QUOTE OF THE WEEKEND: MARK STEYN ON BUSH

BUSH'S "COMPASSIONATE CONSERVATISM" IS A FORM OF NEO-LIBERALISM, AND BUSH HAS ACTUALLY GOVERNED AS A NEO-LIBERAL HAWK.

YET, HE HAS STILL MANAGED TO IGNITE THE IRRATIONAL AND EXTREME IRE OF THE LEFT.

AS STEYN PUTS IT, HE'S ENRAGED THE LEFT DESPITE THE FACT THAT...

"90% OF THE TIME HE'S TONY BLAIR WITH A RANCH."

It's just a post at THE CORNER but RTWT.

I said it months ago: The "W" in Dubya stands for WIMP.

FOUR ARRESTED IN PLOT TO BOMB FUEL LINES AT JFK AIRPORT

A plot to potentially destroy one of New York's leading airports has been thwarted:

NEW YORK (AP) - A suspected terrorist cell planned a "chilling" attack to destroy John F. Kennedy International Airport, kill thousands of people and trigger an economic catastrophe by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through populous residential neighborhoods, authorities said Saturday.

Three men were arrested and one was being sought in Trinidad on Saturday. In an indictment charging the four men, one of them is quoted as saying the foiled plot would "cause greater destruction than in the Sept. 11 attacks," destroying the airport, killing several thousand people and destroying parts of Queens, where the line runs underground.

One of the suspects, Russell Defreitas, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana and former JFK employee, said the airport was a symbol that would put "the whole country in mourning."

"It's like you can kill the man twice," Defreitas said, according to the indictment.

The plot never got past the planning stages. It posed no immediate threat to air safety or the public, the FBI said Saturday.

"The devastation that would be caused had this plot succeeded is just unthinkable," U.S. Attorney Roslynn R. Mauskopf said at a news conference, calling it "one of the most chilling plots imaginable."

Defreitas was in custody in Brooklyn and was expected to be arraigned Saturday afternoon.

Two other men, Abdul Kadir of Guyana and Kareem Ibrahim of Trinidad, are in custody in Trinidad. A fourth man, Abdel Nur of Guyana, was still being sought in Trinidad.

They seem (unsurprisingly) to refrain here from giving any clear details of if Islamism played any role here. However, according to this article in the NY Times (via Hot Air), the plot

involved a former airport worker who is a United States citizen of Guyanese descent and a former member of the Guyanese parliament, who is also an imam.

Clue number one. And two others were connected with Jamaat al-Muslimeen, which is operating in Trinidad/Tobago.

It's very fortunate that these vile scum were arrested before they could even get underway with building bombs and gathering tools with which to ignite a fire at the airport. According to a broadcast I saw on CNN, the fuel line stretched through some neighborhoods in NYC, and it could've had VERY devastating consequences.

Leftists Think Coercion is Free Speech

Leftist activists at UC Santa Cruz blockaded the UC university regents in a lecture hall last October and the police had to use force to clear a way through the crowd. One of the leaders of the obstructive group was habitual protest leader Alette Kendrick -- whom the police arrested for her obstructive behavior.

UCSC has now suspended her from the university for three years and there are all sorts of claims on the net that her "free speech" was violated thereby. In Leftist circles acting like a thug is free speech apparently.

Background here. A sample of the false "free speech" claims here

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

Some articles recently up on ICJS

ICJS is devoted to countering media antagonism to Israel -- particularly antagonism emanating from Australia's public broadcasters. It assembles articles from various sources

The Islamic Reconquest of Palestine
Lebanon a launch pad for al-Qa'ida's new phase
Correspondence from Salah Choudhury to Naomi Ragen
George Soros and the problem of self-hating Hebrews
One on one: "you want to die but don't"
Interesting Times: Which occupation
Jerusalem - 40th Anniversary of reunification
The Koranic quotations trap
The Sarkozy Victory
Worrying begins at home
Infidel
The new demographic balance in Europe and its consequences

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

An Introduction To Blogging

Eric and I met up again in Rockford, This time we went to the Octane Lounge. Eric will be posting pictures on his return.

In our long and rambling discussion we talked about the nature of blogging.

I can think of no finer introduction to the world of competitive blogging than the movie His Girl Friday with Rosiland Russel and Cary Grant. The technology has changed considerably since that movie was released (1940). Human nature, not so much. So watch the whole thing (about an hour and a half). Hilarious and informative.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

DR. FRANCIS SCHAEFFER

I was re-listening to a Focus on the Family CD of the famous Dr. Francis Schaeffer. If you have never read his books or heard him speak he is a legend and you need to check him out. The CD I listened to was entitled "America's Moral Freefall" which was a talk that he gave in 1982, go here to see the transcript. He talks about how important the Christian Worldview is and how Christians cannot stay silent while our culture is taken over by secular humanists. Here is an excerpt about his Christian Manifesto which is what the talk was based on:

"Dr. Schaeffer, who was one of the most influential Christian thinkers in the twentieth century, shows that secular humanism has displaced the Judeo-Christian consensus that once defined our nation's moral boundaries. Law, education, and medicine have all been reshaped for the worse as a consequence. America's dominant worldview changed, Schaeffer charges, when Christians weren't looking.

"Where have the Bible-believing Christians been in the last 40 years?" asks Schaeffer. "Where have we been as we have changed to this other consensus and all the horrors and stupidity of the present moment have come down on our culture?"

Schaeffer lists two reasons for evangelical indifference: a false concept of spirituality and fear. He calls on believers to stand against the tyranny and moral chaos that come when humanism reigns—and warns that believers may, at some point, be forced to make the hard choice between obeying God or Caesar. A Christian Manifesto is a thought-provoking and bracing Christian analysis of American culture and the obligation Christians have to engage the culture with the claims of Christ."

Here is one of my favorite parts of the address:

"It should be noticed that this new dominant world view is a view which is exactly opposite from that of the founding fathers of this country. Now, not all the founding fathers were individually, personally, Christians. That certainly is true. But, nevertheless, they founded the country on the base that there is a God who is the Creator (now I come to the next central phrase) who gave the inalienable rights.

We must understand something very thoroughly. If society -- if the state gives the rights, it can take them away -- they're not inalienable. If the states give the rights, they can change them and manipulate them. But this was not the view of the founding fathers of this country. They believed, although not all of them were individual Christians, that there was a Creator and that this Creator gave the inalienable rights -- this upon which our country was founded and which has given us the freedoms which we still have -- even the freedoms which are being used now to destroy the freedoms.

The reason that these freedoms were there is because they believed there was somebody who gave the inalienable rights. But if we have the view that the final reality is material or energy which has existed forever in some form, we must understand that this view never, never, never would have given the rights which we now know and which, unhappily, I say to you (those of you who are Christians) that too often you take all too much for granted. You forget that the freedoms which we have in northern Europe after the Reformation (and the United States is an extension of that, as would be Australia or Canada, New Zealand, etc.) are absolutely unique in the world."

LITVINENKO CASE CLOSED: PUTIN GUILTY

The Brits have indicted the former Russian KGB agent Lugovoi - just as I predicted. Lugovoi is accusing the British government and MI5.

I knew this to be the case as soon as Lugovoi went to Moscow for treatment for Polonium poisoning.

If Lugovoi had been working with Litvinenko in a smuggling ring (for any purpose) then he would not have returned to Moscow - the place where they got the Polonium.

AJ STRATA of THE STRATA-SPHERE has argued from the start that Litivinenko died in an accident. Strata IMAGINED that Litivineko was smuggling Polonium for the Chechens with the aid of Berezhovsky who was financing it to build Chechens a nuke (or dirty bomb) to attack Russia.

I argued and then ridiculed Strata for this ridiculous scenario. (So bluntly he banned me from commenting at his blog!) After all, why would ANYONE smuggle Polonium out of Russia to the British ISLES in order to build a nuke to explode in Russia!?! (Why not make the bomb in Hamburg or within Russia!?) It makes no sense. ZERO. NONE.

Putin is the obvious culprit behind the plot because it fits his MO: he has ruthlessly dealt with all his adversaries - from stealing their BILLIONS to exiling them, to murdering them -- and there have been more than a few. The Polonium wouldn't have actually cost Putin a cent, either.

I think that Putin wanted both Litvinenko AND Berezhovsky killed. And the reason they used "expensive" Polonium was really because they were mostly targeting the billionaire Berezhovsky. YES: HE WAS PROBABLY THE MAIN TARGET. "Spending" several million to get a billion is sensible - for a murderous tyrant like Putin.

ALSO: If Lugovoi was part of the smuggling ring which Strata IMAGINES, then why would the Russian government and Putin's FM be defending him, and ATTACKING the UK (and spreading BIZARRE LIES)!? It makes no sense: ZERO; NONE.

The ONLY explanation which explains ALL the facts is this: PUTIN DID IT.

BOTTOM LINE: I think that the UNSC should set up a LITVINENKO TRIBUNAL just as they have for Hariri. And INDICT PUTIN.

(And someone please get AJ to stop being so ridiculous and come to his senses; his yarn is more ridiculous than the 9/11 tales of the "Truthers.")

HOW WE MIGHT USE FEDERAL TAX REFORM TO MOOT THE IMMIGRATION DEBATE

One reason many people get all pissed-off by illegal immigrants is because they get a free ride when it comes to taxes and services: they pay less taxes than legal residents and citizens, and yet they get full state and federal services (schools, healthcare, the use of highways, etc. - and all the incidental benefits of being in the best damn country on the planet).

Here's one way to fix this problem:

THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT COULD PASS A FLAT INCOME TAX OF 15%, AND ALSO A NATIONAL SALES TAX of 15%, AND THEN GIVE ALL LEGAL PEOPLE WHO FILE TAXES A "SALES TAX CREDIT" OF UP TO $15,000, (OR THE AMOUNT OF INCOME TAXES THEY PAID IF TAXES PAID IS LESS THAN $15,000).

THEN ONLY PEOPLE WHO FILE TAXES WOULD GET THE BREAK AND ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WOULD NO LONGER GET A FREE RIDE.

States and cities - who perhaps bear the brunt of illegal immigrant expenses - could do the same thing, with lower numbers.

Under this scheme even tourists would federal sales tax, too. This is a partial solution which would almost make the whole immigration/temporary worker controversy go away.

'Cause there's one other thing: WE SHOULD ALSO DEMAND ASSIMILATION FROM ALL WHO WISH TO RESIDE HERE.

THERE SHOULD BE NO IMMIGRATION WITHOUT ASSIMILATION.

Women In Art

Women in Art.

H/T Don Surber

Reliapundit asked that his co-bloggers put up an art post on Fridays. Here's why:

There's more to life than war, taxes and politics - and a lot of it's more fun, too! That's why every WEEKEND, here at THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS, we post on on some of the cultural things we're into, things we think you might also find entertaining, enriching, and stimulating. After all, the arts - ALL ARTS, not just fine arts - are a big part of what our liberty is for, and what we're fighting to defend!

Here is my first contribution.

Cross Posted at Classical Values

HILLARY: FOR A NEW TOMMORROW

As our hero Rosie would say, "Google it!"

So I did.

I put "Hillary" and "tommorrow" in the Google News search.

I got one hit...from Fox News.

For some crazy reason, I have a feeling this misspelling incident would have gotten more MSM play if it had been a George W. Bush event.

What liberal media?

Republicans Support Hillary For President

The Captain's Quarters has a story up on the fall off in small donations at Republican National Headquarters.

The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks political donations to all parties and affiliated committees, confirms that the Republicans have a fundraising problem. The smaller donors with whom the RNC's call center interfaced have decreased their contributions considerably, and overall income has dropped significantly. The RNC has done better than the Congressional committees, but only because the RNC also focuses on big donors through other means, such as fundraising events.

Republican donors have certainly lost some enthusiasm since the midterm losses last year, and the immigration bill has added to their woes. People are angry about the compromise; they have flooded talk radio shows and the blogs to express their discontent, and in return they have been attacked by President Bush as "not wanting what is best for their country." Under those circumstances, the average small donor has one option, which is to cease being a donor at all -- and to communicate that to the people who call for their assistance.

From what I gather Hillary and her clones have taken over the Republican call center duties.

Hillary Calling.

I see '06 in your future.

I'm looking forward to national health care, totally open immigration, and surrender in the war.

How about you? Can I count on your support? You promise not to support Republicans? That is good enough for me.

However, if it sends the Republicans a message it will be worth it.

The Republican Party is dead. Circular firing squad.

I'm sorry I signed up with such a bunch of incompetents.

Unfortunately, I only have the Libertarians to fall back on.

Cross Posted at Power and Control and at Classical Values

RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: I agree; I would NEVER vote for Bush or another GOP candidate again - EXCEPT IF THEY RAN AGAINST A DEMOCRAT!

AS BUSH SINKS WITH CONSERVATIVES HERE AT HOME, OLD EUROPE BECOMES MORE PRO-AMERICAN

LATIMES:

France's new president goes jogging in an NYPD T-shirt. Britain's prime minister-apparent likes to vacation on Cape Cod. And Germany's chancellor once got an impromptu back rub from President Bush.

Welcome to the new "old Europe."

At the beginning of 2003, Washington had all but written off the historical power brokers of continental Western Europe. France and Germany, dead set against going to war in Iraq, were "a problem," then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld said. The Bush administration's favor had tilted toward the east, where it found solid support among the European Union's newcomers.

Four years later, a new set of players emerging on the old Europe bench could tip the balance back toward the Atlantic. Britain, France and Germany are fielding potentially the most pro-U.S. group of leaders to emerge in Western Europe in years.

ALL THE MORE REASON THAT NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR BUSH TO BE PRANCING TOWARD THE LEFT!

More on the morally blind "Amnesty" organization

They think in terms of race rather than in terms of harm done to people. So who are the racists? Article below by Australian columnist Andrew Bolt

AMNESTY International has a lethal dose of our new intellectual disease - the racism of the anti-racists. It's got it so bad that what was once the world's most admired human-rights group can no longer tell the moral difference between a democrat and a dictator. At least, not when the democrat is as white as - yes! - John Howard, and the genocidal despot is not.

Amnesty's secretary-general, Irene Khan, last week released its 2007 report, and in its foreword listed what to her were the greatest threats to human rights. "Today far too many leaders are trampling and trumpeting an ever-widening range of fears," trumpeted Khan, a Bangladeshi Muslim whose own country, by the way, is under military rule. And she named four leaders - no one else - who demonstrated to her this kind of "myopic and cowardly leadership".



The Muslim and morally blind Ms Khan above. Not an unusual combination of attributes. Muslim respect for human life and their love of Western civilization is well-known

First, was our own Prime Minister Howard - prime evil for stopping boats of illegal immigrants. Second, was US President George Bush, for invoking "the fear of terrorism" just "to enhance his executive power". (I know, that fear was invoked not by Bush, but by terrorists on September 11, 2001, and ... but we're interrupting Khan's lecture.) Trailing in third place, in Khan's pantheon of evil, was Sudan's Islamist President, Omar al-Bashir, behind a genocide in Darfur that's killed some 200,000 people. Last was Robert Mugabe, who has turned Zimbabwe into a cemetery for the starving, although Khan merely accuses him of grabbing land for his supporters.

This grouping of two leaders of free democracies with two genocidal thugs is bizarre, but does have supreme virtue for the modern anti-racist racist. See? Two whites were "balanced" by two dark-skins. Two Westerners by two Third-Worlders. Two Christians by a Muslim and an old Communist. What could be fairer? And that fake balance - so kind to the cruel - ran right through Khan's essay. A typical line: "The politics of fear has been made more complex by the emergence of armed groups and big business that commit or condone human rights abuses." How about that? Al-Qaeda (which Khan never mentions by name) is no more deadly than a big business like Nike.

Here's another: "If unregulated migration is the fear of the rich, then unbridled capitalism, driven by globalisation, is the fear of the poor." Perfectly balanced. The capitalism that actually makes poor people richer, is thought by Khan to be as scary as the race riots and no-entry immigrant enclaves of France, or the bomb plots of jihad-minded sons of immigrants in Britain.

Nowhere does she note that the West is swamped by migrants from the East precisely because the East has too little capitalism. And, of course, too many dictators. Nor does Khan acknowledge that the fears expressed by her hated Western politicians have very real causes, often originating in lands ruled by Muslim theocracies and autocrats.

You might think I've read too much into one article, but Khan has form in likening the worst to the West, and seeing an equivalence between those defending the West and those trying to destroy it. Three years ago, for instance, she said that of all the horrors of the world, the US-led "war on terror" (her scare quotes) was "the biggest attack on human rights, principles and values". Honest. To Khan, defending ourselves against Islamist terrorists is deadlier to human rights than, say, the brutalising of Zimbabwe, the mass murder in Darfur, the state oppression in China, the civil wars in Algeria and Sudan, the withering of democracy in Russia, the Islamist fascism of Iran, and the open jail of North Korea.

The following year, Khan even called Guantanamo Bay the "gulag of our time" - this time making a prison for 400 suspected terrorists seem as terrible as the vast Soviet network of forced labor camps in which millions of innocent civilians were jailed in conditions so brutal that countless of them died. This outraged Pavel Litvinov, a former Soviet "prisoner of conscience" adopted by Amnesty, who warned: "By using hyperbole and muddling the difference between repressive regimes and the imperfections of democracy, Amnesty's spokesman put its authority at risk."

I wish. In fact, Khan's anti-racist racism and consequent likening of white democrats to black totalitarians has made her a hero. In 2004, she was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize and invited to give the University of South Australia's annual Hawke Lecture, broadcast across the land by the ABC. How the audience at that lecture cheered Khan as she cried there was a "feeling in many parts of the world that the West has lost its moral high ground to advocate human rights" - an irrational feeling she has tried harder than most to whip up. Those cheers confirmed that Khan simply reflected a suicidal tendency among the West's intelligentsia to see the worst in the West and the best in the totalitarians pledged to destroy it.

Want recent examples? There are our prominent Leftists - ABC host Phillip Adams, propagandist John Pilger, columnist Jill Singer, Islamist Keysar Trad - who've invited Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez to visit and "inspire" us. That is, when he's not too busy closing down TV stations that criticise him, rigging laws to stay in power and calling George Bush a "devil".

There's Age cartoonist and National Living Treasure Michael Leunig, who similarly draws Bush as a devil, Howard as a murderer and Israel as Auschwitz, but demands we treat terrorist chief Osama bin Laden as our "relative" and "consider (his) suffering". There's the Melbourne University Press boss, Louise Adler, who two weeks ago likened al-Qaeda recruit David Hicks to Nelson Mandela.

There's University of Technology Sydney's Islamic law lecturer, Jamila Hussain, who this week called visiting author Ayaan Hirsi Ali an "extremist" who should stay "where she came from" when real extremists - Muslim ones - have forced this liberal Sudanese-born feminist and critic of misogynist Islam to bring her bodyguard to ensure she doesn't suffer the fate of her former colleague, director Theo van Gogh, assassinated in 2004.

Or take the Global Peace Index released this week by The Charitable Foundation of local IT millionaire and philanthropist Steve Killelea. It rated Australia at 25 in its ranking of countries most at peace - and the US at just 96, below even Syria, China, Bangladesh, Papua New Guinea, Saudi Arabia and Libya. Democratic Israel was rated the least peaceful of all, apart from Sudan and Iraq. Not one report I saw of that survey drew the obvious conclusion: that this was madness. That this was a manifestation of a moral blindness among our elites.

And now Amnesty International is as blind as the rest, flailing at the very societies that most protect the freedoms it claims to defend. How defenceless we are, when even this once-great defender of human rights now treats us as one of the deadliest enemies of all.

Source

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

Media coverup of al-Qaida torture

The same media who splash the smallest examples of abuse -- whether true or not -- by American forces have still not mentioned what blog readers have known for days. Comment by conservative journalist Don Surber below:

IF you know about the torture manual used by al-Qaida, then you did not learn about it by reading the Washington Post, the New York Times or sadly, this newspaper. Neither the Associated Press nor Reuters picked up on the story. Fox News was the only major outlet with the story. Rupert Murdoch's newspapers in Australia republished the Fox report. The handbook was posted at the Smoking Gun Web site. It showed -- with drawings -- how al-Qaida uses drills, irons, vises and other devices to mutilate their captives. This is true torture, the same kind employed by Saddam Hussein's henchmen at Abu Ghraib. The handbook helped explain why a few days later, U.S. forces liberated 42 victims of al-Qaida torture from a location in Iraq.

But while they ignored the handbook story, the New York Times and Washington Post did not hesitate to publish a press handout from the United Nations condemning Guantanamo Bay. Why? Because the jihadis we captured are not given lawyers quickly enough. Will someone tell me the name of Daniel Pearl's lawyer? This is the same United Nations whose "human rights council" includes every dictatorship from Burkina Faso to Zimbabwe.

Gitmo has been demonized in part by the false and preposterous allegation that a guard flushed an inmate's Koran down the toilet. The New York Times published no less than 29 stories about this lie. Small wonder most Americans think Torquemada, chief of the Spanish Inquisition, runs Gitmo. Then again, the New York Times is the home of the infamous "Memos on Bush Are Fake But Accurate, Typist Says" headline. That was the headline a copy editor slapped on a story that grudgingly conceded that Dan Rather's memo disparaging George Walker Bush's military service was a fraud, a phony -- another lie.

Publishing 29 stories about a lie about a flushed Koran is bad enough. But when a newspaper then refuses to publish one story about a very real handbook on torture that is used by the enemy, that newspaper is no longer being objective. It is taking sides. And not the right side, at that.

Source

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

FRED!: a couple of videos

JOURNALISTS + ACADEMICS = IDIOTS

Well I have read today that British Journalists have joined British Academics in the movement to take sides in the ME conflict vis-a-vis Israel and the Palistinians. What does this tell us about these groups???? They are supposedly committed to Academic Freedom, Freedom of Expression, Unbiased Reporting etc. etc.

NASA CHIEF ON GLOBAL WARMING: The Astute Bloggers scoops the blogosphere, once again

We posted on this story on 5/30/07 at 7:39PM. (We linked to SPACE DAILY.)

We beat ABCNews, Drudge, Memeorandum, Newsbusters, American Digest, The Raw Story, The Carpetbagger Report, Balloon Juice, Blue Crab Boulevard, Daily Kos, CJR - AND EVERYONE ELSE - by a day.

We saw the story first, saw its importance, and brought it to the attention of our loyal readers BEFORE anyone else.

We don't follow; we lead.

SPREAD THE WORD.
BLOGROLL US.

Defeated By Pornography

I have a rather long post up on how Islamic Fascism is being Defeated By Pornography. It is true pornography is a problem for some in the West. However, Islam as it is pushed by the Saudis, has no defence.

I cover the whole scene from porno on cells to Saudi Web Cam Girls, with a fair amount of social commentary and Grand Strategy thrown in.

IMPORTANT SHOW OF JUSTICE: POLICE BRUTALITY CONVICTED

This is something that I wrote about two years ago, about an Israeli police offier who committed an act of violence against a right-wing protestor during the disengagement monstrosity, totally out of line in any democratic society. Now, he and another one involved in this have been convicted of their crime, which in my mind was done out of their political positions(?):

(IsraelNN.com) The Tel Aviv Magistrates Court has found two policemen guilty of brutality against an "orange" anti-Disengagement protestor - thanks to an on-site video taken by Arutz-7 journalist-cameraman Tuvia Lerner.

The two Yassam-unit policemen, Eran Naim and Eliran Avraham, were found guilty of beating demonstrator Akiva Vitkin without cause during an anti-Disengagement road-blocking demonstration on June 29, 2005. Naim is seen in the video appearing to be trying to pull Vitkin's nose off by sticking his fingers in his nostrils from behind and pulling up, and Avraham later beat Vitkin repeatedly in the police station.

Solid Evidence
The judge wrote that he had been presented with solid evidence by the plaintiffs, while the police defendants provided only weak testimonies in their favor. This, after observers said he appeared to express sympathy with the policemen at various points during the trial.

The policemen's lawyer claimed during the trial that Vitkin had committed grave acts by lying on the road and blocking traffic, including that of security vehicles. Orit Strook, of the Yesha Civil Rights organization, said that the judge ruled that police may use reasonable force when in danger or to make an arrest, but not as punishment. It was Strook's organization, together with Atty. Nadav HaEtzni, that filed the suit against the policemen.

Legitimate Tactic
The policemen's lawyer also stated that "fingers in nostrils" is a legitimate police tactic against demonstrators, one that is studied in the police martial arts school. The judge later stated that the major issue of the case is how to set the limits of police force against demonstrators.

Officer Eran Naim was caught on tape by Arutz-7’s Lerner taking part in what Lerner later said was a "cruel, shocking and pre-meditated attack." Despite attempts by the police to obstruct his view by standing tightly around the victim, Lerner managed to film the attack on a digital camera. Naim is first seen on motioning to his colleagues to help beat the demonstrator, after which they sit on him and stick their fingers in his nose and mouth, causing extensive bleeding and facial injuries. Naim is also seen beating 58-year-old Rabbi Dr. Yisrael Katz, after the Rabbi appealed to him to refrain from beating girls present at the road-blocking.

There's a video of this at the INN page, and if you have the stomach for any graphic acts that appear there, you can see it for yourself.

And with that, let's take a moment now to ask some questions: what kind of lawyer does this beneath-humanity police officer have, who justifies violence? And will he and others of his ilk be legitimizing pedophilia next? Nor can I see the logic in assaulting someone blocking traffic, when it's quite possible to just simply drag them out of the way. Forget it, the man is an inferior product of a bad education system who shouldn't be part of society anymore.

Let this be a lesson to one and all about what kind of corruption plagues some of the Israeli police, and that needs to be cleansed. With this conviction today, we'll hopefully be reaching the point where that'll be done.

"White supremacist" to call for equal treatment of blacks and whites?

I guess Martin Luther King must have been a white supremacist at that rate:

"Close to 300 Knoxville police officers, Knox County sheriff's deputies, and Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers kept close watch over a white supremacist rally Saturday in downtown Knoxville.

The 30 or so protestors came from across the United States to Knoxville to argue that national and local media are not giving enough attention to black-on-white crimes. The issue they are thrusting to the center of their message is the double murder of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom.

Source

I have myself commented (scroll down) about the way the atrocious crime concerned has been ignored by the major media -- in contrast to the way the non-crime of the Duke lacrosse players was splashed nationwide.

But I too have been labelled a "white supremacist" for opposing racial preferences (i.e. "affirmative action") so I guess that what we see above is just the usual Leftist substitution of abuse for rational argument.

George Orwell portrayed Leftists as using words to mean the opposite of what they really described and we certainly see a lot of that today.

Ace has some thoughtful comments on the media behavior in the matter.

(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 INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Americans will die for liberty

Excerpts from a British writer:

We are inclined, in our snobbish way, to dismiss the Americans as a new and vulgar people, whose civilisation has hardly risen above the level of cowboys and Indians. Yet the United States of America is actually the oldest republic in the world, with a constitution that is one of the noblest works of man. When one strips away the distracting symbols of modernity - motor cars, skyscrapers, space rockets, microchips, junk food - one finds an essentially 18th-century country.

The sense of entering an older country, and one with a sterner sense of purpose than is found among the flippant and inconstant Europeans, can be enjoyed even before one gets off the plane. On the immigration forms that one has to fill in, one is asked: "Have you ever been arrested or convicted for an offence or crime involving moral turpitude?" Who now would dare to pose such a question in Europe? The very word "turpitude" brings a smile, almost a sneer, to our lips.

The quiet solicitude that Americans show for the comfort of their visitors, and the tact with which they make one feel at home, can only be described as gentlemanly. These graceful manners, so often overlooked by brash European tourists, whisper the last enchantments of an earlier and more dignified age, when liberty was not confused with licence.

But lest these impressions of the United States seem unduly favourable, it should be added that the Americans have not remained in happy possession of their free constitution without cost. Thomas Jefferson warned that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. To the Americans, the idea that freedom and democracy exact a cost in blood is second nature...

The Americans are prepared to use force in pursuit of what they regard as noble aims. It is yet another respect in which they are rather old-fashioned. They are patriots who venerate their nation and their flag.

The idea has somehow gained currency in Britain that America is an essentially peaceful nation. Quite how this notion took root, I do not know. Perhaps we were unduly impressed by the protesters against the Vietnam war. It is an idea that cannot survive a visit to the National Museum of American History in Washington, where one is informed that the "price of freedom" is over and over again paid in blood.... when the Americans speak of freedom, we should not imagine, in our cynical and worldly-wise way, that they are merely using that word as a cloak for realpolitik. They are not above realpolitik, but they also mean what they say. These formidable people think freedom is so valuable that it is worth dying for.

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 INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

A NEW ALLIANCE?

It seems like nothing of great import has been happening in Denmark lately - at least the kind of headline grabbing event the news industry craves.

While I have not contributed here in quite some time I doubt anyone has missed my contribution to the information-heap.

Then again - there have been some important tidal shifts occurring in the political scene here which may interest some of you.

Perhaps you might recall that the Swedish Social Democratic Government was defeated at the polls by a new coalition called the Alliance Party. Something similar may be developing here in Denmark. Two members of the Radical Party,Naser Khader and Anders Samuelsen - (The Radical is a liberal party which broke from the farmers Left party about 100 years ago and was for many years the party that tipped the paliamentary scales...) and one member of the Conservative Party, Gitte Seeberg - have formed New Alliance Party.

The birth of this party is a result of years of frustration with for example the tax-stop which essentially froze fiscal policy, and the controversies surrounding the sitting Governments support party - the right wing Dansk Folkeparty (danish peoples party). And whether or not one supports the New Alliance the general consensus is that it is positive for democracy that they will challenge what has otherwise become a stalemate.

While the political deadlock has slowly been calcifying - the catalyst to the emergence of this new party has been a central issue in Danish politics: immigration and Islam. Members of the Danish Folkparty protested the possibility that a potential member of parliament could speak in parliament while wearing a head-covering. One even compared the Islamic Women's head-covering with the Nazi's Swastika - and the Koran with Mein Kampf. One of Khader's colleagues in the Radical wore a headdress to defend the right of women to wear head-covering - she is shown above standing next to a statue of a traditional fishmonger...Khader claimed that this was the straw that borke the camel's back - as a moderate muslim the defense of the head-covering by his colleague was too much. (afterwards there was much hullaballoo about the veracity of Khader's claim).

Personally I find the comparison of the muslim women's headgear to a Swastika offensive - I believe the comparison to a yellow Star of David more apt.

Women should be free to choose their attire - not be forced to wear it. I believe the extreme right wingers speak with a kernel of truth when they alarm us to the dangers of Islamic Fundamentalists - but their statements are easily interpreted as racist.

After the summer we will see if the New Alliance Party has a positive influence on Danish Politics. Meanwhile I look forward to a real NEW ALLIANCE which will work to guarantee the rights of women oppressed by Islamic and Tribal traditions.

VALERIE PLAME'S 3 VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH

While Scooter Libby had his life and career destroyed because of Plamegate, those who had the biggest issue with the truth, Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson walk around free of consequences.

My awesome Senator Kit Bond is saying not so fast. As Vice-Chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee he is a little troubled by the fact that Valerie Plame has no less than 3 different versions of how her husband was chosen to go to Niger.

VALERIE PLAME'S 3 VERSIONS:

1) To the CIA inspector general, she said that she suggested her husband for the trip.

2) To the Senate Intelligence Committee staff, she said she could not remember whether she suggested her husband or if her boss did.

3) To the House Committee, she said she did not suggest him.

In Plame's testimony to the House she said that her February 12, 2002 memo was taken out of context by the Senate. When I look at the memo it looks pretty clear to me that she was recommending her husband for the trip, maybe a liberal can point out to me what in the memo (posted below) is being taken out of context:

The report forwarded below has prompted me to send this on to you and request your comments and opinion. Briefly, it seems that Niger has signed a contract with Iraq to sell them uranium. The IC [Intelligence Community] is getting spun up about this for obvious reasons. The embassy in Niamey has taken the position that this report can’t be true — they have such cozy relations with the GON [Government of Niger] that they would know if something like this transpired.

So where do I fit in? As you may recall, [redacted] of CP/[office 2] recently approached my husband to possibly use his contacts in Niger to investigate [a separate Niger matter]. After many fits and starts, [redacted] finally advised that the station wished to pursue this with liaison. My husband is willing to help, if it makes sense, but no problem if not. End of story.

Now, with this report, it is clear that the IC is still wondering what is going on… my husband has good relations with both the PM and the former minister of mines, not to mention lots of French contacts, both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity. To be frank with you, I was somewhat embarrassed by the agency’s sloppy work last go-round, and I am hesitant to suggest anything again. However, [my husband] may be in a position to assist. Therefore, request your thoughts on what, if anything, to pursue here. Thank you for your time on this.

As a result, Senator Kit Bond has:

written to the CIA asking to interview the people said to be involved. He also wants to reinterview Valerie Plame Wilson herself.

PUTIN : NMD :: GORBACHEV : PERSHING MISSILES

PUTIN:

Russian President Vladimir Putin has cautioned against turning Europe into a "powder keg", referring to Washington's plans to deploy elements of its missile defense system in Europe.

"We consider it harmful and dangerous to turn Europe into a "powder keg" and to fill it with new kinds of weapons," Putin told a news conference after talks with the Portuguese prime minister in Moscow.

"It creates new unneeded risks for the entire system of international and European relations," he said.

WE HEARD THIS KIND OF ACCUSATION FROM THE LEFT IN THE 1980'S. THEM THEY ACCUSED REAGAN OF BEING A WARMONGER, WHEN HE REBUILT OUR MILITARY DEFENSES.

MILLIONS PROTESTED.

BUT HE WENT AHEAD AND DEPLOYED THE PERSHING II MISSILES DESPITE HUGE PROTESTS WORLDWIDE THAT HE WAS DESTABILIZING THE WORLD AND CREATING A WORSE ARMS RACE.

WIKI:

380 Pershing II missiles were made. They were first deployed in West Germany from January 1984 and the European deployment was completed in late 1985 with a total of 108 launchers.

I WAS OPPOSED TO REAGAN AND THE PERSHINGS AT THE TIME - AND I MARCHED WITH A MILLION OTHER LEFTIES IN CENTRAL PARK; THE EURO-LEFT PROTESTED EN MASSE, TOO. THEY HATED REAGAN THEN AS THEY HATE BUSH NOW.

BUT REAGAN WAS RIGHT. HIS ARMS BUILD UP AND THE PERSHING DEPLOYMENT HELPED DESTROY THE USSR TYRANNY. WE ON THE LEFT WERE WRONG. I THANK GOD THAT I HAVE LEARNED FORM MY MISTAKE. THAT'S WHY I NOW KNOW THAT:

BUSH IS RIGHT, NOW: WE NEED NMD.

YET THE DEMS WANT TO CUT NMD.

THEY'D DISARM US UNILATERALLY IF THEY COULD. FOR THE COMMON GOOD OF COURSE.

THEY'RE WORSE NOW THAN THEY WERE IN THE 1980'S.

THEY'RE AS WELL-MEANING AND AS WRONG NOW AS CHAMBERLAIN WAS IN THE 1930'S.

THIS IS ANOTHER MAJOR REASON WE MUSTN'T LET THEM TAKE THE WHITE HOUSE AND KEEP CONGRESS: THEY'LL WEAKEN US, AND THIS WILL EMBOLDEN OUR ENEMIES.

SARKOZY CONTINUES TO SHINE, DAZZLE AND AMAZE

HE IS POLLING INCREDIBLY WELL - WASH POST/REUTERS:

New French President Nicolas Sarkozy is set to secure a big majority in parliament next month, according to a poll for the Paris Match magazine released on Wednesday.

An Ifop poll gave Sarkozy's ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) 41 percent of the vote in a June 10 first round ballot, a rise of 4 points on the previous poll.
... Ifop said the survey suggested Sarkozy's party would win 410-450 seats in the 577-member National Assembly, with 90-130 seats for the Socialists.

THE ELYSEE IS THE NEW CAMELOT - NYTIMES:

To their admirers, the Sarkozys are the French Kennedys: the president is outdoorsy and athletic, the first lady beautiful and designer-dressed, the passel of children smiling and photogenic. ... At least for now, some of the fiercest critics of Mr. Sarkozy are dazzled by his energy and hopeful that he will fulfill even some of his promises for reforming France quickly....

Activism is the leitmotif of this presidency. Mr. Sarkozy has been described as the “lapin Duracell” — the Energizer bunny — of politics. Perhaps a more apt comparison is Alice in Wonderland’s white rabbit, perpetually rushing to a very important date. ...

Mr. Sarkozy’s style has translated into a historically high popularity rating. According to a poll published Sunday in Le Journal du Dimanche, 65 percent of those questioned are “satisfied” with their new president, the highest early rating since the beginning of the Fifth Republic in 1958, according to the polling institute IFOP.

“Kennedy has come back,” wrote Le Point. “He’s named Sarkozy. Never has a president shown such a relaxed nature, such an absence of complexes.”

WITH A POPULAR PRESIDENT COMMITTED TO DARING CHANGES, FRANCE CAN ANd WILL ENACT HIS REFORMS AND THEN COME BACK BETTER THAN EVER.

NASA CHIEF: GLOBAL WARMING NOT NECESSARILY A PROBLEM, OR SOMETHING WE CAN CHANGE

SPACE DAILY:

Michael Griffin NASA Administrator has told America's National Public Radio that while he has no doubt a trend of global warming exists "I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with."

In an interview with NPR's Steve Inskeep that will air in Thursday's edition of NPR News' Morning Edition ...

INSKEEP: And I just wanted to make sure that I'm clear. Do you have any doubt that this is a problem that mankind has to wrestle with?

GRIFFIN: I have no doubt that global -- that a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change.

First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown, and second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings - where and when - are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take.

THE LEFTIST AGW CROWD IS ARROGANT. AND THEIR POLICIES ARE A BIGGER THREAT TO HUMANITY THAN CLIMATE CHANGE.

FITZGERALD, PLAME-WILSON, NOVAK AND ARMITAGE

COMPLETE AND COMPLETELY BRILLIANT ROUND UP AT JOM.

BOTTOM-LINE: IF LEAKING PLAME'S ID WAS A VIOLATION OF THE IIPA (AS FITZGERALD NOW SEEMS TO ARGUE), THEN WHY WASN'T ARMITAGE INDICTED? ARMITAGE WAS THE LEAKER. NOT LIBBY OR ANYONE ELSE AT THE WHITE HOUSE.

(THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH WHETHER LIBBY LIED OR NOT DURING THE INVESTIGATION.) REPEAT:

ARMITAGE WAS THE LEAKER, NOT LIBBY.
ARMITAGE WAS THE LEAKER, NOT LIBBY.
ARMITAGE WAS THE LEAKER, NOT LIBBY.

ARMITAGE WAS NOT INDICTED BECAUSE IT DID NOT FIT THE STORY TEMPLATE, WHICH WAS THAT PLAME'S NAME WAS LEAKED BY THE WHITE HOUSE/CHENEY TO GET BACK AT JOE WILSON.

THIS STORY TEMPLATE HAS GOT MORE HOLES IN IT THAN A TON OF EMMENTHAL.

THOSE 16 WORDS BUSH SAID IN THE SOTU WERE TRUE THEN AND ARE TRUE TODAY.

CONGRESS HAD ALREADY VOTED ON THE AUTHORIZATION, (SO THOSE 16 WORDS HAD NO EFFECT AND COULD HAVE NONE ON OUR "RUSH TO WAR").

WILSON'S REPORT TO THE CIA DID NOT DISPROVE THOSE WORDS.

ARMITAGE LEAKED THE PLAME-WILSON CONNECTION TO BOLSTER WILSON, NOT AS RETRIBUTION.

THE "PLAME-WILSON REVENGE" MEME IS JUST ONE OF A HOST OF FALSE MEMES THE LEFT BELIEVES IN - LIKE:

GLOBAL WARMING IS ANTHROPOGENIC, AND MUST BE HALTED - AND CAN BE BY LIMITING MAN-MADE CO2;

GOVERNMENT REDISTRIBUTION OF PERSONAL INCOME IS THE BEST WAY TO HELP THE POOR;

NMD INCREASES INSTABILITY;

THE UN IS A FORCE FOR GOOD INTERNATIONALLY;

AMNESTY FOR ILLEGAL ALIENS IS GOOD;

THERE IS NO AL QAEDA IN IRAQ - AND SADDAM NEVER HAD ANY CONTACT WITH THEM ANYHOW;

ISRAEL AND BUSH ARE THE CAUSE OF GLOBAL JIHAD;

THE WEST IS THE CAUSE OF THIRD WORLD POVERTY;

ABORTION IS FINE;

NATIONALIZED HEALTHCARE IS EFFICIENT AND COST EFFECTIVE;

AND SO ON.

NONE OF THESE ARE TRUE. AND CONVINCING PEOPLE OF THEIR FALSEHOOD IS WHAT THIS BLOG IS ALL ABOUT.

FROM THE UK: MORE PROOF THE ACADEMY IS A BASTION OF LEFTIST DHIMMITUDE AND ANTI-SEMITISM

THE PROFESSORS WHO COMPRISE MOST OF THE COLLEGES IN THE UK - (AND THE USA, TOO) - HAVE TOLD US WHO THEY REALLY ARE:

HAARETZ:

Britain's University and College Union (UCU) voted Wednesday to promote a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, protesting Israel's policy on the Palestinians.

Jewish and Israeli officials in the United Kingdom and Israel reacted with outrage to the motion which, for the most part, is a rhetorical move. The motion was approved by a 158 to 99 vote, and called for freezing European funding for Israeli academic institutions, while condemning "Israeli academia's cooperation with the occupation."

In addition, the UCU decided to bring the question of whether to boycott Israel up for discussion by all the union's members, numbering about 120,000. The discussions are scheduled to take place over the next 12 months. The motion encouraged union members to "consider the moral implications of conducting ties with Israeli academic institutions."

RANT ALERT:

THESE LEFTIST, UNONIZED PROF'S ARE PROTESTING THE BRILLIANT TEACHERS AND RESEARCHERS OF THE PLURALIST DEMOCRACY OF ISRAEL - (WHICH IS UNDER SIEGE BY ISLAMO-FASCISM).

THEY HAVE NEVER PROTESTED OR DEMANDED THE BOYCOTT OF ANY ISLAMO-FASCIST STATE. NOT SADDAM'S IRAQ, NOT SYRIA, NOT IRAN. NOT EVEN CHINA OR NORTH KOREA OR CUBA OR ZIMBABWE.

NONE OF WHICH HAVE EVER HAD ANY ACADEMIC FREEDOM.

THESE PROFESSORS ARE POSTMODERNIST, CULTURAL AND MORAL RELATIVIST, SELF-HATING WESTERNERS WHO WANT JUDEO-CHRISTIAN CIVILIZATION - (AKA THE WEST/THE FREE WORLD) - BROUGHT UNDER TRANSNATIONAL SOCIALIST (ATHEISTIC) HEGEMONY.

THEY GAVE AN AFFINITY WITH THE ISLAMO-FASCISTS BECAUSE THEY FEEL THAT THEY CAN HELP BRING ABOUT THE DEMISE OF THE WEST.

THEY ARE MISTAKEN. ABOUT ISRAEL, THE USA, THE WEST - AND THE NATURE OF THE REAL ENEMY.

BESIDES: ANYBODY WHO STANDS WITH THE PALESTINIANS - AFTER WITNESSING HOW THEY'VE BEEN TREATING EACH OTHER IN GAZA --- WITHOUT ANY OCCUPATION - IS A FOOL.

THE FRED! EFFECT

AS LMC REVEALED EARLIER, FRED! ANNOUNCES HE'S FORMING A PRE-ANNOUNCEMENT COMMITTEE AND THE STOCK MARKET LEAPS UPWARD.

IT'S THE FRED! EFFECT!

AND IT'S A LOT BETTER THAN THE GORE EFFECT.

UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN TO FUND MUSLIM FOOTBATHS

Debbie Schlussel is reporting that the University of Michigan will set up two footbath locations on the Dearborn campus this fall for Muslim students. These footbaths will be funded by tax dollars despite that whole separation of church and state thing. Oh, that's right...that's separation of Christian church and state. My bad.

FRED THOMPSON JUMPING IN TO PRESIDENTIAL RACE

It looks like Fred Thompson will officially jump into the Presidential Race for the Republican nomination over the 4th of July holiday. I know this news is making many conservatives happy including myself. We want an appealing alternative to the current crop and are hoping to make Fred Thompson a viable, top tier candidate. It is especially encouraging considering Newt Gingrich's latest disappointing statements.

THE FAUXTOGRAPHY FOOLS

The Jawa Report (via Ace of Spades) has some of the latest examples of fauxtography brewed in Gaza. Case one: missile with square looking pixel framing in closeup. Case two: a man running with a seemingly injured boy in his arms who looks more like he's playing along and whose other pals, notably the boy to the right, has a hand that doesn't seem quite there. Case three: how exactly do the reporters happen to be on the scene at the right moment? Something just doesn't smell right about all this.

Large-scale deportation of illegals IS possible

Some history you may not know about


Operation Wetback was a 1954 project of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) to remove about 1.2 million illegal immigrants from the southwestern United States, with a focus on Mexican nationals.

Burgeoning numbers of illegal aliens prompted President Dwight D. Eisenhower to appoint his longtime friend, General Joseph Swing, as INS Commissioner. According to Attorney General Herbert Brownell Jr., Eisenhower had a sense of urgency about illegal immigration immediately upon taking office. In a letter to Sen. William Fulbright, Eisenhower quoted a report in The New York Times that said: "The rise in illegal border-crossing by Mexican 'wetbacks' to a current rate of more than 1,000,000 cases a year has been accompanied by a curious relaxation in ethical standards extending all the way from the farmer-exploiters of this contraband labor to the highest levels of the Federal Government."

Eisenhower became increasingly concerned that profits from illegal labor led to corruption. An on-and-off guest-worker program for Mexicans was operating at the time, and farmers and ranchers in the Southwest were becoming dependent on additional low-cost labor. The operation was modeled after the deportation program that invited American citizens of Mexican ancestry to go back to Mexico during the Great Depression because of the bad economy north of the border. See Mexican Repatriation.

The operation began in California and Arizona and coordinated 1,075 Border Patrol agents along with state and local police agencies to mount an aggressive crackdown, going as far as police sweeps of Mexican-American neighborhoods and random stops and ID checks of "Mexican-looking" people in a region with many Native Americans and native Hispanics[citation needed]. Some 750 agents targeted agricultural areas with a goal of 1000 apprehensions a day. By the end of July, over 50,000 aliens were caught in the two states. Around 488,000 people fled the country for fear of being apprehended. By September, 80,000 had been taken into custody in Texas, and the INS estimates that 500,000-700,000 illegals had left Texas voluntarily. To discourage re-entry, buses and trains took many illegals deep within Mexico before being set free. Tens of thousands more were put aboard two hired ships, the Emancipation and the Mercurio. The ships ferried the aliens from Port Isabel, Texas, to Veracruz, Mexico, more than 500 miles (900 kilometers) south.

Operation Wetback deported approximately 80,000 Mexican nationals in the space of almost a year, although local INS officials claimed that an additional 500,000-700,000 had fled to Mexico before the campaign began. The INS estimates rested on the claim that most undocumented people, fearing apprehension by the government, had voluntarily repatriated themselves before and during the operation.

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 INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

Must not Mention that Some Blacks were Cannibals

Particularly if you use an actual black name to add realism:

"A Canadian organization that promotes multiculturalism is filing a complaint with the federal human rights commission over an animated Internet video depicting an African cannibal dubbed Kunta Kinte who is seen cooking a stew whose main ingredient is two white people.

The race-relations group Quebec Pluriel served legal notice April 18 to the company that made the cartoon, Salambo Productions, and the show's broadcast partner Bell Canada, to stop showing the video and apologize.

Since Salambo refused to remove the show from the Web site and apologize, Quebec Pluriel said Thursday that it intends to file a complaint to the Canadian Human Rights Commission.

Source

Some people might get the absurd idea that whites had a civilizing influence. Everybody should be free to eat what they want! As long as it does not make them fat, of course.

(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 INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)

OZ AND THE UK ARE COLDER THAN NORMAL

TIM BLAIR REPORTS THAT THE UK AND OZ ARE COLDER THAN NORMAL SO FAR THIS SUMMER. (I ADD THAT APRIL IN NYC WAS ONE OF THE COOLEST ON RECORD.)

WILL THIS DETER THE AGW CROWD - THE ECO-NUTSIES - FROM SCREAMING THAT WE HAVE ONLY 5 YEARS TO SAVE THE PLANET BY (SURPRISE SURPRISE) RAISING TAXES AND INCREASING REGULATIONS?

NOPE.

That's because there's a difference between weather and climate.

When it gets colder, it's weather.

Only when it gets warmer is it the climate.

And fire never melts steel. And Bush lied. And Gore won. And there's no al Qaeda in Iraq. And it's the Israel Lobby's fault. And federal deficits are out of control.

Heh.

NYTIMES DEMOLISHES LOU DOBBS

RTWT.

(I WISH THEY DID THIS AMOUNT OF CRITICAL RESEARCH AND HARSH ANALYSIS OF THE TRUTHER CLAIMS AND THE PLAME CASE. THEY'RE EVEN MORE BOGUS.)

IT'S TIME FOR OLMERT TO EXPLAIN HIMSELF

The time for Olmert to face the Knesset and explain his refusal to resign is drawing near:

(IsraelNN.com) Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will be forced to stand before the Knesset Tuesday afternoon and explain his response to the Winograd Committee's interim report in a session entitled, "The Prime Minister's Refusal to Surrender his Position Following the Winograd Report."

PM Olmert has, until now, avoided offering an explanation to the Knesset, where outbursts and recriminations are a part of most addresses.

Forty MKs signed a petition forcing Olmert to answer questions regarding his decision to stay in power following the damning report.

I wonder if he'll be stuttering as he appears before them? But he certainly does have a lot explaining to do.

DID ADAM GADAHN CONFIRM THAT MUSLIMS CONSIDER THE VIRGINIA TECH MASSACRE A JIHADI ATTACK?

I think so. What do you think? Remember, the perpetrator of the massacre dubbed himself Ismail Axe (Islamic spelling of the name Ishmael).

CAIRO, Egypt — An American member of Al Qaeda warned President Bush on Tuesday to end U.S. involvement in all Muslim lands or face an attack worse than the Sept. 11 suicide assault, according to a new videotape.

Wearing a white robe and a turban, Adam Yehiye Gadahn, who also goes by the name Azzam al-Amriki, said Al Qaeda would not negotiate on its demands.

"Your failure to heed our demands ... means that you and your people will ... experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan and Iraq and Virginia Tech," he said in the seven-minute video.

Reliapundit adds: Maybe - it is among a list of exclusively Muslim acts of violence. At the very least he seems to be holding it up as an example of the type of terror he desires to inflict on us - a terror more terrifying than VT. I also want to point out to the Truthers that this quote is another instance of al Qaeda taking credit for 9/11. And I want to remind all the fence-saitters that we are fighting people who admire 9/11 and these kinds of things: beheadings of journalists and aid workers; the destruction of mosques; the stoning of women and "honor-killings." Nazis were kinder and gentler than these guys.

Pastorius adds: And, also note that Gadahn confirms that the results of the Pew poll indicate that, no matter what CAIR might say, American Muslims back Al Qaeda and the cause of Jihad in a manner which ought to alarm us all (transcribed from the video):

As confirmed by a new poll of Muslims in four major regional countries, conducted by the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland, Muslims continue to support and defend the goals, efforts and sacrifices of their brothers and sisters, the Mujahadin, and continue to demonstrate broad awarenes of the evil nature of America, and the threat posed by it.

Yes, yes, it's only a tiny minority of people who want to live in the dark ages. Pay no attention to the maniacal prophet behind the curtain.

UPDATED AND BUMPED: AT LEAST THE SOCIALIST BLAIR UNDERSTANDS WW4 - but is it too late?

BUMPED

TONY BLAIR:

I was stopped by someone the other week who said it was not surprising there was so much terrorism in the world when we invaded their countries (meaning Afghanistan and Iraq). No wonder Muslims felt angry.

When he had finished, I said to him: tell me exactly what they feel angry about. We remove two utterly brutal and dictatorial regimes; we replace them with a United Nations-supervised democratic process and the Muslims in both countries get the chance to vote, which incidentally they take in very large numbers. And the only reason it is difficult still is because other Muslims are using terrorism to try to destroy the fledgling democracy and, in doing so, are killing fellow Muslims.

What’s more, British troops are risking their lives trying to prevent the killing. Why should anyone feel angry about us? Why aren’t they angry about the people doing the killing? The odd thing about the conversation is that I could tell it was the first time he had even heard the alternative argument.

This extremism can be defeated. But it will be defeated only by recognising that we have not created it; it cannot be negotiated with; pandering to its sense of grievance will only encourage it; and only by confronting it, the methods and the ideas, will we win.

YES. AND WE NEED TO CONFRONT IT ON EVERY FRONT: DIPLOMATIC; ECONOMIC, AND KINETIC.

THE SOONER THE LEFT ACCEPTS THIS THE SOONER WE WIN, AND THE LOWER THE CASUALTIES.

BUT THAT'S NOT LIKELY ANYTIME SOON:

THE DEMOCRATS ARE DOMINATED BY DENIALISTS, APPEASERS AND "ANTI-WAR" DOVES WHO HAVE ALWAYS BLAMED AMERICA FIRST.

AND THE UK'S LABOUR PARTY, AND THE REST OF THE CHIC DEGEGERATI OF THE CONTINENT'S POSTMODERN LEFT BLAME THE US, ISRAEL AND JUDEO-CHRISTIAN/RACIST-WESTERN CIVILIZATION.

BLAIR IS THE EXCEPTION ON THE LEFT. ALONG WITH LIEBERMAN.

BTW: I HAVE LONG WORRIED ABOUT WHAT MIGHT HAVE TO HAPPEN HERE TO GET THE LEFT BACK ON OUR SIDE FOR KEEPS.

I THINK IT'S GONNA MAKE 9/11 LOOK LIKE A PICNIC. AND IT MAY BE COMING SOON - AT LEAST THAT'S WHAT AL QAEDA IS THREATENING.

Update: LGF has the video --- Jihad Watch has some analysis. SITE (hat tip JW) has this:

The demands are emphatically stated by Gadahn [Azzam al Amriki] to not be construed as negotiations, for Muslims do not negotiate with “baby killers and war criminals”. These entail the removal of American military forces from Muslim lands, cease of encroachment into the political, social, and economic affairs in these countries, and to free Muslim captives from prisons.

Should these demands not be met, Gadahn states, “means that you and your people will- Allah willing- experience things which will make you forget all about the horrors of September 11th, Afghanistan, Iraq, and Virginia Tech.” Withdrawing from Iraq alone, Gadahn states, does not qualify as acceptance of terms, and he mockingly advices for Bush to stop his “futile farcical maneuvers on Capital Hill.”

LOOKIT FOLKS: This tape is a traditional Koranic WARNING required before they undertake a MAJOR attack which will kill thousands at the least.

Bin Laden was sharply criticized by jihado-mullahs/imams for NOT WARNING the USA before 9/11, and this tape EXPLICITLY does warn us over and over. he uses the term "SUFFICIENT JUSTIFICATION" many times. This is the whole point of the tape, and it is made in English by an American so that there is absolutely no way anybody here in the USA can say we weren't warned.

This tape makes ANY attack - any MEGA attack using any WMD, including radiological/nuclear- OK as far as the islamo-fascists are concerned.

ASIDE: AND NOTE THIS ERROR AZZAM AL AMRIKI MADE IN THE TAPE: He called the USA's support fore Israel "moral support." He did not say it was IMMORAL support. This is a Freudian slip: deep down he knows that he and his ilk are on the side of immorality, and that the USA and Israel are on the side of all which is moral, just, good and right.

CREATION MUSEUM

Answers in Genesis opened their Creation Museum yesterday. I am very excited and proud of this project. My parents have made special vacation plans to go see it this summer.

What never ceases to amaze me is how controversial it has already become. All the familiar arguments are thrown out against those of us "naive idiots" who believe in Creationism instead of Evolution. If you don't believe in evolution you are a considered by the elite to be an uneducated minority who is anti-science. The school board members in Kansas that wanted Intelligent Design to at least be offered as an alternative theory to Evolution were ridiculed as being anti-science kooks. If you take the time to study you'll find that science backs up Creationism a lot more than it does Evolution.

In my high school debate class I was involved in a debate on whether Evolution was true or not. My friend freaked out when she found out we were on the side against Evolution. She was convinced that the evidence was overwhelmingly for evolution and we were sure to lose. I just smiled. I did a ton of research and we came prepared and kicked their butts and won the debate hands down!!! To be honest, it is one of my favorite memories of high school. We never sought to prove Creation, only to disprove Evolution.

Evolution has A LOT of holes in it and their is ABSOLUTELY NO PROOF of evolution and yet it is taught in every single public school today. Both Evolution and Creationism are theories that can't be proven because no one can go back in time and watch the beginning of the world taking place. People talk about how Creationism involves faith but it takes a lot more faith to believe in evolution over creation. To this day there has never, ever been a transitional form found to prove that Evolution takes place. Yet, it is taught as FACT in all public schools.

When you consider how Intelligent Design can't even be taught as an alternative theory to Evolution in schools it amazes me that Evolutionists can't even stand the thought of this museum. How dare someone plant the idea that Evolution might not be true? My belief is that Evolutionists wouldn't be so threatened if they really believed their theory was true.

Contrary to popular belief there are a lot of scientists (scroll down on the link to see the list) that don't believe in Evolution and do believe in Creationism. For those of you who insist that Evolution has to be true because all the "experts" say so and its what you've always been taught take the time to check out what organizations like Answers in Genesis have to say. To start, read this article, Can Creationists be Scientists?

I know many will disagree and be 100% convinced that I am an anti-science kook for believing in Creationism. Thats okay, but take the time to study the other side. Evolution is one of those "politically correct" issues that has been rammed down our throats with no alternative allowed. If Evolution is so fool-proof why do so many want to silence the other side?

BILL RICHARDSON SHAMES FALLEN MARINE

Remember a while back how I said New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson is the only serious Democrat Party candidate for president?

Well, NEVERMIND.

THE THAWING OF DIPLOMATIC RELATIONS WITH IRAN?

Charles, at Little Green Footballs, seems to think George Bush has gone off the rails with regard to the Iraq war and our relationship with Iran. I agree. I think we have been seeing hints of this for quite some time:

The Bush administration is perilously close to jumping the tracks. I’ve
supported the President through the long course of the war that began on
September 11, but it’s starting to look like he’s simply getting tired; he won’t
defend his administration against attacks, he won’t defend the country against
illegal immigration, he won’t do anything to stop the media leaks that cripple
our national security ... and now this: U.S., Iran end 27-year diplomatic freeze.

The Bush Administration in the past have blamed Iran for directly training the forces who kill our troops in Iraq. They have also blamed Iran for bunding Hizballah and Hamas. They have also targeted Iran for it's threats against the state of Israel, and for its complicity with the Syrian dictator Bashar Assad who was under investigation for the assassination of the Leganese President. Now, we're ending our 27-year long diplomatic freeze?

If this isn't some sort of Corleonesque trick (Keep your friends close, but keep your enemies closer"), then George Bush's legacy may end up being worse than that of Jimmy Carter.

UPDATE: Looks like Newt Gingrich agrees with me.

Christian Teaching Banned; Wiccans OK

Edinburgh University in Scotland has a history of Leftist nuttery -- and declining academic standards:

"Some would call it the Devil's work. Two ancient religions have locked horns in a bizarre "freedom of speech" row that is echoing around the corridors of one of Scotland's oldest academic institutions. The University of Edinburgh has granted permission to the Pagan Society to hold its annual conference - involving talks on witchcraft, pagan weddings and tribal dancing - on campus next month. Druids, heathens, shamans and witches are expected to attend what is a major event in the pagan calendar.

But the move has enraged the Christian Union, which accuses the university of double standards after banning one of its events on the "dangers" of homosexuality. Matthew Tindale, an Edinburgh-based Christian Union staff worker, claimed some faiths and beliefs appeared to be more equal than others on campus. "This seems to be a clear case of discrimination," he said. "It's okay for other religions, such as the pagans, to have their say at the university, but there appears to be a reluctance to allow Christians to do the same. All we are asking for is the tolerance that is afforded to other faiths and organisations."

The Union has won strong backing from the Catholic Church in Scotland, whose spokesman, Simon Dames, felt that allowing the pagan festival to go ahead while barring the Union meeting was an example of "Christianphobia". "This appears to be a clear case of double standards," he said. "The principles of a pluralistic democracy revolve around an acceptance of competing ideas and universities should be enshrining this principle. Anti-racism groups would never be asked to put up posters saying there are alternative views."

The row has its roots in last year's decision by university officials to ban the Christian Union from using campus premises to run a course which claimed that gay sex was morally wrong. The course was deemed to be in breach of university anti-discrimination guidelines although a compromise measure was later offered to allow the course to take place if posters offering differing views were prominently displayed. Much to the displeasure of some campus Christians and the Catholic Church, no such conditions will be attached to the pagan gathering.

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 INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN. My Home Pages are here or here or here. Email me (John Ray) here.)