DEDICATED TO EXPOSING DISINFORMATION AND PROPAGANDA AND TO PROMOTING UNIVERSAL HUMAN RIGHTS - WITH SHARP ANALYSIS AND BLUNT COMMENTARY. NO ADS. NO TIP-JAR. JUST THE TRUTH.
Turkish authorities have ... stopped a shipment of aluminum material to Iran at the last minute, seizing the material at Gurbulak border point with Iran. ... authorities have confiscated documents and computers from the companies and that the investigation was still underway. Most of the shipments to Iran by the companies included dual use material of aluminum, steel and iron products and electronic equipment which can be used in defense industry, it said.
The government report recommended that prosecutors file charges against three Iranians for smuggling and falsifying official documents, but it was not clear whether any of them were in custody. It also suggested the confiscation of the assets of both companies involved.
Jordan recently caught Hamas red-handed, Egypt caught the palistani-terrorists (who had Iranian backing) behind the Sinai bombings; Lebanon has been openly hostile to Assad and his Hizballah stooges for months; Iraq wants the infiltration by jihaidsts over the Syrian border stopped; and now Turkey joins in the GET TOUGH stance against Iran.The NOOSE is tightening - around Assad's neck, and Ahmadinejad's. Slowly but surely. Faster please...
Q You both presented the Iraqi government as a substantial vindication of the conflict. Do you also accept, as a matter of harsh political reality, that the Iraq conflict has also left both of you politically weakened and, whether justly or unjustly, less able to give the kind of moral leadership that you're discussing today?Eloquent? NO. But RIGHT ON! He get's it, and he has the heart and courage to see it through! Bravo!
PRESIDENT BUSH: No question that the Iraq war has created a sense of consternation here in America. I mean, when you turn on your TV screen and see innocent people die, day in and day out, it affects the mentality of our country.
But here's what they're asking in America. They're asking, can we win? That's what they want to know. Do we have a strategy for victory?
And so the talk about the unity government -- you might remember there was some -- a lot of speculation as to whether there would even be a unity government. A couple of months ago, people were saying, well, they can't even get a unity government going.
But we have a unity government -- a Kurd President, a Prime Minister who is a Shia, a Speaker who is a Sunni. These are strong leaders. It's an indication that progress is being made.
Part of progress, of course, is on the political track. You know, we had elections in Iraq; 12 million people voted last December. Now, it seems like an eternity ago, I know, like a decade. But that's not all that long ago in the larger scope of things.
Twelve million people said, we want to be free. It was an astounding moment.
And this unity government is now formed, as a result of those elections, under a constitution approved by the Iraqi people. That's progress. It's certainly a far sight from the days of a tyrant who killed hundreds of thousands of his own people and used weapons of mass destruction and threatened the neighborhood. I mean, that is progress.
No question, however, that the suiciders and the killers and the IEDs and the deaths have an effect on the American people.
But one of the reasons that I appreciate Tony coming is that he brings a fresh perspective of what he saw, and the American people need to know we are making progress toward a goal of an Iraq that can defend itself, sustain itself and govern itself. That will deny the terrorists a safe haven.
You know, al Qaeda has made it clear what their intentions are in Iraq. I'm sure you've read some of the intercepts that are laid out there for people to see. And they have made it clear that it's just a matter of time for countries like Great Britain and the United States to leave. In other words, if they make life miserable enough, we'll leave. And they want us to leave because they want a safe haven from which to launch attacks, not only on us, but on moderate Muslim governments, as well.
These people are totalitarians. They're Islamic fascists. They have a point of view, they have a philosophy, and they want to impose that philosophy on the rest of the world. And Iraq just happens to be a -- one of the battles in the war on terror.
And Tony brings up a good point: Why are they resisting so hard, what is it about democracy they can't stand? Well, what they can't stand about democracy is this: Democracy is the exact opposite of what they believe. They believe they can impose their will, they believe there's no freedom of religion, they believe there's no women's rights. They have a -- they have a dark vision of the world, and that's why they're resisting so mightily.
So yes, I can understand why the American people are troubled by the war in Iraq. I understand that.
But I also believe the sacrifice is worth it and is necessary, and I believe a free Iraq is not only going to make ourselves more secure, but it's going to serve as a powerful example in the Middle East.
You know, foreign policy, for awhile, just basically said, if it seems okay on the surface, just let it be. And guess what happened? There was resentment and hatred that enabled these totalitarians to recruit and to kill, which they want to continue to do to achieve their objectives.
And the best way to defeat them in the long run is through the spread of liberty. And liberty has had the capacity to change enemies to allies. Liberty has had the capacity to help Europe become whole, free, and at peace. History has proven that freedom has got the capacity to change the world for the better, and that's what you're seeing.
You know, the amazing thing about dealing with Prime Minister Blair is never once has he said to me on the phone, we better change our tactics because of the political opinion polls.
And I appreciate that steadfast leadership. And I appreciate somebody who has got a vision, a shared vision, for how to not only protect ourselves in the war on terror, but how to make the world a better place.
[...]
I'd like to see a United Nations that's effective, one that joins us in trying to rid the world of tyranny, one that is willing to advance human rights and human dignity at its core, one that's an unabashed organization -- is unabashed in their desire to spread freedom.
That's what I'd like to see, because I believe that freedom will yield to peace. I also believe freedom is universal. I don't believe freedom is just a concept only for America or Great Britain. It's a universal concept.
And it troubles me to know that there are people locked in tyrannical societies that suffer.
And the United Nations ought to be clear about its desire to liberate people from the clutches of tyranny. That's what the United Nations ought to be doing, as far as I'm concerned.
THIRTY years had passed since the Judgment of Paris, when French oenophiles received a red nose at the hands of American upstarts in a blind wine-tasting competition. But to the dismay of the French wine experts taking part in last night’s eagerly awaited rematch, Californian vintages have again trumped their Gallic counterparts.France is truly in decline. The French wine mystique is GONE. French fashion hasn't caused a stir - or led a trend - in DECADES. Their cars always sucked. Their movies need subtitles. The best novel written in French in the last four decades was written by a RUSSIAN! And their politicians are inept or corrupt. WHAT'S WORSE: the way things are going, they'll be a Muslim nation in 2 or 3 decades.
"... there is no such thing as a trade imbalance. Trade can't be out of balance because a balance is what a trade is. Buyers and sellers decide that one thing is equivalent to another. Free trade is balanced trade. You might as well have free love then claim your partner had sex but you didn't."I have been blogging this very argument for a year - most recently just earlier this week (on Tuesday, May 23 - three days ago):
Trade deficits are also BUNK - illusions - a bogeyman promoted by polemicizing Lefties. ... The so-called "trade imbalance" or "trade deficit" is a phony number derived by treating GOODS as VALUELESS - which is ABSURD.
Adelphia CEO John Rigas convicted. 15 years.The facts are clear: Clinton and Rubin (who promptly went to work for another bigtime Wall Street player who played fast and loose with the rules, and paid a HUMUNGOUS multi-HUNDRED-MILLION DOLLAR FINE as a result - SANDY WEIL) allowed wholesale corruption to go unchecked and unpunished. Bush was forced to clean up the mess.
All First CEO Nathan Chapman convicted. 7 1/2 years.
ImClone Founder Sam Waksal convicted. 7 years.
Worldcom: CEO Bernie Ebbers convicted. 25 years.
Rite Aid: CEO Martin Grass convicted. 8 years.
WorldTeq: CEO Bruce Bertman convicted. 4 years.
Tyco: CEO Dennis Kozlowski convicted. 25 years.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says Syria has not responded to UN Security Council Resolution 1680's calls for establishing diplomatic relations with Lebanon and that Damascus continues to treat Lebanon as a "client."
In an interview aired Tuesday on the Dubai-based Al-Arabiyya television network, Rice urged Syria to "stop treating Lebanon like a client ... Treat it like a neighbor. Treat it like an independent and sovereign country and then we can move on to a more peaceful and prosperous future for the Lebanese people."
Commenting on last week's clashes between Fatah al-Intifada, a Palestinian militant grouped backed by Damascus, and the Lebanese Army in which one soldier was killed, the secretary said: "Obviously, Syria wasn't listening. The resolution didn't say support a single Palestinian faction within Lebanon. It said treat Lebanon as an independent and sovereign neighbor that deserves to have a border that is demarcated and delineated."
Syria launches crackdown on dissentThese two articles reveal that Assad is REALLY feeling the heat. These arrests are OBVIOUSLY cowardly defensive measures intended to prevent regime change. IT WON'T WORK: the UN and the US are united on this front, and moving INEXORABLY toward Assad's removal.
The biggest wave of arrests since 2001 hits advocates of better ties with Lebanon.
By Rhonda Roumani | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
DAMASCUS, SYRIA – As if thumbing its nose at international pressure for democratic reform, Syria has jailed writers, activists, and intellectuals over the past week in a sweeping crackdown on internal dissent. While those here who speaks out against the government puts themselves at risk, activists say more people have been arrested in this latest wave than at any time since 2001. This crackdown, they say, is aimed mostly at signatories of a declaration demanding that Syria improve relations with Lebanon.
"There is a preventive war being launched by the government and the ostensible reason is that people talked about an issue that is considered taboo: Syrian-Lebanese relations," says Yassin Haj-Saleh, an opposition figure who also signed the declaration, but has not yet been arrested.
Like Syria's withdrawal from Lebanon - after 23 years (which includes all 8 of Clinton's accomplishmentLESS 2 terms). Like Libya's renunciation of terror and WMD. Like the isolation of Arafat. Like the expansion of democracy and sufferage in Kuwait, Sauid Arabia and Egypt. SURE: WE HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO! But never before ahs so mich good thinsg happened on so many fronts inthe Middle East.I PREDICT: that in the generations to come GWB will be seen as the progenitor of democracy for another ONE BILLION people on Earth, and regarded as one of the most important world leaders of all-time.
In 2005, the US trade deficit was US$805 billion, while the sum of the surpluses of Europe, Japan, and China was only US$325 billion. Any focus on trade imbalances thus should center on the major global imbalance: That of the US. The task of assessing trade imbalances - whom to blame and what should be done - involves both economics and politics. Trade imbalances are the result, for instance, of household decisions about how much to save and how much, and what, to consume.Steiglitz - like most Leftist - gets it ALL WRONG. Trade deficits - and low savings rates - are chimeras - ("a fanciful mental illusion or fabrication"). Low savings is something the left likes to harp on - as if people wpouldf be better off if they oput their money in savings accounts instead of the place where they are currently puuting their savings: IN THEIR HOMES. And need I remind you that home values - and therefore SAVINGS - are SOARING?! This means savings rates are NOT as low as the Left would like you to believe. (The Left wants you to believe this so they can get more power for the State or for international non-elected UN-democratic organizations like the IMF. In his column, Steiglitz argues this point EXPLICITLY - see the red-highlight!)
...With the US trade deficit the major global imbalance, attention should focus on how to increase its national savings - a question that US governments have struggled with for decades, and one that was frequently debated when I was chair of President Clinton's Council of Economic Advisers. We found only one solution: Reduce the fiscal deficit.
If the IMF does not direct its attention on America's need to reduce its fiscal deficits - through higher taxes for America's richest and lower defense spending - the Fund's relevance in the twenty-first century will inevitably decline.
Israeli forces have captured the leader of Islamic group Hamas' military wing in the West Bank in a raid in Ramallah. Israel accuses Ibrahim Hamad, 41, of masterminding a string of suicide bombings, including attacks on cafes and the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.The IDF is amazingly good at what they do, and what they do is good.
... Mr Hamad has been wanted by Israel since 1998, and has been imprisoned by the Palestinian Authority for his anti-Israeli activities.
He was released by the PA in 2002, during a major Israeli military offensive in the West Bank.
In closing, let me state that climate is more than simply annually-averaged global air temperature. Too much focus has been placed on divining air temperature time-series and such emphasis obscures the true issue in understanding climate change and variability.David R. Legates, Ph.D., CCM
If we are truly to understand climate and its impacts and driving forces, we must push beyond the tendency to distill it to a single annual number. Proxy records, which provide our only possible link to the past, are incomplete at best.
But when these records are carefully and individually examined, one reaches the conclusion that climate variability has been a natural occurrence, and especially so over the last millennium. And given the uncertainties in the proxy and instrumental records, an assertion of any decade as being the warmest in the last millennium is premature.
The new minister in charge of immigration in Italy plans to overhaul tough policies and relax the criteria required for being a legal immigrant. Paolo Ferrero says he intends to normalise the position of immigrants already in Italy, if they have jobs. Italy has a growing number of illegal immigrant workers arriving in the south of the country from Africa. Mr Ferrero was appointed by Romano Prodi, whose centre-left coalition came to power after winning April elections. ... Mr Ferrero, [is] a member of the Communist Refoundation Party ... surveys show most Italians would like to see illegal immigrants expelled.Italy has one of the LOWEST birth-rates in the EU, SO THEY NEED IMMIGRANTS TO KEEP THEIR SOCIALIST PONZI SCHEME AFLOAT! BUT: Why don't they import Mexicans!? Mexicans speak a European language and practice a European religion, and would assimilate more easily. We could EASILY and CHEAPLY send them all the illegal ones we catch here. WE COULD JUST SEND THEM TO THE EU! We could fly them to Spain and Italy instead of flying them back to Mexico. I'M SURE THE ILLEGALS WOULDN'T MIND; IN FACT, THEY MIGHT PREFER IT!
The nationwide effort to neutralize Hezbollah sleepers in the United States, being spearheaded by the FBI and Justice Department's counterterrorism divisions, was triggered in January in response to alarming reports that Iran's fanatical president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, met with leaders of Hezbollah and other terror groups during a visit to Syria.The interface between state's like Iran and jihadothugs like Mugniyah remains the gravest threat to Western Civilization. (Followed by the fact that Europeans and Russians are NOT having children.)
Among those attending the meetings, according to reliable reports, was Hezbollah's chief operational planner, Imad Mugniyah - considered one of the most dangerous terrorists in the world - who is responsible for the bombings of the 1983 U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut and who, more recently, provided Iraqi guerrillas with sophisticated explosive devices.
Syria: Resolution 1680 constitutes unwarranted pressure and provocationSyrian and Iranian tyrants don't like the new resolution. So it must be good. Reasonable observers must agree that things are getting tougher for Assad, not better. HE WILL SOON BE GONE: One less ally for Iran and their jihadoterrorist stooges.
UN Security Council members issued resolution 1680 to crank up the pressure on Syria to agree to formal diplomatic ties and representation with Lebanon and to delineate their common border, especially in areas where the border is uncertain. Russia and China, two-veto wielding powers, abstained from voting on the new resolution sponsored by the US, UK, and France. ...
The resolution pushed Syria to take steps to quote "prevent arms flows from Syrian territory to militias in Lebanon", and it called on "all concerned states and parties" to co-operate with the Lebanese government and the United Nations in fully implementing the 2004 resolution number 1559. US Ambassador to the UN John Bolton said that language in the resolution referred to Iran and Hizbollah as well as to Syria. ...the resolution is a pre-emptive step preceding another step that would materialize in a month's time, when UN chief investigator Serge Brammertz issues his report over former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri's assassination.
After decades of denial, European countries are starting to recognize their security also would be strengthened by a missile defense. West European governments have spent years denigrating America's missile defense plans as unnecessary "star wars." But now, thanks to Iran's drive for nuclear weapons and longer-range missiles, and the support of NATO's new East European members, NATO finally is stepping up to the plate.HAT TIP Prairie Pundit - who adds:
On May 10, Marshall Billingslea, NATO assistant secretary general, presented the results of a four-year study of the missile threat to Europe and how to defend against it. While the report is classified, Mr. Billingslea said it found a missile defense of Europe technically and financially feasible. Now, he said, it is up to NATO nations to decide what to do. Recommendations are expected by next year.
When will the Euros and the Democrats admit that they were wrong about missile defense and that Bush and Reagan were right? Voters should be reminded this fall of the words of those who opposed missile defense.Withdrawing from the ABM Treaty --- which was NOT "ABROGATION" (which was how Leftists like the NYTIMES portrayed it at the time); withdrawal had ALWAYS been part of the terms of the treaty --- was one of the BEST things GWBush did.
