AL QAEDA HAS A "WHITE TERROR ARMY" INSIDE GREAT BRITAIN

SCOTSMAN: Al-Qaeda's white army of terror

HUNDREDS of British non-Muslims have been recruited by al-Qaeda to wage war against the West, senior security sources warned last night.

As many as 1,500 white Britons are believed to have converted to Islam for the purpose of funding, planning and carrying out surprise terror attacks inside the UK, according to one MI5 source.

Lord Carlile, the Government's independent reviewer of anti-terrorism legislation, said many of the converts had been targeted by radical Muslims while serving prison terms.

Security experts say the growing secret army of white terrorists poses a particularly serious threat as they are far less likely to be detected than members of the Asian community.

IF THIS IS TRUE - AND I BELIEVE IT - THEN THE UK IS IN SOME SERIOUS TROUBLE. AND THEIR EXTENSIVE CCTV SYSTEM IS ONLY GOOD AFTER THE FACT.

THAT'S WHY GOING ON THE OFFENSE OVERSEAS IS THE BEST DEFENSE.

• BUT THE ENEMY IS ALSO WITHIN THE GATES.
• AND HE HAS THE AID OF A FIFTH COLUMN - THE LEFT.
• WHAT CAN WE DO?
  
• IT'S NOT TOO LATE - IF WE FIGHT BACK.

HERE'S HOW WE CAN GO ON THE OFFENSIVE AT HOME, BEFORE THEY STRIKE:

• CLOSE MOSQUES AND MADRASSAS WHICH ADVOCATE SHARIA;
• DEPORT NON-CITIZENS WHO ADVOCATE SHARIA;
• AND JAIL CITIZENS WHO ADVOCATE SHARIA - FOR TREASON.
  

YES: TREASON:

• SHARIA IS NOT COMPATIBLE WITH DEMOCRACY.
• ADVOCATING SHARIA IS ADVOCATING THE OVERTHROW OF THE DEMOCRACY - THAT IS SEDITION AND TREASON.

*****Update: A day later the rest of the blogosphere begins to catch up to us.
WE BEAT LGF, HOT AIR, JIHAD WATCH, MEMORANDUM - EVERYONE.
AND IT'S NOT THE FIRST TIME.

This is just more proof TAB is the best! Spread the word! Blogroll us!

GERMANY INCREASES SECURITY AFTER LEBANON WARNS OF SPECIFIC AL QAEDA TERROR THREAT

DAWN (PAKISTAN)/AP:

Lebanese authorities warned of terrorist attacks on targets within Germany after arresting an Al Qaeda suspect in Beirut, prompting the Justice Ministry in Berlin increase security, authorities said Saturday.

“There was a tip from Lebanon – a warning tip,” said Stefanie Amft, a spokeswoman for German federal police.

She gave no further details, except to say it was part of a global threat. “It is known that Germany is part of this worldwide threat,” she said. Germany was alerted after Lebanese authorities arrested a suspect on Thursday who was believed to have phoned a threat to the German Embassy in Beirut earlier in the week, a senior Beirut police official said.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation, said suspect Mohammed Naddoum was arrested after allegedly threatening to strike German security targets.

“Using special technology, the police were able to trace the man’s location and identity and arrest him’” the official said.

... Germany’s Focus magazine, identified the suspect as “Mohammed N.”, reported that he was a Syrian accused of Al Qaeda ties. It did not cite its sources.

The suspect allegedly said a German-Turk, a Saudi and an Australian already were in Germany planning an attack on Berlin’s Justice Ministry or other agencies to avenge the prosecution of Al Qaeda suspects in that country, the Focus report said. It said explosives for the alleged attack were already inside Germany.

GULF DAILY NEWS:

German authorities are investigating a threat of an attack on the justice ministry, reportedly by a team linked to Al Qaeda, the ministry said yesterday.

A ministry spokeswoman said its staff had been put on the alert following the warning, which press reports said had been telephoned to the Lebanese embassy in Berlin.

Lebanese police had arrested the caller, named as Syrian Mohammed Ndoub, alleged to have links to Al Qeada and the Islamic Jihad movement.

Ndoub said that a three-man squad, comprising a German of Turkish origin, a Saudi and an Australian, were in Germany with the intention of attacking the targets in Berlin.

• THEY'RE NOT THREATENING GERMANY BECAUSE OF THE JOOZE THERE.
• IT'S THE GLOBAL JIHAD, STUPID!

SOMEONE SEND A COPY OF GOLDBERG'S LIBERAL FASCISM TO CHARLES JOHNSON AND OYVIND STROMMEN...

... THESE TWO ANTI-COUNTER-JIHAD HONCHOS SHOULD READ THE BOOK.

THEY'LL DISCOVER THAT THE REAL EURO-FASCISTS OF THE 20TH CENTURY WERE LEFTIES -

WITH MORE IN COMMON WITH OYVIND STROMMEN,

THAN THE COUNTER-JIHAD PEOPLE.

• THE COUNTER-JIHAD EURO'S WANT TO PRESERVE EUROPEAN CULTURE AND LIBERTY AND SELF-DETERMINATION FOR EUROPEANS.

• JIHADSTS AND THEIR LEFTIST ALLIES IN EUROPE DON'T WANT TO PRESERVE EUROPEAN CULTURE OR LIBERTY OR NATIONAL SELF-DETERMINATION.

• THAT'S WHY THE LEFTISTS SUPPORT THE EUSSR, AND ARE ABETTING CREEPING SHARIA AND THE ADVENT OF EURABIA.

YES: I WAS BANNED FROM LGF.

THAT WAS VERY FASCISTIC OF HIM. OR VERY LEFTIST. SAME THING.

VIDEO: EZRA LEVANT CONFRONTS THE JIHADOPHILIC LEFTIST PC MONSTER MACHINE

• THE JIHADISTS ARE USING CANADA'S HATE CRIME LAWS TO STOP FREE SPEECH AND FREEDOM OF THE PRESS - BUT EZRA LEVANT WON'T TAKE IT LYING DOWN.

• WATCH THIS EXCERPT AND THEN USE THE LINK AND WATCH THEM ALL.

• THIS IS HOW THE LEFTIST ENEMY IS ASSISTING THE JIHADIST ENEMY AND ENABLING CREEPING SHARIA WITHIN THE WEST.

• WE MUST NOT LET THE PC POLICE GET AWAY WITH THIS KIND OF CRAP IN CANADA - OR ANYWHERE LIBERTY IS PRIZED AND HUMAN RIGHTS HAVE BEEN ACHIEVED.

• TO DO SO WOULD BE TANTAMOUNT TO TURNING THE CALENDER BACK 1000 YEARS.

GOD BLESS EZRA LEVANT.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS: CHEAPER AND FASTER THAN HOT AIR

• TODAY, HOT AIR POSTED A LINK TO A NYTIMES ARTICLE ABOUT HOW SATLELLITE PHOTOS REVEAL SYRIA IS REBUILDING THE WMD SITE WHICH ISRAEL'S IAF DESTROYED A FEW MONTHS AGO.

WE HAD IT YESTERDAY.

• THIS EVENING - AROUND DINNERTIME, HOT AIR LINKED TO A TIMES OF LONDON STORY ABOUT SCOTLAND YARD LEAKING THAT THEIR INVESTIGATION CORROBORATES THE MUSHARRAF GOVERNMENT'S EXPLANATION FOR BHUTTO'S DEATH.

YOU COULD HAVE READ IT HERE AT THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS BEFORE YOUR FIRST APERITIF.

• AND WE DIDN'T JUST THROW A LINK AT YOU - WE GAVE YOU A BIG EXCERPT (SAVING YOU THE TIME & TROUBLE OF HAVING TO CLICK OVER)
• AND WE GAVE YOU OUR KEEN ANALYSIS - FOR FREE!

ORIGINAL, HARD-HITTING AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING ANALYSIS YOU CAN TRUST!

• WE'RE JUST BETTER THAN ALLAHPUNDIT.
• SPREAD THE WORD.
• AND PUT DOWN THAT APERITIF - YOU'VE OBVIOUSLY HAD ENOUGH TO DRINK!

SCOTLAND YARD: AL QAEDA ASSASSINATED BHUTTO

LONDON TIMES:

BRITISH officials have revealed that evidence amassed by Scotland Yard detectives points towards Al-Qaeda militants being responsible for the assassination of Benazir Bhutto.

Five experts in video evidence and forensic science have been in Pakistan for 10 days since President Pervez Musharraf took up an offer from Gordon Brown for British help in the investigation of the December 27 killing. Last week they were joined by three specialists in explosives.

... The gun fired at Bhutto has been checked for fingerprints by the Scotland Yard detectives. A government minister told The Sunday Times that these have been traced through identity cards to a man in Swat, an area where Mehsud’s men have been fighting.

“There was no cover-up,” he insisted. “It was just unfortunate that in all the shock and confusion at the beginning, people shot their mouths off talking about sunroofs rather than simply saying it would be investigated.”

... Musharraf met the British detectives last week for a briefing and later said he expected them to have reached a conclusion about how she died before elections scheduled for February 18.

I WAS RIGHT.

*******UPDATE 1/13: A DAY LATER AND THERE'S MORE HERE.

WE USUALLY BEAT EVERYONE ELSE IN THE BLOGOSPHERE: WE'RE BETTER!

• YOU KNOW THAT.
• SPREAD THE WORD!
• BLOGROLL US!

LOST QURAN ARCHIVE IN GERMANY

A facinating article in the WSJ about an archive of Quranic research that was thought lost for a long time, but has now been found, that shows that there were a lot of German nazis who'd been experts on Islam.

On the night of April 24, 1944, British air force bombers hammered a former Jesuit college here housing the Bavarian Academy of Science. The 16th-century building crumpled in the inferno. Among the treasures lost, later lamented Anton Spitaler, an Arabic scholar at the academy, was a unique photo archive of ancient manuscripts of the Quran.

The 450 rolls of film had been assembled before the war for a bold venture: a study of the evolution of the Quran, the text Muslims view as the verbatim transcript of God's word. The wartime destruction made the project "outright impossible," Mr. Spitaler wrote in the 1970s.

Mr. Spitaler was lying. The cache of photos survived, and he was sitting on it all along. The truth is only now dribbling out to scholars -- and a Quran research project buried for more than 60 years has risen from the grave.

"He pretended it disappeared. He wanted to be rid of it," says Angelika Neuwirth, a former pupil and protégée of the late Mr. Spitaler. Academics who worked with Mr. Spitaler, a powerful figure in postwar German scholarship who died in 2003, have been left guessing why he squirreled away the unusual trove for so long.

Ms. Neuwirth, a professor of Arabic studies at Berlin's Free University, now is overseeing a revival of the research. The project renews a grand tradition of German Quranic scholarship that was interrupted by the Third Reich. The Nazis purged Jewish experts on ancient Arabic texts and compelled Aryan colleagues to serve the war effort. Middle East scholars worked as intelligence officers, interrogators and linguists. Mr. Spitaler himself served, apparently as a translator, in the German-Arab Infantry Battalion 845, a unit of Arab volunteers to the Nazi cause, according to wartime records. [...]

The Munich archive began with one of Mr. Nöldeke's protégés, Gotthelf Bergsträsser. As Germany slid towards fascism early last century, he hunted down old copies of the Quran in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. He took photographs of them with a Leica camera.

In 1933, a few months after Hitler became chancellor, Mr. Bergsträsser, an experienced climber, died in the Bavarian Alps. His body was never given an autopsy; rumors spread of suicide or foul play.

His work was taken up by Otto Pretzl, another German Arabist. He too set off with a Leica. In a 1934 journey to Morocco, he wangled his way into a royal library containing an old copy of the Quran and won over initially suspicious clerics, he said in a handwritten report about his trip.

The Nazis began to use Arabists early in the war when German forces began pushing into regions with large Muslim populations, first North Africa and then the Soviet Union. Scholars were used to broadcast propaganda and to help set up mullah schools for Muslims recruited into the German armed forces.

Mr. Pretzl, the manuscript collector, appears to have worked largely in military intelligence. He interrogated Arabic-speaking soldiers captured in the invasion of France, then, according to some accounts, set off on a mission to stir up an Arab uprising against British troops in Iraq. His plane crashed.

So now, we have some very intriguing evidence of connections between Nazism and Islam. Read the whole thing in full.

EURO LEADERS COMPLAINING EURO IS TOO STRONG AND THREATENS EURO-ECONOMY

NYTIMES/REUTERS: EU Leaders Warn on Euro

The European Commission may cut its growth forecast for the euro zone economy this year, Luxembourg's prime minister said on Saturday, as other EU leaders voiced concern about the euro's strength.

Speaking on the sidelines of ceremonies to mark Malta's January 1 entry into the euro zone, French EU Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet said the euro had rallied too fast.

Jouyet came close to renewing French criticism of the European Central Bank's interest rate hikes last year by suggesting the Eurogroup of EU finance ministers should "see if the (ECB's) inflation target is appropriate in the euro zone."

Jouyet's latest comments mark an adaptation of earlier calls from French President Nicholas Sarkozy to make growth part of the ECB's mandate -- proposals that fell on deaf ears in Europe and met with a particularly strong rebuff from Germany.

EVEN ITALY'S SOCIALIST PM AGREED THAT THE EURO IS TOO STRONG - AND THAT IT'S BECAUSE THE ECB RATES ARE TO HIGH AND EURO SUPPLY TOO SMALL:

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi made comments implying he urged against further rate rises when he met ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet in Malta, despite a surge in energy and food prices that has pushed euro zone inflation above the ECB's target ceiling.

"There is great uncertainty. There could even be falls (in prices) but the dominant feeling is the uncertainty of the markets," Prodi said. "In a situation of uncertainty, it is clear that central banks must act with caution to minimize risks."

• ALL THIS REINFORCES WHY CALLING THE DOALLR "WEAK" IS A MISNOMER;
• THE DOLLAR ISN'T WEAK; IT'S GOTTEN CHEAPER THAN OTHER CURRENCIES AND THAT HELPS THE US ECONOMIES IN WAYS THE US ECONOMY NEEDS HELP:
• BY MAKING OUR GOODS AND SERVICES CHEAPER TO EXPORT -
• AND THIS MEANS WE WILL INCREASE OUR PRODUCTION AND PROFITS.
  
• THIS IS ESPECIALLY GOOD AS OUR DOMESTIC HOUSING MARKETS ARE NOT PERFORMiNG VERY ROBUSTLY AT THE PRESENT TIME.
  
• AND IT CREATES A HUGE INCENTIVE FOR ALL THOSE EXPATRIATED DOLLARS TO COME HOME NOW, TOO.
  

THE "WEAK"/CHEAPER DOLLAR IS GOOD FOR THE USA; THE "STRONG"/EXPENSIVE EURO IS BAD FOR THE EU.

THE FED IS NOT TAKING STEPS TO "STRENGTHEN" THE DOLLAR - THAT'S GOOD.

THE ECB IS TAKING STEPS TO FURTHER STRENGTHEN THE EURO - THAT IS GOOD FOR THE USA AND BAD FOR THE EU.

AND BIZARRE.

MIGHT A MEMBER OF A RACIST CHURCH WIN THE NOMINATION FOR THE PRESIDENCY OF THE UNITED STATES?

HERE IS A MISSION STATEMENT OF THE CHURCH OF ONE OF THE MAJOR CANDIDATES FOR THE NOMINATION:

We are a congregation which is Unashamedly WHITE and Unapologetically Christian. Our roots in the WHITE religious experience and tradition are deep, lasting and permanent. We are an WHITE people, and remain "true to our native land," the mother continent, the cradle of civilization. God has superintended our pilgrimage through the days of slavery, the days of segregation, and the long night of racism. It is God who gives us the strength and courage to continuously address injustice as a people, and as a congregation. We constantly affirm our trust in God through cultural expression of a WHITE worship service and ministries which address the WHITE Community.

• IS THIS ACCEPTABLE TO ANYONE?
• WELL, MAYBE TO RACISTS.
• IS IT THE MISSION STATEMENT OF RON PAUL'S CHURCH - (AFTER ALL, HIS NEWSLETTER HAD SOME RACIST THINGS IN IT OVER THE YEAR)?
• NO.
• IT'S THE MISSIONS STATEMENT OF BARACK OBAMA'S CHURCH - JUST CHANGE THE WORD WHITE TO BLACK (AND AFRICA IN ONE CASE).
• THIS IS NOT WHAT DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING JR. HAD IN MIND.

IF OBAMA WANTS TO BE PRESIDENT OF THE ENTIRE USA, THEN OBAMA MUST LEAVE HIS CHURCH - RUN BY A MAN WHO DEEPLY ADMIRES FARRAKHAN.

Comment on the NYT blog about attacks on the Inhofe report

By Senate staffer Marc Morano

There is no time for resting when such easily debunked critiques of the Senate report on over 400 scientists are floating about. I am responding to your critique here of the Senate Report of over 400 scientists disputing man-made global warming claims.

First off, the well over 400-plus names (and still growing) scientists are not "all" of the skeptical scientists in the world; they are merely a sampling of scientists who spoke out recently. The report is also weighted to English speaking scientists; it does not pretend to capture all of the large amounts of skepticism growing around the world to the hyped "climate crisis." (See full Senate report here)

Second, you claim that there are a few scientists "who are flatly unqualified to make any pronouncements on climate science" because they do not meet your criteria or because the report has a few economists in it. Such charges are simply unsustainable.

Do you hold the UN IPCC scientists to that same standard? Please take the time to read this excellent research by Climate Resistance revealing that the so-called "thousands" of scientists from the UN are made up of significant numbers of economists and engineers as well. After all, you could argue that half the climate change debate is premised on economics that falls under Stern Review-inspired "it's cheaper to act now" than wait category.

Also, the head of UN IPCC, Rajendra K. Pachauri, is an economist and engineer. It appears Nobel winner Pachauri would not meet your standards to comment on climate change. Pachauri's training as an economist has not stopped the New York Times from erroneously referring to him as a "climatologist" (see here) or the AP from referring to Pachauri as the "chief climate scientist" for the UN. See here. Are you going to chastise the NY Times and AP for referring to the "thousands" of UN experts as "scientists" as well?

Note: Many current and former members of the UN IPCC are featured in the Senate report of over 400.) Or do you only selectively "disqualify" scientists if they do not share your views?

Third, your citation of Prof. Andrew Dessler's articles at Grist is amusing. Dessler has monumentally embarrassed himself by recently claiming there were only two dozen scientists skeptical of man-made climate fears. Dessler is now trying desperately to salvage his unsupportable assertions over at Grist with increasingly shrill and comical posts.

It is made clear you have not read the Senate report when you parrot Dessler's claims that Dr. Christopher Castro "unabashedly and explicitly endorses the IPCC consensus." If you took the time to read Castro's entry in the Senate report you would find that even though he accepts the idea that mankind is responsible for most of the recent warming, he has serious doubts about future dire predictions of warming. Excerpt from report:

Castro, who studied under skeptical climatologist Dr. Roger Pielke, Sr. "agrees that `other possible forcings to the climate system besides CO2 (like land-use change, aerosols, etc.) are not accounted for well, if at all' and "models are highly sensitive to parameterized processes, like clouds, convection, and radiation, and these processes can have significant impacts on their results.'"

Remember, many skeptical scientists believe the Earth has already seen most of the warming impact of rising CO2, so agreeing that a 20th century CO2 rise has caused some warming is not the same as believing future catastrophic climate projections.

Also, Dessler mocks a meteorologist for citing God as part of his belief that mankind is not causing a “climate crisis,” but Dessler completely ignores the scientific reasons the meteorologist presents. Be wary of critiques that do not publish the Senate Report's full excerpt on the scientist being analyzed.

Fourth, your cut and paste attack from Real Climate on award-winning physicist Claude Allegre and his colleague Vincent Courtillot is without merit. The propaganda team at RealClimate.org routinely ridicule scientists who dissent from their view of climate orthodoxy. An interesting note on Allegre is he recently converted from a believer in catastrophic climate change to a skeptic as new scientific studies debunked fears. See full report here (includes many other scientist who reversed themselves on global warming as well)

The Senate report of dissenting scientists has gained a giant foothold in the climate debate. For a sampling of the impact the report is having in redefining the climate debate, see here.

Also note that this report goes way beyond scientists' dissenting but includes numerous recent peer-reviewed studies debunking rising CO2 fears and Arctic and Greenland melting fears.

2008 is ushering in a truly new era in the climate debate. No longer will activists be able to claim that the "debate is over" or, as Naomi Oreskes once claimed, no peer-reviewed studies cast doubt on the "consensus."

For an insight into why there is a growing number of skeptical scientists worldwide, please read this article just up today by one of the Senate 400 plus scientists. It is written by Climate statistician Dr. William M. Briggs, who specializes in the statistics of forecast evaluation, serves on the American Meteorological Society's Probability and Statistics Committee and is an Associate Editor of Monthly Weather Review. (I hope you consider him "qualified" to speak on this issue)

I urge everyone on this board to actually read the full Senate report (well over 80,000 words) and then re-evaluate your views. Full report available here

Source


Posted by John Ray

The Huckabee campaign: gone in 60 seconds

In case you missed it Thursday night, Fred Thompson singlehandedly ended Mike Huckabee's campaign with this riff.

On the one hand, you have the Reagan revolution. You have the Reagan coalition of limited government and strong national security. On the other hand, you have the direction that Governor Huckabee would take us in. He would be a Christian leader, but he would also bring about liberal economic policies, liberal foreign policies. He believes we have an arrogant foreign policy and the tradition of, blame America first.

He believes that Guantanamo should be closed down and those enemy combatants brought here to the United States to find their way into the court system eventually. He believes in taxpayer-funded programs for illegals, as he did in Arkansas. He has the endorsement of the National Education Association, and the NEA said it was because of his opposition to vouchers. He said he would sign a bill that would ban smoking nationwide. So much for federalism. So much for states' rights. So much for individual rights. That's not the model of the Reagan coalition, that's the model of the Democratic Party.

No need for applause. This is just a blog.

Update: another good Thompson quip, courtesy Say Anything.

SATELLITE PHOTOS REVEAL SYRIA REBUILDING WMD SITE BOMBED BY ISRAEL

NYTIMES: Syria Rebuilding on Site Destroyed by Israeli Bombs

The puzzling site in Syria that Israeli jets bombed in September grew more curious on Friday with the release of a satellite photograph showing new construction there that resembles the site’s former main building.

New construction at a disputed Syrian site that Israeli and American analysts judged to be a partially built nuclear reactor.

Israel’s air attack was directed against what Israeli and American intelligence analysts had judged to be a partly constructed nuclear reactor. The Syrians vigorously denied the atomic claim.

Before the attack, satellite imagery showed a tall, square building there measuring about 150 feet long per side.

After the attack, the Syrians wiped the area clean, with some analysis calling the speed of the cleanup a tacit admission of guilt. The barren site is on the eastern bank of the Euphrates, 90 miles north of the Iraqi border.

The image released Friday came from a private company, DigitalGlobe, in Longmont, Colo. It shows a tall, square building under construction that appears to closely resemble the original structure, with the exception that the roof is vaulted instead of flat. The photo was taken from space on Wednesday.

• I GUESS THEY REALLY WANNA PLAY WHACKAMOLE.
• I SAY: OKAY: COUNTING DOWN: TEN... NINE... EIGHT...
• SERIOUSLY: CONCRETE USED IN CONSTRUCTION COULD HIDE A LOT OF SINS.
• I BETCHYA THEY INVITE INSPECTORS WHEN THEY'RE DONE.

BOTTOM-LINE: TRANSPARENCY IS CENTRAL TO INTERNATIONAL SECURITY.

ASSAD'S TYRANNICAL TERRORIST-ENABLING REGIME HAS NO TRANSPARENCY, AND THIS IS WHY WE MUST ACT PREEMPTIVELY: BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY.

ARCTIC FORMED DURING SUPER-WARM ERA 90 MILLION YEARS AGO

NYTIMES/REUTERS: Study Says Glaciers Formed During a Very Warm Period

Giant glaciers formed about 90 million years ago during a warm period when alligators thrived in the Arctic, researchers said Thursday, calling into question the belief that all ice melts in a “super greenhouse” climate.

The researchers’ study, based on organic molecules in ocean sediments and chemicals in ancient fossil shells, indicated that there were ice sheets in Antarctica in parts of the Turonian period, one of the warmest times in history, when dinosaurs thrived.

The researchers, in the study published in the journal Science, wrote that the “super greenhouse climate” was “not a barrier to the formation of large ice sheets, calling into question the common assumption that the poles were always ice-free during past periods of intense global warming.”

This means Al Gore is ALL WRONG.

It means glacier-building - and melting - is largely a local event, and not globally induced.

This is backed up by other recent studies which argue that the recent melting in the Arctic is caused by undersea volcanism and ocean currents and not air-temps and certainly not any increase in global mean temps (regardless of how they are caused - whether man-made or natural and periodic).

PLEASE, SOMEONE: GET AL GORE TO STFU!

BOSTON'S MAYOR: SOCIALIST BUREAUCRACY MORE IMPORTANT THAN PUBLIC HEALTH

Boston's Democratic liberal Mayor Menino demonstrates why lefties are such dangerous phonies.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino embarked on a highly public campaign yesterday to block CVS Corp. and other retailers from opening medical clinics inside their stores, an effort that exposed a rift between Menino and the state's public health commissioner, a longtime ally.

Menino blasted state regulators for paving the way Wednesday for the in-store clinics, which are designed to provide treatment for sore throats, poison ivy, and other minor illnesses.

Menino said in a written statement. "Limited service medical clinics run by merchants in for-profit corporations will seriously compromise quality of care and hygiene. Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong.

Menino urged members of the city's Public Health Commission to consider barring the clinics from Boston. CVS executives said they plan to open 25 to 30 MinuteClinics in Greater Boston before the end of the year, although they have not specified how many of those will be within the city's limits.

The Boston Public Health Commission spent nearly an hour discussing the impending arrival of the clinics and ways they could potentially be stopped.

The panel took no action, but instructed the health agency's attorney to investigate whether it could adopt regulations forbidding stores with clinics from selling tobacco products, forcing them to make an untenable financial choice. The city says 31 CVS stores and 56 other pharmacies in Boston have city-issued licenses to sell tobacco.

MENINO SEEMS TO REGARD PROFITS AS IMMORAL: "Allowing retailers to make money off of sick people is wrong."

Menino proves that socialists are more concerned about maintaining government power than the people.

Corporations like CVS and WALMART (WHO HAVE BEEN DOING THIS SINCE 2005!) can bring affordable care to people BETTER than the government can.

They shouldn't be attacked and burdened with outrageous barriers. They should be encouraged and praised.

Here's WALMART:

Health Clinics to Open in Wal-Mart Stores During Next Three Years

Up to 2,000 Could Open Over Next Five to Seven Years

Click here to download closing keynote address by Lee Scott

WASHINGTON, D.C. – April 24, 2007 – Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. intends to contract with local hospitals and other organizations to open as many as 400 in-store health clinics over the next two to three years, and if current market forces continue, up to 2,000 clinics could be in Wal-Mart stores over the next five to seven years, Wal-Mart president and CEO Lee Scott will say in a speech later today at the World Health Care Congress in Washington, D.C. The clinic program’s expansion is just the latest in a series of moves by Wal-Mart to help implement customer solutions to America’s health care crisis, including the $4 generic drug prescription program, health information technology and participation in a major coalition supporting comprehensive healthcare reform by 2012.

“We think the clinics will be a great opportunity for our business. But most importantly, they are going to provide something our customers and communities desperately need – affordable access at the local level to quality health care,” Scott says.

Scott’s speech at the World Health Care Congress is the closing keynote for the three-day gathering of 1,600 CEOs, senior executives and government officials. His speech focuses on the need for action, instead of ideological bickering and finger-pointing, in order to make quality health care accessible and affordable in America.

“The fact is the time for politics in today’s debate on health care is long past. The time for real and meaningful change has come,”

No one is forced to buy anything from a PRIVATE company; they have to COMPETE for the customer, and this is why services and goods produced in a freemarket always are better than those in a socialist marketplace.

And the service or good is produced without TAXES.

Menino and his comrades on the left fear that corporations will put another chunk of the welfare state out of business. So they attack the private companies - even if it means - as a result - that people get worse care and taxpayers will have huge liabilities which can only be paid with higher and higher taxes.

Menino is just like PM Brown in the Great Britain who last week said that the NHS would have to reduce services in order to save the NHS. The NHS was more important than the people who need healthcare.

Private retirement funds are also better than Social Security.

There is very little that government does better than private enterprise in a competitive freemarket. National Defense is one.

We ought to be encouraging private enterprise to provide more services and goods to all people - especially the blue collar/working class people in the lower income brackets.

CVS AND WALMART DESERVE OUR PRAISE.

THE GOP PRIMARIES ARE FLAWED

THE GOP PRIMARIES ARE FLAWED FOR A FEW REASONS:

• FIRST, INDEPENDENTS AND DEMS HAVE HAD TOO MUCH TO SAY (BECAUSE OF THE OPEN PRIMARIES);
• AND SECOND, THE SKILL SET NEEDED TO WIN A PRIMARY - WHICH HAS DEVOLVED INTO NOTHING MORE THAN A GLAMOR SHOW - ARE NOT THE SAME A PRESIDENT NEEDS TO GOVERN WISELY AND WELL.

ONE CANDIDATE PROVES THIS BEST: HUCKABEE. HERE'S POWER LINE'S READ: Charm and evasion -- the Huckabee way

Mike Huckabee's emergence as a first-tier candidate had much to do with the charm he displayed during early debates and, presumably, on the campaign trail. But now that he's under fire, something that goes with first-tier territory, Huckabee is also proving himself to be a master of evasion.

IT'S A MULTI-PART DISSECTION OF HUCKSTERBEE - READ THEM ALL. I THINK THAT THE PRIMARIES ARE TOO FRONT-LOADED, AND THAT BECAUSE OF THIS THE CANDIDATES AREN'T TESTED ENOUGH. THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH CHARM AND EVASION.

• "CHARM AND EVASION" - THEY'RE GREAT SKILLS FOR A USED CAR SALESMAN, AND A POLITICIAN - BUT NOT A PRESIDENT.

• WHICH CANDIDATES HAVE THE SKILLS TO BE A GREAT PRESIDENT?

ONLY MITT AND RUDY.

Noah has lost his ark

There is an amusing article by Timothy Noah in the NYT which tries to "explain" neoconservatism. I myself think that the only explanation needed is the old observation about the zeal of the convert. Converts to a cause tend to be much more zealous, outspoken and energetic (and in some cases more extreme) than those who espoused the cause ab initio. And the neocons started out as Trotskyists (extreme Leftists) so their zeal upon conversion was all the greater for that.

Rather amazingly, Noah accuses neocons of being addicted to Hitler comparisons. He has managed to dredge up a few such comparisons -- reasonable ones -- but ignores the flood of such comparisons (generally highly unreasonable) emanating from Leftists!

But Noah now seems to have drifted away from the fairly centrist position he once held. He notes that most of the neocons are Jewish and proceeds from there to the old antisemitic slur of "double loyalty" -- the claim that that Jews cannot be relied upon because of their prime loyalty to Israel. That is the sort of language that the Left have reverted to these days.

Posted by John Ray

"JEW" HAS BECOME CURSE WORD AMONG GERMAN YOUTH

From Haaretz:

German schools are failing in educating students about the Holocaust, a new study by a political education center has found, as German youth, who one historian said use the word "Jew" as a common curse in daily discourse, are increasingly distant from the suffering of the victims of Nazism.

According to a study commissioned by the Federal Agency for Civic Education, a political education center known by its German acronym BPB, history courses no longer manage to teach Germany's younger generation of the horrors of the Nazis.

In the report, which appeared in the German educational magazine Focus-Shula, teachers are quoted as saying that they are having trouble impressing upon school children the horrors of the Holocaust, and have stated that their tools for teaching about the Shoah are not effective.

"The entire time we stood before the crematoriums of Auschwitz, the students took more interest in the types of pipes used to pump in the lethal Zyklon B gas, and not the fate of the Nazis victims," a teacher was quoted as saying.

In their words, this generation's students are less sensitive to the horrors of the Holocaust than any before.

The research also examines the role that immigrants have played in the changing attitudes towards the Shoah. Experts are quoted in the study as saying that there is a marked rise in the number of Muslims in Germany, many of whom see the teaching of the Holocaust as a veiled
endorsement of the policies of the state of Israel.

"Out of fear of the students' reactions, many of the teachers avoid teaching this chapter of history in order to not be viewed by some students as supporters of Israel."

"The word 'Jew' has turned into one of the most common curse words among students in both east and west Germany," said Gottfried Cosler, a Frankfurt-based Holocaust scholar.

BUSH TELLS ISRAEL, "WE SHOULD HAVE BOMBED AUSCHWITZ"

I guess George Bush is having his "Schindler Moment";

"I could have done more. I could have done more."

That's complete bulls*it, though. George Bush wasn't President during the Holocaust.

[ASIDE: RELIAPUNDIT ADDS: The lauded nay IDOLIZED socialist FDR was POTUS when the USA decided NOT to bomb the concentration camps when they could have - you remember FDR; he's the same fella who also INTERNED 80,000 Japanese AMERICANS. But since he was a leftie today's lefties give him a pass. HYPOCRITES!

However, he is President right now. If he really means what he says, then he ought to do something to stop the Holocaust in the Sudan.

CLINTON SAYS, "NO WOMAN IS ILLEGAL"

Yes, she actually said that.

This is bigotry, folks, plain and simple:

Clinton and her busload of traveling press moved from there to the popular local
Mexican restaurant Lindo Michoacan, where a "roundtable" that was actually
square passed a microphone around to tell her people's concerns about the
mortgage crisis and foreclosures. She took notes and munched on tortilla chips.

In broken English, one woman told Clinton how she wasn't making money as
a broker anymore.

"I have no income at all," she said. "So how will I
survive?"

Choking up with emotion, the woman said, "In my neighborhood,
there are brand-new homes, but the value is nothing. I'm glad you are here so I
can tell you, because you're going to be the president, I know."

A man
shouted through an opening in the wall that his wife was illegal.

"No
woman is illegal," Clinton said, to cheers.

For Hilary Clinton, women hold a elevated place in the moral universe. Rules which apply to men do not apply to women. There are sins a woman can not commit, because the "thou shalt" does not apply to her. She is not to be held accountable.

Women are not to be held accountable to certain laws.

So, the question is, to whom does Hilary direct her bigotry? To men, who are not allowed to commit certain acts which women are allowed to commit? Ot to women, who are judged by Hilary to be unaccountable to our collective moral paradigm?

LAPSES IN SECURITY

From this article in the business section of the Washington Post:

Wackenhut, a private security firm that guards 21 commercial nuclear power plants around the United States, said yesterday that its chief executive resigned during continuing controversy about guards caught napping at a Pennsylvania reactor last year.

Gary A. Sanders had been Wackenhut's chairman and chief executive since 2003. Over the past year, Sanders has been engulfed by allegations of lapses in security at nuclear plants...

[...]

Wackenhut has already erased from its Web site the biography of Sanders, who had started working for the company in 1981...

What other facilities has Wackenhut, owed by a British security firm, been "guarding"? According to the article,

Wackenhut, based in Miami, has 35,000 employees and does a range of security work that includes guarding libraries, transporting immigration detainees for the Department of Homeland Security, and protecting the government's Y-12 complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn., where nuclear weapons and materials are stored and maintained....

As 9/11 fades into distant memory, such lapses are bound to become more common, thus leaving open the loophole which terrorists are constantly seeking.

Of course, Congress will investigate the above allegations of Wackenhut's lapses. Pardon me if I don't think much of such investigations.

BUSH BLATANTLY INTERFERES IN LOCAL POLITICS

Dubya continued his disappointment the other day when he tried to support Olmert's government for him:

U.S. President George W. Bush, breaking with all conventions of a visiting politician, blatantly urging government ministers to back Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whom he described as a strong leader, and keep him in power. Out of respect for the guest, the ministers suppressed their giggles and guffaws.

Industry, Labor, and Trade Minister Eli Yishai of the Sephardi religious Shas party told Bush that he is "not willing to compromise on Jerusalem" and recited several psalms that emphasize the importance of the holy city. "We cannot make peace with half of the Palestinian nation, which is all that is ruled by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas," Yishai added.

"We saw what happened when we left Gaza," Yishai said. "We cannot accept a similar situation tomorrow in the West Bank. Hamas entered every place we left. We cannot compromise on Israel's security. The problem with Hamas is that it wants to destroy Israel."

Nearby, some 200 right-wing activists gathered in central Jerusalem to protest the ongoing visit of US President George W. Bush. The rally was organized by the 'SOS Israel' under the banner of praying for a unified Jerusalem. Protestors read psalms and carried signs, several of which warned that Bush and Olmert were "bringing another Holocaust."

And Ehud Olmert, for his part, let down Jonathan Pollard and his supporters:

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert stunned participants at Thursday's working meal of Israeli ministers with US President George W. Bush when he refused to allow them to raise the issue of imprisoned Israeli agent Jonathan Pollard, claiming that it was not the appropriate time to discuss the case. The meal was attended by eight ministers, the heads of the Mossad and Shin-Bet (Israel Security Agency), US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other top American officials.

One of the ministers in attendance, Pensioners Party Chairman Rafi Eitan, was actually Pollard's handler, while President Shimon Peres was the minister to whom Eitan reported. So the men who employed and directed Pollard were enjoying a festive dinner with the Bush, while Pollard is left to rot in prison now into his 23rd year. No wonder Olmert tried to prevent anybody from asking questions.

Olmert claimed that he asked Bush to pardon Pollard when he met with the president on Wednesday, but said that he was turned down. No other details about that alleged exchange, and there was no confirmation of Olmert's claim.

Pollard's wife Esther said she was disappointed that Olmert refrained from discussing her husband, because in Judaism, redeeming captives defers any other issue. She said she was not impressed by Olmert's allegation that he raised the issue the day before.

It's possible that Olmert doesn't want to deal with it, and it wouldn't surprise me if he hadn't brought up the issue at all.

MCCAIN IS NOT CONSERVATIVE - AND HE LIES ABOUT IT

• MCCAIN IS A HAWK, BUT NOT A CONSERVATIVE:

• HE VOTED AGAINST THE BUSH TAX CUTS - TWICE.
• HE WAS FOR MCCAIN FEINGOLD.
• HE FAVORS EMBRYO - REPEAT EMBRYO - STEM CELL RESEARCH FUNDING WITH YOUR TAXES.
• HE THINKS BIG PHARMA AND BIG OIL ARE TH BAD GUYS.
• HE LIKES THE DEATH TAX.
• HE AGREES WITH AL GORE ABOUT AGW.
• HE IS FOR AMNESTY - (NOW ONLY AFTER GOVERNORS CERTIFY THEIR BORDERS ARE SECURE).
• HE THINKS WATER-BOARDING IS TORTURE.

• MCCAIN LIES ABOUT THESE NON-CONSERVATIVE POSITIONS.
• YES: MCCAIN IS A LIAR. AND A LIBERAL ON MOST ISSUES.
• THE LIBS I KNOW, SEE THIS AND LIKE MCCAIN VERY MUCH - HE'S THEIR FAVORITE REPUBLICAN.
• (ANOTHER LIB - HUCKSTERBEE SCARES THEM BECAUSE HE BELIEVES IN GOD.)
  

Fascism's Legacy: Liberalism

Daniel Pipes has been reading Jonah Goldberg too. An excerpt below from his comments

Liberal fascism sounds like an oxymoron - or a term for conservatives to insult liberals. Actually, it was coined by a socialist writer, none other than the respected and influential left-winger H.G. Wells, who in 1931 called on fellow progressives to become "liberal fascists" and "enlightened Nazis." Really. His words, indeed, fit a much larger pattern of fusing socialism with fascism: Mussolini was a leading socialist figure who, during World War I, turned away from internationalism in favor of Italian nationalism and called the blend Fascism. Likewise, Hitler headed the National Socialist German Workers Party.

These facts jar because they contradict the political spectrum that has shaped our worldview since the late 1930s, which places communism at the far Left, followed by socialism, liberalism in the center, conservatism, and then fascism on the far Right. But this spectrum, Jonah Goldberg points out in his brilliant, profound, and original new book, Liberal Fascism: The Secret History of the American Left from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning (Doubleday), reflects Stalin's use of fascist as an epithet to discredit anyone he wished - Trotsky, Churchill, Russian peasants - and distorts reality. Already in 1946, George Orwell noted that fascism had degenerated to signify "something not desirable."

To understand fascism in its full expression requires putting aside Stalin's misrepresentation of the term and also look beyond the Holocaust, and instead return to the period Goldberg terms the "fascist moment," roughly 1910-35. A statist ideology, fascism uses politics as the tool to transform society from atomized individuals into an organic whole. It does so by exalting the state over the individual, expert knowledge over democracy, enforced consensus over debate, and socialism over capitalism. It is totalitarian in Mussolini's original meaning of the term, of "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State." Fascism's message boils down to "Enough talk, more action!" Its lasting appeal is getting things done.

In contrast, conservatism calls for limited government, individualism, democratic debate, and capitalism. Its appeal is liberty and leaving citizens alone. Goldberg's triumph is to establish the kinship between communism, fascism, and liberalism. All derive from the same tradition that goes back to the Jacobins of the French Revolution. His revised political spectrum would focus on the role of the state and go from libertarianism to conservatism to fascism in its many guises - American, Italian, German, Russian, Chinese, Cuban, and so on

Posted by John Ray

British Blogger Pursued by Police for Criticizing Muslim Drug Pushers

We read:

"Islamist rule over the UK may, alarmingly, be on its way. Today, the British police want to question and/or arrest the British blogger known as Lionheart. His crime? Turning his life around as a young school dropout and petty drug dealer and emerging as a believing Christian who opposes the drug plague in his hometown of Luton and who views the Pakistani Islamist and al-Qaeda control of the drug trade in Luton as both criminally and politically dangerous. For this, Lionheart has been charged with “stirring up racial hatred”—which is a crime in the UK.

He writes about the massive number of Pakistani Muslim drug dealers in his hometown of Luton who addict British youth and whose profits fuel expensive lifestyles, paramilitary organizations, suicide terrorism, and religious hate speech against Jews, Christians, and the West. Ironically, what is said in mosques and madrassas and on protest marches all over the UK is never considered to constitute a “racially” motivated hate crime. As George Orwell understood, not all pigs are equal.

Paul-the-Lionhearted began a blog. He described what had happened to him and what he saw happening on the streets of his hometown. Someone unknown decided that Paul’s denunciation of Al-Qaeda and terrorism constituted “hate speech.” Perhaps Paul’s Christianity offended both Muslims and the politically correct oligarchy that rules the media, the universities, and perhaps the House of Lords in Britain.

Source

More commentary here (Site a bit slow to load)

Posted by John Ray

WANT TO WAIT FOR MORE THAN A YEAR TO GET MEDICAL TREATMENT? MOVE TO THE UK!

DAILY MAIL: 400,000 people 'still waiting more than a year for NHS treatment':

The Government is not doing enough to tackle waiting lists, according to the think tank

Almost 400,000 patients are still waiting more than a year for NHS treatment, a think tank claimed today.

Government figures showed a rise in the number of patients being admitted for treatment within the 18-week target from referral.The latest figures, for October 2007, showed 60 per cent were treated in that timeframe, up from 57 per cent the previous month.

But right-wing think-tank Civitas warned the figures were concealing a high number forced to wait far longer.

It said 713,513 (or 18 per cent) of patients needing elective treatment were waiting longer than 36 weeks, with 387,152 (10 per cent) of those having waited over a year.

[THEY CONSIDER KNEE REPLACEMENTS AND HIP REPLACEMENTS - AND THE LIKE - ELECTIVE.]

Despite improvements, current rates are not enough to ensure the Government hits its target for all patients to be treated within 18 weeks by the end of the year.

• THE NHS SUCKS.
• THEY'VE BEEN AT IT FOR SIX DECADES, AND STILL CAN'T GET IT TO WORK.
• PEOPLE WHO CAN AFFORD IT GET BETTER CARE PRIVATELY.

BOTTOM-LINE: SOCIALIZED HEALTHCARE SUCKS.

BWAHAHAHA: NED LAMONT ENDORSES BARACK OBAMA!

Ned endorses Barack.

BWAHAHAHAHA!

I laugh because Obama is the Lamont of 2008.

Lamont ignited the lefties and defeated Lieberman in the CT Senatorial primary - and them lost in the election, (TO JOE!).

Obama is on the process of doing the same thing.

Being "anti-war" can win you a primary against an incumbent - (or a seemingly inevitable candidate).

But if being anti-war won elections, the Ned Lamont would be SENATOR Lamont.

And he's not.

Thank God.

FRED FINALLY COMES OUT SWINGING!!

Fred finally stepped up to the plate at tonight's debate. The above video clip is him taking on Mike Huckabee and boy is it good. All of us that were live blogging tonight agreed that Fred won (even me and I'm a Rudy chick). The Focus group on Fox thought he won also. My only regret is that he didn't do something like this months ago.

MCCAIN TO BLAME FOR HIGH OIL PRICES

Oil prices are high because of supply and demand.

Demand is high - worldwide: China and India are buying huge amounts, and the whole world is growing and using more energy.

Since we shouldn't reduce demand (because that would reduce economic growth and hurt the poor and the working class), we MUST INCREASE SUPPLIES if we want to reduce prices.

People who block the expansion of supplies make the prices go up.

OPEC only controls supplies from OPEC - and OPEC members only produce 40% of the world's supplies of oil (and a lower percentage of what the USA buys!). And OPEC has NO control over coal or nulcear or wind or solar.

To lower the price of energy we only have to increase the supply of oil - and other energy sources.

We can do this with the stroke of a pen: all we have to do is approve oil-drilling in ANWR and off the coast of Florida and California.

The DEMS are blocking this.

BUT THEY HAD HELP.

THEY HAD HELP FROM JOHN MCCAIN.

The bill to open up ANWR lost on the Senate by ONE VOTE.

And John McCain voted AGAINST it - he's proud of that vote.

McCain was the ONE VOTE.

(Here's a link to a youtube video.) He wouldn't fight Florida's lefties or California's lefties to allow oil-drilling MILES of their coasts in AMERICAN WATERS (YEAH: THE WATERS ARE AMERICA'S NOT THE STATES!)

McCain voted against Bush and the GOP and - IN EFFECT- voted for HIGHER OIL PRICES.

Think about THAT next time you fill up your car's gas tank or you home's oil tank.

MITT: MOST POPULAR AMONG GOP CONSERVATIVES

RUSH (VIA DOUG):

[... Romney] will precisely not get out until [after] Super Tuesday because the real conservative voices in terms of the American people have not been heard!

It's independents and Democrats who have given victories to Huckabee and McCain so far.

It was Romney who won a majority of Republican votes in New Hampshire.

But they were outnumbered by all the other people that could cross over and vote from whatever party or no party. So Romney's not going to get out.

His strategy is to wait 'til Republican conservatives actually start voting here, in these primaries, and they haven't yet, in terms of a majority, and it's not going to be the case in Michigan, either...

DOUG: Here's hoping Romney remains in it for the long haul.

I AGREE: MITT SHOULD COMMIT TO STAY IN UNTIL THE CONVENTION.

PROOF OF MITT'S CONSERVATIVE CRED'S: NYTIMES EXIT POLL:

Political philosophy

		McCain	Romney	Huckabee	Giuliani	Paul
2%	Very liberal	--	--	--	--	--
9%	Somewhat liberal	47	15	10	9	15
34%	Moderate	44	27	11	9	7
34%	Somewhat conservative	38	35	8	9	6
21%	Very conservative	18	43	19	5	7

HERE'S MORE PROOF:

On taxes, higher priority should be

		McCain	Romney	Huckabee	Giuliani	Paul
44%	Cutting taxes	27	37	13	12	8
54%	Reducing the budget deficit	46	26	12	5	5

Most illegal immigrants working in the U.S. should be

		McCain	Romney	Huckabee	Giuliani	Paul
28%	Offered a chance to apply for citizenship	54	15	12	9	7
22%	Allowed to stay as temporary workers	42	32	10	8	6
50%	Deported to the country they came from	24	40	14	9	8

THE DEBATE TONIGHT WAS JUST AWFUL FOR EVERYONE - EVEN FOX

It sucked bigtime.

Especially by comparison to ABC's Gibson and Fox's Wallace.

The format featured too much reporter and not enough candidate and too much Paul. And too much audience.

NO ONE CAME OFF GOOD.

Boring. Stiff. Sound bites.

This debate will not change anybody's mind.

Or change the polls.

Pity.

The folks at NRO thought Fred looked great. I didn't think so.

But maybe because I was watching on my laptop.

They need to get rid of Paul.

And the reporters.

And the audience.

And just do three issues. And allow a lot of interchange between the candidates.

They can get rid of the podiums too.

OH: And the opening with the National Anthem sucked too: made the whole damn thing resemble a beauty pageant.

Pity.

HIGHLIGHTS PLUS AT HOT AIR.

FREEDOM OF RELIGION IS NO EXCUSE FOR MURDER OR TREASON

DT:

"Freedom of religion in this country does not include freedom to murder in the name of that religion."

• NOR DOES IT INCLUDE THE FREEDOM TO PREACH TREASON AND SEDITION IN MOSQUES OR TEACH IT IN MADRASSAS.
• MURDERERS AND TRAITORS SHOULD BE PUNISHED.
• ADVOCATING SHARIA IS TREASON.

KOREA SEEMS LIKE THE MODEL OF WHAT BUSH ENVISIONS FOR GAZA AND THE WEST BANK

BUSH (VIA POWER LINE):

... the past has just been empty words, you know. We -- actually it hasn't been that much -- I'm the only President that's really articulated a two-state solution so far -- but saying two states really doesn't have much bearing until borders are defined, right of return issues resolved, Jerusalem is understood, security measures -- the common security measures will be in place. That's what I'm talking about. I'm talking about a clear, defined state around which people can rally.

And there's going to be -- there will be no better difference, a clear difference, than the vision of Hamas in Gaza and the vision of the President and the Prime Minister and his team based here in Ramallah. And to me, that's how you solve the issue in the long-term.

WHAT CAUGHT MY EYE WAS THIS:

And there's going to be -- there will be no better difference, a clear difference, than the vision of Hamas in Gaza and the vision of the President and the Prime Minister and his team based here in Ramallah

LIKE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NORTH KOREA AND SOUTH KOREA.

BUT....

• NORTH KOREA HAS LIVED FOR 60 YEARS UNDER A HORRIFIC SOCIALIST TYRANNY AND UNDER AWFUL THE POVERTY WHICH THAT TYRANNY CREATES.
• THERE IS NO SIGN THAT THE REGIME COLLAPSING - EVEN THOUGH MILLIONS STARVE TO DEATH.
• EVEN THOUGH EVERYONE IN THE WORLD CAN SEE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN KOREANS UNDER ONE SYSTEM AND KOREANS UNDER THE OTHER SYSTEM, NOTHING HAS CHANGED.

• SEEMS TO ME THAT BUSH IS SAYING THAT THREE OR FOUR MORE GENERATIONS OF NORTH KOREANS AND GAZANS MUST WITHER UNDER THE YOLK OF TYRANNY. TYRANNIES WHICH THREATEN THEIR NEIGHBORS.
  

SAD.

WE SHOULD CONFRONT THEM AND TOPPLE THEM - NORTH KOREA AND GAZA/HAMAS - THE WAY REAGAN DID THE USSR.

THAT WOULD BE THE RIGHT THING TO DO.

INSTAPUNDIT FIRST NOTICES CARLA BRUNI; WE POSTED HOT PICTURES LAST YEAR

GLENN:

January 10, 2008

A LOOK AT CARLA BRUNI, Sarkozy's new girlfriend fiancee and the probable future First Lady of France. Unless Fred Thompson gets elected, America is pretty sure to be left way behind. Nice picture.

posted at 03:00 PM by Glenn Reynolds

TAB - DECEMBER 16:

AND AGAIN - DECEMBER 18:

• AND WE POSTED PICTURES OF HER - AND THEY'RE HOTTER THAN THE ONE HE MERELY LINKED TO.
• PROVING ONCE AGAIN THAT TAB IS BETTER THAN INSTAPUNDIT!
• GLENN WOULD BE BETTER INFORMED IF HE READ US EVERYDAY!
• BUT YOU KNOW THAT!

BOTTOM-LINE: SHE IS HOT.

SO ARE THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS!

GLENN... NOT SO MUCH.

IRAQ: DAILY DEATHS LOWER DURING WAR THAN DURING SADDAM YEARS

CY:

235 violent deaths per day over Saddam's reign including his wars.

137 violent deaths per day in Iraq over the first three years of the present war.

You do the math, and try to paint Saddam's continued reign as a preferable state of affairs.

RTWT.

• AND MOST OF THE IRAQI DEATHS WERE VICTIMS OF AL QAEDA.
• AND MOST OF THE DEATHS DUE TO SECTARIAN STRIFE WAS DO TO THE ABILITY OF THE SHIAS TO FIGHT BACK - NOW, SOMETHING THEY COULDN'T SO UNDER SADDAM. UNDER SADDAM ONLY SHIAS WERE BEING SLAUGHTERED.

IRAQ IS ALREADY MUCH BETTER OFF.

AND THEY WILL BECOME A GREAT ALLY FOR GENERATIONS - IF WE DON'T ALLOW THE DEMOCRATS TO FORCE US ABANDON THEM (THE WAY THEY FORCED US TO ABADON THE SOUTH VIETNAMESE).

DJIA DURING BUSH YEARS: GRRRRRREAT!!!

IT'S OFF THE HIGH, BUT STILL WELL AHEAD OF WHERE CLINTON AND GORE LEFT IT.

UK: LABOUR GOV'T APPROVES NEW NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS

BBC: New nuclear plants get go-ahead

A new generation of nuclear power stations in the UK has been given formal backing by the [LEFT-WING LABOUR] government.

Business Secretary John Hutton told MPs they would give a "safe and affordable" way of securing the UK's future energy supplies while fighting climate change.

He said any plants would be built at or near existing reactors by private firms and said he hoped the first one would be completed "well before 2020".

• THE USA OUGHT TO BE DOING THE SAME.
• FRANCE GETS 80% OF ITS POWER FROM NUCLEAR REACTORS.
• THE USA ONLY 20%.
• WE SHOULD DOUBLE THAT.
• WHAT'S STOPPING US? THE LEFT... THE DEMS.
• WHY IS OIL SO EXPENSIVE?
• IT'S AS MUCH THE DEMS FAULT AS OPEC'S.
• WE NEED TO EXPAND ENERGY SUPPLIES TO REDUCE PRICES, AND DEM/LEFT POLICIES PREVENT US FORM DOING THIS.

THE DAY WE ANNOUNCE WE ARE DRILLING IN ANWR AND OFF THE COASTS OF CA ANSD FLA THE PRICE OF OIL DRIPS 15%.

WANT CHEAPER ENERGY? VOTE GOP.

MORE PROOF THAT GLOBAL WARMING IS BS: Dozens killed in Iran blizzards

BBC: Dozens killed in Iran blizzards

The Iranian authorities are urging people to stay at home

At least 28 people are reported to have died in Iran's heaviest snowfall in recent years.

Eight people froze to death as severe blizzards left 40,000 people stranded in their cars, authorities said.

Although most have now been rescued, another 20 people are reported to have died in car crashes caused by the weather, officials said.

Tehran has declared two days of national holiday, urging people to stay at home to avoid the bitter cold.

The temperature has been down as low as -24 degrees Celsius, and for the first time in living memory there has been snow in the country's southern deserts.

• CENTRAL ASIA IS HAVING ITS WORST WINTER IN DECADES.
• SOME DESERTS ARE HAVING THEIR FIRST SNOWS IN ALL OF KNOWN HISTORY.
• IF MAN-MADE CO2 CAUSED GLOBAL WARMING THEN THIS WOULD BE IMPOSSIBLE.

AGW = BS.

BRAVISSIMO: ITALY EXPELS AN IMAM!

JP (VIA JAWA - WHO HAS MORE):

Italy expelled a Turin imam to his native Morocco Wednesday after his sermons were secretly filmed and his views were deemed a threat to public security, officials said. Mohamed Kohaila, who had been living in Italy for years, was deported in the evening, according to the Interior Ministry.

The ministry said local and national anti-terrorism authorities determined that Kohaila was inciting "violently anti-Western behavior" and maintained relations with extremists close to militant jihadists.

The Astute Bloggers has long argued that EVERY nation in the West ought to be making similar moves. We've argued hat all imams and mosques and madrassas which preach for the establishment of sharia ought to be charged and tried and convicted of sedition and deprted if they're not citizens jailed for life if they are citizens, (with the option of voluntary permanent exile).

Some might argue that Islam ia not incompatible with democracy - Turkey and Indonesia are examples.

But, Sharia is absolutely incompatible with democracy.

Anyone who advocates it is advocating the overthrow of the democratic government and this mustn't be tolerated.

SINCE THIS IS A NON-MILITARY MEANS OF COMBATING RADICAL JIHADISM, (A LAW ENFORCEMENT STRATEGY), THERE IS NO EXCUSE FOR THE LEFT TO STOP ITS IMPLEMENTATION;

IN FACT, IT'S THE KIND OF STRATEGY THEY SHOULD QUICKLY ENDORSE.

[ASIDE: There is another non-military strategy we should use: all nations which tolerate islamo-misogyny (mandatory burkas to honor-killing and even polygamy) should be shunned and expelled from ALL international groups: the UN the WTO the IMF etc.

We would do AT LEAST this to any nation which still practiced SLAVERY. These practices are almost as bad as they make women slaves.

AGAIN: the Left has no excuse NOT endorse this non-military strategy.

The ONLY basis for the Left NOT to endorse either strategy is MULTICULTURALISM. But would they accept SLAVERY if it was okay in another culture!? I THINK NOT.

It's time we had the same ABOLITIONIST ATTITUDE toward radical Islam as we did and do toward slavery.]

THE TWO WORDS WHICH WILL SINK OBAMA: REZKO AND FARRAKHAN

REZKO IS THE CROOK WHO OBAMA IS PALS WITH.

FARRAKHAN IS THE RACIST DEMAGOGUE WHO IS BEST BUDDIES WITH OBAMA MENTOR/PASTOR.

OBAMA IS A CROOKED LEFT-WING DEMAGOGUE - WHICH MAKES HIM THE WRONG CHOICE FOR OUR NATION BUT THE PERFECT CHOICE FOR THE DEMS.

COMPARED TO 2000, MCCAIN'S 2008 NH WIN SUCKED BIGTIME

In 2000, when the nation was at NOT AT WAR and the world- freed from the decades long Cold War - SEEMED at peace, McCain carried every single segment of the GOP voters: by age, conservativeness/liberalness; income level; party registration - EVERYTHING.

McCain got almost 50% of the vote and beat Bush by nearly 20%.

THEY LOVED MCCAIN IN NH.

This time around they love him a lot less.

This time he got less votes and beat Mitt by a scant 5%.

AT A TIME OF WAR.

At a time of war McCain - WAR HERO, and hawk with decades of national/international and defense/national security experience - much more than any of his rivals - did worse than in 2000.

McCain is less popular in NH in 2008 than in 2000.

Less popular with conservatives.

At a time of war.

That's why I say - by comparison - his 2008 performance SUCKED BIGTIME.

He should have done better this year than in 2000.

SO WHY DIDN'T HE? He didn't because he is not a conservative.

And he is not good on a broad spectrum of GOP issues: taxes, immigration, and campaign finance reform are just the biggest.

I think the GOP can win with McCain. But he's not conservative enough for me - or MOST REPUBLICANS.

I hope that soon conservatives can rally behind one alternative.

But maybe we need a few place holders between now and the convention.

Maybe we need a few conservatives to do well regionally between now and the convention and maybe we rally around one conservative at the convention.

That's what Mitt and Fred and Hunter should do: they should commit to stay in and win as many delegates as they can in order to be as strong as possible at the convention.

That way, this time - in 2008 - the primaries might not confer inevitability on anyone.

DUBYA MET WITH NETANYAHU

Dubya, who earlier was said to be unwilling to meet with opposition leaders, has now agreed to do so, and Netanyahu, who'll be meeting with him, will discuss the issue of Iran with him. And also:

Bush initially did not intend to meet with Netanyahu, but US Ambassador to Israel Richard Jones called the latter personally early Wednesday and invited him to meet the US president. Netanyahu's associates said they did not apply pressure to receive a meeting but that a Jerusalem Post story Monday about Netanyahu blaming Prime Minister Ehud Olmert for blocking a meeting had an impact.

"There is no question in my mind that the publicity [the lack of a meeting] received played a role in having them change their mind," a Netanyahu associate said. "On their side, it was important to meet with him, because they know he is the heir apparent."

Senior Likud sources said it was important for Bush to hear Netanyahu's vision for Middle East peace.

Netanyahu said earlier in this week, "It would be right if the president would take the time to listen to someone who represents more than half the people in Israel, who oppose the Annapolis process."

It should be noted that the Hamas chose to welcome Bush's visit here with yet more rockets fired against Sderot. I hope that this'll be discussed between him and Netanyahu. Update: here's the report on their meeting.

Update 2: did we mention that the American school in Gaza was bombed as a form of welcome by the Hamas for Bush?

MORE ON THE DALLAS HONOR KILLINGS

Michelle has been covering the Dallas Islamic "Honor Killings" wall to wall, and as we learn more about this case, the only thing that screams out louder than where the fundamentalist strain of the "religion of peace" can lead is the stunning silence of the mainstream media in this matter. The emails and statements of friends and family are chilling.

So: big media spends six months on a teenage girl who disappears after on Aruba, but we don't care about 2 American teenage girls who are murdered by their hard core Islamist father for "shaming the family"?

Freedom of religion in this country does not include freedom to murder in the name of that religion. The aversion of big media to this obvious crack in the facade of fundamentalist Islam is as despicable as this zealot who butchered his little girls. Because this is not the only Muslim in America who thinks in these terms. And the media knows it.

JEWISH CEMETERY DESECRATED IN NEW JERSEY TOWN

From the Associated Press:

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) -- Hundreds of headstones at a Jewish cemetery
were toppled, and authorities are investigating the desecration as a bias
crime.

A police spokesman initially said anti-Semitism wasn't being considered
as a possible motive after nearly 500 headstones were found toppled Sunday
morning at the Poile Zedek Cemetery. But Sgt. Richard Rowe said Wednesday that
he had misspoke.

The desecration was discovered about a week after 17 headstones were
toppled at the same cemetery. Police and the Middlesex County Prosecutor's
Office were investigating; authorities did not immediately return calls Thursday
seeking further detail.

Rabbi Abraham Mykoff of the Poile Zedek Synagogue told the Home News
Tribune of East Brunswick that a reward of several thousand dollars was being
offered for information.

''This was not vandalism,'' Mykoff said Tuesday. ''This was malicious
intent to destroy a Jewish cemetery.''

First, I would say that if police weren't to consider anti-Semitism as a possible motive, THAT ITSELF WOULD CONSTITUTE AN ANTI-SEMITIC ATTACK.

Second, isn't it interesting that this happened just a couple days before George Bush visited Israel for the first time?

Isn't that interesting?

NYTIMES/AP PUBLISH OVERLY NEGATIVE DECEMBER RETAIL SALES REPORT

I say overly negative because they concentrate on APPAREL stores which had a ESPECIALLY lousy December because the fashion sucked.

But they SPIN the story to make things seem very bad overall - AN INACCURATE PICTURE.

The non-apparel stores in the NYTIMES/AP NEGATIVE HIT PIECE actually did okay or very well.

HERE:

An already weak holiday shopping season turned out to be even worse than expected for many of the nation's retailers, who reported Thursday they had sluggish sales results for December. The disappointing performance raised more concerns about consumer spending.

The weak results came from across all retail categories, but particularly hard hit were apparel sellers including Limited Brands Inc. and teen retailer Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. Among the few bright spots was Wal-Mart Stores Inc., which posted results that exceeded Wall Street expectations, as it benefited from shoppers traded down to cheaper stores amid higher gas prices and a slumping housing market.

''It's weaker than expected,'' said Jharonne Martis, a retail analyst at Thomson Financial. ''There's definitely a consumer spending slowdown.'' But she added that she's waiting to see how sales fare in January, when stores benefit from consumers redeeming their gift cards. Retailers don't record sales of gift cards until they are redeemed.

According to a preliminary sales tally by Thomson Financial, 16 retailers missed projections, while seven beat forecasts and one met expectations. The tally is based on same-store sales or sales at stores opened at least a year which are a key indicator of a retailer's health.

Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, posted a 2.4 percent increase in same-store sales, exceeding the 1.8 percent forecast of analysts polled by Thomson Financial. But the discounter said that its fourth-quarter results will be ''pressured by higher interest expense'' compared to last year.

Costco Wholesale Corp. reported a 7 percent increase in same-store sales, better than the 5.6 percent estimate.

Limited [APPAREL ONLY] posted a 8 percent drop in same-store sales, worse than the 4 percent Wall Street expected.

Maternity apparel retailer Mothers Work Inc. reported that same-store sales fell 7.6 percent, worse than the 0.5 percent analyst estimate.

Pacific Sunwear of California posted a 2.8 percent decline in same-store sales, a little bit better than the 3.1 percent forecast.

• The declines were all apparel.

• This was already well known.

• Overall, December retail beat expectations. (WE REPORTED THIS TUESDAY.)
  

The MSM wants people to think things are worse than they are in order to hurt Bush and the GOP.