THE U.S. CODE IS CLEAR: BUSH HAD AUTHORITY TO ORDER INTERCEPTS

(Via ACE):

Here are the relevant sections of the US CODE which seem to govern the reported actions authorized by the president. I have highlighted what appears to me to be sections which clearly authorize ther president to do EXACTLY what he did. (I am NOT a lawyer; my reading is based on my comprehension of English, which is my first language):

TITLE 50 > CHAPTER 36 > SUBCHAPTER I > § 1802

§ 1802. Electronic surveillance authorization without court order; certification by Attorney General; reports to Congressional committees; transmittal under seal; duties and compensation of communication common carrier; applications; jurisdiction of court

(a)

(1) Notwithstanding any other law, the President, through the Attorney General, may authorize electronic surveillance without a court order under this subchapter to acquire foreign intelligence information for periods of up to one year if the Attorney General certifies in writing under oath that—

(A) the electronic surveillance is solely directed at—

(i) the acquisition of the contents of communications transmitted by means of communications used exclusively between or among foreign powers, as defined in section 1801 (a)(1), (2), or (3) of this title; or

§ 1801. Definitions As used in this subchapter:

(a) “Foreign power” means—

(1) a foreign government or any component thereof, whether or not recognized by the United States; (2) a faction of a foreign nation or nations, not substantially composed of United States persons;

"Al Qaeda in Iraq" (and other similar groups - such as al Qaeda - or their affiliated groups, ANYWHERE) are UNDOUBTEDLY factions within Iraq (or factions in whatever nation they have found safe haven in); therefore anyone communicating with them - or with groups like them in Afghanistan or Jordan or Pakistan - is subject to LEGAL surveillance by presidential order and WITHOUT COURT ORDER.

*******UPDATE(hat tip Glenn; via ORIN KERR)*******

According to this US Federal District Court decision (in a 1997 case, which was never appealed or ruled on by the SCOTUS, and is essentially operative today) "AL QAEDA IS PROPERLY A FOREIGN POWER AS DEFINED BY US CODE 1801 (a)-(b)". [See page 6, paragraph 4 - (or section C#1).]

***********************

IT THEREFORE SEEMS ABSOLUTELY CLEAR TO ME THAT THE PRESIDENT WAS OPERATING WELL WITHIN THE LAW; (HE HAD IT CLEARED BY THE AG/DOJ AND NOTIFIED THE NECESSARY PERSONS IN CONGRESS). AND HE DID SO FOR THE DEFENSE OF THE NATION AND THE FREE WORLD.

WE SHOULD ALL BE THANKING HIM. NO ONE SHOULD BE ACCUSING HIM OF ANYTHING BAD.

God Bless You, Mr. President. And God Bless Our Troops.

RENDITION: COLIN POWELL DIRECTLY DERIDES EU'S FALSE RESPONSE

BBC:

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell has indicated that Europeans are being disingenuous when they deny knowledge of the rendition of terror suspects.

Mr Powell said the recently highlighted practice of moving people to places where they are not covered by US law was neither "new or unknown" to Europe. He was speaking after his successor, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, faced tough questioning about the use of rendition during a recent trip to Europe.

She admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation, but said this was "a lawful weapon", and denied the prisoners were tortured. She refused to address claims that the CIA runs secret prisons abroad where suspects are interrogated without reference to international law.

But Gen Powell was dismissive of the furore in Europe. "There's a little bit of the movie Casablanca in this, where, you know, the inspector says 'I'm shocked, shocked that this kind of thing takes place'. "Well, most of our European friends cannot be shocked that this kind of thing takes place... The fact that we have, over the years, had procedures in place that would deal with people who are responsible for terrorist activities, or suspected of terrorist activities, and so the thing that is called rendition is not something that is new or unknown to my European friends."

I'm no fan of Powell's - haven't been since 1991, when he left the job in Iraq UNFINISHED. But I am glad he spoke the BLUNT truth today. The furor over rendition is BS - as is the furor over the NSA intercepts - (as was the furor over Abu Ghraib and Gitmo).

The Left is morally and politcally bankrupt; the Left has no policies except to attack the USA - even if it helps the enemy. And the Left's reactions to Abu Ghraib and Gitmo and the Patriot Act and to renditon and to secret CIA prisons and to NSA intercepts are WRONG.

THIS IS NOT SURPRISING: The Left has been WRONG about EVERYTHING: the Left said we woudln't dislodge the Taliban, (after all the USSR couldn't defeat the Afghanis), AND THEY WERE WRONG. They said millions of refugees would starve. THEY WERE WRONG - millions returned home. The Left said we went into Iraq for oil; they were wrong. They said Bush lied; they were wrong (as was much of the WMD stockpile intel'). They said we'd never establish either an Afghani or Iraqi democracy; they were wrong.

The Left: 100% WRONG 100% of the time. Why does ANYBODY listen to them anymore!?

AS I PREDICTED: HAMAS THREATENS ISRAEL ON BEHALF OF IRAN

HAMAS admits they are stooges of the jihadomullahs who run Iran. BBC:

Hamas chief vows to support Iran

The political leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas has said the group will increase attacks on Israel if it attacks Iran. Khaled Meshaal told reporters in Tehran that his group would join a united front against the enemies of Islam. Mr Meshaal also praised Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for his "courageous" remarks about Israel. The president has been strongly criticised for saying on Wednesday that the Nazi Holocaust was "a myth". Mr Ahmadinejad also called for Europe or North America to host a Jewish state, not the Middle East. The Hamas chief was visiting Tehran for talks with Iran's leadership. "What Iranian officials say may not please some people, but these are just courageous declarations," he said.

I predicted on September 25, 2005 that HAMAS and Hizb'Allah would attack Israel in behalf of Syria and Iran - but perhaps by using other pretexts. This annoucement essentially means that other pretexts won't be necessary. Essentially it means that Iran and Syria will ATTEMPT to start another full-fledged Arab-Israeli War BEFORE Assad is toppled or Iran's nukes are neutralized. It's their final trump card - or so they think.

If the USA or Israel preemptively destroys either Assad's regime or Iran's nukes, then expect their jihadoterrorists stooges to attack israel with the ENORMOUS cache of weapons which Iran has been suppplying them with these last few months. STAY TUNED...

LEBANESE MUSLIM EX-PATS: A FIFTH COLUMN FOR ASSAD?

"Reuters": Australian police set up road blocks and searched cars heading for Sydney's beaches on Saturday to prevent a second weekend of racial violence between ethnic Lebanese youths and local surfers. ... Racist text messages and e-mails have been circulating calling for violence this Sunday and local media has reported talk of Lebanese youths calling themselves the "Lions of Lebanon" coming from across the country to fight at the beaches this weekend.

The Australians have been having a problem with their LEBANESE MUSLIM IMMIGRANTS. Churches have been torched. And more violence is threatened.

I WONDER: Are these immigrants from south Lebanon - stronghold of Hizb'Allah, or are they really SYRIANS, (since Lebanon was OCCUPIED by Syria for 25 years)? [YEAH: These self-identified Lebanese immigrants MIGHT actually be Syrian! Surely the Syrians - who ran Lebanon with an iron fist - could have given them Lebanese passports to make it easier for them to migrate, no!?]

I mean, wouldn't most of the REAL Lebanese who migrated from Lebanon since the civil war and since Israeli withdrawal have been Christian (as most of the people who have migrated from the West Bank, since Arafat's return there in 1993, have been Christian)!?

And if they are really Hizb'Allah-types or pro-Syrian Lebanese or really Syrians, might they be more prediposed to islamofascism and instigating an intifada - perhaps even with the encouragement of the Syrians or some other jihadoterrorist group!??! Especially now, as more pressure is brought to bear on Assad - and thereby on Hizb'Allah - might they be itching for a fight and/or looking for an excuse to riot!?

Just asking. Because IF this is the case, then other nations with concentrations of Lebanese and Syrian immigrants who have immigrated since 1975 MIGHT have a problem brewing...

I AM GAMING HERE, BUT FOR A REASON: (1) Assad's murderous regime has proven it not above using ANY means, INCLUDING assassination, and (2) on 12/12 Assad made a rather BLATANT THREAT: "The Middle East is the heart of the world, and Syria is the heart of the Middle East," Assad said. "If the situation in Syria and Iraq isn't good, the whole region will become unstable and the entire world will pay for that." I believe that what he is REALLY saying is that he will try to make the whole world pay for destabilizing of his regime. Sicne he cannot do that with cruise missiles or a navy, he would have to use surrogates: Arab/Muslim jihadoterrorists.

Saddam made a similar - though perhaps even more blatant threat when we first put his back up against the wall in 1991: SADDAM:

"The United States wants to secure the flow of oil. This understandable and known. But it must not deploy methods which the United States says it disapproves of -- flexing muscles and pressure. If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you."

Maybe what I'm suggesting is that the Australians ought to be doing MORE than merely monitoringtheir domestic TEXT MESSAGING; they should be monitoring the email and phone calls between their Lebanese Muslim communtiy and Syria and Lebanon. And Iran.

"PEACE PROCESS" DEAD: HAMAS ELECTORAL VICTORY INCREASES LIKELIHOOD OF NON-NEGOTIATED/UNILATERAL SETTLEMENT

BBC:

Palestinian militant group Hamas has won a sweeping victory in municipal elections in the West Bank. The Palestinian electoral commission said that in the biggest city, Nablus, Hamas took 73% of the vote, while the mainstream Fatah organisation took 13%.

Nablus has traditionally been seen as a Fatah stronghold... This week's poll is viewed as an important indicator for elections to the Palestinian parliament scheduled for 25 January 2006. ... Hamas' charter commits it to the destruction of Israel, and the group has been responsible for most of the suicide attacks inside Israel. Israeli officials have warned that the peace process will end if the group becomes the dominant Palestinian political party.

If and when Hamas takes over, then all negotiations will cease. Israel will complete the Security Fence/Wall and call it a day.

I believe that early in the New Year, Hamas - and Hizb'Allah and IJ and the rest of the jihadoterrorists, (and aided by Iran and Syria) - will step up attacks against Israel. This time (and as a result of the Gaza withdrawal), Israel will utterly squash - as in ERASE - these groups from the West Bank and Gaza. This time, the IDF will leave a heap of rubble in its wake; after all, this time - because she is NOT an "occupier" - Israel dosen't have to pick up the pieces afterwards.

Maybe a few real Palestinian moderates, with whom Israel can deal, will rise from the dust; maybe not.

At that point, Israel will have to settle for whatever limited diplomatic gains it has made with other Arab and other Muslim nations. And these might evaporate. Pity.

Pity: if the Bush and Rice had not backed-down, and had supported Sharon (instead of Abbas), and had supported Sharon's DEMAND that Hamas disarm BEFORE being allowed on any ballot, the peace process might be alive. This is another example of how APPEASEMENT fails to deliver the goods - of how appeasement is always COUNTER-PRODUCTIVE. Pity.

MORGAN FREEMAN CALLS FOR COLOR-BLIND SOCIETY

BBC:

Actor Morgan Freeman has dismissed America's Black History Month, held annually to mark the contribution of black people, as "ridiculous". Freeman, who won this year's best supporting actor Oscar for Million Dollar Baby, said he hoped to see an end to the annual series of events. The Shawshank Redemption star said: "Black history is American history." In a US TV interview, Freeman said the only way to end racism was to "stop talking about it". The 68-year-old called for an end to the use of the words "black" and "white". He said: "I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man.

WOW: A successful actor with common sense, and courage to speak the truth, even though it buck the PC line. A real rarity in Hollywood. I hope it doesn't hurt his career. God Bless You Morgan Freeman!

NYTIMES IN ANOTHER TRAITOROUS LEAK

THE NYTIMES HAS MADE ANOTHER TRAITOROUS LEAK - WITH HELP FROM TRAITORS IN THE CIA. Proof that it is traitorous - and that the NYTIMES knows it - is this tidbit from the WASHPOST:

The Times said it held off on publishing its story about the NSA program for a year after administration officials said its disclosure would harm national security.

The NYTIMES could have leaked this AT ANYTIME OF ITS CHOOSING. AND THE NYTIMES CHOSE TO LEAK IT ON THE DAY AFTER THE IRAQI ELECTION. WHY!?

To besmirch Bush at a moment of triumph. To diminish the PR power of the Iraqi election.

The NYTIMES would rather hurt Bush than help the GWOT or the Iraqi people or the spread of democracy in the Arab Middle East. The NYTIMES has put partisan domestic squabble with Bush ahead of the current global war. IN ADDITION, their leak alerts the enemy and makes it tougher for us to find them and stop them BEFORE they attack again. THEREFORE: the NYTIMES has endangered ALL our lives - and our entire economy. THEREFORE: The dozen or so CIA leakers and the NYTIMES owner and publisher and its editors should be prosecuted for treason, found guilty and executed.

MORE HERE.

NOTE: The NYTIMES article makes it clear that the White House informed Congressional leaders about these actions (including updates to Intel' committee leaders of BOTH parties). This should make it clear to EVERYONE - except the left-wing moonbats running the NYTIMES and the Democrat Party these days - that this operation was NOT undertaken lightly, and that it was NOT some "rogue operation" of the executive branch. A special executive order was signed, and Congress was informed, and kept informed. THERE WAS NOTHING ILLEGAL ABOUT THIS IN ANY WAY.

The ONLY illegal thing related to this news IS THE LEAK ITSELF. The leakers should be tried for treason, and executed when found guilty.

ADDENDUM: DRUDGE claims that the NYIMES leaked this news to generally coincide with the release of a book by JAMES RISEN - the author of the article. I think that this MIGHT be true, but it still doesn't explain why it was done TODAY OF ALL DAYS and not tomorrow or next week. SO I stand by my contention.

YOU MUST READ POWERLINE on this.

IRAQI ELECTION PROVES BUSH WAS RIGHT

IRAQIS ARE FREE. THEY WERE LIBERATED BY BUSH. AND THEY ARE BETTER OFF BECAUSE OF IT.

AS FOR THE CURRENT VIOLENCE: IT IS PERPED BY JIHADOTERRORISTS AND SADDAMISTS. THE JIHADOTERRORISTS WOULD BE DOING IT SOMEWHERE ELSE, IF NOT IN IRAQ. IRAQ IS A GOOD PLACE FOR US TO KILL THEM AND DEFEAT THEM. THE SADDAMISTS WERE KILLING MORE IRAQIS EACH MONTH - EVERY MONTH - FOR THE LAST 25 YEARS. BUT NOW - WITHOUT THE POWER OF THE STATE TO COVER IT UP, OR PROTECT THEM - THEY ARE PAYING FOR THEIR CRIMES.

IRAQ WILL GO DOWN IN HISTORY AS ONE OF THE GREATEST ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF AMERICAN COURAGE. GOD BLESS GEORGE BUSH AND OUR TROOPS.

"TRADE DEFICIT" SCHMEFICIT!

NYTIMES:

The United States trade deficit reached a new high for the second consecutive month, the Commerce Department reported today, widening to a record $68.9 billion in October as oil imports far outpaced exports of capital goods like airplanes.

BIG EFFIN' DEAL! This conceptual number - 'trade deficit" is NOT a debt or even a real DEFICIT! All this figure reresents is the fact that WE BUY more stuff from overseas than we SELL overseas. All the stuff is paid for; it is not debt. We give them dollars; they give us goods. THAT IS AN EVEN/STEVEN SWAP.

From the ominous way this figure is presented each month, you'd think that "in a perfect world" each and every nation would HAVE TO BUY from overseas the same dollar amount of goods and services as it SELLS overseas because there should always be balance. THIS IS TOTAL BS.

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY: When you buy groceries from the A&P you give them dollars and they give you groceries. You do not have a deficit with the grocer. It doesn't matter where or how he spends the dollars. Ditto the USA and China - just look at China as our grocer.

But actually we're in a better position with China - and others who have a lot of dollars because since they have so much, they are disinclined to do anything to devalue them -- like dump them or start a war with us.

CONCLUSION: (1) "trade deficit" is a phony-baloney term (the difference between what any nation buys from overseas and what it sell overseas is irrelevant - EXCEPT to anti-trade factions; (2) to the extent that foreigners have dollars - it's good for us, not bad. We get the goods, and eventually get the dollars, too - because they eventually have to send those dollars back here. MORE HERE.

CNN CONFIRMS NYTIMES ACCOUNT OF IRANIAN SEIZED TRUCK

I just saw Aneesh Raman report from Baghdad on Wolf Blitzer's THE SITUATION ROOM that several CNN sources in the Iraqi police have CONFIRMED that a truck with Iranian plates was seized by Iraqi police near Iran's border and found to be loaded with forged ballots. Stay tuned...

"SHARP INSTRUMENT" CONTROL, ANYONE?!

BBC: Homicide rate hits 10-year high -

Knives Scotland's homicide rate for 2004-05 was the highest in almost a decade, according to newly released figures. There were 137 victims of homicides in Scotland, 29 more than in 2003-04, and the highest annual total since 1995-96. In almost three-quarters of the cases, the main accused was known to the victim. Justice Minister Cathy Jamieson said a strategy to tackle the "cultural acceptance" of violent behaviour would be rolled out next year. The local authority area with the highest annual homicide rate was Glasgow with 55 victims per million population, more than double the national rate. The figures included murder and culpable homicide and excluded death by dangerous driving. As in previous years, the use of a sharp instrument was the most common method of killing in 2004-05, accounting for 72 victims.

The UK banned gun-ownership, and as a result crime - including violent crime - has NOT decreased, BUT INCREASED. WHY SHOULD IT BE SO!? THE CROOKS KNOW THEIR TARGETS ARE DISARMED! Sheesh. The Left will now probably argue that the UK needs "sharp instrument" control. What they should REALLY advocate is arming the citizenry: Armed self-defense is the best way to avoid being a target of violent crime.

MORE PROOF THAT THE ANTI-JUDEO/CHRISTIAN LEFT IS PRO-ISLAM

WEEKLY STANDARD (hat tip POWERLINE):

ON NOVEMBER 7, 2002, POLITICIANS AND OTHER LUMINARIES--including Boston Mayor Thomas P. Menino--gathered at the corner of Tremont Street and Malcolm X Boulevard in Boston's Roxbury neighborhood. They held shovels and awaited a photo op to celebrate the ground-breaking of a new mosque for the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB). It was a special occasion. The design for the $22 million mosque included a125-foot minaret as well as a 75-foot dome over the prayer hall. Al Jazeera joined the local Boston media on hand to chronicle the day.

It must have seemed noble and high-minded to offer such public support for the construction of a prominent mosque, especially since it had been only a little over a year since the 9/11 attacks. Senator John Kerry, who couldn't attend the event, sent a letter "recogniz[ing] the outstanding work of the Islamic Society of Boston" and praising the project for coming along at a time "when the need for cross-cultural understanding and cooperation has never been greater."

But the good feelings didn't last. In the following months, the Boston Herald and Boston's Fox Channel 25 published reports documenting the ISB's ties with terrorists, terror supporters, and anti-Semites. [...] Mayor Menino is normally adamant about the separation of church and state. As Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby recently noted, Menino is the kind of fellow who, in column, wrote "about the lighting of Christmas Trees all over Boston--yet not once [did] he use the word 'Christmas' to modify the word 'tree.'" It also seemed strange that the city would extend an apparent financial handout to an organization capable of raising the cash to complete a $22 million construction project.

And there was another oddity about the conveyance. According to Boston City Councilor Jerry McDermott, to get the signatures of the ISB trustees, the paper work had to be sent to Saudi Arabia.

THE LAND TRANSFER AND THE POSSIBLE government subsidy that accompanied it focused media attention on the Islamic Society of Boston. Although the ISB widely and often claims to champion a "path of moderation, free of extremism" and "condemns all forms of bigotry," it has had relationships with some unsavory figures. For example, one of the Society's founders, Abdurahman Alamoudi, has been languishing in a federal prison for the past 18 months because of his ties to terrorism; his sentence calls for him to remain under government supervision for the next three decades. United States Attorney Paul McNulty called Alamoudi's conviction a "milestone in the war on terrorism." [...]

... Boston resident James Policastro against the BRA and the City of Boston, [initiated a suit against the city of Boston] it alleges that the city provided an unconstitutional subsidy to the ISB by conveying the land for the mosque at a price below market value. What may make the Policastro suit incendiary is that the discovery process could uncover what went into the BRA's land grant to the ISB.

According to Evan Slavitt, Policastro's attorney, "any government subsidy to a religion is an implicit violation of the establishment clause." Because part of the purchase "price" for the land was a lecture series (along with other difficult-to-quantify considerations), the city may have trouble refuting the notion that the conveyance was unconstitutional.

But the city might face a bigger embarrassment still. Again, according to Slavitt, the details of how the city signed off on the deal with the ISB are unclear. These details will likely see the light of day thanks to the Policastro suit.

For this story, repeated inquiries were made to both the mayor's office and the BRA, asking (1) whether or not the BRA and/or the mayor's office were aware of the connections between the ISB and Abdurahman Alamoudi, Walid Fitaihi, and Yusaf al-Qaradawi; and (2) what due diligence went into qualifying the ISB before the land was conveyed to the organization.

[THESE ARE EXCERPTS from a MUST RTWT article by Dean Barnett, who also writes about politics and other matters at soxblog.com.]

Leftie polticians who help organizations like the ACLU try to banish Judeo-Chritian religion from our schools and courts and money and public squares AID AND ABET THE ESTABLISHEMT OF ISLAM. WHY?! Because they are post-modernt Leftist who hate the West, they are not anti-religion any religion which is anti-West. hence their support for Islam, and "love affair" with the Dalai Lama and Hinduism and witch-craft/paganism etc.

HUGE NYTIMES SCOOP: IRAN CAUGHT SMUGGLING FORGED BALLOTS INTO IRAQ!

NYTIMES - DEXTER FILKINS, (Khalid al-Khassan contributed reporting from Baghdad for this article, and Kirk Semple from Ramadi):

Less than two days before nationwide elections, the Iraqi border police seized a tanker on Tuesday that had just crossed from Iran filled with thousands of forged ballots, an official at the Interior Ministry said. The tanker was seized in the evening by agents with the American-trained border protection force at the Iraqi town of Badra, after crossing at Munthirya on the Iraqi border, the official said. According to the Iraqi official, the border police found several thousand partly completed ballots inside.

The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, said the Iranian truck driver told the police under interrogation that at least three other trucks filled with ballots had crossed from Iran at different spots along the border. The official, who did not attend the interrogation, said he did not know where the driver was headed, or what he intended to do with the ballots.

The seizure of the truck comes at a delicate time in Iran's relations with both Iraq and the United States. The American government has said Iranian agents are deeply involved in trying to influence events in Iraq, by funneling money to Shiite political parties and by arming and training many of the illegal militias that are bedeviling the country.

If you ask me: this is an act of WAR. Iraq's next government ought to declare war on Iran and Syria and ask us to attack them both. We'd get THREE birds with one stone: we eliminate Assad; we eliminate Iran's nukes; and WE WITHDRAW FROM IRAQ! Everyone's happy!

Seriously: this should AT THE VERY LEAST result in SERIOUS sanctions against Iran. This is as bad an interference in the democracy of a neighbor as Hariri's assasination was.

WHICH REMINDS ME: We shouldn't be surprised the Iranians are doing this - for 3 reasons: (1) They're allies of Assad and other global jihadoterrorists who have been undermining democracy allover the world (but especially in the Middle East) for decades. Voter fraud for this crowd is kid's stuff. (2) These people train kids to become genocidal islamikaze bombers and to behead hostages; so OF COURSE they wouldn't bat an eye over voter fraud. And (3) THE MULLAHS OF IRAN have been doing VOTER FRAUD in Iran for decades!

GEORGE W. BUSH: It's time to ACT! Act 1: "Bolton UNLEASHED!" ACT 2: US CRUISE MISSILES LAUNCHED, and Iran's nuke program vaporized.

UPDATE -- 12/14/05 MAYBE THIS POST SHOULD BE RE-TITLED: "HUGE NYTIMES OOPS! -- (hat tip commenter MARK): "Reuters" -

The head of Iraq's border guards denied police reports on Wednesday that a tanker truck stuffed with thousands of forged ballot papers had been seized crossing into Iraq from Iran before Thursday's elections.

"This is all a lie," said Lieutenant General Ahmed al-Khafaji, the chief of the U.S.-trained force which has responsibility for all Iraq's borders. "I heard this yesterday and I checked all the border crossings right away. The borders are all closed anyway," he told Reuters. Iraq's frontiers are closed for the period of the election.

"I contacted all the border crossing points and there was no report of any such incident," Khafaji said. Interior Minister Bayan Jabor also denied the reports, which the New York Times ran prominently, quoting a single unnamed Interior Ministry source, and said it was an attempt to discredit the election process.

WHY WOULD THE NYTIMES WANT TO DISCREDIT THE ELECTION - OR DISCREDIT A RESULT WHICH IS PRO-SHIA, OR AT LEAST AID THOSE WHO WANT TO DISCREDIT THE ELECTION?! COULD THEY BE PRO-SUNNI?! COULD THEY BE ANTI-BUSH?!

I mean, couldn't the NYTIMES have done the fact-checking that "Reuters" did!? Or has the NYTIMES lost all ability to fact-check and become totally incompetent!? Maybe the NYTIMES has merely lost its desire to fact-check any article which is anti-Bush!? Or is the story TRUE, and "Reuters" wrong!? I mean, it's hardly a good choice when one has to choose between the NYTIMES and "Reuters" is it!?

AGING AMAZON FOREST CAUSING INCREASE IN GREENHOUSE GASES?

UC-IRVINE (via AMERICAN THINKER):

Trees in the Amazon tropical forests are old. Really old, in fact, which comes as a surprise to a team of American and Brazilian researchers studying tree growth in the world’s largest tropical region.

Using radiocarbon dating methods, the team, which includes UC Irvine’s Susan Trumbore, found that up to half of all trees greater than 10 centimeters in diameter are more than 300 years old. Some of the trees, Trumbore said, are as much as 750 to 1,000 years old. Study results appear in the online early edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Because their trees are old and slow-growing, the Amazon forests, which contain about a third of all carbon found in land vegetation, have less capacity to absorb atmospheric carbon than previous studies have predicted. Although some of the largest trees also grow the fastest and can take up carbon quickly, the vast majority of the Amazon trees grow slowly.

“In the Central Amazon, where we found the slowest growing trees, the rates of carbon uptake are roughly half what is predicted by current global carbon cycle models,” Trumbore said. “As a result, those models – which are used by scientists to understand how carbon flows through the Earth system – may be overestimating the forests’ capacity to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.”

If this is true, then as the Amazon forest has been allowed to AGE, it has become less efficient at absorbing atmospheric CO2 - at CO2 uptake, and this means more CO2 stays in the atmosphere every year as a result. The increase of atmosphreric CO2 over the last 100 years might be a result of this - the aging of the Amazon - and NOT INDUSTRIALIZATION OR ANYTHING "MAN-MADE."

HERE'S AN IDEA: If we CUT DOWN MORE TREES WITHIN THE AMAZON - AND REPLANTED THESE AREAS WITH YOUNG TREES - (like EVERY good forestry corporation routinely does everywhere) - then we would actually BE REDUCING GREENHOUSES GASES. Here's our slogan:

"Save the Atmosphere! Cut Down the Amazon!"

Somehow, I don't think Sting, or any other member of the chic glitterati or anyone on the Left or in the Green Movement will get behind this BRILLIANT idea. It's too pro-growth. PUN INTENDED!

THE GIST OF LEFTIST IRRATIONALITY

SPENGLER, of the Asian Times, has penned a MUST READ ESSAY ON HOLLYWOOD.

In it, there's a MONEY QUOTE by TONY KUSHNER (homosexual, and Marxist, and playwright, and screenwriter of Spielberg's "morally relative/morally bankrupt" movie MUNICH) - which reveals the idiocy at the very core of Leftist illogic:

"The collapse of the Soviet system does not mean that capitalism has succeeded ... Socialism is simply the idea that people are better off if we work collectively and that the economic system we live in is made by people and therefore can be controlled intelligently rather than let loose."

Kushner - (like all good Marxist-Leninist-Trotskyist-Maoist-Castroist-PolPotist Arafatist-Mugabe-ist socialists/collectivists) - doesn't FEEL that free individuals "LET LOOSE" and freely making free choices in a free market can possibly be as efficient or produce as high a standard of living or as good a general welfare than an economy/market which is CENTRALLY CONTROLLED BY INTELLIGENT UTOPIANIST/BENEVOLENT INTELLECTUALS. As by "Politburos."

Too bad for Kushner - and his gang of well-intentioned, utopianist/socialist mass murderers - that Hayek and history have proven them all UTTERLY WRONG. No one proved it "mo' better" than Hayek and Deng Xiaoping.

Hayek DEMOLISHED the concept of collectivism and proved how and why socialism -- no matter how well-meaning - is THE ROAD TO SERFDOM, the road to impoverished servitude to the state.

Deng Xiaoping - by introducing FREE MARKETS to China in 1979 -- and TRANSFORMING CHINA FROM AN IMPOVERISHED AND STARVING NATION INTO AN ECONOMIC POWERHOUSE WHICH CAN EXPORT FOOD! - proved that collectivism and centrally directed marketplaces SUCK at production and distribution of goods and services. (More on Deng HERE.)

SIMPLY PUT: prosperity is a by-product of liberty! Free individuals --- free to read, write, make. buy, sell, and trade what they want --- CREATE AND PRODUCE MORE STUFF AT BETTER PRICES, creating more value and more propserity, than a society which is fettered by the state and less free. LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY: Socialism fails to deliver the goods (and services! YUP: socialism even sucks at delivering medical services! More HERE and HERE and HERE).

James Surowiecki wrote a book which ALSO explains why free markets are better then ones run by a relatively few benevolent experts. One example he gives (if I remember correctly) is the "GUESS THE WEIGHT" game at a carnival. The average of all guesses - by the crowd on no-nothings who just HAPPEN to walk by - is almost always closer to the actual weight than any single guess or guesses from any expert. THAT'S WHY SUROWIECKI CALLED HIS BOOK - LAUDING FREE MARKETS - THE WISDOM OF CROWDS!

Or look at it this way: if you put all the PC's and LAPTOPS in the world together in a ginormous parallel computer system it would be more powerful and "smarter" than any single super-computer. That's how and why FREE MARKETS in free, competitive economies - or economic systems which are "LET LOOSE" to borrow Kushner's phrase - are BETTER than centrally coordinated markets run by cliques of well-intentioned know-it-alls. And it's why socialism has ALWAYS failed to perform as well a free markets.

For otherwise smart folks, like Kushner, to persist in defending socialism reveals that they are in deep DEEP denial. (Maintaining this denial requires a huge amount of emotional energy and leads to many of the hatefully INSANE over-reactions the Left has recently displayed, especially over the last few years, LIKE: screaming "BusHitler" and "AshKKKroft," and openly admitting they're more afraid of Christian fundamentalists (like George W. Bush) than of jihadoterrorists; (MORE HERE).

[ASIDE: A few Christian fundamentalists - like Jimmy Carter and the late great Dr. M.L. King Jr. - don't worry the Left one bit. I WONDER WHY?! It's because King was Black an the Left accepts the "Christianess" of Blacks; in fact, Leftist politicians often give speeches in Black churches. (This a a bit racist and patronizing, I think. Especially when you see politicians like Gore changing their speech cadences to sound more like Black preachers! SHEESH!) Carter gets a break because he's a fellow multiculturalist moonbat!]

BUT... no matter how loudly Leftists holler, or how many nasty placards they carry or anti-American/anti-Christian/anti-tarditional movies they make, it will not change reality: socialism simply sucks. YUP: Socialism is so LAST CENTURY.

I know how difficult it is for Leftists to accept that their worldview is based on a fraudualent ideology. I know because I was raised by hardcore/card-carrying Leftists, and for nearly half of my adult life I was a Leftist, too. And most of my NY friends are still Left-of-center. That's why I know that it's VERY difficult for Leftists to accept that they've bee so so so SO wrong all these years; that a CROWD/a free market - can be more efficient than a group of benevolent geniuses.

As recently as 1993, socialism/collectivism/nationalization was STILL at the very center of Democrat White House; socialism is what defined HillaryCare effort: all smart-benevolent Hillary had to do was to get together with a few other smart-benevolent folks (who were experts in healthcare) and they could design a better heathcare system. And imposing something good is okay.

Well, if you believe that, then you probably believe that the USSR made a better car, and a better air conditoner, and a better washing machine, and had a better health system, and a better ecology, and a better system for financing new ventures, and a better publishing/media industry than The West. Which simply wasn't the case! Nothing they produced came close to the quality and value of similar things in the capitalist West. Nothing.

You'd think that Leftists would have learned that by now - but DENIAL is a very powerful psychological force, and it has enabled Leftists to deny reality, to deny that socialism sucks.

HERE'S A RECENT EXAMPLE: Many Leftists learned a faulty lesson from the HilaryCare debacle. They think that all that she did wrong was try to get it all passed through Congress at once. So now, they want INCREMENTAL socialism, as if that were really better. Sheesh - these folks are still deluding themselves!

They delude themselves and deny that the ONLY reason the West is so good at producing wealth and creating prosperity is because we are free. And they deny that Deng Hsiaoping proved that even HUGE states - STATES COMPLETELY ALIEN TO THE CAPITALIST WEST - states based on Confucianary Asian culture, LIKE CHINA, can increase their prosperity AS SOON AS THEY BECOME FREE. (Too bad for the Chinese people that their tyrants don't extend this ECONOMIC freedom to the social and cultural realm. THEIR LOSS!) India is equally instructive. As is Ireland and Eastern Europe. (The Rhodesia/Zimbawe devolution - from free markets to socialism - proves it, too.)

So, you Leftists out there - like Kushner: quit with the ol' denial routine, and GET WITH IT! Let go of your visceral connection to this vestigial ideology and join the 21st century! We'll be even mo' better at spreading liberty, creativity and prosperity when you do!

[ASIDE: the HYPERLINK for Kushner (above) takes you to an interview he did with SALON a while back; here's the money quote from that interview:

"A Republican president with a Republican Congress will destroy this country. These people are insane."

OH NO, TONY, you're EXACTLY wrong. People who still admire socialism and feel that Republicans will destroy America are INSANE! Besides, if you don't want the GOP to have control of all 3 branches of the federal government, then why not JUST WIN AN ELECTION NOW AND THEN!? That's how these things are determined in a democracy.

HMMM: Could the Left's disenchantment with democracy (here and in Iraq) be related to their failure to win elections!? Hmmm... I think it is...]

MSM: NOT ONE SINGLE STORY ON ABBAS/PA SUPPORT FOR FAMILIES OF TERRORISTS

I GOOGLED Abbas: not a single MSM story on the stipend. ZERO in the NYTIMES. Nothing at NEWSNOW.CO.UK. I posted on it HERE.

Why do you think the MSM won't cover this story? Could they be biased? Are they protecting Abbas - the darling of the EU, and even Bush and Rice? Don't they care if Israelis get killed in terror attacks?

I think they are biased and/or covering up because they think Abbas is the last hope for a negotiated peace deal between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs.

I think this is DELUDED, and it muddles the entire GWOT.

SAUDI PRINCE GIVES TENET ALMA MATER, GEORGETOWN, $20 MILLION

20 MILLION BUCKS FOR GEORGETOWN. THEIR 2ND LARGEST GIFT EVER.

TENET - ETHNICALLY AN ALBANIAN (A MUSLIM COUNTRY) - GRADUATED FROM THEIR SCHOOL FOR FOREIGN SERVICE. HE NOW TEACHES AT GEORGETOWN.

IS THIS LARGESSE REALLY JUST A WAY TO MASK PAYOLA TO A FORMER SAUDI MOLE?

REMEMBER: THIS IS THE SAME PRINCE WHOSE 10 MILLION BUCKS RUDY FAMOUSLY TURNED DOWN JUST AFTER 9/11. AND THIS IS THE PRINCE WHO BOUGHT INTO FOX NEWS AND HAS ALREADY GOT THEM TO ALTER THEIR COVERAGE AND MAKE IT MORE PRO-MUSLIM.

Just asking. LOOKIT. IT'S NOT SO FAR-FETCHED: There have been MOLES in the FBI and CIA before - remember Hannsen and Ames? Maybe Tenet was working for the Saudis or Prince Talal?

UPDATE: Look at it this way - Rudy told this Saudi Prince, (who blamed the USA's foreign policy-- SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL --- for the 9/11 attack!), to take the money and SHOVE IT! Rupert/Fox and Tenet/Georgetown took the Saudi's money. More HERE. ANOTHER ANGLE: It's not as if we need to make college kids MORE PRO-Muslim, do we!? What does that do for the USA?

ASSAD'S MURDEROUS REGIME MURDERS ANOTHER ANTI-SYRIAN MP/JOURNALIST IN LEBANON

Yesterday I posted on a thinly veiled threat uttered by Assad himself while he was on Moscow-TV. Today, he sent the message in a more brutal way ("Reuters"):

A car bomb killed Lebanese newspaper magnate and anti-Syrian lawmaker Gebran Tueni in Beirut on Monday, a day after he returned from Paris, where he had based himself in recent months in fear of assassination. Several Lebanese politicians immediately blamed Syria, which has denied any role and said the killing was timed to smear it. Police said Tueni, publisher of An-Nahar daily, was among four people killed in the explosion that destroyed his armoured sports utility vehicle as it was driving in the Mekalis area of mainly Christian east Beirut. Some 32 people were wounded.

More reports HERE and HERE. Maybe it's time someone used the same "messaging system" to tell the islamofascist tyrant Assad what we think of him and his murderous regime? KABOOM. More HERE and HERE.

ABBAS SHOWS HIS TRUE COLORS; WILL BUSH AND RICE OPEN THEIR EYES?

From Betsy's Page: The head of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has approved a new law, providing monetary grants to the families of suicide bombers:

Abbas gave his approval just six days ago, a day before a suicide bomber struck the HaSharon Mall in Netanya, killing five Israelis and wounding scores of others. The legislation refers to the suicide terrorists as shahids (martyrs), a term generally applied to a person who dies in an operation fighting against Israel.

Under the new law, the terrorist’s family will be paid a base sum of $250 per month. The law takes into account extended family arrangements commonplace in Arab societies. The families of married terrorists are entitled to an additional $50 per month, and $15 are added for each child, $25 for each parent, and $15 for each brother who lived with the terrorist prior to his death.

BETSY: Don't forget that the United States and Europe provide much of the funding for the Palestinian Authority.

From an ASTUTE BLOGER commenter (on another thread), Gandalin:

"...the Abbas "government" has passed a law to pay the families of suicide/homicide bombers a stipend of at least $250 a month. This is ... subsidizing the mass murder of Jews. By the way, remember when President Bush said that those who pay for terror would be treated just as justly as the terrorists themselves? When is he going to apply that principle to the Palestinian Authority?"

I agree with Gandalin: Bush has been way too soft on Abbas and the PNA - and we do have a lever other than miltary force (as Betsy points out): we can use the money we give them as a lever.

We MUST hold Bush to his WORD, when he said, in his Setember 21 2001 speech (before a special Joint Session of Congress after 9/11):

"Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

Obviously. the Abbas Administration - by financially supporting jihadoterrorist familes - EXACTLY LIKE SADDAM DID! - has PROVEN BEYOND ANY DOUBT THAT IT SUPPORTS TERRORISM AND IS THEREFORE A HOSTILE REGIME.

Mr. President, will you stand by your word?

(More HERE.)

BRITISH OIL DEPOT BLAST: SURVIVING SECURITY GUARD IS MUSLIM

BBC:

Part-time security guard Raheel Ashraf still can't believe he is alive. He escaped the Hertfordshire fuel depot explosions with just a few scratches, despite being on the second floor of an adjacent building that was devastated in the blasts. As he was doing final checks around the Fujifilm offices where he works nights, he was thrown into the air by a "humungous explosion", he said. "I opened my eyes and there was nothing left of the building. I was crunched into a ball, looking around, wondering if I was asleep. "All the walls, everything, was just shattered. There was no light in there but I could see the sky. All I could hear was a long thundery sound. I had no idea what was happening," he added. "It was a miracle, I was just standing there, with hardly a scratch on me."

Was it a miracle, or was he in on it, DID HE DO IT? What can Isay, I'M SUSPICIOUS! Remember (in general): (1) many arson fires are started by firemen who want to be heros; (2) it is odd that he would escape unscratched; (3) he is Muslim and MOST of the world's terrorists are Muslim, and the depot is near Luton - where the July 7th bombers were form.

YES: THIS IS CRUDE PROFILING. But I think based on his ethnicity and religion (IF he is still a practicing Muslim) his backgound should be thoroughly examined: his phone and cellphone use, his emails, which Mosque he attends, his travels during the last ten years. I would BET that Scotland Yard is on it RIGHT NOW. I hope so...

IRAQI OPTIMISM VERSUS MSM AND DEM/LEFT DEFEATISM

BBC:

The BBC News website's World Affairs correspondent, Paul Reynolds, says the survey shows a degree of optimism at variance with the usual depiction of the country as one in total chaos. ... [the] poll suggests Iraqis are generally optimistic about their lives, in spite of the violence that has plagued Iraq since the US-led invasion. ... Their priority for the coming year would be the restoration of security and the withdrawal of foreign troops. A majority of the 1,700 people questioned wanted a united Iraq with a strong central government.

Interviewers found that 71% of those questioned said things were currently very or quite good in their personal lives, while 29% found their lives very or quite bad. ... When asked whether their lives would improve in the coming year, 64% said things would be better and 12% said they expected things to be worse.

Seems like the Iraqis are more optimisic about Iraq, than the Democrats or the MSM are. I wonder why? Could it be they know the truth? YUP. Could it be they REALLY WANT DEMOCRACY? YUP. More than the Democrat Party wants it for them? YUP.

IN FACT: Iraqis are more optimistic about Iraq than the Democrats are about the USA! That says it all - about the Dem and the Left: They are pessimistic defeatists. And rightly so: nearly EVERYTHING they have stood for (socialism and the welfare state, multicutluralism, super-multilateralism, appeasement and disarmament) is KAPUT. Thank God.

More HERE. And HERE and HERE and HERE. (BTW: I posted on this FIRST!)

FRENCH LUDDITISM: MORE PROOF OF FRANCE'S DECLINE

AFP/TERRA DAILY:

... a French court Friday acquitted 49 activists who destroyed GM plants after ruling their actions were justified. The court in the central city of Orleans dismissed the criminal charges of organised vandalism against the 49, who had uprooted GM maize in the region planted by the US biotechnology group Monsanto in two incidents, one last year and the other in 2005. "The defendants have shown proof that they committed an infraction of voluntary vandalism in a group to respond to a situation of necessity," the court said. ... One of the activists, Jean-Emile Sanchez, called the verdict "a huge victory for the anti-GM side" and said the judgement would form an important legal precedent.

The state prosecutor in the case, Alex Perrin, immediately said both his office and Monsanto would appeal the decision. He had pressed for prison terms of up to three months for each of the defendants, who included two Green Party politicians, one of whom, Yves Contassot, is a Paris deputy mayor in charge of environmental issues.

The friggin' DEPUTY MAYOR of Paris is a wacky GREEN LUDDITE, and the MAYOR A FRIGGIN' SOCIALIST! Sheesh. And the courts are upholding their irrational objections to GM crops AND their criminal behavior!

No wonder France is in decline: (1) They are UNABLE to defend their culture - or their streets - from islamothugs (who are taking over through both blatant intimidation (the intifada) and by insidous infiltration ("immigration withiout assimilation" and explosive population growth - which is, IRONICALLY, supported by the welfare state!). (2) They see more danger to their culture from American movies and music and GM foods than they do from the rapid increase of atheism (in France - which was once VERYT Catholic), or the rpaid increase of Islam in France.

Seinfeld said: "The French fought harder to keep Disney out than they did the Nazis." NOW... they fight harder against the USA than they do the islamothugs. If this keeps up, they will surely be unrecognizable as French in fifty years. Notre Dame will become a mosque. Only Sarkozy MIGHT save them.

WHICH KILLED MORE PEOPLE: SOCIALISM OR RELIGION?

THE CORNER linked to an article in the NYTIMES - actually an interview with an "intellectual" who'd just published a book - PETER WATSON, (Ideas: A History of Thought and Invention, from Fire to Freud ). Here's a snippet:

[NYTIMES:] What do you think is the single worst idea in history?

[WATSON:] Without question, ethical monotheism. The idea of one true god. The idea that our life and ethical conduct on earth determines how we will go in the next world. This has been responsible for most of the wars and bigotry in history.

This is FALSE. Socialists during the 20th Century killed more people than religious people did in religious wars during the previous 20 centuries - whether they were monotheists or polytheists!

FACT: Marxist-Leninism; Stalinism (in Russia and North Korea and elsewhere); Nazism (which was a sub-sect of socialism, an anti-Marxist form); Maoism; Pol-Potism - and other assorted genocidal socialists, from Castro to Mugabe - killed at least 120 MILLION people, and tortured and wrongfully imprisoned (in gulags and concentration camps and "re-education camps") MILLIONS AND MILLIONS MORE! AND IMPOVERISHED AND STOLE FROM STILL EVEN MORE THAN THAT!

It's one of the GREAT BIG LIES of the Leftist dominated academy that religion has been the world's major source of war-mongering and death. In fact, it's been THE LEFT.

BUT IT GETS WORSE: THE LEFT IS EVEN MORE HYPOCRITICAL, BECAUSE THESE VERY SAME LEFTIST ACADEMICIANS WOULD BE THE LAST TO ARGUE THAT WE ARE NOW ENGAGED IN A RELIGIOUS WAR.

And they would NEVER EVER DARE to criticize the jihadoterrorists, or say that Islam has a problem (even though this was recently admitted to by King Abdullah II of Jordan). The Leftist academicians deny this fact - and castigate and berate as simpletons the few scholars who ARE BRAVE ENOUGH to argue this point -- scholars like Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington, who point out that nearly ALL the world's hot-spots are where Islam meets the non-Islam, or Sunni Islam meets the non-Sunni Islam.

In fact, these Leftist academicians are quicker to condemn Christians counter-attacking islamofascism and jihadoterrorism than they are to criticize ANY Islamic sects, (ESTEEMED academicians like Susan Sontag and Noam Chomsky and Edward Said). They do this because they are post-modernist multiculturalists who basically believe that Western Civilization is, and has always been, a scourge on the world. And one MAJOR way they claim the West had despoiled and ravaged and raped and pillaged the world is through its religious fervor - or with the "blessings" of religion. BAH HUMBUG. As I said: atheistic Lefties killed more people and committed more genocide in the last century than religion did in the previous 20!

Then again: many argue that Leftism is a religious CULT in ways: its adherents believe in it as a matter of faith, despite the fact that it has failed everywhere and everytime it has ever been employed anywhere in the world. NOW THAT'S FAITH! SURE: Most were slaugtered in the name of their chief prophet Marx (founder of internationalist communist socialism), but many in the name of their anti-christ Hitler (founder of nationalist/racist socialism and anti-Marxist). More HERE and HERE and HERE.

ADDENDUM: It must also be noted that some forms of POLYTHEISM - which the esteemed academician PETER WATSON seemingly let's off the hook, entirely - committed HUMAN SACRIFICE FOR EONS ALL OVER THE WORLD. In the New World, Aztecs slaughtered tens of thousands each year for their gods (PLURAL!), and one year reportedly murdered 80,000 to commemorate their capital Tenochtitlan, a city of 250,000 (and at the time THE BIGGEST CITY IN THE WORLD). WHAT'S MORE: The Aztecs often ATE THE REMAINS OF THEIR HUMAN SACRIFICES. YES: THEY WERE POLYTHEISTIC CANNIBALS! When the Conquistadors CONQUERED the Aztecs (with the help of many of the impoverished and ravaged tribes who were previously subjugated, and genocidally sacrificed, and ritually cannibalized by the Aztecs), they LIBERATED these "Mexicans" from an insasnely superstitious polytheistic genocidal creed, and embraced them into the RC Church. They were literally and figuratively "saved."

ALSO: This is a BLATANTLY anti-Western and simultaneoulsy thoroughly "Western-centric" opinon: It IGNORES the fact that many MANY wars were fought ENTIRELY OUTSIDE the West (within Asia, or within Africa, or within South America) and also by the East upon the West. These wars had NOTHING to do with either religion or monotheism. When Genghis Khan attacked the West he did not do it in the name of religion or monotheism. When Aztecs attacked other Meso-Amecian nations it was NOT due to monotheism. When Rwandan Hutsis and Tutsis warred, it was NOT because of monotheism - or monotheistic bigotry.

THEREFORE, Watson's charge is WRONG on this basis too - that it over-emphasizes intra-Western wars over all wars, and it wrongly assigns monotheism a central role in wars when in most wars - throughout history and across cultural boundaries - it was of no import at all.

[ONLY if you include socialism as a religion can his claim be made to seem true, and he clearly doesnt see socilaism as a religion, and even if he did, would it be monotheistic or polytheistic? After all Marxist-Leninism seems polytheistic to me, as does Marx-Engels worship and Marx-Trotsky worship and Marx-Mao worship!]

IN CONCLUSION: This Peter Watson guy is either a misinformed and gullible JERK, or deliberately lying to slander monotheists, or BRAINWASHED BY LEFTISM. The third option is the most logical.

ASSAD THREATENS TO DESTABILIZE MIDDLE EAST AND WORLD

BBC:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan has received the second report into the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The report is said to detail Syria's alleged role in the murder. It comes days after United Nations investigator Detlev Mehlis's team questioned five Syrian officials. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad vowed again on Sunday that he would punish any Syrian involved in the murder plot. Damascus has strongly denied involvement in the car bomb which killed Hariri in February.

But an interim UN report in December has already implicated Syrian officials. Most Lebanese and Syrians are now waiting anxiously to see what evidence Mr Mehlis will reveal in his second report. The chief UN investigator has indicated it will confirm the findings of the first extensive report, but it will also include more concrete evidence. Mr Mehlis said his investigation was not affected by the retractions of a Syrian witness two weeks ago and none of his conclusions presented to the UN Security Council in October need to be altered.

Which explains THIS: AP:

Syrian President Bashar Assad warned in an interview broadcast Sunday that an attempt to impose sanctions against his nation will destabilize the region and the entire world. Assad, who was speaking to Russia's Rossiya state television ahead of this week's release of a U.N. report on the progress of the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri, again declared Syria's innocence in the murder and said that the U.N. probe was politicized. "The Middle East is the heart of the world, and Syria is the heart of the Middle East," Assad said. "If the situation in Syria and Iraq isn't good, the whole region will become unstable and the entire world will pay for that."

The is a thinly veiled threat - made while Assad on MOSCOW-TV, (Russia is supplier of Syria's missile defenses). [ASIDE: AHEM: WHy are they buiy Russian air defense systems!? Don't the Syrians know that we demolished Russian air-defenses in Serbia!?]). Assad intends to scare the faint-hearted into backing off. This might work on the euroweenies, but not on Bush and Bolton. Thank God. (BTW: we will impose TARGETED sanctions on the PERPS, not the whole Syrian nation, so Assad's anticipatory VERBAL counter-attack won't work! THEREFORE: he will use violence, by instructing his jihadoterrorist stooges, principally Hizb'Allah, to step up attacks against Israel A SOON AS ANY SANCTIONS are announced.) More HERE.

THE LA TIMES LIES; THE FRENCH SWEAR TO IT!

The LATIMES has an article they tout as further proof that Bush misled the nation about Saddam's nuclear weapons. (This is based on the fact that Bush spoke of the potential of a nuclear-Saddam before the war. Which is true, but it is also true that these speeches came AFTER the Congress had passed the Resolution authorizing Bush to attack Saddam - for 23 reasons, of which only three were about WMD or nukes!)

A huge tip-off that the article is all BS is that it relies on French intelligence; (an oxymoron, non? Mais oui!).THE LATIMES OPENS WITH A BLATANT LIE:

"The case of the forged documents that were used to support claims that Hussein was seeking materials in Africa launched a political controversy that continues to roil Washington. "

The truth is, the USA NEVER used these documents! BUT LATER, THE LA TIMES PRINTS THE TRUTH (inadvertantly, I guess!):

The former CIA official said that in fact the U.S. had been offered the same documents in 2001 but had quickly rejected them as forgeries. ... When Bush gave his State of the Union address in January 2003, citing a report from the British that Iraq had attempted to purchase uranium in Africa ... A spokeswoman for the British Embassy in Washington declined to comment on Chouet's remarks, reiterating that the British government continued to stand behind its conclusions that Iraq had sought to purchase uranium in Africa.

SUMMING UP THE LEFTIE POSITION (from the conclusion of the LA TIMES artricle):

Former Sen. Bob Graham (D-Fla.), who was chairman of the Intelligence Committee when the Niger claims first surfaced in 2002, said some officials in the U.S. State Department were also expressing doubts: "The big mystery is why did the administration, in the face of at least a very persuasive contrary view, feel the president should take the risk of stating this?"

The ANSWER is actually right there IN THE SAME ARTICLE:

On Sept. 8, 2002 — within months of the third French warning — Cheney and then-national security advisor Condoleezza Rice spoke in dire terms of Iraq's alleged efforts to pursue nuclear materials. Rice warned: "We don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud."

IN OTHER WORDS: (1) Bush's SOTU statement clearly said that we only had good intel - from the Brits - that Saddam HAD SOUGHT uranium in AFRICA. This OBVIOUSLY ONLY INDICATES SADDAM'S DESIRE FOR NUKES, AND NOT HIS POSSESSION OF THEM. BUSH NEVER CLAIMED SADDAM HAD NUKES. And (2) Kay and Duelfer backed up this claim: they BOTH testified that their investigations had proven that Saddam had a desire to re-build all of his WMD capability - including nukes - AS SOON AS SANCTIONS WERE LIFTED, WHICH WAS A REAL PROSPECT IN 2001!

In the absence of 100% confirmed intel, (WHICH IS ALMOST ALWAYS NEVER AVAILABLE!), Bush decided to err on the side of caution, and not give Saddam the benefit of the doubt - on nukes or anything else - (ESPECIALLY SINCE HE DID NOT COOPERATE FULLY WITH BLIX OR FULLY ADHERE TO UNSCR#1441).

Many Dems are NOW saying that knowing what they know today, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE GONE TO WAR. They' saying, in effect, that they now believe that they should have given Saddam the benefit of the doubt - AND THAT THEY WOULD TODAY.

Which is why I don't trust them with national security or the defense of the Free World.

STATE DEPARTMENT AND CIA ROGUES: ARE THEY DISGRUNTLED ARABISTS AND LIBS, OR MOLES?

POWERLINE has another post on the renegades at the CIA, and links to MSM columnist JACK KELLY who writes on the issue:

... the CIA hasn't been very good at ferreting out the secrets of our enemies, or keeping our own, it has shown a talent for playing politics."The CIA's war against the Bush administration is one of the great untold stories of the past three years," wrote lawyer and Web logger John Hinderaker in The Weekly Standard. The CIA has used its budget to fund criticism of the Bush administration by former Democratic officeholders, and permitted a serving analyst, Michael Scheuer, to publish and promote a book bashing the president. The principal CIA weapon has been the leak.

Reporters for ABC, The New York Times and The Washington Post didn't have to do even the minimal legwork Mr. Laurin did to out the CIA's clandestine "rendition" program. It was handed to them by "current and former intelligence officials." "So the CIA established policies that it knew would be controversial and would damage American interests if revealed, and then leaked the existence of those policies to The Washington Post for the purpose of damaging the Bush administration," Mr. Hinderaker wrote.

A rogue CIA that subverts American democracy has long been a staple of moonbat mythology. How ironic that the rogues in the CIA should turn out to be leftists who harm America to benefit Democrats.

Maybe they aren't MERELY ideologically motivated, or Dem/Left partisans who hate Bush? Maybe they aren't merely Arabists and anti-Semites - like Joe Wilson and Marc Sheuer. Maybe they're PAID SPIES/MOLES of the enemy?

IMPOSSIBLE? Sheesh: during the Cold War the USSR bought the Chiefs of the FBI and CIA counter-espionage units (Hannsen and Ames, respectively). THE EFFIN' CHIEFS! AND THEY BOUGHT THEM FOR PEANUTS!! (And Ames and Hannsen OPERATED FOR YEARS RIGHT UNDER THE NOSES OF THEIR BOSSES! So I DO NOT trust the CIA and FBI to adequately police themselves. Anyone who does is foolish.)

Our current enemies have more money than the Soviet Union did. (A previous post on this - by me, from July 2005 - HERE.)

MOFAZ JOINS SHARON, SECURING NEXT GENERATION FOR KADIMA

BBC:

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has left Likud to join Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's new Kadima party. ... The prime minister set up the centrist party in order to give himself more room for manoeuvre in seeking a peace deal with the Palestinians. ... Mr Mofaz joins other high-profile Likud figures like Finance Minister Ehud Olmert and Justice Minister Tzippi Livni, as well as former Labour leader Shimon Peres, in defecting to Kadima.

Kadima will win the next election - and come close to a majority in the Knesset. If - in the next year - its policies make Israel more secure, then Sharon will step down and Mofaz and Olmert (two eminently qualified men) will duke it out for Kadima party leadership - a good prospect for the new party. ALSO GOOD: Labor - the SOCIALIST PARTY of Israel - will be marginalized.

BAD FALLOUT: Because it is a coalition with former-Lefties - like Peres - Sharon's new party MIGHT NOT be aggressive about "de-socializing" the Israeli economy. And the weakening LIKUD makes the prospect of economic reforms EVEN MORE UNLIKELY. Israel DESPERATELY needs to become more Hayekian and less socialist. This is the SECOND most important issue that Israel faces - after survival, which includes: local issues with Arab-Palestinians; dealings with neighboring and nearby Arabs nations -- like Bahrain and the UAE (where the prospects are good), and with bad neighbors like Hizb'Allah and Syria; dealings with non-Arab Muslim nations -- like Pakistan, and.... IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM. In other words: Sharon's Kadima Party has a VERY full plate and easily ignore the domestic issues. Which would be bad.