Thursday, March 31, 2005
SANTORUM GETS IT
FOX:Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said Schiavo not only was a daughter and a sister but "most importantly, an innocent person was penalized by a court system that grants convicted murderers fair treatment under the law, but not a woman whose only crime was not filing a living will. ... The actions on the part of the Florida court and the U.S. Supreme Court are unconscionable. In California, Scott Peterson, a convicted murderer, was sentenced to death, yet his constitutional rights were upheld to ensure that he received due process and fair consideration in court. Terri Schiavo was given a death sentence, and passed away without the right to due process."
In a later conference call with reporters, Santorum said the courts had practiced nothing less than "judicial tyranny" in this case and took aim at those who say Congress overstepped its bounds. "[This is] routinely done by the courts — deciding they are now a super-legislature. ... "I'm not sure if the press realizes how serious this conflict is between the branches of government and how gravely concerned members of Congress are with [the] kinds of judicial tyranny we've seen. ... "To suggest Congress has exceeded power shows you there are judges who simply ignore written law and substitute their own judgments."
PREDICTION: the Left will accuse the Right of trying to exploit Terri's death
It will be seen for what it is: a hollow charge, and a hypocritical one , too.
WHY!?
Well, it's HYPOCRITICAL of the Left because when Ronald Reagan lived the Left HATED him; yet, (b) when he died the Left tried to exploit it to promote EMBRYONIC stem cell research (which is NOT the only form of stem cell research, or even the most promising form of stem cell research; and (c) stem cells have, to date, been shown to have very limited applications for people with Alzheimer's syndromes.
ON THE CONTRARY, the Right has been engaged with the Schindler's case from Day One.
HUGH HEWITT: debunking the religiophobic Left
THE TERRI SCHIAVO TRAGEDY has been seized on by long-time critics of the "religious right" to launch attack after attack on the legitimacy of political action on the basis of religious belief. This attack has ignored the inconvenient participation in the debate--on the side of resuming water and nutrition for Terri Schiavo--of the spectacularly not-the-religious-rightness of Tom Harkin, Nat Hentoff, Jesse Jackson, and a coalition of disability advocacy groups.
The attack has also been hysterical. After Congress acted--ineffectively, it turned out--Maureen Dowd proclaimed that "theocracy" had arrived in the land. Paul Krugman warned that assassination of liberals by extremists was not far off. And the Internet frenzy on the left was even more extreme.
Tina Brown can always be counted on to try and catch up to the real opinion-leaders of the left by filing a cheap imitation, as she does today with "America's Endless News Loop." Here's her embedded slam at the praying folk:
"The current mania for any story with a religious angle is just the latest index of the post-election angst in executive suites about the terror of being out of touch with suburban mega-churches and other manifestations of the supposed Real America. God forbid, so to speak, that anyone should stand up and suggest that Mozart might be as worthwhile as NASCAR, or that it might be as important for the soul to read Philip Roth as the hokey bromides of 'The Purpose Driven Life.'"
I suppose if Ashley Smith had read Tina Brown to Brian Nichols, he might have turned his gun on himself. Tina's suggestion that those praying people head straight from church to the NASCAR race and never have heard of Mozart tells us
that she hasn't been inside a church in a long long time, and her suggestion that Philip Roth is [a] way to earthly happiness and eternal salvation, well, that's one for the ages: "The Philip Roth-Driven Life." (Perhaps some music and worship pastors might send Ms. Brown their liturgies/orders of worship from this past weekend to educate her on how Mozart and his colleagues and Christian worship aren't exactly strangers.)
*******
RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: The Left thinks that if you believe in God you are (a) an irrational stupid wacko nut-job, and (b) that for all intents and purposes Jihadoterrorists and Evangelicals and Hasidim and devout Catholics (for example) are equal, and equally dangerous.
I ask you: IS THAT A RATIONAL BELIEF? IS IT ACCURATE OR TRUE? OR IS IT A FALSE BELIEF BASED ON A LOGICAL FALLACY ?
Of course, it is an irrational and illogical and false belief; it's clearly an example of CONFLATION.
HERE ARE THREE EXAMPLES OF FALSE ARGUMENTS OF THE LEFT (in which Hugh Hewitt shall subsitute for the rieligous right): (I) "Binladen is religious; Hugh Hewitt is religious; therefore Hugh Hewitt and Binladen are equivalent." (II) "Binladen is dangerous and religious; Hugh Hewitt is religious; therefore Hugh Hewitt is dangerous." (III) Binladen is a religious fanatic; religious fanatics are fundamentalists; fundamentalists are part of the religious right; Hugh Hewitt is part of the religious right; therefore Hugh Hewitt is a dangerous fanatic." The conclusions of each of these three arguments are ILLOGICAL and FALSE. Yet the Left believes and promulgates them all.
I have suggested in numerous postings that the Left commits this fallacy because (1) Leftism is foundationally and FUNDAMENTALLY "anti-traditional Western religion" in nature; and (2) because since the collapse of the USSR and "RED" China, the Left has been mired in the hateful throes of COGNITIVE DISSONANCE. Lashing out at the foundational beliefs of the winning side - THE RIGHT - is nothing more than the reflexive action of this cognitive dissonance. The people WHO REMAIN ON THE LEFT, (a strange breed), find it easier to be irrationally hateful toward the victorious Right, than to admit they were TOTALLY wrong about politics and economics. Most of these folks who remain on the Left will go to their graves believing that Reagan and George W Bush were evil men.
UPDATE - from AP/BOSTON HERALD (hat tip The Corner): HERE'S MORE PROOF (FOR YOU LIBERALS OUT THERE) OF JUST WHAT KIND OF LOW-LIFE SCUM MICHAEL SCHIAVO IS: "The Schindlers' spiritual advisers said the couple had been at their daughter's bedside minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo did not want them in the room."
HEY LIBERALS: TERRI DIED; ARE YOU HAPPY NOW!?
Maybe the liberals - (like Glenn Reynolds) - aren't HAPPY, but I bet you they are RELIEVED. And I bet they'll ALL tell you, "it's because this is what Terri wanted."
YEAH SURE: it's what Terri wanted alright - AS ARBITRARILY DETERMINED BY A JUDGE!
And judges are not infallible. Not even the SCOTUS. Remember Dred Scot. And Japanese internment during WW2. And then - as far as state courts' infallibility goes: there's Claus Von Bulow and OJ.
Judges and courts are NOT infallible and the courts were NEVER intended to above the law.
Congress has specified, enumerated Constitutional authority over the federal courts. The Congress passed a Constitional law - (UNANIMOUSLY IN THE SENATE AND BY 75% IN THE HOUSE!) - which was signed by the president. This LAW ORDERED the federal courts to do a DE NOVO. A majority of the judges refused to do their duty. NOT ALL: a few Clinton appointed justices agreed that they MUST make a de novo review. AND LET ME REMIND YOU: years later, minority opinions (dissents) often turn out to be right. But the judges FAILED TO DO THEIR DUTY IN FLAGRANT DISREGARD OF THE CONSTITUTION. This is OUTRAGEOUS. DO THEY THINK THEY ARE ABOVE THE LAW!?
The majority of judges acted very badly. AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?! Well, the LIBERALS will tell you the judges acted well. AND IF THEY DIDN'T, THEN WHAT!? What do we do then!? How many judges - justices of the SCOTUS get voted out of office!? NONE. Which is to say: the judiciary is not as accountable as the Congress. Which proves that the judiciary is the branch of the federal government which we must be very VERY wary of.
So... now Terri is dead; she was starved to death - SLOWLY. If you did it to your pet, you'd get arrested. OH: BUT THIS IS WHAT SHE WANTED.
ARE YOU SURE!? HEY YOU LIBERALS OUT THERE: ARE YOU SURE!? 100% SURE!? And what if you are wrong. Then what is it that you just did to her!?
Terri was helpless and voiceless - like a fetus. Terri was aborted by her husband - who was given auhority by a judge. The liberals do not care for fetuses or for voiceless, brain-damaged people. YEAH: PEOPLE!
Oh... did I hear a liberal out there say that fetuses are not people!? Then - PRAY TELL ME - what are they!? What is conceived at conception if it not a life!? What is a mother expecting if it not a baby!? And what is a person in a PVS if not a person!?
May Terri Rest in Peace.
I pray that God soothes the Schindler's grief over time, and channels their anger in ways that makes our world a better place.
And I pray that Michael Schiavo receives a just end, too - THAT GOD JUDGE HIM JUSTLY. I know God will judge perfectly and justly. Not like how Greer judged Terri; Greer: who merely PLAYED God.
UPDATE - from AP/BOSTON HERALD (hat tip The Corner): HERE'S MORE PROOF (FOR YOU LIBERALS OUT THERE) OF JUST WHAT KIND OF LOW-LIFE SCUM MICHAEL SCHIAVO IS: The Schindlers' spiritual advisers said the couple had been at their daughter's bedside minutes before the end came, but were not there at the moment of her death because Michael Schiavo did not want them in the room.
ZARQAWI PLANNING WMD ATTACK IN EUROPE
BERLIN, March 30 (Xinhua) -- Jordan-born terrorist Abu Musab al Zarqawi, operating in Iraq, is planning to launch chemical weapons attacks in Europe, a German magazine reported Wednesday. "Somewhere in Europe there's going to be a big bang and it will have been organized by Zarqawi," said a German Federal Intelligence Service (BND) official quoted by the political magazine Cicero. The unnamed BND source said it was unclear how far Zarqawi's agents had gone to prepare for a chemical attack. "We just know that he's working on it," a BND agent told the magazine. The magazine said Zarqawi's men, closely linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network, is producing chemical weapons in Georgia and north Caucasus region of Russia. Zarqawi is believed to have at least 150 potential terrorists based in Berlin, Bavaria and Baden-Wuerttemberg states, said the BND agents in the Cicero report. The potential perps sound like they might be non-Arabic (and very European/European-looking) men and/or women who would be VERY hard to PROFILE. Stay tuned...
UPDATE: Turkey's ZAMAN ONLINE has picked up the story, as have a dozen other news outlets...
UPDATE#2: EXPATICA (a usually reliable aggregator in Europe) is running the news item, now...
UPDATE #3: JAWA makes this point, and has MORE: A chemical weapons lab was found in Fallujah shortly, but no quantities of WMD were located. Fallujah was Zarqawi's headquarters until it was liberated by U.S. troops late last year.
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
Jihadofascist Website Threatens Missile Attack Against Jets at JFK Airport
By Lisa Myers & the NBC investigative unit
NEW YORK - A Web site with connections to the Iraqi insurgency posted a schematic map of JFK International Airport in New York City, along with a manual on how to use shoulder-fired missiles. ... NBC News obtained the information showing potential terrorists how to down civilian airplanes by using the missiles. The Internet posting also contained a simple map of JFK Airport, plotting flight paths of planes and the security perimeter. The Web site also showed a sketch of a terrorist shooting a missile at a plane from a rooftop. New York officials say they take this seriously and have alerted security at the airport. The FBI is still analyzing the information, but terrorism experts tell us there's no suggestion this poses any immediate threat.
WHAT IF CASTRO HAD FAILED, OR IF THE BAY OF PIGS INVASION HAD SUCCEEDED?
The brilliant Babalublog linked to an idiotic promo for a restaurant in RI which glorifies and romanticizes Castro and Che - two totalitarian mass murderers.
Here's an excerpt:
Borne of a desire to rid Cuba of the US supported dictator Fulgencio Batista who ran Cuba as a Mafia-controlled "Latin Las Vegas," the Cuban Revolution was a popular rebellion of the masses led by the charismatic Fidel Castro and Che Guevara.
They're essentially saying, "Havana: the Cuban Las Vegas" and meaning it in a bad way.
IS THAT RATIONAL!? After all, Las Vegas is one of the fastest growing cities in the USA and has a high standard of living and low unemployment. It's also one of the FREEST most liberated places to live in the whole entire world. Anything goes in Vegas. And it stays there, too. (How do they do that, exactly!?)
And what is Havana now, after 50 years of Marxist tyranny? A poor Third World nation. One that can trade with every single country in the world EXCEPT the USA, and uses that as an excuse for its poverty. A place where you cannot read or write or worship freely. Or emigrate from legally.
I'd say Cuba would be A LOT better off if it still were the Vegas of the Carribean!
"RE-VIVA LA LATIN LAS VEGAS!"
EVIL EMPIRE ORDERED JPII ASSASINATED
Rome, Mar. 30 (CWNews.com) -
The files of the old East German secret service contain documents confirming that the Soviet Union ordered the May 13, 1981 attempt on the life of Pope John Paul II , Italian newspapers are reporting. Two newspapers, Corriere della Sera and il Giornale , are reporting that files from the Stasi, the East German spy agency, confirm the suspicions long held by Vatican officials. Documents in newly opened files show that the KGB, the Soviet spy agency, ordered the assassination attempt, which was carried out by the Bulgarian secret service.Reagan was right: the USSR was the Evil Empire.
(Welcome JAWA readers; please checkout a few other HOT short posts.)
CASTRO'S DAYS ARE NUMBERED
Castro is an old man. Castro will die soon. If Bush were to start MORE VOCIFEROUSLY AND STEADILY denounce & deride the socialist tyranny in Cuba, then Castro's death MIGHT VERY WELL set off an UNSTOPPABLE popular democracy movement within Cuba (as Hariri's did in Lebanon and Arafat's did in the occupied territories).
LITTLE AXIS OF EVIL?
Spain's socialist PM Zapatero is joining Russia's Tsar Putin in arming Venezuela's little Castro - Chavez. The threesome make up a "little axis of evil" that extends right here into our own backyard. BBC: The Spanish prime minister has defended a plan to sell arms to Venezuela amid US concern that the deal could destabilise countries in Latin America. Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero is expected to finalise the purchase of ships and planes worth 1.3bn euros ($1.7bn) in Venezuela on Wednesday. He said the military equipment was designed to help regional security and to counter drug trafficking. The proposed deal has been denounced by Mr Zapatero's political foes in Spain. Spain's conservative opposition leader Mariano Rajoy described the plans as a "monstrous error" and said Venezuelan opponents of President Hugo Chavez had also criticised the proposal. The row in Spain follows international concern over Venezuelan plans to buy 100,000 AK-47 assault rifles from Russia. The US state department has accused Venezuela of starting an arms race and has suggested the rifles could end up in the hands of Colombia's left-wing Farc rebels.
Chavez is the Mugabe of South America. Those who arm him - pseudo-allies Russia and Spain - are also opposing us in other regions of the world. Spain and Russia are KNOWINGLY strengthening a very dangerous regime and DELIBERATELY flaunting American interests and opposing Bush's policies. I have a feeling Bush is noting this, and keeping it under his hat - until the time is right. (I hope the right time to confront Russia and Spain and Venezuela - AND MEXICO - comes sooner, rather than later! )
I thought it was going to be a column about Michael Schiavo - but I was wrong: It's about Africa and AIDS.
BBC: North Korean soldiers and riot police had to step in after violence erupted when the home side lost a World Cup qualifying match to Iran, say reports. Bottles, stones and chairs were thrown on to the pitch in Pyongyang after a North Korean player was sent off. Violence then spilled over outside the stadium and thousands of angry fans reportedly prevented Iranian players from boarding the team bus. ... A North Korean defector and former football official told Reuters that his homeland had an organised society and such behaviour was unlikely to be tolerated. "I have never seen anything like this myself," he said. "The people responsible are likely to be tracked down and severely punished."
This is a sign of the breakdown of the state's machinery of fear and terror, and it's a good omen.
POWELL PROVES ONCE AGAIN HE DID NOT SERVE THE PRESIDENT WELL
The president was not served well by Powell. He was NOT a clear supporter of the president's policies to our allies; they knew this and it undercut our policies.
Rumsfeld is still on the job, and Powell is GONE - which proves that the president knows who served him and the USA well, and who did not.
Here's the proof - from an interview he gave in GERMANY, of course (FOX/AP): " BERLIN — Former Secretary of State Colin Powell said the Bush administration was sometimes "too blustery" in its rhetoric during the buildup to the Iraq war but he still believed toppling Saddam Hussein was the right thing to do, according to a German magazine interview published Wednesday. I suppose we sometimes were too loud, too direct, maybe too blustery," Powell was quoted as saying. "That must have had the Europeans shuddering quite a few times." He also said Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld's famous jibe at France and Germany, when he labeled them "old Europe" for refusing to join the war in Iraq, did not help. "Terms like 'old Europe' didn't exactly have a confidence-building effect," Powell was quoted as saying, "and clearly helped turn public opinion in Europe against us."
POWELL: he did not get it then; he still doesn't get it. THANK GOD we finally have a GREAT Secretary of State, who gets it and who supports the president's polices and makes the president's case to the rest of the world. As a result, she has ALREADY proven she is more effective. While Powell - to this day - undercuts us to serve HIMSELF.
LEFTIE SCIENTISTS: "WORLD ENDING!"
From DRUDGE/UK Guardian:
The human race is living beyond its means. A report backed by 1,360 scientists from 95 countries - some of them world leaders in their fields - today warns that the almost two-thirds of the natural machinery that supports life on Earth is being degraded by human pressure. ... "Human activity is putting such a strain on the natural functions of Earth that the ability of the planet's ecosystems to sustain future generations can no longer be taken for granted," it says.
Didn't Paul Ehrlich say this in 1970!? Sheesh.
Today - as compared to 1970, (when Dr. Erhlich said we had ONLY 25 years left) - ALL commodities are more plentiful and cheaper, and the standard of living has gone up for hundreds and hundreds and HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of people (especially China and India). Industrialization and globalization have done more to IMPROVE the living standards and health of humanity than anything else - EVER! And yet there are still a couple of BILLION people whose lives need improving - who need more freedom and prosperity, and I say helping them become freer and richer takes precedence over rare species and remote ecologies. ESPECIALLY when dire "sky is falling" predictions like these have ALWAYS been proven FALSE in the past.
THE CRUX OF THE SCHIAVO CASE
Here's what the CRUX of the controversy is REALLY about:
Contrary to what many would have you believe - (especially those who deride Schindler supporters as right-wing theocratic wackos) - the Schiavo controversy is NOT between right-to-die people and the right-to-life crowd.
This case is about whether the court correctly determined what Terri's wishes were.
Contrary to what paranoid Leftists and nervous centrists would have you believe, there is NO MOVEMENT among ANY RIGHT-TO-LIFERS to ban DNR's or Living WIlls; IN FACT, George W. Bush and Laura, and their parents have them and urge ALL AMERICANS to get them! Virtually the entire "religious right" - including the RC Church, evangelicals, orthodox Jews, and Jesse Jackson (Heh) - accepts that individuals have the right to refuse medical treatment when confronted with terminal illnesses.
The Schiavo controversy is based on the fact that: (a) she is NOT terminal; and (b) her wishes are patently obscure.
I have concluded that Greer erred in ruling that Terri would have wanted to be starved to death rather than live, and that therefore the feeding-tube should have stayed in. And it saddens me that the federal courts have - up to now - thumbed their noses at any and all attempts to re-open the case so that this critical determination could be properly re-examined, and justice be done. In the absence of proof positive, I think the court must NOT act, or condone any act which will cause Terri to die.
If that makes me a right-wing theocratic wacko, then so is Joe Lieberman and Jesse Jackson and Ralph Nader and Tom Harkin and Harry Reid
HERE'S WHY I THINK THE JUDGE ERRED -
[Hawkins asks]: Did Terri Schiavo say she wanted to die if she were in this condition?
This is one of the primary points of contention in this case and with good reason.
Initially, as mentioned earlier, Michael did provide rehabilitation for his wife. Furthermore, in late 1992, Michael Schiavo said the following during testimony given in his medical malpractice suit:
"I believe in the vows I took with my wife, through sickness, in health, for richer or poor. I married my wife because I love her and I want to spend the rest of my life with her. I'm going to do that."
But, in 1993 (Note: this is after Michael Schiavo had already started dating other women and received over a million dollars from the settlement of the medical malpractice suit), his attitude changed rather dramatically.
Michael Schiavo admitted in a November of 1993 deposition that earlier in the year, he had requested that doctors not treat a urinary tract infection that was potentially fatal to Terri. The doctors were not able to comply with Michael's request because it would have been illegal.
According to the The Times Leader, Michael Schiavo first claimed that Terri had told him she wouldn't want to live at this point, but most other sources that I've seen point to that information first being revealed in 1998.
In 1998, Michael said that while watching a movie, Terri had once opined that she wouldn't want to live if she were ever in a coma. Michael's older brother, Scott Schiavo, and Michael's sister-in-law, Joan Schiavo also claimed Terri had a similar conversation with them after a funeral.
"Diane Meyer can recall only one time that her best friend, Terri Schiavo, really got angry with her. It was in 1981, and it haunts her still.
The recent high school graduates had just seen a television movie about Karen Ann Quinlan, who had been in a coma since collapsing six years earlier and was the subject of a bitter court battle over her parents' decision to take her off a respirator. Meyer says she told a cruel joke about Quinlan, and it set Terri off.
"She went down my throat about this joke, that it was inappropriate," Meyer says. She remembers Terri saying she wondered how the doctors and lawyers could possibly know what Quinlan was really feeling or what she would want. "Where there's life," Meyer recalls her saying, "there's hope."
Added to that is the testimony of Terri's court appointed guardian, Richard Pearse: "Pearse said he was troubled by the fact that Michael waited until 1998 to petition to remove the feeding tube, even though he claims to have known her wishes all along, and that he waited until he won a malpractice suit based on a professed desire to take care of her into old age. As her husband, Michael would inherit what is left of her malpractice award, originally $700,000, which is held in a trust fund administered by the court. Accounting of the fund is sealed. But Michael's lawyer, George Felos, said most of it has been spent on legal fees associated with the custody dispute. Pearse also said he did not find Joan and Scott Schiavo's testimony credible."
The Schindlers had contacted a woman Michael dated in 1991 who told them Michael had confessed to her he did not know what Terri would want. Although the woman refused to sign an affidavit, it bought the Schindlers some time. And with it, they found Trudy Capone. A former co-worker of Michael's, Capone signed an affidavit on May 9, 2001, stating "Michael confided in me all the time about Terri ... He said to me many times that he had no idea what her wishes were."
[HAWKINS CONCLUDES]: Despite the rather large amount of conflicting evidence, Judge Greer ruled in Michael Schiavo's favor on the issue.
I CONCLUDE THAT THE JUDGE ERRED.
LEBANESE PM POSTPONES RESIGNATION
According to the BBC: Lebanon's embattled caretaker prime minister has postponed an expected announcement that he is stepping down after failing to form a unity cabinet. Omar Karami said he needed to consult further with his pro-Syrian allies, reversing a pledge made a day earlier.
Do you think he got scared he was going to meet the same fate as HARIRI?
Stay tuned...
CHINESE HEGEMONY A GROWING PROBLEM
Last year, China stymied US efforts to levy sanctions on Sudan, which supplies nearly 5 percent of China's oil and where the US says genocide has occurred in its Darfur region. And as Zimbabwe becomes more isolated from the West, China has sent crates of T-shirts for ruling-party supporters who will vote in Thursday's parliamentary elections. [...] China is increasingly making its presence felt on the continent - from building roads in Kenya and Rwanda to increasing trade with Uganda and South Africa. But critics say its involvement in politics could help prop up questionable regimes, like Mr. Mugabe's increasingly autocratic 25-year reign. [...] China is increasingly making its presence felt on the continent - from building roads in Kenya and Rwanda to increasing trade with Uganda and South Africa. But critics say its involvement in politics could help prop up questionable regimes, like Mr. Mugabe's increasingly autocratic 25-year reign. [...] Reporters Without Borders, a group dedicated to freedom of the press, based in Paris, had this to say about the jamming: "Thanks to support from China, which exports its repressive expertise, Robert Mugabe's government has yet again just proved itself to be one of the most active predators of press freedom."
There's not much we can do about China right now. China has us over a barrel: we need their cheap goods and their confidence in the dollar. So, they seem to have carte blanche to oppress their people even as they are becoming a greater and greater competitor of ours for natural resources all over the world. This in turn increases the price of commodities and this in turn increases inflationary pressures in the US, and puts increasing pressures on the FED to keep raising interest rates - which is very bad for the real estate leveraged consumer-driven US economy.
It is NOT in China's interest for the USA to go into a recession, so they are motivated to moderate their growth. BUT still, I think we must find a way to put more pressure on China - to be a better world citizen and to treat their own people better, too.
I think we must do more than vociferously oppose what they're doing in Zimbabwe and the Sudan. I think we must overtly pressure them to do more for us regarding North Korea. We should make them MUCH more responsible for that nuclear-armed Marxist basketcase, and make our treatment of them CONDITIONAL on how helpful they are to us and South Korea and Japan on this front.
Tuesday, March 29, 2005
MORE DOUBLE-PLEADING FROM INSTAPUNDIT ON SCHIAVO
Glenn is STILL trying to have his cake and eat it too on the whole debate over whether the Schindler supporters are right-wing wackos who will destroy the center-right GOP coalition.
More proof today; Glenn wrote:"Hugh's right that it's hard to ascribe the Congressional legislation to "theocrats" when it was supported by Tom Harkin (and Ralph Nader!). There's much more going on than that; this is a matter on which all sorts of people, of all sorts of persuasions, can be found on both sides. On the other hand, here's some advice, very similar to advice I gave to the antiwar movement: If you don't want to be confused with a movement led by theocrats, don't let actual theocrats be seen as your spokesmen. It may be impossible to shut Randall Terry up -- though if I were Karl Rove, I would have tried really hard -- but he needs to be loudly and regularly denounced as a nut.
You see how artful and smooth Glenn's tricky rhetoric is?! At first he seems to side with Hugh Hewitt (who criticizes Jeff Jarvis and Sullivan et al for claiming the the right-to-lifers are wacko theocrats who'll destroy the GOP), but then Glenn takes it away by saying that since Randall Terry is a spokesman for the Schindler cause that therefore the cause must be wacky after all. He's trying to have it both ways.
I think it is either disengenuous and amoral for Glenn to attempt to appear to be above it all when in fact THE BOTTOM-LINE IS that Glenn supports what the courts have decided (only because the courts have decided it) and agrees with the attacks agaionst the Schindler supporters (because of some of their spokesmen).
Most people may buy it - or excuse it, but not me; I know bullshit when I smell it, and Glenn Reynolds stinks on the Schiavo Case.
TEN YEARS LATER: the EU still rules over Bosnia
BBC: The chief international envoy to Bosnia, Lord Ashdown, says he has sacked the Croat member of Bosnia's tripartite joint presidency. Dragan Covic, accused of serious corruption, had refused to step down. He is the third member of Bosnia's presidency to be forced out under international pressure since the Office of the High Representative was set up. Lord Ashdown oversees implementation of the Dayton accords that ended the 1992-95 Bosnia war. So let's get this straight: 10 years after the Dayton Accords were signed the EU is STILL ruling over Bosnia with ABSOLUTE POWER.
HOW DARE THE LEFTIES OF OLD EUROPE criticize our efforts in Iraq - where, in two years we have instituted democratic self-rule. Especially considering that compared to Iraq, Bosnia is a tiny nation. Here're the facts - you compare:Bosnia = 51,000 sq km; POP.: 4 million - surrounded by EU countries.
Iraq = 435,000 sq km; POP.: 25 million - surrounded by unstable nations.
By comparison our accomplishment in Iraq is a HUGE SUCCESS! Heck; our Iraq efforts are a huge success even when compared to post-WW2 Germany and Japan!So the next time you hear any criticism of Iraq from the euroweenie Left: just say BOSNIA and flip them the bird!
Fox/AP: BEIRUT, Lebanon — Lebanon's pro-Syrian prime minister said Tuesday he would resign, unable to put together a government, and the head of military intelligence stepped aside in new signs the anti-Syrian opposition was gaining momentum in the country's political turmoil.
If the momentum keeps up, Lebanon will be democratic - and Syria-free by June.
THE BUSH DOCTRINE RULES!
RIGHT WING THEOCRATS UNITE!
Is this a theocratic right-wing mob? No effin' way it is! And those who say it is are talking pure b
ullshit. And I mean: Glenn Reynolds, James Joyner, Andrew Sullivan, Greg Djerejian, and Jeff Jarvis. They're assholes for charging that the pro-life/pro-Schindler crowd is a theocratic right-wing mob that threatens the GOP and/or the USA. See below.
FOX / AP:
VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II may have to return to the hospital to have a feeding tube inserted, an Italian news agency reported Tuesday. It stressed that no decision had been made. The APcom news agency, citing an unidentified source, said the 84-year-old pope might have to have the tube inserted to improve his nutrition since he is having difficulty swallowing with the breathing tube that was inserted Feb. 24. APcom said the idea of inserting a feeding tube was a hypothesis that was being considered. The procedure involves inserting a tube into the stomach to allow for artificial feeding.
Good thing the Pope ain't married to Michael Schiavo. Heh.
INSTAPUNDIT AND KRUGMAN: perfect together
Today, Krugman concluded his ominious column by writing:The closest parallel I can think of to current American politics is Israel. There was a time, not that long ago, when moderate Israelis downplayed the rise of religious extremists. But no more: extremists have already killed one prime minister, and everyone realizes that Ariel Sharon is at risk. America isn't yet a place where liberal politicians, and even conservatives who aren't sufficiently hard-line, fear assassination. But unless moderates take a stand against the growing power of domestic extremists, it can happen here.
This statement is a PURE EXAMPLE OF CONLFATION: Krugman puts right-to-lifers in the same category as assassins and terrorists. (Conflation is a logical fallacy and it's also a ROOT CAUSE of Leftist fear of religion and religious people - religiophobia; for more on this read a lengthy posts of mine HERE and HERE and HERE.) I expect ominous Leftwing ravings of this sort from the Left and from their CHIEF PRIEST - Krugman. (He's been saying that Bush ECONOMIC policies were going to cause a rapid decline into depression for four years!!!!! We're still WAITING, Pauly!)
What I didn't expect was this: In THOROUGH AGREEMENT with the ominous warnings of Krugman are a few of the blogosphere's most popular centrist-hawks (who usually oppose EVERYTHING Krugman writes): GLENN REYNOLDS, JEFF JARVIS, ANDREW SULLIVAN, GREG DJEREJIAN, JAMES JOYNER.
Hey blog-stars: if you agree with Krugman, then it must be time for you to re-access your position! HEH! Indeed. Double Heh: HEH, HEH! Indeed.
TERRI'S DEATH: CRUEL AND UNUSUAL PUNISHMENT
A Florida judge decided that Terri would rather die by starvation than go on living as she'd been living. A florida judge decided that Terri WISHED to die. Some doctors say that Terri is aware of nothing, not even pain.
BUT, maybe they are wrong. Judges and doctors are fallible.
And there are many people who testified under oath that Terri is indeed aware of things - including pain, and that Terri was a devout Catholic who belived in the sanctity of life, and often said "where's there life there is hope."
SO: What if Terro does feel pain, and doesn't want to die?
Then what have you done to her?
You have murdered her in a most cruel and unusual way.
THE ATHEISTIC MOB - UPDATED***
Many in the Left-wing dominated MSM - (and even a few centrist-hawks in the blogosphere, like Instapundit, Andrew Sullivan, James Joyner, Jeff Jarvis and Greg Djerejian) - have derided the Schindler supporters as a theocratic MOB - dangerous religious zealots who want to demolish the wall between church and state.
Bullshit.
The Schindlers have seen the courts systematically rule in a way that guarantees their daughter dies a slow torturous death, and YET... in spite of that fact, and in spite of the fact that the court-sanctioned murder violates their most deeply held religious beliefs, they are stoically obeying the law!
That AIN'T behaving like a lunatic fringe, and when jerks like Jeff Jarvis say that they are FLAT OUT WRONG. They are projecting more about themselves than they are accurately describing reality!
The real MOB is the LEFT. They are - like Romans in the Colosseum - turning their thumbs down and demanding that Terri die. And the Judges - like obedient Emperors satisfying the blood-lust of the MOB - have obliged and have ordered that Terri be starved to death.
Terri's state-sanctioned murder is as legal as the murder of Christians in the Colosseum. Which is to say TOTALLY legal, and ABSOLUTELY MORALLY REPREHENSIBLE. And the real MOB is pleased.
MORE JOURNALISTS KIDNAPPED IN IRAQ
IRAQ: SHOUTING NOT SHOOTING
Here're a few headlines on the current parliament meeting going on in Iraq:
Iraqi parliament clashes over speaker - Globe and Mail, Canada - 2 hours ago Baghdad — Iraq's fledgling parliament failed Tuesday to agree on who would be its speaker, with the interim prime minister and interim president storming out
2nd Iraqi Assembly Meeting Breaks Down Amid Accusations - New York Times - 2 hours ago BAGHDAD, Iraq, March 29 - The second meeting of the new Iraqi constitutional assembly descended into a series of contentious exchanges today, as some members ...
Iraq Lawmakers Fail to Agree on Speaker - ABC News - 3 hours ago Iraqi workers are seen preparing for the Iraqi National Assembly session in the heavily fortified Green Zone area in Baghdad, Iraq Tuesday March 29, 2005. ...
Iraqiparliament in uproar over stalemate - Independent Online, South Africa - 3 hours ago By Khaled Yacoub Oweis and
I'd say that the news from Iraq is GREAT: they're SHOUTING to resolve their political conflicts and not SHOOTING! Sure, it's a messy process - BUT THAT'S WHAT DEMOCRACY IS! I have faith that the human beings who live in Iraq can make the difficult transition into self-rule as well as we did beginning in 1789.
FELOS : LAW : : KEVORKIAN : MEDICINE
INSTAPUNDIT ON SCHIAVO: A PHONY AND A CLOWN
Here's another instance of INSTAPUNDIT HYPOCRISY on the Schiavo Case:
Glenn opened a recent post thus:
"I APPRECIATE Andrew Sullivan's quoting me, but he's wrong: Unlike Andrew, I don't think that America is in danger of being taken over by religious Zealots, constituting an American Taliban and bent on establishing theocracy. I think that -- despite their occasionally abusive emails (and most aren't abusive, just upset) -- the people that Mickey Kaus is calling "pro-tubists" are well-meaning, sincere, and possessed of an earnest desire to do good." I don't think that they're nascent Mullah Omars, and I think that calling them that just makes the problem worse. This is a tragedy, and it's become a circus. Name-calling just makes you one of the clowns.
Then he closed the
very same post thus:
"If I were in charge of making the decision, I might well put the tube back and turn Terri Schiavo over to her family. But I'm not, and the Florida courts are, and they seem to have done a conscientious job. Maybe they came to the right decision, and maybe they didn't. But respecting their role in the system, and not rushing to overturn all the rules because we don't like the outcome, seems to me to be part of being a member of civilized society rather than a mob. As I say, I thought conservatives knew this."
The Professor is saying: "On the one hand, I'd never call the Schindler supporters a mob; only clowns call other people names, and I am NO CLOWN." Then he says that Schindler supporters are a mob (and they should know better)! This is a blatant case of Glenn trying to have his cake and eat it, too.
I think this proves on the Schiavo Case that Glenn's a phony and a CLOWN.
Glenn is so verbally agile and his snarkiness is so cute that most people fail to see how hypocritical he is on the Schiavo Case. When Glenn says, "I thought conservatives knew this" he is is saying that conservatives are a mob, but saying it in a cute/snarky UNDERHANDED way! And it fooled a lot of people. I think most people saw this double-pleading (above) as reasonableness; "On the one hand BLAH, and on the other hand BLAH."
I see it differently: I think that Glenn's very conflicted on the Schiavo Case, and that's he's also trying to appear above the fray, and that he's trying to hold on to his BIG READERSHIP (which is all over the place on the Schiavo Case), and that because he's very good at talking out of both sides of his mouth at the same time: he gets away with appearing to be in the middle. (Well, of course he can talk smoothly through both sides of his mouth at the same time: he is a LAWYER after all!)
Well, on the Schiavo Case I think Glenn's in the MUDDLE, not the middle, and I think to try to muddle through a case of such great public import, and of such profound moral nature (as the Schiavo Case is) is pathetic. And his position, (essentially that "the courts did a legal job" and so we should all just "move along; there's nothing to see here") is as meaningless as it is amoral.
ANNAN ERA DRAWS TO A CLOSE?
Is a new day dawning? It sure seems so!
Monday, March 28, 2005
Would you want your ex to be your legal guardian!?
In 50 out of 50 US states, when the husband cohabits with a woman other than his wife - (and has 2 kids with her) - then he is an adulterer in violation of his marriage vows, and this is ABSOLUTE PROOF in any divorce court in all 50 states of ABANDONMENT AND ESTRANGEMENT.
If Schiavo had to move on from Terri (because of her condition) - FINE --- but then he should've also given up guardianship of his EX-wife. Or the court shouldn't've taken his side. This is the fundamental conflict of interest that undermines Schiavo's assertion (and that of his family) that Terri would've wanted to die. An assertion that was not made until after he got the settlement money (seven years after her "incident") and after he got the new live-in girlfriend.
Coincidence!?!?
YUP, and OJ is innocent.
ELIAN AND TERRI - 2
From
THE AMERICAN THINKER (HT
BABALUBLOG) -
There is a striking parallel between the Terri Schiavo and the Elian Gonzales cases:
In each case, the victim is under the legal control of a man who is no longer living with the victim, who in fact has run off with another woman and fathered her children, and who no longer plays an active role in the victim’s life.
In Terri’s case, this is her husband. In Elian’s case, it’s his father. Moreover, in each case there are people willing and able to care for the victim – Terri’s parents; Elian’s relatives in Miami. Yet in each case, the man with legal control insists that the victim be harmed – Terri killed, Elian shipped back to Castro’s Cuba. And in each case, the liberals – who never shut up about their concern for the weak and the oppressed – have sided with the creep against the victim.
[...]
“The liberals now stand for death and oppression. And, with their allies on the courts, they use the letter of the law to impose their will.”
MORE ON TERRI AND ELIAN BELOW; JUST SCROLL DOWN...
CONVICTED MURDERERS ROUTINELY GET MORE FEDERAL JUDICIAL REVIEW THAN TERRI GOT
I agree with McCarthy's position, and I further maintain that folks (like GLENN REYNOLDS) who are opposed to the death penalty expressly because they feel that convicted murderers cannot EVER get enough "caprice & mistake free" judicial review, and yet who support the Schiavo-Schindler rulings and also believe that Terri got enough federal judicial review of her case (even though she ABSOLUTELY got LESS federal review than any convict on death row since 1976, and even though she got less federal judicial review than the Congress SPECIFICALLY INTENDED her to get) have INCOMPATIBLE positions without any philosophical consistency.
YOU READ AND YOU DECIDE.
ZARQAWI SURROUNDED
(KUNA): Iraqi security forces have surrounded Iraqs most-wanted terrorist, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the countrys interior minister said during a news conference here on Monday. Al-Zarqawi, the leader of the terror network al Qaida in Iraq, has eluded arrest while kidnapping and killing people in Iraq. Yesterday, militants posted a video on the internet showing the purported execution of a man identifying himself as Interior Ministry official Col. Ryadh Gatie Olyway. "We have not arrested al Zarqawi," Interior Minister Falah al-Nakib said. "He is surrounded in a certain area, and we hope for the best. This operation is ongoing. We hope that the situation will be completely different in Iraq at the end of this year." Al-Nakib said al-Zarqawi was moving in "more than one area," but he refused to give details.
The outgoing interior minister also predicted the insurgency was nearing an end.
"It think it will collapse very soon," he said, adding: "Maybe by the end of this year, we will see a change, depending on the political situation." MORE AT JAWA!
TERRI AND ELIAN
Elian Gonzales and Terri Schiavo cases are related.
The Schiavo case shows that though what the courts determine at any given time is always BY DEFINITION "legal," what the courts decide is NOT always GOOD or moral. In the Schiavo case - which I think is a miscarriage of justice - the problem stems from the ARBITRARY determination that Judge Greer made: that Terri wished to die (taher than live as she has been living). Terri is dying now because her DEATH-WISH was DETERMINED by a court, NOT because of what her wish actually was; (in fact, what she actually wished is somehting we shall never ever know).
In the Schiavo case, the state legislature, the state governor and the Congress AND the president (and ALL of Terri's blood relatives) ALL wanted a different ending. But the state judiciary - and the federal judiciary - refused to follow the EXPLICIT wishes of the other branches. The other branches respected the judiciary's determination to be the sole determiner of what was legal.
The Elian case DID NOT GET ITS DAY IN COURT: it was RUPTURED by the executive brach of the federal government when they FORCIBLY INTERVENED and KIDNAPPED Elian - (and forcibly returned him to Cuba where he is living under tyranny and poverty) - and prevented his case form being heard in the state courts. Clinton and Reno got away with this BALD DISPLAY OF RAW FEDERAL EXECUTIVE BRANCH POWER. In this case, the executive brach arbitrarily decided that ELian had to be with his father.
This decision was as morally wrong as Judge Greer's.
Neither decision - or the legal controversies they stirred up - has led to a good result for the principle party involved: Elian suffers under Castro; Terri is being starved to death.
Results should count. And we should always seek results that reinforce life and freedom. When results do the opposite, they are not only at odds with the most basic founding principles of our nation - they are BAD. If and when our laws, our lawmakers and our judges fail to do what reinforces our basic values and increase the good, then they must be changed.
Sunday, March 27, 2005
GLENN REYNOLDS' HYPOCRISY ON THE DEATH PENALTY AND TERRI SCHIAVO CONTINUES UNABATED
I JUST SENT THIS EMAIL TO THE BLOGFATHER:Glenn baby;
You cited this DERISIVELY (from Football Fans for Truth):
"... Last declares that to defer to the judicial process is to defer
to "an imperfect system implemented by imperfect men."
You added afterwards - in typical and imitable snide/snarky Instapundit fashion:
"Free Mumia! Yeah, that's pretty much the flavor of it."
But hey Insta-hypocrite: THAT'S THE SAME EVERLOVIN'-EFFIN' REASON YOU GIVE FOR BEING AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY!
Sheesh: what a hypocrite you are.
I'm very disappointed in you!
Glenn: I will be happy to post your explanation - or you can put it in the comments section.UPDATE: FOR THE RECORD, "contra" Glenn, I'm in favor of the death penalty, and I feel most convicted murderers get enough judical review. I feel that Terri's parents did NOT get as much federal review of their case as most convicted murderers get for theirs, or as much review or the type of review that Congress and the president obviously intended it to get.
ALSO, I want to point out to Glenn and to others who call pro-Schindler right-to-lifers like me a mob: the Schindlers and their supporters are obeying the courts and respecting the rule of law in spite of believing that the courts erred and that the laws are bad. And also in spite of their MOST deeply held religious beliefs, and also in spite of the fact that the court's actions are leading to the slow torturous death of their DAUGHTER.
That is NOT mob behavior, and that's why people like Glenn - who call us a mob - should APOLOGIZE! I'm NOT holding my breath! Folks like Glenn - who make inconsistent and incompatible and hypocritical arguments - rarely change their views or apologize; they just snidely "move on"...
UPDATE #2: On his GREAT BLOG, Glenn has JUST apologized for ONE ASPECT of his Mumia/Schiavo analogy. It's NOT ENOUGH, but it's a start!
THE TRAVELS OF RICE; THE PITY OF POWELL
I think that Condi has already travelled more than Powell did. And she's already been a much more effective Secretary of State, too.
I think I know why: Powell wasn't very supportive of Bush's policies (and everyone knew that), so he just mailed it in; he even probably agreed a lot with the whining appeasers of Old Europe - undermining Bush with them as he INGRATIATED HIMSELF TO THEM!
But Rice is MUCH closer to Bush, personally, and she's TOTALLY supportive of the Administration's policies. So when the whining appeasers of Old Europe whine; she sets them straight! And they KNOW that when she speaks, she has the backing of the president - so they listen with respect. That makes her much more effective - and the results have already begun to show!
I think that Powell was - in the end - much like Shimon Peres was a few years back when he was Ariel Sharon's FM during one of the first (of many succeeding) coalition/unity governments. Peres spent all his time UNDERMINING Sharon. That fudged things up between Israel and Old Europe: the anti-Zionists of Old Europe felt that they could "wait out" Sharon, and make better deals with Peres. In the end, Sharon won out (because - I assert - he's an even better politican than he was a field general! YUP: Sharon is a GREAT politician! Look at the number of coalitions he has had to create and dump, and he has still executed many urgent and cohesive and far-reaching and daring EVEN CONTROVERSIAL policies! YUP: Sharon is great!).
And Condi? SHE'S ALREADY PROVEN: SHE'S THE BEST!(Originally posted 3/18/05 BEFORE the NY Daily news article.)
WHAT ANIMATES THE "PULL-THE-FEEDING-TUBE" CROWD?
Fear, moral relativism and cognitive dissonance of the Left.
YEAH, FEAR. The Left is BASICALLY AFRAID that Bush and the religious right are coming to take them to a country where you have to be a Christian, and where AshKKKroft is Torquemada. It's an irrational fear, but IT FEELS VERY real to the Left. Anything - REPEAT ANYTHING - that they can twist into that worldview - THEY DO! "Blood for Oil" BusHitler! JINSA! YUP: the Left believes SIMULTANEOUSLY that Bush is controlled by Jerry Falwell, Ariel Sharon and the House of Saud. (Imagine how smart that dumbsmirkingchimp must REALLY be if he can keep those three happy simultaneously!)
The act of Congress signed into law to give the Schindlers one last avenue to save their daughter's life, was IN FACT A BIPARTISAN BILL, but that did not stop the Left - or the MSM they dominate - from coloring it as another invasion of privacy by the religious right-wing of the GOP - WHICH THE LEFT BELIEVES IS EVERY BIT AS DANGEROUS AS ALQAEDA!
And the BOTTOMLINE - the ROOT CAUSE of their irrational Bush hysteria is that the Left blames 9/11 - (that shattering horrific day that the WORLD CHANGED for EVERYONE, even the Left) - on "religious fundamentalism" in general, and they lump all devout believers together: To the Left, a Christian fundamentalist is as dangerous as a Jewish settler or an Islamic suicide bomber. They are morally equivalent to the Leftist.
It is precisely this MORAL EQUIVALENCE based in FEAR and tempered by YEARS of inculcation in post-modernist MORAL RELATIVISM that's made the Left's utterly irrational fear of Bush -- aka BDS / Bush Derangement Syndrome - so RAMPANT and VIRULENT.
And they see the Schiavo Law as an attempt by the dangerous religious Right - led by Bush - to hijack the nation!
In fact, the Left takes their "faithophobia" even further: The Left believes that whatever Bush does MUST be evil precisely because he's a "BELIEVER" - and believers are fundamentalists, and fundamentalists are fanatics, and fanatics are terrorists (according to their twisted logic/illogic/analogic).
The brightest RED-LINE for the Left is "abortion rights" (not euthanasia) because it's so fundamental to their 1960's Marcussian COUNTER-CULTURE ETHOS, (a basically anti-Western/anti-traditionalism worldview - the worldwiew of Ward Churchill and Noam Chomsky and Susan Sontag). Everything and anything that threatens to rollback the Left's morally relativist/amoral worldview they call ANTI-PROGRESSIVE, BOURGOIS - EVEN HITLERIAN! To the Left, PROTECTING THE RIGHT PRIVACY is the absolute key to preventing the religious fanatics from unraveling their COUNTER CULTURE. And to the "sophisticated" Left their RIGHT TO promiscuity, adultery, sodomy, (and yes "orgies") are important parts of the PRIVACY mix.
Total PRIVACY - ESPECIALLY in the bedroom - (whether it's the bed you make love in or the bed you die in) - is PARAMOUNT to them. Privacy is PARAMOUNT to them because it's inextricably tied to the bedrock of their creed: moral relativism. To the morally relativistic Left, whatever two people agree to do between themselves - IN PRIVATE - is okay. Whether it's sado-masochistic sex, or EUTHANASIA. The Left admonishes everyone else who has the audacity to make ANY moral judgments: "WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE!" To the Left-wing moral relativists there can be no true MORAL judgments of what goes on in ANY bedroom - or across cultural boundaries or national borders.
What worsens their FEELING that their COUNTER CULTURE/"PROGESSIVE VISION" is under attack by "FUNDAMENTALISTS" is the FACT that there's really been a total collapse of their underlying Marxist economic meme: the USSR and its satellites have fallen; India and China have abandoned command economies and each adopted free markets and all are THRIVING as a result. Further discrediting Marx is the FACT that the few remaining ruling adherents to Marxism are obvious two-bit thugs who have ruined their countries: Castro, Chavez, Mugabe. Kim Jong Il and Assad.
IT IS OBVIOUS: Marx & Engels and Keynes & Galbraith were DEAD WRONG, and Hayek and Friedman were RIGHT ON, and this fact bugs the living snot out of the Left! It is the root cause of their cognitive dissonance.
As a result - even as democracy experiences a new birth ALL OVER THE WORLD, (largely because of the USA and Bush) - the Left seems unhappy: rooting for the insurgents and whispering their secret hopes to each other that "of course Lebanon and Iraq will fail."
Those of us who are traditionalists, and who believe in Natural Law and the Sanctity of Life - of each and every life - and in the inalienability of the Human Soul have values which extend beyond failed ideologies or partisan politics. And we believe that everyone EVERYWHERE deserves freedom and democracy - and can achieve it!
And most us also supported the Schindlers and suspect that while Greer's decision to believe the Schiavo's hearsay evidence (that Terri would have wanted to die rather than live on as she is living) was probably legal - (according to Florida statute) - it was morally WRONG.
The concept of Human Soul and Natural Law and Sanctity of Life are COMPLETELY alien to the Left. To the Left, consciousness is merely concomitant with nerve cell activity. The Left are MATERIALISTS, after all. And that's why to the Left, Terri is - at this point in her life - merely something to be disposed of.
Well, the Left is wrong AGAIN!
What's sweeping the world today is not MATERIALISM but the indominatable HUMAN SPIRIT. People everywhere just wanna be FREE.
The world is positively flooding with democracy and freedom - and soon the free world will swell with renewed and redoubled prosperity, spurred-on by free unfettered Human creativity - the kind of creativity and prosperity that ONLY freedom foments!
And though there are still some tyrants around - and a few judges - who may try to hold back the flood waters a while... they really have no more than a finger in the dam.
And the dam will burst. And the water will wash over us. And clean us. And sustain us. And make our land fertile and green. And make us all free. YES: one day SOON, we will all be FREE.
Even Terri.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?
YAHOO / WASH POST:
PINELLAS PARK, Fla., March 26 -- Two visions of Terri Schiavo emerged Saturday: Her husband's attorney, George Felos, said he had "never seen such a look of beauty and peace upon her." Schiavo's father, Robert Schindler, whose family has compared her complexion to that of a concentration camp victim, said "she is fighting like hell to stay alive."
Well, if right-to-die/euthanasia activist/advocate George Felos is correct, then why does he and his lying murderous lech of a client Michael Schiavo refuse to allow cameras in Terri's room!? And why are they refusing an autopsy, and a burial, and why are they going to whisk Terri's corpse away for a quick cremation?!
I think this proves EVERYTHING!
MORE THAN JUST THE CHEESE STINKS IN FRANCE
UK TELEGRAPH: 'Corruption is still rife at top level of French government'
The French judge who first uncovered the corruption scandal engulfing the country's most senior politicians has claimed that bribery and cronyism are still rife at the highest levels of government. Eric Halphen, whose investigations into kickbacks from public works programmes led to a number of President Jacques Chirac's closest allies going on trial last week, said that the prosecutions "in no way" signalled an end to the corruption that has blighted French politics for decades.
The whole French government stinks - from Elysee to Matignon to the ENA! Unless and until the French make a clean sweep, they're condemned to continued mediocrity and corruption and evermore weakness politically and economically on the international scene. Their only hope at this time is that Sarkozy will win in the next election, and that he can keep the country propped up until Sabine Herold is ready to become their Thatcher.
(BTW: Cheese is the only stinky thing in France that's good!)
BEIRUT: another neojihadist/baathist axis bombing!
(YAHOO/AP) - A loud explosion was heard in the Lebanese capital of Beirut on Saturday, witnesses and security officials said. The nature of the explosion was not immediately known. Witnesses said the blast occurred in the predominantly Christian eastern Beirut suburb of Dikweneh and flames were seen in the area. This attack - like the two which preceded it - is part of the neojihadist/baathist plan to prevent democracy by fomenting sectarian/tribal civil war. IT WON'T WORK!
The blast was the third to strike Christian neighborhoods in Lebanon since last Saturday and comes at a time of political turmoil in Lebanon in the wake of the Feb. 14 assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, and the subsequent withdrawal of Syrian troops to east Lebanon and Syria. ...
Lebanese opposition leaders have blamed Syrian security agents and pro-Damascus Lebanese authorities of trying to sow fear in the community. Lebanese and Syrian authorities have denied such claims. "They (Syrians) promised Hariri ... that if they left Lebanon, they would destroy Lebanon," exiled Christian opposition leader Michel Aoun told Al-Arabiya TV. "And now they are doing it. They think they can destroy Lebanese national unity this way. But the Lebanese will remain steadfast till infinity." Aoun said the situation calls for a "changing the security organizations related to Syria. This can't be delayed."
Druse leader Walid Jumblatt held pro-Syrian Lebanese security agents responsible for Saturday's blast, saying they were trying to intimidate people. Jumblatt said he expected more car bombs in the coming days and in the run-up to parliamentary elections scheduled to be held by May. Another opposition leader, Butros Harb, said the explosions were "a political message from the authorities and those behind them" aimed at "terrorizing" the Lebanese people who are demanding freedom and sovereignty. Harb told Al-Arabiya TV that Lebanese will not be cowed by such acts and will continue seeking independence.
DEMOCRACY still the most revolutionary revolution on earth!
WHY THE LEFT DEMANDED TERRI DIE -
The Left is dominated by a materialist meme. To the Left, the concept of a Human Soul is merely the syringe by which religion - "the opiate of the people" - is injected into the veins of the gullible.
To the Left, there is no Human Soul, only a consciousness which is strictly concomitant with a certain level of neural activity.
To the Left, if-and-when that neural activity is severely diminished, then consciousness stops, and personality and personhood disappear. And the "quality of life" for the consciousness-diminished person is nil.
To the Left, a person without personality and with no "quality of life" has "no reason to live" (and other people - even parents and siblings and children of the "brain-diminished" person - have no unselfish reason to make sure the brain-diminished person goes on living).
To the Left, this category of people - (people with no consciousness and therefore no personality or personhood, and no reason to live) - includes people with advanced dementia, brain-damage, and it also includes fetuses.
To the Left, these people are not persons, but merely cytoplasm - a mass of cells.To the Left, if you have a fetus with Down's, then it is preferable to abort it.The Left valorizes the intellectual/ratiocinative capacity of people, and denigrates other mental, emotional capacities. Which is why the Left has consistently advocated "Politburos", select commissions, and the rulings of judges over the Will of the People and FREE MARKETS: the Left believes that an elite knows better what is right and good and proper and efficient; the Left believes that an elite knows better than you do what's good and right for you.
And that's why the Left deplored the Congressional and Presidential intervention into the Schiavo Affair, and applauded the blatant disregard of Congress and the President by the judges: popularly elected officials are not as smart as judges; to the Left, judges are part of the elite. The will of the people (as expressed by the legislature and the executive branches) is not as valid as the learned ratiocinations of a judge.
This is the ONLY count upon which the Left is correct: judges are part of an elite - a nearly UNACCOUNTABLE elite.
But not ENITIRELY unaccountable. Judges can be impeached. I suggest that we get the Congress to hold the judges who deliberately REFUSED to hold de novo hearings on the Schiavo Case IN UTTER CONTEMPT OF CONGRESS, and then perhaps IMPEACH THEM. Judges are not above the law; no judge is above the law. And the Judiciary is not above the other two branches. (The "gay marriage" decisions of many courts underlines the Judiciary's disregard for the legislative branch and for the importance of legislating laws as opposed to making law by what is essentially UNDEMOCRATIC JUDICIAL FIAT.)
It is important to uphold the concept that each and every person - regardless of their ratiocinative capabilities - has a WHOLE Human Soul because if we do not we are condemning the weakest and most vulnerable and most dependent among us to "non-human" status, to people whose life-or-death makes is of no consequence, to people whose death might actually be a good thing (in what the erudite elite determines is in "the public interest") because their less-than-perfect lives diminish the "quality of life" of the other people in their lives (pointlessly costing them and us money, for example).
This is the type of reasoning that led to the evil eugenics policies of the NAZIS and others. And it's as fundamental to the Left's meme now as it was to the Leftist/NAZI meme then.
Like our Creator-endowed, "inalienable right to Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness," the Human Soul is inalienable from each human being: The autist has no less a soul than the artist, the quadriplegic has no less a soul than the track star, the brain-damaged or demented have no less a soul than even the elitists of the Left.
To the Left, the "right to die" - and to euthanize non-human/"no-longer human" human beings - trumps the "right to life" because human life presupposes a certain quality of being, a certain minimal quality of life. Below that minimal level and - to a Leftist - human life is meaningless to continue.
NOW: I know that some of you Leftists out there will argue that all the court decided was what Terri wanted, BUT THIS IS FALSE. First because Terri was NOT TERMINAL, and the feeding-tube WAS NOT NECESSARY, and the court ordered removal of the feeding-tube alone is not what's killing her! What's killing her is the UNLAWFUL order of the court to prevent anyone from giving her food and water ORALLY!
Terri's SUPPOSED desire to die (rather than live as she has been living) is SOLELY based on testimony from Michael Schiavo and his brother Brian Schiavo and Brian's wife, who gave HEARSAY testimony to the effect that Terri ONCE said that she would not want to be kept on life support if she had a terminal condition.
BUT TERRI'S CONDITION IS TECHNICALLY/MEDICALLY NOT TERMINAL - BECAUSE SHE COULD LIVE FOR ANOTHER 40 YEARS IF SHE ONLY GOT FOOD AND WATER, WHICH WE ALL NEED TO LIVE! REPEAT: Terri had no terminal disease. FACT. She could live another 40 years. And in 40 years, perhaps her condition could be cured...
I defy anyone to look at the videos of Terri and her mom - which are available at TERRI'S FIGHT - and tell me that her smiles and moans in response to her mom's attentions are not reminiscent of what we have all seen from infants as they are attended to by their mothers and fathers. Terri's smile to her mom is pure love: of her mother, and of life. It is obvious to anyone seeing that love, that Terri wants to live.
OH I CAN HEAR THE LEFT NOW: The Lefties out there saying that you cannot tell what Terri is feeling by looking at the videos. OH NO!?!? Well, that's EXACTLY what Judge Greer did, and why he argued that Terri was not responsive; he said that her responses were "random." BULLSHIT; THIS AN OBVIOUS LIE TO ANYONE WHO HAS SEEN THE TAPES
Anyone who has seen the tapes can see that Terri still has a Human Soul, and a capacity for love, and a desire for life. That's why what is happening to her is MURDER.
And it's a crying shame. The court could've and should've ruled that Terri did not adequately express a desire to be disconnected from medicine or food. Or failing that, the court could've and should've ordered that she only be fed orally. But the court bent over backwards to make sure she would be starved and deydrated to death. As Michael and his brother and his brother's wife wanted, and as they ALLEGE Terri wanted.
How sad. How avoidably sad and wrong.
Good-bye Terri... I pray you'll have a gentle crossing...
Dear God; Please Bless her soul - her whole, intact beautiful Human Soul - and please God: soothe the suffering of her loving family.
RICE ON ROOT CAUSES OF TERRORISM
"Extremism... is rooted in the absence of other channels for political activity," Condi "GETS IT." Repression causes extremism, poverty and ignorance; freedom alleviates all three: free people create more ideas, goods and services; exchange more; consume more; and have more fun than repressed people.
SO: democracy and free markets and increased connectivity to the First World - i.e. more globalism - are THE ANTIDOTES TO EXTREMISM.
Those who are fearful that extremists can ascend to power democratically (in places where they do not presently hold power) miss the point: having to hold onto popularly secured power and satisfy a divergent nation will moderate the extremists as it necessarily marginalizes them: after all - they are called extremists because their positions are EXTREME, meaning that a minority hold them; in adition, extremists do NOT have solutions to reab basic problems - the kinds of things a government must contend with daily. THEREFORE, the majority of people will necessarily tire of a tyranny of the few.
OKAY: it can sometimes be very hard to throw off tyrnanny; it will be harder in North Korea than in Kyrgystan, and harder in Syria than in Bahrain. And hard in China. THAT'S WHY WE MUST DO WHATEVER WE CAN TO HELP DEMOCRACY MOVEMENTS AND DEMAND FEE FAIR AND OPEN ELECTIONS EVERYWHERE.
No tyrant can survive a free, fair and open election. That's why Assad and the Mullahs and the Chicoms, and the North Koreans, and Chavez, and Castro, and Mugabe AVOID truly free elections. And this is why we - and the entire free and properous world - should make trade CONDTIONAL on free elections.
Friday, March 25, 2005
INSTAPUNDIT'S HYPOCRISY IS "RIDICULOUS ON ITS FACE"
The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments do not distinguish between the lives of capital murderers and the lives of other persons. They don't mention "criminal" and "civil" distinctions. In this context, they command simply that no person shall be deprived of "life...without due process of law."
There is no reason in the text of the Constitution to believe that "due process of law" should have a different meaning depending on whether the life to be taken by state action is that of a convicted criminal or that of some other person. Complementing that textual consideration are the equities involved. Given the absence of any apparent reason for having one set of due process requirements for murderers and another set for everyone else, if society nevertheless decides to have different requirements, why in the world would we think the murderers should get the better process? Such a notion is ridiculous on its face.
This HYPOCRITICAL position - which affords more rights to convicted murderers than to Terri - is EXACTLY "INSTAPUNDIT" Glenn Reynolds' position. And I say it stinks.
BUT IT'S EVEN WORSE: because Glenn Reynolds BELIEVES that because of "inevitable caprice and mistake" in the judicial system, the death penalty (while abstractly just) can never be 100% correct and that therefore it is inevitable that innocent people might be wrongly put to death, and that therefore to avoid this inevitability no one convicted of any crime should ever be put to death. (YUP: gun-toting-Glenn opposes the death penalty.)
SO GLENN IS DOUBLY HYPOCRITCAL, AND BOTH TIMES - ON BOTH LEVELS - HE FAVORS MURDERERS!
First, Glenn argues that judicial reviews are inadequate for murderers, but then argues that judicial reviews were adequate for Terri!
Second, Glenn argues that because death is irreversible and mistake is inevitable, no one should be subject to death as a penalty which is ordered by any court of law, but if death is ordered by a court of law in a civil case, then it's OKAY.
In other words, Reynolds believes that convicted murderers should NEVER get the death penalty because the CRIMINAL judicial system is imperfect, but that the judicial system is adequate in deciding CIVIL matters of life of death.
Well, Professor, since the THRESHOLD FOR EVIDENCE IS LOWER IN CIVIL CASES THAN IN CRIMINAL CASES - (hearsay is often allowed - as it was in the Schiavo case, and you can't plead the 5th, for example) - IT MEANS THAT THE LIKELIHOOD OF "CAPRICE AND MISTAKE" IS ACTUALLY HIGHER IN CIVIL CASES THAN IN CRIMINAL CASES - NOT LOWER.
Which means that when it comes to trying to avoid irreversible damage to a plaintiff that Glenn Reynolds has it exactly BACKWARDS on this issue: Reynolds blithely accepts too little and too few Due Process protections for Terri, and simultaneously grants way too much for convicted murderers. THIS IS PURE HYPOCRISY.
Which puts Reynolds squarely in the pathetic Left-wing/pro-death/pro--murderer crowd. YUP: to me - except for his support for the GWOT and the 2nd Amendment, Reynolds is an old-fashioned Leftie through and through. Which, after all, is what Glenn himself always said he was whenever others called him a conservative just because he was a hawk. Well, the Schiavo case PROVES he was right: Reynolds is a bleeding-heart liberal who would give more rights to convicted murderers than to Terri.
SEE MORE BELOW - HERE and HERE.
INSTAPUNDIT CALLS PRO-LIFE FOLKS A "MOB"
If I were in charge of making the decision, I might well put the tube back and turn Terri Schiavo over to her family. But I'm not, and the Florida courts are, and they seem to have done a conscientious job. Maybe they came to the right decision, and maybe they didn't. But respecting their role in the system, and not rushing to overturn all the rules because we don't like the outcome, seems to me to be part of being a member of civilized society rather than a mob. As I say, I thought conservatives knew this.
"if... then... might"... WEASEL WORDS!
In effect, Glenn Reynolds says that Terri -- a perfectly stable, brain-damaged women with no other health problems, and NO TERMINAL ILLNESS -- is entitled to fewer legal rights than someone who has been convicted of MURDER.
HOW "LIBERAL" OF HIM! AND HOW HYPOCRITCAL!
The real mob here is the group of liberals who think that Terri's court-ordered death is good, when there is clear and ample evidence that the judicial decision to believe Michael Schiavo (and his brother and his brother's wife - the SOLE people testiyfying that Terri would've wanted to die, rather be a terminal patient) was FLAWED. They testified that Terri would not have wanted to live on life support if she had a terminal illness.
But Terri was NOT a terminal pateint; she had NO TERMINAL ILLNESS. There is even contemporaneous evidence that she could take sustenance ORALLY - UNTIL AFTER SCHIAVO AND FELOS decided that she had to die, and Felos (in his role as an advocate for "right to Die" law in general) had specifically seen to it that the Florida legislature had included feeding tubes as "life support" - something that is NOT TRUE IN ALL STATES! (And which should be challenged in federal court!)
Glenn is trying to have his cake and eat it too: he wants those of us on his right to get the feeling he'd be on our side, and he also wants to say that the Florida courts have done their job well. AGAIN: you can't have it both ways Glenn! There is something TERRIBLY wrong in Florida and in the federal appeals courts if Terri is put to death.
MORE HERE AT JAWA. AND A MUST READ WITH LINKS HERE, AT HYSCIENCE.
HUNG JURIES AND HUNG COURTS
A hung jury can't convict someone. Let alone commit them to death.
SO.... why does a "hung COURT" - like the 11th Circuit was on the Schiuavo case - have the right to commit someone to death!? Shouldn't we expect jurists to have the same standards as juries - NOT LOWER ONES -- ESPECIALLY IN MATTERS OF LIFE AND DEATH!?
Shouldn't the fact that even just ONE JUDGE on the Appelate court wants to review a LIFE AND DEATH CASE be enough to get that case reviewed!? If one holdout juror can prevent a death-penalty verdict from being reached, then I believe that one judge of an Federal Circuit ought to have the same power - albeit TEMPORARY, and be able to UNILATERALLY issue a TRO on a death sentence until the case has been reviewed de novo. I think we do that for murder convict on death row. We should've done that for Terri, too.
COURT-ORDERED DEATH
No matter where you stand on Terri Schiavo - whether you believe she wants to die, or whether you think only her husband wants her to die - you MUST admit that her death is ONLY POSSIBLE BY ORDER OF THE COURT.
BY ORDER OF THE COURT, she is either being allowed to commit suicide, or her husband is being allowed to murder her.
Since BOTH are illegal, I wonder where is the moral victory for anyone in Terri's death?!
The RIGHT TO DIE folks believe that it's okay for Terri to commit suicide - it's an inherent right: you "own" your life, and may do with it as you choose. The RIGHT TO LIFE folks believe that human life is so precious that it should never be squelched out - not without a fight.
Which side is right? Well, look at their names... look at what their names VALORIZE: one group hails death, the other life. One group says only a "quality" life is worth living; the other says ALL life is worth living , and worth fighting for.
So vehemently do the right to die folks believe in death, that they insisted that Terri start dying even BEFORE all her rights had been adjudicated. WHAT DOES THAT SAY ABOUT THEM!? What does it say about the judges that they wouldn't even issue a TRO and allow the parents to put on a full case?!
Anyone who has seen the videos of Terri and her mother (CLICK HERE) knows that Terri is an aware human being - not fully aware, but a human being especially aware of LOVE. Maybe only as much a an infant is aware of love - BUT AWARE, NONETHELESS. None the less.
Terri is a person as needful as an infant. Of food. Of water. And love.
Now, all the courts allow her to get is love. Love can sustain the soul, but not the body. And soon - barring some miracle - Terri will die.
Those who believe her husband - that she wanted to die - will be relieved.
Thursday, March 24, 2005
BUSH, SINGLE-ISSUE POLLING, AND THE MYTHICAL IMPENDING CONSERVATIVE CRACK-UP
I SAY HOGWASH.
The polls almost ALWAYS show Bush with about 43-53% approval on any SINGLE ISSUE - INCLUDING IRAQ.
But these polls are very VERY misleading because they almost always ask about the single issue in a very general way, like: "Do you approve of the way Bush has handled .....BLANK."
Because Bush is a MODERATE, he almost ALWAYS gets a fair amount of disapproval from his far-right flank (perhaps as much as 5-10% of the public), and because the Left-wing of the Democrat Party thinks Bush is a hitleriansmirkingchimp, he almost always gets a non-hearing from another 5-10% of the public. Together, these two groups INFLATE the anti-Bush number by at least 10%. That's why Bush won the election by 9 million votes and the MSM was shocked - because nearly all the polls before the election failed to depict the true overall sentiment of the public. Those critical of Bush from his right flank will NEVER vote Democrat, and they will NEVER cause a crack-up of the GOP.
SO BUSH'S NUMBERS IN THESE SINGLE-ISSUE POLLS ARE ALMOST ALWAYS MUCH LOWER THAN HIS NUMBERS TRULY ARE IN A CRUNCH, or in a head-to-head race with anyone else.
FOR EXAMPLE: Polls show that GENERAL disapproval on Iraq has run as high as 65% recently, but that disapproval total INCLUDES many people who think that Bush has been too weak (folks more "HAWKISH" than Bush), as well people who think Bush is too bellicose and unilateral, (and/or alos includes folks who think we have too few troops there, and folks who think they should all come home immediately).
Likewise, disapproval on how Bush is handling Social Security also is over 50%, but certainly includes folks like me who think that FDR's welfare plan for eldsters is nothing more than a Ponzi Scheme and should be entirely trashed. DITTO IMMIGRATION: many think he is too soft on illegals and porous borders, others think he is too tough.
The more Right-sided critics of Bush inflate the anti-Bush numbers and make Bush seem less popular than he really is because a politican has to be judged in comparison (or against) another politician.
That's why/how so MANY pundits MISREAD the polls - and always ascribe greater weakness in Bush than is truly warranted by the polls. (THIS IS WHY THEY ALWAYS MISUNDERESTIMATE HIM!)
SO: many see Bush polling badly - on particular day and on a particular issue - and then presume that this issue will lead to a crack-up of the GOP conservative hold. They see a weak politician sitting astride a teeter-totter when in fact Bush is a an "artisan of the possible" with a truly deep and simple commitment to basic universal values. In the crunch, we all know which side of an issue Bush will come down on: the values side. The CONSERVATIVE values side. And he did this in 2004 and won BIGTIME - carrying larger majorities in both bodies of Congress! And that's why the conservative movement won't EVER break-up over any one of these single issues as long as Bush is president.
The next GOP presidential candidate will have to be equally adept at PLAYING POKER as Bush has been, if he OR SHE is going to be a winner, and if conservatism is going to maintain its lead. In other words: it has more to do with how effectively the leader of the GOP handles the breadth of debate within the GOP, than any debate over any single issue.
WHY AM I SO SURE!? Two reasons: (1) Because the Left is bereft of ANY new meaningful proactive polices; the Left is reactionary. Given the choice between the NEW GOP and the Dems, most middle-of-the-roaders will choose the GOP. And (2), because the Democrat Party is moving evermore LEFTWARD (even as some of its SHREWDER pol's try to head to the middle - like Hillary and Richardson and Biden).
As a result, the standard bearers of the DNC in 2008 will have a MUCH GREATER PROBLEM winning the nomination and holding their party together (as they parade around Red America for votes), than the GOP will in their continued invasion of Blue America; (REMEMBER: Bush was closer in more Blue states, than Kerry was in Red states; Bush did better in Massachusetts than Gore!).
BOTTOM-LINE: The GOP is the BIG TENT PARTY now; therefore there's going to be more intra-party debate in the GOP than in the Democrat Party. DO NOT CONFUSE THAT FOR FAULT-LINES! It is vitality, not morbidity!
And let's face it: listening to Rice and Schwarzeneggar and Pawlenty and Santorum debate each other is ALWAYS GOING TO BE A LOT more interesting than listening to Sharpton and Kucinich and Kerry debate Hillary!
INSTAPUNDIT HYPOCRISY ON SCHIAVO CASE
Based on that, I sent the following email to the distinguished Professor:
Professor;
Do you believe that the Schiavo case is an instance of judicial "caprice and mistake," and that therefore Terri is a victim of an injustice, or that justice has been served?
Please don't cop out by arguing that since the SCOTUS didn't take the case that therefore justice had to have been served. The Dred Scot case, and the Japanese internment case each prove SCOTUS is fallible.
He replied:
It's been looked at by 22 judges, plus the Supremes several times. Ithink [sic] that's pretty good. I think the risk of error is lower, too.
I replied:
Professor;
If this review process is good enough for Terri then it is good enough for convicted murderers.
I DEMAND that you rescind your opposition to the death penalty, or rescind your opinion on the Terri Schiavo case.
You cannot REPEAT CANNOT hold both views without blatant contradiction.
I await his reply. FOR THE RECORD: I favor life for Terri and death for convicted murderers - EACH OF WHOM GET MORE THOROUGH JUDICIAL REVIEWS THAN TERRI HAS RECEIVED! (In fact, before the death penalty is carried out, it is also reviewed by at least 22 judges, and usually goes up to the Supremes several times.) BUT, NOT A SINGLE CONVICTED MURDERER WOULD EVER BE FORCED TO BEGIN THE EXECUTION PROCESS WHILE HIS CASE WAS STILL UNDER JUDICIAL REVIEW - AS TERRI HAS! AND IF A EVER JUDGE REFUSED TO REVIEW DEATH-ROW A CASE (AS SEVERAL HAVE REFUSED TO REVIEW TERRI'S CASE) HE'D BE IMPEACHED!
IF TERRI'S CASE RECEIVED AS MUCH REVIEW AS THE AVERAGE DEATH PENALTY CASE SHE'D BE GETTING FOOD AND WATER RIGHT NOW!
Bottom-line: when the judicial review process is over - (and it looks like it is, EVEN THOUGH THERE HAS BEEN NO DE NOVO REVIEW!) - all legal means will have been exhausted. And when Terri dies due to the active removal of her food and water (which would kill anyone) it will have been an avoidable injustice. If her passing informs each of us and our society that we must all have written proxy arrangements, then her death will not have been in vain.
UPDATE: So far - no further reply from the Professor. Not surpising - he's a busy man; he was on cable TV tonight! So, I just sent him this email:
If new DNA evidence in death-row cases is okay, then why didn't any judge allow any new evidence of Terri's condition in Terri's case?
AGAIN: it seems to me that death row inmates routinely get MORE DUE PROCESS than Terri got.
Therefore; if the degree of due process we give death-row inmates is too low to assure a caprice-less and mistake-free conclusion, how can you believe that Terri and her parents got sufficient DUE PROCESS?! This was the CRUX of the Congressional bill passed to re-open her case. They wanted her to get a review every bit as thorough as one given routinely to death-row inmates - who routinely get NEW EVIDENCE, such as DNA, introduced during their federal appeals.
And you seem to miss that. INCREDIBLE. You seem to endorse the idea that a convicted murderer is entitled to greater review of his case than Terri. BIZARRE. And inconsistent.
And you will need more than to rely on the wisdom of the late Charles Black to paper over it.
If I get a reply I will post it. He is a distinguished law professor, so he may have a good answer. We will see...MORE HERE AT JAWA!
10 reasons why Terri should be allowed to live
4. There is a genuine dispute as to Ms. Schiavo's awareness and consciousness. But if we assume that those who would authorize her death are correct, Ms. Schiavo is completely unaware of her situation and therefore incapable of suffering physically or emotionally. Her death thus can't be justified for relieving her suffering.
5. There is a genuine dispute as to what Ms. Schiavo believed and expressed about life with severe disability before she herself became incapacitated; certainly, she never stated her preferences in an advance directive like a living will. If we assume that Ms. Schiavo is aware and conscious, it is possible that, like most people who live with severe disability for as long as she has, she has abandoned her preconceived fears of the life she is now living. We have no idea whether she wishes to be bound by things she might have said when she was living a very different life. If we assume she is unaware and unconscious, we can't justify her death as her preference. She has no preference.
INSTAPUNDIT BLITHELY PASSES ALONG A BLATANT LEFT-WING LIE
I think Glenn was fooled by the favorable PREMISE/CONCLUSION of the piece: That Bush is indeed a revolutionary leader.
SO.... WHAT'S THE LIE!? Here:
"... when Mr Bush spells out that he is fighting “for freedom and democracy in Arab countries,” he is turning on its head - positively, according to Mr Fassino - the traditional policy of Republican administrations that “supported fascist military dictatorships in South America in the name of political realism.”
In FACT... most of the South American dictators were propped up by DEMOCRAT PRESIDENTS: FDR and Somoza; Truman JFK, LBJ and Trujillo are BLATANT examples of Democrat/Tyrant alliances. The GOP actually did less to prop up South American dictators: Ike let Battista fall; Bush Senior ousted Noriega; and Reagan ousted a two-bit commie turd in Grenada.
Don't get me wrong: I think Bush is INDEED a revolutionary - but he's doing more than turning traditional GOP foreign policy on its head: he's overthrowing the last remnants of status-quoism, defeatism, and accommodationism - IN BOTH PARTIES - and he's doing it in the name of human rights. It's the Bush Doctrine. It's a beautiful thAng. And it's working! And we don't need no stinking Leftwing Italian correspondents to tell is it's somehow anti-GOP! When it ain't! Nuff said.
ADDENDUM: Arch-enemy of the Left, Wolfowitz is the primary architect of the policies that have DELIBERATELY weaned the USA away from pro-West dictators over the last 25 years. aND HE DID IT WITH GOP PREXIES REAGAN AND BUSH.
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
LEFTISM: CIRCLING THE TOILET BOWL ONE LAST TIME ON ITS WAY TO THE SEPTIC TANK OF HISTORY
WMD, BUSH, SADDAM and the UN
These excerpts from Bush's September 2002 UN speech are offered to demonstrate that Bush made a case for war BEFORE THE WAR that went WELL beyond WMD - (as should've been apparent to anyone noting the name of the operation: "Operation Iraqi Freedom". The United States helped found the United Nations. We want the United Nations to be effective, and respectful, and successful. We want the resolutions of the world's most important multilateral body to be enforced. And right now those resolutions are being unilaterally subverted by the Iraqi regime. Our partnership of nations can meet the test before us, by making clear what we now expect of the Iraqi regime.
[...]
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately and unconditionally forswear, disclose, and remove or destroy all weapons of mass destruction, long-range missiles, and all related material [emph added].
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all support for terrorism and act to suppress it [emph added], as all states are required to do by U.N. Security Council resolutions.
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease persecution of its civilian population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkomans, and others, again as required by Security Council resolutions [emph added].
[...]
If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will immediately end all illicit trade outside the oil-for-food program [emph added]. It will accept U.N. administration of funds from that program, to ensure that the money is used fairly and promptly for the benefit of the Iraqi people.
If all these steps are taken, it will signal a new openness and accountability in Iraq. And it could open the prospect of the United Nations helping to build a government that represents all Iraqis -- a government based on respect for human rights, economic liberty, and internationally supervised elections [emph added].
[...] If we meet our responsibilities, if we overcome this danger, we can arrive at a very different future. The people of Iraq can shake off their captivity. They can one day join a democratic Afghanistan and a democratic Palestine, inspiring reforms throughout the Muslim world [emph added].
YUP: that dumb ass redneck neocon biblethumping knuckledragging smirkingchimp said it right then and there SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE WAR - he even demanded that Iraqis get their human rights and internationally supervised elections!
AND EVERY ONE OF THE EXCERPTED DEMANDS WERE ENTIRELY DISREGARDED BY SADDAM - REQUIRING THAT WE ATTACK HIM AND REMOVE HIM FROM POWER - OR CONSIGN THE UN AND OURSELVES TO IRRELEVANCE.
So now, anytime - NO EVERYTIME some Leftwing asshole tells you that Bush went to war for oil, and lied about WMD, and that democracy was an after-thought - well you just tell'em they can either see the Light and admit they were wrong and that Bush was right, or they can eat shit and die.
BTW: read the whole speech; it's a gem that will shine for eternity.
FROM "HIGH NOON" TO "MAGNIFICENT SEVEN"
(AP) - Iraq says 85 insurgents killed in clash amid upsurge of citizen tips against militants.Iraqi officials also credited other successes to a torrent of intelligence that has begun flowing from citizens heartened by Jan. 30 elections and emboldened by film footage aired on state television that shows captured insurgents confessing their roles in attacks. ''Before, the people had a neutral stance toward this issue,'' said Sabah Kadhim, a spokesman for the Interior Ministry. ''Now, they have turned against the terrorists.''
What was HIGH NOON - (the classic western in which the US Marshall is forced to confront an evil gang, who've come back for revenge, all by himself because the ungrateful towns-folk are too scared to help him) - has become THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN - (in which peasants, who are sick and tired of being pillaged by banditos, hire gunslingers to help them defend their town)!
GO READ A COMPLETE ROUND-UP OF IRAQ'S COUNTER-INSURGENCY AT THE JAWA REPORT.
JUDENREIN
"Without settlements, a two-state solution is possible. With them it becomes impossible," UN Special rapporteur John Dugard said.I say that demanding a settlement-free West Bank is no more than demanding ethnic cleansing.I say that Israel should be no more expected to accept that the West Bank should have no Jews than the Arabs would be expected to accept Israelis expelling all the Arabs from Israel! I remind you that Israel is 20% Arab - and all the Arabs have all the same rights as the Jews there - which is MUCH MORE than Arabs anywhere in Arabia.
Sharon made the bold move to unilaterally and voluntarily make Gaza a "Jew-free zone" in order to be better able to defend the Jewish state. But it would be a BIG MISTAKE for anyone to read into that the possiblilty that Sharon would make the West Bank ethinically cleansed of Jews. too. IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN.
And why should it!? If Jews and Arabs are ever truly going to be at peace, then they should be able to live peacefully within each other's borders! AS ARABS DO WITHIN ISRAEL...
I'LL GO FURTHER: UNTIL JEWS CAN LIVE AS FREELY IN ARAB NATIONS AS ARABS DO IN ISRAEL THERE WILL BE NO PEACE.And the sooner the pro-Arab anti-Semite schmucks in the UN and the EU - like Anan and Dugard - get this the better!
OJ, Baretta and Schiavo: How to Get Away With Murdering Your Wife
All you need is a good lawyer. Of course it helps if you can make people think she had it coming to her...
2ND NEOJIHADI BOMB ATTACK NEAR BEIRUT
As I posted after the first attack: the neojihadist/baaathist alliance is trying to do in Lebanon what they've been trying to do in Iraq: foment civil war and defeat democracy.
IT WON'T WORK.
Tuesday, March 22, 2005
CAN THE SCHINDLERS SUE MICHAEL SCHIAVO IN CIVIL COURT?
I ask because I remember another gross misconduct of justice: the OJ trial. OJ got off in the criminal proceeding but got nailed in a civil suit.
Can the Schindlers do the same thing to Michael? Can they sue him for unfairly and prematurely causing - or ordering to be caused - their daugther's death?
Perhaps in a civil suit - with different parameters than the current limited proceedings - the Schindlers can get a better hearing?
Perhaps Michael's OBVIOUS conflict of interest will be able to be brought to light?
ANY LAWYERS OUT THERE GOT ANSWER, (OR SHOULD I SAY OPINION)?
UNDISPUTED FACTS REQUIRE THAT WE SAVE TERRI
THERE ARE A FEW UNDISPUTED FACTS IN THE RECORD THAT MAKE ME BELIEVE THAT WE MUST SAVE TERRI SCHINDLER-SCHIAVO FROM HER LEGAL GUARDIAN - MICHAEL SCHIAVO:
(1) MICHAEL ONLY ASSERTED THAT TERRI WOULD NOT HAVE WANTED TO LIVE AS SHE IS NOW AFTER HE WON THE MONETARY SETTLEMENT.
(2) ONLY MEMBERS OF THE SCHIAVO FAMILY ASSERT THAT TERRI WOULD NOT HAVE WANTED TO LIVE ON AS SHE IS LIVING NOW. NOT A SINGLE MEMBER OF THE SCHINDLER FAMILY CORROBERATES THIS - ALL DISPUTE IT.
(3) MICHAEL HAS A CLEAR CONFLICT OF INTEREST: HE IS LIVING WITH ANOTHER WOMAN, AND THEY HAVE HAD TWO CHILDREN TOGETHER.
(4) SOME MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS THINK THAT TERRI CAN IMPROVE.
(5) IF MICHAEL'S PAID DOCTORS ARE RIGHT AND TERRI FEELS NO PAIN, THEN SHE IS NOT HARMED BY HER CONDITION, NOR BY HER FEEDING-TUBE WHICH KEEPS HER ALIVE; THEREFORE, HER LIFE "AS IS" IS BENIGN. BUT - IF THE SCHINDLER'S UNPAID DOCTORS ARE CORRECT - AND TERRI CAN FEEL PAIN, THEN STARVING HER IS MORE HARMFUL TO HER THAN KEEPING HER ALIVE.
BOTTOM-LINE:
IS THERE A SINGLE PERSON OUT THERE WHO WOULD GIVE THE POWER OF OUR OWN LIFE TO SOMEONE WHO HAS A CONFLICT OF INTEREST OVER IT (AS MICHAEL CLEARLY HAS IN RELATION TO TERRI AND HIS COMMON LAW WIFE)!?
I THINK NOT.
It will be a sad, dark, BLACK day if the court decides against Terri's parents and let's her dubious legal guardian MURDER HER WITH THEIR HELP!
JUDGE REFUSES TO MAKE SURE TERRI LIVES
The federal judge refused to order that Terri's feeding tube be reinserted and that she be given food and water while the NEW federal case proceeds.
I find this SHOCKING, and I am very VERY disappointed.
Maybe I shouldn't be; after all, this judge was appointed to the federal court by Clinton.
COINCIDENCE? Maybe. Maybe not. Maybe he was appointed by Clinton because he's a liberal who thinks that fetuses and people who are brain-damaged don't have an intrinsic right to live - but only a conditional one.
I do not believe that if this was a DEATH PENALTY case that the judge would have allowed the state to execute the prisoner while his case was still under federal judicial review. IN OTHER WORDS: liberals like this judge routinely give more rights to convicted murderers than to this brain-damaged person.
That's just a fact.
*******
ADDENDUM:
Now, if King Solomon was deciding this case it is ABSOLUTELY clear what he'd do, because it is absolutely clear who has Terri's interests at heart: her parents. Her husband even refuses to feed her while her case is under review. WHY? Because he wants her to die as soon as possible. Even though there is not one shred of evidence that she is suffering. And even though the ONLY people who EVER testified that Terri would not want to go on living like this are all named Schiavo; YUP: isn't it strange that not one single member of Terri's family (THE SCHINDLERS) EVER heard an INKLING about this from Terri - even though the family had direct experience with other family members on life support?!
I think the judge's refusal to feed Terri whiule he hears the case reveals a pattern - a Left-wing pattern: they support killing fetuses; they're against the death penalty for murderers; they don't think that we should use our military strength to help spread democracy (as we did in Iraq), and also argue that we have no right to interfere in the internal affairs of other nations EVEN IF there is a systematic denial of human rights and genocide (as when Clinton did nothing to stop Rwandan genocide) - and they think that it's okay for brain-damaged people to be starved to death.
What do we call this pattern? I'm not sure. Maybe we should call it "Narcissistic Nihilism."
Here's my preliminary thinking:
I think the Left has bastardized an old saying, "Live and let live." To the Left, the saying has become "let me live, let them die." This is the ultimate narcissism and I think it grew out of the anti-West, counter-culture of post-modernism. In other words: it is a direct result of the Marcusian-Marxist 1960's. It's the ultimate nihilistic outburst of the Me Generation: my pregnancies are my business - not my fetuses; my country should never intervene miltarily against another until AFTER we're attacked ("the Vietcong and Saddam never attacked ME!?"); capitalism is terrorism; "Western Civilization is scourge upon the Earth fomenting racism, slavery, poverty, and global warming;" there are no intrinsic norms and therefore no such thing as deviancy: everything is permitted - including the right of an estranged husband to kill his brain-damaged wife.
Well, when everything is permitted, then people merely do what is right in their own eyes. That is the very definition of evil.
Sunday, March 20, 2005
JESSICA'S LAW
May God Bless Jessica's soul, and soothe the grief of her family with the faith and knowledge that Jessica is in a better world, now.
Which raises the question: HOW DO WE MAKE OUR WORLD BETTER?
I KNOW HOW: By locking up convicted child molesters for life, (or by only releasing them after they have been PHYSICALLY CASTRATED and have had their ARMS CUT OFF; their choice).
Punishment and prisons supposedly exist to PROTECT society. If the current laws put our most precious and beautiful citizens - OUR CHILDREN - at risk of further harm then they are inadequate and must be changed!
I WISH that Americans would wake up and urge their representatives in state and federal legislatures to change the law and make child molestation punishable by LIFE IN PRISON WITHOUT PAROLE.
We can call it Jessica's Law. It will save lives. Of our children. What better thing for a law to do?
*******UPDATE: I've just set up another blog to collect names of people who favor making child molestation punishable by life in prison. Here's the LINK: JESSICA'S LAW. Go there, put "your name and town" in the comments section, and then send the page to your representatives. If we can get a few million visitors to this JESSICA'S LAW page , then maybe we can get this possible solution some more publicity and then have some positive impact on this issue. YUP: MAYBE THE BLOGOSPHERE CAN MAKE A REAL DIFFERENCE ON THIS ISSUE.
It's up to you... Go to the JESSICA'S LAW page and then send the link to a few friends. You can make a difference; together WE CAN ALL MAKE A BIG DIFFERENCE!
Saturday, March 19, 2005
OJ and Schiavo
OJ managed to convince enough folks in a court of law that he was innocent - framed by the cops. He got away with murder.
Mr. Schiavo managed the same feat.
What makes me so skeptical about Mister Schiavo's CLAIM that his wife would've never wanted to be kept alive in her present condition are two things: (1) he NEVER once mentioned it until AFTER he was awarded nearly ONE MILLION BUCKS for the care of his wife in a trial in which he swore he'd care for her for the rest of her life with the money; and (2) AFTER he got the money (7 years after his wife's "accident") he suddenly remebered her wishes.
HOW EFFING CONVENIENT. HE GETS RID OF HER AND KEEPS THE MONEY!It is UNDENIABLY true that Mr. Schiavo has something to gain from his wife's passing: THE MONEY! Her parents opnly gain their loved one's life. SO.... WHO DO YOU BELIEVE?!
No matter what the courts have decided I shall always believe that - at thge very least - Mr. Schiavo has acted in bad faith.This case is also a reminder to EVERYONE that we should all have living wills. This case is a result of Terry Schiavo not having one. If she had had one, then there would be no dispute. Even the Catholic Church recognizes that nobody is required to take every possible intervention to stay alive; they do NOT require that we all opt to use ventillators or feeding tubes. But Terry had none, and now we are asked to believe that she'd rather die than remain alive in her present condition, and we are asked to believe this by a man who has a lot to gain if and when she does die. The same man who has tirelessly worked to see to it that she does die.
THAT'S WHY I DO NOT BELIEVE HIM. I believe her blood relatives have her interests at heart and that her husband does not. And I believe that the courts have let her down - just like they let down OJ's wife.
Friday, March 18, 2005
CAR-BOMB IN BEIRUT: Neojihadis bomb Christian neighborhood
Hizballah has now officially begun to do in Lebanon and against Arabs what al Qaeda has been doing in Iraq: use terror to try to start a civil war and scare the USA into retreating (so that they can fill the void with neojihadist tyranny):
("Reuters") - A car bomb has exploded in a mainly Christian eastern suburb of Beirut, wounding at least six people and raising fresh fears of a return to Lebanon's violent past. A Reuters correspondent at the scene said the blast early on Saturday destroyed the first floor of an apartment block, blew out windows in surrounding buildings and gouged a large crater in the road. Cars parked nearby were wrecked.
(BBC) - The latest blast took place after midnight (2200 GMT), when the streets of the predominantly Christian area were mostly empty. Windows were shattered several blocks away. "We saw this car just fly into the air and land on the street right in front of us," a witness told Reuters news agency. Car bombs were common during Lebanon's civil war from 1975 until the early 1990s.
We must demand that Hizballah disarm, and if they do not BEFORE THE ELECTION, then we should bomb the crap out of them with Cruise Missiles!
LONG-RANGE UKRAINIAN MISSILES SOLD TO CHINA AND IRAN
BBC: Ukrainian arms dealers smuggled 18 nuclear-capable cruise missiles to Iran and China in 1999-2001, Ukraine's prosecutor-general has said. The Soviet-era Kh-55 missiles - also known as X-55s - have a maximum range of 2,500km (1,550 miles). They are launched by long-range bombers. Official Ukrainian state bodies were not involved in the sales, the prosecutor-general's office said. It added that the missiles were not exported with nuclear warheads. The Kiev Court of Appeals is examining the case, and "a few Ukrainian and Russian citizens are suspects," the statement said. [...] Ukrainian First Deputy Defence Minister Leonid Polyakov said there were no indications yet that any Ukrainian Defence Ministry officials were involved in selling the missiles. And Ukraine's State Export Control Service said it did not authorise any sales of long-range cruise missiles to Iran or China.
These missiles are long-range - AND NUKE-WARHEAD READY!And they were sold during Kuchma's reign of terror.I WONDER: Could they REALLY have been sold by smugglers unconnected to Kuchma - (Putin's puppet) - and by Kuchma and Kuchma's henchmen without Putin's approval?! I DOUBT IT! It'd be like someone in Iraq selling missiles during Saddam's reign; it would've never happened that way.
YUP: that means that I think that Kuchma and Putin are involved. Don't laugh: Putin has increased Russia's coziness to China's military; they now have joint training exercises! And Putin has approved ALL the Iran nuke deals.
I bet that the discovery of these long-range missile deals was made possible ONLY because Yuschenko beat the hand-picked successor to Kuchma - Yanukovich.
I SAY: Yuschenko must appoint a new prosecutor and independent investigator, then - if Yuschenko's investigation of the sale of these long-range missiles reveals that Kuchma was indeed involved - we need to seriously consider trade sanctions against the USSR - I mean Putin's Russia.
IGNORANCE, ARROGANCE AND THE LEFT
Victor Davis Hanson - aka VDH - is brilliant today - as he ALWAYS is. But he left a little something out of his column today. Here's an excerpt of what he wrote:In fact, what do Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros all have in common? The same thing that unites Fidel Castro, the European street, the Iranians, and North Koreans: an evocation of some aspects of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany to deprecate President Bush in connection with the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
[...]
There is something profoundly immoral for a latte-sipping, upscale Westerner of the postmodern age flippantly evoking Hitler when we think of the countless souls lost to the historical record who were systematically starved and gassed in the factories of death of the Third Reich.
[...]
The final irony? The president who is most slandered as Hitler will probably prove to be the most zealous advocate of democratic government abroad, the staunchest friend of beleaguered Israel, and the greatest promoter of global individual freedom in our recent memory. In turn, too many of the Left who used to talk about idealism and morality have so often shown themselves mean-spirited, cynical, and without faith in the spiritual power of democracy.
I think VDH nails the PURE IDIOCY and DELUSIONAL INCONGRUITY of the attacks against Bush, but he has failed to properly EMPHASIZE TWO THINGS: (1) that ALL of the whackos who LUDICROUSLY disparage Bush with Hitlerian references (Linda Ronstadt, Harold Pinter, Scott Ritter, Ted Rall, and George Soros, Fidel Castro, the European street, the Iranians, and North Koreans and the Move.on/Left-wing of the Democrat Party) are committed, unabashed Leftists - folks who advocate socialism to one degree or another; and (2) that Hitler was a socialist!
As VDH points out, it is ironic that the Left accuses Bush of being Hitlerian when he is anything but Hitlerian. I am pointing out that ANOTHER IRONY: the fact that they are ALL MUCH MORE HITLERIAN BECAUSE LIKE HITLER THEY'RE SOCIALISTS! And like Hitler they use THE BIG LIE. And like Hitler they are utopianists and elitists and anti-Zionists.
The Left makes these wild accusations against Bush because they have Bush Derangement Syndrome. The basis of BDS -- (Bush Derangement Syndrome, and the newly coined "Wolfowitz Derangement Syndrome" - H.T.: Roger L. Simon) -- is the Left's unwillingness to accept that their ideology has utterly failed and has been totally discredited more and more ever since 1989, (perhaps from even earlier: perhaps ever since Deng Xiaoping abandoned most of Maoist-Marxist socialism in 1979, and transformed China from a starving basketcase into an economic dynamo). The hateful delusions of the Left are an expression of their COGNITIVE DISSONANCE.
(Other examples of the Left's "CG" and "DENIALISM" include denying that Reagan had anything to do with the "Fall of the Wall" or the collapse of the USSR, and the denial that Bush has anything to do with the fact that freedom and democracy are burgeoning in the Middle East and in the former USSR satellites - when the fact is HE DOES.)
Only after the people on the Left have the courage to admit they were wrong will their delusions and misguided hate-filled attacks against Bush end. HOW DO I KNOW THIS? I was a Leftist, once. Once I saw the light - and admitted that free-markets and democracy are more effective and fair and moral, and that the best guarantor of world peace and the Free World is American military strength - I was able to see the Left for what it was: a false religion.
I recommend that all Leftists just admit the truth; they'll see the light, and I know that they'll find the experience VERY LIBERATING (pun intended!).
TO DISSECTING LEFT READERS: thanks for stopping by! And if you're not reading Dissecting Left regularly (and Jon's other blogs): YOU SHOULD!
GREENIES ISSUE ANOTHER HYSTERICAL PREDICTION
From "REUTERS" (unfortunately, linked to by DRUDGE): HYSTERICAL HEADLINE:
"No Stopping Global Warming, Studies Predict"
METHODOLOGY OF STUDY:
"... ran two computer simulations of climate change -- complex programs, ... that took months to run on supercomputers."
CONCLUSION:
"We found that just based on the ingredients that have already been put into the atmosphere in the 20th century, we already are committed to another half a degree (0.5 degree C or 0.9 degree F) of global warming,"... "That's about what we saw in the 20th century. ..."
Which doesn't seem that bad to me; 1901 and 2001 don't look that different to me - in terms of weather. (But they sure do in terms of living standards!)
REMEMBER: the GREENIE/anti-SUV crowd would have you believe that industrialization is bad (because it turns carbon-solids into a carbon-gases) , when in fact industrialization is good, AND GOOD FOR YOU: life spans and health, and standards of living are MUCH better in industrialized countries than in non-developed countries.
THEREFORE: if you want to improve the lives of poor people in the Third World - make them live longer and more prosperously - you need to support MORE industrialization, NOT LESS. China and India are perfect examples of this: they were starving in the middle of the last century, now both are INDUSTRIALIZED economic powerhouses. And they use a lot of energy to do this. I guess the Greenies would rather they were both starving agrarian basketcases!?!?!?!?!
Also, you MUST ALWAYS keep in mind that all these HYSTERICAL PROGNOSTICATIONS are merely COMPUTER GENERATED SCENARIOS, just like the LOCAL 5 DAY FORECAST that you watch from your local weatherman - 5 DAY FORECASTS that are almost always INACCURATE and which must be CONSTANTLY UPDATED.
Last time I checked: (1) a century was further out than five days; and (2) global is a bigger kettle than local. In other words, no matter how many variables they feed into a computer, and no matter how fast that computer runs, what comes out is merely a possible forecast. Let's call it a "100 YEAR GLOBAL FORECAST." It's PROBABLY LESS ACCURATE than your "Local 5 Day Forecast."
Another thing which makes me very skeptical is that the Greenies always present forecasts that mirror their ideology. Wonder why that ALWAYS happens?
ADDENDUM: The bottom-line is that climate change is part of the history of the planet; 35,000 years ago Kilimanjaro had no glacier - and there were NO fossil fuels being burned then. So to assume or argue that fossil fuels are causing it now is NUTS! It might be due to SUNSPOT activity and changes in the SUN; (MORE HERE, and HERE via GREENIE WATCH).
Thursday, March 17, 2005
EL ENEMIGO: VINCENTE FOX
Presidente Vincente Fox is part of the problem, not part of the solution:
(UPI): Mexican President Vicente Fox has denounced border walls the United States is building to stem illegal immigrants, the Washington Post reports. "No country that is proud of itself should build walls ... it doesn't make any sense," Fox told a Mexico City news conference. "We are convinced that walls don't work." He said it was impossible for Mexico to post military or police patrols along the entire border to prevent crossings. "We can't keep them against their will by force," he said. Last month, the U.S. Congress voted to waive environmental regulations and allow completion of a fence along the border south of San Diego. Fox made the remark in advance of next week's meeting with President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin in Crawford, Texas, where immigration issues will figure prominently.
Just as Israel had a right to build a wall to keep terrorists OUT, so does the USA. I'D EVEN GO FURTHER: I'd put in LANDMINES along the border; I'd publicize t, and make sure everyone in Mexico KNEW that randomly - in many MANY locations along the border, there are yards and yards of deadly LANDMINES. That'll sure send the right message: "ENTER ILLEGALLY AT YOUR OWN REAL RISK; A RISK OF LOSING LIFE OR LIMB!"
THAT PROBABLY SOUNDS TOO TOUGH, AND TOO CALLOUS FOR YOU BLEEDING-HEART LIBS.
Maybe, but the first and highest responsibility our government has is to protect the homeland. We had to sdo that with a nuclear arsenal during the Cold War, and it's why we're developing NMD, now. And why we should construct a REAL BARRIER and a true physical disincentive to ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION, ASAP!
IRAQ'S FIRST SAUSAGE FACTORY OPENS IN BAGHDAD
As the saying "sorta" goes: "Democracy is like making sausage - it ain't pretty."
And the un-pretty sight of democracy began yesterday in Iraq.
PREDICTABLY, many in the MSM derided this auspicious amd momentous event, and sought ought ways to belittle it:
NYTIMES (in an article titled: "Many Iraqis Losing Hope That Politics Will Yield Real Change":
"... as the national assembly's first brief meeting came and went, broadcast into thousands of Iraqi homes on television, a sampling of street opinion in two Iraqi cities found a widespread dismay and even anger that the elections have not yet translated into a new government. "
What the NYTIMES and the naysayers on the Left want to ignore is the FACT that democracy has never been lauded for its efficiency, but for its morality.
Iraq will UNDOUBTEDLY have many MANY long arduous struggles as they evolve an IRAQI democracy and deal with their many MANY problems. Whether or not they solve their problems soon, or well, is NOT THE ISSUE. The mere fact that they can now confront these problems OPENLY and resolve them DEMOCRATICALLY is the issue, and it's why we can declare TOTAL VICTORY.
The rest is up to the Iraqi people. Because I believe that all humans are created equal and that we are all endowed by the Creator with inalienbale rights, I believe they will succeed every bit as well as we have. Which is to say, not without pitfalls: trains are late; a fix for social security seems politically impossible; federal judges can't get confirmed. But these inefficiencies are a small price to pay for FREEDOM.
WOLFOWITZ: principle architect of America's liberational foreign policy to head World Bank
Folks who think the developed part of the world should just keep pouring money down the black-hole of corrupt tyrannical socialist nations are pretty pissed off that Bush has nominated Wolfowitz to head the WORD BANK.
They should be: Wolfowitz is a TRUE BELIEVER in democracy, transparency and free markets - and a great manager who has been leading the TRANSFORMATION of the Pentagon. Wolfowitz will not countenance continued waste and fraud at the WB or with WB funds, and he will insist that nations receiving aid and loans become freer.
This pisses off the pro-socialist/pro-tyranny Left - who dominate the EU, and America's MSM and academy - as it should: it's ANOTHER NAIL IN THEIR COFFIN!
Wolfowitz is an EXTRAORDINARY man: a great thinker and statesman who has been at the very forefront, spearheading the spread of democracy since his days in the Reagan Administration when he led our efforts at ousting Marcos. And he helped democratize Indonesia. When you add in those he helped liberate in Afghanistan and Iraq, then you have to admit that Wolfowitz has been the principle philosophical tactician - "THE PRICIPLE ARCHITECT" (to use a phrase the Left likes) - of policies and actions which led to the liberation 300 MILLION people. WOW!
Wolfowitz will bring the same zeal for democracy and freedom and transparency to the WORLD BANK, and FINALLY make it an effective institution.
Bush made an INSPIRED selection - again!
UPDATE: FOR AN UNRIVALED COLLECTION OF LEFT-WING ANTI-WOLFOWITZ RAVINGS GO TO MY PET JAWA.
WHO TRIED TO WHACK CHUBAIS?
Anatoly Chubais is a leading right-of-center critic and rival of Putin. And like YUKOS' jailed former CEO - Mikhail Khodorkovsky - he's a wealthy man with the means to finance a campaign which could threaten Putin.
Someone tried - BUT FAILED- to ASSASSINATE Chubais this morning by blowing him up as his motorcade drove by - IN OTHER WORDS: IN THE SAME WAY RAFIK HARIRI WAS ASSASSINATED (by agents from a former USSR/KGB client state: SYRIA).
And of course, PUTIN IS A FORMER KGB AGENT.
You connect the dots...
The armed attack on Anatoly Chubais Thursday morning was politically motivated and is not related to his activity as CEO of Unified Energy Systems (UES), said member of the Union of Right Forces political council Boris Nemtsov. "Chubais is a government official, but it is absolutely obvious to me that the attempt on his life is political in its nature, and this is not related to the ongoing reformation of UES," Nemtsov said in an interview with Interfax. Chubais has received threats for years, Nemtsov said. "These threats have been coming from his political enemies," and "many did not feel ashamed to publicly threaten Chubais with reprisals," he said.
In his first comment since the attack, Chubais said he knew who wanted him dead, but did not name them, and refused to be intimidated. "Everything that I have done -- in reforming the country's power sector, and in uniting the country's democratic parties -- I will continue doing, with twice the strength," Chubais said in a one-paragraph statement.
Because of what he's doing in Georgia, and did in with Saddam, and doing in Iran, and tried to do in Ukraine - and what he's doing in Russia - Putin must be watched VERY carefully: he's a "Little Stalin" - and growing rapidly, I fear...
UPDATES:
RIA/NOVOSTI: "'The criminals escaped in the forest and reached the Minskoye highway where a car was waiting for them,' said the source. Reportedly it was a dark Saab. Chubais' motorcade was attacked on Thursday morning when it was leaving the Zhavoronki village not far from the Minskoye highway. The RAO UES chief was not injured. An unidentified explosive device went off between the BMW car with Chubais in it and a Mitsubishi Lancer carrying his bodyguards, a law enforcement source told RIA Novosti."
FOCUS: "... Russian authorities have found the car, used by the attackers of Anatoli Chubais, who escaped after the attempt for his murder, Interfax reported. According to the information, the car found is a green “Saab”. The owner of the car has been ascertained and now police is searching his house. A situation of emergency was declared in seven regions in Moscow in relation to the assassination attempt ..."
UPDATE #2: Welcome Betsy's Page readers! Betsy makes the EXCELLENT contextual point that Yuschenko was ALSO the intended target of an assassination attempt - using dioxin. BUT BY WHOM? Maybe we should have Kofi and the U.N. "investigate" it, like they're "investigating" the Hariri assassination? Heh.
*****UPDATE #3: Ummmm... here's a question: in spy movies, what is the MOST COMMON RANK for an evil KGB agent? YUP: Colonel. SO!? Get this:
(Interfax) - According to one of the investigation's theories, Thursday's assassination attempt on UES CEO Anatoly Chubais may have been organized by a former serviceman, a sabotage operations expert. Law enforcement sources told Interfax that the investigation has determined the license number of the Saab vehicle the attackers allegedly used to escape from the crime scene. As a result, the apartment of the car's owner on Berezhkovskaya Naberezhnaya has been found. "Investigators presume that the attack on Chubais was committed by the husband of the car's owner, a military pensioner and a sabotage operations specialist who was born in 1948," the source said.
(
ITAR/TASS): The detained man whose name has not been disclosed yet is a retired colonel of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. ... “The retired colonel was an expert in acts of sabotage and it should not be ruled out that it was he who masterminded the attack on the top manager of the country’s energy company,” sources in the team of investigators said. I wonder who this "retired" Colonel was working for?? Could it be Vladimir?
Wednesday, March 16, 2005
SCOTUS, Bloggers, McCain-Feingold and the FEC
McCain-Feingold is proving to have opened a Pandora's Box of tyrannical policies.
Commissioners of the FEC are openly talking about REGULATING - (read abridging) - blogs which make some forms of political commentary during the last 60 days of federal elections - (THE MOST IMPORTANT time TO BLOG on elections).
This is a HORRIFYING development.
Here's a solution:
Let's start a movement to AMEND THE CONSTITUTION with an NEW AMENDMENT which would protect NOT ONLY BLOGGERS, but protect ALL SPEECH - very very clearly. I'd word it something like this:
"The government shall make NO laws abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."
Oh. Sorry. You're right: THAT'S THE FIRST AMENDMENT (sans the establishment clause)!
I guess we just need a SCOTUS that will ENFORCE THE CONSTITUTION! Sheesh! Because they upheld McCain-Feingold, this SCOTUS has given, in effect, more 1st Amendment protections to pornographers than to citizens during elections!
WARD AND SUMMERS
No one said it better:Just think: if Harvard President Larry Summers had compared 9/11 victims to Nazis and apologized for terrorists, academics would be equating criticism of him with censorship.
But since he wondered aloud about cognitive differences between the sexes, they want him fired.
Harvard's faculty of arts and sciences, the same crew that reiterates its ban on the Reserve Officer Training Corps every few years, issued a "no confidence" vote on Harvard President Larry Summers yesterday. William F. Buckley's quip that he'd rather be governed by the first 2,000 people in a Boston phonebook than by the faculty of Harvard has never rung more true.
Daniel Flynn - author of: INTELLECTUAL MORONS, a great book.
Tuesday, March 15, 2005
JAWA HITS ONE MILLION VISITORS!
Congrats! Also congratulating JAWA are these other fine blogs which we should all read everyday!» Fatwa issued against Armies of Liberation for The World doesn't stand still » Fatwa issued against Hyscience for Jawa Report Celebrates One Million Visitors » Fatwa issued against Interested-Participant for On The Ides Of March » Fatwa issued against Outside The Beltway for Beltway Traffic Jam » Fatwa issued against Slant Point for Jawa's Million Visitor March » Fatwa issued against Dummocrats.com for Jawa Report Celebrates One Million Visitors » Fatwa issued against Scared Monkeys for Congratulations Rusty » Fatwa issued against All Along the Blogtower for Congrats Rusty! (I QUESTION THE TIMING!) » Fatwa issued against MartiniPundit for All Hail the Jawa Report » Fatwa issued against The American Princess for oings On! » Fatwa issued against Cranky Neocon for The Jawa Report Hits One Million » Fatwa issued against Pirate's Cove for Couple Thangs » Fatwa issued against MY Vast Right Wing Conspiracy for Random stuff » Fatwa issued against Simon World for Daily linklets March 16th
LET'S HELP KERRY KEEP HIS PLEDGE!
Forty-four days ago, JFKerry promised - on national TV - to sign a DOD Standard Form 180 and release his complete military records. HE HAS STILL NOT DONE SO.
Let's help him keep his promise: Here's LINK to a PDF of the SF 180; (it's on page 3).Please go there, print it and mail it to:The Honorable John F. Kerry
United States Senate
304 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-2102
OR: 90 Madison Place, Suite 205; Worcester, MA 01608
OR: One Bowdoin Square, 10th Floor; Boston, MA 02114
OR FAX IT TO HIM IN WASHINGTON, DC: 202-224-8525OR FAX IT TO HIM IN MASSACHUSETTS: 508-831-7381; 508-677-0275; 413-736-1049; 617-248-3870
Or go to KERRY'S WEB PAGE and email him the link.
UPDATE - 3/16: More HERE at POLIPUNDIT - as always!
CHAVEZ TAKES VENEZUELA DOWN THE ROAD TO SERFDOM
Chavez - favorite of Castro, Carter, Khatami and Chirac - has started to steal private property in Venezuela:("Reuters") - Venezuelan on Tuesday defended a plan to seize land from four private farms, including a UK-owned ranch and an eco-tourism reserve, after critics warned the move was illegal and would undermine investor confidence. The government said this week it would confiscate parts of the four farms under left-winger President Hugo Chavez's agrarian reforms to redistribute rural land to the poor.
(VOA) - Venezuelan authorities have said they will redistribute more than 110,000 hectares of privately-held property to landless farmers.
Mugabe of Zimbabwe tried this - and transformed his country from a food exporting nation - the "bread-basket of Africa" - into a starving basketcase! These policies didn't work any better in China or Russia, or any where else they've been tried.
Venezuela tried to overthrow Chavez and have its own "Orange Revolution" a while ago - but then had a referrendum - which Chavez "won" and Carter certified; (Chavez stole'n lied, then Carter swore to it); in fact, though, Chavez no more won that election than Yanukovich won in Ukraine! Thanks Jimmy!
Only after tryrannical Leftists like Mugabe and Castro and Chavez and Kim and Assad and Khatami are thrown out of office will their people's lives improve!
BILL MAHER ADMITS BUSH WAS RIGHT!
Tonight on the Wolf Blitzer show on CNN at 5PM, Maher said that based on what's happening in the Middle East now Bush's Iraq War was correct, and that he was wrong. I saw him say it with my own shocked eyes. If Maher can admit it, then why can't Teddy Jo Kopechne and Barbara Boxer and the rest of the loony Left?
KILIMANJARO'S SHRINKING GLACIER AND GREENHOUSE GASES: A MOUNTAIN OF LIES
Evidence exists that ENTIRELY DISPROVES THIS BUNK. Here it is...
EXHIBIT #1: Hysterical Left-wing Greenies' Make Outrageous Charges -"Reuters": A photo of Mount Kilimanjaro stripped of its snowcap for the first time in 11,000 years will be used as dramatic testimony for action against global warming as ministers from the world's biggest polluters meet today. Gathering in London on Tuesday for a two-day brainstorming session on the environment agenda of Britain's presidency of the Group of Eight rich nations, the environment and energy ministers from 20 countries will be handed a book containing the stark image of Africa's tallest mountain, among others.
"This is a wake-up call and an unequivocal message that a low-carbon global economy is necessary, achievable and affordable," said Steve Howard of the Climate Group charity which organised the book and an associated exhibition. "We are breaking climate change out of the environment box. This crisis affects all of us. This is a global challenge and we need real leadership to address these major problems -- and these ministers can give that leadership," he told Reuters.
The pictures include one of Kilimanjaro almost bare of its icecap because of global warming, and coastal defences in the Marshall Islands threatened with swamping from rising sea levels.
EXHIBIT #2: REAL Scientists Counter with TRUTH -(NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC) -... reports of glacial recession on Kilimanjaro first emerged in 2002, the story was quickly picked up and trumpeted as another example of humans destroying nature. It's easy to see why: Ice fields in the tropics—Kilimanjaro lies about 220 miles (350 kilometers) south of the Equator—are particularly susceptible to climate change, and even the slightest temperature fluctuation can have devastating effects.
"There's a tendency for people to take this temperature increase and draw quick conclusions, which is a mistake," said Douglas R. Hardy, a climatologist at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, who monitored Kilimanjaro's glaciers from mountaintop weather stations since 2000. "The real explanations are much more complex. Global warming plays a part, but a variety of factors are really involved."
According to Hardy, forest reduction in the areas surrounding Kilimanjaro, and not global warming, might be the strongest human influence on glacial recession.
"Clearing for agriculture and forest fires—often caused by honey collectors trying to smoke bees out of their hives—have greatly reduced the surrounding forests," he says. The loss of foliage causes less moisture to be pumped into the atmosphere, leading to reduced cloud cover and precipitation and increased solar radiation and glacial evaporation.
Evidence of glacial recession on Kilimanjaro is often dated from 1912, but most scientists believe tropical glaciers began receding as early as the 1850s.
Stefan L. Hastenrath, a professor of atmospheric studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, has found clues in local reports of a dramatic drop in East African lake levels after 1880. Lake evaporation indicates a decrease in precipitation and cloudiness around Kilimanjaro.
"Less cloud coverage lets more sunlight filter through and hit the glaciers," Hastenrath said. "That increase in sunlight then provides more energy for evaporation of the glacier."
Hastenrath found further evidence in sailing expedition reports from the same period. "Ships along the East African coast recorded very fast equatorial winds around 1880," he said. "Just like today, swift westerlies are always linked with drier seasons in East Africa, so it's very likely Kilimanjaro had a dry period around this time."
Along with a higher risk of evaporation, a drop in precipitation also makes for a dark glacial surface, made up of old, dirty snow. A darker glacial surface absorbs more solar radiation than fresh, white snow (like a blacktop playground baking in the sun).
Global warming began to take effect in East Africa by the early 20th century.
FACTS IN SUMMARY: (1) The current recession of Mt. Kilimajaro's glacier began a CENTURY BEFORE fossil fuel use became global.
(2) The current recession of Mt. Kilimanjaro's glacier is the result of LOCAL activities which can be addressed locally - and have NOTHING to do with use of fossil fuels in other parts of the world.
(3) The current recession of Mt. Kilimanjaro's glacier is also effected by regional wind current patterns and local cloud cover - and NOT CLIMATIC CHANGES OR GLOBAL WARMING.
(4) The "Greenies" ADMIT that Mt. Kilimanjaro was GLACIER FREE 11,000 YEARS ago; WELL... there were NO SUV's then, and NO man-made "greenhouse gases" to cause this; therefore, asserting that "greenhouse gases" are causing it now is HIGHLY SUSPECT.
THEREFORE: it is OBVIOUS that KYOTO is a COLOSSAL WASTE, a MASSIVE DIVERSION of valuable resources which could be better spent in ways that would more directly and quickly SAVE AND IMPROVE the lives or more people in the Third World who are currently suffering as a result of REAL ENVIRONMENTAL THREATS - like dirty water, and water borne diseases.
Instead of shackling our First World's industrial base (the world's money-making/wealth-generating machine) with WORTHLESS "GREEN" laws, we should be be building water treatment plants in the Third World and begin spraying large areas with DDT.
That is, if we REALLY want to help improve the lives of HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS of people.
I have the feeling the GREENIES relentless and irrational attachment to KYOTO and against "fossil fuels" has more to do with making themselves feel good, than improving the lives of anyone.
More HERE from BJORN LONBORG (and op-ed titled: "Save the world, ignore global warming") and HERE.
UPDATE: Welcome SHAKING SPEARS readers - and if you're not one yet, you should be EVERYDAY!
UPDATE #2: Welcome BETSY'S PAGE readers! As long as you're here, why not check out a few other posts. BY THE WAY: if you're not reading Betsy everday - at least once - then you're missing the best news and commentary round up in the blogosphere.
Monday, March 14, 2005
The Left must be disappointed: TODAY'S ANTI-NEOJIHADIST, ANTI-BAATHIST PROTEST IN BEIRUT IS THE BIGGEST YET!
This news must REALLY PISS-OFF and DISAPPOINT the Left. Only last week, most of the talking heads on the Left were palpably RELIEVED that Hizballah had STAGED a big anti-American protest. Hell, the Leftists had promptly started wagging their "I told you the Bush Doctrine wouldn't work" fingers in our neo-con faces. IN FACT: the MSM Lefties were ALL OVER the Sunday Talk Shows yesterday saying that Hizballah had proven that they were also "politcal party" that had to be taken seriously!
YEAH RIGHT! Bush - who has just put Gerry Adams of Sinn Fein - the "political wing" of the terrorist group the IRA - on the persona non grata list, is certainly never EVER going to alllow ANYONE in his administration to have a tete-tete with Nasrallah or anyone else in Hizballah - that would be like negotiating with al Qaeda!
Today's reports will upset the Left because they PROVE that today's anti-Hizballah, anti-Syria, anti-neojihadist, anti-baathist protest - and PRO-AMERICAN RALLY - is the biggest one BIGGEST YET! ---
ZAMAN/(Turkey):Nearly two million people from different regions of Lebanon have gathered in the capital Beirut for protests organized by the opposition party. Members of the press located in the protest region have reported that the protestors are arriving in Beirut by car, ship, and even on foot in preparation for the largest meeting since the assassination of the former Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri on Feb. 14.
XINHUA/(China):Angry Lebanese demanded an international investigation into Hariri's killing and a complete and swift Syrian pullout of its troops and intelligence forces, after a nearly 30-year military presence in its tiny neighbor. Apart from the vast sea of opposition protesters in the square, steady flows of people could be seen pouring from all corners of the city, and all kinds of vehicles were bringing in large influx of people from across the country. Estimates of the number of protesters varied from 1 million to 300,000.
And I betchya they were all LEBANESE, TOO! ******* UPDATE: AP/ABC - 3/15:
BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Mar 14, 2005 — Hundreds of thousands of anti-Syrian demonstrators flooded the capital Monday in the biggest protest ever in Lebanon, surpassing the turnout for an earlier pro-Damascus rally organized by the Islamic militant Hezbollah. In a show of national unity, Sunnis, Druse and Christians packed Martyrs' Square as brass bands played and balloons soared skyward. The rally, perhaps the biggest anti-government demonstration ever staged in the Arab world, was the opposition's bid to regain momentum after two serious blows: the reinstatement of the pro-Syrian prime minister and a huge rally last week by the Shiite group Hezbollah. Protesters some bused in from across Lebanon jammed Martyrs' Square and spilled into nearby streets. They chanted, sang and shouted in a mix of the Arabic accents of the country's regions, demanding Syrian troops depart and that their government be purged of Damascus' influence.
The turnout was broader than earlier opposition protests, with more Sunni Muslims in particular joining the Christians and Druse who have formed the bulk of past anti-Syrian rallies. Even some Shiites joined in.
IS 500,000 BARRELS PER DAY A LOT OF OIL?
BLOOMBERG:Saudi Arabia called on the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries to raise production to meet an expected increase in demand later this year. OPEC, the producer of 40 percent of the world's oil, should boost its oil quota by 500,000 barrels a day, or 1.9 percent, to 27.5 million a day, said Saudi oil minister Ali al-Naimi, in a faxed statement today. Iran's oil minister, Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, told reporters earlier in Isfahan, Iran, that no change in supply was needed.
Evidently, Saudi Arabia and OPEC think that 500,000 barrels P/D is a lot of oil. But "greenies" think that the estimated 1,000,000 barrels P/D that ANWR will produce is a pittance! (I wonder if 1,000,000 barrels P/D was spilled on a beach near Malibu if the "greenies" would think it was a pittance then!?!?) MY POINT? ONE MILLION BARRELS PER DAY IS NOTHING TO SNEEZE AT.
World demand is outstripping world supply - that's why oil prices are so high. To make oil cheaper, we need to increase supply by extracting more - and REFINING MORE. Right now USA refining capacity is too low; we haven't built any additional refining capacity in three decades.
Do you think the "greenies" will permit us to do that, either? NOT without a fight!
The "greenies" - the anti-ANWR oil crowd - are irrational: they think that plentiful oil is bad and "free" caribou good.
They're also generally disdainful of industrialization - as if it (along with capitalism) was somehow harmful to human life. I suggest that whenever you hear this irrational rant from a "greenie" that you point out to them that life spans, standard of living, and the health of humans in industrially developed nations is much MUCH better than for those humans who live in the "pristine" Amazon or "pristine" African bush - who are generally more sickly, poorer and live shorter lives than urban industrialized people.
What these poor, short-lived and often sick people need is MORE INDUSTRIALIZATION, not less. What the developed nations should be doing is building oil refineries all over the African coast-line! It would create jobs, grow their GDP, pay for water treatment plants (and for DDT to wipe out malaria - the single biggest disease in Africa -- one that DWARFS HIV), increase the standard of living, lead to better housing and healthcare. And we could ship ANWR-oil there to be refined, too!
MORE OIL IS THE ANSWER!
Those against more oil are part of the problem, not the solution!
MORE INFO ON ANWR - AND NEVERLAND RANCH - HERE.
...that was a result of the anti-terror barrier which Israel built on occupied land.RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan said Monday the United Nations is establishing a register of property damage caused by Israel's West Bank separation barrier, as hundreds of Palestinians protested the barrier outside the walled Palestinian government compound where he spoke.
This SO SO so so SO SO SO SO SO very VERY important that Kofi himself is addressing it on his visit to Abbas in Ramallah. YUP: it's too important to leave it to KOJO or BENON!
Do you think that the UN will ever assess and register the property and personal injury damage that came as a result of ARAB TERROR against Jews and Israelis!?
Yeah, right. Sure. Pronto.
CHECKMATE IN 2008?
Putin's second term is up in 2008. He's made noise about running again. If he did, he might win, because there isn't really a BIG-NAME, opposition leader to oppose him (if he seeks reelection) - or to oppose his machine if Putin seeks to put up a crony. Well, until now, that is... now Russia's chess hero - Garry Kasparov has said all but thrown his hat into the ring:
INDEPENDENT (UK): Mr Kasparov is already chairman of the opposition body Committee 2008, a group of liberals fighting to halt Russia's slide to autocracy and to ensure that Mr Putin resigns when his second term in office ends in three years. [...] Mr Kasparov has become one of the most outspoken critics of the Putin regime on the international circuit, lambasting its decision to clamp down on the media and its stranglehold over the courts and parliament. [...] In comments published on the website of the Russian weekly journal Yezhednevny Zhurnal, he said: "In chess I have done all I could and even more. Now I intend to use my intellect and strategic thinking in Russian politics. "I will do all I can to oppose Putin's dictatorship. "It is very hard to play for a country with undemocratic authorities. I will be tackling this problem with those who hold Russia dear and care about it." Mr Kasparov, 41, has dominated international chess tournaments since becoming world champion at the age of 22.
Kasparov says Russia under President Vladimir Putin is moving in the wrong direction. At the group's launch last year he spoke of what he said was the growing threat to democracy. "We see a clear danger, a clear and present danger, for the current constitution, for our democratic rights and that is why we are bringing [together] all different people, citizens, on the basis of our citizenship, that believe in democracy as an institution," Kasparov said.
Sunday, March 13, 2005
OATHS AND FILIBUSTERS
I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.
No Senator swears an oath to uphold Senate rules.
Repeat: NO SENATOR SWEARS TO UPHOLD SENATE RULES.
NOT ONLY does the US Constitution trump Senate rules, BUT EVERY U.S. Senator has a compulsory duty and PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY to see to it that the U.S. Constitution is upheld.
I assert that - IN THE CASE OF JUDICIAL APPOINTMENTS - the Senate's filibuster rule - now set at 60 to end debate, (but not too long ago set at 67) - is UNCONSTITUTIONAL AND VIOLATES THE SENATE'S OATH OF OFFICE.
Here's why the Senate cloture rule - as it relates to judicial appointments - violates the US Constitution: The Constitution specifically states that the Senate shall confirm judges; CONFIRMATION HAS ALWAYS BEEN BY A SIMPLE MAJORITY: 50% + 1. WHY? Here's why:
The filibuster of legislation dates back to 1841 when Senator John C. Calhoun, a notorious defender of slavery and an extreme proponent of minority rights, originated the filibuster as part of his effort to defend the hideous institution of slavery. Calhoun’s creation of the filibuster was opposed by the great Senator Henry Clay and the very name filibuster itself was originally a synonym for pro-Slavery mercenary pirates who would attack Latin American governments to try to spread the Slave system.
Since its inception in 1841, the filibuster of legislation has been used to block legislation protecting black voters in the South, in 1870 and 1890-91; to block anti-lynching legislation in 1922, 1935, and 1938; to block anti-poll tax legislation in 1942, 1944, and 1946; and to block anti-race discrimination statutes on 11 occasions between 1946 and 1975.
The most famous filibuster of all time was the pro-segregation filibuster of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which went on for 74 days. In recent years, the number of filibusters has escalated dramatically due to the emergence of the so-called stealth filibuster or two track system of considering legislation.
We have gone from 16 filibusters in the 19th Century to 66 in the first half of the 20th Century to 195 filibusters between 1970 and 1994.
Filibusters of legislation may be constitutionally dubious as an original and textual matter, but they have been permitted now in the Senate for a century and one-half and indeed seem to be mushrooming.
Now for the first time in 214 years of American history an angry minority of Senators is seeking to extend the tradition of filibustering from legislation to judicial nominees who enjoy the support of a majority of the Senate. This unprecedented extension of the filibuster to judicial nominees threatens to raise the vote required for senatorial confirmation of judges from 51 to 60 votes.
This is a direct violation of the Advice and Consent Clause, which clearly contemplates only a majority vote to confirm a judge.
THEREFORE, Frist MUST see to it that the Senate nullifies the Senate cloture rule as it relates to judical nominees; (he can do this with a simple majority vote). Frist violates his OATH OF OFFICE if he does NOT do this.
RENDITION AND THE LEFT
During the final moments of his appearance on THE OREILLY FACTOR (FOX NEWS, 3/11), Michael Scheuer [ (a) the former CIA honcho in charge of the CIA's anti-Bin Laden unit from the time of the Clinton Administration until he retired a few months ago - AND (b)a Bush critic who authored the anti-Bush book: IMPERIAL HUBRIS], said (paraphrasing):
that RENDITION was "the SINGLE MOST EFFECTIVE tool that the USA had in the GWOT," and that any claim - and specifically the LATIMES claim - that the policy had yielded no useful; information was "INSANE."
In a 3/11 NYTIMES OPED, Sheuer further opined:
... both Mr. Clinton and George W. Bush. In my mind [...]made the right decision - America is better protected because of renditions - [...] the rendition program has been a tremendous success. Dozens of senior Qaeda fighters are today behind bars, no longer able to plot or participate in attacks. Detainee operations also netted an untold number of computers and documents that increased our knowledge of Al Qaeda's makeup and plans. [...] All Americans owe a debt of gratitude to the men and women of the agency who executed these residentially requested and approved operations, often at the risk of their lives.
The rendition controversy followed a well-established pattern by the Left-wing and the Old Media they dominate: They attack Bush for doing what previous Democrat presidents did WITHOUT CRITICISM (and sometimes did with their PRAISE!) and also ignore the fact that the action in question is effective and in our national security interest.
The Left does this over-and-over again:
(1) Clinton was cool for ordering "Operation Desert Fox" against Saddam's WMD - WITHOUT Congressional, NATO or UN approval, but Bush lied about the WMD and is a war criminal for liberating Iraq without UN approval.
(2) Clinton was a hero for liberating Kosovo and deposing Milosevic (again without UN approval) - even though Milosevic presented no threat to USA security, (especially as compared to Saddam), but Bush is evil because liberating Iraq was never what he REALLY wanted; he only wanted Iraq's oil. And Leftists also charge that Bush never argued that Saddam had to go because he was a tyrant; Leftists falsely charge that Bush's neo-con rationalization that we need to democratize the Middle East is post facto. (Which is why we called it OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM, right?!?!?)
Well, the list of hypocritical, false charges the Left has made and still makes against Bush is endless. (You can add your own in "comments " if you want.)
ONE THING IS CLEAR: the Left is the major reactionary force in the world today - whether the issue is the GWOT, or trade and globalization, or Social Security. The sooner the Left is totally marginalized the sooner we make unlimited poltical progress on all fronts.
HOW WILL THIS HAPPEN?
Well, the Left will do it to themselves: As the MOVE ON types - and their DEANIAC cohorts - take over the Democrat Party, they will force it more and more to the extreme Left and the WHACKO margins of every issue. This will shrink Blue America and enlarge Red America.
NEED PROOF?! Well, the Democrats and their Left-wing 527's outspent the GOP and its 527's by more than 10-to-one, and still lost the presidency and Congress by significant margins.
It won't matter how much money they raise and spend; if the Democrats continue to move leftward they will - (as Zell Miller proclaimed in his book, A NATIONAL PARTY NO MORE) - disappear from the national political stage.
GOOD RIDDANCE.
**** UPDATE - 3/14: WELCOME JAWA REPORT READERS! Please check out a few other posts. And: if you're not a JAWA REPORT reader - you should be; JAWA is "GWOT and SGRENA Central."
Saturday, March 12, 2005
IRAN TURNS SADDAM'S "CHEAT & RETREAT" INTO "LIE & DEFY"
CBC/AP: Iran is willing to co-operate to show the world it is not trying to make nuclear weapons, the country's president said Saturday as he faced increasing pressure from the United States and Europe over the Iranian nuclear program. The comments by Iranian President Mohammad Khatami came one day after the U.S. government softened its stance on Iran's nuclear program and agreed to support a European plan offering economic incentives to Tehran to give up any weapons ambitions. We are ready to co-operate with the world to give more certainty that Iran is not moving toward the creation of nuclear arms," Khatami said through an interpreter.
This is just another ploy. Iran is merely sending out Khatami - its "good cop" - to assuage the international community and give Putin some cover.
I am SURE that Bush - who wouldn't take crap from Arafat (even though it TOTALLY pissed off the EU, and who has now quarantined the Irish terrorist -- the Irish Arafat: Gerry Adams) - ain't falling for this Iranian crap.
We'll probably have to preemptively destroy Iran's nuclear facilities, and we'll probably do it ASAP: which means after the Lebanese elections.
Between now and then we'll focus on Lebanon, Syria, and Hizballah (and the Iranians in Lebanon). And we'll also get our ducks in a row for a punitive UNSC against Iran. Bolton will handle that - (very nicely, thank you) - and it will serve as a warm up for another tough UNSCR against North Korea later in the year.
When the anti-Iranian UNSCR comes up for a vote, Putin will be forced to either stand with us, or veto it and stand with Iran. I guess he will abstain. As will China.
Stay tuned.
IRAN UTTERLY DISMISSES EU AND USA OFFER AND SETS DEADLINE: MARCH 23
Iranian officials have entirely dismissed the latest USA/EU efforts:"REUTERS":"The problem is that the Europeans should give up their illogical stance," Sirus Naseri, a senior member of Iran's nuclear negotiating team, told state television. "What we have said is that our fuel production will continue." But Washington and the EU say the only acceptable guarantee is for Iran to scrap its nuclear fuel production plans altogether and rely on the supply of reactor fuel from abroad. Hassan Rohani, Iran's chief nuclear negotiator, said a key Iran-EU meeting would be held in Paris on March 23. "It will be a very important session and we hope to reach an acceptable conclusion through legal and diplomatic means," the Jomhuri-ye Eslami newspaper quoted him as saying. "The continuation of the talks between Iran and Europe will depend on the March 23 meeting."
It seems to me that after talks are halted, we will then have to TRY to get a UNSCR against Iran (over Putin's veto). This will likely happen in the first two weeks of April. WHAT WILL HAPPEN AFTER THAT?! There's more below on that, so scroll down, and STAY TUNED!
MIGHT VERMONT'S HIGH COURT BE DEAN'S DEMISE?
WCAX: MONTPELIER, Vt. :
More than a year after the collapse of his presidential campaign, the fight over public access to Howard Dean's gubernatorial records goes before the state's high court next week.The state is appealing a ruling from Superior Court Judge Alan Cook in February of last year saying that 86 boxes of records sealed by Dean when he left office in 2003 are presumed to be open. Cook ordered that Dean and the state had to identify each of the hundreds of thousands of documents in the boxes and say why each should be covered by executive privilege.
The only likely reason that Dean would want these papers sealed for TEN YEARS is because he knows there's stuff in'em he thinks would seriously damage him politically.
If the Vermont high court does what it should, then Dean will be damaged, and along with him the DNC! More HERE and HERE. Stay tuned!
Friday, March 11, 2005
NEW INCENTIVE FOR IRAN IS A SUBTLE MULTILATERAL ULTIMATUM
CHENEY said Friday that if Iran doesn't live up to its "international obligations to forego a nuclear program, then obviously we'll have to take stronger action."
And also, just importantly, this concerted effort means that the European leaders will each have an "out" with their electorates: they'll be able to say that there was NO RUSH TO THE UNSC - or to preemptive military action, if-and-when that becomes necessary.
In other words, now the ball is back in Iran's court, AND THE STAKES ARE HIGHER AND CLEARER: Cooperate now or the UNSC will order serious international sanctions.
I still firmly believe that Putin MUST BE BROUGHT INTO LINE in this matter. The Europeans and Bush must tell Putin to cancel - or at least SUSPEND - Russia's nuclear contracts with Iran, or Russia will be banished from the G8, or worse.
ONE OTHER POINT: This proves - ONCE AGAIN - that Bush is not a unilaterialist who prefers military force. Too bad the loony Left will NEVER acknowledge that!
UPDATE: IRAN QUICKLY SIGNALS INTRANSIGENCE ON NUKES
"Reuters" and
CNN and
FT already report that Iran is signaling that they will NOT do what the EU and the USA wants them to do - (or that they are attempting a variation on Saddam's and Kim's cheat-and-retreat tactics).
The ball is back in the EU's court.
I expect that AFTER Bolton is confirmed, that the matter will be brought up to the UNSC, and that the UNSC will authorize international sanctions - UNLESS Russia vetoes it! If Russia vetoes it, then I expect that the USA will preemptively destroy ALL of Iran's nuclear sites ASAP with a sustained cruise missile attack. The question is: "WHEN?"
In the coming weeks, Syria and Hizballah will attempt to distract the USA and the EU and the UNSC. And we might have to deal with Syria first - before we launch a military attack against Iran. And the Lebanon situation might not come to head until MAY- when Lebanon holds elections.
That might give Iran until June - but certainly something definitive must happen not later than the autumn.
If Putin cancels Russia's nuclear contracts with Iran, and abstains on the UNSC amendment, then we might give sanctions a chance to work - a year, maybe: A year of sanctions might help Iran's democracy movement, and might push Iran toward TRUE democracy. ALSO: while the sanctions against Iran are in effect we might turn outn attention to North Korea.
Stay tuned.
ANWR'S OIL AND MICHAEL JACKSON'S NEVERLAND
ANWR is 16 MILLION acres. That's big.The footprint for the STATE OF THE ART, WORLD-CLASS proposed oil drilling facility in ANWR is 2,000 acres. That's sounds big, but it isn't as big as it sounds. That's 1/8000ths of ANWR'S total area!
PUT IT INTO PERSPECTIVE: The NEVERLAND RANCH - Michael Jackson's ranch in California is 2744 acres - that's about 40% BIGGER than the proposed oil facility. (And what allegedly goes on in Neverland is more disgusting than what goes on in any an oil facility anywhere!) By the way: Canada - our #1 foreign source for oil - currently extracts oil from an area in Canada right near ANWR, and just like ANWR - with the approval of the Native Americans who live there. If they can do it safely, so can Americans! ALSO: if Norwegians and Brits can safely extract oil from the dangerous North Sea, then we Americans can certainly extract oil safely from good old terra-firma!
And to those who claim that the ONE MILLION BARRELS P/D that ANWR might produce is a paltry amount which not worth the risk I say: When Iraq's oil production went UP to one-million barrels it was an important and positive milestone for Iraq and the global oil markets. Now, Iraq produces 2 million barrels a day. If ANWR produces 50% of what Iraq produces, then I'd say we were doing ALL RIGHT! The U.S. Geological Survey, updated May 2000, estimated that the area might contain up to 16 billion barrels of oil — five years of U.S. imports. That's nothing to sneeze at!
THEREFORE: Opposition to drilling in ANWR is irrational. Which is probably why it fits right in with Leftist policies.
More HERE (facts from the DOI), and HERE (why Canadian Native Americans favor drilling for oil in Canada, but oppose it in the USA).
WELCOME VIKINGPUNDIT READERS! And if your not one yet, you should be - at least twice a day!
**** UPDATE 3/14 --- MORE HERE.
OLD MEDIA'S GLARING OMISSION ONCE AGAIN PROVES THEIR PARTISAN BIAS
If they were Republicans, that would've been the first thing in ALL the news reports!
I have the feeling that these two corrupt politicians aren't worried about being disenfranchised (after they're convicted): they KNOW that their party wants CONVICTED FELONS to vote!
NOW: when will prosecutors indict Democrats in Philly and Minnesota and Wisconsin and Washington for doing what these two Dems did in Orlando?!?!?!?!?
WELCOME BETSY'S PAGE READERS! And if you don't read it at least three times daily your missing one of the best news round-ups with commentary in the entire blogosphere!
BTW: maybe we should get a blogspheric pool going: guess how many days will go by before the MSM reports the fact that some Democrats have been indicted for voter fraud?
Thursday, March 10, 2005
SECRET CENTRIFUGES PROVE IRAN WANTS NUKES
BBC:Pakistan has confirmed that the former head of its nuclear weapons programme, AQ Khan, gave centrifuges for enriching uranium to Iran. It is the first time Pakistani officials have publicised details of what nuclear materials the disgraced scientist passed on to Iran. Information minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed told the BBC's Urdu service that "a few" centrifuges were involved.
This should be the last straw, as far as BOTH Putin and Iran are concerned: it's time to issue both ultimatums:To Putin we should say, "Cancel all nuclear contracts, or else suffer expulsion from G8, and international trade sanctions." If he refuses, well... then he would have made clear to all whose side he's really on.
To the mullah-tyrants in Iran we should say, "Dismantle all non-civilian nuclear sites, handover all dual use nuclear equipment and all centrifuges, and allow us to inspect anywhere/anytime (because you have now been caught LYING twice about your nuclear programs) or we will destroy all your nuclear sites - civilian and non-civilian, and destroy your navy and your air force with a sustained cruise missile attack that will make Operation Desert Fox - (which Clinton waged for 10 days against Saddam in 1998 - WITHOUT Congressional, NATO, or UNSC approval) - look like a picnic. We only give the mullah-tyrants as much time as it takes to stage all necessary assets to attack them.
Wednesday, March 09, 2005
LEBANON'S FORMER PM: Hizballah rally a HOAX!
FROM JIHAD WATCH: An astounding story from WND (thanks to Teri) about this rally:
JERUSALEM – The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria's occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning. "Yesterday's huge protest calling for Syria to stay made it look to the world like a large segment of the Lebanese population actually wants to live under Syrian occupation," said Aoun, speaking to WND from Paris. "But the protest wasn't what it appeared to be. It was an elaborately staged affair." MORE - AS ALWAYS AT JIHAD WATCH - AND MORE BELOW ---- SCROLL DOWN...
UPDATE: I saw a report on CNN filed by Brent Sadler - their Beirut bureau chief - who edited-in clips from alJazeera which he said were interviews with some of the MANY Syrians who were BUSED IN FOR THE HIZBALLAH RALLY!
When CNN posts a written version of this on-line, I'll post a link to it. (BTW: do you think that CNN is playing footsy with Hizballah in order to protect their Beirut bureau - the way they ADMITTED they did with Saddam to protect their Baghdad bureau? Just asking...)
UPDATE #2: This just in from the AP -
The group [Hizballah] mobilized its supporters in the heavily Shiite regions of the Bekaa and the south, with loudspeakers urging followers to travel to Beirut for the protest. The leading Beirut daily An-Nahar, which has been critical of Syria, reported that convoys of Syrians were being brought across the border in buses to take part but that could not be confirmed.Opposition leaders, who have been courting Hezbollah's support in their effort to oust Syrian troops, accused Lebanese intelligence agents of exercising pressure on municipalities, public schools and institutions to drive the numbers up.
Stay tuned! Oh, before I sign off, there's this: some estimates (one used in the AP report cited above, as a matter of fact) now put the crowd at around ONLY 200,000 - NOT a very good figure considering how many Syrians and Palestinian Arabs were there!
FRANCE AND CHAVEZ: PERFECT TOGETHER
CARACAS: Venezuela is looking to accelerate talks with France's Total for a $5 billion heavy crude upgrading project, President Hugo Chavez said Wednesday. "We've given the green light..." said Chavez, following a meeting with Total President Thierry Desmarest in Paris. ... Total is a partner with Petroleos de Venezuela. ... Total invested $5 billion in Venezuela from 1998 through 2004, mainly in the Sincor project. Total also produces natural gas at the Yucal Placer field. The company plans to invest $150 million in Venezuela in 2005, mainly at Yucal Placer, but expects outlays to pick up in the coming years as new projects are approved. Venezuela, the world's fifth-largest oil exporter, hopes to nearly double crude oil production to 5 million b/d by 2009 with help from private companies.
The French did the same thing with another anti-American tyrant: Saddam. C'est la vie, I guess. After all, this is the entire M.O. and raison d'etre of France's foreign policy: exploit anti-American/anti-democratic regimes, and move in where the USA moves out.
BUSH DOCTRINE MEETS NORTHERN IRELAND!
The Bush Doctrine has now been officially extended to Northern Ireland.
On Tuesday, the IRA said it had offered to shoot the people [IRA members] it says killed the 33-year-old [Belfast man Robert McCartney] after a row in a city centre bar on 30 January. His family has rejected the offer. Hugh Orde said he had "no doubt" the IRA meant they would kill the men. Hugh Orde said IRA was offering to kill suspects. "This is an organisation theoretically on ceasefire. This is an organisation that is still prepared to kill people now from its own community"... Prime Minister Tony Blair told the House of Commons the IRA statement was "extraordinary". "It was quite an extraordinary thing to say. It cannot be in any shape or form justified," Mr Blair said. Irish Premier Bertie Ahern said the IRA statement was "extraordinary and horrific".
The US Special Envoy to Northern Ireland, Mitchell Reiss, said it was "time for the IRA to go out of business". Mr Reiss added: "It's time for Sinn Fein to be able to say explicitly, without ambiguity, without ambivalence, that criminality will not be tolerated."
CNN had the MONEY QUOTE: [Reiss to Sinn Fein],"You can't sign up for the rule of law a la carte."
Mexican Border and Neojihadist Terror
Jihad Watch has a post on the Mexican border linking to an AP article: "WASHINGTON (AP) - FBI Director Robert Mueller told Congress on Tuesday that people from countries with ties to al-Qaida have crossed into the United States from Mexico, using false identities."
I blogged on this huge risk - one that the Mexican government is compounding- HERE on 2/14 and HERE on 2/17 .
IRAN PROVES REAL DEMOCRACY IS THE ANSWER
And Iran PROVES that the Bush Doctrine is CORRECT!
HOW? WHY? Because, IF Iran had a REAL democracy, then the mullahs would be THROWN OUT - (or maybe even HUNG FROM LAMPOSTS!).
Most people EVERYWHERE want liberty and prosperity and peace and the rule of law - as enforced by consensually elected representatives.
When elected officials fail to deliver the goods, when their people suffer: they get tossed from office.
The neojihadist mullahs in Iran are no better than that Confucionary Stalinist in North Korea: they all squash their people under suffocating tyranny as they squander their people's wealth on international terror and WMD programs.
Most of the Iranian and Syrian and North Korean people - who are no different than you or me - want to end their suffering and end the tyranny which is its cause. And we should help them: because they are our brothers and sisters (and deserve freedom as much as we do), and because it will make us safer. When they are free and democratic they will focus on improving their own lives and on holding their own leaders to account - directly. They won't need to mess with us.
Tuesday, March 08, 2005
MANY LEFTISTS DENY BUSH DOCTRINE WORKING
I've already heard many Lefties argue that Arafat's death and Hariri's assassination were MAJOR factors in the current wave of democracy in the Middle East - and NOT the Bush Doctrine or the Iraq War.
I guess the Lefties believe that Qadafy had a premonition that Arafat was gonna die, and that Assad MISSPOKE when he said - in his speech to his "parliament" - that he "was not another Saddam." And that Mubarak couldn't care less if the US Secretary of State refused to visit him to officially protest the lack of permissable political dissent in Egypt, and that Musharraf was just aching to send 70,000 troops to the lawless tribal areas. And that ... well, you get the idea!
The best response to this Left-wing nonsense, this delusionally dumb deluge of Democrat denial: "YEAH, RIGHT!"
FRIST AND THE FILIBUSTER
Frist holds all the cards in the current judicial nominee Senate confirmation battle; Frist can void the Senate filibuster rule, and bring all of Bush's nominees to the floor for an up-or-down vote - as the Constitution specified.
Frist's move would force the Democrats retaliate by shutting-down the Senate - (something that would probably work as well for them as shutting down the federal government did for Gingrich - in other words: it would be a disaster for the Democrats, and a win for the GOP -- A DOUBLE WIN, since they'd get the president's nominees confirmed, too).
Frist seems afraid to void the Senate rule. Perhaps he thinks it could hurt his chances at being elected president in 2008?
I suggest that Frist be more concerned about how "NOT confronting the Democrats" will make him seem to those of us who voted for Bush in 2004. In other words: if Frist cannot even stand up to the Senate Democrats, then how can ANYBODY expect him to stand up to al Qaeda, or the French and the UN or the Left-wing dominated MSM?!
Mr. Leader, how you handle this crisis will show us your what your made of! Do you have what it takes to BE president? If you cave into the Democrats, then I believe YOU DO NOT!
Hizballah's "Men Only" Demonstration
****UPDATED**** 3/9/05**** SEE BELOW****
What does it say about the neojihadists that their demonstration in Beirut today was a man-only affair?
YUP: that's right: While watching news reports on TV and looking at jpegs at blogs, I couldn't help but notice a HUGE difference between the two sides in Lebanon: on the one hand, the anti-Syria demonstrations in Beirut were obviously, totally PLURALISTIC: men and women; Christians, Druze, and Sunni; and people of all ages; and they were all HAPPILY proclaiming their the occupation of their country by the fear-mongering forces of anger and repression. On the other hand, today's Hizballah demonstration was huge, but exclusively male - and angry looking; even their speakers sounded angry - ESPECIALLY Nasrallah.
I think this says a lot about each side - EVERYTHING, in fact.
Besides explicitly demonstrating their beliefs, each side implicitly demonstrated what kind of nation they would engender: the anti-Syrian side showed that they embody pluralism and democracy - and even "the pursuit of happiness." Hizballah showed that they are sexist, xenophobic, and violent-at-heart. This is a classic "Good versus Evil" match-up, and it's why we must be willing to support the anti-Syrian side with EVERYTHING we got!
AND ANOTHER THING: Were all those angry pro-Syrian men Lebanese?
I find that very VERY hard to believe. HERE'S WHY: news agencies estimated the Hizballah crowd at nearly one MILLION people - THAT'S 25% of Lebanon's population! And since it was a MALE ONLY crowd, that would mean that the total pro-Hizballah population (which after all - like the general population - include an equal amount of women) would account for 50% of the nation's population!
THEREFORE, I think ONE MUST CONCLUDE that many MANY MANY of the Hizballah men demonstrating were Syrian - or Palestinian Arabs from the UN refugee camps. (AT LEAST HALF!)
That's ANOTHER reason we must support the pluralistic, pro-democracy - LEBANESE side over the pro-Syrian forces!
UPDATE #3: a few astute commenters - and a more recently filed AP report (cited above in the INSTAPUNDIT link) - relate that perhaps the crowd was ONLY HALF as big as earlier reports: ONLY 500,000 (and NOT 1 MIllion). Further, these more recently filed reports state that the crowd was largely segregated by gender; this may account for the fact that many MANY videos and MOST still photos showed only males.
This adjusts BUT DOES NOT NEGATE the thrust of my argument that: (1) Hizballah's crowd was mostly male; (2) that it was mostly VERY angry; (3) that its staging reveals that Hizballah is very sexist/gender-biased; (4) and that they may have coerced many people to attend. If there were 500,000 Lebanese Shias there, then it was nearly 50% of ALL the Shias in Lebanon! I believe that this is simply NOT LIKELY; therefore, I believe non-Lebanese people made up much of the Hizballah crowd.
Bottom-line: Commies Stalin and Mao got huge crowds. Commie Kim Jong Il still does. These leaders - like Nasrallah I suspect - made their people afraid NOT to show up and wave the flag. Which is another reason why I have more respect for the Christian, Druze and Sunni Lebanese who demontrate each day in Beirut's Martyr's Square: they show up and demonstrate at great peril. Whereas, I suspect that many of those in the Hizballah crowd were people who (like Stalin's and Mao's and Kim's tryannized people) were afraid NOT to demonstrate!
UPDATE: Welcome Dean Esmay readers! And also - welcome leftwing readers of ANTIWARBLOG . (That's right: those Lefties who THINK they're anti-war - but who're REALLY ON THE OTHER SIDE - have linked to this post! I'm glad they did; they are WELCOME to visit today and everyday and to leave comments AS LONG AS THEY ARE POLITE. Dialog is good, and openness to the other side is often an antedote to propaganda; in other words: maybe a few of them will learn something).
****UPDATE - From Jihad Watch:
The giant Hezbollah rally that drew nearly half a million purported supporters of Syria's occupation of Lebanon actually was a staged hoax with non-Lebanese citizens, Syrian workers, students and municipal employees coerced into joining the protest, former Lebanese Prime Minister Michel Aoun told WorldNetDaily in an exclusive interview this morning. "Yesterday's huge protest calling for Syria to stay made it look to the world like a large segment of the Lebanese population actually wants to live under Syrian occupation," said Aoun, speaking to WND from Paris. "But the protest wasn't what it appeared to be. It was an elaborately staged affair."
UPDATE - 3/10: Welcome PUBLIUS PUNDIT readers - and if your not one... YOU SHOULD BE; really: Publius does some AMAZING round-up on very topical events. One of the Best sites around! The above link will take you to his LEBANON round-up. Check it out and then check out the rest. That's an order!
UPDATE 3/12: Welcome to the intrepid and delusional loony-leftie readers of Tiny Revolution. Here's a special note just for you DU-type DOUBTERS -
CBS NEWS REPORTED THE FOLLOWING ON MARCH 8th:
"Many of the people were bused in from Syria and parts of Lebanon that are under Syrian control, reports CBS News' Edward Yeranian. "
Monday, March 07, 2005
DID SGRENA FAKE IT TO RAISE MONEY FOR THE TERRORISTS SHE SIDES WITH?
There are reports that Italy paid $6 MILLION to get the communist reporter released. That's a HUGE WINDFALL for the terrorists - ESPECIALLY now.
And, that's HUGE motivation for this "kidnapping" and for future ones.DRUDGE is also linking to a report from the WASH TIMES that asserts that the Italians kept the whole mission a SECRET - NO WONDER they got shot at as they SPED toward a checkpoint!
BUSH SELECTS BOLTON!
I just watched C-SPAN and saw Condi announce that John Bolton will become our next UN Ambassador, which is GREAT! He's a "no BS" neocon in the tradition of our two best previous UN Ambassadors: Jeanne Kirkpatrick and Daniel P. Moynihan. He'll be a GREAT UN Ambassador at an especially critical time: In the coming weeks, Syria and Iran and North Korea each have dates with the UNSC and DESTINY!
THE POLITICAL DIVIDE IS IDEOLOGICAL NOT SOCIOLOGICAL
Pundits - like Brooks and Lebedoff and Powerline's Hindera - who claim that geography or sociology determine which side of the political divide one is one ARE WRONG. And I am proof of it - because I have crossed the divide. My crossing-over was gradual and predates 9/11; (many MANY others crossed the divide AFTER 9/11 - hence the term "9/11 Democrat. For these people, 9/11 was a life-changing/EYE-OPENING event which changed their entire worldview).
The fact that people move across the divide without changing membership in any sociological groups (wheter elite or plebe or managerial or whatever) proves that the change is not sociological.
Here's my case: I was a Leftie from the 1960's until the Fall of the Wall; (my gradual drift to the center actually began from McGovern's massive defeat - which led me to believe that, (since the lesser of two evils is almost always a good choice), Democrats had to nominate more moderate politicians than McGovern to get, hold, and use power effectively. After the Fall of the Wall and the collapse of OSLO, I looked back and had to admit that Reagan and Thatcher (and Netanyahu and Sharon) had been right all along. I don't feel as if admitting that Reagan was right makes me suddenly "un-educated" - it makes me intellectually honest, and more commited to results than ideology.
Undeniably, in the USA there IS a great Left versus Right divide. The two things which are the BEST predictors of which side of the divide one is on are not sociological; they are better described as philosophical or metaphysical or ideological. They are: (1) how one feels about universalism versus relativism in the moral realm; and (2) how ones feels about individualism versus statism.
Those on the Left are relativists who believe in a strong state, and believe that individuals are defined by which groups they belong to. Those on the Right are universalists who believe that each person is sovereign over himself, and that the State derives its just powers ONLY from the consent of individuals. (This is why Leftists call Right-wingers "selfish.")
Hayek argued - and Thatcher and Reagan (and Teng Xiao Ping in China and Singh in India) proved - that Statism is the "road the serfdom," and that the Free Market is not only the most moral system, but the most efficient, creative and productive one, too.
Eventually, Leftists will be forced to admit this is as true in pension/retirement and health markets as it is in every other market. When that happens their jig is up. (Already sensing that their jig will be up soon, many of the Leftists are already fighting tooth and nail - deperately staving off having to admit they were wrong about everything either by using vicious attacks - as in "Bush is Hitler" or "BUSH LIED!"- or by just putting their head in the sand and denying reality - as when they deny that captialism saved China or that toppling Iraq is causing a klatogenetic explosion of democracy in the Middle East - just as the neocons said it could).
The demographic arguments - that Brooks and Lebedoff and Hindera make - are hollow compared to the ideological battle between what has failed (Leftist policies) and what is working (Rightist policies)!
That more Leftists live in cities - (Blue America is largely urban) - is partly a vestige of Democratic coalition politics and the welfare state - and partly a result of the fact that for too long the GOP never battled for voters in those hardcore Leftist urban centers. As the GOP continues to broaden its appeal to Hispanics and Blacks and Jews - (traditional city-dwellers and, generationally, core members of the Democratic coalition) - this will change.
Also: now that the "McGovern Wing" of the party has once again reasserted control of the party apparatus - (making the more centrist Clinton era seem more like an aberration when copmpared to the post-LBJ party) - they will drive out many of the remaining centrists - either to the GOP or or to official independence. And as a result, the sociological indicators will change - and be less predictive than they seem now.
In addition, as people like David Horowitz (with the unintended help of "Ward Churchillians") wrestle away the control of the Academy from the Leftists, fewer of our youngsters will be brain-washed into Leftist, anti-West, anti-traditional family, anti-American, morally relativist ideologies, (a Leftist program that - up until now - has been in full swing since the 1960's and the advent of "the counter-culture").
And as the Bush Doctrine is vindicated, more Leftists will be forced either to admit they were wrong - or condemn themselves to inane insignificance - the Loony Left.
When all this happens - (when the old Democratic coaliton splinters; when the Leftist Dems drive the rest of the Centrist Dems out of the party; when the Academy is liberated from Leftist control; and when the Middle East is more fully democratized) - the Left will simply fade away, vanish with a whimper - leaving an embarrassing question to posterity: "how could ANYONE have EVER really bought that Leftist CRAP anyhow!"
THIS NEEDS REITERATING: One of the major reasons many educated people "bought that crap" and became are Leftists is that they were BRAINWASHED BY THE LEFTIST ACADEMY. This is NOT hyperbole; it is fact. Here is an example: the "political spectrum" that we were all taught in the Academy places Communism on the Left and Fascism on the Right. BUT THIS IS FALSE. Need proof!? Where do you put ANARCHISM in that spectrum!? NO WHERE!
The TRUE poltical spectrum places communism and fascism on the extreme Left, and anarchism on the extreme Right, and mixed systems in the middle; (the USA system goes just Right of center and the Scandinaviam system goes just Left of center). Not only is this LOGICAL (first, because there is a proper place for anarchism, and second because it allows for a simple continuum of rights from MOST STATIST on the Left, to MOST INDIVIDUALIST/LIBERTARIAN on the Right), but it is HISTORICALLY ACCURATE: Mussolini and Hitler were BOTH SOCIALISTS - as were LENIN AND STALIN. Hilter was a National Socialist (= NAZI) who was ANTI-MARXIST; Mussolini was also a national socialist; the Russians were Marxists. They each had more in common with each other than with FDR or Churchill OR EVEN CHAMBERLAIN! Stalin and Trotsky and Hitler were all socialists - who hated each other as much as they LOVED the state and sought to get inidividuals to subordinate their personal liberty to the will of the state (as determined by an elite).
What does this have to do with BRAIN-WASHING!?!?!? EVERYTHING! The false spectrum was created by the Leftist Academy to make Marxism seem more like the IDEOLOGICAL OPPOSITE and enemy of Hitler and to have more in common with FDR than it did with Hitler - which is COMPLETELY FALSE.
There is another major LIE being foisted on to the students in the academy: that Gorbachev was more responsible for the Fall of the Wall than Reagan. And the reason for this lie is the same as the reason for thie other lie: to protect their FAILED Leftist ideology from utter disrepute.
Fortunately, the truth will win. As will markets that function. And, as will the universal human desire for liberty. Therefore, the Right will win, too.
ENDNOTE: because of the tenure-system, the Academy has become a closed system without the checks-and-balances necessary to prevent it (or any other system) from being taken over one group - and those who "play ball" with that group. This happens in ALL closed systems and is the basic reason why all system need checks-and-balances. Lack of checks-and-balances is also why the Catholic priesthood in America is such a mess. Opening up the Academy to Conservatives and the Catholic priesthood to married men will not only bring each system a balance of perspectives, but a natural and much needed check-and-balance.
ADDENDUM: There's another simple reason why I know that a sociological explanation isn't the best: it's too Marxist; it seeks to explain how individuals think by putting them into heuristic groups - managerial; urban; black; religious; rural - these are all epistemological groups that do not really exist; they have no ontological veracity. NEED
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