TEHRAN MAYOR - AN ULTRA-HARDLINER - DECLARED WINNER IN IRAN

BBC:

The ultra-conservative mayor of Tehran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has won Iran's presidential election run-off, the interior ministry has confirmed. With the count almost complete Mr Ahmadinejad had won 61% of votes, ahead of the more moderate ex-President Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on 35%. Some 22m people voted, a turnout of 47%, down from 63% in the first round. ... Earlier, supporters of Mr Rafsanjani, a former president, said victory for Mr Ahmadinejad would signal voting fraud. ... As counting got under way, aides to Mr Rafsanjani were quick to assert that a win for Mr Ahmadinejad would confirm systematic voting fraud. "We know that massive irregularities have taken place," Mohammed Atrianfar told Reuters news agency.

Things are sure gonna get interesting now....

Will "RafsanPajami" protest the election? Will the UN (or the OIC) demand a new election (as the UN and EU did in Ukraine)? Will Iranians show the courage of the Lebanese and the Ukrainians and take to the streets and demand a new election? Will "Ah-man-am-i-mad" be able to take office and will this ultra-anti-West leader lead his nation into a military confrontation with the USA and the EU and the UN?

STAY TUNED!

CHENEY SMACKSDOWN THE SENATOR FROM FRANCE

Betsy's Page has a GEM of a post, this evening (as she does MOST days!).

This one is part of the transcript of Cheney on Wolf Blitzer's CNN-TV news show.

She downloaded it from ther WHITE HOUSE website.

Here's a snippet (be sure and go to BETSY'S PAGE and read the whole thing!):

[BLITZER] Q: Let me read to you what Senator Chuck Hagel, a friend of yours, a Republican from Nebraska, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee told U.S. News and World Report: "Things aren't getting better, they're getting worse. The White House is completely disconnected from reality. And he goes on to say, it's like they're just making it up as they go along. The reality is that we're losing in Iraq."

[CHENEY] A: Wolf, as long as I've been Vice President, and since 9/11, we've had people like Chuck Hagel and other politicians, and we've had people in the press corps, and commentators who've said, you can't do Afghanistan. Once we got into Afghanistan, we'd been there a couple of weeks, and Johnny Apple of The New York Times had a front-page story about how we were in a "quagmire." We were going to get trapped in the mountains. Winter was going to make it impossible for us to complete our mission in Afghanistan. They were all wrong.

We were told we couldn't hold elections in Afghanistan. You'll never be able to put it together. They'd never had an election in Afghanistan in the 5,000-year history of the country. It will never work. It did work. I was at the inauguration of President Hamid Karzai who got elected. We were told we couldn't possibly succeed as quickly as we did against Saddam Hussein in terms of taking him down. We did. You'll never capture Saddam Hussein. We did.

We were told you'll never be able to go in and transfer sovereign authority to the Iraqis. We did. You'll never hold an election. We did. The fact of the matter is, the town has got a lot of people in it who are armchair quarterbacks, or who like to comment on the passing scene. But those who have predicted the demise of our efforts since 9/11, as we fought the war on terror, as we've liberated 50 million people in Iraq and Afghanistan, did not know what they were talking about. And I would submit to you today that we'll succeed in Iraq just like we did in Afghanistan.

Wolf pressed him on Hagel, and Cheney did NOT demure. GO THERE AND READ THE WHOLE THING!

ROVE WAS EXACTLY RIGHT

Ken Mehlman - Chair of the GOP - put a partial list together of quotes from liberals saying EXACTLY what Rove said they said. (STAY TUNED: I'm sure there'll be more lists like this in the next few days!)

ALSO: Mehlman recently addressed a meeting of the Republican Jewish Coalition. He opened his remarks by saying: "Fellow white Christians..." to loud laughs and guffaws. (Mehlman is Jewish.)

ITALIAN PARTY PROPOSES RAPISTS BE CASTRATED

BBC:

Italy's far-right Northern League has presented a bill to castrate convicted rapists, after a series of rapes in northern Italy by suspected immigrants. The bill says chemical or surgical castration of offenders is necessary to remove a social disease which is a threat to life and public safety. ... The bill has been heavily criticised and is unlikely to be passed.

I think castration is a good solution. But I don't think we could pass a law to achieve that. If we can't pass a law to castrate rapists, then we should AT LEAST be able to pass law one to put them away for life. There's just NO EXCUSE for ever letting a convicted rapist getting out to commit another rape.

This might be very hard to get passed into law because the Democrat Party wants convicted felons - including rapists - to be able to vote when they get out!

INHOFE SMACKSDOWN KENNEDY

I just watched today's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing - the one in which Teddy Jo Kennedy - the Senator from Chappaquidick - TOLD the generals that Iraq was a quagmire and asked Rumsfeld to RESIGN. The generals all said Kennedy was flat out WRONG about Iraq, and Abizaid made a special point of saying that Rumsfeld was a GREAT Secretary of Defense.

But the highlight for me came after Kennedy shut his whiskey-stained mouth and Senator James Inhofe (R-OK) - a patriot - had his turn; here's what he said right off the bat:

"I think we all know that the cut-and-run caucus is always alive and well," Inhofe said. "It doesn't matter what war it is, what conflict it is, and it certainly is today."

I think we all know who the cut and run caucus is: the Left, and they're led by Kennedy and Durbin and Reid and Pelosi. SHame on them; they're aiding and abetting the enemy.

DURBINITIS

You know you have Durbinitis if you succumb to an itch to say something outrageously anti-American during war-time, and this is followed by tearing eyes and a red-face. This disease tends to afflict lefties.

GLOBAL JIHAD

A few days ago they got one (a LEBANESE terrorist) IN MEXICO. Today, an dutchman of ALGERIAN extraction - was arrested - IN LONDON - for his part in the murder of DUTCHMAN Theo van Gogh - because van Gogh made a movie with Ayaan Hirsi Ali - a SOMALI born human rights advocate - and these fanatical neojihadists felt this movie was a offensive to Islam and a capital offense.

I think EVERYONE should be ABSOLUTELY clear now that neojihadism is a GLOBAL movement and that these jihadists are aggressively waging a WORLDWIDE WAR against all infidels (and to these fanatics this includes Shias and Sufis - WHO ARE MUSLIMS, TOO!) - THIS IS REALLY WW4. And it's real war. One really being waged all over the globe by neojihadists from Chechnya, Algeria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Morocco, Kashmir, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Indonesia, Thailand, the Philipines to name just a FEW!

It's long past time the Ol' Euroweenies helped us, (and the UK and the AUSSIES and the other brave nations actually contributing FIGHTING TROOPS) and do MORE than make an arrrest here and there. We need to attack the enemy EVERYWHERE if we really want to defeat them.

ASIDE: If you're wondering why some nations in Old Europe AREN'T doing enough, I invite you to read the next post down - and also to keep in mind that the most anti-Bush governments are run by socialist politicians - (Germany/Schroeder, Spain/Zapatero, and France - well... Chirac is technically NOT a socialist, BUT France is so far Left even their Right is LEFT!).

UPDATE: Welcome MY PET JAWA READERS - the BEST place for updated GWOT news...

USNEWS: EUROLEFT FINANCING TERROR IN IRAQ

Hat-tip ROGER L. SIMON:

USNEWS:

Who's funding the insurgents in Iraq? The list of suspects is long: ex-Baathists, foreign jihadists, and angry Sunnis, to name a few. Now add to that roster hard-core Euroleftists. Turns out that far-left groups in western Europe are carrying on a campaign dubbed Ten Euros for theResistance, offering aid and comfort to the car bombers, kidnappers, and snipers trying to destabilize the fledgling Iraq government. ... "It's the old anticapitalist, anti-U.S., anti-Israel crowd," says Vidino [an analyst on European terrorism based at The Investigative Project in Washington, D.C. ], who has been to their gatherings, where he saw activists from Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Italy. "The glue that binds them together is anti-Americanism."

Like we've been saying ALL ALONG: "They're NOT the loyal opposition because they're NOT LOYAL." AND: "They're not for peace; they're on the other side!"

SHIAVO MEDICAL EXAMINER'S REPORT DEEPLY FLAWED AND BIASED

The M.E. who examined Terri Schiavo's euthanized/dehydrated cadaver made several errors. CLICK HERE for PART I of a thorough analysis by an MD. (hat-tip DISSECTING LEFTISM.)

SCOTUS RULES STATE MAY SEIZE PRIVATE PROPERTY FOR OTHER PRIVATE DEVELOMENT

This is a shocking and DISGUSTING ruling which lessens individual rights and enlarges the power of the state.

The NYTIMES WRITES:

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who has been a key swing vote on many cases before the court, issued a stinging dissent. She argued that cities should not have unlimited authority to uproot families, even if they are provided compensation, simply to accommodate wealthy developers.The lower courts had been divided on the issue, with many allowing a taking only if it eliminates blight. "Any property may now be taken for the benefit of another private party, but the fallout from this decision will not be random," O'Connor wrote. "The beneficiaries are likely to be those citizens with disproportionate influence and power in the political process, including large corporations and development firms." She was joined in her opinion by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, as well as Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

O'Connor got this one RIGHT. The Court got it wrong.

ARE WE WINNING IN IRAQ? OR: KAMIKAZES AND THE IRAQ "INSURGENCY"

The Left is claiming that we are losing the war in Iraq because there's been an increase in the number of suicidal bombings and in their lethality. This is WRONG. Here's why:

Major use of KAMIKAZES by Japan in WW2 did NOT begin until March 1945 - nearly at the end of the war; (SEE HERE and HERE; here's one quote: "Militarily these attacks were foolishness on a grand scale and reflected the bankruptcy of the Japanese high command in the final days of the war. The results were paltry." ).

CONCLUSION: Large-scale suicidal missions are the FINAL tactic of a DESPERATE and NEARLY DEFEATED force.

The same is true in Iraq, today: the neojihadists have RAMPED UP their use of suicide bombers - mostly targeting Shias and Kurds (who are softer targets than the US military) - because the neojihadists are desperate and losing!

These tactics cannot possibly defeat us or the Iraqi government - UNLESS the Left succeeds in using them to create a defeatist attitutde which then leads to a premature withdrawal of the US military and of US monetary support for ther nascent Iraqi democratic and pluralistic government.

THIS IS THE GOAL OF THE LEFT - AND IT SERVES THE NEOJIHADISTS.

THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE VIETNAM WAR, IN WHICH THE NORTH VIETNAMESE ACTIVELY USED THE US ANTI-WAR MOVEMENT TO DEMORALIZE AMERICANS - BOTH THE ELECTORATE AND POW'S - AND THUS ACHIEVE THEIR TAKE-OVER OF THE SOUTH. THE NORTH VIETNAMESE - LIKE THE NEOJIHADISTS - KNOW THAT THEY CANNOT WIN THE WAR MILITARILY; THEY CAN ONLY WIN A PROPAGANDA WAR BY USING THE LEFT-WING DOMINATED MSM.

I suggest that we don't fall for the propaganda THIS time, the way we did then. Vietnam was a noble cause and an honorable war, one in which we won EVERY major battle, and which the North Vietnamese would've lost EXCEPT for the fact that the LEFT-WING DEMOCRATS in Congress pulled the plug on financing the SVG (in 1975). This led DIRECTLY to: 2 million Boat People/Vietnamese refugees; the fall of Cambodia to Pol Pot - and 3 million murdered in socialist genocide; and 30 years of tyrnannical poverty for the Vietnamese people.

NOW: There is WAY TOO MUCH defeatist chatter from the Left - and from the weak-kneed in Congress (like the Senator from France: Chuck Hagel) - and way too much defeatism being hammered into the public's mind by the Left-wing dominated MSM. This defeatist hogwash ONLY serves THE ENEMY.

IF you are a patriot who loves liberty and accepts that (for idealistic reasons AND for our national defense) we must help ALL our brothers and sisters EVERYWHERE achieve their innate/inalienable, UNIVERSAL human rights (as notorious neo-con FDR said so clearly in his neo-con diatribe know as the FOUR FREEDOMS speech), THEN you must ignore this defeatist propaganda from the Left, and support our continued efforts at defeating tyrannical totalitarianism in all its forms, EVERYWHERE!

We can only defeat ourselves. And that's EXACTLY what the Left and the neojihadists want. If we don't surrender and just hand them victory, then we shall surely deal them a defeat.

NO AMOUNT of neojihadist suicide bombers can tactically lead to a take-over of the state of Iraq, nor reverse the democratic revolution occurring in Iraq UNLESS we lose our nerve. We and the Iraqi people MUST have the guts to wait this out. We must show RESOLVE.

ASIDE: We should keep in mind that every neojihadist killed in Iraq is one less we have to worry about in the USA or Mexico or the UK or the EU or in Thailand or in Russia - or anywhere else. So our presence there - and their persistent use of suicide bombing makes us safer, too. The flypaper strategy works (click HERE and HERE and HERE)!

CHICOMS WANT TO BUY UNOCAL

GUARDIAN-UK: Chinese oil firm bullish over Unocal bid -

Thursday June 23, 2005: The state-run Chinese oil company CNOOC today said it was confident of winning a takeover battle for the US firm Unocal with a cash offer of $18.5bn (£10bn). Fu Chengyu, CNOOC's chairman, told Reuters he expected to beat a rival bid from Chevron while maintaining an investment-grade credit rating despite concerns that the acquisition would drive CNOOC into debt.

I hope the US government BLOCKS the sale of a major US oil company to a socialist, state-owned Chinese outfit.

We shouldn't sell to tyrannical socialists for filthy lucre what we defended with our blood.

ASIDE: THIS IS DIFFERENT than if some private Chinese BUSINESSMEN - with NO TIES to the Chinese socialist tyranny - want to buy ANYTHING in the USA.

UPDATE: more HERE.

UPDATE #2: Another reason we shouldn't allow the CHICOMS to buy a US company is BECAUSE THEY DON'T LET PRIVATE U.S. COMPANIES BUY CHINESE COMPANIES - THEY ONLY - REPEAT - ONLY ALLOW FOREIGNERS TO HAVE MINORITY - REPEAT - MINORITY OWNERSHIP OF CHINESE COMPANIES. What's good for the goose is good for the gander. I think this is a secondary issue, though; the PRIMARY issue is the fact that it is the CHINESE GOVERNMENT and one of their state-owned companies that wants to purchase UNOCAL. This must NOT be allowed to happen.

EU ALREADY FAILS TO MEET KYOTO TREATY GOALS

BBC:

Emissions of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide rose in the European Union by 1.5% in 2003 after falling in 2002, the European Environment Agency reports. Italy, Finland and the UK were named as the worst offenders while cold weather was blamed for a rise in the use of fossil fuels to heat homes and offices. Ecologists believe the EU is unlikely to be able to meet its promise to cut emissions by 8& of 1990 levels by 2012.

The treaty is a FARCE (even according to its proponents the UNATTAINABLE goals won't have much of any effect on the global climate; barely reducing the projected global temperature), built upon a LIE (that climate change is MAN-MADE!). The only effect of the treaty will be to hurt the prosperity and standard of living of the nations which signed on. And KYOTO is especially MEANINGLESS because it exempts some of the world's biggest producers of so-called greenhouse gases: China and India.

Nevertheless, the USA is still BLAMED by the Left (and the MSM and the academy they still dominate) for global warming (as if it were man-made, and as if other nations were curbing their production of so-called greenhouse gases.).

ASIDE: Tonight in the Senate, McCain and Liberman introduced their idiotic so-called greenhouse gas bill (which is nothing more than a self-serving/face-saving attempt by moderates to curry favor with the Left). In fact, it was speeches on their Bill which were momentarily interrupted by that crybaby Durbin's apology. If the Senate really wants to curb global warming they should just keep their mouths shut and vote!

A JOB HALF-DONE: DURBIN APOLOGIZES - NOW HE MUST RESIGN AS WHIP

I just watched (on C-SPAN) Durbin apologize on the Senate floor for comparing GITMO to NAZI, Soviet and POL POT death camps. He was choked up - TRULY NEAR TEARS (like Voinovich!), and I think he understands he crossed the line, and has learned his lesson. GOOD.

Now he must RESIGN FROM LEADERSHIP.

After all, Trent Lott APOLOGIZED FOUR TIMES, AND THEN STILL HAD TO RESIGN AS LEADER. If Durbin fails to resign, it tarnishes the entire Democrat Party.

UPDATE: WELCOME JACKSON'S JUNCTION READERS & VIEWERS. JJ is the BEST place to see the MOST IMPORTANT video-clips. CHECK IT OUT EVERYDAY! He has the (near)-tear-soaked DURBIN apology! Go there and watch it NOW!

And WELCOME BETSY'S PAGE readers! Betsy RIGHTLY observes that McCain IMMEDIATELY absolved Durbin completely, even though the matter is NOT closed yet - and won't be until Durbin steps down as Whip. We're waiting!

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY IMPLODING

CLICK HERE to read a detailed and foot-noted report from FRONTPAGE about the impending demise of any Arab self-rule in the disputed territories and the coming civil war between competing neojihadist groups.

This can lead to only two things for the Israelis: first, a unilateral separation along a defensible border with a terror-proof wall; second, treating the abandoned territories as they deserve to be treated: as a haven for TERRORISTS.

THIS IS A PITY, BUT IT IS THE PALESTINIAN ARABS' OWN FAULT: they have refused to do what the Afghanis and the Iraqis - and even the Saudis are doing - attemting to defeat the neojihadists with martial and militarily force.

ANOTHER FALSE ANALOGY FROM THE LEFT

FROM NRO's THE CORNER:

GAYS = JEWS [Jonah Goldberg ]

Matt Yglesias and Andrew Sullivan are pretty convinced that gays are the new Jews. They don't offer much by way of evidence or argumentation, just assertion with a quote or two dangled.

This false analogy joins a long list of other Leftist LIES:

Jenin = Stalingrad

Zionism = racism

Bush = Hitler

Gitmo = gulag (or NAZI concentration camp or Pol Pot killing field - take you pick!)

Iraq = Vietnam

The Left cannot win based on the facts, so they resort to inflammatory rhetoric and illogical/conflationary analogies which twist the facts (propaganda) in an attempt to wear down the resolve of those defending freedom, democracy, and tradtional Western, Judeo-Christian values. The nearly complete intellectual poverty of Left is typified by the fact that the Left doesn't even really have an alternative strategy for Iraq, other than to set an arbitrary withdrawal date. (Which is why I say NEARLY complete intellectual poverty: if it wasn't for their idiotic policies and their lies, they'd be UTTERLY intellectually bankrupt!)

This startegy of repeating the BIG LIE over-and-over worked for the Left in the Vietnam Era, and led to: the abandonment of the SVG in 1975; 1 million Boat People (Vietnamese refugees); Pol Pot's Killing Fields (and their 3 million skulls); and 30 years of cruel impoverished socialist tyranny for 60 million Vietnamese.

Things are different now: We will not let them - and the MSM they still dominate - do to the Iraqi people - (or the Afghanis, the Lebanese, and other Arabs) - what they did to the Vietnamese people. We will help ALL these people - and other people EVERYWHERE - become FREE. We will do whatever it takes to defeat the enemies of freedom and democracy - EVERYWHERE (as FDR said in his "Four Freedoms" speech).

[Please feel free to add a false analogy of the Left in the comments section. I'd like to collect them.]

MICHAEL SCHIAVO: "I KEPT MY PROMISE"

I just saw Terri Schiavo's gravesite on TV - Michael had a tombstone engraved with the words: "I KEPT MY PROMISE" -- as if he had promised her he wouldn't keep her alive on life-support.

ONLY: he testified during the lawsuit against her insurance company that he intended to use the settlement money to care for her for the rest of her life.

HE IS OBVIOUSLY A LIAR. When he testified, and on Terri's tombstone.

WHAT A SICK EVIL SC-MB-G!

MORE HERE (hat-tip DRUDGE).

MORE BAD DEMOGRAPHIC NEWS FOR EUROPE

BBC:

Infertility is set to double in Europe over the next decade, a leading UK fertility expert has warned. One in seven couples now has trouble conceiving naturally, but Professor Bill Ledger from Sheffield University warned this could rise to one in three. "The sustainability of the population of Europe is at risk because there are too few children being born. It is a threat to the future."

Making it worse for Europe is the fact that the unassimilated Muslim population of Europe reproduces at a much MUCH higher rate. If this keeps up, Paris will be renamed PARISTANBUL in our lifetimes.

KRISTOL/WEEKLY STANDARD AGREES: DURBIN MUST RESIGN FROM DEM LEADERSHIP

I'm glad Bill has got on the bandwagon: Kristol wrote it today - 6/20 ; I wrote it on 6/17 - BEFORE ANYONE ELSE.

A RECESS APPOINTMENT: WOULD AMBASSADOR BOLTON BE "DAMAGED GOODS"?

After the failed Bolton cloture vote, at a presser I just watched on C-SPAN, an MSM reporter asked Senators George Allen and Pat Roberts if they thought that a recess appointment of Bolton would weaken him by making him seem like an Ambassador without the Senate's support.

MY ANSWER: BOLTON WOULD BE STRONGER.

WHY?

Because it would irrefutably demonstrate to all the turkies at the UN that Bolton has the UNQUESTIONABLE SUPPORT of PRESIDENT BUSH - and that's what REALLY counts! That would give Bolton all the CLOUT he needs. Other UN Ambassadors would know they're dealing with a man the POTUS backs. IT WILL THEREFORE MAKE HIM MORE EFFECTIVE.

CRYBABY VOINOVICH DEFECTS

The wimpering Senator from Ohio voted NO on cloture - effectively BREAKING HIS WORD to the Foreign Relations Committee where he said (paraphrasing) "I will vote 'no' on the Bolton nomination, but I will NOT keep his nomination from coming to the floor for an up or down vote." Last time Bolton came up for a cloture vote he kept his word; the crybaby voted to end cloture last time.

THIS TIME HE VOTED AGAINST CLOTURE. THIS IS A MAJOR STEP BACKWARDS.

I hope the GOP voters in Ohio keep note of this - and mount a primary candidate to oppose him, AND ELECT A TRUE REPUBLICAN. One who doesn't need a box of Kleenex when he makes a speech on the floor.

EX-PAT IRANIANS PROTEST RECENT ELECTION

From PUBLIUSPUNDIT (hat-tip INSTAPUNDIT) - Publius has posted photos of protests in Toronto and Sydney.

Unless and until we see massive protests in Iran - like the ones in Lebanon and Ukraine and Georgia - NOTHING will change. Only if IRANIANS IN IRAN take to the streets can the West make a difference.

GOODS NEWS FROM LEBANON

BBC:

Lebanon's main opposition anti-Syrian alliance has claimed victory in the final round of the country's four-round parliamentary elections. The bloc led by Saad Hariri, son of the late Rafik Hariri, faced ex-Gen Michel Aoun's group in the fight for the last 28 seats at stake in northern Lebanon. Mr Hariri's group says the incomplete results set them on track for a majority in the new parliament. Saad Hariri was expected to fare well in Sunni Muslim areas with Mr Aoun likely to take the Christian vote, correspondents say. "We are heading for a landslide in north Lebanon. We'll easily get the 21 seats necessary for the parliament majority," a source at Saad al-Hariri's parliamentary Future bloc was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency. Mr Hariri's group, which includes the Druze leader Walid Jumblatt and right-wing Christians, has so far secured 44 of the 100 seats already decided. ... LEBANON SEATS WON SO FAR:

Hariri-led alliance - 44
Aoun-led alliance - 21
Amal and Hezbollah - 35
Total seats counted - 100

This seems like good news to me. WHY CAN'T IRANIAN ELECTIONS BE LIKE THIS!? Could it be because the Iranians are too chicken to take to the streets like the Lebanese did - and the Ukrainians did and Georgians did. Bush MUST do more to let the Iranian Opposition know we will support them.

"THE GREEN ALPS" - MORE PROOF CLIMATE CHANGE IS NATURAL AND NOT MAN-MADE

DER SPIEGEL/ENLGISH - HAT-TIP TIM BLAIR:

The fact that the Alpine glaciers are melting right now appears to be part of regular cycle in which snow and ice have been coming and going for thousands of years. The glaciers, according to the new hypothesis, have shrunk down to almost nothing at least ten times since the last ice age 10,000 years ago. "At the time of the Roman Empire, for example, the glacier tongue was about 300 meters higher than today," says Joerin. Indeed, Hannibal probably never saw a single big chunk of ice when he was crossing the Alps with his army. The most dramatic change in the landscape occurred some 7,000 years ago. At the time, the entire mountain range was practically glacier-free -- and probably not due to a lack of snow, but because the sun melted the ice. The timber line was higher then as well.The scientists' conclusion puts the vanishing glaciers of the past 150 years into an entirely new context: "Over of the past 10,000 years, fifty percent of the time, the glaciers were smaller than today," Joerin states in an essay written together with his doctoral advisor Christian Schluechter. They call it the "Green Alps" theory. "The history of the glacial cover apparently is more dynamic than had been assumed until now," says Schleuchter. According to this model, the glaciers were smallest about 7,000 years ago, largest during the "mini ice age" of 1650 to 1850. Since this last cold spell, the tongues of ice have been receding quickly -- for a paleo-climatologist 150 years are just a wink in time.

Global warming during Roman Times MIGHT have been man-made... YEAH USRE! And maybe Caesar drove an SUV!

McCAIN, GITMO, AND EICHMANN

McCain was on MTP today; (ASIDE: MTP is one of a several MSM shows hosted by former Democrat operatives; I can't think of ONE hosted by a former GOP operative).

As usual, McCain said some good things and some bad things.

A good thing he said: the prisoners on Gitmo are NOT being mistreated and Durbin MUST apologize.

A bad thing he said: that (paraphrasing) "all the prisoners on Gitmo should have their cases adjudicated - that even Adolph Eichmann had a trial."

Well, Senator: Eichmann's trial - and the trial of ALL the other NAZIS came AFTER THE WAR WAS OVER.

SO MAY IT BE FOR THE DETAINEES AT GITMO: they can be legally held until after the war is over, and they SHOULD BE, TOO!

Until the enemy has capitulated and ceased all hostilities the detainees are potentially future adversaries THE MOMENT they are released.

As for "adjudication": they are enemy combatants, not defendants; the GWOT is a REAL WAR which will last a generation OR MORE; the war must be won by KILLING AND OTHERWISE DESTROYING THE ENEMY AND THEIR WILL TO FIGHT, and it will not be won by sending in the FBI and arresting a few terrorists and having a few trials. CLINTON DID THAT AND IT FAILED!

McCain was most annoying when - like all politically motivated "moderates" - he tried to have his cake and eat it too. ALSO EDIFYING: how many bills he sponsors with Democrat Liberals like Kennedy and Kerry. To some, this may seem bi-partisan; to other more perceptive folks, it's obviously opportunistic. Unfortunately, the bills are ALL BAD: an immigration amnesty bill; a so-called "greenhouse-gas" bill; and a C.A.F.E. standards bill. They're all bi-partisan and they're ALL BAD.

BOTTOM-LINE: McCain is a LIBERAL HAWK. Which is better than a LIBERAL DOVE, but not as good as a conservative hawk.

UPDATE: JAY NORDLINGER heard McCain use this Eichmann analogy in February at DAVOS; here's what Nordlinger reported at NRO:

McCain is a "try 'em or release 'em" man. How you try terrorists nabbed on the Afghan battlefield, he does not venture to say. He does say, "Even Eichmann got a trial," which is one of the cheapest things I have ever heard out of a politician's mouth.

I agree: cheap and WRONG and IMMORAL and.... well you get the idea!

UPDATE - 6/20: The INCREDIBLE MICHELE MALKIN has more - including links and IMPORTANT details... LIKE THE FACT THAT ALL THE GITMO DETAINEES HAVE HAD HEARINGS BEFORE A TRIBUNAL, (something McCain called for on MTP, and something the normally cogent Congressman JANE HARMON called for this AM on FNC!)!

HAWKISH CHILD SUPPORT LAWS WORK

AP/The Olympian (HAT-TIP DISSECTING LEFTISM):

Researchers at the University of Washington and Columbia University found that states with the most stringent child support laws and strict enforcement have up to 20 percent fewer unwed births. ... The percentage of unmarried births in the United States has increased from 10 percent in the 1960s to about a third of all births today. Because children of single parents run a higher risk of poverty, academic failure and other problems, lawmakers are always seeking policies that will discourage unwed births — usually focusing on the mothers. Researchers said their study recognizes the father's responsibility. ... The study didn't show whether tougher child support laws prevented pregnancies or encouraged marriage. Plotnick said the data limited the researchers to observing a strong correlation between tough child support enforcement and fewer out-of-wedlock births. Whether that's caused by fewer unmarried people getting pregnant or more couples marrying when the woman is expecting, he could not say. But he said the findings warrant further study.

This is another example of how HAWKISH laws - that are tough on bad behavior - actually reduce bad behavior. It also proves that the LIBERAL (lovey-dovey/group therapy) policies of permissiveness (and coddling of bad-players, and rationalizing bad-behavior, and blaming society for the bad behavior of individuals) only encourages bad/anti-social behavior. (RUDY proved hawkishness is the most effective way to deal with bad-players in NYC when he GOT TOUGH on ALL CRIMINALS - including the squeegee-men and he reduced crime EXPONENTIALLY! Reagan proved that hawkishness works on the international front when he got tough with the Soviets and brought them to their knees. If the doves had been elected there'd still be a USSR!)

Of course, in a larger sense, the fact that their LIBERAL policies have only encouraged out-of-wedlock births (and thereby increased childhood poverty) doesn't bother LIBERALS one bit because these so-called "progressives" are in-their-heart-of-hearts ANTI-TRADITIONALISTS who WANT to destroy traditional BOURGOISE families - it's always been part of their POMO/Marcusian "revolutionary" goal - and it's why NOW (after denigrating monogamy and marriage for decades) they want it extended to homosexuals.