, too."

And if they get that message, then the hard-won and heroic victory we shall win in the Sunni Triangle of Iraq will make future diplomatic efforts everywhere else much more likely to succeed.

But, if - (after these incredible demonstrations of moral conviction and military might) - our diplomatic efforts should fail (in North Korea, Iran, and Syria), it should make it absolutely clear to everyone - including the Left - that our enemies are not reasonable - in the most basic sense of the word. And: that we have no other choice than to destroy them, too.

So... I hope that Iran and Syria and North Korea are watching very closely. And that they act accordingly.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:18 AM ; Permalink;

Pak/Afghan Border Stays Hot: On Monday, We Got 20 Jihadoterrorists in Waziristan

"Eight people were killed at the seminary in Lalejai area, while 12 were killed in "hand-to-hand" fight in a separate raid on a camp in the Karam Manzai Chund Khel area, a military spokesman said in a statement. [...] In Tangari area alone, security forces recovered over 15 tonnes of ammunition and explosives on November 19 last. The ammunition included over 900 rockets and heavy weapons like recoilless rifles and mortars. "

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:46 AM ; Permalink;

US CAPTURES BIGGEST WEAPONS CACHE YET

"... 1st Brigade, 25th Infantry Division ... unearthed one of the largest weapons caches ever ... south of Mosul ... today. 2nd Battalion, 8th Field Artillery Regiment discovered a huge stockpiles of weapons and munitions that consisted of one anti-aircraft gun, 15,000 anti-aircraft rounds, 4,600 hand grenades, 144 VOG-17M anti-personnel grenade launchers, 25 SA-7 surface-to-air missiles, 44 SA-7 battery packs, 20 guided missile packs, 21 120mm mortar rounds, two 120mm mortar tubes, 10 122mm rockets, six 152mm artillery rounds and two 57mm artillery rounds. Soldiers also discovered a building full of explosive-making materials.The 3-arce site is secure and still under investigation with more weapons and munitions discoveries expected. "

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:11 AM ; Permalink;

Monday, November 22, 2004

Some Straight Talk On North Korea - FROM JAPAN

The head of the ruling party in Japan has said that because the Kim Jong Il regime has not been sincere/trustworthy in negotiations that regime change may be the only option.

This makes sense. Only how? I think an invasion by China makes the most sense. We should let them occupy North Korea and let them set up a new regime.

ALSO: here's a link to an article from a South Korean newspaper with photographic PROOF that billboards of KIM JONG IL are coming down all over North Korea.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:58 PM ; Permalink;

Jihadoterrorists Take All Of Dutch Democracy Hostage

BREAKING NEWS:

Dutch MP Geert Wilders - who called for an end to non-western immigration into Holland (until all non-Westerners are assimilated, and unless future immigrants agree to assimilate) - has been forced into hiding after receiving numerous credible death threats.

Wilders "has two policemen by his side even when in his high-security parliamentary office in case someone tries to decapitate him. Each day, he does not know where he is going to sleep that night, as he is taken from safe house to safe house in a convoy of armoured cars."

This makes democracy itself - in Holland - effectively a hostage.

Which means it may be time for mass expulsion/deportation of non-assimilated Muslims. SOUND TERRIBLE!? I think not on two counts: one, we'd just be sending them "HOME" (how bad could that be!?); and two, we'd be saving democracy and free speech from being squelched by the ruthless intimidation of uncivilized thugs. Hat tip LGF.

UDATES: here; here; here; and here. AND HERE, a story about how Jihadoterrorists in Holland threaten to assassinate all anti-Jihadi politicians.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:20 PM ; Permalink;

THE TREACHERY OF THE ENEMY

Our military has it tough: Not only must they battle the treacherous Jihadoterrorists - (who fake being wounded to blow-up soldiers who approach to aid them; or who wave the white flag of surrender, only to open fire as our soldiers let their guards down; and who take refuge in Mosques; and who behead charity workers) - but they must also deal with the treachery of the OLD MEDIA who volunteer to be embeds and then distribute their videos in order to discredit our military!

Here's an idea: next time we need to take out a sniper or investigate a minaret or enter a mosque... SEND IN THE EMBED FIRST!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 2:26 PM ; Permalink;

MORE BLOOD FOR CHOCOLATE

The French are intervening with militry force (at least a French version of it!) in the Ivory Coast - without a UNSCR. WHERE'S THE OUTRAGE? Paul Greenberg in today's Wash Times writes:

This is the work of a small circle of ever-scheming neoconservatives around President Chirac who have plotted to seize the Ivory Coast's cocoa fields for years. And yet the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations has not used his veto to stop the Security Council from approving the French action. Where is the world's conscience? Just wait until Michael Moore exposes this whole rotten plot in his next blockbuster documentary, which will show a host of suspicious ties between France's ruling clique and Ivorian cocoa sheikhs. The rest of Hollywood will surely weigh in at any moment, led by Whoopi Goldberg and her minions. The BBC and NPR already plan specials to expose this war of aggression. If anyone doubts French responsibility for these atrocities, CBS' Dan Rather has proof in the form of some certifiably incriminating documents he soon will air, and which are very convincing — if you don't examine them too closely.

For more click here.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:46 AM ; Permalink;

el Baradei and IAEA confirm Iran Nuke SHUTDOWN?!?!!?

How does Baradei and the UN 's IAEA know Iran shutdown its hitherto clandestine and illegal nuclear weapons program?

Well... because it was announced on Iranian TV, and according to el Baradei (in Vienna): ... it "appears" everything has come to a halt.

IAEA inspectors currently in Iran are expected to verify that Iran has halted all such activities and to seal the facilities where they are carried out. Tehran had previously denied reports it had made UF6 and diplomats close to the EU-Iran talks said it raised doubts about Iran's good faith.

Whoa. We're gonna let the UN and the IAEA and el Baradei give Iran the all clear based on Iran's say-so?!?!?!?!

I don't think the UN - who couldn't be trusted with Iraq's "Oil for Food Program" - should be trusted with shutting down Iran's nukes. And remote cameras and seals!?!?!?!? They didn't stop Kim Jong Il's North Korea from setting up shop elsewhere and making NUKES!

I say: Let's send in the Marines to "inspect."

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:36 AM ; Permalink;

Pakistan Finds Huge Weapons Cache In Waziristan

This is a good sign. And it comes on the heels of raids in Kabul and in eastern Afghanistan that've yielded (dead and alive) foreign alQaida Jihadoterrorists. We are making progress. NOW ... if we could only get Holland under control...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:52 AM ; Permalink;

Jihadoterrorist Nuke Is A Real Threat

Twenty-two year CIA vet Sheuer - aka "Anonymous," author/critic of the Bush Administration - has said that alQaida wants a nuke and will try to get one, and would use it on the USA.

I hope we've made it clear to all the nations in the Axis of Evil (NoKo, Syria, and Iran) - and those near the Axis (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Turhey, Pakistan, Afghanistan) - that we will nuke their major cities if we are nuked by alQaida - (so they'd better help us prevent it by sharing all the intel' they have).

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:49 AM ; Permalink;

US Documents Prove alQaida and Chechens Allied

More proof that the WOT is a GWOT - or WW4. From Europe to Asia to the USA and to Africa. Targeting military and civilian sites. Using hijacked jets, or suicide bombers, or beheadings - or WMD, (including nukes - as soon as they get them)... SEE EARLIER POST (below).

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:35 AM ; Permalink;

Fallujah Weapons Cache Yields Could Reduce Jihadoterrorist Attacks All Over Iraq For Months

Besides killing bad guys - which makes them unavailable for any future Jihadoterrorist missions - the Fallujah operation has yielded tons of weapons and explosives. From the Pentagon's DEFENSELink:

Air Force Lt. Gen. Lance L. Smith said at a Pentagon news conference that over the past 10 days a single unit had found 91 weapons caches and 431 improvised explosive devices in one sector of Fallujah.

"In contrast to that, the entire Marine Expeditionary Force found 48 caches and 93 IEDs in the month of October, and in all of Iraq in the month of October, units found 130 caches and destroyed 348 IEDs," he said. "So that is an incredibly significant amount of weapons and IEDs that were found in the city."

Smith said soldiers and Marines also found large IED-making facilities, and facilities for making vehicle-borne bombs. "So clearly, besides being a safe haven for leadership and command and control, Fallujah was a center for making the IEDs that were being produced and used in other parts of the country to attack the coalition," he said. "And we continue to make significant finds in the city every day."

WOW! Our brave military is doing great things. God Bless them! More at CENTCOM.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:14 AM ; Permalink;

Sunday, November 21, 2004

CONDI WILL BE TO THE STATE DEPARTMENT WHAT RUMSFELD AND GOSS HAVE BEEN TO THE PENTAGON AND THE CIA RESPECTIVELY

Belgravia Dispatch is one of the best blogs on foreign policy. Today, BD blogged on Condi. BD took the POV that Condi was a "flawed" NSC chair. BD agreed - basically - with Danner and Cordesman that the shortfalls in Iraq were due to "a flawed interagency process" and that since this is the primary responsibility of the NSC - and since Condi was chair of the NSC - that it was her fault.

This is flat out WRONG.

The reason there were problems in Iraq policy and policy execution is because there were problems within State and the CIA (and to a lesser extent because of lagging problems in the DOD - or should I say "institutional" unhappiness with the solutions to those problems instituted by Rumsfeld at the DOD). Powell never took on the entrenched bureaucrats or the Arabists in the State Department, choosing instead to handle them as he had as CJCS in the Pentagon: by allowing entrenched systems to continue by inertia.

Rumsfeld began the process of overhauling the DOD well before 9/11 - we reaped the rewards AFTER 9/11 - in Afghanistan and in Iraq: two brilliantly waged wars, wars waged AND WON with bold news strategies and tactics - strategies and tactics that were fought tooth & nail by old time Brass. Goss is undertaking a similar - long overdue - house-cleaning at the CIA.

Condi will do the same at State. Where an overhaul is also LONG OVERDUE. And she will succeed. Because Condi is tenacious, brilliant, experienced and knowledgeable about the bureaucracy, and she has the complete confidence of the President.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:20 PM ; Permalink;

OUR ENEMY IS UNITED --- ISN'T IT TIME WE WERE, TOO?!

Our enemy in WW4 is united. The fascist jihadis are comprised of national, international, and transnational elements who share global strategic aims and who are cooperating to achieve them. Their cooperation transcends their national, ethnic, and sectarian divisions.

AQ Khan’s clandestine Nuclear Arms Proliferation enterprise utilized non-Muslim nations (China and North Korea) and Muslim nations of each major sect (Pakistan is predominantly Sunni, while Iran is predominantly Shia) and it was financed and/or sold its wares to socialist and capitalist Muslim nations (Libya is a Baathist/socialist/militarist state, Saudi Arabia is capitalist and aristocratic state).

Their goal - to achieve nuclear parity with the West - makes them transcend their differences (only for the time being, perhaps).

The Jihadoterrorists are united, too: Zarqawi is Jordanian; UBL is Saudi; Zawahiri is Egyptian; al Sadr is an Iraqi Shia; Ansar al Islam largely Kurdish and Shia. Van Gogh was murdered by Moroccans; Atocha was detonated by Algerians; the USS Cole by Yeminis; Bali by Asians; 9/11 by mostly Saudis.

POWERLINE has a story about how Zarqawi and Saddam and AL JAZEERA are linked - GO READ IT! Here's a snippet:

What did Saddam, al Qaeda and Al Jazeera Have In Common?
Haider Ajina sent us his translation of an article that appeared yesterday in the Arabic newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat. The headline was: "Al-Zarkawi’s right hand man 'Omar Hadid' was a personal body guard of Saddam Hussein and brother of the manager of Al-Jazeera in Baghdad. He also led the Terrorist fight in Felujah, and was trained in Afghanistan." Here is the text of the article: Iraqi security investigators have revealed that Al-Zarkawi’s right hand man Omar Hadid was a member of Sadam Hussein’s personal body-guards unit. Omar Hadid later joined Al Qaeda and was trained in Al Qaeda’s Afghanistan camps. Omar is the brother of the manager of the Baghdad office of Al-Jazeera news channel, which was closed three month ago.

You get the picture. WHY DOESN’T THE LEFT!? WHY DOESN'T OLD EUROPE!?

Why don’t they realize that their arguments – that Saddam was secular and wouldn’t have allied himself with al Qaeda, or that Iran is Shia and wouldn’t ally themselves with Libya, and so on – are false. Dangerously so.

LOOK: If we are going to defeat the enemy we must be united – MORE UNITED than we are now. Taming Iraq and pressuring Iran and Syria will take a much more concerted effort than we have heretofore seen. It’s now time the Old Europeans and the Left – and the moderate Muslim nations - buried the hatchet, and got on board. ALL THE WAY.

The SHARM EL SHEIK FORUM ON IRAQ'S FUTURE presents us with an opportunity to unite. Perhaps our last before any major new campaign is initiated by either side.

As reported in the BAHRAIN TIMES:

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bahraion, Shaikh Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khalifa, yesterday said that the Sharm El Sheikh forum to discuss Iraq’s future and pave the way for elections represented an unprecedented international convergence on the Iraqi issue. “The forum holds a special significance because all parties will take part, and more importantly, there will be an accord of the post-meeting process,” Shaikh Mohammed said.

Those attending the forum will include UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, EU foreign affairs chief Javier Solana, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Mussa and his counterpart from the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, Abdelwahed Belkeziz.Outgoing US Secretary of State Colin Powell will make what is probably his last appearance at a conference on Iraq. Alongside Powell will be French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, as well as his counterparts from Britain and Germany, Jack Straw and Joschka Fischer. The two-day conference will open tomorrow afternoon with a meeting of the foreign ministers of Iraq’s neighbours – Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey and Jordan, as well as host country Egypt. They will be joined on Tuesday by the Arab ‘troika’ comprising Tunisia, Bahrain and Algeria. The G8 nations (the US, Russia, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, Britain and Italy) will also join on the second day.

(If we could get the Democrats to go, too... then we'd have a chance of straightening out all the nattering nabobs of negativism there at once! I guess Bush will have to deal with them separately!)

Update: two good articles. UPDATE #2: alQaida and the Chehchens are allies, too.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:15 AM ; Permalink;

Saturday, November 20, 2004

The Final, Last Desperate Jihadoterrorist Onslaught In Iraq Has Begun

Expect things to get REALLY REALLY BAD in Iraq from here until the elections. This is "make or break" time for Jihadoterrorism in Iraq.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:07 AM ; Permalink;

The Next Front in the GWOT?

SYRIA. EVEN Chirac is talking tough ... well: tough for a Frenchman, that is.

MEANING: If Syria doesn't get out - SOON, and by a time certain, and if the "armed militias" are not dismantled, then... BOOM. Sometime soon - like right after the Iraqi elections.

NOTE: This is a PREDICATE for a state of Palistan.

NOTE: This sends another clear message to Iranistan.

NOTE: EVEN France has forgiven MOST of Iraq's debt with them.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:58 AM ; Permalink;

Friday, November 19, 2004

Dutch Pol': "No More Immigration Without Assimilation"

Looks like Holland is waking up - tho' sadly it took two vicious post-9/11 murders to stir them from their sleep (Pim Fortuyn's and Theo Van Gogh's).

Now, a very popular Dutch pol' (Geert Wilders) is calling for a 5 year halt to all NON-WESTERN immigration. He said that un-integrated immigrants threaten Dutch culture.

"He cited a report by Dutch intelligence saying recruitment for jihad, or holy war, is taking place in as many as 20 mosques in the Netherlands, and said they should be closed and their imams, or preachers, arrested and deported. 'If we don’t do anything ... we will lose the country that we have known for centuries. People don’t want the Netherlands to be lost, and this is something that I get angry about and I am going to fight for, to keep the country Dutch,' he said." (According to AP as reported by MSNBC.)

I believe all countries EVERYWHERE should expect ALL immigrants to ASSIMILATE. In fact, I've coined a catch-phrase - based on an earlier one that was pretty effective ("No taxation without representation.") - which captures this belief: "No immigration without assimilation."

We need it here as much as they need it in Europe.

(MORE GEERT WILDERS QUOTES HERE.)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:02 PM ; Permalink;

Old Media Bias: Marine Shooting versus Kofi's "no confidence" vote

Two GOOGLE NEWS searches reveal Old Media's continuing anti-Bush/anti-American bias -

EXHIBIT A: 114 stories on Kofi's "no confidence" vote

Annan faces UN staff’s no-trust - Daily Times, Pakistan - 1 hour ago [...] all 79 related » [...] UN workers to condemn chief - all 35 related

EXHIBIT B: 6,950+ stories on "Marine shooting."

[...] Arab world inflamed by video of Marine shooting Minneapolis Star Tribune (Sunnis outraged over Marine shooting man in mosque Cleveland Plain Dealer [...] all 325 related Arab world aghast at Marine shooting in mosque [...] - all 140 related »

Unfortunately for the Old Media and the Left, NEW MEDIA will get the news out and the truth out - and expose their bias.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:34 PM ; Permalink;

Time for an "Oil for Food Scam" Ultimatum: "Cooperate fully, or we will take the US out of the UN!"

The complete lack of cooperation that the US Congress is getting for its investigation of the "Oil for Food Scandal" - also know as "UNSCUM", and "Oil for Genocide" - must be met with MORE than contempt; it must be met with ACTION:

The president should demand immediate and full cooperation and transparency or withdraw from the UN.

The means for doing this is already in Congress. In 2003, Congressman Ron Paul of Texas sponsored a Bill that would do just that - H.R. 1146 - and it's time for President Bush to dust it off, and wave beneath the noses of Kofi Anan and Jacques Chirac and Vladimir Putin and Gerhard Schroeder: cooperate fully with our investigation, or this Bill will become law.

AT THE VERY LEAST... WE SHOULD WITHHOLD DUES UNTIL WE GET COMPLETE COOPERATION; WE DID THIS IN THE 1990'S - UNDER THE HELMS-BIDEN ACT (TO GET SOME REFORMS THROUGH THE UN)- AND IT WORKED THEN --- IT COULD WORK AGAIN.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:36 PM ; Permalink;

AP: "Cash-strapped NoKo Might Sell Plutonium to Terrorists"

U.S. Military Commander in South Korea:

N. Korea May Sell Nukes
By SANG-HUN CHOE / Associated Press Writer

"SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Impoverished North Korea might resort to selling weapons-grade plutonium to terrorists for much-needed cash, and that would be "disastrous for the world," the top U.S. military commander in South Korea said Friday. Gen. Leon J. LaPorte said the communist state may have harvested plutonium from 8,000 spent nuclear rods, which experts say could yield enough material for several atomic bombs."

The North Koreans must be prevented from doing this. There are only two ways to guarantee this is prevented: (1) regime change; and (2) pre-emptive destruction of North Korea's plutonium and all their nuclear facilities.

If the intelligence to accomplish the latter is not good enough to guarantee success (and all the lousy intel' we used in Iraq leads me to believe that our intel' on NoKo is probably just as bad), then we must pursue the former - preferably with the aid of the Chinese.

Time is of the essence. We and the Chinese should immediately send a message to the NoKo military that they must overthrow Kim and hand over all the nuclear sites and materials AT ONCE. In return we guarantee them amnesty and aid. And a timetable on re-unification.

Waiting and wishful thinking are not reasonable options.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 2:48 PM ; Permalink;

Thursday, November 18, 2004

CAUSE OF ARAFAT'S DEATH DETERMINED!!!!!!

ODDLY ENOUGH: Arafat was killed by the same exact thing that killed Pierre Salinger while getting a pacemaker, Princess Diana after her car accident, and 15,000 old French men & women during a heat-wave - the French healthcare system! Oddly enough.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:47 PM ; Permalink;

Bush's Groundbreaking Appointments Break Records and SHATTER Left-wing Myths

From Dissecting Leftism:

"Limousine-liberal Democrats and their media poodles, many of whom send their children to near-segregated private schools, have basically ignored the racial triumphs Powell and Rice embody. Just as they have barely noted that Rod Paige, the departing secretary of education, is the first black to hold that job. Or that Ann Veneman, the departing secretary of agriculture, is the first woman to hold that job. Or that Alberto Gonzales, if confirmed, will be the first Hispanic attorney general. Or that Bush has an Arab-American and two Asian-Americans in his cabinet. Had a Democratic President made those appointments, the celebratory coverage would invoke Harry Truman's integrating the armed forces or Robert Kennedy and Lyndon Johnson's battle for civil rights. Talk about your double standards."

Indeed.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 4:59 PM ; Permalink;

AP: "Castro sees Bush hand in bin Laden video"

Castro obviously suffers from the same disease as Michael Moore and the rest of the Left: BDS.

How can we arrange to get him sent to France for some "medical" treatment?

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:45 PM ; Permalink;

Wednesday, November 17, 2004

EXIT STRATEGY MAPPED OUT

The exit strategy for US military forces in Afghanistan and Iraq has been mapped out. CLICK HERE TO SEE MAP.

(I think some should come home via Damn-ascus, too.

(READ MORE HERE. AND HERE.)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 9:49 PM ; Permalink;

POPULATION DENSITY AS A PREDICTOR OF VOTING

GLENN linked to an article at TECHCENTRALSTATION by Patrick Cox titled "A Tale of Two Maps."

Cox - and others who have been commenting on the various RED STATE/BLUE STATE maps - generally look for sociological explanations for the glaringly obvious correlation between population density and party affiliation, as if everyday aspects of urbaneness and urban civil, class and tax structures might explain why a clear majority of people who choose to live in more densely populated areas tend to be Democrats. (In fact, Kerry and the Democrats carried only cities with a population of over 500,000, while Bush carried a majority in all cities with a population of less than 500,000. So what we might ask is: "what is so different about these 500,000+ cities that makes them so blue?")

Even I have previously suggested that city-folk are less traditional (and more faddist and bourgeoiseophobic) than country-folk.

PRESTOPUNDIT provides an example of a very densely populated and VERY RED area - ORANGE CONTY, CA - and suggests that it is because they have only one major newspaper and it'ss libertarian.

But perhaps the explanation is simpler; perhaps we must merely look at HISTORICAL reasons for the BLUE/city versus RED/country dichotomy.

Historically, cities have been part of the stronghold of the Democrat Party (along with the rural south - which they began losing in the 1970's due to LBJ's Civil Rights laws and The Great Society); the Democrat Party built its machine upon farmers, immigrants, industrial unions, and civil servants - ALL of these groups (except the now largely GOP farmers) are predominant only in the cities.

And - as David Brooks has so thoughtfully proved - party affiliation is largely hereditary - so the urban Democrat affiliation is a hand-me-down -- a VESTIGE -- of the demographics of the old Democrat machine.

A close examination of the 2004 presidential election results reveals that Bush and the Republicans made gains in all cities, so even this vestigial party affiliation may be gradually disappearing --- and with it, the Democrat Party as a viable national party.

This is not merely caused by Bush. This is partly because the Democrats have less "government largesse" to dole out to these special interests. After all, since Clinton and Congress "changed welfare as we know it," immigrants and the poor are far less dependent on government welfare - and as a result these voters are less likely to continue to align themselves with the party that promises more government welfare. These partisan promises ring false and hollow now.

And unions - another key part of the Democrat machine - are also shrinking.

As a result, the Democrat Party has less to offer, and fewer people to offer it to.

That's why they must reinvent themselves.

I suspect that if they lean further to the Left - and become the party of nationalized healthcare, and of subservience to transnational, international, and/or multilateral organizations - they will only shrink more rapidly. Which means they must move to the right - to get back to the center.

I suspect that this would alienate their Left-wing and cause a major schism. If the Left split off from the DNC and joined up with the Greens and the Reform Party, then we are headed to a three party system. And a permanent GOP majority.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:31 AM ; Permalink;

The new IAEA/Iran/EU "nuke deal" is not even 3 days old, and Iran has already caught in a LIE!

CNN. NYTIMES. "Reuters". All bastions of Left-wing/Old Media propaganda are All reporting that the IAEA/Iran/EU nuke deal is essentially "Dead BEFORE Arrival."

See this earlier post for more on why Iran, the IAEA, and the EU cannot be trusted - which means, of course, that no deal with them is worth the paper it's written on. Which means, of course, that the only guarantee of a non-nuclear armed Iran is... regime change.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:16 AM ; Permalink;

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Powell's future...

Powell has been asked by a NYC GOP Congressman to run for the Senate against Hillary in 2006 (hat tip THE CORNER).

Maybe he'd rather be governor of NY? Or of Virginia?

YUP: unseating Governor Warner (a rich, centrist, southern Democrat governor - who would obviously thus be a formidable presidential candidate in 2006), is a high priority for the GOP. Powell would win in a landslide.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:07 PM ; Permalink;

FOR THE JIHADOTERRORISTS THERE'S BEEN NO CONVERSION ON THE ROAD TO RAMALLAH

FIVE NEW NEWS ITEMS:

1 - Abbas barely escapes an assassination attempt the day after Arafat's internment.

2 - HAMAS is boycotting the elections.

3 - alAqsa rejects Abbas and instead backs convicted murderer and terrorist Bargouti.

4 - HAMAS rejects call to halt terrorism, between now and the election.

5 - The Turkish press is reporting that the PNA fears an outbreak of widespread mass violence.

WHAT DOES THIS ALL ADD UP TO?

The fact that nothing has changed for the better with the Palestinian Arabs. Arafat's death has not converted the Jihadoterrorists from genocidal anti-Zionists into non-violent "two-staters."

When will it change for the better? How can it change for the better?

See this post (below): The Road to Ramallah Begins in Baghdad, and goes through Damascus and Tehran...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 4:18 PM ; Permalink;

Chirac's Paris-itic Necrosis

Chirac is at it again. Like his alter-ego de Villepin, and his current FM Barnier, Chirac can't seem to open his mouth without uttering some self-aggrandizing - and France-aggrandizing anti-American inanity.

Where does this come from?

It comes from French cocooning. Chirac epitomizes it. Paris itself symbolizes it.

Remember: Chirac was the longtime Mayor of Paris - it's where he built his Arafatesque fiefdom on corruption of unparalleled depth.

Paris. A city of unbelievable beauty: grand boulevards, gorgeous parcs, chic cafes, beautiful bridges across the sensuous Seine, elegant chateaus et maisons, hills, trees, museums - yes, Paris simply and unarguably the most beautiful city in the world.

And cloistered in his Elysee Palace - after having dwelled for a time in the stately Hotel Matignon (as PM, and worked for years in the Hotel de Ville collecting bribes and kickbacks ) - sits Chirac: master of this great city which symbolizes a great nation - or so he thinks.

How else could he think!? To be master of the nation which has poured so much of its wealth over the CENTURIES into this city of cities is SEEMINGLY to be master of... all that is masterful. Certainly the nation that built and has maintained Paris - the most beautiful city in the world - must be the best nation in the world, "NON?!"

NO.

Paris is merely a "spectactular mausoleum" of a nation whose greatness ended in the 19th century . In fact, nearly every single great and wondrous and beautiful thing about Paris is from the 19th century - most of that from a period of time most French hold in low regard: the Second Empire. What else is great is from before the First Republic, and before WW1. France and French culture and Paris have done almost nothing of great import or great beauty since then.

All France has produced since then has been existentialism, post-modernism, and Gaullism - all hollow failures (excepting Camus - who like Orwell saw beyond the jargon of his age). This is reflected in Paris, as well: The ugliest buildings in Paris are all post WW1. The 20th century was not a good one for France, or Paris - and the 21st does not bode well, either.

Meanwhile, Chirac - Suha, de Villepin, and all the other corrupt and amoral saprophytes - sit in their excruciatingly beautiful cocoon-like Paris and delude themselves that they and their City of Light are still relevant and important on the world stage. Merde! Paris is merely a great and huge adult theme-park, a tourist trap with charm.

Too bad so many tourists go there every year; it only encourages them...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:21 AM ; Permalink;

THE ROAD TO RAMALLAH BEGINS IN BAGHDAD - and it goes through Damascus and Tehran

A two-state solution is predicated on there being a second state. As of now there is only one - Israel. Bush's bold pro-Palestinian State Policy was predicated on the Palestinian's first attaining a transparent democratic self-rule in the territories. This has not happened yet.

Arafat's death has made many in the media qvell with wishful-thinking: his passing will allow the Palestinians to attain a transparent and democratic self-rule and thereby give Peace a Second Chance. FAT CHANCE; (or slim chance, take your pick!).

Arafat's death will not change Hamas or Hizballah or the PFLP or IJ or Tanzim into two-staters; they are and will remain one-staters: people who believe in the destruction of Israel (and who will use genocidal terror to accomplish that) and in replacing it with a novel Islamic state called Palestine.

The ONLY way to change that dynamic - to neutralize the genocidal terroristic one-staters - is to get Syria and Iran to cease any and all support for them. The only way to accomplish this is to put EXTREME PRESSURE on Syria and Iran.
Our success in Iraq is an absolutely necessary precondition for accomplishing this. Once we are successful in Iraq - and the January elections there (and in "Palestine" are a HUGE step in that direction) - we MUST issue ULTIMATUMS to Syria and Iran:

(1) to Syria we immediately demand an immediate and complete withdrawal of all forces from Lebanon and a suspension for any and all support to any and all Palestinian and/or pan-Arabist terrorist organizations. Or we shall attack and demolish their military and their economy; there should be NO OFFER OF INSTALLING A POST-ASSAD DEMOCRACY OR FOR RECONSTUCTION. As a carrot, we can offer them aid if THEY hold elections and transform themselves into a transparent democracy.

(2) We tell Iran that they must suspend any and all support for any and all Palestinian and/or pan-Arabist terrorist organizations or we will destroy their military (including their Navy) and their economy - including ALL THEIR OIL ASSETS. There should be no carrot offered.

Because the threat we would be making against Syria and Iran involves NO RECONSTRUCTION, the attacks against Syria and Iran could be done by sustained, intense aerial bombardment, and would involve NO TROOPS ON THE GROUND.

Because of Bush's bold military actions against the Taliban and Saddam, Syria is now surrounded by nations which should be allies in this ultimatum: NATO's Turkey, Israel, and Occupied Iraq. And Iran is now surrounded by Occupied Iraq and Occupied Afghanistan. The barrel of the gun is against their heads - so-to-speak.

Naturally, these threats would NOT be issued with or after a UNSCR. These military actions would be undertaken WITHOUT seeking U.N. approval - as was Clinton's war against Milosevic.

Once Iran and Syria cease to support any and all Jihadoterrorism, the GWOT is more than half over. And a Palestinian state can slouch towards Bethlehem.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:44 AM ; Permalink;

Friday, November 12, 2004

IRAN IS ALREADY CHEATING THE EU AND THE IAEA

UPDATE: The Wall Street Journal has weighed-in with a cold hard look at the EU/IAEA/Iran proposed Nuke Deal which Iran is ALREADY trying to wiggle-jiggle around in. The editorial is titled: "Appeasing Iran Europe seeks a deal even worse than Clinton's with North Korea." Their verdict? The same as mine: It's time for the bad cop to deal with the perp.

I posted a blog on the tentative IRAN/EU/IAEA deal earlier in the week.

I was skeptical any meaningful deal would be accomplished. My skepticism has ALREADY been proven to be well founded.

"REUTERS: "

Iran nuke freeze answer falls short says diplomat

Thu November 11, 2004 02:43 PM ET
By Louis Charbonneau and Paul Hughes

VIENNA/TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has failed to give a definitive answer to an EU demand it freeze sensitive nuclear activities or face referral to the UN Security Council for possible sanctions, a diplomat familiar with the talks says. [...] A Western diplomat close to the IAEA confirmed Iran had not delivered a letter, as it must, to announce the start date for the suspension and invite the UN agency to verify it. [...] But diplomats have said Iran was looking for the EU to sweeten the agreement by offering swift incentives, such as the immediate resumption of stalled trade talks, in return for agreeing to the enrichment freeze. "Iran wants something up front if it's going to suspend enrichment, not just promises. But the Europeans have refused," a diplomat said. Another sticking point in the talks concerns the preparation of uranium for the enrichment process. The EU wants all uranium conversion activities halted, while Tehran wants to continue with some conversion work.

This is a dealbreaker.

It is time for the bad cop to work over the suspect...

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 10:36 AM ; Permalink;

Thursday, November 11, 2004

SUHA MAKES OUT LIKE A BANDIT

Suha Arafat played her cards well. In return for pulling the plug on Yasser - and handing over the secret accounts to the Palestinian National Authority - she will get $22 MILLION dollars A YEAR for the rest of her life. Thats a lot of money. More than the likes of Chirac and Mugabe will get when they retire. And more than she deserved.

But, it's only a small portion of the $4 BILLION estimated to have been stolen by Arafat - according to the Italian newspaper Corriere de la Sera. And according to Palestinian sources, payong her $22 MILLION a year was the only way for the Palestinian leaders to get their hands on the rest of the loot.

Now I know what Yasser saw in her.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:40 PM ; Permalink;

The Religious Divide Explained

Glenn linked to a good article at TECHCENTRALSTAION by Fred Turner.

RTWT - even though it COMPLETELY misses the point.

Turner creates a false dichotomy: religious versus secular voter.

Many religious people - myself and Bush included - are both deeply religious and committed secularists.

The true opposition is religious voter versus atheistic voter.

UPDATE: CORRECTION AMPLIFICATION = THE REAL DIVIDE IS UNIVERSALIST VOTER VERSUS RELATIVIST VOTER. Here's why:

The fact is that democracy was founded by religious people, and this is because democracy is historically based on the first principal of Natural Law : that all humans are created equal and endowed by the Creator with inalienable rights. The State does not grant or define these rights; UNIVERSAL Human Rights exist a priori.

Most of atheists - and ALL of cultural relativists and moral relativists - are opponents to any notion of Universal Human Rights because they believe that Human Rights can only be defined culturally/relatively. Such a view provides no universal moral basis for democracy or democratic revolutions; such a view can ONLY explain revolutions as struggles between competing power bases. Which is exactly how Marxists, and moral relativists and cultural relativists explain history. And I would include most of the Left; the Left has become overwhelmingly redefined by its relativism. This fact has been true since at least post-WW2, when post-modernism took root in the Left.

This post-modernist Leftist creed cannot offer a way to universally abolish slavery or sexual inequality, or racism, or genocide EXCEPT if-and-when there is CONSENSUS from all the world's nations and cultures - which is precisely why these relativists value multilateralism and the UN so highly: it is the only place where international/cross-cultural consensus can be reached, and for relativists cross-cultural consensus is the only means to temporal universality. This is also why they have so often stood back and done nothing as genocide has been openly committed - they can't act if they can’t forge a consensus.

But true morality is NOT on based on polls; it is NOT relative; it is Universal; it holds that all homo sapiens are entitled to the same rights because we are literally and figuratively ONE FAMILY. And in this family we should not tolerate it when our relatives are systematically denied their innate Human Rights. It is our duty to help our brothers and sisters.

This concept was enshrined as part of the UN Charter when the UN adopted the Declaration of Universal Human Rights - at the time a liberal notion embraced by all of the West.

Since then, it has become regarded by the Left as a neo-con notion - an attempt by the West to culturally hegemonize the world. This shift occurred around the time that the Left realized that the working-class in the West would not lead the proletarian revolution (because of the enbourgeoisment - [their term] - of the working class - or so the Left claims), and that the revolution would be led by the Third World - especially the former colonies of the West.

This is why the Left (the hub of of atheistic, post-modernist, cultural & morally relativist political ideology) aggrandizes any Third World dictator who opposes the USA or the West, and abhors only dictators who are pro-USA or pro-West. To the extent that OBL and Saddam and Zarqawi can be seen as anti-USA/anti-West, the Left embraces them. The actual extremely low living standards and lack of basic human rights and liberties that our brothers and sisters have in totalitarian regimes doesn't matter to the Left as long as the regime is anti-USA or anti-West - like North Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Venezuela, Zimbabwe, Iran, Syria - etc...

The Left in the USA is no different in this regard than the Left in continental Europe, and this is why they have such great affinity. They're against Natural Law; Natural Law is antithetical to their core beliefs.

The UK has a deep tradition of Natural Law and this is why they are natural allies of the USA. Ditto Israel.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:18 PM ; Permalink;

W should send BJ to Yasser's funeral

W should send BJ Clinton to be the emissary for the USA at Yasser's funeral in Cairo. After all, BJ met with Yasser more than any other foreign leader. Besides, sending an impeached president to attend a terrorist's state-sponsored funeral just seems fitting, doesn't it!? If BJ is unavailable, how about Teresa Heinz? If she can't sober up in time, how about Jimmy Carter? Or Howard Dean? Or Ramsey Clark? Then there's Tom Daschle, no!? NO, NO! I got it; I got it: Michael Moore!

*****UPDATE: Bush is sending Assitant Secretary of State William Burns. This choice sends two messages: First, that Bush correctly regards Arafat as a lowly figure whose funeral does not require sending anyone with a higher standing than an assistant. The second message is subliminal: the assistant's last name suggests what Arafat's eternal soul should suffer - and where. Click here for a complete list of the state dignitaries who will attend Yassir's funeral in Cairo.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:21 AM ; Permalink;

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

"No; I just like the way it sounds!"

"ARAFAT IS DEAD! Good riddance."

"Excuse me, can you repeat that please?"

"I said ARAFAT IS DEAD; GOOD RIDDANCE!"

"Excuse me, would you mind repeating that again, slowly and very loudly, please?"

"AR-A-FAT IS DEAD! GOOD RID-DANCE!"

"Please say it again?"

"What... are you DEAF, or do you think I am a LIAR, or do you have Alzheimer's or something!?"

"No. I hear perfectly fine, I'm sure you're as honest as the day is long, and my mind - thank God - is as sharp as a pin!"

"Then why are you making me repeat it over and over again!?"

"I just like the way it sounds!"

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:41 PM ; Permalink;

Video link to my favorite '04 RNC speech: Zell Miller

I cried during a moment in Zell Miller's 1992 Madison Square Garden DNC speech, (when he nominated Clinton). The part when he told about how he was born in a little holler in northwest Georgia - a little town, a poor town, with no electricity or phones or running water. And one day, when he was still a little boy, and he was sitting on the porch of his family's home with his momma, she pointed down to the little dirt road that meandered through the bottom of the holler. And she said to him, "Zell, you see that road there? You can get ANYWHERE you want on that road!"

And she was right: in America you can get wherever you want. (Why just today, President Bush nominated Al Gonzales - the son of Mexican migrant workers - to be Attorney General of the United States of America! MAN: Is this a great country, or what!?)

Zell's 2004 speech - also delivered in NYC at Madison Square Garden - is even BETTER than the one in '92.

And it's worth another look. Click here, and watch Zell. I think you'll agree: He was GREAT! Thanks, Zell!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 7:22 PM ; Permalink;

A LETTER FOR THEO

In case you didn't know: "Theo Van Gogh, a distant relative of the painter Vincent Van Gogh, was shot six times and almost decapitated with a butcher's knife in daylight as he cycled down a street in Amsterdam last week. A five-page letter declaring holy war and threatening death to the critics of Islam was stabbed to his chest with a knife."

A sarcastic letter was read as part of the funeral for Theo Van Gogh. HERE'S A SNIPPET:

"we will do our very best to learn more about your beliefs to prevent further misunderstanding", and apologising that the killing "had to happen in the middle of Ramadan".

The murder has opened a lot of Dutch eyes, it seems:

"Since the killing, several mosques have been attacked, an Islamic school has been bombed and, yesterday, Protestant churches in Utrecht and Amersfoort had petrol bombs thrown at them."

RTWT.

IMHO: It all started in Iran with the overthrow of the Shah - then, not long after that, came the fatwa against Rushdie - that was 25 years ago! And they kept attacking us - year after year, all over the world, but it wasn't until 9/11 that we fought back. We're fighting back. And the enemy - the Jihadoterrorists - don't like that one bit. And they're desperately trying to keep their Jihad going - and they keep using terror to do that. When they blew up the UN mission in Baghdad, and the UN split - their terror worked. The murder of Van Gogh is an attempt to get the entire nation of the Netherlands to cower and capitulate. Yesterday they kidnapped a few members of Allawi's family to try to get him to cower and capitulate on Falluja; he hasn't - yet. He wants to fight back - and now it seems that the Dutch want to fight back, too.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:23 PM ; Permalink;

OBAMAGATE?

Is rising-star Barack Obama ALREADY only a shooting star?

Obama may already be involved in a brewing legal scandal that may involve a breech of contract. According to famed gossip columnist CINDY ADAMS of the NY POST, Obama recently and abruptly reneged on a new contract from his longtime literary agent, and then bolted to BJ Clinton's agent - courtesy of Lewinsky job advisor Vernon Jordan.

Do you think this scandal is too small a matter to be called OBAMAGATE?

Maybe; maybe NOT. Remember: book scandals helped bring down two Speakers of the House: Wright and Gingrich.

If Obama cannot be trusted to honor a contract with a longtime agent, should we trust him when he takes the oath of office?

Perhaps NOT.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 4:44 PM ; Permalink;

NO BLOOD FOR CHOCOLATE!

The French - who wouldn't send a single soldier to Iraq to help liberate the Iraqis from Saddam, or (once Saddam was ousted) to help secure Iraq for democracy - has had troops in Cote Ivoire for months, (ASIDE: with little positive effect - so what makes ANYONE think they could help out against the Jihadoterrorists in Iraq!?).

Why in the Cote Ivoire of all places? Could it be because the Cote Ivoire produces 43% of the world's CHOCOLATE? Could it be that CHOCOALTE is something that the French think is worth dying for - or killing for?

MAYBE THAT'S WHY THERE AREN'T ANY INTELLECTUALLY SUPERIOR PARISIANS TAKING TO THE BARRICADES TO PROTEST THIS FOREIGN MILITARY MISADVENTURE. ONE IN WHICH EIGHT FRENCH SOLDIERS HAVE ALREADY DIED. PERHAPS THIS IS WHY THERE ARE NO SIGNS PROCLAIMING: "NO BLOOD FOR CHOCOLATE!" AND WHY THERE IS NO OUTRAGE.

Evidently, the French value chocolate more than oil. Or moral consistency. Or "Universal Human Rights" - (to borrow an Eleanor Roosevelt phrase which was once held in reverenece by the UN ...).

So, this means that Richard Boucher - chief spokeman of the USA Department Of State - was right when he referred to France, Belgium, Germany, and Luxembourg - (who at the time were openly if not brazenly conspiring to foil U.S. efforts to oust Saddam, and were actively seeking to keep Saddam in power) - as "the chocolate makers."

Actually, Cote Ivoire has had something of a civil war going on since 2002; the north is under control of rebels. Oh... coincidently, that's where the Muslims live (50% of the Ivoirians population. Oh, get this: the government in the south has accused France of aiding the Muslim rebels. WHAT!?!?!? France and Jihadoterrorists working together!? Sacre BLEU! Not again!? Yes: AGAIN!

The civil war in Cote Ivoire may really be just another battlefield of the Global War against Jihadoterrorism. The Muslim rebels in the north (and their French allies) may be fighting for Jihad - and not merely control of the world's chocolate.

Jihadoterrorism (and NOT oil or cocoa!) is why we went into Iraq - and why we may - over the next two decades - have to invade other countries in other continents - like Cote Ivoire (or The Sudan, or Kenya, or Nigeria - all African countries which have had serious attacks inflicted on them by Jihadoterrorists).

And while I worry about the spread of the GWOT, Parisans worry about the price of chocolate.

UPDATE: It seems the major industrial chocolate users and the chocolate markets are geeting jittery... I suggest they call their friend in the Elysee Palace and ask him to deploy all the military assets of the entire Confectionery-Military-Industrial Complex of Belgium and France and Luxembourg in order to save this vital Western interest!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 2:54 PM ; Permalink;

Monday, November 08, 2004

IAEA e-i-e-i-o

The IAEA is in the news again. The last time was because its chief - el Baradei - was the widely belived to be the leaker of the alQaqaagate memo. This time it's because the IAEA thinks that the EU Trio has negotiated a good deal with Iran.

I'm skeptical for two reasons: one, I don't trust Iran to abide by any deal any more than North Korea. Two, I don't trust the IAEA. The IAEA has a track record of FAILURE.

Though you wouldn't know that by reading any of the news articles in the Old Media. All the articles in the Old Media refer to the IAEA as the "nuclear watchdog" group of the UN. Calling the IAEA a "watchdog" is a stupid cliche which prolongs a myth - or a lie. WHY? Here:

(1) The IAEA entirely missed Saddam's 1980's nuclear program which was only two years from a making bomb in 1991. ONLY our victory in the first Gulf War prevented Saddam from getting as nuke.

(2) The IAEA entirely missed the North Korean urnanium enrichment progam - it was discovered by the USA.

(3) The IAEA entirely missed the Libyan Program that was only discovered when the USA/CIA broke the AQKHAN nuclear arms smuggling ring - which the IAEA had also completely overlooked.

This is NOT the record of an international watchdog. This is the record of a UN lapdog. They are either incompetent or compromised. We mustn't farm out our national security to UN agencies whose track records are as abysmal as the IAEA's. Or to the EU. Or Iran. National security based on the assurances of the EU and the IAEA and Iran is not real security; it is really nothing more than a false sense of security. If we rely on them, then one day the real dog - a nuclear Iran - will come back to bite us. I'd rather trust the USMC and the USN and the USAF with our security than the IAEA the EU or the UN. Wouldn't you!?

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:34 AM ; Permalink;

Why We Shouldn't Gloat

Overheard on a C-SPAN post-election symposium (paraphrasing):

"We shouldn't gloat about our broad national mandate; after all, for the Democrat Party national elections are an AWAY game!"

Heh. Now, scroll down a few posts - AND CLICK & GLOAT! Heh, heh.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 12:36 AM ; Permalink;

Sunday, November 07, 2004

AN URBAN AGENDA FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM

Polipundit linked to a great map of the elections results; this one is in NOT merely by color (red versus blue), but also has a "3D" effect which amplifies the fact that the Left-wing Democrat Party is really NOT a national party, but ONLY the majority party of America's biggest cities. This fact is further buttressed by a poll in today's NYTIMES by Edison Media Research; this poll revealed that the Democrat Party got 60% of the votes cast in cities with over 500,000 people - the ONLY size city or town that they carried!

This map (and this tally in this poll) indicates not just where the Democrats ARE NOW, but where the GOP must take the fight over the next few years if we are to finally irradicate the failed politics and policies of the Left-wing.

We must take the fight to the cities - and we can do this by merely articulating AN URBAN AGENDA FOR THE NEW MILLENIUM which is based on the core principles of the GOP: empowerment, opportunity, and ownership.

(1-a) Push for school chocie and school vouchers. These empower parents and disempower the teacher's unions (and other unions - like custodians and principals) which are bleeding school budgets without improving the academic results. (1 -b) We should also make all school systems accountable to mayors - not school boards - so that there is polical accounatbility for results. We do this by making federal aid to schools conditional on these two changes.

(2) Privatize public housing. This uplifts the working poor and makes them independent stakeholders, instead of people dependent on the state. Jack Kemp floated this idea 20 years ago; it's time to dust it off and implement it - perhaps by bringing him back as HUD Secretary! We need to ramp up low cost loans for this purpose and dispatch co-op advisors and incentvize local general contractors to underatke much needed improvements to these newly privately held assets.

(3) Incentivize economic activity by cutting taxes on new businesses in the cities - and make this a federal/state/local partnership by making the federal portion of tax incentives dependent on equal particpation of the state and ther city. This would be a twist on revenue sharing; this would be "tax-cut sharing." This would incentivize the states and cities to "buy into" supply-side economics (which have been proven to work).

BOTTOM-LINE: BLUE cities all have higher unemployment, and lower high school graduation rates, and more crime than RED counties. This is in part due to several decades of failing Left-wing policies foisted on the the cities by the Democrat machines merely to get votes.

The aggressive 3-point GOP program for the cities will end the decline of the cities, improve the lives of city-dwellers, and end the Left-wing Demcorat Party's cynical and demogoguic stranglehold on the cities.

That's a win-win-win for everyone.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 4:56 PM ; Permalink;

Friday, November 05, 2004

CLICK AND GLOAT

Invite a Leftie to stand by your computer and then click and gloat!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:22 PM ; Permalink;

The Slanderous Left

Kerry and the Left slandered the US military in Vietnam: "war criminals murdering for no just cause, but only to enrich the Military -Industrial Complex." They were wrong; our military is and was honorable and the cause was just; merely look at South Korea and see what Vietnam MIGHT have been; (instead, it resembles North Korea).

The Left slandered Reagan: "a buffoon, a mere actor, a war-monger fronting for the Military-Industrial Complex.". But he reinvigorated our economy, and our patriotic spirit, and defeated the USSR and ended the Cold War.

The Left Slandered W: "an idiot chimp" fronting for Halliburton and Carlyle and the Military-Industrial Complex." But he has liberated 50 MILLION people, and reinvigoated our economy, and kept us safe from the Jihadoterrorists.

The Left slanders religiously observant Christians and Jews: "the evangelical right are peas in the pod of the Jihadoterrorists." But I don't recall any evanegelicals flying any jets into any towers.

The Left slanders advocates of the 2nd Amendment: "the NRA is a bunch of gun-nuts and vigilantes." But restrictive gun laws have had no effect on gun crime - anywhere in the world.

The Left slanders Ashcroft: "he is taking away your civil liberties" even though they cannot name a SINGLE instant of any citizen's rights being abridged by Ashcroft or the Patriot Act. And they slander him even as they applaud the McCain-Feingold Bill which put HUGE limitations on Free Speech and did NOTHING to reduce the amount of money in campaigns.

Thank God, the majority of Americans see through these slanders - or ignore them.

The fact remains: If the Left did not dominate the Old Media, then their slanderous attacks would have absolutely the effect it deserves: NONE.

As it stands now, they merely dominate the Old Media and the Democrat Party.

It's time that Democrats took their party AWAY from the Leftists, (again and for good).

And it's time for the Old Media to become the LATE Old Media!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 5:05 PM ; Permalink;

How Old Media Denied W a Landslide

According to the FAIR FORMULA - which extrapolates economic facts and demonstrates their historic effects on the electorate - Bush should have won with at least 58% of the vote, and with over 300 in the EC. Bush did not.

WHY DIDN'T THE FAIR FORMULA WORK THIS TIME?

Because for the last two years the Old Media did not report the true state of the economy, and as a result the electorate perceived the economy to be worse overall than it really was.

Had the electorate been truthfully informed by the Old Media, then they would have known that the economy in 2004 is every bit as as good as it was in 1996 (maybe even better), when Clinton won reelection by 8% (over his nearest rival, in a 3-way race). This is more than the 3% margin Bush enjoyed.

I believe accurate and truthful reporting on the economy would have led Bush to win 6 states that were VERY CLOSE: Wisconsin, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Michigan and New Hampshire - each of which Bush lost by less than 3%. These states had a total of 69 Electoral Votes. Bush would have won with 355 EV - a huge win - if he had won these 6 states.

I believe that biased reporting on the economy had a greater overall negative effect on the election than Rathergate, alQaqaagate, Nigergate, Plamegate, or even Abu Ghraib.

The biased reporting on the economy was a longer, deeper, more peravsive BIG LIE than any of the others which were - by comparison - all mere flashes in the pan which didn't erode Bush's base.

The New Media must continue to do whatever it takes to get the truth out and thereby prevent the Left-wingers who dominate the Old Media from getting their Leftist propaganda out unchallenged.

A well-informed electorate is the best defender of liberty.

Those who keep the electorate well informed are the vanguard.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:12 PM ; Permalink;

CHIRAC WAS THE LAST PERSON TO VISIT ARAFAT

According to "Reuters," Chirac may have been the last person to visit Arafat. If this is true, then I hope Yassir's condition is contagious. Heh.

UPDATE: "Arafat had smiled at Chirac and the two had held hands."

UPDATE: Chirac went to see Arafat, but refused to see Allawi.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 12:12 PM ; Permalink;

Thursday, November 04, 2004

THE REAL DIVIDE

The real divide in the electorate is NOT religious versus non-religious, or regular church-goers versus non-church-goers.

The real divide is much more basic. The real divide is suburban/ex-urban/rural traditionalists versus URBAN/urbane faddists. The RED versus BLUE county map proves this (hat tip VODKAPUNDIT).

Need more proof? Here: the anti-homosexual marriage referenda went down about an average of 70% - or 2-to-1. That's a MUCH larger percentage than those who voted for either candidate or than those who attend church regularly - or evangelicals. And they are not all homophobic, and they MUST include Democrats.

Why did so many people want marriage to remain what is has always been? Because they are traditionalists. And to these traditionalists religious values are an important source of (BUT NOT THE ONLY SOURCE) - inspiration for ALL life's crises, issues and debates. This doesn't make them anti-secularists - Bush in fact is a committed secularist as much a committed Christian; the two are not mutually exclusive - no matter what you hear about Bush's Faith Based Initiative.

The BLUE states are IN FACT merely the states dominated by large cities that are themselves dominated by anti-traditionalists - what I call "faddists" - people who eat at the latest hot-spots, read the newest books, wear the trendiest fashions, see the newest movies and watch the hottest TV shows.

These trendy urbanites value the "next new thing" (especially ones that are "EDGY" - that PUSH THE ENVELOPE, and challenge traditional values and norms) more than they do the classics or traditional values.

But traditional values are time-tested and dependable -especially in a time of great strife or war. And MORE people will always seek guidance and shelter in traditional values in tough times. They are our bedrock; they are dependable; that's why they survived and continue to inspire us to be our best.

SO... how and why did Kerry get the votes of so many people who opposed homosexual marriage? Well, first, because Kerry lied about where he stood on the issue, and then couched his lie in so many nuances that many people couldn't tell he was lying. Second, many people who are traditionalists are also traditional Democrats who would have as tough a time voting for a Republican as worshipping in a church of another faith.

The results of the homosexual marriage referenda, and of the exit polls (which revealed that MANY people put "MORAL VALUES" at the top of their priorities), and the results of the presidential election should be a warning to the Democrat Party that these traditionalists will not long suffer the onslaught of those who would turn their party into a party of anti-traditionalists run by Left-wing moral relativists.

[PS: I'm still a registered Democrat - though not for long - and I'm NOT a regular attendee of religious services. I'm an urban traditionalist.]

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:18 PM ; Permalink;

Bush announces the first act of his second term

The first act of his second term will be to discontinue using "Hail To The Chief."

To hear the new song that will be used just before all presidential appearances just click here.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:51 PM ; Permalink;

Play this song for your sad Democrat friends

Play this song for your sad Democrat friends - it will cheer them up - NOT!

http://jhanch.web2010.com/whitehouse.ram

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 3:38 PM ; Permalink;

New Small Smart Bomb Ready for use in Fallujah

According to Defense Tech : "... 500-pound GBU-38 -- half the size of what had been the smallest Joint Direct Attack Munition, [JDAM] or satellite-directed bomb. F-16s at Balad Air Base in Iraq are now being loaded up with the bombs. The U.S. Air Force hopes to "hopes within days" to begin using them, according to Defense News. [...] The Air Force is [also] developing an even smaller weapon, the 250-pound Small Diameter Bomb. [The] weapon will bring not only a more measured use of explosive power, but the ability to load more bombs on a fighter, expanding the number of targets that can be hit in a single sortie."

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 2:44 PM ; Permalink;

My Cabinet Suggestions

Here're my cabinet suggestions for W:

State - Danforth
UN - Condie
NSA - Wolfie
DOD - Rummy (or Franks)
DOJ - Estrada (or Rudy)
SCOTUS -
CJ - Clarence Thomas
AJ - Larry Thompson
(a former Deputy AG; a black conservative)-(or Rudy)
DHS - Franks (or Rudy)
Commerce - Jack Welch
NID - Goss (or Rudy)
DOT - Frost

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:51 PM ; Permalink;

Message to the ascendant GOP: ASSERT AN URBAN AGENDA

Looking over the electoral map (by county) one cannot help but make at least one huge conclusion: the Democrats are still the majority party most of the big old cities - most majorities are HUGE. WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR THIS?

First, the cities have long been voting slaves to local Democrat machines. Second, the Democrats have long been the majority party for immigrants. Third, cities have long been magnets for ethnic diversity and the Democrats have traditonally been more diverse. Fourth, the urban poor have long been bought off by the largesse of the liberal welfare state.

All this is changing, but not enough. Clinton moved more toward the center and toward the GOP when he pledged "to end welfare as we know it." This helped Clinton at the polls.

The GOP must make bigger and better overt overtures to the urban electorate, and it can do this merely by asserting its inclusive, color-blind, pro-business, anti-crime, personal empowerment (anti-welfare/anti-state dependency), school choice/teacher accountability, and low tax URBAN agenda.

This effort should be led by former mayors Giuliani and Riordan, and Senators Coleman and Lugar - both former mayors, and Mayor Bloomberg.

This newly assertive GOP Urban Agenda would help the cities, and just as importantly - it would be the death knell for the Left.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:45 PM ; Permalink;

FALLUJAH: "Iraqi lights, Iraqi cameras, MARINE ACTION!"

WaPO Headline:

"Iraqi Journalists Prepare for Front Lines in Fallujah:
Reporters to Embed With Marines, National Forces if Battle Starts in Insurgent-Held City"

EXCERPT:

"First Lt. Lyle Gilbert, a spokesman for the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, said it was important to allow the Iraqi journalists to cover any upcoming offensive in their own style and manner. 'The hope is that in the end, as much as possible, they will be able to take information they get here and inform their publics,' he said."

Could it be the Marines are embedding Iraqi reporters - instead of Old Media reporters or Arabs from alJazeera - so that the Marines can be sure that the Iraqi people get unbiased coverage of the liberation of Fallujah?

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 12:00 AM ; Permalink;

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

JUST IN....

From PRESTOPUNDIT :

Yesterday, John Forbes Kerry was found

UNFIT FOR COMMAND

by the American People.

Indeed.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:55 PM ; Permalink;

Old Media, Glenn Reynolds, Ray Fair - and George Bush

INSTAPUNDIT wrote:

"... the real losers in this election -- the Old Media, still angry that they couldn't deliver their fifteen percent."

Oh, but Professor: they DID deliver their 15% - it just wasn't enough!

IOW: Can you imagine how much bigger the Bush win would've been had the Old Media had even slightly examined the Kerry bio or his mish-mash of policies or his plethora of misstatements?

I'd say that instead of winning 51-47% it would have been 58-40 - EXACTLY what the Fair formula predicted - AND - a 7.5% UP TICK for W - and EXACTLY what Mr. Evan Thomas predicted the Old Media was worth to the Left!

Indeed.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:37 PM ; Permalink;

The Democrat Party: a national party no more

VODKAPUNDIT linked to a "election result by county map" in PDF.

A simple perusal of the map reveals that the ONLY place where the Democrats carried every county in any state - or EVEN a mere majority of counties in any state is in New England - with a candidate from New England.

Truly Zell Miller is right: the Democrat Party is a national party no more.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:27 PM ; Permalink;

Phraud in Philly?

From the NRO's BATTLEGROUNDERS (Chris Lilik):

"In 2000 Gore won by a greater margin in PA:

47% Bush: 2,264,309

51% Gore: 2,465,412.

In 2004, with 99% of all precincts reporting, things were closer:

49% Bush 2,746,856

51% Kerry 2,868,674.

As predicted, the Achilles heal for Republicans like Bush in PA was the Democrat juggernaut called Philadelphia county. The vote totals in Philadelphia County were just too much for W, who lost that county: 517,054 (80%)-124,710 (20%). That's a loss of a little less than 400,000 in ONE COUNTY, and a bigger Democrat candidate vote total than when Gore beat Bush in Philly by nearly 350,000! In 2000 Bush lost that county 99,234 (18%) to 441,834 (80%)."

SO... for this years result to be TRUE, we must believe that in an election that saw W's portion of the Black vote DOUBLE, and his share of women increase, and his margins in PA and NY INCREASE, that Philly went for Kerry in GREATER NUMBERS than for Gore!? I'm sorry: this is SIMPLY NOT CREDIBLE; this indicates massive voter fraud - without which Bush carries PA. REMEMBER: Philly is where they found a few machines that had votes in them BEFORE the polls opened --- MAYBE there were many more that they never found? Maybe?

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:25 PM ; Permalink;

Tuesday, November 02, 2004

If the worst happens... WHERE WILL THEY BE DANCING?

If the worst happens and the DNC/ACT massive voter fraud works - and as a result Kerry wins the election (GOD FORBID!) then WHERE DO YOU THINK THEY WILL BE DANCING!?

In the Upper West Side of NYC, in the salons of the OLD MEDIA, in Paris, at th UN, and in Gaza and Fallujah.

Zarqawi and OBL will be as happy as Chirac, TUHRAYSUH and McAuliffe.

That says it all.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 6:33 PM ; Permalink;

I saw W's final rally of the campaign, and....

I watched W’s last campaign rally for 2004, in Dallas - on C-SPAN. The crowd was very enthusiastic, and the president looked in great spirits and gave a great speech.
It made me look back at the campaign, and think of THREE MORE reasons why I am confident that W will win reelection, and win big:
(1) Bush started his speech with a litany of thanks to prominent polticians there - a few in tight races. KERRY NEVER DOES THIS. WHY!? Well, Kerry has NEVER really campaigned with an incumbent who was running for reelection in a tight contest. If Kerry was a strong "vote magnet" then other candidates lower down on the ticket would’ve sought him out - instead, incumbents like Daschle ran away from Kerry. THAT'S A REAL BAD SIGN!
(2) The pro-Bush crowd broke out into spantaneous cheers of "U-S-A! U-S-A! U-S-A!" I never ONCE saw a Kerry rally break out into a spontaneous cheer "U-S-A! U-S-A!" - NOT ONCE! The only cheer they seemed to have was a sort of countdown to election day, so tonight they were cheering "ONE MORE DAY! ONE MORE DAY!" This negative chant really captures the whole core or essence of the Democrat Party: they’re the"anti" party, and they’re running a mediocre, Left-wing, dove candidate who gets their applause only because he is "ABB" anybody but Bush.
This negative/REACTIONARY theme cannot propel him - or the party to victory. Especially when the theme - and the party - is lead by a Senator who NEVER had ANY leadership in the Senate or in his party - EVER! If Kerry had true leadership qualities, don’t you think that the Democrats would’ve sought him out for some/ANY leadership position in the last 20 years!?!? Of course they would’ve. Has Kerry EVER had a proactive leadeship role in ANY important legislation? NO, not once.
SO... how did Kerry get the nomination, then? BY DEFAULT! When it became apparent that Dean was a "wacko", IOWANS placed their bets on Kerry; he then won NH because he was a "virtual" native son/neighbor - and the rest is history...HE WAS NEVER CHALLENGED AFTER THAT.

(3) I saw A LOT of young people at W's rally at SMU. And at other Bush rallies across the USA. I think that the whole idea that the youth vote and/or the "new voter" will break foir Kerry is FALSE. Here's why:

Dean was SUPPOSED to be propelled to victory in IOWA by the new youth vote, the new internet voter - Joe Trippi's "DEANIACS.". IT DID NOT HAPPEN FOR DEAN, AND IT WILL NOT HAPPEN FOR KERRY, EITHER!
That’s how the Democrat Party - MY OLD PARTY - ended up with a guy who won’t release his medical records, or his wife’s holdings, or his own military records. A candidate who other candidates run away from - and who inspires not a whit of patriotism or optimism.
That is a candidate who MUSTN’T win - and who cannot win, thank God.

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 1:58 AM ; Permalink;

Monday, November 01, 2004

ELECTION PREDICTION: BUSH BLOWOUT!!!!!!!!

(1) Bush will win the popular vote by MILLIONS. Guaranteed. And (2) he will win the EC handily. Guaranteed.

WHY? Because he has picked up votes in CA, NY, MA, NJ, MI, MN, IA, NM, and WI. In EVERY case, the result in each of the sdtates will be SUBSTANTIALLY better for Bush in 2004 than in 2000. By millions in total. NO ONE CONTRADICTS THIS.

Okay... NOW: IF Bush is getting more BLUE votes in BLUE states, doesn't it necessarily follow that he will also gain BLUE votes in RED states!??!?!?!?!?!??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? Of course it does.

SO: if Bush is doing better with BLUE voters in BLUE States, and as well or better with BLUE voters in Red states then he MUST poll many MANY more overall voters this year than he did in 2000.

Meanwhile, Kerry has higher UNFAVORABLE numbers than Gore did in 2000 - (hard to believe, I know!) and he has a much less enthusiastic base tha Gore did in 2000, or than Bush this year. (REMEMBER: in 2000, Gore out-polled every Democrat ever to run for the presidency except LBJ!) SO Kerry CANNOT get more votes this year than Gore did in 2000 - NOT REAL VOTES, FROM REAL PEOPLE THAT IS!

Okay... so, if Bush is UNEQUIVOCABLY going to do better in BLUE states this time out, the how can ANYONE believe that he will do worse in RED states - especially RED states which have strong GOP organizations - like FL (GOP guv and GOP state legislature, and a GOP challenger for the US Senate seat who is a head) and OH - which has a GOP guv and two GOP Senators?!?!?!?!?

Like I said: it CANNOT happen --- not without fraud, that is. SO Bush will hold nearly every Red state, and pick up one to a several BLUE states, and also do better in EVERY BLUE state - even the ones he fails to win!

Sure: Bush can do better in ther BLUE states WITHOUT putting a single one in his column; therefore a CLOSE Electoral College tally is POSSIBLE. BUT IT IS NOT LIKELY, because BLUE voters CA in FL are not too different than BLUE voters in FL: if more in CA are voting Bush this timeout in CA, than more will in FL, too.

SO it SHOULD be a blow-out PV & EC - unless there is massive voter fraud.

I feel that there is massive voter fraud already underway. The issue is will it be enough to make the races close?

I pray not. What else can I say? Except: RUDY 2008!

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 8:16 PM ; Permalink;

Another reason why Jewish voters should vote Bush

Fully ONE-QUARTER of the Congressional Democrats vote consistently anti-Israel.

The entire Congressional Black Caucus, and a handful of anti-Semites like Jim Moran and Jim McDermott consistently vote against pro-Israeli Bills and Resolutions.

The Democratic Leadership of the Congress - especially Nancy Pelosi - owe their jobs to the CBC and they are all BEHOLDEN to the CBC.

The Leadership of the Democrats in Congress CANNOT afford to lose the support of the CBC. They can afford to lose the support of the pro-Israel lobby - which has been very supportive of George W, Bush, and is now split nearly 60%-%-40% in favor of the Democrats - a figure that this election may show has changed even more greatly.

Even Joe Lieberman was singing the praises of George W. Bush (and W's INCREDIBLE support for Israel) while Joe was on a campiagn swing through Florida - ostensibly to support Kerry. And Holbrooke praised Bush's support for Israel at a meeting ofd the AIPAC -and it was met with rousing applause - to which Holbrooke replied, snidley: "That wasn't supposed to be an applause line!"

Against this backdrop (of increasing strength of anti-Israel bloc in the Democratic Congressional Caucus, and decreasing "knee-jerk" support by Jewish voters for any Democrat candidate), is this FACT:

the MOST SALIENT part of Kerry's foreign policy: he will be more internationalist.

That means Kerry will work more closely with - and agree more with/capitulate to - the UN (which is anti-Israel) the EU (which is pro-Arafat and anti-Israel) and France (which is the home of the new anti-Semitism in Europe) and Germany.

The only way for Kerry to do this - and NOT lose precious Democratic support in the Congress is to DUMP ISRAEL.

This proves that Krauthammer is right. And it's another reason Jewish voters should not voter for Kerry.

(As if we needed more proof: Kerry stepson made anti-Semitic comments yesterday!)

- Posted by Reliapundit @ 11:50 AM ; Permalink;

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