THE AXIS OF EVIL: A FEW TROUBLING DEVELOPMENTS

Arirang News: Iran ‘Buying Missiles from North Korea’

Iran is reportedly stepping up development of long-range missiles. According to an intelligence report given to Reuters by a non-U.S. diplomat, Tehran is pursuing a program code-named Project 111, whose aim is to arm Iran's Shahab-3 missiles, which experts believe have a maximum range of 2,000 kilometers, with nuclear warheads. The Shahab is based on North Korea's Rodong missile technology.

Reuters also said a German diplomat, citing his country's intelligence data, confirmed that Iran had purchased from North Korea 18 disassembled BM-25 mobile missiles with a range of 2,500 km, which would render them capable of reaching Israel and Turkey from Iran. ... Reuters said Tehran sharply increased production of the Shahab-3 missiles from less than 20 to around 90 a year.

"Reuters":

North Korea is set to deploy ballistic missiles that could reach Alaska and remains a global security threat despite its failing economy, the head of the U.S. military in South Korea told a Senate hearing on Tuesday. "Reports indicate North Korea is also preparing to field a new intermediate range ballistic missile which could easily reach United States facilities in Okinawa, Guam, and possibly Alaska," Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of the U.S. Forces Korea, told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

MosNews: Russian Ambassador Opposes US Sanctions Against Iran, North Korea

Russia opposes any kind of sanctions against what the United States calls rogue states such as Iran and North Korea, Russian ambassador to South Korea said on Tuesday. Gleb Ivashentsov quoted by The Korea Times after a forum hosted by the Korea News Editors’ Association in Seoul said Russia was against “any economic sanctions because they do not work.” “There should be dialogue, there should be consultation, but sanctions do not work neither against North Korea, nor against Iran, nor against any other country.”

Let's add up these three items: (1) North Korea and Iran are BOTH stepping up their production of longer range missiles; (2) North Korea is even selling them to Iran - even as Iran is developing a nuke weapons program; AND (3) BOTH Iran and North Korea are being enabled and EXPLICITLY protected by Russia, who is also selling anti-aircraft missile systems to Iran - and to Syria - as well as building sevaral nuke facilites for Iran. And meeting with Hamas.

Well, folks - I believe that Russia is playing a double game with us: They talk like they're our allies while they REALLY HELP OUR ENEMIES.

I hate to be the one to say this but IT'S TIME TO GIVE RUSSIA FULL TIME STATUS IN THE AXIS OF EVIL. They should be booted OUT of the G8 - FOR STARTERS!

And, you know what else? The longer we wait to confront North Korea , Syria and Iran, the harder it will be. The old saying was "Faster, please!" The new saying should be, "IT'S NOW OR NEVER!"

HOLLYWOOD: THE DIS-INFOTAINMENT CAPITAL OF THE WORLD

Infotainment:

Infotainment, combining information with entertainment, is a fairly recent neologism for a television program, Web site feature, or other presentation that combines information with entertainment. Most of today's popular fact-based television shows, such as those on the Animal Planet channel, could be classed as infotainment.

Disinformation:

- erroneous material intentionally promoted to confuse, distract and otherwise make it more difficult to determine the truth. Some disinformation is amplified by well-meaning persons who unwittingly adopt the material without understanding that it is not genuine. ...

DISINFOTAINMENT: When the information in that presentation is false, distorted or twisted in order to advance a morally relativist, multiculturalist, anti-bourgeois, anti-traditonal, anti-West, anti-American or anti-free market agenda, then it should be called DISINFOTAINMENT, or... a Hollywood movie for short!

[ASIDE: SHOUT OUT TO DR. SANITY: Why not write lyrics for a song called "That's Disinfotainment!"?]

IRAN CAUGHT EXPORTING IED'S INTO IRAQ

ABC NEWS:

U.S. military and intelligence officials tell ABC News that they have caught shipments of deadly new bombs at the Iran-Iraq border. ... U.S. officials say roadside bomb attacks against American forces in Iraq have become much more deadly as more and more of the Iran-designed and Iran-produced bombs have been smuggled in from the country since last October.

"I think the evidence is strong that the Iranian government is making these IEDs, and the Iranian government is sending them across the border and they are killing U.S. troops once they get there," says Richard Clarke, former White House counterterrorism chief and an ABC News consultant. "I think it's very hard to escape the conclusion that, in all probability, the Iranian government is knowingly killing U.S. troops." ...

John Negroponte, director of national intelligence, testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on Februrary 2, saying, "Tehran's intention to inflict pain on the United States and Iraq has been constrained by its caution to avoid giving Washington an excuse to attack it."

Well, that EXCUSE is gonzo, baby: THIS IS AN ACT OF WAR! WE MUST COUNTER-ATTACK! [NOTE: Clarke is hardly a friend of this administration, and he concurs.] More HERE and HERE. AND HERE. And HERE, too.

UPDATE: TYPICALLY, I POSTED ON THIS LONG BEFORE MOST ANYBODY ELSE:

Sunday, August 07, 2005 - IRAN, IED'S AND BOLTON AND THE UNSC:

NYTIMES:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 - Many of the new, more sophisticated roadside bombs used to attack American and government forces in Iraq have been designed in Iran and shipped in from there, United States military and intelligence officials said Friday, raising the prospect of increased foreign help for Iraqi insurgents. ... "These are among the most sophisticated and most lethal devices we've seen," said the senior officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate intelligence reports describing the bombs. "It's very serious."

... Pentagon and intelligence officials say that some shipments of the new explosives have contained both components and fully manufactured devices, and may have been spirited into Iraq along the porous Iranian border by the Iranian-backed, anti-Israeli terrorist group Hezbollah, or by Iran's Revolutionary Guard. American commanders say these bombs closely matched those that Hezbollah has used against Israel. ... American officials say they have no evidence that the Iranian government is involved. But Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and the new United States ambassador in Baghdad, Zalmay Khalilzad, complained publicly this week about the Tehran government's harmful meddling in Iraqi affairs.

If this it is true, then BOLTON should demand and emergency session of the UNSC and provide the world with evidence, and then demand that the Iranian government close it's border with Iraq or we they will be hit with UN sanctions, and a USA ultimatum: if there is another shipment of IED's into Iraq, then we will attack Iran militarily - destroying ALL their military assets.

On October 25th, 1962 JFK authorized Adlai Stevenson to present photographic evidence on the Russian nukes and to be VERY tough with the Soviets when we discovered the USSR missiles in Cuba. Bush should authorize Bolton to be just as forthcoming (and also to show proof of the claim) and just as tough: by issuing an the above ultimatum to Iran. Why have a rottweiler like Bolton if we don't use him!?

What was true then is more true now. And it is further proof that Bush has been WAY TOO PATIENT with Iran.

We should replace the phrase, "FASTER PLEASE!" with, "IT'S NOW OR NEVER!"

CLOONEY AND HOLLYWOOD "PROUD TO BE OUT OF TOUCH" WITH THE TRUTH

George Clooney accepting his actor in a supporting role Oscar® for ‘Syriana’:

“Wow. All right, so I'm not a winning director… I would say that, you know, we are a little bit out of touch in Hollywood every once in a while. I think it's probably a good thing. We're the ones who talked about AIDS when it was just being whispered, and we talked about civil rights when it wasn't really popular. And we, you know, we bring up subjects. This Academy, this group of people gave Hattie McDaniel an Oscar in 1939 when blacks were still sitting in the backs of theaters. I'm proud to be a part of this Academy, proud to be part of this community, and proud to be out of touch.”

[More on CLOONEY here and HERE.]

POWERLINE:

The movie for which Clooney received an award, Syrianna, isn't out of touch with America because it is morally superior; it is out of touch because it is mind-numbingly dumb. A film that takes the position that suicide bombers are good, America is controlled by corrupt oilmen, and the United States is the force that stands in the way of Middle Eastern democracy, isn't just out of touch with America. It's out of touch with reality. Which probably explains, at least in part, why it was a dud.

KRAUTHAMMER:

The most pernicious element in the movie is the character who is at the moral heart of the film: the physically beautiful, modest, caring, generous Pakistani who becomes a beautiful, modest, caring, generous ... suicide bomber. In his final act, the Pure One, dressed in the purest white robes, takes his explosives-laden little motorboat head first into his target. It is a replay of the real-life boat that plunged into the USS Cole in 2000, killing 17 American sailors, except that in ``Syriana's'' version, the target is another symbol of American imperialism in the Persian Gulf -- a newly opened liquefied natural gas terminal....

I used to think that Hollywood had achieved its nadir with Oliver Stone's ``JFK,'' a film that taught a generation of Americans that President Kennedy was assassinated by the CIA and the FBI in collaboration with Lyndon Johnson. But at least it was for domestic consumption, an internal affair of only marginal interest to other countries. ``Syriana,'' however, is meant for export, carrying the most vicious and pernicious mendacities about America to a receptive world.

Most liberalism is angst- and guilt-ridden, seeing moral equivalence everywhere. ``Syriana'' is of a different species entirely -- a pathological variety that burns with the certainty of its malign anti-Americanism. Osama bin Laden could not have scripted this film with more conviction.

RELIAPUNDIT: (1) Clooney LIED when he made Murrow central to McCarthy's downfall. He obscurred the truth that Murrow was an anti-communist too - but one who didn't like McCarthy's tactics or style. (2) Clooney's LIED when he made the CIA agent he played in Syriana come under FBI investigation for being pro-Arab; in fact, Baer - the author of the book on which Syriana was ostensibly based, and the person Clooney's character was based on - was a hawk who wanted the USA to get tougher on the jihadoterrorists of Hizballah, not an appeasing dove.

These DELIBERATE LIES AND DISTORTIONS denigrate the USA and elevate the Left; they alter reality and serve the enemies of America.

That Clooney and Hollywood don't see it that way only proves how out of touch they are - NOT out of touch with the ignorant cretins of middle-America, but out of touch with reality, out of touch with any committment to tell the truth.

HEY CLOONEY: If reality and truth are antithetical to your politics, maybe you should change your politics, instead of LYING!? HEY CLOONEY: If you can't win an argument unless you lie, then maybe you're arguing the WRONG side of the controversy?!

UPDATE:

The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil -- this is nonsense.

All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave -- this is pathetic, childish narcissism. ...

Hollywood is above all about self: self-congratulation, self-promotion, and above all, self-protection. This is human and basic, but let's not kid ourselves. There is no greatness there in the Kodak theater. The greatness is on patrol in Kirkuk. The greatness lies unable to sleep worrying about her man in Mosul. The greatness sleeps at Arlington National Cemetery and lies waiting for death in VA Hospitals. God help us that we have sunk so low as to confuse foolish and petty boasting with the real courage that keeps this nation and the many fools in it alive and flourishing on national TV.

That's PURE GENIUS from Ben Stein. (Via DPGI)

CONTEXTUALIZING MUSLIM SECTARIAN VIOLENCE IN IRAQ

I think we should be aware of the CONTEXT of the recent outbreak of violence in Iraq: There has always been sectarian violence within Islam:

There has been Sunni versus Shia, all violence all over the world - in Pakistan, for instance; and there have also been persitient attacks against Sufis by Sunnis and Shias. Most importantly, there were 25 years of persistent Sunni violence against Shias in Iraq: Saddam committed genocide against the Shias who were un-armed then. Now, the difference is that the Shias are also armed (with guns and a major roles in SELF-RULE), and they are fighting back.

This violent sectarian strife - ALWAYS in the backround throughout the enitre Muslim world - was deliberately exacerbated in Iraq by the recent attack on the Shia mosque in Sammarra. But because the Shia led central government and Sistani - and even al Sadr - realize that an all-out sectarian war doesn't serve their goals, (but only the goals of the transnational jihadoterrorists), the Shias have restrained themselves. This means that a sectarian civil war in Iraq is highly unlikely. (The US military agrees.)

LOOK AT IT THIS WAY: The transnational jihadoterrorists hate - and would commit genocide against - ALL non-Muslims and ALL "non-radical Muslims" - favoring ONLY the Wahhabist/Salafist/Qutubists strain of Islam. Because the political and religious leaders of Iraq's two largest groups - the Kurds and the Shias - realize that this recent uptick in sectarian violence is merely the result of the incitement by the transnational jihadoterrorists, they will actively take actions to prevent a sectarian civil war from breaking out. The attack in Sammarra has therefore actually had the effect of STRENGTHENING federalism in Iraq. SO: Al Qaeda has failed again. They must be getting very frustrated and desperate; they must be asking themselves, "If blowing up one of the holiest Shia mosques doesn't create widespread violent chaos, then what can?"

Which means, I expect, they will try even more horrendous attacks in the days ahead. If not in Iraq, then in Jordan, Lebanon, Europe or Israel; (they might attempt to blow up the al Aksa mosque and blame it on Jews). Zawahiri's recent message reinforces this view. The enemy - more desperate than ever - is going to attempt something REALLY big. Stay tuned...

HOLLYWOOD, OSCARS AND LEFTIST IDEOLOGY

Vanderleun of THE AMERICAN DIGEST has an interesting and provocative post on the Oscars. It made me wanna post some thoughts on Hollywood. HERE GOES:

The movie biz is smaller than other parts of the Mass Media; the music biz and the porn biz and the computer game biz are all bigger, and YET, the MSM fawns over H-wood and actors as if H-wood was the absolute apex of our culture and society, and as if actors were the most intelligent, able, noble and important people on the planet.

The fact is that most actors are under-educated "empaths" whose primary talent is PRETENDING to be someone else. They are trained to be able to have unfettered empathy for any character - even characters considered evil by traditional culture - so that they can BELIEVABLY play anyone, including whores, murderers and other assorted villains.

[ASIDE: Actors are most often rewarded with Oscars for portraying whores, murderers, villians - and other assorted misrcreants, deviants, and iconoclasts - because playing them is simultanepously a "stretch" and a paean to "anti-heroism" - which became the "holy grail" of acting ever since the studio-system was demolished by New Dealers/Leftists, and Brando and Dean "took over" the scene.] (For a little more on the old versus the new Hollywood click HERE and HERE and HERE.)

I believe - like legendary studio boss Jack Warner did - that movies are meant to be entertainment first and informative/intellectually challenging second. And I believe that when they are informative, they should be accurate, truthful and high-minded.

The pity is that most "INFO-movies" which have gotten released and heavily promoted are ones which are untruthful and instead attempt to reinforce LEFTISM - the dominant ideology in h-wood. IOW: they are propaganda.

I say that this is bad marketing and manufacturing for H-wood. I do NOT favor ANY limitation of free speech; Leftists SHOULD be allowed to say whatever they want - truthful or not. (That what they say is most often NOT truthful is only because their ideology is bankrupt.)

What I do feel is bad and wrong and immoral and BAD MARKETING is the dirth of centrist and traditional/bourgeois movies.

When H-wood does make them, they do phenomenally well: Movies like The Incredibles, Narnia, and Last Temptation, ALL outsell the "Brokebacks" and the "Syrianas" but still... they are so so so so SO tough to get backing for. Or praise for. WHY!? Because they don't jibe with the DOMINANT ideology of H-wood.

The people who are truly blacklisted in H-wood are ALL on the right. As a result, the breadth of movie offerings in any given week falls short, and the B.O. numbers reflect that.

WHAT'S THE ANSWER? Conservative people should make more - and INVEST IN MORE in - movies.

Sure, sure, sure : movies are not a fiscally conservative type of venture to invest in. I say: BS! An investment of $2-5 million in a innovative story with traditional values can easily reap in ten times what it cost. Unfortunately there are too few producers who are traditionalists, or so-called conservatives. As a result, more and more people continue to migrate away from movies. YUP: more than anything else right now, the Leftism of H-wood is killing the industry and driving people to other forms of entertainment and other media.

NEED PROOF: Everyone predicts that this year's Oscars will be the lowest rated. And it's the first time in HISTORY that H-wood's ticket sales have declined three years in a row. And it's the first time dollar sales of gross BO have declined. YUP: and the major reason is that H-wood is not giving people what they want; H-wood is telling people what they think the people should want - but don't becasue we're dumb bourgeois cretins. That effete and elitist attitude may make H-wood popular in Paris, Aspen and Tehran, but not in Peoria. It might make Clooney a hero in Madrid and Damascus, but not in Dallas.

If H-wood could abandon its attachment to knee-jerk anti-traditionalism, and if they REALLY supported free speech, then they would dedicate this year's Oscars to Theo Van Gogh and the M'hummed cartoons - and not the joys of sodomy, gender "re-assignment" and the like. But the dominant Lefties of H-wood are REALLY too cowardly to take on the REAL enemies of liberty. And they are too shallow to self-examine their own idiotic, shallow, 1960's Leftism. That's why they deserve their decline.

MORE HERE AND HERE. AND HERE. And MORE HERE TOO.

HAS THERE ALREADY BEEN AN "IRANIAN CHERNOBYL"?

FROM INFIDEL BLOGGERS ALLIANCE: Mini-Chernobyl in Iran?

From Italy's TG5: "Iran: Nuclear Contamination, government covers up."

It happened about two months ago in Teheran, in the country's main center of nuclear research, at the headquarters of the Iranian atomic energy organization; among other things under the control of the U.N.'s IAEA. From an ultra-secret nuclear laboratory of the Revolutionary Guards situated in an undisclosed location in Iran, there arrived--according to TG5 sources--a load of radioactive material. A small suitcase containing some tens of grams of tritium was forced open by inexperienced hands, and the surrounding area was contaminated as a result. It appears that some workers were exposed to a high level of contamination.

I hope that this Iranian "mini-chernobyl" - occurring as it did in the center of Iran's biggest city - has the same effect on Iran that Chernobyl had on the USSR: that it will help lead to the downfall the tyrants.

INDIA-US TIES ARE VERY IMPORTANT IN THE LONG WAR, AND AS A WEDGE AGAINST CHINA

I first blogged about the centrality of improving US-INDIA relations on APRIL 10th and then again on APRIL 14th and then again on JUNE 28th of LAST YEAR. (Each of these posts include several links, so check it out!)

CAN DEMOCRACY BE IMPOSED? NO. ONLY TYRANNY CAN BE!

A RESPONSE TO THE NEO-CONSERVATIVE RETRENCHMENT AND REVISIONISM OF KAPLAN AND FUKUYAMA:

ROBERT D. KAPLAN WROTE THE FOLLOWING IN THE WASHPOST - titled, "We Can't Force Democracy; Creating Normality Is the Real Mideast Challenge" :

Globalization and other dynamic forces will continue to rid the world of dictatorships. Political change is nothing we need to force upon people; it's something that will happen anyway. What we have to work toward -- for which peoples with historical experiences different from ours will be grateful -- is not democracy but normality. Stabilizing newly democratic regimes, and easing the development path of undemocratic ones, should be the goal for our military and diplomatic establishments. The more cautious we are in a world already in the throes of tumultuous upheaval, the more we'll achieve.

Paul at POWERLINE argues that Kaplan is making a distinction without a difference:

... the practical difference between Kaplan's classically conservative view and the supposedly hardline neo-conservatism of the administration probably is not substantial.

I SAY THAT KAPLAN IS FLAT OUT WRONG! Here's why:

All humans are literally and figuratively born free (desiring to eat, sleep, crawl and do just about everything as we please - when we please, from the moment we are born); in other words, we are each NATURALLY sovereign over ourselves.

Democracy is simply the only way free persons can give their personal consent to be governed - it's the only way a nation can truly self-determine its governmental system. Tyrannies cannot logically or morally claim to be self-determined; they are determined at the end of a barrel of a gun, so-to-speak; the gun-holder determines everything; the people nothing.

Put another way: Democracy is merely how mutual consent is arrived at among people who each enjoy their innate, universal human rights. There is no other way mutual consent - and therefore legitimate self-determination - can be achieved.

The only form of government which can be said to be truly "imposed" is the tyranny that people suffer under when they are trapped by undemocratic regimes - whether they're ruled by an aristocratic, Marxist, or Baathist elite.

The so-called neo-conservative agenda of Bush is identical to the classically liberal agenda of FDR, Truman, JFK, LBJ and Reagan. It consists mainly of taking assertive/active/positive steps toward removing the imposed tyranny and assisting the newly liberated people to form their own democracy.

This is why we refer to wars fought for this reason as wars of liberation. Those who refer to it as imposition are mistaken. We liberated Europe from Hitler and then the USSR; we did not impose democracy on Europe. Ditto Japan.

As the oldest, richest and strongest democracy in the world we have a moral duty to try to help our brothers and sisters everywhere become free - to help them re-attain their innate liberty. And this means helping them rid themselves of tyranny, and helping them design and implement a democratic government of their own.

Kaplan's suggestion that we should instead follow a less assertive and more "cautious" laissez faire attitude is tantamount to resigning that we cannot shape events - or that when we can, it's too risky because it's somewhat destabilizing, and that instability is worse than a status quo which accepts genocidal tyrannies which enslave millions and millions of people and keeps them trapped in societies and economies which can only breed inequity, ignorance and poverty.

Well, I assert that all humans everywhere are capable of democracy - and deserve it as much as me and Kaplan. Kaplan and others think this is not the case; he explicitly argues that stability for people who already enjoy liberty and the fruits of liberty is more important than assisting our fellow humans who suffer under tyranny, and I say that this is highly ill-liberal of them - and somewhat racist and ethnocentric, too.

I know that any Afghan infant - even the child of Taliban parents - or any Iraqi infant, or any Pakistani infant, or any Palestinian infant who would be adopted by Americans and raised in the USA would be as "American" as anyone else raised here. IOW: propensity for violent jihadofascism is NOT genetic; if kids are raised to believe that tyranny and terror are okay, then they will believe that is the case. But their believing it does not make it so - just as believing the earth is flat does not make it so.

If Kaplan and others agree that there is no genetic component, then they are essentially arguing that all humans have the innate capacity for democracy but NOT the same cultural capacityy, then they are essentially arguing (in the case of Iraq, for example) that Islam and democracy are incompatible.

Since there are many Muslim democracies and many millions of Muslims living under democracy in nations which are not majority-Muslim, I think those who argue that Islam and democracy can't work co-exist are just simply wrong. And those who say we can't help transform tyrannical nations into democratic are just as wrong. And those who say the help shouldn't be forceful - when some force is necessary, are wrong, too.

I do feel that Arab Muslim nations have special hurdles to overcome on their path to democracy - some of these hurdles are related to their particularly fervent cultural practices: polygamy, endogamous and consanguineous marriage, and misogyny.

I feel these contribute more to Arab poverty and to their diathesis for xenophobic violence, than Islam does. I feel these practices also give them a special diathesis for the most extreme forms of Islam. (WHY? Well, men raised to feel it's okay to murder their own daughters or sisters in order restore "family honor" are certainly going to be capable of xenophobic genocidal terror against people who are not in their "tribe.")

I feel that nations which allow these ill-liberal anti-humane and unfair coercive practices should be totally shunned by the Free World. We could START by relegating them to observer status at the UN.

We should no more accept a nation which allows these practices into the international community or into international alliances - or benefit from international aid from the World Bank or the IMF than we would a nation which allows slavery. THAT THE INDIGENOUS POPULATION SHOULD ENJOY LIBERTY AND EQUALITY BEFORE THE LAW SHOULD BE EVERY BIT AS IMPORTANT TO THE UN, THE WORLD BANK AND THE IMF AS THE LEGITIMACY AND TRANSPARENCY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

In criticizing the pace of transformation in Iraq - and highlighting the instability there - Kaplan seems to forget that our own nation had very VERY serious problems developing our own democracy, too: We had YEARS under the Articles of Confederation which were a DISASTER,; we had the Whisky Rebellion, and a horrifyingly deadly (though absolutely necessary) Civil War, and another 100 years of failing to FULLY achieve what the Declaration and the Constitution promised for all.

SURE: Democracy is a process - and a it's sometimes a long one, but that doesn't mean that we shouldn't help that process along - or capitulate to the anti-democratic forces when that process hits some resistance. It seems to me that Kaplan and Fukayama are now advocating just such a capitulation.

And Kaplan forgets that, as tyrants go, King George III was not as bad as Saddam. And Kaplan seems to forget that the French had one and a half centuries of faulty democracies before achieving their current republic.

That's why Kaplan and Fukayam and the other naysayers should not be so quick to throw in the towel. Because it's based on a bad reading of history, and because it's EXACTLY what our extremist enemies want.

IN FACT: It's exactly what our extremist enemies tell their own people: "Democracy is not for you!"

I say: DEMOCRACY IS FOR EVERY PERSON EVERYWHERE. FDR said it, too. Bush says it - and does something about it.

God Bless Him. And God Bless Our Troops. WITH OUR HELP, THE IRAQIS WILL FIND THEIR WAY. There are tyrannical totalitarians who do not want the Iraqis to forge their own democracy. People who believe that all humans deserve their universal, inalienable, innate human rights must help our brothers and sisters in Iraq defeat these totalitarians.

POST SCRIPT:

Folks like Kaplan who prefer stability and a gradually, "providentially" evolving status quo (to taking risks) are not only timid, but wrong. The pre-9/11 status quo was what led to 9/11 (and tow decades of attacks before 9/11!). That should be as intolerable to everyone as slavery, too. So-called Realpolitik is bankrupt morally and ineffective in the real world. The confrontation between democracy and tyranny is something tyrants want to avoid - we shouldn't!

UPDATE: MORE HERE. And HERE. And HERE.

[ASIDE: Many critics of our assertive actions and our militaristic response to enemy provocations in The Long War are hollow because we have a voluntary military, and we are not asking the citizenry to make any sacrifices at all. BUT AREN'T HIGH ENERGY PRICES AND A GROWING SENSE OF UN-EASE AND INSECURITY SACRIFICES THAT WE ARE ALL MAKING?! Yes, I think they are. And I think most people realize that these are the costs of war.]

UPDATE (hat tip Jim Rose): MORE HERE.

THE MSM SPREADS MORE LEFT-WING HAGIOGRAPHIC PROPAGANDA

LEFTISTS STICK TOGETHER: LAST WEEK THE NYTIMES PRAISED KRUSHCHEV; THIS WEEK AP AND UPI PRAISE GORBACHEV -

UPI:

Yet Gorbachev, who is arguably the man most responsible for ending the Cold War, seems unfazed by polls and numbers.

AP:

The man who ended the Cold War and launched democratic reforms that broke the repressive Soviet regime continues to enjoy the limelight, globe-trotting on behalf of his political foundation and environmental group and taking part in charity projects.

These LIES do nothing more than expose the Leftist attitudes of the "reporters." Reagan and Thatcher and Pope JPII (who was shot during an assassination attempt planned and executed by the USSR) won the Cold War. It was NOT ended voluntarily by Gorbachev, who was nothing more than the COMMUNIST dictator of the USSR - the last of a long line of tyrants who murdered 50 million of their own comrades, and installed Castro and Pol Pot and Kim Il Sung and many MANY other horrifying tyrants.

Gorbachev actually only deserves our undying contempt. Even on his 75th birthday.

Why did the NYTIMES go out of its way to praise Krushchev last week, and why did these two wire services go out of their way to praise Gorbachev this week?

SIMPLE: to make the tyrants of the USSR seem like benevolent and misunderstood progressive leaders of a benign form of socialism.

BUT WHY DO THAT NOW?!

Well, (believe it or not) it goes hand-in-glove with Clooney's movie GOOD NIGHT AND GOOD LUCK: The Lefties of the MSM praise commie tryants like Krushchev and Gorbachev, and make movies which unfairly savage McCarthy because they want to make anti-communists seem like unreasonable and dangerous paranoids because, by extension, it helps them portray Bush and LONG WAR HAWKS like paranoids, too.

There was another instance of this type of Left-wing hagiographic propaganda today, in a report which I saw on CNNI's YOUR WORLD TODAY. This report portrayed the incoming Hamas PM Haniya as a "humble honest man whose rise from refugee camp poverty to national power proves that anyone can grow up to become the leader of his nation. [paraphrased]"

YEAH RIGHT! ALL HANIYA REALLY PROVES IS THAT ANY ARAB MUSLIM WHO IS WILLING TO COMMIT GENOCIDAL TERROR AGAINST JEWS CAN GROW UP TO BE PM OF AN ARAB NATION!

The Lefties in the MSM praise Krushchev, Gorbachev and Haniya even as they SMEAR BUSH. Proving only that these dissembling Leftists have no shame.

MSM COVERAGE OF THE KATRINA VIDEOCONFERENCE

THE BREATHLESS MSM COVERAGE OF THE KATRINA VIDEOCONFERENCE IS PURE BDS BS - AND ANOTHER EXAMPLE OF A BOGUS BUSH SCANDAL BASED ON "THE BIG LIE."

Much of the MSM and all of the Left are breathlessly reporting on the AP-released copy of PRE-KATRINA videoconference which shows that Bush was warned about Katrina.

CNN and others are TOUTING this to show that when Bush said - FOUR DAYS AFTER KATRINA - that "no one expected the levees to be breeched" - he was lying.

The fact is that the tapes actually PROVE HE WASN'T LYING!

Here's the TRUTH: I watched the video and the chief hurricane forecaster says specifically that the "levees MIGHT BE TOPPED." TOPPED. NOT BREACHED. Here's how CNN reports it:

However, transcripts from video conferences on August 28 and 29 show that National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield expressed concern that Katrina might push its storm surge over the city's levees and flood walls.

"I don't think anyone can tell you with confidence right now whether the levees will be topped or not, but that's obviously a very, very great concern," Mayfield says in one.

In a September 1 television interview, Bush said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," a statement Chertoff agreed with three days later.

Is the MSM so stupid that they don't know the difference between topped and breached!? NOPE. They are delibeately dissembling (by conflating the two terms) in order to SMEAR Bush.

They are lying scum. ABC NEWS (and COUNTLESS others - I'm just using them as an example) are lying scum. The blogosphere once again gets it right - as usual, CAPT'S QUARTERS gets it VERY VERY right - and has complete transcripts.

[POSTSCRIPT/ASIDE: the Left LOVES to use conflation to smear Bush.

The WHOLE "ports deal brouhaha" was caused by deliberate premeditated use of conflation: instead of reporting that Dubai Ports World was buying a British comapny which owned leases for about 25 out of 830 container TERMINALS within six major ports, the MSM reported that Dubai was "TAKING OVER OUR PORTS", or "GOING TO CONTROL OUR PORTS" or that we were "surrendering the SOVEREIGNITY OF OUR PORTS."

They reported this as if managing a minority of stevadoring container terminals within a half-dozen ports was tantamount to CONTROLLING OUR PORTS, as if they were the same thing. THEY ARE NOT.

The people in the MSM - and Hillary and Schumer et al - KNOW that they're conflating the two terms (PORTS AND TERMINALS); they LIE this way deliberately - in order to smear Bush. They're nothing more than lying scum, than dissembing fear-mongering demagogues, and the MSM lies with them and for them. They have no shame.

The fact that the WH communications team couldn't get this simple fact out there BEFORE the false Left-wing meme blew up in their faces - (and, as a result, Bush has taken a tumble in the polls) - is more proof that this team has got to go - and go NOW! See below.]

MORE ON THIS "LEVEE LIE" HERE AND HERE.

BUSH : GWOT; KATRINA; NSA INTERCEPTS :: MARCIA CLARK : OJ

YUP: That's the way it feels sometimes. Bush is seemingly losing the case of the century against the guiltiest perps in history. The MSM is CREAMING him at every turn. Can't this WH ever get ahead of any story!? Sheesh.

Maybe W should get rid of his whole dang communications team and bring in the top Right bloggers - POWERLINE, HEWITT, INSTAPUNDIT & company!

YEAH YEAH: If FDR had to deal with today's MSM he'd a quit after one term.
YEAH-YEAH: They drove LBJ and Nixon from office - and dang near got Ronnie, too.

But we KNOW all that now, and we know how to beat them; we beat them in 2000, 2002, and in 2004. But it sure don't feel like we're gonna beat them in 2006. And, if we don't beat them in 2006 - and IF the Dems get control of even one body Congress - then they'll do to the Iraqis and the Afghanis what they did to the South Vietnamese and the Contras: ABANDON THEM. And set us back in The Long War a couple of decades!

MESSAGE TO BUSH: FIX YOUR WH COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT AND FIX IT NOW.

It' s NOT enough to be right; you have to convince people you're right, too. And the Bush Team hasn't been very convincing lately. Even though they have been mostly right.

MY SUGGESTIONS: Bring back Ari and Karen to run the inside, and bring in Tory Clark as Press Secretary. (Maybe even hire Deaver and Duberstein.) Make Mehlman Chief of Staff - move Card to DHS or Commerce or Treasury. And ship Rove to the GOP. Faster please!

THE HUNT FOR BIN LADEN: dead-end; time -warp; or near the end?

Late in February 2004 - THAT'S 2004! - the US military claimed that Bin Laden was "contained" withing 100 square miles of eastern Afghanistan and the Waziristan province of Pakistan; (links to BBC). They said that TASK GROUP 121 - which had captured Saddam was being flown in for a SPRING 2004 offensive; (links to CAPT'S QUARTERS).

NOW - ALMOST EXACTLY TWO YEARS LATER - WE ARE HEARING MUCH THE SAME THING. What gives!? ARE WE IN SOME KINDA FRIGGIN TIME WARP!?

[NOTE: 100 square miles is roughly the size if the Gaza, or 1/3 the size of the Caribbean island Dominica, or roughly the size of Aruba. Waziristan is roughly 30,000 square miles - so if it is true that we have Bin laden's location narrowed down to only 100 square miles, - and if some of the 100 square miles lies within Afghanistan - then this area is roughly between 1/6% and 1/3% of Waziristan. NOT MUCH.]

IF BIN LADEN IS INDEED INSIDE THIS 100 SQUARE MILE AREA, THEN I HAVE A FOOL-PROOF, 100% GUARANTEED WAY TO GET HIM:

(1) set a deadline and then entirely empty/de-populate the 100 square mile area; (2) destroy all wells, homes, villages, all structures, etc; (3) station Special Forces at key locations; (4) kill anything/everything that moves.

First we announce that everyone has to go to TEMPORARY refugee camps - inside Pakistan. Once there, the refugees will receive compensation for their property, free food and shelter, and a small stipend. After the 100 square mile region is thus emptied, Bin Laden will have no support, no cover - and we can be free to use as much deadly force as necessary to kill him, without having to worry about collateral civilian damage. And I mean big friggin bombs, and A LOT OF 'EM! After we get Bin Laden, all the refugees can go home.

I THINK THIS WOULD BE MORE EFFECTIVE THAN THE PIN-PRICK ATTACKS THAT WE AND THE PAKISTANI MILITARY HAVE BEEN USING THE LAST TWO YEARS. (Like today's attack, which killed 45 al Qaeda, including a Chechen general - news stories HERE and HERE and HERE).

THREE NEW "BIG LIES" OF THE LEFT EXPOSED

The BAD NEWS: they're LYING again! The GOOD NEWS: I guess it means that the Left can't come up with any non-bogus dirt!? GATEWAY has the details and the links. GO THERE NOW!

(HERE'S A LINK TO LAST YEAR'S LIST OF "BOGUS BUSH SCANDALS." I GUESS I'LL HAVE TO DO ANOTHER UPDATE!)

WOULD A DEMOCRATIC REVOLT IN IRAN BE ANY MORE SUCCESSFUL THAN TIANANMEN?

I don't think so. The Iranian tyrants are even more bloodthirsty and ruthless than the Chi-coms, and they will mercilessly put down any uprising. The Iranians know this, which is why we haven't seen any major rebellions to date (none on even nearly the same scale of - or with the bravado of - Tiananmen). This is true even though VERY deep animosity is felt by MOST Iranians toward their mullah tyrants.

Which is why I think it's gonna take a massive preemptive military strike to prevent the jihadofascist totalitarians of Iran from getting nukes. Spontaneous regime change doesn't have much of a chance.

BY THE WAY: The fact that the USA hasn't isolated the Islamic nation of Pakistan - which is after all, merely a partially democratic nation - for its nukes proves that our policies are NOT racist or IRRATIONALLY islamophobic.

The again, IF Musharraf were to be overthrown by jihadofascists, I think we'd INSTANTANEOUSLY "neutralize" their nukes.

BOTTOM LINE: I don't think a sanctions regime against Iran can actually prevent them from getting nukes, or "contain" them. And I don't think that it will lead to a democratic rebellion. To accomplish what we must, we must take bolder actions on both fronts.

THE MUCH BALLY-HOOED MANIFESTO AGAINST ISLAMIC TOTALITARIANISM

Many blogs have linked to this manifesto signed by Rushdie and Manji and Hirsi and others. (More here and here and here and here.)

It's swell that these famous Left-leaning intellectuals have taken a universalist/non-relativist stand on human rights, but the REAL issue is: What are they willing to do about it?!

Are they willing to support a proactive, bold, aggressive counter-attack - including sanctions, blockades and even preemptive military strikes?

Will they urge their own nations to do more to help the USA and the UK and the other coalition members assist the emerging Iraqi democracy?

Will they support an end to immigration without assimiliation? Will they support the deportation of radical Muslims who incite violence? Will they demand that nations which don't allow its citizens the universal human rights outlined in the UN Declaration be demoted to "observer status" at the UN?

Will they at least criticize their comrades on the Left who - at best - have been skeptical of Bush, and at worst accused him of being a lying, torturing war criminal who went to war for oil/Halliburton/family revenge?

Or do they just want to sign petitions and send strongly worded, high-minded letters?

I suspect it's the latter, and we don't need them for that - we already got Blix and Baradei and Kofi for that!

I pray they prove me wrong, and that this represents the beginning of a more unified West. If that's the case, we will be more likely to have the resolve necessary to defeat the enemy in this - THE LONG WAR.

WHO: BIRD FLU NOW SPREADING MUCH FASTER AMONG BIRDS

According to an INDUSTRY NEWS SERVICE:

The deadly bird fu strain H5N1 has spread to 17 new countries in February alone, says the World Health Organisation ...New figures from the World Health Organisation (WHO) show the virus has spread to birds in countries previously unaffected in Africa, Asia, Europe and the Middle East this month. ...

Then there's this from INDONESIA:

Agriculture Minister Anton Apriyantono declared that Indonesia was experiencing a bird flu emergency. A swift response was needed to break the chain of infection. "The situation in Indonesia is concerning, no ordinary response will do," said Anton in a discussion on Radio Trijaya last Saturday (25 February).

According to Anton, what could be done now was to compel the community to confine their birds. For example, domesticated chickens, previously allowed to roam free around the yard, must now be kept in cages. The government, he said, was mid-way through preparing legislation that would, among other things, cover bird flu issues. The new regulations would address poultry distribution channels and stipulate measures to prevent the further spread of bird flu.

The new legislation, according to Anton, would be an amendment to Law No 6/1967, concerning Essential Stipulations for Animal Husbandry and Livestock Health. However, Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari said that Indonesia was not in a state of emergency over bird flu. "This might be an emergency for the poultry but given that human to human transmission is yet to be proven, it is not yet an emergency for humans. So far, transmission has only occurred between poultry and humans," said Fadilah who was in Ternate when contacted by Tempo.

JUST IN CASE IT MUTATES AND BECOMES MORE READILY COMMUNICABLE TO HUMNS THERE'S THIS (INN):

Retroscreen Virology, a medical research institute subsidiary of Queen Mary College, University of London, has announced that an Israeli medical preparation, Sambucol, reduced the quantity of cells infected with the avian flu virus by 99%, compared with a control group not treated with the virus. ... Sambucol was found to be effective at significantly neutralizing the infectivity of the virus in cell cultures. These results were presented during the International Conference on Bird Flu: “The First Pandemic of the 21st Century. A Central Role for Antivirals,” held at St. Bartholomew’s Hospital on January 19-20, 2006.