CHENEY SAYS HOUSE DOESN'T SUPPORT TROOPS

Panic in the streets! Vice President Cheney questions Democrats patriotism!

MANALAPAN, Fla. - Vice President Dick Cheney on Saturday accused the Democrat-led House of not supporting troops in Iraq and of sending a message to terrorists that America will retreat in the face danger.

"They're not supporting the troops. They're undermining them," Cheney told a gathering of the Republican Jewish Coalition at the oceanside Ritz-Carlton hotel in Manalapan, Fla., about 60 miles north of Miami.

He's right, but that won't matter. The Sunday talk shows will be going nuts tomorrow with this latest "outrage" from Cheney. Isn't it amazing how one can be chastised for telling the truth?

IRANIAN MULLAHS TO THE WEST: PLEASE INVADE OUR COUNTRY

The Sunday London Times - FIFTEEN British sailors and marines arrested by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards off the coast of Iraq may be charged with spying.

A website run by associates of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, reported last night that the Britons would be put before a court and indicted.

Referring to them as “insurgents”, the site concluded: “If it is proven that they deliberately entered Iranian territory, they will be charged with espionage. If that is proven, they can expect a very serious penalty since according to Iranian law, espionage is one of the most serious offences.”

The warning followed claims by Iranian officials that the British navy personnel had been taken to Tehran, the capital, to explain their “aggressive action” in entering Iranian waters. British officials insist the servicemen were in Iraqi waters when they were held.

You know, I wrote the title of this post thinking I was being clever and stating the obvious, then it dawned on me that I couldn't be more wrong. Maybe when Reagan and Thatcher were in power we might have thought of retaliating, but nowadays, we'll do whatever we can to make it look like it's our fault. How sad.

UPDATE: Told ya! (Hat tip: Hot Air)

Lord Triesman said he had been assured the group was not being held hostage for political reasons as the UK joined other United Nations Security Council members in imposing tougher sanctions on Iran over its refusal to suspend its nuclear programme. “Our own view is that these things are not linked,” Lord Triesman said. He believed it was a “technical” dispute over whether - as Iran claims - the personnel had strayed into Iranian waters or - as the UK insists - were on the Iraqi side of the border.

Madness.

HANDY TIPS TO SURVIVE GLOBAL WARMING

From my friend Tom Van Dyke at the American Spectator:

I've been on the fence about this thing until America's most highly-paid newsman wrote this on her blog:

"And all the experts agree. Well, almost every expert. (There are a handful of scientists -- many of them on the payroll of big oil companies -- who wonder if global warming is a reality.)"

Oil companies. I should have known. They want us all dead so they can have all the oil to themselves. Still, as a Republican, the question I really have to ask is, what's in it for me??

It's another perfect day here in Southern California, a nippy 69 degrees, and the value of my house has doubled in the last 5 years. What if everybody had nice weather, the chilling thought went down my chilled spine. My obscene profit, up in smoke like from the tailpipe of a Hummer. And if it gets as warm as Mexico here, why, they sell land as cheap as dirt!

We have to do something about this, like now. As Al Gore said while snarfing up his well-deserved Oscar, this is a moral issue. Quicker than Gore flunked out of divinity school, I came up with this helpful list. Clip and save:

• ---Plug in your clocks only when you absolutely have to know what time it is. If you need the alarm, get up five minutes early to set it.

• ---Your kids are useless for pushing your car up to highway speeds, but they can increase your mileage considerably around town. Use your headlights only when there's no moon, and remember, your horn uses less energy than your turn signal.

• ---Stairs make you huff and puff and expel carbon dioxide. Use the elevator. And sports are carbon-intensive too, so do 'em on your X-box.

Go read the whole thing.

ZBIG: WRONG THEN; WRONG NOW ... ZBIG TIME!

ZBIG WAS DHIMMI CARTER'S NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR.

CARTER'S SINGLE TERM WAS THE MOST DISASTROUS TERM IN US HISTORY ESPECIALLY IN FOREIGN POLICY: AFGHANISTAN WAS INVADED, THE SHAH TOPPLED, OPEC EMBOLDENED; THE USSR ADVANCED THROUGH AFRICA AND CENTRAL AMERICA UNCHECKED.

ZBIG HAS WRITTEN AN OP-ED IN THE WASH POST. HE BLAMES BUSH FOR FOMENTING A "CULTURE OF FEAR." (INSTEAD OF BLAMING THE JIHADISTS WHO HAVE STAGED NEARLY 8000 ATTACKS WORLDWIDE SINCE 9/11 - INCLUDING KILLING MORE PEOPLE IN THAILAND THAT IN IRAQ!) HERE'S AN EXCERPT:

The atmosphere generated by the "war on terror" has encouraged legal and political harassment of Arab Americans (generally loyal Americans) for conduct that has not been unique to them. A case in point is the reported harassment of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) for its attempts to emulate, not very successfully, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). Some House Republicans recently described CAIR members as "terrorist apologists" who should not be allowed to use a Capitol meeting room for a panel discussion.

Social discrimination, for example toward Muslim air travelers, has also been its unintended byproduct.

YUP: ZBIG DEFENDS CAIR AND BY IMPLICATION THE FLYING IMAMS. WHAT AN ASS - A BIG ASS -- A ZBIG ASS ---- A REAL ZBIG ASS!

HE ACTUALLY ARGUES THAT THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION MORE CULPABLE THAN THE JIHADISTS! INCREDIBLE! BUT MAYBE NOT... NOT FROM TODAY'S DEMOCRAT PARTY!

POWER LINE HAS MORE. Complete round up at Memeorandum.

THE REAL HISTORY OF CARBON DIOXIDE LEVELS

BUMPED UP TO THE TOP!

Prof. Beck's paper "180 YEARS OF ATMOSPHERIC CO2 GAS ANALYSIS BY CHEMICAL METHODS" has now been published in the journal Energy and Environment. A PDF copy of the full paper can be obtained from the author: egbeck@biokurs.de. Excerpt here. It shows that actual past measurements of atmospheric CO2 have undergone great variation in levels from time to time in the period surveyed. Levels were not "flat" before the 20th century, as is usually asserted. There is a discussion of the paper here. I mentioned this matter previously on March 9th. -- where there is also a link to an early version of the full paper.



(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, DISSECTING LEFTISM,. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.) ORIGINALLY POSTED AT 8:59 AM - 3/24/07

PREDICTION: TO DISTRACT THE UN AND USA, IRAN WILL INSTIGATE ANOTHER ISRAELI-HIZB'ALLAH WAR

I think these two news items from the ME are QUITE related:

Israel: Lebanon Cease-Fire in Jeopardy -

Israel's defense minister told the head of the United Nations on Saturday that the U.N.-brokered cease-fire in southern Lebanon is endangered by Hezbollah militants, who continue to hold two captured Israeli soldiers and receive arms shipments from Syria.

U.N. Unanimously Approves Iran Sanctions -

The U.N. Security Council unanimously voted Saturday to impose new sanctions against Iran for its refusal to stop enriching uranium - a move intended to show Tehran that defiance will leave it increasingly isolated.

The moderately tougher sanctions include banning Iranian arms exports, and freezing the assets of 28 people and organizations involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programs.

About a third of those are linked to the Revolutionary Guard, an elite military corps.

The United States is ``very pleased by the strength of this resolution'' after two years of diplomacy, said R. Nicholas Burns, undersecretary for political affairs at the State Department.

As we crank up pressure on Tehran, they will crank it up on the Lebanon-Israeli border and in Baghdad. Fasten your seat belts...

The fact is there cannot be peace between Israel and Lebanon and Syria - and Hamas - until we neutralize Iran.

Whether we neuter them militarily or cause them so much economic trouble the evil mullah regime collapses matters not. It only matters that we topple the tyrants of Tehran BEFORE they get nukes.

AND BEFORE THE DEMS TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE!

AMIR PERETZ HURTS DEFENSE MINISTRY'S REPUTATION

The Jerusalem Post says that Labor party head Amir Peretz has hurt the reputation of the defense ministry:

Respect for the defense establishment has dropped around the world in recent months due to a lack of respect for Defense Minister Amir Peretz, senior defense officials have told The Jerusalem Post.

According to the officials, Peretz's conduct as defense minister, his poor English and lack of familiarity with many of the sensitive issues have led some defense establishments around the world to slightly tone down relations with the Israeli Defense Ministry. Peretz, the officials noted, has also been distracted lately due to his significant involvement in his reelection campaign in the Labor Party primaries.

I think that's why he's likely to be voted out as head very soon. Not that his successors are likely to be much better, but Peretz, as far as I can tell, is done in politics.

SENATOR ROCKEFELLER: APPEASER; TRAITOR; POSTMODERNIST

NYTIMES:

The chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee is questioning whether the CIA's secret prison program -- which he fears has become a black eye to the United States -- should continue. ... Rockefeller says there is no doubt that intelligence from detainees has been valuable. Yet he says he wonders whether the CIA needed to create a system outside of long-standing FBI and military interrogation programs.

Rockefeller's spokeswoman, Wendy Morigi, said he has not been convinced that the CIA prisons produce better intelligence than the FBI and military systems.

''The real question is whether the administration's decision to pursue an alternate system (at the CIA) was the right approach,'' Rockefeller said in a statement Friday.

President Bush said he emptied the CIA's secret prisons in September and sent its last 14 high-value detainees to the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. But he left open the possibility that the program could be used again. ... Rockefeller has promised to conduct more vigorous oversight of the spy agencies than did his Republican predecessor. He is asking whether having a separate CIA detention and interrogation system is necessary and worth the toll on the U.S. image abroad.

''The widespread reports about secret prisons and torture, whether accurate or not, have damaged the United States' reputation around the world and hindered counterterrorism efforts with our allies,'' he said.

Human rights groups have argued for years that the CIA's detention and interrogation techniques amount to torture. The International Committee of the Red Cross is the only independent watchdog to interview the 14 detainees who were held by the CIA.

In a confidential report that has not been publicly distributed, the Red Cross said the 14 prisoners described highly abusive interrogation methods, especially when techniques such sleep deprivation and forced standing were used in combination. None of the detainees' accounts has been verified. ...

U.S. officials long have said the CIA program is for the most dangerous detainees and the CIA says its officers do not torture. ''The agency's terrorist interrogation program has been conducted lawfully, with great care and close review, producing vital information that has helped disrupt plots and save lives,'' CIA spokesman Mark Mansfield said.

MICHAEL SCHEUER - FORMER CHIEF OF THE BINLADEN DESK AT THE CIA, AND A VOCIFEROUS CRITIC OF THE IRAQ WAR, WHO SUBSCRIBES TO0 THE ANTI-SEMITIC "ISRAEL LOBBY" CONSPIRACY THEORY - HAS CALLED RENDITION THE SINGLE BEST TOOL IN THE GWOT, AND LAMENTS THAT APPEASERS LIKE ROCKEFELLER AND MCCAIN AND GRAHAM HAVE DEMOLISHED IT. SCHEUER SAYS IT HAS MADE US MUCH LESS SAFE.

NEVERTHELESS. APPEASERS LIKE ROCKEFELLER CARRY ON, PANDERING TO THEIR LOONIE-LEFTIES BASE, AND MAKING IT EASIER FOR THE ENEMY TO ATTACK US.

THEY HAVE OUTED THE NSA INTERCEPT PROGRAM, THE SWIFT PROGRAM, DEMOLISHED THE RENDITION SYSTEM, AND ARE NOW TRYING TO ELIMINATE THE CIA SECRET PRISONS.

WHO ARE THEY WORKING FOR!?!? THE ENEMIES OF THE USA AND OUR CIVILIAZATON. WHY!? BECAUSE AS POSTMODERNISTS THEY HATE MODERNITY AND THE JUDEO-CHRISTIAN WEST AS MUCH AS THE ENEMY.

OVERSIGHT SHOULD NEVER MEAN MAIING US FIGHT THE MOST RUTHLESS ENEMY OF ALL TIME WITH BOTH HANDS TIED BEHIND OUR BACKS.

I CALL ROCKEFELLER A POSTMODERNIST BECAUSE OF THIS QUOTE: ''The widespread reports about secret prisons and torture, whether accurate or not, have damaged the United States' reputation around the world and hindered counterterrorism efforts with our allies," ...

ROCKEFELLER DOESN'T CARE IF THEY ARE TRUE OR NOT BECAUSE AS A POSTMODERN LEFTIST HE DOESN'T BELIEVE IN OBJECTIVE TRUTH, JUST COMPETING NARRATIVES.

SO INSTEAD OF CORRECTING THE LIES AND DISTORTIONS ABOUT OUR CLANDESTINE EFFORTS, HE SEEKS TO MOLLIFY THESE WHO ARE PEEVED BY THE LIES AND DISTORTIONS - THE ENEMY AND HIS PARTY'S LOONIE-LEFTIE BASE.

AND THIS ASSHOLE IS THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SENATE INTEL COMMITTEE - DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE HAS - IN THE PAST - LEAKED SECRETS FROM THE FLOOR OF THE SENATE.

WE WILL NOT WIN IF WE KEEP FIGHTING THIS WAY.... THE DEMS KNOW IT; THAT'S WHAT THEY WANT!

I MEAN, HEY FOLKS: WHAT'S THE SOURCE OF THE CONTROVERSY HERE!?!? THE ENEMY CLAIMING WE'VE BEEN "HIGHLY ABUSIVE" OF THEM WHILE THEY'RE IN CUSTODY.

WELL, SO WHAT?! "HIGHLY ABUSIVE" IS NOT TORTURE. IN SIDING WITH THE ENEMY, THE LEFT COMMITS A LOGICAL FALLACY: CONFLATION; THEY CONFLATE ABUSIVENESS (LIKE SLEEP DEPRIVATION) WITH TORTURE.

WHY DO THEY DO THIS!? BECAUSE IT MAKES THE USA LOOK BAD, AND THAT'S THEIR FAVORITE THING IN LIFE - THAT AND BLAMING IT ON BUSHITLERHALLIBURTON-ISRAELI-ZIONIST-LIKUDNIK-EVANGELICAL-NASCAR-NEOCONS (TM).

The Democrat Plan for Our New Army

President Bush:

Today's action in the House does only one thing: it delays the delivering of vital resources for our troops. A narrow majority has decided to take this course, just as General Petraeus and his troops are carrying out a new strategy to help the Iraqis secure their capital city.

H/T Hot Air via Instapundit.

TO CELEBRATE THE MUSIC OF A GREAT MAN: BEETHOVEN

Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major, Op. 55 "Eroica"

When the Eroica ("Heroic") came along, it upended the musical world as everyone knew it, departing from the consolidation of Beethoven's first two symphonies and making a dramatic conquest of musical territory on its own terms.




It is in this work that the true voice of Beethoven is first heard. Such a dynamic impulse was provided by nothing less than the stimulus of post-Revolutionary France, where Napoleon Bonaparte, under the force of arms, had conquered and established a number of republics embodied after the model of classical Rome, a political ideal to which Beethoven was strongly attracted.

The symphony was initially written in honour of Napoleon, but in May 1804, upon hearing that Napoleon declared himself Emperor, Beethoven went into a rage and tore the title page up which bore Bonaparte's name.

The title page was rewritten with a new name and rather more ambiguous dedication: Sinfonia Eroica, Composed to Celebrate the Memory of a Great Man.

But the symphony owes its "heroic" nature to more than just its title: the music was of such character that the development of its musical ideas was so drawn out until the work was nearly twice as long as any previous symphony.

In addition to the furious exposition of the first movement, the second movement contained a sombre funeral march which is based on French influences of the period, particularly Cherubini's Hymne funébre sur la mort du Général Hoche of 1797. The last movement is a set of orchestral variations taken from Beethoven's ballet, The Creatures of Prometheus.

LISTEN TO IT - IN TWO 24 MINUTE PARTS.

VERBAL Child abuse??

Some Florida nuttiness:

"A bill (HB 1169) that expands the legal definition of child abuse to include abuse that results in 'mental injury' was approved unanimously Wednesday by the House Homeland Security and Public Safety Committee. It has two more committee hearings before it can go before the full House for a vote.

A similar bill (SB 2736) is filed in the Senate.

Bill drafters aimed to answer legal concerns about the right to free speech with exemptions for constitutionally protected speech, such as political speech.

'We're going to make sure that no other child suffers mental child abuse and we don't get a conviction,' the bill's sponsor, Rep. Gayle Harrell, R-Stuart, said before the committee vote.

Source

"Mental injury"? Almost anything could be said to cause that: All school discipline, for a start. Interested Participant has some appropriate comments.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

DRAT!

Yet another one of my websites has gone out of existence. Background: I have always had a website in webspace provided by my ISP but one does of course lose that if one changes to another ISP. And some ISP websites I have known have had big glitches that make them of only limited use. So I have always had "backup" websites with my writings on them. But the backup sites nearly all seem to be run by arrogant nerds who feel free to delete a customer's account any time they like. And they do like. I have never tried to keep track of it all but there must be about 10 addresses where my writings once appeared but which now just give an error message. The latest such is here.

I have enquired why the site just mentioned was deleted but got only a form-letter reply that gave me no clue about what my sin was in their eyes. The fact that I occasionally mention the most obscene four letter word of the modern age -- "r*ce" -- probably accounts for a lot of the cancellations I have had. Using that word makes me guilty of "hate speech" of course and webspace providers usually seem to have a "policy" about that. That I use the word in a scholarly way is obviously too deep a distinction for a lot of nerds.

The most reliable hosting service for me has in fact been blogspot -- though they go offline for a short while every now and then. Anyway, I cope with the unreliability of it all by putting up multiple copies of everything I write in different places on the net. So if my writings cease to be available in one place they will still be available somewhere else. The three "home pages" I list at the bottom of all postings here are all to sites that DO currently work most of the time and that do have most of my writings on them. So if at first you don't succeed, don't keep trying: try another one!

If blogspot ever bans me that will be pretty pesky (they DO delete blogs on "hate speech" grounds. See e.g. here) so keep handy a link to my only Wordpress blog -- IMMIGRATION WATCH -- in case that happens. I will use the Wordpress site to redirect readers to new non-blogspot sites in case that should ever be needed. The owners of blogspot are of course G*ogle -- which is why I generally mention their name in modified form only. I want to be as far below their radar as possible. They DO run searches to see what people are saying about them. There are around 1500 other blogs that link to Dissecting Leftism alone so all those links would become dead if blogspot got nasty with me.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

SHALIT, REGEV, GOLDWASSER AND THE 15 BRIT MARINE HOSTAGES TELL US A LOT ABOUT THE ENEMY

OUR JIHADIST ENEMY KIDNAPS AND RANSOMS OUR TROOPS, JUST LIKE THEY DID A THOUSAND YEARS AGO - BEFORE IRAQ OR ZIONISM. BEFORE BUSH OR HALLIBURTON. BEFORE THE INTERNAL COMBUSTION ENGINE, EVEN.

OUR JIHADIST ENEMY HAS NO MORALS, NO SCRUPLES AND HAS ALWAYS FOUGHT WITHOUT ANY REGARD FOR INTERNATIONAL LAW - LET ALONE CONVENTIONAL RULES OF WAR.

NO... THEY FOLLOW THE KORAN.

IT IS TIME WE FOUGHT BACK AS RUTHLESSLY.

(THE ONLY THING WRONG WITH THE IDF'S RECENT COUNTER-ATTACK AGAINST HIZB'ALLAH IN LEBANON IS THAT THEY DID NOT CONTINUE UNTIL THEY HAD COMPLETELY SMASHED HIZB'ALLAH AND GOT THEIR HOSTAGES BACK. THE BRITS SHOULD RESPOND TO IRAN'S PROVOCATION WITH AT LEAST AS MUCH FORCE AS THE IDF DID.)

THE LEFT: WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING

MUST SEE TV: 47 MINUTES OF A LONGER SPEECH BY EVAN SAYET.

HE'S A HOLLYWOOD HUMORIST/WRITER/PRODUCER WHO WAS A NY LEFTIE UNTIL 9/13/01.

IT'S A BREEZY/FUNNY INCISIVE 47 MINUTES WHICH FLIES BY. WTWT.

(VIA THE AMERICAN THINKER.)

"CONSPICUOUS VIRTUE" - WHAT REALLY DRIVES THE URGE TO BUY AN ORGANIC CARBON NEUTRAL PRIUS

RAGO OF THE WSJ NAILS IT (VIA ARMAVIRUMQUE):

To consume a virtuous good is to make a statement. It is not only to do right, whatever that might mean, but to announce that you are doing so. Thus we encounter the extreme specialization of virtuous consumption. ... Take Toyota's hybrid auto, the Prius. Studies consistently show that fuel savings do not justify the price premium of a gasoline-electric power train. People who can afford the gesture continue to buy the Prius anyway, largely because it certifies personal enlightenment in the matter of global warming.

ARMAVIRUMQUE'S STEFAN BECK CONTINUES:

I once saw a bumper sticker that read, “Character is what you do when no one’s looking.” A fine sentiment, poised as it is against the impulse to trumpet one’s every act of charity or “eco-consciousness.” Of course, putting said fine sentiment on your bumper is a handy way of suggesting the many virtuous things you do while no one’s looking, which kind of defeats the purpose.

In simpler times, religious folks were virtuous (in their behavior if not in their choice of automobiles) because they believed God was watching. Do those who practice today’s secular virtues believe that their fellow men are watching?

I THINK SO; THEY GET TO DISPLAY TO OTHERS THEIR POLITICAL CORRECTNESS, AS RAGO NOTES.

OR IS IT SOMETHING ELSE, SOMETHING MORE EGOCENTRIC? RTWT. BOTH.

PERSONALLY, I AGREE WITH THOSE WHO SAY THAT THE ECO-NUTSIES ARE PRACTICING A FORM OF PAGAN RELIGION - A RELIGION WHICH THE POSTMODERN LEFT FINDS ACCEPTABLE: WORSHIPING THE EARTH.

GAIA WORSHIP HAS BECOME A CENTRAL WAY POSTMODERNISTS EXPRESS HOW THEY REVILE HUMANS IN GENERAL, BUT ESPECIALLY CAPITALIST, INDUSTRIALIST, JUDEO-CHRISTIAN/WESTERN HUMANS.

MORE ON HOW THE PRIUS IS A TOTAL SHAM (LIKE MOST OF THE ECO-NUTSIE PRGRAM) HERE.

[NOTE: NO ANIMALS WERE TESTED IN WRITING THIS POST. HEH.]

HOUSE DEFEATOCRATS PROVE WHY LEGISLATORS MAKE LOUSY PRESIDENTS

The bill the Defeatocrats in the House passed was all about putting partisan politics and political posing above our national security and ahead of the safety and effectiveness of our troops serviong in harm's way.

The Defeatocrats would rather send a message of APPEASEMENT to their LOONY LEFT BASE - and the JIHADIST ENEMY, than do what is responsible.

And they think they can get away with it because they KNOW that Bush will veto it.

This is why the vote was the HEIGHT OF POLITICAL CYNICISM AND BLATANT PANDERING.

And it is par for the course in a legislature which is usually more focused on how votes PLAY in the home district, than how they play out in the world at large.

Presidents - and governors - have to make many real hard decisions, and their decisions are not merely votes on bills: EXECUTIVE decisions have serious repercussions in the REAL WORLD, and effect REAL PEOPLE.

Voters instinctively knows this. That's why the USA has elected so few legislators to the presidency. GOOD THING! If this remains true in 2008, it means that only Rudy and Romney have a real chance at winning the WH for the GOP, and only Bill Richardson has a chance at winning it for the Dems. (Or John Warner shouod he decide to get back into the race.)

BTW: Bush's response was GRRRRRRREAT! EXCERPT:

As I have made clear for weeks, I will veto it if it comes to my desk. And because the vote in the House was so close, it is clear that my veto would be sustained. Today's action in the House does only one thing: it delays the delivering of vital resources for our troops. A narrow majority has decided to take this course, just as General Petraeus and his troops are carrying out a new strategy to help the Iraqis secure their capital city.

Amid the real challenges in Iraq, we're beginning to see some signs of progress. Yet, to score political points, the Democratic majority in the House has shown it is willing to undermine the gains our troops are making on the ground.

Democrats want to make clear that they oppose the war in Iraq. They have made their point. For some, that is not enough. These Democrats believe that the longer they can delay funding for our troops, the more likely they are to force me to accept restrictions on our commanders, an artificial timetable for withdrawal, and their pet spending projects. This is not going to happen.

BRAVO! courtesy of Miss LMC video of Bush:

MORE PROOF FROM THAILAND: WW4 = GLOBAL JIHAD

GATES OF VIENNA:

Can we compare the effects of the Iraq and Thai insurgencies? Probably. The population disparity between the USA and Thailand means, in my opinion, that the impact on Thailand of a single death in the southern insurrection is almost five times as great as the impact on the USA of the death of a single US warrior in Iraq. If we multiply Thai deaths by 4.5 in order to show what is happening to Thailand, we can see how the suffering of the two nations actually compares:

USA: 2,619
Thailand: 9,363

Adjusting for population size allows us to get some insight into the true level of Thailand’s misery.

Now consider the duration of each conflict, remembering that the USA has been in Iraq almost a year longer than the violence in Thailand has persisted:

USA, actual deaths per month, four years: 55
Thailand, adjusted deaths per month, 37 months: 253

RELIAPUNDIT: THE THAI JIHAD IS MORE VIOLENT THAT THE IRAQ JIHAD. AND IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH JEWS OR ISRAEL OR HALLIBURTON OR BUSH OR NEOCONS... IT'S GLOBAL JIHAD, STUPID!

THE THAI JIHAD IS MORE VIOLENT THAT THE IRAQ JIHAD: AND YET, THE DEFEAT-O-CRATS, AND THEIR COMRADES IN THE EU AND THE UN, ARE SILENT. DO YOU WONDER WHY!? IT'S SIMPLE: NEITHER THE USA OR ISRAEL ARE INVOLVED. WHICH PROVES THE "ANTI-WAR" CROWD IS REALLY ANTI-AMERICA AND ANTI-ISRAEL.

RTWT.

TONY SNOW AND ELIZABETH EDWARDS

I'm sure everyone was dismayed as was I to learn yesterday that Elizabeth Edwards cancer has spread and is no longer curable. Breast cancer is so curable now that women often get treated and go on to live long, normal lives. So I was saddened to learn that Edwards' cancer had spread. I pray that she is able to live a fulfilling life with the years that she has left and that she might outlive what is expected for her. I don't agree with her husband's politics and still don't think the man has a prayer of getting the Dem nomination but I wish her well in her personal life.

Tony Snow's Doctors are taking a precaution and removing a growth in his abdomen because of his previous colon cancer. He urged people not to overreact about the news and is being his usual optimistic self. The growth is probably not a recurrence of the cancer but the Doctors don't want to take any chances. Deputy press secretary Dana Perino will fill in for him while he is recovering.

I applaud both Tony Snow and Elizabeth Edward's optimism and wish both of them Godspeed!!

WORLD WAR III, ANYBODY?

I've been waiting for the Islamofascist idiots of the world to make the fatal mistake. It looks like they might have finally done so:

The Government is demanding the "immediate and safe return" of 15 British sailors and Marines seized at gunpoint by Iranian forces. They were taking part in a routine operation boarding merchant ships in Iraqi territorial waters when they were taken captive by Iranian naval vessels. The sailors and Marines had completed a successful inspection of one ship, reportedly a dhow, when the group and their two boats were surrounded. They were then escorted by Iranian vessels into its territorial waters. ...

The men, from the Type 22 frigate HMS Cornwall, were seized in the Shatt Al Arab waterway. The Royal Navy insists they were operating in Iraqi waters and not Iranian territory. It is thought the operation was part of a crackdown on smugglers. The commanding officer of HMS Cornwall, Commodore Nick Lambert told Sky News: "I have got 15 sailors and Marines who have been arrested by the Iranians.

"My immediate concern is that their safety and their safe return to me is ensured." A Ministry of Defence spokesman said: "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level. The British Government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment."

The Iranian ambassador was later summoned to the Foreign Office to discuss the incident. It is not the first time British servicemen have run up against Iranian forces in the troubled waters between Iran and Iraq.

Eight men were seized and detained after three patrol boats were said to have strayed into the Iranian side of the Shatt al Arab waterway in July 2004. They were later released. Analysts have told Sky News that such cases are normally resolved peacefully. The latest incident comes at a time of renewed tensions with Iran over Tehran's nuclear program. It also coincides with fresh claims of Iranian interference in Iraq - UK commanders say Iran is arming and funding insurgents attacking British troops.

I hope to God this war is finally going to break out into its reality. The truth is, our problems are primarily with Iran and Saudi Arabia. Afghanistan and Iraq were merely strategic way-stations on the road to destroying our real enemies.

Please God, please, let this be Iran's fatal mistake. Bye bye, Mahmoud.

KADIMA FACES ANOTHER SCANDAL

The government minister suspected of illegal activities this time is one Abraham Hirchson, minister of finance, but maybe not much longer, now that he too has come under investigation for embezzlement and bribery scams:

Kadima has already begun seeking out an appropriate replacement for Finance Minister Abraham Hirchson, in light of suspicions that he was involved in the embezzlement of funds from a non-profit organization and received a monetary bribe. It is unclear whether or not Hirchson will resign over the incident.

For the time being, his office is carrying on as usual and their official response is that the minister has no intentions of resigning from his post.

However, according to Ynetnews, his associates said Wednesday, "Hirchson's situation is complicated. It's unclear yet where he'll be when all the investigations are over."

I think by now it's coming closer and closer to where Hirchson will have to step down. If anything, this just shows how Kadima is crumbling one by one.

Those 8 fired prosecutors again

The Congressional Democrats are making a big fuss at the moment about the firing of 8 U.S. prosecutors by Attorney General Gonzales. They say they smell a rat in it. I have been covering the matter mainly on my Immigration Watch blog and it now seems clear that I was right to do so. The firing was apparently part of a generally stepped-up recent effort by the Bush administration to enforce the immigration laws. The crackdown has never been publicly announced because to do so would be to admit that enforcement had been neglected up to that point. To follow the matter on my Immigration Watch blog go here, here and here in that order. So the Democrats are just defending part of their criminal clientele -- as usual.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Sharia Law in Deutschland? Not yet . . .

The press, the Secretary General of the CDU, a spokesman for the opposition Greens, and even the Central Council of Muslims in Germany have condemned a local German judge who threw out a Moroccan immigrant woman's suit for divorce from her abusive husband because the judge decided that "Islamic law allowed a man to strike his wife."

AFP reported:

The woman had filed for immediate divorce on the grounds that the husband, also of Moroccan origin, regularly beat her and threatened to kill her. The claims were backed up by a police report.

But the female judge, who has not been named, made clear in a letter that the wife's bid had little chance of approval because, according to her, Islamic law allowed a man to strike his wife.

Despite the chorus of disapproval, and a Frankfurt court's decision to accept a claim of bias against the judge, her injudicious opinion shows that there are in fact German officials who are willing to acknowledge that Sharia Law, rather than German Law, should govern the lives of Muslims living in Germany.

O tempora! O mores!

FRENCH COURT ACQUITS CHARLIE HEBDO IN PUBLISHING THE MOHAMMED CARTOONS

Excellent news concerning an important case. CNN has the news on the French weekly's good news (via Hot Air):

A French court on Thursday ruled in favor of a satirical weekly that had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, rejecting accusations by Islamic groups who said the publication incited hatred against Muslims.

The court said the cartoons published by the weekly Charlie Hebdo were covered by freedom of expression laws and did not constitute an attack on Islam in general but fundamentalists.

I think one of the important factors leading to the aquittal was Nicholas Sarkozy's own aid, which he gave to the paper earlier.

The AFP reports that there was applause at the ruling:

Applause broke out in the courtroom at the announcement of the verdict, which ruled that three cartoons published by the weekly Charlie Hebdo in February 2006 were not insulting to Muslims.

The applause was for a good cause.

See CO2?

Thanks to Eric at Classical Values I have come across some very interesting numbers about CO2.

Let us start at the beginning. Before the advent of fuel burning industry the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 288 parts per million (ppm). By the year 2000 man had added 11.88 ppm to that total and nature has added 68.52 ppm to the total. Which means that if the effect is linear (it is not for reasons I won't go into here) and man has added about 15% of the CO2 that has been added to the atmosphere and the temperature rise has been about 1.1 deg F (.6 deg C). Then man made CO2 has been responsible for at most about .15 deg F (.1 deg C) of climate change. Which fits in well with Nir Shaviv's analysis, which says that solar variations accounts for .9 deg F (.5 deg C) of global warming.

That is the best case for the global warming guys. Because parts of the argument are wrong. It assumes that the whole of the warming is caused by CO2. For the sake of argument let us say that the solar contribution is 80%. That would mean that the increase in CO2 is responsible for about .22 deg F (.1 deg C) of the global warming. Man's contribution would then be 15% of that or about .033 deg F or (.015 deg C).

I wonder if any one has told Al Gore?

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

NEW SCIENTIFIC DATA DESTROY CONSENSUS ON SUN

CNN:

X-ray images taken from a new international spacecraft show that the sun's magnetic field is much more turbulent than scientists knew, NASA reported Wednesday....

"These images will open a new era of study on some of the sun's processes that affect Earth, astronauts, orbiting satellites and the solar system."

The scientists said they were surprised and delighted by the findings.

"It's going to put us in a whole new realm of understanding," Golub told a news conference.

"Everything we thought we knew about X-ray images of the sun is out of date."

Scientists still do not fully understand the Sun - or its effect on Earth's climate. More and more there is evidence that space is not an empty vacuum in which our atmosphere sits - but filled with energy which effects our weather and climate MORE THAN MAN-MADE CO2.

THE END OF BRITAIN AS WE KNEW IT

Greenie madness in full flight:

Householders who keep putting out their bins on the wrong day could be caught out by secret spy cameras hidden in tin cans and bricks and branded "envirocriminals". Ealing Council in west London is using the hidden cameras to catch people committing "major envirocrimes" such as graffiti and fly-tipping on main roads. However council tax payers who put out their bins on the wrong day could also be caught up in the push. The cameras, which cost around œ200 each, are triggered by built-in movement sensors. The council, which is Conservative controlled, said in a newsletter to local residents: "To catch vandals and envirocriminals, cameras disguised as anything from tin cans to house bricks will instantly email images to the council's CCTV control centre."

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, DISSECTING LEFTISM, and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page.

'Hate Crimes' Bill Reintroduced

We read:

"Liberals call it a "hate crimes prevention" bill, but conservatives denounce it as "anti-Christian" legislation. Whatever you call it, the bill is back -- reintroduced by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.) on Tuesday. Liberals are pressing for passage, and conservatives are pressing President Bush to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.

"If there was ever a bill which needed to be vetoed -- this is it," said Traditional Values Coalition Executive Director Andrea Lafferty. "Most Christians might as well rip the pages which condemn homosexuality right out of their Bibles because this bill will make it illegal to publicly express the dictates of their religious beliefs."

Lafferty and other conservatives argue that the bill will "elevate homosexuality" -- a type of behavior, they stipulate -- to the same level as race and other characteristics that can't be changed. "The fact is that Conyers' so-called hate crimes bill is a fraud, designed for only one purpose: to add homosexuals, cross-dressers, drag queens and transsexuals to the ranks of federally protected minority groups," TVC said.

Source

Insofar as the bill targets speech, it would probably be unconstitutional but it is clear that any avoidance of homosexuals -- such as rejecting one as a carer or teacher or church-member or customer -- would become criminal. Comment from The ACLU. They don't go near the apparent fact that the bill will create new crimes. They pretend that it will just extend to the Feds prosecutorial powers already held by the States.

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, DISSECTING LEFTISM.

MUSLIM VERSUS NON-MUSLIM STRIFE KILLS 15,000 IN NIGERIA SINCE 1999

YUP: 15,000 SINCE 1999, AND THE WORLD IS SILENT.

THAT'S MORE THAN ISRAEL VERSUS THE JIHADISTS.

AND READ THIS; (BBC):

Nigeria teacher dies 'over Koran'

Secondary school pupils in north-eastern Nigeria have killed a teacher after apparently accusing her of desecrating the Koran, police say. The teacher, a Christian, was attacked after supervising an exam in Gombe city. It is not clear what she had done to anger the students. The authorities, concerned that communal unrest could break out, have ordered all the city's schools to shut.

Similar accusations sparked riots in neighbouring Bauchi State last year.

At least 15,000 people have been killed in religious, communal or political violence since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999.

Communal unrest my ass: this is jihad.

THE FACT THAT THERE HAS BEEN THIS LEVEL OF VIOLENCE IN NIGERIA FOR 8 YEARS - WITHOUT A SINGLE UNSC RESOLUTION, OR THE EU AND THE USA CONVENING A "QUARTET" PROVES HOW RAMPANT AND IMPLICIT ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE WORLD REALLY IS.

DITTO THE HINDU-MUSLIM STRIFE IN INDIA: MORE PEOPLE HAVE DIED THERE SINCE 1948 - OR SINCE 1999 - THAN IN ISRAELI-ARAB WARS, BUT NOBODY CARES. NO OUTRAGE. NO SHUTTLE DIPLOMACY. KOFI AND CHIRAN SAID NOT A WORD.

MAYBE JEWS SHOULD START TELLING PEOPLE THEY'RE HINDUS OR CHRISTIANS OR ANIMISTS, THEN NOBODY WOULD CARE.

INSTEAD WE GET DECADES AND DECADES OF UN RESOLUTION AFTER UN RESOLUTION, AND NON-STOP ACCUSATIONS AGAINST ISRAEL THAT SHE IS RESPONSIBLE FOR INCITING THE GLOBAL JIHAD.

THIS IS TOTAL ANTI-SEMITIC BS.

GANG RAPE IN OSLO

No - this post isn't about the Middle East peace process. It's about a group of 7 Somali men who drugged a 20 year old Somali woman and her boyfriend and then gang raped her. The victim was drugged so heavily she cannot remember everything, but the perpetrators called their friends from their mobil telephones and invited them to join in. This made the police work easy as cake. The police say they are accustomed to these gang rapes...usually with 4 or 5 men but 7 men is worst they have experienced. After reporting the crime to the police, the young lady has received numerous death threats from the Somali community. Interesting culture...

MEMO TO UC IRVINE MUSLIMS: THE ABILITY TO USE AN ADJECTIVE DOESN'T MAKE YOU LESS OF A VICIOUS, BIGOTED ANTI-SEMITE [VIDEO]

We're sick to death of this argument. Listen.

If you're a vicious anti-Semitic bigot and you hatefully spit out the phrase "Zionist Jew", your ability to use a modifier doesn't make you less of a vicous anti-Semitic bigot. We know you mean "Jew". You know you mean "Jew". Your audience knows you mean "Jew". Examples from Radio Islam, home of UC Irvine Muslim Student Union favorite Abdul Malik:

"Zionist Jew Pehr Gyllenhammar"? You mean "Jew Pehr Gyllenhammar". "Zionist Jew Haim Saban"? You mean "Jew Haim Saban". "Douglas Feith - Zionist Jew"? You mean "Douglas Feith - Jew". Why not just come right out and say it? Are you afraid that you won't get invited to UC Irvine's campus any more:

Or that when you are invited, you won't have Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Manuel Gomez insisting that your vicious hate speech is educational? Don't be so worried. We seriously doubt that radical Muslims could do anything to draw the administration's ire at this point. When they've screamed down speakers they don't like and then gotten congratulated for contributing to free speech... well, that's about all anyone needs to know.

Vicious bigots.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

THAT THING ABOUT THE US PROMISING TO BOYCOTT THE HAMAS GOVERNMENT? THEY LIED.

We're already skeptical that a ten percent increase in aid is the same thing as a boycott. But it's still amazing to see how quickly the State Department will rush to legitimize genocidal maniacs:

A top US diplomat met Tuesday with Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayaad, the first American contact with a member of the new Palestinian government, Palestinian officials said. The meeting signaled a break in policy between Israel and the US, its closest ally. Israel has announced a boycott of the new Hamas-Fatah coalition because of the coalition's failure to accept international calls to renounce violence and explicitly recognize the Jewish state's right to exist.

This is a day after Hamas signaled that they were going back to terrorism in their attempts to wipe out the Jewish state. If you're a anti-Israel terrorist, you can be as insane and anti-Semitic as you want. If you just outright refuse to even consider compromise, the world will eventually just sigh and accept your genocidal goal as a legitimate starting point for negotiation. And then you can blame Israel for not negotiating and giving you a chance - even though you admit outright that you'll never accept Israel and openly boast that past concessions have only strengthened your military position.

Read an extended version of this post at Mere Rhetoric...

DEMOCRAT = CLOSEMINDED

According to the danish press, Bjorn Lomborg was ignored by Democrats on the committee that invited him to testify, after Al Gore, about "Global Warming" in Washington yesterday. It is absurd to conduct hearings and not listen to all the witnesses! Unless you have already made up your mind. Then the hearing can be the selfpromoting charade we see so much of in politics these days.

Fusion Newsgroup

I have just started an IEC Fusion newsgroup.

IEC stands for Inertial Electrostatic Confinement. Devices like the Farnsworth Fusor or Dr Bussard's Polywell machine. It will cover technology. Research advances (or set backs). Financing more research. etc.

For starters here is a message from the second person to join the group Tom Ligon:

MSimon, you successfully dragged me over from NASASpaceFlight.com. Helps that I just joined a Yahoo bicycling group and had not yet forgotten my user name and password!

For the newcomers, I worked for R. W. Bussard on his fusion project for over 5 years, and think he's figured out how to save the world. I am a science fiction author for Analog, and wrote a fact article [pdf-ed.] for them on IEC that won an Analab award for 1998.

I'm sometimes credited, due to that article, with starting the amateur fusion movement centered on fusor.net, but actually that was mostly the doing of Richard Hull. I got Richard started, then he turned it into a movement. Writing that article was Dr. Bussard's idea.

If the subject interests you and you would like to be kept up to date go to IEC Fusion and join up. We will be happy to have you.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

DEMOCRAT JOE SESTAK GETS INTO TROUBLE FOR RECOGNIZING CAIR

Jonathan Tobin writes that Democratic Congressman Joe Sestak has gotten himself into hot water over his willingness to appear at a CAIR fundraiser meeting. He's from the suburbs of Philadelphia, where I used to live, but would I have voted for him? No way.

HOW DO YOU SOLVE A PROBLEM LIKE ROSIE?

So many thoughts come to mind when I think of Rosie. I'm a big fan and proponent of people being themselves, speaking their mind and being real. Somehow Rosie manages to do that in the most offensive way possible and it isn't admirable. I was trying to gather my thoughts about her and I realized it isn't just the ignorant, idiotic, left-wing political comments that offend me but so many others as well.

She accused Kelly Ripa of being homophobic for not liking the fact that Clay Aiken put his hand over her mouth. First of all, Kelly Ripa seems to me to be one of the sweetest women in TV and she didn't deserve this ridiculous, personal attack. Second, I'm sorry, but I wouldn't care who they were, but someone who has the audacity to put their mouth over my hand while I'm hosting a show would tick me off too. It had nothing to do with him being gay, it was just an inappropriate thing for him to do and Ripa didn't like it.

Rosie just seems to say whatever comes to her mind and the problem with that is ugly, unfair and ignorant things are what apparently comes to her mind on a regular basis. She doesn't ever do her homework on the subjects she spouts off about and she attacks people that don't deserve to be attacked.

Her latest incident just shows how ignorant and scary she really is. Most rational women probably don't watch The View (I don't) but Walters would be smart to dump Rosie for someone who is more informed and a little less abrasive. Rosie is like a bulldozer who just runs over anyone and anything that gets in her way. She isn't open to rational debate, she isn't a team player and would probably fit in better as a blogger with The Daily Kos and/or a talk show host on Air America.

WHAT THE HELL HAS HAPPENED TO AL GORE?

Centrist Al Gore circa 2000

Al Gore circa 2007

Seven short years, and the man has melted like a candle.

What the heck happened?

It must be Global Warming.




Reliapundit adds: He looks like he went over to the darkside of the Force.

LITTLE CAR = BIG POLLUTER: THE TOYOTA PRIUS: A PHONY ICON, AND MORE PROOF OF AGW HUCKSTERISM

THE RECORDER/(VIA PJM):

Building a Toyota Prius causes more environmental damage than a Hummer that is on the road for three times longer than a Prius. ... When you pool together all the combined energy it takes to drive and build a Toyota Prius, the flagship car of energy fanatics, it takes almost 50 percent more energy than a Hummer - the Prius’s arch nemesis.

Through a study by CNW Marketing called “Dust to Dust,” the total combined energy is taken from all the electrical, fuel, transportation, materials (metal, plastic, etc) and hundreds of other factors over the expected lifetime of a vehicle. The Prius costs an average of $3.25 per mile driven over a lifetime of 100,000 miles - the expected lifespan of the Hybrid.

The Hummer, on the other hand, costs a more fiscal $1.95 per mile to put on the road over an expected lifetime of 300,000 miles. That means the Hummer will last three times longer than a Prius and use less combined energy doing it.

HUH!? A WUTTA!? BUT THE ECO-NUTSIES OF THE LEFT WANT US ALL TO DRIVE HYBRIDS LIKE THIS, NO!?! SHEESH.

THE LEFT: WRONG ABOUT EVERYTHING!
THE LEFT: IDIOTARIAN HYPOCRITICAL PHONIES.
THE LEFT: PROPOSING "ANTIDOTES" WHICH ARE WORSE THAN THE ILLNESS!

PROOF THAT MEXICO HAS FINALLY JOINED THE WAR ON NARCOTICS SMUGGLING:

BBC:

The number of police deaths in Mexico in incidents involving organised crime has jumped 50% this year, according to official statistics. At least 61 police officers have been killed in Mexico since the year began. The increase in police deaths follows a crackdown on drug-related violence by the Mexican government.

THIS INCREASE IS BECAUSE THE MEXICAN GOV'T IS FINALLY COUNTER-ATTACKING.

Addiction might have a genetic component, but it can no more excuse bad behavior than a diathesis for rape can excuse rape; (we would never make rape legal because most who commit it have a genetic diathesis for sexual aggression/predation. Nor would we legalize serial murder if we found a gene for a predisposition for psychopathic/sociopathological multiple homicide).

Genetic diatheses can only serve as a basis for treatment, and cannot logically argue for legalization - in my opinion. M. Friedman and M. Simon disagree - maybe one of them will weigh in...

TRIBAL STRATEGY: STILL WORKING

BBC:

Pakistan rebel clash 'kills 100'

At least 100 people have been killed in three days of clashes between local and foreign militants in Pakistan, Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao has said.

Mr Sherpao told the BBC that dozens more had been wounded in heavy fighting near Wana in the South Waziristan tribal area close to the Afghan border.

Officials say that most of those killed since Monday were Uzbek fighters with suspected al-Qaeda links.

THE TRIBES IN NORTHWESTERN PAKISTAN ARE KILLING AL QAEDA - JUST AS THE SUNNI TRIBES ARE IN ANBAR/IRAQ. WHEN MUSHARRAF SIGNED THE TRIBAL ACCORDS, WE AT T.A.B. WERE ALONE IN CORRECTLY ANALYZING THIS STRATEGY CORRECTLY, WHILE OTHERS WHINED.

PSEUDO-PEACENIKS: "SOCIALISM UBER ALLES"

This is my favorite sign from PROTEST WARRIOR, (hat tip Little Miss Chatterbox).

NEED PROOF? HERE: The March 17, 2007 "anti-war protest" in DC was sponsored by ANSWER.

When we resist jihad, ANSWER calls it "imperialism."

When jihadis use children as decoys so their car-bombs can successfully commit genocide, they call it "resistance."

The Left - wrong about everything:

Vietnam; WW3; the Pershing deployments in Europe; WW4, tax cuts; Welfare Reform, NAFTA; Gun Control; offshore oil-drilling; socialized healthcare; anthropogenic global warming; affirmative action; immigration; gay marriage; "late term" abortion; SDI; NMD; the Patriot Act; the NSA Intercept Program; Gitmo; Rendition; the SWIFT data collection; the Afghan War; the Iraq War; Arafat & The Oslo Accords; and so on and so forth...

If Leftists supported actually attaining good results, then they'd abandon their Leftism and join the Hayekian Revolution. But the Left is more attached to their ideology than any good results. They continue to hold on to their Leftism even though their hideous ideology has ONLY spawned societies with less liberty and fewer rights, AND decreasing prosperity AND increasingly impossible to pay "entitlements." Truly, socialism is the road to serfdom...

Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Pol Pot, Fidel, Mugabe. Kim Il Sung/Kim Jong Il - socialists all. Failures all - except at genocide, blaming the USA, and taking over the bureaucracies, the academy and the MSM.

CNN/REUTERS: " Black-white life expectancy gap shrinking"

CNN/REUTERS:

The life expectancy gap between whites and African-Americans in the U.S. has narrowed since 1993 ... The black-white gap in U.S. life expectancy narrowed throughout the 1970s and early 1980s but widened from 1984 through the early 1990s. It began to narrow again from about 1994 to today, Harper and his team note in the March 21 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. ... Homicide was the key contributing factor to the life expectancy gap among males for most of the study period, but by 2003 heart disease had become the leading factor, followed by homicide, HIV and infant deaths. ... Sharp declines in HIV and homicide deaths accounted for 55 percent of the reduction of the mortality gap between 1993 and 2003, the researchers found, while declines in death from unintentional injuries accounted for 16 percent.

SO... BLACKS ARE LIVING LONGER, (AND THEY'RE ALSO OWNING MORE HOMES - AND THE INCOME GAP HAS NARROWED, TOO). HMMM... I BLAME BUSH? HEH.

A Helpful Bunch

Popular Science looks at Thiago Olson's fusion reactor.

How did he do it? Olson pored over graduate-level physics textbooks, studied vacuum-pump manufacturers’ manuals, and scoured the Web for cheap parts. Though mostly self-taught, he occasionally solicited advice on a fusion Web site. Once, he posted photos of a cheap photomultiplier tube he’d bought online because he had no idea how to rig it up. Another fusioneer on the site who had the same model promptly told him which wires went where. Amateur nuclear engineers are, it seems, a helpful bunch.

Yes we are.

THE COMING GLOBAL COOLING?

Those pesky Chinese!:

An article has appeared in a recent issue of Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics with a curious title "Multi-scale analysis of global temperature changes and trend of a drop in temperature in the next 20 years."

Wow, that's a mouthful! Imagine publishing a paper in a respected, peer-reviewed scientific journal in which you predict global cooling over the next few decades? Apparently, the authors were not moved by the 46.6 million websites found when doing a quick search of the internet for "global warming." The article was produced by Lin Zhen-Shan and Sun Xian of the Nanjing Normal University in China (obviously, English is not their first language, if you couldn't tell from the title, and some of the following quotes from their article are a bit awkward).

The work was funded by the Chinese National Science Foundation, and not by coal interests in China. We have no reason to suspect that Zhen-Shan and Xian are puppets of any group with any interest in denying global warming in the coming decades.

Zhen-Shan and Xian gathered temperature data for the globe, the Northern Hemisphere, and 10 regions in China from 1881 to 2002; the datasets they chose are the same ones used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). They also gathered data for atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations over the same 1881 to 2002 period, and again, they selected the data commonly used by climate scientists throughout the world. Anyone criticizing their conclusions would be hard-pressed to argue that Zhen-Shan and Xian used inappropriate data sets.....

Figure 1 is a decomposition of the global temperature record since 1881 and it indicates that global temperature variation contains "four quasi-period oscillations on various timescales and a trend of larger timescale in the last century." They note that "IMF3 with quasi 20-year periodicity oscillation and IMF4 with quasi 60-year periodicity oscillation in global" temperature "have been decreasing since the year 2000. Hence, we consider that global temperature will witness a drop on 20-60-year timescales in the following 20 years." They reproduced the analyses for the Northern Hemisphere and the 10 regions in China and find much of the same, and in fact, they argue that the cooling in China is already well underway since 2000.



The global mean temperature is decomposed into four intrinsic mode functions (IMF) and a trend by EMD method. The first IMF is 3-4-year period. The second IMF has 6-8-year period. The third IMF corresponds to 20-year period. The fourth IMF contains 60-year cycles. The Res indicates larger timescale oscillation (from Zhen-Shan and Xian, 2007)

Through more statistical wizardry, they found "the contribution of CO2 concentration to global temperature variation is no more than 40.19%, or in other words, 59.81% of the weight of global temperature variation is caused by non-greenhouse effect." ....

They were on a roll and they continued stating "The global climate warming is not solely affected by the CO2 greenhouse effect. The best example is temperature obviously cooling however atmospheric CO2 concentration is ascending from 1940s to 1970s. Although the CO2 greenhouse effect on global climate changes is unsuspicious, it could have been excessively exaggerated. It is high time to re-consider the global climate changes."

More here

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Victory for Free Expression at San Francisco State University

No Punishment for Stepping on Hamas, Hezbollah Flags:

"In a crucial victory for free expression, San Francisco State University (SFSU) announced yesterday that its College Republicans will face no punishment for hosting an anti-terrorism rally at which participants stepped on makeshift Hezbollah and Hamas flags. SFSU's decision comes after months of pressure from the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), national and local media, and the public-all of which called on the school to uphold the students' constitutionally guaranteed right to free expression.

"We are relieved that SFSU has come to its senses and recognized that it cannot punish students for constitutionally protected expression," FIRE President Greg Lukianoff said. "But the fact remains that the university should never have investigated or tried them in the first place. This was a protected act of political protest and it is impossible to believe the university did not know that from the start."

SFSU's shameful attack on free expression began after an October 17, 2006 anti-terrorism rally at which several members of the College Republicans stepped on pieces of paper they had painted to resemble Hamas and Hezbollah flags.

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Page. Email me (John Ray) here.)

PROTEST WARRIOR SIGNS

Check out these AWESOME signs at the Protest Warrior site.

They are tired of anti-war protesters, click here to read their mission statement.

I'll be sure to add their site to my blogroll.

ANOTHER EAGLES VIDEO

This is an EXCELLENT, comprehensive video by Michelle Malkin about the Gathering of Eagles event. She interviews numerous veterans and it brought tears to my eyes. I don't know how Malkin has the time to do all she does but she does it all well. I think this event was a watershed moment for our side. As Malkin says:

"The silent majority is silent no more."

As I was watching the anti-war protesters I couldn't help but wonder if the average IQ of their side would have to be half of those on the other side. They just seem to be clueless, narcissistic, conspiracy theorists.

AL GORE: ANTHROPOGENIC GLOBAL WARMING HUCKSTER

AL GORE:

Put simply, humans have destroyed the Earth. While some blame cow poots and others point to solar storms, I know for a fact that the Chevy Impala behind me -- and millions of vehicles like it -- are solely, completely responsible for warming the Earth.

... Scientists tell us that over the next five years, sea levels will rise by as much as three hundred feet. ... When that happens, millions of folks like you and me will have to leave their Malibu beach homes and migrate to the Midwest. Yes. They'll have to immigrate to... ... ... Red states. No tofu. No pet spas. And lots of pickup trucks. Oh, the humanity. ...

But there's a way you can make a difference.
We've found a way that you can pollute all you want.
Yep, you heard me right. Pollute all you want.
... With our amazing new product, Carbon Offsets™, you can pollute guilt-free!

RTWT. IT'S HILARIOUS. AND HAS PICTURES!

THAILAND: More Proof That Appeasement Just Invites More Terror

CT: 6 Months After the Thai Coup, Islamist Insurgency is Raging

Last week a group of militants in southern Thailand threw a small bomb in front of a small passenger van, disabling it, opened the side door, and shot all nine passengers, including three women and a young girl, execution style. Though several suspects have been arrested, the attack was reminiscent of the savagery of Algeria or Kashmir, and portends a bloody year in the restive south. The attack was also the latest in a string of more audacious and provocative attacks from Muslim insurgents.

Few realize the extent of the conflict in the south. So many have bought into the Thai government’s complacency and general sense of denial. The conflict in southern Thailand dwarfs any other conflict in Southeast Asia. ... More than 2,100 people have been killed in 38 months, and the government has proven completely incapable of responding to the situation and stemming the violence. That has given the insurgents considerable momentum, and caused a greater number of moderate Muslim civilians to be more supportive of the insurgents. ...

While the justification and rationale for the coup is still debated, people across the political spectrum placed considerable hope that the Council on National Security (CNS) and the government that they installed would do a better job than the Thaksin administration in stemming the violence.

Yet, the exact opposite has been true: the daily average rate of killing has more than tripled in the past six months, from 1.6 people a day in 2006 to almost four per day. Over 400 people, roughly 19 percent of the 2,100 people killed since January 2004 have died since the coup. Attacks have become more sophisticated and coordinated. Sadly the junta leaders remain oblivious to the reality on the ground and show precious little resolve in dealing with the insurgency, they remain mired in petty political squabbles in Bangkok and blind to the reports from their field commanders.

Besides the dramatic escalation in the number of people killed, there have been six discernable trends since the coup.

RTWT. ROUND UP HERE.

MORE ISLAMO-MISOGYNY - THIS TIME IN FRANCE: Muslim Husband Tears His Wife's Eyes Out

FRANCE:

Mohamed Hadfi, 31, tore out his 23-year-old wife Samira Bari's eyes following a heated argument in their apartment in the southern French city of Nimes in July 2003 after she refused to have sex with him. Ms Bari, who had demanded a divorce before the attack, was permanently blinded.

Hadfi, a Moroccan, initially fled to Germany. He was finally arrested and sent back to France, where he was indicted for "acts of torture and barbarity leading to a permanent disability".

Prosecutor Dominique Tourette demanded that Hadfi be sentenced to 30 years in prison, two thirds of which must be served in full, calling the defendant a "diabolic torturer". Once his sentence is served, Hadfi will be deported and barred from ever returning to France.

THIS PUNISHMENT SHOULD BE USED A LOT MORE OFTEN FOR A LOT MORE CRIMES.

MORE PROOF THAT THE NEW TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING

MANY BERATED "THE WAZIRISTAN ACCORD" (SIGNED LAST OCTOBER) BETWEEN MUSHARRAF AND THE TRIBES. THEY SAID HE WAS CAPITULATING.

I DISAGREED; I ALONE SAID THAT IT REALLY JUST HERALDED A NEW TRIBAL STRATEGY - ONE WHICH WOULD CO-OPT THE TRIBES INTO FIGHTING AND ELIMINATING THE FOREIGN FIGHTERS.

MUSHARRAF JUST SIGNED ANOTHER SIMILAR ACCORD WITH OTHER TRIBAL LEADERS IN OTHER PARTS OF THE TRIBAL REGIONS ON THE BORDER WITH AFGHANISTAN.

AND THE SAME NAYSAYERS ARE REPEATEING THEIR DEFEATIST ATTACKS. THEY WERE WRONG IN OCTOBER AND THEY ARE WRONG NOW.

THIS BBC NEWS ITEM IS FURTHER PROOF:

50 people have been killed after rising tension between local tribesmen and foreign militants in north-west Pakistan erupted into fierce fighting. Heavy shelling has raged since Monday near Wana in the South Waziristan tribal area close to Afghanistan.

Most of those killed were militants from Uzbekistan suspected of links with al-Qaeda, officials said.

THIS IS SIMILAR TO WHAT'S BEEN HAPPENING IN IRAQ'S ANBAR PROVINCE: THE SUNNI TRIBES ARE ATTACKING AL QAEDA, AND KILLING THEM AND EXPELLING THEM - SEE HERE AND HERE AND HERE.

THIS PROVES THAT I WAS RIGHT. AND I FEEL THAT THIS TRIBAL STRATEGY - ALONG WITH THE TWO SURGES, (THE BAGHDAD SURGE AND THE AFGHAN SPRING SURGE), WILL DEFEAT THE ENEMY IN BOTH OF THESE TRIBAL REGIONS.

JIHADIS ARE THE LOWEST SCUM, THE MOST VILE CRUD, THE MOST EVIL FILTH IN ALL OF HUMAN HISTORY

BBC:

A US military official has said children have been used in a bomb attack in Iraq, raising fears that insurgents are using a new tactic.

Gen Michael Barbero said a vehicle stopped at a checkpoint was waved through because two children were seen in the back, but was then detonated.

Militants were changing tactics in response to tighter security, he said.

Five people including the children died and another seven were injured in the attack, in Baghdad on Sunday.

AND THERE IS NO OUTRAGE FROM THE MUSLIM WORLD. NO RIOTS. NO DEMAND THAT THIS BEHAVIOR STOP BECAUSE IT IS AN OUTRAGE TO HUMANITY OR TO ISLAM.

THIS SAYS EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT ISLAM TODAY.