CHAVEZ RUNNING VENEZUELA INTO THE GROUND

Hugo Chavez and his policies are yet more proof that Socialism doesn't work ... ever:

Here’s what Chavez’ Socialist revolution has to show for itself. Barely a dent taken out of poverty, GREATER dependency on foreign banks and governments, MASSIVE economic contraction. Adjusting for their rate of inflation, the economy is half the size it was 8 years ago, effectively making even those he’s “helping” poorer than they were a decade ago.

- In 1998 GDP was $185 billion (£93 billion); in 2006 it is $162 billion

- Inflation: 38 per cent (1998); 16 per cent (2006)

- Proportion in poverty: 44 per cent (1998); 34 per cent (2006)

- External debt: $27 billion (1998); $34 billion (2006)

ON WISHING PINOCHET A SPEEDY RECOVERY AND CASTRO A PAINFUL DEATH

UPDATE: Augusto José Ramón Pinochet Ugarte, R.I.P. (Complete round up HERE AT MEMEORANDUM.)

Pincohet is recovering from heart surgery. We wish him a speedy recovery. WHY? Because he saved Chile from Marxist dictatorship. Now, Chile is perhaps the freest and richest and most stable democratic nation in all of South America AS A DIRECT RESULT OF PINOCHET.

The Left reviles Pinochet as a criminal. They say he killed thousands. Perhaps he did. But he did it to save his nation from a socialist dictatorship. And it worked.

The Left loves Castro, though... even though Castro killed tens of thousands, and put hundreds of thousands into prison, as political prisoners, because they wanted to be FREE.

(CAUTION: link has some very tough photos!)

And as a result of Castro's terror, he plunged his nation - which at the time was the second richest nation in the Caribbean region, (second to Jamaica) - into abject poverty. Now, only Haiti is poorer! And NO ONE in Cuba has any human rights: no freedom of religion, of the press, or of speech.

Yet Castro is still the darling of the Left, and Pinochet is still reviled. SHOULD WE BE SURPIRSED? No, the Left supports ANYONE who opposes the USA and traditional Judeo-Christian culture. Hence their support for Castro and the jihadists, an their desire to appease both. And my desire to oppose both the Left everywhere.

Well, Castro is very sick. Perhaps he's dead already; why else would he miss his own birthday party!?!?

If he's alive, then I hope Fidel is SUFFERING GREATLY. And that he dies a horrible death. And that Cuba rises up and overthrows their socialist dictatorship and joins the ranks of great, free and democratic nations. When it does, I am sure that the GREAT Cuban people will once again join the ranks of those who ENJOY not only their innate God-given human rights, but the best standard of living anywhere. CUBA LIBRE!

BTW: When Pinochet took over from Allende (who would have done to Chile what Fidel had done to Cuba, and Mugabe is doing to Zimbabwe) I don't recall seeing ANY Chilean "boat people" risk their lives on home-made rafts in order to flee Chile for Cuba. Heck: EVEN HAITIANS DON'T TRY TO GO TO CUBA. WHY?! Because Cuba is hell - the last stop on the road to serfdom. The sooner Fidel dies the sooner the Cubans come back on the road to freedom.

MUGABE THE SOCIALIST

TELEGRAPH:

Mugabe joins massive diamond rush


A British-listed mining company, the first to invest in bankrupt Zimbabwe since the political crisis began, was ordered off its valuable diamond claim yesterday. While President Robert Mugabe has seized thousands of white-owned farms since 2000 he has, up until now, left mining property alone. The claim, an extraordinary chunk of ancient tribal land in south eastern Zimbabwe, may be one of the richest diamond fields found in recent years. And the Zimbabwe government wants it.

And Mugabe will say it's for the common good Like Hillary. Like all "good" socialists. (Click the photos for backgrounders on Mugabe.)

JEANE KIRKPATRICK DIES

The irony shouldn't be lost on anyone. In the same week that John Bolton - the most effective U.N. Ambassadors we've had since Jeane Kirkpatrick - quits his job due to Democratic Party/Stalinists pressure, Kirkpatrick passes away. She was our version of Margaret Thatcher: a strong conservative woman, more intelligent than attractive with a commanding voice and a sometimes gruff style. She, like her boss, Ronald Reagan, was a Democrat before making the conversion to Reagan Conservativism.

Bill Bennett, a former secretary of education under Reagan, the nation's drug czar under the first President Bush and a leading conservative opinion-maker, called her "very forceful, very strong, a daughter of Oklahoma, great sense of humor. She held her own."

Bennett said the Iraq Study Group so prominently in the news "would have been better with Jeane Kirkpatrick on it ... She had no patience with tyrannies, said they had to be confronted, you couldn't deal with tyrannies, that there were some people you could work with - these people you couldn't."

Let's hope she's not the last of her kind.

TONY BLAIR: CONFORM TO OUR CULTURE OR LEAVE

It seems like Tony Blair is starting to get it. Well, at least a bit:

Mr Blair urged the public to embrace multiculturalism People entering the UK must be prepared to be tolerant or not become part of British society, Tony Blair has said. In a speech at Downing Street, Mr Blair said that tolerance was "what makes Britain, Britain" and warned "we must be ready to defend this attitude".

The prime minister said: "So conform to it; or don't come here. We don't want the hate-mongers, whatever their race, religion or creed." He also defended multiculturalism, saying it should be celebrated.

I think he's still going to have to come to the point where he can make a distinction between multiculturalism and a British melting pot, but one has to credit him for making such a forceful statement. By the way, France's Nicolas Sarkozy seems to be coming to the same conclusion at the same time -"I Want An Islam Of France...":

France is multiple. France is diverse. Whether one likes it or not. The second religion of France is Islam. I want an Islam of France, I don't want an Islam in France. I demand therefore a Frenchification of Islam to make it compatible with the laws of the Republic." The last sentence is repeated 3 times and then the video displays these words: "Islam must be made compatible with France," Nicolas Sarkozy tells us.

Reliapundit adds: Okay, fine. Now, what will Sarkozy do if they refuse to be frenchified/Westernized? This is the real crux of the crisis. It is a crisis of confidence: Will France - and the West - summon up ALL the resolve and courage it will take to remain WESTERN, or will the France and the West crumble from attacks made on it by Islam - from without and within? The answer will come in the next few years... YES: The survival of the West will be determined in the next few years.

DEMEMBER 8TH, 1941 - was the date FDR set the goal for the USA in war

TODAY - NOT YESTERDAY - IS THE ANNIVRSARY OF FDR'S GREAT SPEECH. Many MANY bloggers posted on it yesterday - because it was the anniversary of the BOMBING of Pearl Harbor.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGER posted on it LAST SUNDAY - in anticipation of the anniversary, and because we at TAB saw the comparison (between our strong resolute and unified efforts then and our ambivalent and half-assed efforts now), FIRST. As usual, TAB scooped the ENTIRE BLOGOSHERE. VDH, Power Line, Michele, the Captain... ALL OF THEM! Spread the word.

Here's what FDR said:

As commander in chief of the Army and Navy, I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will win through to absolute victory.

Here's some of what we posted:

ON DECEMBER 8th, 1941 FDR SET A SINGLE GOAL FOR WW2
It was called unconditional VICTORY.

Pretty simple. ABSOLUTE VICTORY, UNCONDITONAL VICTORY. Either you are with us or against us. FDR did ask us to engage the enemy with words - BUT WITH BOMBS AND BULLETS AND BAYONETS!

The Left and the MSM are against us now; (ASIDE: the MSM weren't allied with our enemies in 1941 - I argue because we were allies of the USSR, and the Left liked WW2 because of that alliance. If Russia and France were our allies now, then the Left would be MUCH more supportive. GET THAT?!? The Left follows the lead of the amoral French and the immoral Russians! SHEESH.).

The MSM have carrried water for the enemy from Day 2 of the GWOT; they function as the propaganda arm of the enemy. The ISG report proves how effective this propaganda war has been FOR THE ENEMY. Which is why I have always said: In order to defeat the jihadists abroad we have to defeat the Left at home.

"DON'T PLAY US FOR CHUMPS"

Dennis Miller's take on the six praying imams:


[Hat-tip to CatHouse Chat]

LILEKS NAILS IT: what if we treated the Mafia the way the ISG wants to treat the Jihadists?

From today's BLEAT:

Imagine a government report on organized crime, demanding the following:

* The Mafia’s full adherance to the RICO and IRS statutes concerning independent contractors, including but not limited to Social Security contributions, FICA regulations, as well as compliance with state and federal laws concerning murder, extortion and kidnapping

* The Mafia’s full cooperation with all investigations into the deaths of Artie “Two Sheds” Palini, Ricky “The Squid” Piscatori, Jackie the Gaspipe, Tommy Shoes, and 16,302 others* A verifiable cessation of Mafia contributions to local law enforcement officials

* The Mafia should use its influence with the Russian and Irish mobs to find out what the hell happened to that poor guy who wandered into the back room when they were all having a sit-down

* A verifiable cessation of Mafia efforts to undermine and circumvent the laws in the states of New Jersey, New York, Ohio and Chicago, as well as Nevada and portions of Kansas City which Johnny Mook swears he has no control over, but some of those hits just have his style written all over them.

If those things are done, well, the price of garbage hauling in selected municipalities might decrease. But I wouldn’t count on the happening, and I certainly wouldn’t argue that we should give the Mafia Staten Island in the hopes some age-old territorial grievance will be settled for good.

Happy infamy day, by the way.

Think about it. That's basically the "New Diplomatic Offensive" that the Iraq Study Group thinks will turn Iraq into Kofi Kountry.

JOHN F. KENNEDY'S RESPONSE TO LEE HAMILTON:

"Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe, in order to ensure the survival and the success of liberty."

From the Inaugural Address. And still a better policy than appeasement and surrender.

THE BOTTOM-LINE ON "LINKAGE"

The ISG anti-Semites - like James A. (short for as**ole) Baker - have decried that the war in Iraq -- TYPIFIED NOW BY SHIA ON SUNNI VIOLENCE (a schism nearly as old as Islam itself) has as a "root cause" the Israeli-Arab conflict and the "Palestinian problem." They say it's linked. THIS IS UTTER BS. (AND VERY POIPULAR AMONG THOSE ON LEFT AND ANTI-SEMITES. Here's a link to a moron who titles his post The Road to Baghdad Runs Through Jerusalem.")

To believe this one would have to DISBELIEVE nearly everything that the jihadists themselves have been saying since 1979: Israel is the LITTLE Satan and the USA is the BIG SATAN. The jihadists have specifically said this - over-and-over-and-over again - and said that Israel is an outpost of of Western/infidel colonialization, and NOT that Israel is their major foe. The jihadists regard Israel as merely an outpost - like they regarded the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. The jihadists don't want a two-state solution. Not Binladen and not Hamas. A two-state solution will not satisfy them or deter them. Arguing that it would is just effin' STUPID.

Therefore, to make the Israeli-Arab conflict an important prerequisite for the settlement of Iraqi civil problems IS EFFIN ABSURD. If not ANTI-SEMITIC. And idiotic. I REPEAT: STUPID.

There is one thing and only one thing which links the violence in Iraq to the violence in Gaza and the West Bank - and it's the same thing which links it to the violence in India and Afghanistan and Thailand, (ETC!): ISLAM.

The root cause of ALL the violence in the world today is ISLAM. THERE IS NO OTHER GLOBAL FOE OF PEACE. YOU WANNA CALL IT RADICAL ISLAM!? Okay, if it makes you happy. But that doesn't really change things. The jihadists must be defeated in Iraq, AND EVERYWHERE ELSE. That's when we'll have peace. Peace Through Victory. That's the way it's always been. Redeploying our troops out of Iraq will NOT speed the day in which victory arrives. Taking off our gloves will: It's long passed time we whacked al Sadr and Assad - FOR STARTERS.

UPDATE - 12/08/06: MORE ON THE INSANITY OF LINKAGE HERE FROM POWER LINE.

ISG REPORT: "THE SPARROW HAS LANDED!"

GATEWAY HAS A GREAT ROUND UP.

(BTW: If they ain't sparrows, then the folks in the ISG are certainly OSTRICHES. They sure as heck ain't EAGLES.)

Then again, maybe they're monkeys.

And their report requires the intervention of unicorns.

Hugh has a lot too.

CAPTURED IDF SOLDIERS: DEAD OR ALIVE?

Wish I could've posted this earlier, but I was on a trip up north today. Don't forget Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, and I thank Michelle Malkin for remembering them:

JERUSALEM - In their first comment about the fate of two soldiers whose capture triggered a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas last summer, Israeli officials said Wednesday the two were seriously wounded — raising the prospect they may no longer be alive.

The Israeli military censor allowed publication of the existence of the report on Wednesday, and local media broadcast sketchy details. Military officials told The Associated Press the report determined that one of the soldiers was critically wounded and the other seriously wounded when they were captured, without giving further details. They spoke on condition of anonymity under military rules.

"If they did not receive immediate medical treatment, there is grave concern for their lives," Israel TV military correspondent Yoav Limor said on the nightly TV newscast. ... The outcome of the war cut deeply into popular support for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, and it continues to haunt him. This week, he caused an uproar with a comment about the captured soldiers, "if they (are alive), and we hope they are alive," saying it would have been improper to extend the war to try to win their freedom. Families of the soldiers objected to his implication that the two might be dead.

Wednesday's disclosure of the soldiers' serious wounds indicated that Olmert was referring to a real possibility that the soldiers might not have survived. This would have implications on negotiations with Hezbollah, although Israel has released prisoners both for captured soldiers and for bodies. The U.N. is trying to mediate, but there are no reports of progress or of actual contacts.

Olmert's comments, which I think he made at the time he was meeting with Segolene Royal, may have been worse than that (it was reported about in the daily Yisraeli on Tuesday; I wish I had the issue so I could see what exactly it was that he said, though aside from the fact that he implied that he favored the crummy Royal as a presidential candidate, he said something a lot more offensive than what this article implies). Which brings us to the following news, of wide-ranging calls for Olmert's replacement:

The Rabbinical Congress for Peace, a coalition of over 1,200 rabbinic leaders, calls for a "democratic uprising" to replace the Olmert gov't. Full-page ads in US weeklies call for Olmert to resign. “Out of love for each and every Jew," the Rabbinical Congress (RCP) statement reads, "we call on the people of Israel and its leaders to begin a democratic uprising to immediately replace this government, which constitutes an ominous threat to the nation of Israel."

Former Chief Rabbis Mordechai Eliyahu and Avraham Shapira are among the signatories, as is Rabbi Meir Mazuz, head of Israel's Tunisian Jewish community. The RCP labeled Olmert’s speech in Sde Boker, in which he offered to free terrorist prisoners and give up large areas of Judea and Samaria for a Palestinian state, "an extension of Sharon’s crimes." [...] At the same time, New York State Assemblyman Dov Hikind has launched a campaign calling for Olmert to resign on his own. The campaign includes full-page ads in several American Anglo-Jewish weeklies throughout the U.S.

Olmert would do well to listen to his growing number of critics, and do us all a favor by leaving office.

A SHORT COURSE IN BRAIN SURGERY: THE DISASTER OF "FREE" (SOCIALIZED) HEALTH CARE

RADIOACTIVE LITVINENKO BURIED. IN A LEAD COFFIN?

Ex-Soviet Spy Alexander Litvinenko has been laid to rest in a service presided over by a Muslim cleric:

LONDON - After a Muslim prayer service, ex-spy Alexander Litvinenko was laid to rest Thursday in a rain-swept funeral at London's Highgate Cemetery attended by a Russian tycoon, a Chechen rebel leader and other exiled Kremlin critics.

Was Litvinenko's corpse safe to bury? Shouldn't it have gone to a radioactive dump site? This polonium seems very "spreadable": Traces of Polonium 210 have also been found at the British Embassy in Moscow.

Anyone who can make heads or tail of this complex story, please enlighten me. AJ Strata has some interesting thoughts, but nothing firm...yet... stay tuned...

SAN FRANCISCO STATE CONDEMNS COLLEGE REPUBLICAN GROUP FOR DESECRATING HAMAS FLAG

You can set fire to an American flag, but don't stomp on the Hamas or Hizbollah flag, for Allah's sake:

Preceding an ongoing investigation into SF State College Republican behavior, the Associated Students board unanimously adopted a resolution condemning the student group for purposely stomping on flags containing the Arabic symbol for God. “Associated Students, Inc. deems the College Republicans’ actions as contrary to university values and feel they should be held accountable by the university for their actions,” the resolution says.

Amid heavy campus police presence at an Oct. 17 anti-terrorism rally in Malcolm X Plaza, some members of the crowd turned angry when the College Republicans stepped on homemade Hezbollah and Hamas flags ... After that, the College Republican-organized rally dissolved into a heated shouting match between the group and a mix of students, including some Muslim students, eventually resulting in formal complaints to student representatives.

‘They were voicing their concerns that this event was even allowed. They were offended,” said Kimberly Castillo, board member and chair of University Affairs, the committee that drafted the resolution. “We felt it our duty to respond.” Administrators have been criticized for even allowing the rally to take place.

“The actions on the part of the College Republicans amount to no more than hateful religious intolerance, and constitutes an attempt to defy policies outlined and defined by San Francisco State University’s values,” the resolution says. “Members… pre-mediated the stomping of the flags knowing it would offend some people and possibly incite violence.”

Have the liberals of the academy come to accept Allah as their personal Lord and Savior? It sure seems that way...

Reliapundit adds: The academy is dominated by post-modernists. This ideology is fundamentally opposed to Judeo-Christian/Western Civilization, so all those who oppose J-C/Western Civ. are their allies.

TEN MORE ANTI-ROVE MURDERS IN THAILAND

Oh. Sorry. It's jihad:

Separatist militants were blamed for killing 11 people, two of them policemen, in Thailand's Muslim-majority south during a bloody two days across the troubled region. In the latest attack, a Buddhist man was shot dead at a gas station in Yala province Wednesday afternoon. Police said militants stole his pick-up truck.

Earlier, two men were shot dead in a drive-by shooting in Yala, while a soldier assigned to protect schoolteachers was killed when a roadside bomb exploded. Two soldiers were hurt. Two border policemen were killed in an ambush by militants in Pattani, another of three provinces bordering Malaysia beset by separatist violence and other unrest that has killed close to 2,000 people since January 2004.

And this comes AFTER the junta's latest round of dhimmitude/appeasement. Proving omce again that appeasement doesn't work.

CHIRAC CONGRATULATES CHAVEZ

PEOPLE'S DAILY (XINHUA):

French President Jacques Chirac congratulated Venezulan President Hugo Chavez on Wednesday for his reelection. "Soon after the Venezuelan people renewed their confidence to you, I want to adress to you, personally and in the name of all the French people, my most warmly congratulations," Chirac said in a congratulation letter made public by the Presidential office.

"I know that French enterprises, which have already contributed a lot to the economic dynamism in Venezuela, like to strenghten their activities in a long term," he said. Chirac said he hoped that the two countries would reinforce their relationships, especially in hydrocarbon, transport and health areas.

It sounds like Chirac might just be whoring himself for France, but.... it gets worse; (EL UNIVERSAL - Venezuela):

"I have no doubt that Venezuela in the years to come is to confirm its vocation to contribute to a balanced treatment of the big international matters," said Chirac in his message to Chávez, as quoted by DPA.

The French President claimed Venezuelan involvement in the dialogue among nations could contribute to peace and development based on the respect for differences, both in Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as in other regions.

Chirac praises Chavez and says that the autocrat's insane, Leftist, pro-Iran/pro-jihadist policies will help international matters!?!?! Sheesh: What a piece of merde.

WHY WE MUST PREEMPTIVELY ATTACK IRAN:

AP (via LGF):

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned Western leaders to follow the path of God or “vanish from the face of the earth”. “These oppressive countries are angry with us ... a nation that on the other side of the globe has risen up and proved the shallowness of their power,” Ahmadinejad said in a speech in the northern town of Ramsar, the semi-official news agency Mehr reported Wednesday.

“They are angry with our nation. But we tell them ‘so be it and die from this anger’. Rest assured that if you do not respond to the divine call, you will die soon and vanish from the face of the earth,” he said. The outspoken president also maintained Iran’s defiance over its controversial nuclear programme, saying it was on course to fully master nuclear technology.

“Thank to God’s help, we have gone all the way and are only one step away from the zenith. We hope to have the big nuclear celebration by the end of the year (March 2007),” Ahmadinejad said, echoing comments he has made on numerous occasions in recent months.

This rant does not arise from a culture which can be intimdated by "MAD" (mutually assured destruction). Therefore we must preemptively attack Iran with whatever it takes to destroy their nuclear assets, their military assets, and their industrial assets. The mullahs won't even mind: this attack will, in effect, bomb them right back to the 8th Century they seem to love so much!

WILL THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN BE REPAIRED?

NYTIMES:

BAMIYAN, Afghanistan — The empty niches that once held Bamiyan’s colossal Buddhas now gape in the rock face — a silent cry at the terrible destruction wrought on this fabled valley and its 1,500-year-old treasures, once the largest standing Buddha statues in the world.

It was in March 2001, when the Taliban and their sponsors in Al Qaeda were at the zenith of their power in Afghanistan, that militiamen, acting on an edict to take down the “gods of the infidels,” laid explosives at the base and the shoulders of the two Buddhas and blew them to pieces. To the outraged outside world, the act encapsulated the horrors of the Islamic fundamentalist government. Even Genghis Khan, who laid waste to this valley’s towns and population in the 13th century, had left the Buddhas standing.

Five years after the Taliban were ousted from power, Bamiyan’s Buddhist relics are once again the focus of debate: Is it possible to restore the great Buddhas? And, if so, can the extraordinary investment that would be required be justified in a country crippled by poverty and a continued Taliban insurgency in the south and that is, after all, overwhelmingly Muslim?

GOOD ARTICLE. RTWT.

ASIDE: THE BUDDHAS OF BAMIYAN WERE DESTROYED SIX MONTHS BEFORE 9/11, AND THEIR DESTRUCTION HAD NOTHING TO DO WITH BUSH, ISRAEL, HALLIBURTON, OIL, WESTERN CIVILIZATION OR KARL ROVE.

WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH, THE UN GETS PACKING

As soon as things got tough in Iraq the UN mission split for Jordan.

They're doing the same thing now in Darfur.

Proving once again that the UN is a useless cesspool of corrupt scum.

Al Gore: Iraq War Is Worst Mistake In US History

Yes, that's right, Al Gore opened his mouth and this waft of flatulence emanated:

"The worst strategic mistake in the entire history of the United States."

Two points here:

1) Allowing slavery was the worst strategic mistake in the history of the United States.

2) Al Gore has said, on numerous occasions, that Global Warming is the biggest threat we face, and Al Gore has also faulted the Bush Administration for it's refusal to deal with Global Warming. Thing is, if Global Warming is really as big a threat as Al Gore insists it is, then, it stands to reason that Bush Administration policy with regard to Global Warming, for instance, the refusal to sign the Kyoto Protocols, would be "the worst strategic mistake in the entire history of the United States."

Right? Oh yes, I'm sorry, my biggest strategic mistake here is actually expecting anything that come out of Gore' s mouth to make any logical sense.

Reliapundit adds:

I think that the failure to remove Saddam in 1991 was a bigger mistake.

And also the lack of any meaningful response by Clinton/Gore to the 1993 WTC attack - (coincidentally on the anniversary of Saddam's signing of his surrender for the Gulf War to the USA). Also worse than the Iraq War: the lack of any meaningful response to the Khobar Towers attack; or the USS Cole attack; or the attack on our embassies in Africa; and our hasty retreat from Somalia - all lapses by Clinton/Gore. These lapses directly lead to 9/11 - at least according to Binladen

But the biggest USA foreign policy mistake of all time was Yalta; (I have a little more to say about Yalta in the comments - but what happened at Yalta - and why - is probably deserving of its own long, link-filled post).

MORE REASONS TO LOVE THE TRADE DEFICIT

The "trade deficit" - like "man made global warming" - is a bogeyman of the Left.

Here's more proof of this fact from The American Thinker.

(Previous posts from TAB on this subject here, here and here and here and here.)

PUTIN : LITVINENKO ASSASSINATION / INQUEST :: ASSAD : HARIRI ASSASSINATION / INQUEST

CNN/AP:

Russia will refuse to extradite any suspects in the radioactive poisoning death of a former spy and outspoken critic of President Vladimir Putin to Britain, the country's top prosecutor has said. Prosecutor-General Yuri Chaika spoke to reporters on Tuesday as British detectives in Moscow started to investigate the fatal poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko on November 23.

The team arrived in the Russian capital the day before as part of their probe. Before his death in London the former FSB agent blamed Putin for the poisoning. The Kremlin has denied any involvement and Russian officials have pledged to give the British police all necessary support to carry out their inquiries. However, Chaika said no suspects will be sent to Britain.

"If they want to arrest them it would be impossible, they are citizens of Russia and the Russian constitution makes that impossible," he said, according to a Reuters translation. It remained unclear whether British detectives would be able to question former Russian agent Andrei Lugovoi, who met Litvinenko in London on November 1, the day he fell ill.

I feel that this murder investigation will show that Putin - like Assad - is a murdering, lying autocrat who uses assassination to help maintain and expand his power. (Birds of a feather...) And this report proves that Russia will cooperate with the investigation about as much as Syria has - which is to say not much at all.

What makes Putin worse than Assad is the fact that Putin's Russia is directly aiding and arming Iran and Syria - and blocking our attemots to use the UN as a means to curb them. And he does nothing to help us with North Korea. It's time we treated Russia as a foe.

A dfferent and interesting angle here from AJ Strata.

ALPS WARMEST IN 1300 YEARS - AND THAT WAS BEFORE THE FOSSIL FUEL ERA

AP:

Europe's Alpine region is going through its warmest period in 1,300 years, the head of an extensive climate study said Tuesday. "We are currently experiencing the warmest period in the Alpine region in 1,300 years," Reinhard Boehm, a climatologist at Austria's Central Institute for Meteorology and Geodynamics said.

Boehm based his comments on the results of a project conducted by a group of European institutes between March 2003 and August 2006. Their aim was to reconstruct the climate in the region encompassing the Rhone Valley in France to the west, Budapest, Hungary to the east, Tuscany, Italy to the south and Nuremberg, Germany to the north over the past 1,000 years.

Boehm said the current warm period in the Alpine region began in the 1980s, noting that a similar warming occurred in the 10th and 12th centuries.

Er um... ya mean it was as warm in the 8th and 10th and 12th centuries... BEFORE man-made greenhouse gases!?!?! A WHATTA?! I guess this means periodic global-warming can't be man-made OR DUE TO MAN-MADE GREENHOUSE GASES. IT'S NATURAL. END OF STORY. NOW: will the eco-nutsies please STFU.

FRANCE AND GERMANY ISSUE ANOTHER EMPTY WARNING TO ASSAD

REUTERS:

Merkel and Chirac urge Syria not to meddle in Lebanese politics

The leaders of France and Germany yesterday urged Syria not to interfere in Lebanon but to contribute constructively to efforts aimed at bringing peace and stability to its neighbor.

"France and Germany call for an end to all interference in the affairs of Lebanon," German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Jacques Chirac said in a joint statement issued after a meeting in Mettlach, Germany.

"They wish that Syria will no longer support forces that want to destabilize Lebanon and the region," the statement said.

THAT OUGHTTA TAKE CARE OF EVERYTHING; YUP... PEACE'LL SURELY BREAK OUT ANY MINUTE, NOW - NOW THAT FRANCE AND GERMANY HAVE MADE THIS URGENTLY CLEAR. YUP, THAT'S ALL ASSAD NEEDED TO HEAR. NOW HE'LL SURELY COOPERATE.

Yeah, sure. This reminds me of that GREAT scene in the movie TEAM AMERICA, where Hans Brix warns Kim Jong Il to stop or the UN will send him a really REALLY strongly worded letter. Sheesh. Who do Merkel and Chirac think they're dealing with!? Assad is a murdering, lying tyrant who understands one thing: BRUTE FORCE. It's long passed time we used some on him.

THE REAL REASON THE NEANDERTHALS DIDN'T MAKE IT

In the Science Section of today's New Duranty Times, Nicholas Wade authors a report on this article by Steven Kuhn and Mary Stiner of the University of Arizona posted online at the journal "Current Anthropology."

They argue that the reason that Neanderthal man disappeared was that Neanderthals did not divide different types of work between men and women, but that Neanderthal women hunted large ungulate game animals alongside Neanderthal men. This way of life was less efficient than the way the ancestors of modern man lived, with the men out hunting while the women gathered plants and small animals. The more efficient economic way of life of the ancestors of modern man gave them a big demographic advantage.

The problem with this type of theorizing is that the data that support it are very tenuous, at best. Kuhn and Stiner base their theory on the absence of bone awls and needles from Neanderthal sites. They assume that the bone awls and needles found at sites associated with the ancestors of modern man were used, by women, to fabricate clothing.

If you think about it, even if you accept the unproven assertion that the bone awls and needles were used to fabricate clothing, their absence from Neanderthal sites does not necessarily prove that Neanderthals did not have a sex-based division of labor.

Maybe they just didn't know how to sew.

There is, however, a far more telling absence from the archeological sites presumed to be inhabited by Neanderthal man: there is no evidence there of the domesticated dog. John Allman of Cal Tech suggests that it was the domestication of the dog that gave the ancestors of modern man such an advantage over the Neanderthals.

I'd put it somewhat differently. It was the dog's domestication of the ancestors of modern man that enabled them to become what we are, today. By sharing their gifts of keen eyesight, preternatural olfaction, and superb social organization with anthropoids who had opposable thumbs and who could communicate with speech, the ancestors of the modern dog enabled the eventual flowering of human culture.

WHY THE JURY IS STILL OUT ON THE CAUSES BEHIND GLOBAL WARMING, IN 500 WORDS OR LESS

A Western Heart is a great blog. Two days in a row I find posts there that I saw nowhere else. Today, I found this:

David Williams, an environmentalist and global warming acolyte, challenged Dr. David Wojick, a Virginia scientist and journalist who is a skeptic about manmade global warming, to make his case in 500 words. The Wojick response is below. Wojick, a civil engineer who has a doctorate in epistemology, once taught in the Carnegie Mellon University economics and society department, led by 1978 Nobel laureate in economics Herb Simon, who died in 2001, and who was cited for his work in the politics of science.

Wojick is an expert and consultant on the subject of how science and the understanding of science interact. He runs the Climatechangedebate.org web site

Whether or not humans are causing global warming is still an open question. In fact it is one of the greatest earth science research questions in history. Begun in 1990, the U.S. Global Change Research Program has spent about $40 billion looking for the human footprint in global warming. The jury is still out. The problem is that we now know that the earth warms and cools naturally, so how do we identify the human influence?

To begin with, the earth appears to have warmed over the last century or so, by one degree Fahrenheit. During this period atmospheric carbon dioxide levels rose steadily. CO2 is a greenhouse gas, so it seems natural to conclude that the CO2 rise caused the temperature rise. This seems simple enough but as soon as one looks closely this picture falls apart and the hard science begins.

For example, while the CO2 levels rose steadily, the global temperature actually went down for the middle third of the last century. Scientists predicted a coming ice age. This shows that rising CO2 levels do not necessarily cause rising temperatures. The CO2 went up but the temperature went down.Then too, it is now generally accepted that the temperature increase in the first third of the century was due to increased solar input, not increasing CO2. We now know that the sun varies over time. This shows that rising temperatures are not necessarily caused by rising CO2 levels. The temperature went up but not because of CO2.It is possible that the temperature rise of the last 25 years is due to rising CO2. However it has to be explained why the steady rise of CO2 over more than a century waited until the last 25 years to show up? Moreover, some parts of he earth are cooling, not warming. Others, especially parts of the Arctic, are warming very rapidly. This is inconsistent with being caused by the gradual CO2 rise.

We also know now that it may have been just as warm a thousand years ago, and maybe a lot warmer 5,000 years ago, when there was no CO2 increase.

Twenty-five years of research has taught us a lot about natural global warming, but this has only made the picture more complicated. In most cases we do not know why this natural warming occurs.

There are many theories and counter theories regarding all of these issues, and many more issues as well. The result is an incredibly complex and expensive program of scientific research.

Today there are three schools of scientific thought on global warming. The first holds that humans are causing the recent warming. The second is that most, if not all, of the warming is natural. The third school is the skeptics who say we really do not know what is happening, and will not know until we understand natural climate change. Among these schools there is a loud scientific debate. Whether humans are causing global warming is anybody's guess at this point.

Reliapundit adds: 500 truthful words. I hope the eco-nutsies are listening!

PARIS TO GET NEW SKYSCRAPER AND A NEW ICON: PHARE TOWER

IHT:

Designed by Thom Mayne of the Los Angeles-based firm Morphosis, the Phare Tower will rise amid the office towers of La Defense, the western business district conceived in the late 1950s as a way of expanding the city while protecting its historic core from overdevelopment.

Embedded in this maze of generic towers and blank plazas, the tower will overlook the hollow cube of the 1989 Grande Arche and the elegantly arched concrete roof of the 1958 C.N.I.T. conference center. [The building's design was selected via a competition; this was the winning design.]

AND THIS:

Building regulations have kept tall buildings out of the city centre for decades but at 300 metres, the Lighthouse will come close to the Eiffel Tower, which is 324 metres high.

Due to be completed in 2012, it will cost an estimated $1.05bn. It will have a rectangular base with the tower capped by wind turbines. "It's about an icon, and one of the major buildings in Paris," Thom Mayne, the winning architect said. He added that the tower would be "a prototype for a green building" with a wind farm generating its own heating.

Some think it looks rather phallic; (read this LONDON TIMES weblog and check out the comments).

I think it looks like a woman in a burqa - which would be a fitting new icon for France and old Europe, as they slouch through dhimmitude toward islamification.

[NOTE: the building is also a paean to eco-nutsie ideology with its "wind farm". Not to mention that it's ENTIRELY a post-modern design. Sheesh: it represents nearly everything WRONG with France and the EUssr. Which is probably why it appealed so deeply to the judges and won.]

DENNIS PRAGER AND CAIR

Because Dennis Prager wrote this about Keith Ellison's possibly taking the oath of office on the Koran, CAIR wants Mr. Prager removed from the council of the U.S. Holocaust Museum. Read more....

KOFI ANNAN QUOTES SINATRA

If you listen to Kofi Annan's interview on BBC you will hear him say "I did it my way". And that's the only worthwhile thing Kofi has to say.

His comments about the situation in Iraq, and the run up to the invasion, sound like Kofi has given up diplomacy and is planning to release his memoirs before he is forgotten. Kofi seems to be sticking his knife in the back of whomever he can while he is still commanding attention.

As you know, Kofi has been quoted as saying that the situation for regular Iraqi's is worse than before the fall of Saddam's regime. Obviously Kofi longs for the past: when the UN Oil For Food SCAMMERS - many of whom he was personally aquainted - ripped off BILLIONS OF BUCKS.

Kofi also states that the current situation in Iraq is "worse than civil war". I wonder where the murder of 800,000 people - which is what occured in Rwanda with Kofi on watch - lies on Kofi's scale of suffering?

Re;iapundit adds (as Frank might say): AY KOFI, don't let the door hit you on the way out!

MORE PEOPLE WANT TO LEAVE LONDON THAN BAGHDAD

As bad as the big, bad "civil war" in Iraq is, more people want to get the hell out of London to secure their future, than want to leave Baghdad:

Four out of five youngsters believe people should be able to live in any country they choose, a BBC global survey of 15 to 17-year-olds suggests.

The proportion of respondents that would emigrate to secure a better future was highest in Nairobi (81%) and Delhi (81%). In Baghdad, 50% of the sample said they would not emigrate - the biggest negative response of all 10 cities.

Go read the rest over at A Western Heart.

This is more proof that Multiculturalism is an unmitigated disaster. Things are so bad in London that even London Telegraph is admitting that whites are leaving only to be replaced by more immigrants which is leading to, in their words, "extreme segregation."

Relipaundit adds: Great get Pastorius. I only differ with the Telegraph's conclusion: It is not "leading" to segregation; IT IS SURRENDERING. If they won't stay and fight for their land, their nation and their culture, then - for all intents and purposes - they are surrendering. The sad thing is, IMHO, that unless and until they abandon ALL the false ideas and false values which comprise post-modernism (collectivism, self-hatred of the West and captialism, multi-culturalism, moral and cultural relativism) they cannot ever feel as if there is anything WORTH FIGHTING FOR.

Post modernism destroyed their will to procreate and their will to transmit their culture to future generations. Without post modernism the islamist settlers wouldn't stand a chance of becoming the dominant culture. Post modernism put Western Civilization and Judeo-Christian culture in Europe into its death throes; islamism will likely kill it. Sadly.

[NOTE: the photo - like the post - shows the sun setting on the British Empire... RIGHT THERE AT WHAT USED TO BE CALLED HOME!]

NEGOTIATING WITH EVIL

Ghazni, Afghanistan- The gunmen came at night to drag Mohammed Halim away from his home, in front of his crying children and his wife begging for mercy.

The 46-year-old schoolteacher tried to reassure his family that he would return safely. But his life was over, he was part-disembowelled and then torn apart with his arms and legs tied to motorbikes, the remains put on display as a warning to others against defying Taliban orders to stop educating girls. (Hat tip: Power Line)

These are the kind of people that Kofi Annan, Joe Biden, Patrick Leahy and the rest of the American Left want us to sit down with and talk. We should listen to these people, they say. We need to understand the "point of view" of THESE KIND OF PEOPLE.

If we don't face up to the fact that we're facing pure evil and that it needs to be destroyed, we are finished.

SCIENTISTS SAY THAT ANTARCTIC ICE SHELF RESEARCH PROVES GLOBAL WARMING IS NATURAL

BBC:

Sediments extracted from the Antarctic seafloor show the world's largest ice shelf has disintegrated and reappeared many times in the past. Fluctuations in the Ross Ice Shelf are revealed by an early look at cores drilled from the seabed underneath the giant ice slab. The investigation is being carried out by scientists drilling near the US and New Zealand bases on Ross Island.

The team wants to link the data to what is already known about past climate. The long-term aim of the scientists is to find out what the Ross Ice Shelf - a floating slab of ice the size of France - and the West Antarctic Ice Sheet have been doing over the past 10 million years.

The researchers are part of the first team to drill as part of the international Andrill project to investigate the geological history of Antarctica. "We're seeing numerous cycles of the ice shelf or ice sheet being present at the site and then being absent," said Dr Tim Naish, a palaeoclimatologist at New Zealand's Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences and one of the chief scientists for the Antarctica Geological Drilling project (Andrill). "These are dramatic fluctuations." [UMPH ADDED!]

Dramatic fluctuations - up & down, and ALL occurring before man-made greenhouse gases. END OF STORY. SO... all eco-nutsies please STFU.

RUSSIA MAY HAVE LARGEST MUSLIM POPULATION IN EUROPE

I've got a bad feeling that Russia's newly established dictator, Vladimir Putin, may actually enjoy this news of Russia's growing Muslim population (via Hot Air). Most noteworthy part here is:

Since 1989, Russia’s Muslim population has increased by 40 per cent to about 25 million. By 2015, Muslims could make up a majority of Russia’s conscript army and they could account for one-fifth of the country’s population by 2020.

Dear, dear, dear. While there does seem to be backlash against Islam in Russia, (and I recommend the book The Mosque of Notre Dame de Paris, which sounds like something to think about), that doesn't mean it'll last for long. If Putin decides this is what he wants for his coming dictatorship over the years - unless he can be deposed of, (as is to be hoped).

Reliapundit adds: Maybe Putin does NOT want Russia to become a majority Muslim nation, and maybe this explains why Putin wants to extend Russia's hegemony over the Ukraine and other former Soviet republics: this might be the surest way to keep greater Russia's European population growing.

DENMARK: LEAKER SENTENCED; JOURNALISTS GO FREE

Copenhagen: Journalists from Berlingske were aquitted today for printing classified information. No proof was provided that the publicized information damaged the interests of Denmark.

Meanwhile, the intelligence officer who did break the law (by leaking the information) - Frank Grevil - has already been sentenced to spend 4 months in a prison.

For those of you who don't recall - the case has to do with prewar intelligence vis a vis Saddam's WMD. And that whole WMD argument- if you ask me - is a total waste of time: the enemy has got more than just WMD - they have a dangerous ideology - and they are our declared enemies! Thankfully some of us are fortunate to live in countries with human rights, and courts of law.

BREAKING: MEN POUR PIG'S BLOOD ON PROPOSED MOSQUE SITE

Copenhagen 4 December 2006:

Last night some people protested against the construction of Mosques on European soil by defiling a proposed site with pigs blood.

A video of the act - showing the men pouring a red liquid on the ground, and speaking in english, was released to the media, anonymously.

Stay tuned...

ANOTHER TAB SCOOP: "THE LIVES OF OTHERS"

Northern Seer picked this flick for his R&R recommendation this weekend.

And tonight... it scored an upset - by defeating VOVLER (the Almodovar movie) - and won the award for best picture from the Eurpean Film Awards - their Oscar.

(More here. BBC article HERE and BBC PICTURE GALLERY HERE.)

Just more proof that TAB is the place to be!

ON DECEMBER 8th, 1941 FDR SET A SINGLE GOAL FOR WW2

It was called unconditional VICTORY. Everything else about how the war was run changed week-to-week: tactics, strategy, command structures, weaponry - you name it. And there were major disgreements between WSC and FDR, too. (WSC didn't want to let Stalin take half of Europe, for example - and he was right!)

So... here we are: three years into the Iraq Campaign of WW4 - a global war which Bush said (at the outset) was going to be long, and fought on many fronts (some open and some secret), and Rummy said in a memo that things in Iraq needed to be changed a little... and everybody is buzzing about it. (Here, too. And from Power Line.)

It's all a lot of BS, if you ask me. The Pentagon continuously does a "lessons learned" review and commanders in the field rightly have the most to say about what they need. Then there needs to be a re-assessment from time to time to be sure we are on the right track.

We do certainly seem to be at a possible fork in the road: AFTER ALL THE IRAQI GOVERNMENT - A DEMOCRATIC AND CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNMENT - has been in power now ALL OF SIX FREAKIN' MONTHS! IOW: it's way way way WAY too early to be counting the Iraqis out. UNLESS WE QUIT ON THEM!

BTW: for all the jerks who think we oughtta withdraw immediately, do you know that we are not only invited to stay in Iraq by their democratically elected constitutional government, but we are required by international law to stay there, and that this edict was just renewed MULTI-LATERALLY at the UNSC!?

IOW: withdrawing is not only the wrong thing to do, and a bad thing to do, and the unilateral thing to do, but illegal, too. So enough with Rummy and a change of course, already. ENOUGH! Sheesh.

SCIENTISTS DEBUNK MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING

THE REFERENCE FRAME - (via Flares in the Darkness) : USC geologists: humans cause 2% of warming

George Chilingarian, PhD is a professor of petroleum geology at University of Southern California (USC), the author of 53 books, and a Knight of Arts and Sciences of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

Leonid Khilyuk, PhD is a consultant in mathematical modelling and a former boss of the Applied Math Department of the Kiev Technological University.

In their paper

* On global forces of nature driving the Earth’s climate. Are humans involved?published in Environmental Geology 50 (Springer-Verlag) in Summer 2006 they looked at various sources of changes of the global climate from a very unconventional perspective. They argue that the humans are responsible for 0.01 Celsius degrees of warming from the 0.56 Celsius degrees warming during the 20th century. Geophysical sources of temperature periodicity such as tectonic pressures and the solar factors are by 4-5 orders of magnitude more important than the anthropogenic effects, they argue in sentences that are hard to believe and that will be especially hard to believe for generic members of the climate science community where a strikingly contradictory hypothesis has recently become very popular

Another reason the eco-nutsies should STFU.

AVIGDOR LIEBERMAN - ULTRA-NATIONALIST TO DETERMINE ISRAELI POLICY ON IRAN

Call me crazy, but I don't think this bodes well for Ahmadinejad and His Mad Mullahs. Avigdor Liberman is:

an ultra-nationalist whose party has 11 or 120 seats in Parliament, and has become indispensible to Olmert's ruling majority; he has, in the past, put forth a plan for the complete separation of Arabs and Jews within Israel; he has called for Israeli-Arabs to undergo loyalty tests; he has called for all Israeli-Arab politicians with any connection to Hamas or any terrorist organization to be put to death.

This does not sound like a guy who is going to deal nicely with OhMyDumbJihad. From Atlas Shrugs:

Israel creates new ministry to deal with Iran threat - The Israeli government has approved the creation of a new ministry for strategic affairs, to be headed by a controversial ultra-nationalist and deal mainly with Iran's nuclear ambitions. During the weekly cabinet meeting, "all the ministers approved the decision to form the ministry for strategic affairs" under Avigdor Lieberman, whose Yisrael Beitenu party joined Prime Minister's Ehud Olmert's government in October, a official said on condition of anonymity on Sunday.

The ministry will be responsible "for coordination between the different bodies regarding the different strategic threats Israel is facing," most notably Iran's nuclear programme, which the Jewish state and the United States believe is aimed at acquiring a nuclear bomb, despite Tehran's denials. Israel -- widely considered the Middle East's sole, if undeclared, nuclear weapons power -- considers Iran its chief threat, pointing to calls from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map.

Reliapundit adds: Liberman is a real hawk, but I think his political oversight of this area will not determine very much. This man will (from August):

Maj. Gen. Elyezer Shkedy, Israel's air force chief, will be overall commander for the "Iran front," military sources told the London Sunday Telegraph.

(There's more; follow the link.) IMHO: If Bush continues to go wobbly, and fails to act, then Israel will act, and not later than February of 2008.

WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA

From "' Rest easy, sleep well my brothers. Know the line has held, your job is done,'" which appeared in the Washington Post (12/03/06):

Every year for more than a decade, at the height of the season, Morrill Worcester would pack up a truckload of his Christmas wreaths and head down from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery. Without fanfare, he and a dozen or so volunteers would lay red-bowed wreaths on a few thousand headstones of fallen Americans... There was no publicity. No crowds gathered. The gesture was one man's private duty...

This year, the project is expanding:

...The interest in Worcester's project has exploded to the point that he had to find some way to extend the tribute, so he has launched Wreaths Across America, a Web site that coordinates similar rituals at more than 200 military cemeteries around the country.

I have two family members buried at Arlington National Cemetery. No matter what I'm busy doing, I will pause at noon on December 14th to remember my two uncles: one served on the front lines during World War I and came home permanently disabled, and the other served at Omaha Beach on D-Day and came home safely. How grateful I am to have the reassurance that each of their grave markers will have a wreath placed!

Please take a few minutes of your time to watch the video.

UPDATE: INSTAPUNDIT linked to this story:

WREATHS at Arlington.
posted at 06:58 PM by Glenn Reynolds Permalink

AND ONLY 9 HOURS AFTER US. He's getting quicker. HEH! This proves once again that TAB IS THE PLACE TO BE, FOR THE MO' FASTER LINKS TO WHAT YOU WANT TO KNOW, WITH MO' BETTER ANALYSIS AND COMMENTARY. SPREAD THE WORD!