ALGERIAN AL QAIDA IS TARGETING FRANCE

Nicholas Sarkozy has warned that the Algerian al Qaida is targeting France, which is on red alert now for terrorist threats:

April 12 (Bloomberg) -- The al-Qaeda-linked group that killed 33 people in Algiers yesterday has members in Europe and is targeting France, said French presidential candidate and former Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy.

"The principal menace to France comes from Algeria, from the GSPC network that has transformed into al-Qaeda,'' Sarkozy said today in an interview with radio station Europe 1, referring to the former Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, now called al-Qaeda of the Islamic Maghreb. "They have members in several European countries, including France.''

Sarkozy has led every poll so far this year as he focuses his campaign on law and order issues, though rivals such as Socialist Segolene Royal have tried to blame him for increasing tensions with what she calls his harsh and alarmist language. The first round of voting is April 22, with a runoff on May 6 between the top two candidates, expected to be Sarkozy and Royal.

Sarkozy said French police arrested 138 people in 2006 on suspicion of being linked to terrorist groups, and have arrested another 32 so far this year.

He said France's opposition to the U.S. invasion of Iraq doesn't keep it safe. "Al-Qaeda is the adversary of democracies,'' he said. "We are menaced. What happened in London, Madrid and New York could have happened here.''

Absolutely correct.

SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER - WHEN IT AIN'T PC, OR CW: JASON WHITLOCK IS AWESOME

Hat tip: Crazy Politico

Popinjay recently brought up Jason Whitlock's column. Jason Whitlock may not be a conservative but he tells it like it is and that scores big points in my book. His column on Don Imus has swept the internet this week like wildfire. I, and many others have linked to it.

The above video is of him on Tucker Carlson's show speaking out about it, and he shares - in no uncertain terms - what he thinks of Sharpton and Jackson. I for one could be heard cheering as I watched it. It is about time someone says it like it is and Whitlock does just that.

He was also on CNN with Al Sharpton, Go here to see it. He makes the exact point that I have been making: that injustice is wrong wherever you find it, whether its against rich, white boys (the Duke LaCrosse players) or the Rutgers' Basketball team.

He also appeared on The Today Show. On Monday he is supposed to be on Oprah.

For once, let me go on the record saying I'm proud that Jason Whitlock writes for my local paper, The KC Star. Mark it down, because its a rare day for this conservative to be happy about anything that is written by a liberal in The KC Star.

JIHADISTS KILL 2 OF ROVE'S ZIONIST/NEOCON/BUSHIE OIL MEN IN THE PHILIPPINES

NEWS/AU:

MUSLIM rebels fired mortar bombs on a Philippines marine base in the southern island of Jolo, killing two soldiers and a child, military officials said on Saturday. Ten soldiers were wounded in the attack in Panamao town by the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) late yesterday, which triggered a gun battle with security forces that continued through the night, Major Eugene Batara said.

The attack was led by MNLF commander Habier Malik who embarrassed the military in February when he held a general, a senior government official and their aides hostage for two nights. The hostages were released unharmed after the Government handed over money and food.

HMMM... ARE THERE ZIONISTS OR NEOCONS OR BIG OIL MAGNATES IN JOLO!?!? NO!?! YOU MEAN THE JIHADISTS KILLED FILLIPINOS!? THEN WHY ARE THE MUSLIMS FIGHTING THERE?!? COULD IT BE... GLOBAL JIHAD!?!? YES.

OBSESSION WILL BE SHOWN AT AS MANY AS 100 UNIVERSITIES ON APRIL 19

Freedom Dogs reports that the documentary "Obsession" is going to be shown at as many as 100 universities across the US. A list of the varsities and even a few high schools where it'll be screened can be found at BennettMornings.Com.

And who helped to organize this special showing? David Horowitz, former and now critic of the left-wing, who vowed to make sure it would be shown at as many varsities as possible. Many congratulations to him for his efforts, and I hope he'll make sure that they do indeed get underway in screening them.

AL QAEDA CONTINUES URBAN JIHADOTERROR ATTACKS IN CASABLANCA

BBC:

New explosion rocks Casablanca - North Africa, showing Morocco Two suicide bombers have set off their explosives in the centre of Casablanca, police in Morocco say. The police are quoted as saying the bombers killed themselves, and there are reports that a woman was injured. Saturday's blast comes days after three suicide bombers blew themselves up and a fourth was shot dead in the city. The three were wanted in connection with a 11 March bombing at an internet cafe in Casablanca.

BREITBART/AP:

Two suicide bombers blew themselves up Saturday in Casablanca near an American cultural center, just days after three suicide attacks stoked new fears of terrorism in this North African kingdom, an official said. The Interior Ministry official said one woman was injured in the attacks.

The bombers killed themselves on a boulevard that runs behind an American cultural center, the official said. The American Consulate and a synagogue are also both in the neighborhood. The bombers were not being pursued by police, said the official. He spoke on condition of anonymity, citing ministry policy.

Three suicide bombers also blew themselves up Tuesday in the city, Morocco's largest. Just a day later, 33 people were killed and more than 200 injured in al-Qaida-claimed suicide car bombings in neighboring Algeria that targeted the prime minister's office and a police station.

The U.S. Embassy warned of possible new attacks in the Algerian capital on Saturday. In a statement, it said new attacks could hit near the Algiers central post office and the ENTV national television headquarters. It did not cite a source for its unconfirmed information.

AS WE BLOGGED EARLIER IN THE WEEK, THE DEMOCRAT RETREAT IN THE FACE OF THE SUSTAINED LOW-LEVEL JIHADOTERROR CAMPAIGN IN BAGHDAD IS MOTIVATING AL QAEDA TO USE THIS STRATEGY EVERYWHERE THEY CAN.

AND EUROPE MAY BE NEXT. UPDATE: POWER LINE links to a Spanish TV report worrying about the same thing: how the attacks in Algiers and Casablanca portend a new front in Europe - specifically France and Spain.

(IOW: I feel that a persistent, low-level urban terror campaign has replaced the spectacular attack strategy. The enemy wants to fight us in a war of attrition because hey know the Left has no resolve.))

KASPAROV ARRESTED: MORE PROOF PUTIN IS AN EMERGING TYRANT AND RUSSIA NO FRIEND OF LIBERTY

BBC: Kasparov arrested at Moscow rally

Garry Kasparov, leader of United Civil Front Group Police have arrested Russian opposition leader Garry Kasparov at a banned anti-Kremlin rally in Moscow. He was detained during a huge security operation to prevent protesters from gathering at Pushkin Square. Police deny reports he has now been freed. The former chess champion leads the United Civil Front group, part of the opposition coalition Other Russia. It accuses President Vladimir Putin of trampling on democracy. The Kremlin says Other Russia destabilises Russia.

As he was being taken away, Mr Kasparov told Russian Ekho Moskvy radio that he had been "walking with a group of people along the pavement without any slogans" when riot police had surrounded them. "They grabbed everyone without distinction, without asking any questions," he said.

RUSSIA IS NOT TO BE TRUSTED.

LET EUROPE SECURE ITS OWN OIL SUPPLIES

Excerpt below from American Thinker. Note that with Western hemisphere oil -- from Mexico, Venezuela, Alaska etc., the USA does not really need Arab oil. Most Alaskan oil goes in fact to Japan

Europe gets forty percent of its oil through the Persian Gulf. But by an accident of history (and civilized policy -- ours, that is) it is the United States that guards the Gulf from madmen like Ahmadinejad. Well, so be it. We gain from world peace and free trade, and it is better to keep the maniacs far away from our shores.

But it is now way past time for Europe to step up to the plate again. They have the economic might, the population, the brains -- but not the guts -- to behave as a decent actor on the world stage. And the British "hostage crisis" -- which was not a crisis at all, but a staged provocation, an invitation for the Brits to kowtow, which they did -- should spell the end of our patience.

Europe's response to Ahaminejad's game tells us all we need to know. Tony Blair tossed the hot potato to the UN, which tossed it right back again. Then he tried his good friends in the EU, and they ducked it altogether. Then, secretly, he got George W. to trade Iran's Quds thugs, who were imprisoned in Iraq for directing IED attacks on Americans, in trade for those 15 clueless Brits. Result: The West looked helpless against the ruthless blackmailers of Qom. So in the end, Europe got away again with letting Uncle Sam do it.

We can shrug off the screaming anti-American hate mongering of the media in Germany, France and (on the Left) in Britain. We can ignore the fact that Britain is selling its sovereignty to the EU, about as feckless a bunch of political con artists as ever exploited a badly indoctrinated population. What we cannot allow, over the long term, is to get stuck with all the adult work of maintaining the peace around the world, while the Europeans exploit our generosity and we pay the price in blood and treasure. It's past time for Europe to grow up.

ACLU To Defend Nazis Again

We read:

"The ACLU lost a number of members in 1977 when they defended the American Nazi Party when they wanted to stage a demonstration in the town of Skokie, Illinois -- a city where a number of Holocaust victims and their families had settled. Over 30,000 ACLU members staged a demonstration of their own when they marched out of the organization, even after the ACLU won the case, and even though the Nazis never did march in Skokie.

Thirty years later, the ACLU proves that they have not learned their lesson. The Ohio chapter has agreed to represent the American Nazi Party again in a conflict over a demonstration permit, this time in a predominantly black neighborhood in Cincinnati.

On April 20, 2007, the American National Socialist Workers Party of Roanoke, VA-a neo-Nazi group-plans to march through the predominantly African-American neighborhood of Over-the-Rhine in Cincinnati. The city initially issued a permit to the group for its march, but the permit was soon revoked and prohibitions were added by city officials limiting the group's demonstration to a three-block area. Believing their constitutional rights to free speech and free assembly have been violated, the ACLU of Ohio will be defending the demonstrators.

Source

No doubt many readers and bloggers will disagree with me about this but I think the ACLU have got this one right. Free speech is not free speech if you can pick and choose to whom it applies.

I imagine however that the ACLU are just doing it to show how "unbiased" they are. It's easy to defend groups that are no real threat to you.

RELIAPUNDIT: JR, I highlighted a section above which PROVES there is no free speech issue here: they are being allowed to rally - just not in a place or way which would have been EXTREMELY PROVOCATIVE and probably led to VIOLENCE. REPEAT: there is NO FREE SPEECH ISSUE HERE. NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. BUPKUS. NADA. SO, JR, on this you are absolutely wrong.

The ACLU is getting involved to advance the GRAMSCIAN goals, to hassle traditionalists - AND TO CREATE A HIGH PROFILE CASE WITH WHICH TO RAISE MONEY$$$!

IOW: It is Leftist bullshit. AND THE AMERICAN NAZIS - LIKE THE ACLU - ARE LEFTISTS.

MORE LEFTIST HYPOCRISY: THE PRO-ABORTION ECO-NUTSIES OF THE LEFT

THEIR SLOGAN SHOULD BE: "SAVE THE PLANET/KILL THE BABIES!" (ACTUALLY, THIS IS NOT TOO HYPERBOLIC; MANY HAVE ADVOCATED GENOCIDE AND FORCED STERILIZATION TO SAVE THE PLANET. THEY ARE TRULY ECO-NUTSIES!)

DAILY TELEGRAPH (OZ) - (TIM BLAIR):

(1) The same people who claim to worry most about future generations surviving climate change have no objections at all to abortion – which kills thousands of future Australians every year.

THERE ARE 29 MORE NOTABLE HYPOCRITICAL POSITIONS HELD BY LEFTISTS NOTED BY MR. BLAIR. RTWT.

BIRDS OF A FEATHER - PART 30: THE GREENS AND THE JIHADIS

NATIONAL POST (CANADA):

A federal Green party candidate in Vancouver-Kingsway is standing behind a controversial editorial he wrote more than four years ago in which he describes the falling of the World Trade Center twin towers as "beautiful."

The editorial, entitled, A Revolting Confession, was first published on Nov. 28, 2002 in an alternative newspaper, The Republic of East Vancouver, which Kevin Potvin founded.

"When I saw the first tower cascade down into that enormous plume of dust and paper, there was a little voice inside me that said, 'Yeah!' When the second tower came down the same way, that little voice said, 'Beautiful!' When the visage of the Pentagon appeared on the TV with a gaping and smoking hole in its side, that little voice had nearly taken me over, and I felt an urge to pump my fist in the air," Mr. Potvin wrote in the editorial.

ECO-NUTSIES AND ISLAMO-NAZIS: BIRDS OF A FEATHER. AND IT MAKES PERFECT SENSE: THEY BOTH HATE MODERNITY AND INDUSTRIALIZATION AND GLOBALIZATION AND PERSONAL LIBERTY.

COMPLETE ROUND UP AT MEMEORANDUM.

OH REALLY? NO, I DON'T THINK SO, CONDI - YOU SOUND TREMENDOUSLY IMMATURE

"These boots are made for walkin'
And that's just what they'll do
One of these days
These boots are gonna walk all over you"

Condoleeze Rice says she's glad Don Imus was fired:

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Friday that radio host Don Imus' comments about the Rutgers University women's basketball team were "disgusting" and she was pleased he was fired. Imus called the women players "nappy-headed hos" -- racist, sexist remarks that resulted in a barrage of protests and ultimately in the outspoken host losing his CBS Radio show, which was also televised.

"I'm very glad that there was, in fact, a consequence. I think that this kind of coarse language doesn't belong anywhere in reasonable dialogue between reasonable people," Rice said in an interview with syndicated radio show host Michael Medved.

Rice, the first black female U.S. Secretary of State and a former college professor, said the young women Imus targeted were fine athletes trying their best.

"It gets ruined by this disgusting -- and I'll use the word 'disgusting' -- comment which doesn't belong in any polite company and certainly doesn't belong on any radio station that I would listen to," she added.

Asked how she handled racist, sexist comments directed her way, Rice laughed and replied: "I'm a big girl. I can take care of myself. And I really don't care because, you know, I'm a mature woman."

Why should Imus have been fired? Because he used language that black people use all the friggin' time?

Here's a Stevie Wonder lyric from one of his biggest hits of all time (I Wish):

Looking back on when I was a little nappy headed boy

And, as far as the word "ho" is concerned, that's actually become a term of endearment among the younger generation, as has the word "pimp."

If Condi thinks we little boys and girls (also called "We the People") need government advice and consent on what we can and can not say, then Condi (as a citizen herself) is looking for a Daddy. You know, a pimp. And, that is a tremendously immature decision for a free human being.

Look, I hate Imus. I don't like his politics, and I don't think he's funny, but the term "Freedom of Speech" means something.

Who the hell does Condi Rice think she is to weigh in on such an issue? As a government official, it's none of her fucking business. Everyone is willing to defend separation of church and state, right? Well good, I'll go there with you. But clearly, there is also a separation of speech and state in our country. We can say whatever the fuck we want, and if any of you nappy-headed ho's out there want to disagree with me, then Fuck You.

ESPN RADIO HOST TAKES A HUGE RISK WITH WHITLOCK

In response to the whole Don Imus affair, Kansas City Star sports columnist Jason Whitlock had this to say in his recent column: (Hat tip: dcthornton)

Thank you, Don Imus. You’ve given us (black people) an excuse to avoid our real problem.

You’ve given Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson another opportunity to pretend that the old fight, which is now the safe and lucrative fight, is still the most important fight in our push for true economic and social equality.

You’ve given Vivian Stringer and Rutgers the chance to hold a nationally televised recruiting celebration expertly disguised as a news conference to respond to your poor attempt at humor.

Thank you, Don Imus. You extended Black History Month to April, and we can once again wallow in victimhood, protest like it’s 1965 and delude ourselves into believing that fixing your hatred is more necessary than eradicating our self-hatred.

The bigots win again.

While we’re fixated on a bad joke cracked by an irrelevant, bad shock jock, I’m sure at least one of the marvelous young women on the Rutgers basketball team is somewhere snapping her fingers to the beat of 50 Cent’s or Snoop Dogg’s or Young Jeezy’s latest ode glorifying nappy-headed pimps and hos.

Strong stuff. And as you might have guessed, Jason Whitlock is black, but there's more to the story. Whitlock used to be a commentator on ESPN, appearing on The Sports Reporters and PTI. However, he was fired from the network for insulting sportwriters Mike Lupica and Scoop Jackson. Despite being essentially banned from the ESPN networks, ESPN Radio host Colin Cowherd (who I've admired for a long time) took a big career risk today by preempting his usual "spanning the globe" segment and having Jason Whitlock on the show to discuss the Don Imus situation.

No transcript is available, but Whitlock unloaded on Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and chastised people in the black community who allow themselves to be affected by people like Don Imus who should have no effect on their lives whatsoever. It was great radio and it was stuff that needed to be said to a mass audience. Here's hoping Colin Cowherd doesn't get into too much trouble with the ESPN brass.

HOW MANY POLITICALLY CORRECT EUROPEAN IDIOTS DOES IT TAKE TO PISS OFF AN ACADEMIC?

If you have any idea why the following statements by Bill Poser are anything but brutally obvious and definitionally true, please feel free to let us know:

The Telegraph reports that the European Union "has drawn up guidelines advising government spokesmen to refrain from linking Islam and terrorism in their statements." The EU suggests that in place of "Islamic terrorism" one should say "terrorists who abusively invoke Islam". You probably thought that this was an April Fool's post, but it isn't. This is a real story. The EU really thinks that there is no such thing as Islamic terrorism. This is, of course, a completely untenable position. Dozens of terrorists have explicitly said that they are Muslims and that their motivation was Islam. Moreover, there is clearly widespread support among Muslims for terrorism.

To take but one example, here are the results of a 2006 poll of Muslims as to whether they agreed that suicide bombings against civilians are sometimes or often justified... A poll of Palestinian Arabs found that 73% supported suicide attacks against American interests, a finding confirmed by the widely televised celebration of 9/11 in the West Bank and Lebanon.

We can't really justify quoting any more of this under fair use, so make sure you click through for a second and third serving of red meat. Self-styled liberal sophisticates get all kinds of affirmation from academics who make absolutely no sense when they support their position - why should you be denied a fix when there's one out there who happens to make sense and be right? Not that this'll help in any way - it's not like anyone who doesn't think that some Muslims claim to be terrorists in the name of Islam will be swayed by good argumentation. That's not what brought them to their position, so it's certainly not what's going to disrupt it.

[Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

CHOMSKY DECLARES SAUDI INITIATIVE TRULY AWESOME. NEGLECTS TO MENTION "MANDATORY ISRAELI SUICIDE" CLAUSE

Now another twenty or thirty self-styled sophisticates, determined not only to be smarter but also morally superior to all those warmongering pro-Israel rednecks, have their excuse:

The Arab League Peace Plan of 2002 is what was called here the "Saudi Plan." It has just been renewed. In 2002, the US and Israel simply dismissed it, and I don't recall media commentary. It is pretty much a version of the international consensus that was articulated clearly for the first time in January 1976 at the Security Council, in a resolution brought by the major Arab states, vetoed by the US (again in 1980). With the Security Council eliminated by the veto, the same principles came up almost annually in the General Assembly, under pressure from the third world and the non-aligned movement, but with Europe also going along.

Very well done. We're impressed - this is a neat trick:

1. The UN convinces Israel to stand down in 1973, accepting particular terms grounded in particular resolutions that have nothing to do with the Right of Return
2. Then, after a few years have passed, the UN turns on Israel and fails to legally pass new binding resolutions that would demand more than Israel would ever have accepted. Textbook case of trying to move the goalposts.
3. This suddenly becomes the apex of moral and diplomatic authority.

Typical. [Cross-posted to Mere Rhetoric]

MORE ON THE DUKE U "RAPE" CASE

LEFTIST "PRINCIPLES" VANISH ONCE AGAIN

This case represents a profound abuse of prosecutorial power, a disingenuous attack by a politician on defendants who were exploitable during an election year. It is precisely the sort of injustice that should ignite outrage across the ideological divide. It is therefore curious that as of 10:30 pm EDT there has been virtually no discussion of today's extraordinary development on the major lefty blogs. Atrios, nothing. AMERICABlog, zippo. Nothing on the front page of Kos, nor at Kevin Drum's blog. Firedoglake: Nada. From Glenn Greenwald, who writes about legal issues all the time, deafening silence. Pandagon, which might be expected to write about a prosecution that threatens to discredit rape victims everywhere, has nothing today. The list goes on and on.

Now, I am not suggesting that there is anything hypocritical or otherwise snark-worthy about the lefty 'sphere's almost total indifference to the Nifong scandal. Almost all bloggers, including me, write quite selectively according to their interests and -- for those of us who work for a living -- free time. The case, though, is about the political application of the police and prosecutorial powers against manifestly innocent people, precisely the sort of thing that gets many lefty bloggers very agitated in the ordinary course. It is curious, therefore, that they are seemingly so removed from this case. Perhaps it is because the Nifong scandal involves various extremely inconvenient truths, including the revelation that women who level the charge of rape are not inherently truthful. Indeed, so powerful was the belief in the accuser's credibility that 88 Duke faculty members signed a petition 'saying "thank you" to campus demonstrators who had distributed a "wanted" poster of the lacrosse players and publicly branded the players "rapists"' (now removed without explanation).

More here. (If you have recently arrived from Mars, a summary of what the above is all about is here)

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

NO NATIONAL MEDIA FURORE ABOUT THESE 3 ACCUSED COLLEGE RAPISTS

These college sportsmen are black --- unlike the 3 white lacrosse players at Duke U. Exact proof of how racist the Left-dominated U.S. mainstream media are

Three University of Minnesota football players were in police custody Friday, undergoing questioning after allegations of criminal sexual conduct, the university said in a statement. Coach Tim Brewster immediately suspended the players until the investigation is complete. The allegations come on the eve of the team's spring intrasquad game.

The players were identified by the university as Alex Daniels, listed as a 6-foot-3, 255-pound defensive end who came to the Gophers as a highly touted linebacker from Columbus, Ohio; Keith Massey, a 6-foot-1, 195-pound cornerback from Columbus; and E.J. Jones, a 5-foot-9, 185-pound running back from Edwardsville, Ill. Daniels and Massey are 20 years old. Jones is 19. A university spokesman said all three are sophomores, but Daniels is listed on the roster as a junior. It appeared they had not been charged with any crime as of Friday night, but they remained in police custody.

According to a police report, an 18-year-old woman was raped sometime between late Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The victim, whose name is not being released, was examined at a local hospital.

Source

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

ELSEWHERE

Fallout from racial hatred of whites at Duke U: "There are many victims in the case of the guiltless Duke lacrosse players. And many more perpetrators who, through wishful thinking, greed, arrogance or lunacy, kept this case going long after the accused boys should have received a heartfelt apology. But the biggest losers may be the ones you'll never hear about. These are the genuine victims of sexual assault: women who don't fabricate tales of brutality, or seek out the richest, whitest men to falsely accuse of forcing them into sex. Who will believe a rape victim now?


(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.)

MORE ON THE NOW-SACKED IMUS

That Immovable Double Standard: ANYTHING Leftist is OK. EXAMPLE:

"Now that Imus has lost his MSNBC show while black broadcasters use similar and worse terminology on the public airwaves, we have an explicit double standard forming. White people can't use certain words and black people can. That's bad, but at least we are on the verge of acknowledging it.

If so, what about white cartoonist Ted Rall? This cartoon depicts the Secretary of State calling herself "Bush's beard! His house nigga" and suggests she be sent to an "inner city racial re-education camp" and be forced to "hand over your hair straightener", presumably so her nappy hair can return to its natural state. This is both more offensive and more studied than Imus' toss-off line.

Source

Buchanan on the Sacking of Imus - A small excerpt:

"What was the term the I-Man used? It was "hos," slang for whores, a term employed ad infinitum et ad nauseam by rap and hip-hop "artists." It is a term out of the African-American community. Yet, if any of a hundred rap singers has lost his contract or been driven from the airwaves for using it, maybe someone can tell me about it.

If the word "hos" is a filthy insult to decent black women, and it is, why are hip-hop artists and rap singers who use it incessantly not pariahs in the black community? Why would black politicians hobnob with them? Why are there no boycotts of the advertisers of the radio stations that play their degrading music?

Source

MORE EVIDENCE THAT THE TRIBAL STRATEGY IS WORKING - FROM PAKISTAN

BBC: Pakistan army joins tribal fight

Militant in South Waziristan Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has admitted publicly for the first time that the army has helped tribal fighters battling foreign militants. He said local Pashtuns had killed about 300 foreign militants in several weeks of clashes near the Afghan border. Local sources put the figure much lower, at fewer than 100.

The army had denied any role in the fighting but now says it is helping locals drive out foreigners, among them al-Qaeda and Taleban fighters. ... President Musharraf was addressing a military conference in the capital, Islamabad. "The people of South Waziristan now have risen against the foreigners," he told those present. They have killed about 300 of them, and they got support from the Pakistan army. They asked for support. We are demanding the same in North Waziristan, and there are indications the same may happen there also," he said. ...

Heavy clashes broke out in South Waziristan on 19 March, sparked by a demand from a tribal leader that Uzbek militants in the area leave or disarm. The tribesmen proclaimed victory earlier this week, saying the foreigners had been driven out of their bunkers. Their claim was backed by the army. President Musharraf said that the latest developments vindicated his policy of signing peace deals with local tribes, despite criticism from Western allies.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS HAS BLOGGED ON THIS STRATEGY, EXTENSIVELY, POINTING OUT THAT IT IS WORKING IN ANBAR AND WAZIRISTSAN. (WE WERE NEARLY ALONE IN PREDICTING IT WOULD WORK AND IN CONCLUDING THAT THE WAZIRISTAN ACCORD WAS GOOD.) MORE HERE.

And more here.

THE MINDS OF OTHERS

We've written about the film "The Lives of Others" before on this blog. A great film which you must see! I spoke to someone who saw it recently with his "Old Left" cronies. They loved the film too! Guess what? They thought it was an excellent critique of the Bush Administrations post-9/11 Domestic Surveillance program! UNBELIEVABLE!!!

This is more proof that some people are cognitively blinded by their ideological preconceptions.

This film is not an allegory or metaphor for anything! It is a gripping description of the social and cultural conditions of totalitarianism as it expressed itself in the DDR.

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: THE DDR WAS A LEFTIST STATE, TOO. SO THESE OLD LEFTIES DENIAL IS ACTUALLY DENIAL SQUARED!

ALSO: THERE IS MUCH MORE SURVEILLANCE (WITH NEXT TO NO CONSTITUTIONAL PROTECTIONS!) IN EUROPE THAN IN THE USA, YET THESE LEFTIES NEVER BERATE, DECRY OR ATTACK THE GOVERNMENTS OF EUROPE. NO: THEY HATE BUSH AND THE GOP AND THEY LOVE EUROPE - PROBABLY BECAUSE THEY HAVE "UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE" AND HIGH TAXES. WHICH IS WHY THEY LOVED THE USSR.

SAS AIRLINES INTRODUCES FINGERPRINT ID FOR DOMESTIC FLIGHTS

Scandinavian Airline Systems has begun to use biometrics to insure that bagage checked onto domestic flights are in fact accompanied by the passenger. This is being done with fingerprint readers at check-in and at the gate. SAS promised the biometric datafiles will be destroyed after 48 hours. It is interesting that no one has complained about this increased "surveillance". Where's the ACLU!?!?!? Well - hopefully air travel will be a little safer.

Hillary All Rapped Up

This post at Classical Values got me to thinking about: what are the standards we should adhere to these days?

Hillary Clinton had a fund raiser hosted by rapper Timbaland to wind up her March 31st Money grub. No wonder she blasted Imus.

Translation: how are we to know at whom and when to be outraged?

I want to know the rules.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

DON IMUS AND THE JUSTICE BROTHERS

You would think that Jesse "Hymie Town" Jackson and Al "Tawana Brawley" Sharpton aka "The Justice brothers" (as Rush has nicknamed them) wouldn't be so quick to destroy a person's reputation when you look at the fact that they both have their own similar baggage. Yet, even though their careers didn't get derailed for their screw-ups they insist on trying to sabotage others for nothing more than to get their faces in front of the cameras.

Once again what Imus said was offensive and completely out of line but this media circus overreaction created by Sharpton and Jackson is absurd. I also find it extremely laughable that Snoop "Drug and gun possession" Dogg and others are saying its okay for them to use these words and worse on a consistent basis because of the context. Hello?? Either the word is wrong to use or its not. I think it is wrong no matter what the context. I actually consider what the rappers do as worse because their songs that use these words are carefully planned out and premeditated. Imus got busted for saying something without thinking it through. Either way its unacceptable but don't tell me that its okay to degrade women as long as you are using it in the "right context". Dogg and the other rappers' arguments seem completely hypocritical to me.

Even though Jackson and Sharpton have succeeded in silencing Imus they have vowed not to stop there. They want to move on and see what other kind of speech can be silenced. Imus may be a liberal casualty but you can bet that they want some conservative casualties as well. Rush brought up today that conservatives never want to silence anyone, objectionable as they may be. It is liberals that scream for all contrary talk to be silenced. Sharpton's witch hunt has only begun, one can only hope that most intelligent people won't give in.

Ann Coulter has written an excellent piece on the whole controversy. Here are some excerpts, the last paragraph made me laugh out loud:

English speakers in America need a rule book to tell us what people can say what words when, and under which set of circumstances. The rule book will be longer than the Patriot Act and will require weekly updates as new words and circumstances are added. Perhaps a Nasdaq-style ticker would be more efficient.

Depending on which TV show you tune into, what Imus said was wrong because: 1) His show goes out on FCC-regulated airwaves; 2) he regularly interviews people like Sens. John Kerry, John McCain and Joe Biden; 3) he spoke at the White House Correspondents' Dinner a few years ago; or 4) he's not black.

Imus should apologize to the Rutgers women – and those women alone – send them flowers, and stop kissing Al Sharpton's ring.

This wasn't an insult to all mankind, and certainly not an insult to Al Sharpton. Now, if Imus had called the basketball players "fat, race-baiting black men with clownish hairstyles," well, then perhaps Sharpton would be owed an apology.

JIHADIST INDICTED IN OHIO

Christopher Paul, aka Paul Kenyatta Laws/Abdulmalek Kenyatta, an al Qaida collaborator, has been indicted for his crimes and planned crimes:

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - A federal grand jury indicted a U.S. citizen on charges of joining al-Qaida and conspiring to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas.

Christopher Paul, 43, of Columbus, trained with al-Qaida in the early 1990s, the indictment issued Wednesday says. The indictment says he told al-Qaida members in Pakistan and Afghanistan that he was dedicated to committing violent jihad.

Paul is charged with providing material support to terrorists, conspiracy to provide support to terrorists and conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction. [...]

The indictment says Paul traveled to Germany about April 1999 to train co-conspirators to use explosives to attack European and U.S. targets, including government buildings and vacation spots frequented by American tourists.

It does not address specific resorts or buildings that might have been targeted, but it gives U.S. embassies, military bases and consular premises in Europe as examples.

Paul was born Paul Kenyatta Laws. He legally changed his name to Abdulmalek Kenyatta in 1989, then to Christopher Paul in 1994, according to the indictment.

Two other Columbus men have been charged in federal investigators' terrorism investigation. Iyman Faris was sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for a plot to topple the Brooklyn Bridge. Nuradin Abdi, accused of plotting to blow up a Columbus-area shopping mall, is awaiting trial on charges including conspiring to aid terrorists.

I think what Paul, Abdi and Farris did can very easily be described as treason, can't it? That's what Adam Gadahn did when he joined al Qaida a decade ago, and Paul was doing the same thing too.

Race, IQ, and Crime

JR in a recent post talks about the black crime wave in England. I made this comment:

PC on the subject is really much worse than the article indicates.

In my article on Inequality I note that blacks from certain areas in Africa have very high talents in sports. In addition East Africans excell in some sports and West Africans in others. Natural selection at work on isolated populations.

We also know that Africans in general have lower IQs than whites generally do (being a distributional effect there will be some blacks smarter than some whites - treat every one as an individual).

We also know that crime is IQ related. High IQ folks tend to commit fewer crimes (per capita) than low IQ folks.

What can be done about this? I have no idea. However, because of the taboos involved no one is even looking into the question.

Some New Bill Whittle

Bill has some new posts up here and here on critical thinking.

I'm just starting to read them myself. Bill is always excellent so go read them yourself.

H/T Transterrestrial Musings

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

WRETCHED MK AZMI BISHARA GOES MISSING, WHICH IS JUST AS WELL

There's been much speculation as to the whereabouts of Knesset member Azmi Bishara, an Arabic member with zero loyalty to the Jewish state. The NY Sun has one of the latest reports on this puzzling case of where he's gone:

A firebrand advocate of ending Israel's standing as a Jewish state, Azmi Bishara of the Balad Party has been out of the country for more than two weeks. A report Friday in a local Arab-language newspaper that the Knesset member plans to resign his post — and subsequent reports that he could seek asylum in Qatar — has become the talk of the Knesset. [...]

Two weeks ago, Mr. Bishara, who lives in a wealthy neighborhood in Haifa, left for Qatar during the Knesset's Passover recess. He appeared on Al-Jazeera as a political analyst during the Arab League summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and confidants say he is now on his way to Europe. [...]

"Nobody has been more harmful to the delicate relations between Israeli Arabs and Jews than Bishara, and if indeed he has decided to leave, this will benefit everyone," the leader of the Likud Party, Benjamin Netanyahu, said at a public event in northern Israel.

"Bishara is involved in a very serious affair," a leader of the National Religious Party, Effie Eitam, told Israel Radio yesterday, hinting at the lawmaker's possible collaboration with an Israeli enemy. "Arab Knesset members who visit enemy countries violate the law and are scornful of the loyalty to our state."

Mr. Bishara has maintained close ties to Damascus and its Baathist government, as well as Hezbollah, and he has traveled to Syria and Lebanon several times. "Hezbollah won, and we" — the Arabs — "have tasted victory for the first time since 1967," he said in 2000 in the aftermath of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon, in a speech made in the Israeli Arab city of Um al Fahm. "It is the right of Hezbollah to be proud of its achievements and to humiliate Israel."

A year later, after making a similar statement in Qardaha, Syria, at the funeral of President Hafez al-Assad, Mr. Bishara's was stripped of his immunity from prosecution as a Knesset member and he was indicted for supporting a terror organization. In 2006, however, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that the speeches consisted political activity and reinstated his immunity.

He's a dangerous man, this Bishara is. He won't be missed, whereever he is, and even his own party isn't sure where he's gone. Yisraeli reported that his family has joined him in his departure, and he was last seen in Jordan. Is he in hiding? Nothing is clear so far, but it doesn't matter anyway. He does not belong here.

The Prime Minister of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a Racist!

Or he would be if he were a conservative. Conservatives are not allowed to notice any differences between blacks and whites:

"Tony Blair yesterday claimed the spate of knife and gun murders in London was not being caused by poverty, but a distinctive black culture. His remarks angered community leaders, who accused him of ignorance and failing to provide support for black-led efforts to tackle the problem. One accused him of misunderstanding the advice he had been given on the issue at a Downing Street summit.

Black community leaders reacted after Mr Blair said the recent violence should not be treated as part of a general crime wave, but as specific to black youth. He said people had to drop their political correctness and recognise that the violence would not be stopped "by pretending it is not young black kids doing it". It needed to be addressed by a tailored counter-attack in the same way as football hooliganism was reined in by producing measures aimed at the specific problem, rather than general lawlessness.

Mr Blair's remarks are at odds with those of the Home Office minister Lady Scotland, who told the home affairs select committee last month that the disproportionate number of black youths in the criminal justice system was a function of their disproportionate poverty, and not to do with a distinctive black culture.....

Source

(For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, DISSECTING LEFTISM, IMMIGRATION WATCH and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

GOOGLE BIAS

It looks to me very much as if I have become a victim of the bias against conservative sites at Google. In their addled thinking, anyone who is critical of Islam is guilty of "hate speech" and they have been known to wipe sites from their coverage because of that terrible offence. And I make no bones about being critical of Islam -- and of much else besides.

Google searches still do cover some of my articles but some that have been up for years and which were formerly covered seem to have vanished from the Google database. I have put in a request for them to index the whole of my most reliable site -- http://jonjayray.batcave.net -- so we will see what happens about that. Even aside from my own writings, I am constantly surprised by what Google DON'T cover -- even stuff on major conservative sites -- such as townhall.com. Sometimes I can find what I want only because I know my way around such sites -- with Google being no help at all.

Google is at the moment engaged in a collaboration with some major world libraries that aims to scan in and make available online all the world's printed books. Yet almost all of my non-blog writings are ALREADY archived online by the National Library of Australia in their "Pandora" archive (See here) but I have yet to see any link to anything in my Pandora archive on Google. And my 1974 printed book "Conservatism as Heresy" is already available in full online (See here) but only some chapters are accessible via Google. How odd if we have to wait for the completion of their book-scanning project for my book to become available via them when it has already been online elsewhere for years!

Meanwhile, live.com (the Microsoft search service) seem to cover everything I have online so once again I find reason to prefer them to Google. So I would again like to suggest to my readers that live.com seems to be a less biased search service -- and, as such, is more likely to yield what you are looking for.

Someone at Google will most probably read this post. They are quite good at recording what appears on blogspot blogs (they own blogspot) and they do seem to run checks on what is being said about them -- but it is most unlikely that they will be in any way influenced by what I have written. When you are a Leftist, you just KNOW what to do. Argument and reason are only for the peasants.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS THE MSM AND THE BLOGOSPHERE, AGAIN

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS was first to posit that the recent Algiers attacks were the work of al Qaeda, and we argued that this is part of a new strategy which al Q is rolling out - from Islamabad to Paris.

Now TIME, and BELMONT post similarly - as does Terror expert Dominique Thomas (hat tip BELMONT).

This proves - once again - that TAB is the place to be for the best in news, original and incisive and hard-hitting analysis and commentary.

Employment Scams

Kate Coble of Just Another Pretty Farce has written about her experiences with a "head hunter" company by the name of J. L. Kirk & Associates, or Kirk Associates, or JL Kirk, or JLK, or JLK-A, or sometimes just “Kirk“. Bob Krumm came up with all those Kirk names in another delightful and witty post called Kirked.

Beware of head hunters who make you pay a fee to sign on with them. Reputable companies pay the head hunters to do talent searches. A job seeker should never pay a fee to an employment agency or a head hunter.

The comments at Just Another Pretty Farce include other tales of woe and a comment ostensibly from the "head hunter" at J. L. Kirk.

Let me note that J. L. Kirk is suing Kate and her husband for the blog post.

H/T Instapundit who is having a link fest with this whole episode. After you have looked at the above links go to Instapundit for more fun.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

DUKE LACROSSE PLAYERS INNOCENT!!

"We believe these cases were a result of a tragic rush to accuse and failure to verify serious allegations. Based on these significant inconsistencies of evidence and the various accounts given by the accusing witness, we believe these three individuals are innocent of these charges."--Attorney General Roy Cooper

395 Days of Hell

The emotions this case has brought out in me are astounding. I am outraged at the injustice that was committed against these young men. I had tears in my eyes today as I watched their response to the charges being dropped. Dave Evans especially made me teary eyed. If you didn't watch any of it go here to see Dave Evans' compelling response. Here is an excerpt of what he had to say:

I hope these allegations don't come to define me. I hope that the way that I could be remembered is sticking up for my name, for my family and for my team against impossible odds. You can never tell what life is going to give you, what curve balls, but you can be judged on how you handled the situation that was brought to you.

My family and I can sleep at night knowing that I did everything I've always been told to do. I never lied, I went in and cooperated and I can walk with my head held high and sleep at night knowing that I could not have done anything else to prove my innocence.

Now that is what I call a man of character and integrity. I think his comments prove that he won't be defined by these allegations. Evans is exactly right. One of the biggest lessons I learned early in my Christian life was that you can't choose not to have trials or difficult times, they come to us all. The only thing that you get to choose is how you respond to them. Your response shows what type of character you have and what you're made of. Dave Evans is made of some pretty good stuff.

God Bless Attorney General Roy Cooper

It is unconscionable how this case was handled and the fact that charges were ever brought. In the beginning all we had were the accusations and so it was hard to know what to think. Yet, slowly it became very evident that Mike Nifong had some other agenda that didn't include justice. When I found out that neither Nifong or anyone from his office had ever interviewed the accuser I was incredulous. Add to that the despicable facts that the DNA from the 3 accused wasn't a match for any of the DNA found on her.

It is extremely difficult to go after prosecutors but I think many agree that the book should be thrown at Mike Nifong. No one can ever know someone else's motives but it seems rather apparent than in an effort to score political points with minorities he sold 3 innocent boys down the river. He drug their names and families through the mud when he had never even talked to the accuser and had evidence that exonerated them. There is absolutely no excuse for that. As this blogger points out, Where Do They Go to Get Their Reputations Back?

Shepard Smith's outrage parallels how many of us feel about this. Go here to see him in action.

Justice has finally been served, I'm just grieved that it took so long and cost such a high price.

DHIMMICRATS BAN TERM "GWOT"

UPI:

The Navy Times reported Tuesday that a [Democrat] memorandum for the staff of the House Armed Services Committee, or HASC, that was distributed last week recommended that the language in the House version of the 2008 House Defense appropriations bill ought to "avoid using colloquialisms" and should therefore eliminate the use of the phrase "global war on terror."

OKAY. LET'S STOP CALLING IT "THE GWOT."

LET'S GIVE IT A NAME LIKE "THE COLD WAR."

LET'S CALL IT "THE W.A.R.M. WAR" - War Against Radical Muslims.
WARM. The "WARM" War. And let's WIN it, baby!

FRANCE AND SOCIALISM: THE FRENCH HAVE BEEN VOTING WITH THEIR FEET SINCE 1995 - AND LEAVING IN DROVES

TIME:

According to the Foreign Ministry, there has been a 40% increase in the number of those registering at French consulates abroad since 1995. People are leaving for all sorts of reasons, of course, ranging from greater opportunities to higher salaries, from romantic entanglements to the search for a foreign utopia that may not exist. Two people leave France every day for tax reasons alone, according to a recent Senate report.

But for the most part, those leaving are not wealthy retirees looking for a place in the sun; they are talented and ambitious young people in their 20s and 30s who have left because they felt they couldn't advance their careers at home, or because they were simply frustrated by the French system.

THEY LEAVE AND HEAD FOR THE UK AND THE USA - THE ANGLOSPHERE, WHY!? BECAUSE WE ARE LESS SOCIALISTIC AND MORE LIBERTARIAN. AND AS HAYEK WROTE: SOCIALISM IS THE ROAD TO SERFDOM

AS WE ALL KNOW, PROSPERITY IS A BY-PRODUCT OF LIBERTY.

THE NEW FRENCH IMMIGRANTS ARE LEAVING FOR THE EVERY SAME REASONS OUR FOREBEARS LEFT: TO MAKE A BETTER LIFE.

SO: WHY IN TH HECK WOULD ANYONE VOTE FOR A PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WHO PROMISES TO MAKE THE USA MORE LIKE FRANCE - AS EACH AND EVERY DEMOCRAT CANDIDATE HAS PROMISED, BY PROMISING MORE SOCIALISM AND MORE APPEASEMENT!

IT MAKES NO SENSE.

BTW: IF ALL THE FRENCH YOUNG PEOPLE WITH AMBITION AND A LOVE FOR PERSONAL LIBERTY (AND BALLS!) CONTINUE TO LEAVE, ALL THAT'S GONNA BE LEFT ARE HARDCORE THE LEFTIES AND THE MUSLIMS.

WHICH JUST SPEEDS THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL OF THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT TO ISLAMIFICATION. PITY...

SARKOZY MIGHT BE ABLE TO STOP THIS; ONLY HE CAN POSSIBLY REFORM FRANCE AND LEAD A THATCHERIAN-REAGAN-ESQUE/HAYEKIAN REVOLUTION. IT'S MAINTENANT OR NEVER.

OLMERT DOESN'T HAVE THE POLITICAL CAPITAL TO MEET HAMAS'S TERMS, PULL OFF THE SHALIT DEAL

Are we crazy, or is this way beyond the ability of a Prime Minister hovering at single digits? There's no way Olmert gets the cabinet to let all of these genocidal lunatics out of jail. And if that's the case, then hasn't Hamas just indefinitely tubed a prisoner swap by leaking the full list, because now anything less seems like a compromise?

A Palestinian Web site affiliated with Hamas has published the names of some of the prisoners that Hamas is likely to request as part of the deal to free Shalit... Among the names are Abdullah Barghouti, a senior leader in Hamas' military wing, who was responsible for dozens of suicide bombings in recent years, Yihye Sanwar, one of the founders of Hamas' military wing, and Hassan Salameh, who helped plan the wave of 1996 bombings... Also listed was Fuad Shubaki, the Yasser Arafat aide who was responsible for financing the Karine A arms-smuggling ship... the website names senior West Bank Hamas official Sheikh Hassan Yousef, a Palestinian member of parliament. The list further names Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine leader Ahmed Saadat... and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti

At most, he can get Marwan Barghouti out. Barghouti is kind of affable, kind of sort of moderate, and speaks Hebrew better than you do. For one reason or anther, Israelis think they can deal with him. But there's no way the rest of that deal is happening. Too much blood on too many hands.

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

IRANIAN CHUTZPA: BRITISH VIDEOS OF THE BRITISH SAILORS IS PROPAGANDA

Are you kidding?

The interviews given by the British sailors seized by Iran are "British government propaganda," according to Kazem Jalali, spokesman for Iranian parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Committee. The capture of the British soldiers, who were recently released, continues to stir up emotions in the Islamic republic. On Tuesday morning, the Iranian parliament held a special discussion on the issue. Jalali said that the committee was "willing to hold a press conference for the British soldiers in Iran, in order to convince the global public opinion." He added that "the troops' remarks testify to the fact that they are being pressured by Britain.

Seriously? The Iranians committed an act of war by crossing international waters and capturing the sailors of a sovereign nation. Then violated international human rights law by humiliating their captives and parading them in front of cameras. They did this for the most venal propaganda purposes imaginable - and they have the nerve to complain when the sailors, after being freed, tell their story.

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

DOES AL QAEDA HAVE A NEW STRATEGY - ONE DEVELOPED IN IRAQ, AND ONE VINDICATED BY DEMOCRAT PARTY ACTIONS?

The recent spate of jihadist attacks in Morocco and Algeria make me wonder:

DOES AL QAEDA HAVE A NEW STRATEGY - ONE DEVELOPED IN IRAQ? IN BAGHDAD?

HERE'S WHY:

Since Democrats won back Congress they have been on a non-stop mission of APPEASEMENT: demanding withdrawal by an arbitrary deadline; holding up spending to support the troops; and going out of their way to meet with murderous tyrants - like Assad.

I think that there have been two segments of the world's public who have been pleased by these developments: the Left and the jihadists.

And I think that the jihadists - principally al Qaeda - have LEARNED a great deal from this. They have learned that all it takes to get the USA to retreat - (and thereby the West, or Free World, or modern world, if you will, to retreat as well) - is sustain a relatively low-level terrorist war in the capital of a targeted nation. This is all they have been able to do in Iraq.

Though the terror is not tactically effective - (they have gained no territory and taken much bigger losses than they've been able to inflict) - apparently, (at least with Democrats in control), it's all they have to do to get us to RETREAT and cede them territory.

The recent round of Democrat Assad-licking and defeatist/retreatist policy-making is a direct result of a lack of resolve on OUR SIDE. The enemy sees this. The enemy must conclude from this that now - with this strategy - they can and will eventually they will wear us down... and WIN. And make no mistake about it: the enemy has the resolve: they've been at this for A THOUSAND YEARS. They are ready, willing and able to keep it up for another few decades.

Democrats are not. Which means if they EVER get control of the White House and Congress: WE LOSE. And the enemy knows this. And they believe that all they have to do is keep killing people in the big cities of targeted nations - killing them in seemingly incessant and ghoulish attacks.

They did it recently in Bangkok, too... (REMEMBER NEW YEARS EVE THERE?!). And they're still trying to do it in Israel - Tel Aviv, especially.

And they recently announced a campaign to terrify Pakistanis by starting a suicide-bombing campaign in Islamabad! (Islamabad is the capitol of Pakistan.)

I wouldn't be surprised to see several coordinated/multi-bomb attacks - in the coming weeks and months - in major and/or capitol cities: from Algiers to Cairo to Beirut to Bangkok to Manila to London to Paris to Moscow. Time will tell.

ONLY ONE THING IS FOR SURE: The more the Left appeases the enemy, the more the enemy will attack us.

There is only one road to peace: the road to victory.

We're right now at a fork in that road. If we turn Left - with the Democrats, then we lose. If we keep going and bear right - and stay with the GOP - then we can win.

Achieving victory REQUIRES we that defeat the Left - THE DEMOCRATS - right here at home... FIRST.

UPDATE: TIME MAGAZINE: The Algeria Bombings: Target Europe? -

"Until today," says a French counterterrorism official, AQIM's "capacity and ambition to foment terror seemed as limited in Europe as it was modest in Algeria — at least compared to the terrorist violence there before. This attack changes that view. We've always considered the group a threat, but now it's one with a terrible record."

... The French are cognizant that a resurgent jihad in Algiers means greater danger to French interests, citizens and territory. Indeed, since December 2006, AQIM had expanded attacks from small local targets to international interests in Algeria, including the December machine-gunning of a bus full of Halliburton employees and the March bombing of vehicles transporting Russian oil industry workers. Says the French official, "If the particulars of this attack are almost surely internally Algerian, the wider consequences just as logically apply to us. We're aware of that risk and have been anticipating it. But as today shows, you can never anticipate enough."

STAY TUNED....

Iraq War Fighting Strategy

I want to focus here on the war in Iraq and the application of standard American military strategy to the fighting in Iraq. I want to do this based on the lessons learned from the Vietnam War. It seems to me the mistakes we are making in Iraq are similar to the mistakes we made in Vietnam as described in Col. Harry Summer's book On Strategy.

Here is a list of the military principles from Field Manual 100-1, The Army.

Objective
Offensive
Mass
Economy of Force
Manuver
Unity of Command
Security
Surprise
Simplicity

In subsequent posts I intend to cover one or more topics until I get to the end of the list. Since the Objective is the foundation for all the rest of the topics that will be covered in a post of its own.

I present this list as a kind of warm up so you can get oriented to what is coming next.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

AMIR PERETZ WANTS TO THROW JEWS OUT OF A LEGALLY BOUGHT HOUSE, BUT IS FINDING OPPOSITION TO IT

Israeli defense minister Amir Peretz is now getting what he's asked for: opposition. He wants to throw Jewish residents out of the building in Hebron that was legally purchased, but he's finding now that other government and Knesset members, are against what he wants to do:

Opposition by government ministers over the decision to evacuate the contentious Hebron home, which was taken over by settlers on March 19 as in an ownership dispute, increased on Wednesday afternoon.

Interior Minister Roni Bar-On urged the government secretary to convene an urgent meeting before the planned evacuation.

"There is no reason for Jews not to live in Hebron, or anywhere else in Israel for that matter," said Bar-On. "The decision (to evacuate Israelis) falls on the entire government and not just on the defense minister," he stated.

Minister of Industry, Trade and Labor Eli Yishai also added to the growing dissatisfaction of MKs on the issue. While visiting the disputed house, Yishai said, "any residents of a property that was lawfully purchased can't be legitimately removed from their home."

The occupants of the building received orders from Defense Minister Amir Peretz Wednesday morning to vacate the property within 15 days.

However, Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz refused to permit the evacuation of the house for the time being.

Army Radio reported that in a meeting held Tuesday evening, Mazuz said that there was no security reason for the evacuation and that the settlers could not be defined as intruders. He emphasized that a more extensive legal procedure would be needed to allow petitions to be filed to the High Court in order to determine the case.

I don't know if it's because the government is desperate to do something to restore their shrinking credibility, but they're quite right that aside from being a house in Israel, this is also a legal purchase and they cannot throw someone out of their own property. Peretz may deny this is out of political motivations, but it's apparent that he hopes to get Muslims to vote for him in the Labor party primaries, and that could be why he's trying to do this.

Update: no, Olmert isn't allowing him to do it.

Censorship at PBS

A film on radical Islam has been quashed by PBS:

"The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Key portions of the documentary focus on Dr. M. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix and his American Islamic Forum for Democracy, a non-profit organization of Muslim Americans who advocate patriotism, constitutional democracy and a separation of church and state.....

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, "Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them."

Source

THE INSTINCTIVE TOTALITARIANISM OF THE LEFT

An excerpt below from Breath of the Beast below. He gets a lot right but fails to see the most basic thing that the Left and the Islamists share: Hatred of the world around them. See here and here for a summary of the basic role of hate in Leftism and here for more on the inherent authoritarianism of the Left

Kundera uses the word agelaste. Rabelais, he tells us, coined the word to denote people who do not laugh because they have no sense of humor and "are convinced that the truth is obvious, that all men necessarily think the same thing, and that they themselves are exactly what they think they are."

The moderate and progressive left for all its claims of good intentions and intellectual righteousness has for some time been slipping into a form of totalitarian fundamentalism. The totalitarian progressive left is, I fear an, as yet, undiagnosed epidemic among the upper middle class and the academic and political elites of Western Civilization. As with most epidemics, it has been hard to define in its early stages. In recent years however, it has begun to manifest itself in ways that are impossible to ignore.....

The modern Progressive, leftist and liberal movements lack any real humor. What passes for humor in those precincts is actually more accurately classified as ridicule and mockery. While driving the other day I saw an excellent example, bumper stickers that read, "So Many Right-Wing Christians So Few Lions". This is not humor. It is, rather, a kind of puerile, jejune attempt to wrap a hate message in a clever phrase and hurl it through the windshield of any car that had the misfortune to be driving behind. This is the very sort of message that the owner of that car would, no doubt, condemn utterly if it were aimed at any of the liberally approved minorities. How would he respond to- "So Many Black People, So Few Lynch Mobs"? I can't see how one is any worse than the other. Political correctness, tone deaf "humor" and the conceit of "true belief", are turning the mainstream left into a confederacy of Agelastes....

Totalitarian systems loath each other but they hate the individual human being, his sense of humor and his free thought much more. That is why the Totalitarian left and Caliphate Islam find common cause with each other. In each of them, it is the system not the people in it or the ideals they hold that are important; the individual is an object of suspicion and disdain. As Hannah Arendt wrote in The Origins of Totalitarianism, "Totalitarianism strives not toward despotic rule over men but toward a system in which men are superfluous," The devotion to a strict fundamentalist interpretation of the Koran and the seemingly opposed devotion to the total and complete adherence to the intellectualized principals of the western left differ in their content but not in their disregard for reality and the complex nature of humanity.

This is why so many elite campuses are so inhospitable to Jewish and Christian speakers of any but the leftist point of view while they positively swoon in reverence over speakers from Islam who represent terror as an instrument of social control, the subjugation of women and death or conversion for all unbelievers. Even left wing speakers who do not toe the Agelaste Left party line are drowned out and not allowed to speak in today's academia. Speakers of both the left and right who dare defy the intellectual Taliban of academia and support Israel or speak in support of American values are routinely harassed, drowned out and intimidated socially, academically and even physically. This is a universal characteristic of totalitarians of any stripe, they are more comfortable with other totalitarians, no matter how diametrically opposed their ideas, than they are with those who can see and point out the absurdity of their slavery to empty ideas and pathetic rationalizations.

It is no accident that Academe is a stronghold of the Agelaste Left. In the hothouse of tenure, and with loyal cadres of duped and inexperienced students who eagerly shout down any opposition, the modern University is the last and most secure refuge for bright but craven and bone-lazy "geniuses" who spin vivid verbal riffs on their wishful dreams of what the world is like even as they are entirely insulated from the harsh realities that the business people and workers they so smarmily patronize have to face every day. Socialism and Communism have failed everywhere they have been tried except in the hermetically sealed aviaries of academia. Year after year the tenured Macaws of the professorate gather their favorite toadies up into their own self-congratulating ranks and push the rest out into the "real world" for which they have conspired to keep them ill-equipped. Thinking independently in some regions of academia calls down a fate worse than death- expulsion into the market place where only production of goods and services for which others will pay money earns a living. This is how the elite corps of the Agelaste Left terrorizes its true believers to believe even past the point of self-destruction.....

On the other hand, none of those on the left who reflexively bash America and Israel for "crimes against humanity" are crowding onto airplanes to go live under The Caliphate and Sharia rule either. I think it's safe to say none of them would last a month in a country ruled by Sharia Law. Indeed, they would be lucky to only have their hands cut off rather than be buried up to their waists in the dirt and be stoned to death or have their heads sawn off with a bread knife in front of a video camera..... If its one thing the Agelaste Left enjoys more than mourning dead Jews, it's blaming America and finding fault with the very institutions that shelter them and their self-destructive antics from annihilation by the despots, terrorists and repressive maniacs they so lionize.

More here on the growing love-affair between the Left and the Jihadists

(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.)

IMUS LOSES ADVERTISERS. WHEN WILL THE VIEW!?

PJM / WASH POST:

Imus Loses Advertisers: Despite the shock jock’s post-slur campaign of contrition, companies like Staples Inc., Bigelow Tea and Procter & Gamble no longer want to be associated with him.

IMUS CALL BLACKS A BAD NAME.

HE DESERVES CENSURE. OR SOMETHING MORE SEVERE.

ROSIE CALLED BUSH A MASS MURDERER AND HITLERIAN, 9/11 AN INSIDE JOB, AND THE IRAN/UK HOSTAGE CRISIS A UK/USA RUSE.

WHEN WILL THE VIEW GET THE SAME TREATMENT FROM ITS ADVERTISERS!?

ALGERIA ROCKED BY JIHADOTERROR ATTACKS

BBC: Explosions rock Algerian capital

Algeria map At least 17 people have been killed after several blasts rocked Algeria's capital - one exploding near the prime minister's office, reports say.

Nine died after a car bomb targeting the government buildings in the centre of the capital, Algiers.

Another explosion hit a police station in the east of Algiers, near the city's international airport, killing eight.

IT HAS THE ALL EARMARKS OF AL QAEDA.

THEY ARE ATTACKING ANOTHER ZIONIST/HALLIBURTON/NEOCON STATE.

OH. WAIT. SORRY. ALGERIA IS MUSLIM.

HUH. MAYBE GLOBAL JIHAD AIN'T ABOUT BUSH AND ISRAEL!?! YA THINK, MAYBE?

BTW: JIHAD IN ALGERIA HAS CLAIMED MORE THAN 200,000 LIVES; (TIMELINE).

AND SINCE 1992 - WHEN THE JIHAD BEGAN --- DURING THE CLINTON YEARS - THERE'S NOT BEEN A SINGLE UNSC RESOLUTION CONDEMNING WITHER SIDE.

ONLY ISRAEL. I WONDER WHY!? DO YA THINK IT COULD MIGHT MAYBE BE ANTI-SEMITISM!?

MORE HERE. AND HERE.

(I WONDER: THIS ATTACK COMES ON THE HEELS OF A FEW IN MOROCCO. MAYBE THERE'S A JIHADOTERROR SPRING OFFENSIVE IN NORTH AFRICA? MAYBE CAIRO IS NEXT?)

THE PATRIOTS DEN BUMPERSTICKERS

Curt and Rob over at Flopping Aces have a small, side business selling bumper stickers.

They are awesome!!

You have to go and check all these out.

UK'S NHS MUST SEND PATIENTS TO PRIVATE HOSPITALS FOR TIMELY CARE

LANCASHIRE TELEGRAPH:

EMERGENCY funding totalling £160,000 has been set aside so that more than 40 patients can be treated at a private hospital and waiting list targets can be achieved in East Lancashire.

General surgery and orthopaedics cases being dealt with by East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust were in danger of exceeding 20-week in-patient treatment targets.

LET'S GET THIS STRAIGHT: 20 WEEKS WAITING TIME IS THE FREAKIN' TARGET!

THAT'S FIVE FREAKIN' MONTHS! FOR GENERAL SURGERY AND ORTHOPEDICS!

IF SOCIALIZED MEDICINE DOESN'T WORK THERE IN THE UK - WHERE NATIONALIZING INDUSTRIES WAS INVENTED, WHY WOULD ANYONE THINK IT COULD WORK HERE!?! IT MAKES NO SENSE.

YET ALL OF THE DEMOCRAT PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES SUPPORT JUST THAT.

SHEESH. IT'S NOT LIKE THE USSR WAS UTOPIA, EITHER, YA KNOW.

BUT MAYBE IT WAS - ACCORDING TO THE DEMS!

PAKISTAN SHUTS DOWN RADIO-STATION AND WEBSITES OF RED MOSQUE

MUSHARRAF MAKES A MUCH NEEDED AND GOOD MOVE; (AFP):

Pakistan said Tuesday it had blocked the website and radio station of a radical mosque that has launched a Taliban-style morality campaign in the heart of the capital.

The move comes after the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in Islamabad issued a "fatwa" against a female minister pictured hugging a foreigner following a charity paragliding trip, and also threatened to carry out suicide attacks. "We have blocked the website of Lal Masjid and also blocked the radio station," Deputy Information Minister Tariq Azeem told AFP.

Azeem said the government blocked the website ... and the illegal FM radio station under laws brought in five years ago by President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally and proponent of moderate Islam.

"We will block anything that promotes religious hatred, calls for suicide attacks -- this cannot be tolerated. The law says that no such activity can be allowed. This website was projecting what was prohibited by law," he said.

THE ONLY THING WE MUST NOT TOLERATE IS INTOLERANCE.

DID SPEAKER HASTERT FLY TO BELGRADE TO PAY RESPECT TO MILOSEVIC DURING CLINTON'S SERBIAN WAR?

WHEN WE WERE FIGHTING THE KOSOVO WAR, DID SPEAKER HASTERT FLY TO BELGRADE TO PAY RESPECTS TO MILOSEVIC DURING CLINTON'S SERBIAN WAR?

NOPE.

DID HE FLY ANYWHERE OUTSIDE THE USA AND PROCLAIM THAT THE GOP IN CONGRESS HAS AN ALTERNATIVE FOREIGN POLICY?

NOPE.


BUT PELOSI PAID RESPECTS TO ASSAD. WHILE THE USA AND ISRAEL AND LEBANON FIGHT HIS MINIONS.

AND SENIOR MEMBERS OF HER MISSION PROCLAIMED THEY HAVE THEIR OWN FOREIGN POLICY.

WHICH IS A FELONY.

MORE HERE.

GRAMSCI EFFECT: SILENCING MUSLIM MODERATES

The Gramsci Effect is in full force at PBS. Everyone's favorite tax-dollar funded broadcasting corporation is all set to run an 11-part series on America in the post-9/11 era. Called America at a Crossroads, the documentary spends a lot of time looking at the clash between Western civilization and Muslim fundamentalists, however, some of the producers are concerned with segments that deal with "moderate Muslims."

If Dr. Zuhdi Jasser of Phoenix were a Christian - and he emphatically is not - we might deem him a saint.

But Jasser is a Muslim. He believes in his religion as fervently as any Catholic bishop believes in his. Or any Muslim imam, for that matter. He is faithful to the Quran, which Jasser believes conveys a message of peace.

Because of his faith, and because of what he has done to act on his faith, Jasser has evolved into an extraordinary symbol of what true heroism means in the post-Sept. 11 world. He is a Muslim and an American. And he is a man of peace - a rare, bold iconoclast who is willing to speak out against people who, he believes, have stolen his faith for evil ends.

So, is Zuhdi Jasser what you might call a "moderate" Muslim? If you do, then the Public Broadcasting Service has a problem with you.

[...]

As the PBS producers affirmed time and again in their letters and e-mails, who is an Islamic "extremist" and who is a "moderate" depends entirely on which side of the street you're standing. In large part, it is about "context."

"We felt the program was flawed by incomplete storytelling and problems with fairness," said Jeff Bieber, executive producer of the Crossroads series. "We felt the writing was alarmist and without adequate context."

And there you have it. Gramsci's legacy in a nutshell. There is not good and bad, no right and wrong...it's all a matter of perspective. However, Bieber then slips on his own rhetoric.

"We just felt there was incomplete context, (that) could lead viewers to the wrong conclusions."

Hold on! "The wrong conclusions?" Maybe it's not that these PBS producers are practicing postmodernists, maybe it's that they've chosen a side and are doing what they can to protect them. Can you guess who I'm talking about?

RTWT.