MUSLIM JOURNALIST FROM DUBAI CRIES OUT AGAINST THE MURDERERS OF MUMBAI

WE NEED TO SEE AND HEAR MORE LIKE THIS: No Time to Hide for Muslims - Aijaz Zaka Syed (View from Dubai)

Watching the terror nightmare unfold in Mumbai over the past three days with me on television, my kids have repeatedly asked me: “Who are these terrorists and why are they doing this?” And every time I wished I could offer them a convincing answer.

What could I tell them? For one, I was equally clueless why these guys had taken over India’s financial and cultural capital and were targeting people who had nothing to do with them and had done nothing to harm them.

For two, I was too ashamed to tell them these guys were ostensibly Muslims and came from a country that was created in the name of Islam.

At work, while my colleagues went about covering the madness in Mumbai and laying out special pages with the images of the incredibly beautiful hotel, Taj, with its Islamic arches and domes, go up in smoke, I find it hard to look my colleagues in the eye.

And this happens all the time. Every time innocents are targeted in the name of Islam around the world, one can’t face one’s non-Muslim friends and colleagues. I feel like burying myself in the ground. Growing up in a religious family, one never thought one would see the day when being a Muslim could be a source of shame.

... How many innocents have to die in the name of Islam before Muslim leaders and countries take effective action to deal with the nuts, who are out to destroy us all with their nihilistic cult?

... And, pray, why is India increasingly being singled out for this savagery? What do they think this country is? A Hindu country or an anti-Muslim nation?

Do the ignorant dummies repeatedly being sent out on the so-called jihad know that this great country is home to the world’s largest Muslim population? Almost twice the size of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan! India’s greatest superstar is a Muslim, not to mention the countless achievers in other fields.

Why are our friends across the border bent on destroying the whole world with themselves? Is this what Islam and the noble Prophet teach and stand for?

It’s all very well for us to say Islam has nothing to do with extremism and terrorism. We can go on deluding ourselves these psychopaths do not represent us.

However, the world finds it hard to accept this line of argument because it sees the extremists increasingly assert themselves and take the centre-stage while the mainstream Islam remains silent.

... And, as my friend says, only Muslims can solve this problem. Only Muslims can confront these anarchists in their midst.

Only they can get their faith freed from the clutches of extremism. This is no time to hide. It’s time to stand up and speak out. For the terrorists will continue to speak on our behalf, until we do not speak up. This is no time for silence. Enough is enough!

IT'S NOW OR NEVER...

MUSLIMS MUST STOP BLAMING OTHERS FOR THE ROT WITHIN THE CORE OF THEIR FAITH.

AND MUSLIMS WHO WANT TO BE A PART OF THE MODERN WORLD MUST EITHER ERADICATE THE IDEOLOGY OF THESE NIHILISTIC ISLAM, OR ERADICATE ITS PRACTITIONERS.

MORE HERE VIA GLENN - WHOSE LINK IS BAD.

OPEC: NOT CUTTING OIL PRODUCTION

NO CUTS - FOR NOW.

GLOBAL STOCK MARKETS ARE GOING UP ON MONDAY - BIGTIME...

CITIZEN CONSUMERS DOING THEIR PART: BLACK FRIDAY SALES UP OVER LAST YEAR!

NYTIMES/AP:

The nation's retailers got a much-needed sales boost during Black Friday's traditional shopathon as consumers spent more money than they did last year.

According to preliminary data released Saturday, sales on the day after Thanksgiving rose to $10.61 billion.

That's up almost 3 percent from last year's sales of $10.3 billion.

The preliminary figures are from ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a Chicago-based research firm that tracks sales at more than 50,000 retail outlets.

CONSUMERISM AND CONSUMER SPENDING ARE GREAT THINGS - FOR CONSUMERS AND PRODUCERS.

REMEMBER: WHEN PEOPLE BUY STUFF, THEY'RE USUALLY BUYING THINGS THE WANT, THINGS THEY THINK ARE GOOD FOR THEM

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL THE STUFF WE BUY GOODS!

• AND WHEN AMERICANS BUY STUFF IT HELPS THE ECONOMY OF THE ENTIRE WORLD!
• SO I SAY: GREAT GOING GUYS!
• NOW KEEP ON BUYING!
• INSTEAD OF BAILOUTS, THE FED GOVT SHOULD BE GIVING TAXPAYERS VOUCHERS TO BUY EVEN MORE GOODS!
• *******UPDATE: SIX HOURS LATER AND GLENN CITES THE SAME DATA. REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE BEAT THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME. SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US.
  

GLOBAL JIHAD IN NIGERIA: NEARLY 400 DEAD

AFP:

Hundreds of people were killed in the central Nigerian city of Jos when Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election, witnesses said Saturday.

"I was at the central mosque this afternoon and I counted 378 dead bodies but just as I was about to leave, 3 more bodies were brought, a correspondent for Radio France Internationale in Jos, Aminu Manu, told AFP.

"Hundreds of people have been killed in the last two days since the riots started. Remains of burnt bodies litter some parts of the town; it is so terrible," Christian clergyman Yakumu Pam said.

Local Radio Plateau said the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, had placed four districts of the city placed under a curfew and ordered police to fire on anyone who broke it following the clashes on Friday.

Aminu Manu said incidents of violence were still being reported in the city Saturday.

"So far over 10,000 people have been displaced from their homes and are now seeking refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks," a Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos said.

REUTERS:

Authorities imposed a night-time curfew on the capital of the central Plateau state and soldiers deployed on the streets after rival gangs burned churches, mosques and homes in a dispute triggered by a local election.

The unrest is the most serious of its kind in Africa's most populous nation, roughly equally split between Christians and Muslims, since President Umaru Yar'Adua took power in May 2007.

"Over 20 people died. Churches and mosques and 100 houses were burned down," a senior Red Cross official, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. He said more than 300 people were injured.

Youths with machetes hacked to death a policeman and burned tires in one part of the city, sending plumes of thick black smoke into the air, witnesses said.

"All law-abiding citizens are assured that government is on top of the situation and should go about their normal lives," Jonah Jang, governor of Plateau state of which Jos is the capital, said in a broadcast.

NEWS WITH BACKGROUND HERE:

Nigeria: Muslims Protesting Election Loss Riot, Hack Police Officer to Death With Machetes, Torch Churches....Christians Respond by Burning Down Mosques....

Nigeria

I know we're supposed to turn the other cheek, but when you've been attacked repeatedly by Muslim goon squads, you have the right to defend yourself.....

At least 20 people, including one policeman, have been killed in riots in the Nigerian city of Jos after local elections, aid workers say.

A local journalist told the BBC that Muslim opposition supporters had gone on the rampage when they heard their candidate to head the council had lost.

This sparked unrest in the religiously divided city, with Christians burning mosques and Muslims burning churches.

MUMBAI, NIGERIA, GAZA... HMMMM... WHAT DO ALL THESE HAVE IN COMMON?

TACTICS? NOT ALWAYS.

GOAL?

YES. IT'S GLOBAL JIHAD, STUPID

*******UPDATE: BBC:

The mostly Christian-backed governing party, the People's Democratic Party, was declared to have won the state elections in Plateau state, of which Jos is the capital city.

The result was contested by the opposition All Nigeria People's Party, which has support from Muslims.

Violence started on Thursday night as groups of angry youths burnt tyres on the roads over reports of election rigging.

Bodies from the Muslim Hausa community were brought into the central mosque compound.

The local imam, Sheikh Khalid Abubakar, said more than 300 dead bodies were brought there on Saturday alone.

Those killed in the Christian community would probably be taken to the city morgue, raising the possibility that the total death toll could be much higher.

Police spokesman Bala Kassim said there were "many dead," but couldn't cite a firm number.

Despite the overnight curfew, groups in some areas took to the streets again as soon as police patrols had passed by.

Troubled past

In 2001, more than 1,000 people died in religious clashes in the city, situated in Nigeria's fertile "middle belt" that separates the Muslim north from the predominantly Christian south.

Gateway has more.

THE WAL-MART TRAMPLING TRAGEDY; TYPICALLY/PREDICTABLY, THE NYTIMES BLAMES CAPITALISM NOT PERPS

NYTIMES:

... we may come to remember scenes like the one at a Long Island Wal-Mart in the dawn after Thanksgiving, when 200 frantic shoppers trampled to death an employee who stood between them and the bargains within.

It was a tragedy, yet it did not feel like an accident. All those people were there, lined up in the cold and darkness, because of sophisticated marketing forces that have produced this day now called Black Friday. They were engaging in early-morning shopping as contact sport.

American business has long excelled at creating a sense of shortage amid abundance, an anxiety that one must act now or miss out.

This year, that anxiety comes with special intensity for everyone involved — for shoppers, fully cognizant of the immense strains on the economy, which has made bargains more crucial than ever...

AS A LIB HEAD-FAKE THE NYTIMES EVEN USES A PHOTO OF WHITE PEOPLE FROM ELK CITY OKLAHOMA TO ILLUSTRATE THE STORY.

NYTIMES PHOTO:
REAL PHOTO:
HEAD-FAKE; YOU ASK!?!? YEAH. HERE'S WHY:

• THIS IS THE SAME KIND OF LIBERAL BULLSHIT WE HEARD IN THE FIFTIES AND SIXTIES WHICH BLAMED GANG CRIME ON POVERTY - INSTEAD OF THE PERPS.
  

• AND WHICH BLAMES ISRAEL OR FIRST WORLD'S TREATMENT OF THE THIRD FOR JIHADO-TERRORISM.

• IT'S BULLSHIT.
  
• IT SCAPEGOATS THE PERPS.
• IN TYPICAL LIB FASHION, IT TOSSES ASIDE ANY PERSONAL ACCOUNTABILITY.
  

• THE ARTICLE FAILS TO MENTION EVEN ONCE THE MOB WAS NEARLY ENTIRELY BLACK, AND THAT THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS NASTY.

[THIS IS NOT RACIST. IT IS A CULTURAL COMMENT WHICH ANYONE WHO LIVES IN NYC KNOWS IS AS TRUE AS IT IS UN-PC. MANY YOUNG BLACKS ARE - GENERALLY REPEAT GENERALLY - RUDER AND PUSHIER THAN MOST OTHER PEOPLE; WHEN YOU'RE IN A CROWDED SUBWAY CAR AND IF YOU'RE WHITE YOU'D BETTER NOT EVEN LOOK AT A YOUNG BLACK MAN. THEY'RE MEAN AND TOUGH - OR WANT TO SEEM THAT WAY - AND THEY WILL GET VERY TESTY VERY QUICKLY. THAT'S JUST A FACT. SORRY. THE TRAMPLERS/MURDERERS WERE BLACK - AND THEY PROBABLY ALL VOTED FOR OBAMA. FACTS THE NYTIMES LEFT OUT OF THEIR COVERAGE - AND EVEN OBFUSCATED BY USING A PHOTO OF WHITE IN OKLAHOMA! ]

BOTTOM-LINE: THE LIB NYTIMES IGNORES THE UNDERLYING CULTURE OF THE PERPS AND INSTEAD BLAMES THE WHOLE CULTURE, FREE ENTERPRISE AND THE ECONOMY AT LARGE.

THEY TURN A MOB'S MEANNESS INTO LEFT-WING PROPAGANDA. SCUM.

HERE'S A VIDEO OF THE VICTIM AS POLICE TRY TO BRING HIM BACK TO LIFE...

THIS MAN WAS A VICTIM OF A BLACK MOB - NOT WAL-MART OR FREE ENTERPRISE.

MUMBAI: JUST ANOTHER BATTLE IN WW4... JUST ANOTHER JIHADOTERROR ATTACK AGAINST DAR EL HARB

A BREATHLESS INSTAPUNDIT ROUND-UP ON MUMBAI:

SOMETHING DIFFERENT: Bill Roggio on the Mumbai attacks. “The Mumbai attack is something different. Foreign assault teams that likely trained and originated from outside the country infiltrated a major city to conduct multiple attacks on carefully chosen targets. The primary weapon was the gunman, not the suicide bomber. The attack itself has paralyzed a city of 18 million. And two days after the attack began, Indian forces are still working to root out the terror teams.” If lots of ordinary people in the hotels had been armed, it probably wouldn’t have worked as well . . . . (Via Jules Crittenden, who has much more).

UPDATE: Some further analysis. “Since the period of suicide terror, terror organizations have upgraded to include paramilitary fighting units, as opposed to singular acts of terror. . . . The events taking place in Mumbai must act as a warning and turning point in the world’s treatment of the local terror armies that base themselves in various parts of the world, and threaten the world’s stability as a whole.”

ANOTHER UPDATE: Related item here.

MORE: Reader Tom Holsinger emails: “This was not an Al Qaeda operation. This was planned and conducted by Pakistan’s Inter-Service Intelligence Agency.” Well, possibly. Stay tuned.

WRONG.

• THE MUMBAI ATTACKERS DID NOT USE NEW TACTICS;

• THEY'VE USED THESE BEFORE - FREQUENTLY IN IRAQ,

• AND SPORADICALLY ELSEWHERE - THE MOROS, THAILAND, MOROCCO, THE HOLY LAND, PAKISTAN, KENYA, SOMALIA, ETC.

• AND SINCE MUSLIMS CONSIDER THE WHOLE NON-MUSLIM WORLD DAR EL HARB,

• IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE THAT THEY USE THEM OUTSIDE OF WHAT NON-MUSLIMS TRADITIONALLY CALL A WAR-ZONE.

THOSE WHO SEE THIS AS A "BREAKTHROUGH ATTACK" IN TERMS OF TACTICS HAVE MISUNDERESTIMATED THE ENEMY AND/OR PAID TOO LITTLE ATTENTION TO THEIR ATTACKS AGAINST NON-MUSLIMS - ESPECIALLY IN NON-WHITE/NON-WESTERN NATIONS.

AS I WROTE YESTERDAY:

... [MANY] QUESTION WHETHER AL QAEDA IS INVOLVED, AS IF IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE: " ... probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda." [NYTIMES]

• IT DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IF THEY WERE "LINKED" TO AL QAEDA OR NOT.
  

• IT MATTERS NOT ONE WHIT WHETHER THIS ATTACK IN MUMBAI WAS PERPETRATED BY ONE JIHADOTERROR GROUP OR ANOTHER.

• THERE ARE MANY JIHADOTERROR GROUPS - ALL OVER THE WORLD, FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO MOROCCO.

• WHAT LINKS THEM ISN'T A CLANDESTINE ORGANIZATION, BUT AN IDEOLOGY WHICH IS PLAIN FOR ALL TO SEE:

• ISLAM.

WE MUST RETALIATE ACCORDINGLY.

*******UPDATE: Mark Steyn agrees with me ENITELY:

... we’re in danger of missing the forest for the trees.

The forest is the ideology.

It’s the ideology that determines whether you can find enough young hotshot guys in the neighborhood willing to strap on a suicide belt or (rather more promising as a long-term career) at least grab an AK and shoot up a hotel lobby.

Or, if active terrorists are a bit thin on the ground, whether you can count at least on some degree of broader support on the ground.

You’re sitting in some distant foreign capital but you’re minded to pull off a Bombay-style operation in, say, Amsterdam or Manchester or Toronto. Where would you start? Easy. You know the radical mosques, and the other ideological-front organizations. You’ve already made landfall.

It’s missing the point to get into debates about whether this is the “Deccan Mujahideen” or the ISI or al-Qaeda or Lashkar-e-Taiba.

That’s a reductive argument. It could be all or none of them.

The ideology has been so successfully seeded around the world that nobody needs a memo from corporate HQ to act: There are so many of these subgroups and individuals that they intersect across the planet in a million different ways.

It’s not the Cold War, with a small network of deep sleepers being directly controlled by Moscow.

There are no membership cards, only an ideology.

That’s what has radicalized hitherto moderate Muslim communities from Indonesia to the Central Asian stans to Yorkshire, and coopted what started out as more or less conventional nationalist struggles in the Caucasus and the Balkans into mere tentacles of the global jihad.

RTWT!

BTW: I beat the great Steyn to the punch, first posting this point Friday, HERE.

Unprecedented cold weather endangers sea turtles; many being rescued

Recent cold weather caught sea turtles off-guard before they could reach warmer Gulf Stream waters, and that has led to nearly 25 rescues along the North Carolina coast in the past week. Karen Beasley Sea Turtle Rescue and Rehabilitation Center on Topsail Island has rescued numerous cold-stunned sea turtles since Thursday, said Jean Beasley, the hospital's executive director. "We're overwhelmed, this has never happened before -- at least not since the turtle hospital has been in existence," Beasley said. "We had 11 turtles come in last Thursday, 12 on Saturday and six (Sunday). We're frantically trying to make more space."

"Cold weather started it all -- with the precipitous drop in temperature, these guys can't regulate their body temperature," volunteer Karen Sota said, adding that most have been green turtles around 2 years old. There are also a few loggerheads.

Beasley expects that there could be more turtles in trouble. People can help by looking for turtles in the shallow waters -- particularly in marsh grasses, where they aren't easily spotted. Beasley said that turtles should be brought to a sheltered place and that they need to slowly warm up. "Those caught in shallow water are going to be in real trouble because they have no ability to produce any body heat," she said. "We've had some who came in with body temperatures in the 30s ... Normally they need to have body temperatures over 70."

Sota recommends taking any found turtles home and putting them on a towel in a utility room. "Do not put it in warm water," she said. "We're warming them up slowly, giving a course of antibiotics and trying to get them to eat."

Source

Amazing Japanese Prime Minister

This gives me new respect for Japan. I don't agree with what he said but am delighted that someone in his position felt free to say it.

"He has ridiculed doctors, mocked the mentally ill and made light of wartime atrocities, but this time Taro Aso may have taken things too far: the Prime Minister of the world's fastest-ageing nation has condemned Japan's elderly as a bunch of "hobbling malingerers".

Having shattered a sacred taboo, the nationalist Mr Aso, who is 68, added: "I pay my taxes, so why should I pay money for people who laze around eating and drinking and never do anything?"

Members of Mr Aso's own party told The Times that the attack on seniority and ill-health was "completely irresponsible" in a country where one in five voters is over 70 years old, where the healthcare system is in crisis and a general election is looming. "He seems to be saying that old people should feel guilty for visiting the doctor," said one ruling coalition MP. "He must have said it without realising how many people that would upset."

Others believe that the comments were entirely predictable, given Mr Aso's previous form. His attack on old people for their lack of exercise and for "always tottering off to the doctor" was blurted out during a ministerial meeting on the economic crisis and marks probably the most spectacular gaffe of a political career strewn with increasingly baffling clangers.

Doctors, he said recently, tended to lack common sense; Japan, he declared on another occasion, should make itself attractive to "rich Jews". He was once made to apologise for a joke about people suffering from Alzheimer's, and quipped to victims of a flood that it was lucky for everyone that the city nearby had not been hit.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

MUMBAI DEATH TOLL NOW 195 AND LIKELY TO RISE

AP.

IT'LL BE 200+ IN TWO DAYS. CIVILIANS. OUTSIDE OF ANY WAR ZONE.

IF THEY HAD BEEN US SOLDIERS IN IRAQ THEN THE LIBS WOULD BE CALLING FOR US TO RETREAT.

BUT RETREAT FROM THE ENEMY IN INDIA- AND IRAQ AND EVERYWHERE ELSE - WOULD BE EXACTLY THE WRONG THING TO DO.

WE NEED TO STEP UP BOTH OUR KINETIC AND DIPLOMATIC ATTACKS ON THE ALL ELEMENTS WITHIN THE MUSLIM WORLD WHICH EITHER PROMULGATE OR ABET THE EVIL-DOERS.

MORE HERE.

AND HERE.

MORE HERE, TOO. HERE AS WELL.

SEE THIS, TOO.

GORBY: OBAMA IS THE AMERICAN GORBACHEV

YUP. HE SAID THAT.

AND HE'S RIGHT - IN A WAY:

LIKE GORBY, OBAMA WILL TRY ANYTHING TO SAVE AND EXPAND SOCIALISM IN AMERICA.

REMEMBER: GORBY WAS PART OF THE PROBLEM, NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION.

I BETCHYA THIS WEEKEND'S RETAIL SALES NUMBERS ARE GONNA BE GREAT ...

AND THAT THE STOCK MARKET PICKS UP ANOTHER 900 POINTS NEXT WEEK...

WOULDN'T IT BE WILD IF THE DJIA IS 10,000 BY 1/20/09!

ANTI-ZIONIST SAMANTHA POWER IS BACK WORKING FOR OBAMA

VIA HOT AIR.

SHE'S BACK.

SHE HATES ISRAEL. JUST LIKE OBAMA AND SCOWCROFT AND ZBIG AND BAKER AND WRIGHT AND AYERS AND FARRAKHAN.

MORE FROM FOX:

A former adviser to Barack Obama's presidential campaign who once called Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton a "monster" is now working on the transition team for the agency that Clinton may lead.

State Department officials said Friday that Samantha Power is among foreign policy experts the president-elect's office selected to help the incoming administration prepare for Clinton's anticipated nomination as secretary of state.

The Obama transition team's Web site includes Power's name as one of 14 members of the "Agency Review Team" for the State Department.

During the Democratic primary campaign, Power called Clinton "a monster" in an interview. She then resigned, calling her remarks inexcusable and contradictory to her admiration for Clinton.

THIS MEANS HILARY IS OFF THE LIST - OR THAT SHE IS VIRTUALLY GUARANTEED TO QUIT OR GET FIRED, UNLESS SHE SWAPS SPIT WITH SAMANTHA AND SUHA - AND MICHELLE OBAMA SO-TO-SPEAK.

HERE'S SAMANTHA IN HER OWN WORDS:



MORE ON POWER HERE - WHERE SHE BASICALLY SAYS SHE'S FOR IMPOSING A SOLUTION ON ISRAEL AND INSERTING US TROOPS TO ENFORCE IT, AND ALSO FOR SUSPENDING AID TO ISRAEL AND GIVING IT TO FATAH, EVEN IF IT PISSES OF THE "ISRAEL LOBBY" AND A LOT OF RICH JOOOOOOOZE!

*******UPDATE: GATEWAY CONCURS.

MAJOR SIGN THE ECONOMY IS READY TO REBOUND - BIGTIME: NON-STOP DITECH MORTGAGE COMMERICALS!

HERE WE GO AGAIN!

DITECH IS AT IT AGAIN!



CAN COUNTRYWIDE BE FAR BEHIND!?

MUMBAI IS MERELY GLOBAL JIHAD: THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS STEYN BY A DAY

MARK STEYN TODAY:

All jihad is local: If rockets are fired at Israel, it's a failure to settle the Palestinian question. If an NHS doctor drives a flaming Cherokee into the check-in desk at Glasgow Airport, it must be Tony Blair's foreign policy. The Jerusalem Post's headline writer poses the question:

Homegrown Terror Or International Jihad?

False choice. The answer is: Homegrown terror in the service of international jihad. Clearly, India has had a Muslim problem to one degree or another in the 60 years since partition, but increasingly those locally driven grievances have been absorbed within the global pan-Islamic ideology.

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS YESTERDAY:

MOST LIBS JUST DON'T GET IT; THEY DON'T REALIZE WW4 IS THE WAR OF CIVILIZATION AGAINST GLOBAL JIHAD.

SOME MUMBAI HEADLINES PROVE IT ONCE AGAIN; THE NYTIMES:

Sophisticated Attacks, but Al Qaeda Link Disputed

By ALAN COWELL and MARK McDONALD 30 minutes ago

Experts said that they had never heard of the group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks and that it was probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda.

THEY QUESTION WHETHER AL QAEDA IS INVOLVED AS IF IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE: " ... probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda."

• IT DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IF THEY WERE "LINKED" TO AL QAEDA OR NOT.
  

• IT MATTERS NOT ONE WHIT WHETHER THIS ATTACK IN MUMBAI WAS PERPETRATED BY ONE JIHADOTERROR GROUP OR ANOTHER.

• THERE ARE MANY JIHADOTERROR GROUPS - ALL OVER THE WORLD, FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO MOROCCO.

• WHAT LINKS THEM ISN'T A CLANDESTINE ORGANIZATION, BUT AN IDEOLOGY WHICH IS PLAIN FOR ALL TO SEE:

• ISLAM.

REGULAR READERS KNOW THAT WE SCOOP THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME.

WE DON'T FOLLOW THE PACK - WE LEAD.

SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US.

DID THE MUMBAI TERRORISTS HAVE TO BE STATE-TRAINED? NOPE...

The Mumbai terrorists didn't do anything which wasn't already done by other jihadists in Fallujah or Ramadi or so many other towns they took over using TERROR. So I think they might have easily been the enemy's Iraqi War vets, and not jihadist trained by rogues within Pakistan's ISI.

More importantly, I think hypothesizing about the terrorist's organization and organizational means is a total distraction.

I think the key to winning the WAR is demolishing the ideology which motivates them to attack.

That is ISLAM.

I think there are a few non-military means of attacking that ideology we should use:

1 - ON CLASSICALLY LIBERAL AND STRICTLY HUMANITARIAN GROUNDS we can and should isolate all nations which permit islamo-misogyny. Kick them out of every Western club: the UN, the IMF, the World Bank, GATT/WTO. We should no more accept islamo-misogyny than accept slavery based on race.

Islamo-misogyny in the Muslim home is the matrix in which jihadism grows; it's the how they turn children into jihadis; it teaches them that a class of humans - women in their own family - are mere chattel. This is one of the first lessons they learn. They first learn to dehumanize the women in their family and then the men outside their tribe. After that they learn that the men and women outside their religion are - in their minds - justifiably targets of genocide.

As long as Muslim children learn islamo-misogyny Muslim adults will commit terror.

2 - We should stop buying anything from these nations. YES; ANYTHING -INCLUDING OIL. This means we have to build nuclear and coal power plants and wind farms etc. And it means we have to extract all the oil we can from ALL domestic sources. ALL - including ANWR.

3 - We need to demand that RELIGIOUS FREEDOM is available to all humans everywhere, and shun all nations which don't allow religious freedom. AND THIS MEANS SAUDI ARABIA, TOO.

4 - Military counter-attacks have a place to - wee MUST stay on the offensive and be willing to use ANY weapon in our arsenal - and we have to make the enemy realize we will. ALL WEAPONS - AND HARSH/SEVERE INTERROGATION TECHNIQUES.

This will give us a better deterrent with many of them - especially the state sponsors who have some degree of "plausible deniability". For example, we have to tell Pakistan that if they cannot control the FATA that we shall consider it non-territorial and feel free to attack at will. (As it stands now, the Pakistanis get to have their cake and eat it, too: arguing we cannot have free-range in their territory, but then failing to police it themselves).

This strategy could actually win WW4.

THE USA NEEDS A "CAR MAX" FOR THE HOUSING INDUSTRY

CAR MAX:

Corporate Profile

CarMax, a FORTUNE 500 company, and one of the FORTUNE 2008 "100 Best Companies to Work For," is the nation's largest retailer of used cars. Headquartered in Richmond, Va., CarMax currently operates 99 used car superstores in 46 markets. The unique CarMax consumer offer provides our customers the opportunity to shop for vehicles the way they shop for items at other national retailers, and it is structured around four customer benefits: low, no-haggle prices; a broad selection; high quality vehicles; and a customer-friendly sales process. During the fiscal year ended February 29, 2008, the company retailed 377,244 used vehicles and sold 222,406 wholesale vehicles at its in-store auctions.

THE HOME-INDUSTRY NEEDS THIS RETAIL APPROACH APPLIED TO THE DEPRESSED HOME INDUSTRY:

A LARGE RETAILER WHO CAN BUY A LARGE PORTFOLIO OF HOMES AT LARGE DISCOUNTS AND THEN SELLING THEM AT BARGAIN PRICES.

ONE STOP SHOPPING.

WHY NOT WAL-MART!?

WHEN YOU THINK ABOUT IT, BUYING AND SELLING HOMES IS ONE OF THE LEAST CENTRALIZED MARKETS IN THE NATION.

AND I DON'T MEAN WE NEED ANOTHER NATIONAL AGENCY - LIKE RE-MAX.

WE NEED AN OUTFIT THAT WILL SCOOP UP THOUSANDS AND THOUSANDS OF HOMES FROM BANKS AND THEN RE-SELL THEM. A WHOLESALE BUYER OF HOMES AND A RETAILER OF THEM.

AND IT SHOULD BE A PRIVATE COMPANY OR COMPANIES, NOT THE GOVERNMENT.

MORE PROOF AGW IS BS: CO2 AT ITS HIGHEST BUT TEMPS AT THEIR LOWEST

Greenhouse gases hit record levels last year

Gases blamed for global warming reached record levels in the atmosphere last year, the United Nations weather agency said on Tuesday.

Concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) and nitrous oxide (N2O) touched new highs after more steady rises in 2007, and methane had its largest annual increase in a decade, the World Meteorological Organization said.

"The major greenhouse gases -- CO2, methane and N2O -- have all reached new highs in 2007. Two of them, CO2 and N20, are increasing steadily and there is no sign of leveling off of those two gases," WMO expert Geir Braathen told a news briefing. He said it was too early to tell if methane would keep rising.

WE FIRST REPORTED THIS HERE.

DESPITE ALL THIS CO2, THE EARTH IS COOOOOOOOOLER THAN IT HAS BEEN IN A LONG TIME:

GTA Shivers Through Coldest Day Of The Fall

Friday November 21, 2008
CityNews.ca Staff

Talk about a frosty Friday.

Residents in the GTA woke up to the coldest day of the season, with temperatures below freezing and wind chills touching the -18 mark. And it didn't get any better during the day.

October was coldest for five years

DUNDEE experienced its coldest October in five years, the Scottish Crop Research Institute at Invergowrie said yesterday.

October’s average air temperature reached 14.5C, compared to the usual long-term average of 9.2C.

On the coldest day of the month, the 30th, temperatures plunged to –5C. The warmest days were recorded at 17C on the October 10 and 12.

A spokesman from the SCRI said last month saw the lowest air mean temperature since 1994 resulting in the coldest October since 2003.

East records coldest October in 15 years

PATRICK LOGUE

It was the coldest October in 15 years in the East of the country, according to figures released by Met Éireann today.

Average air temperatures were one degree below normal everywhere after a severe cold spell at the end of the month. October was the first month with below normal average temperatures at all stations since October 2004.

There were between 12 and 17 ground frosts recorded in some inland areas during the month, more than twice the normal amount for October, with severe ground frost in places at the end of the month.

Dublin Airport’s minimum air temperature of -1.3 degrees C on the 28th was its lowest for October since 1948.

Anchorage suffers one of coldest Octobers ever

Anchorage Daily News

Anchorage has logged the eighth coldest October on record, the National Weather Service said today.

With an average temperature of 29.7 degrees, October landed a spot in history as one of the 10 coldest out of the roughly 90 years since records have been kept in Anchorage.

The coldest October on record was in 1996, with an average temperature of 25.5 degrees. The 10th coldest was in 1965, with an average temperature of 30.7 degrees.

Coldest October weather since 1974

by ROSS MCGUINNESS - Wednesday, October 29, 2008
We may be getting used to stories about weird weather, but yesterday was one of the weirdest October days in living memory.

Autumn blizzards give us the coldest October day since 1934

Thursday, 30 October 2008
From bah to to burrr: Sheep huddle together in north Antrim

Snowfall and plummeting temperatures have brought the coldest October temperatures to Northern Ireland since 1934. Antrim, Armagh, Derry, Down and Tyrone were among the worst hit areas yesterday with falling snow making untreated roads close to impassable.

A Met Office spokeswoman said: “These are the lowest (October) daytime high temperatures since 1934.”

Snow
Grinding: Traffic backs up on the A40 in Oxfordshire

Snow came down in London - the first October dusting since 1934 - and Birmingham, Coventry and Nottingham got a white covering too.

There was also a hefty sprinkling in Hertfordshire.

Thousands of homes in the south and east were left without power after the cold snap damaged cables.

Coldest October night for 11 years

WINTER showed its face in west and north Wiltshire this week bringing with it hail showers, thunderstorms and freezing temperatures.

Despite the clocks only going back an hour on Sunday, Tuesday night saw the lowest temperatures in the area for 11 years.

Amateur weatherman Geoff Witts, who lives in Steeple Ashton, said the mercury dropped to -3 degrees Centigrade overnight on Tuesday, the lowest since the -4.5 degrees Centigrade recorded in 1997.

In addition, it looks as though temperatures for the whole of October will be below average.

The coldest October night Mr Witts has recorded was in 1955, when the temperature plunged to -7.8 degrees Centigrade.

AGW IS BS.

CARBON TAXES, CAP&TRADE SCHEMES, AND CARBON SWAPPING ETC ARE MORE DANGEROUS TO OUR HEALTH THAN CO2!

DON'T MISUNDERESTIMATE OBAMA

Commentators and pundits seem to think that Barack Hussein Obama is tilting to the center, as he fills up his administration with recycled inside-the-beltway hacks from the Clinton, Carter (and Reagan!) administrations.

Others are laughing when Obama says that he personally is the change that he promised.

Don't be fooled. Professor Jacobson is closer to the mark when he observes that these moves have the appearance of a classic city ball head fake.

To a still undefined extent, Obama's pose as a radical leftist was a disguise concealing his inner "empty suit" identity. But concealed within that "empty suit" is a narcissistic, ruthless Chicago politician who has repeatedly shown that he will stop at nothing.

If he can solve the constitutional "emoluments" problem putting HRC in charge of State removes her from an independent power-base in the Senate. And if she does not execute policy the way BHO likes, she's gone, and back out in the cold. Same with the others.

Don't misunderestimate the man.

I think he is going to use the window-dressing provided by Volcker, HRC, Gates, Geithner and the other inside-the-beltway front men to conceal an attempt to remake the United States into a euroweenie, anti-Christian, anti-Western socialist plaything for the Mullahs, the jihadis, and the Bolivarian Revolucionaries to toy with.

Without making any drastic moves himself, he will allow the radical leftists in the Congress to move to take away your guns, shut down conservative talk radio, guarantee government-funded abortions in even Catholic hospitals, dismantle the nascent missile defense, abandon our allies, and overturn significant parts of the Patriot Act.

He will try to slow all of this down so that it doesn't cause a 1994-style backlash in 2010. But the angry left will force their representatives in Congress to move faster.

Just watch.

IF YOU WANNA SAVE THE WORLD'S ECONOMY, THEN SPEND, SPEND, SPEND!

Because we're the freest economy in the whole world, because we are both prosperous and have the lowest trade barriers, the entire world's economy depends on USA consumption; if we consume less then they sell less and the world goes into a recession.

That's why all we have to do to get the world's economy moving again is BUY BUY BUY!

Go out and buy anything you think is GOOD FOR YOU TO HAVE!

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY CALL THE STUFF YOU BUY "GOODS", ANYWAY!!?!?

It's a buyer's market out there: prices are cheap.

Take advantage of the seller's weakness AND BUY BUY BUY!

As Glenn says, "It’s up to the Retail Support Brigades, once again!"

MUMBAI'S CHABAD HOSTAGES WERE KILLED

HAARTEZ: Rescue personnel: Hostages in Mumbai Chabad house are dead

Indian commandos found two bodies at Mumbai's Chabad center on Friday which appear to be of hostages, the country's National Security Guards chief said.

Chabad first raised the alarm Wednesday night, when the city-wide attacks began, saying it had failed to make contact with Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg and his Israeli wife, Rivki. At least 143 people have been killed and hundreds others wounded in the attacks, which appeared to target locations popular with foreigners.

Israel's ambassador to India, Mark Sofer, told Sky News on Friday evening that it was unclear how people had been inside the building when the siege began.

J.K. Dutt also told Indian television that the commandos had killed two militants in operations at the center.

"We have neutralised two terrorists," Dutt said. "Along with that we have also found two bodies. Those bodies appear to be of hostages."

The Israeli Orthodox rescue service ZAKA also said Friday that staff it had sent to Mumbai to help at the siege believed that hostages in the center had died.

"Apparently the hostages did not remain alive," the Zaka service said in a brief statement quoting its staff in Mumbai. It did identify the hostages nor say how many may have died. A rabbi and his wife had been believed to be held hostage.

*******UPDATE: JPOST: Five hostages in Mumbai's Chabad House have been killed, an Israeli diplomat in India was quoted by Reuters as saying Friday afternoon.

*******UPDATE: CNN:

The bodies of five hostages have been found at a Jewish center in Mumbai, according to reports, but fighting still rages at a hotel in the city two days after terrorists launched a series of deadly attacks. ... Watch chaos at Jewish center »

IT'S TIME TO RETALIATE TEN-FOLD AGAINST ALL STATE AND NON-STATE ELEMENTS.

IOW: IT'S TIME TO END "PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY" OF THE ENEMY.

Australia. An old-fashioned responsible father: Good to see

Boy, 5, made to walk two-and-a-half hours to school



A NORTHERN TERRITORY man has been making his five-year-old son walk two-and-a-half hours to school every day, after he was kicked off the school bus. When Jack Burt confessed that he'd been banned for five days for hitting the bus driver in the head with an apple core, dad Sam thought he should learn the hard way. He and Jack last week were getting up at 5.10am for the dusty 13km-hike from the Darwin rural area of Herbert, all the way to Humpty Doo. Mr Burt also took the wheels off Jack's bike so he couldn't be tempted to ride to school.

At the end of the old-fashioned punishment, Mr Burt, 38, took out a public notice in the Northern Territory News. "Jack Burt and his dad wish to thank all the kind people who stopped to offer them lifts in the past week," the ad read. "It's good to see a number of good people in the community. Jack hopes to be allowed back on the bus on Monday."

But in the battle of wills between tall and short, the smart money's on Jack. "Shame it didn't work," Mr Burt told the Northern Territory News. "He got back on the bus Monday, and within three stops he was in trouble again. I couldn't believe it. "I don't understand - he's good at school, he gets awards all the time."

However, a breakthrough might be in sight. When Jack this week said he didn't mind walking - because it made him strong for fighting - he was told if he started fighting he might have to walk home in the afternoons too. Jack's eyes got a little teary. He said he might not get home before dark. Mr Burt told him not to worry - they'd leave the key out for him.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

Obama supporters were ignoramuses

Just 2% of voters who supported Barack Obama on Election Day obtained perfect or near-perfect scores on a post election test which gauged their knowledge of statements and scandals associated with the presidential tickets during the campaign, a new Zogby International telephone poll shows. Only 54% of Obama voters were able to answer at least half or more of the questions correctly.

The 12-question, multiple-choice survey found questions regarding statements linked to Republican presidential candidate John McCain and his vice-presidential running-mate Sarah Palin were far more likely to be answered correctly by Obama voters than questions about statements associated with Obama and Vice-President-Elect Joe Biden. The telephone survey of 512 Obama voters nationwide was conducted Nov. 13-15, 2008, and carries a margin of error of +/- 4.4 percentage points. The survey was commissioned by John Ziegler, author of The Death of Free Speech, producer of the recently released film "Blocking the Path to 9/11" and producer of the upcoming documentary film, Media Malpractice...How Obama Got Elected.

"After I interviewed Obama voters on Election Day for my documentary, I had a pretty low opinion of what most of them had picked up from the media coverage of the campaign, but this poll really proves beyond any doubt the stunning level of malpractice on the part of the media in not educating the Obama portion of the voting populace," said Ziegler.

Ninety-four percent of Obama voters correctly identified Palin as the candidate with a pregnant teenage daughter, 86% correctly identified Palin as the candidate associated with a $150,000 wardrobe purchased by her political party, and 81% chose McCain as the candidate who was unable to identify the number of houses he owned. When asked which candidate said they could "see Russia from their house," 87% chose Palin, although the quote actually is attributed to Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey during her portrayal of Palin during the campaign. An answer of "none" or "Palin" was counted as a correct answer on the test, given that the statement was associated with a characterization of Palin.

Obama voters did not fare nearly as well overall when asked to answer questions about statements or stories associated with Obama or Biden -- 83% failed to correctly answer that Obama had won his first election by getting all of his opponents removed from the ballot, and 88% did not correctly associate Obama with his statement that his energy policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry. Most (56%) were also not able to correctly answer that Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground.

Nearly three quarters (72%) of Obama voters did not correctly identify Biden as the candidate who had to quit a previous campaign for President because he was found to have plagiarized a speech, and nearly half (47%) did not know that Biden was the one who predicted Obama would be tested by a generated international crisis during his first six months as President.

In addition to questions regarding statements and scandals associated with the campaigns, the 12-question, multiple-choice survey also included a question asking which political party controlled both houses of Congress leading up to the election -- 57% of Obama voters were unable to correctly answer that Democrats controlled both the House and the Senate.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

THE ASTUTE BLOGGERS SCOOPS MALKIN: GIVEN THE ECONOMIC CRISIS, SHOULD OBAMA HAVE ANY INAUGURATIONAL FESTIVITIES?

• MICHELLE MALKIN REMINDS US THAT IN 2005 THE LEFT ARGUED THAT BUSH SHOULD CURTAIL OR CUT HIS INAUGURAL FESTIVITIES BECAUSE WE WERE A NATION AT WAR.

• SHE WONDERED WHY NO ONE HAD SUGGESTED OBAMA CURTAIL OR CUTBACK HIS INAUGURAL FESTIVITIES BECAUSE OF THE FINANCIAL CRISIS.

• WE NOTED THIS HYPOCRISY AND OBAMA'S HYPOCRISY THREE DAYS AGO.

REGULAR READERS KNOW WE SCOOP THE BIGGIES ALL THE TIME.

SPREAD THE WORD. BLOGROLL US.

HIGH TIME TO REJECT "PLAUSIBLE DENIABILITY"

An excuse that has to be rejected. An attack launched from ships on the high seas, with coordinated strikes against several different targets, was not the work of disaffected amateurs.

The operation has every hallmark of a well-planned military operation. *******UPDATE (Relipaundit):

Officials in India, Europe and the United States said likely culprits included Islamist networks based in Pakistan that have received support in the past from Pakistan's intelligence agencies.

Analysts said this week's attacks surpassed previous plots carried out by domestic groups in terms of complexity, the number of people involved and their success in achieving their primary goal: namely, to spread fear.

"This is a new, horrific milestone in the global jihad," said Bruce Riedel, a former South Asia analyst for the CIA and National Security Council and author of the book "The Search for Al Qaeda." "No indigenous Indian group has this level of capability

Major terrorist operations require the cooperation of nation-states. It is high time to hold them accountable.

Do you remember what Don Corleone told Sollozzo?

"But let me say this. I am a superstitious man, a ridiculous failing but I must confess it here. And so if some unlucky accident should befall my youngest son, if some police officer should accidentally shoot him, if he should hang himself while in his jail cell, if new witnesses appear to testify to his guilt, my superstition will make me feel that it was the result of the ill will still borne me by some people here. Let me go further. If my son is struck by a bolt of lightning I will blame some of the people here. If his plane show fall into the sea or his ship sink beneath the waves of the ocean, if he should catch a mortal fever, if his automobile should be struck by a train, such is my superstition that I would blame the ill will felt by people here."

It's time to get superstitious.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

If the name is "Obama," you can get a free pass on even obeying the rule of law.

Excerpt from this article in the Washington Post:

Nicanor Obama began to realize he might be on to a good thing when he didn't get a speeding ticket not long ago. After stopping the 28-year-old for a little lead-footing near the Verizon Center, a District police officer looked at his driver's license and put the citation book away.

"He said, 'Well, I'm going to let you go because you have the Obama name' " is how the Arlington County resident recalled the encounter....

Yet another manifestation of the Cult of Obama.

TWO MUST SEE VIDEOS: KENYAN AMBASSADOR SAYS OBAMA WAS BORN IN KENYA - AND- OBAMA HAS NPD

VIA HYSCIENCE.


OBAMA HAS NPD AND IS A PSYCHOPATH.

MSM GETS A THANKSGIVING CARD FROM SARAH PALIN

I THINK SARAH PALIN MUST HAVE APPROPRIATED AN OLD PHOTO OF JOE BIDEN AND BARRY OBAMA...

Via Sondrak - (with alterations...)

INDIA SEIZES TWO PAKISTANI MERCHANT SHIPS SUSPECTED OF INVOLVEMENT IN MUMBAI ATTACKS

THEY CAME BY SEA: CNN:

Gunmen who arrived by boats launched attacks on at least seven locations in Mumbai, India, on Wednesday night, killing more than 120 people, authorities say.

By Friday morning, authorities believed militants still were in two luxury hotels and a Jewish center in the city.

The following is what is known about the attacks:

• Gunmen arrived by boats at the Mumbai waterfront near the Gateway of India monument on Wednesday night, police said. The gunmen hijacked cars, including a police van, and split into at least three groups to carry out the attacks, according to police.

THE MOTHER SHIPS MAY HAVE BEEN SEIZED: Pakistani ships seized after Mumbai attacks

The Indian navy has seized two Pakistani merchant ships as authorities try to track down those responsible for the Mumbai attacks.

Authorities believe the Mumbai attackers came ashore in a series of small boats, and all the merchant ships that have passed through Mumbai in the past few days have come under particular scrutiny.

According to Indian news agencies, intelligence sources pinpointed one particular cargo vessel that had stopped there briefly before leaving for Karachi and Pakistan.

By luck, Indian navy and coastguard vessels were engaged in routine exercises off the coast of Gujarat and were immediately dispatched to intercept the vessel.

Both it and another Pakistani freighter have now been boarded by Indian forces, but it is not yet clear if they found anything suspicious on board.

• INDIA WILL GET TO THE BOTTOM OF THIS ATTACK, AND PUNISH ALL THE CONSPIRATORS THEY CAN.

• IT MATTERS NOT WHICH PARTICULAR JIHADIST GROUP THEY BELONG TO. OR IF THEY WERE STATE-SPONSORED.
  

• BECAUSE WE KNOW THE ROOT CAUSE - AND IT'S IDEOLOGICAL:

IT'S THEIR "RELIGION", STUPID.

IF BY RELIGION WE MEAN THE TOTALITARIAN AND MARTIAL IDEOLOGY THEY CALL ISLAM.

LET'S FACE IT FOLKS, ISLAM IS THE COMMON DENOMINATOR.

WE IGNORE THIS AT OUR PERIL.

GM Springs Into Action, Asks FAA to Bar Public Tracking of Leased Corporate Jet

Never let it be said that General Motors doesn't react fast enough when there is a crisis. Oh sure, they need a bailout and all, but they're right on top of the issue of making sure we don't know if they are spending corporate revenues in good faith.

Nov. 27 (Bloomberg) -- General Motors Corp., criticized by U.S. lawmakers for its use of corporate jets, asked aviation regulators to block the public’s ability to track a plane it uses.

“We availed ourselves of the option as others do to have the aircraft removed” from a Federal Aviation Administration tracking service, a GM spokesman, Greg Martin, said yesterday in an interview. He declined to discuss why GM made the request.

Flight data show that the leased Gulfstream Aerospace G-IV jet flew Nov. 18 from Detroit to Washington, where Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner Jr. spoke to a Senate committee that day and a House panel the next day on behalf of a $25 billion auto-industry rescue plan.

Representatives at the Nov. 19 House hearing including Democrat Gary AckermanAlan Mulally and Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli for taking private jets to Washington to plead their case. of New York faulted Wagoner, Ford Motor Co. CEO

“Couldn’t you all have downgraded to first class?” Ackerman said.

Symbol for Critics

Critics of a federal aid package for GM, Ford and Chrysler spotlighted the exchange to attack the money-losing companies as undeserving of a bailout. GM, the biggest U.S. automaker, has said it may run out of operating cash by year’s end without government loans.

HEY, JIHADISTS: KISS MY ROYAL IRISH ASS

PUTIN PUT ON NOTICE: CZECH'S SENATE VOTES FOR MISSILE SHIELD

BBC:

The upper house of the Czech parliament has backed US plans to install part of a missile defence shield on Czech soil.

The deal still has to be approved by the lower house, where the opposition is against the shield.

The US wants to build a radar on Czech soil and put 10 interceptor rockets in Poland as a defence against what Washington describes as "rogue" states.

Russia sees the shield as a direct threat and has said it will deploy new missiles in the Baltic in response.

Earlier this month, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would deploy short-range Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region to "neutralise" the US shield.

Russia later said it wanted to discuss the issue with the incoming administration of Democrat Barack Obama, who will replace George W Bush as US president in January.

IF OBAMA APPEASES PUTIN ON THIS ISSUE HE WILL HAVE SOLD OUT EASTERN EUROPE. AND MADE WAR AND AN ATTACK BY IRAN ON EUROPE MORE LIKELY.

I EXPECT HIM TO.

Banks Hoarding Cash For Now, But There's a Bull Market Coming

From 3 Wood at Jammie Wearing Fool:

With all the market unrest, and the year end reporting coming up soon, it appears that banks have resumed hoarding cash to make their balance sheet look better to investors.

The cost of borrowing in dollars for one month in London jumped the most since 1999 as banks sought to bolster balance sheets through year-end amid a squeeze on credit that’s being exacerbated by the global economic slump.

The London interbank offered rate, or Libor, that banks say they charge one another for such loans climbed 47 basis points to 1.90 percent today, British Bankers’ Association data showed. The Libor for three-month loans rose two basis points to 2.20 percent. The Libor-OIS spread, a measure of the willingness of banks to lend, increased.

“There is some concern about the turn of the year,” said Patrick Jacq, a senior fixed-income strategist in Paris at BNP Paribas SA. “I wouldn’t be surprised to see this tension easing over the next few days as central banks address the situation with more liquidity.”

With little more than a month to go until the end of 2008, banks are vying for loans that mature after Dec. 31 to strengthen their balance sheets as they prepare to report to investors. Financial institutions mark the value of loans and cash positions at the end of each quarter. The euro interbank offered rate, or Euribor, for one-month loans rose 22 basis points to 3.61 percent today, the first increase in 24 days, according to the European Banking Federation.

“This is purely because the loans are crossing year-end,” said Barry Moran, a money-markets trader at the Bank of Ireland in Dublin. “It’s a little bit harder to tell this year how high rates might go because central banks are going a long way toward providing excess liquidity."

Look for the Feds to lower the discount rate another 0.25% and pump even more money into the banking system in December.

Now, that leaves the issue of what happens to all this cash in the banking system after the reporting period is over?

Well, eventually the banks are going to get tired of sitting on all this cash and will want to use it. That means loans and lots of them (hopefully, this time around, they actually vet the applicants). And that means the market and the economy will take off.

At first it will see like a miracle. But then when unused production capacity is absorbed, we will see high inflation.

Also, get ready for phase 2 of the credit defaults as credit card and other consumer debt defaults start hitting hard in January. They are much smaller though, per person than mortgages and so the down side should be a little easier to handle in the market. If you did not notice, American Express got itself declared a bank the other day so it can borrow at the discount window and get a piece of the bail out. They see the credit card defaults coming.

At this point the bigger economic threat is not the recession (as long as Obama does not raise taxes any time soon), but the ensuing inflation we will see.

But regardless, we will have to pay higher taxes sometime down the road. With the $8.5 trillion bail out, we not only have borrowed on our future, we have passed that burden onto our children and grandchildren.

We have been following a path of pain avoidance. Eventually, we have to pay the tab.

Interesting analysis. It seems to me one thing 3 Wood is not taking into account here is that, while the inflation he predicts will initially be caused by a maxing out of production capacity, ultimately inflation means there is more demand than available goods.

In a sensible economy that means more growth. And, this recession is wiping all the nonsense out of the economy.

A major bull market is on the horizon.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING - THANKS TO FREE ENTERPRISE

• THE FIRST THANKSGIVING WAS A CELEBRATION OF THE VICTORY OF INDIVIDUALISM AND FREE ENTERPRISE OVER THE TYRANNY AND MISERY OF COLLECTIVISM.

• FREE PERSONS CREATE PROSPERITY. FREE TO SUCCEED - OR FAIL.

• IT'S IMPORTANT WE REMEMBER THIS IN THIS SEASON OF GOVERNMENT BAILOUTS.

• FACTS HERE.

• WARNING: THE PRICE OF BAILOUTS TODAY MIGHT BE SELLING FUTURE GENERATIONS INTO SERFDOM...

THE MUMBAI ATTACKS: JUST ANOTHER FRONT IN GLOBAL JIHAD

*******UPDATE: 24HRS LATER AND MARK STEYN AGREES.

MOST LIBS JUST DON'T GET IT; THEY DON'T REALIZE WW4 IS THE WAR OF CIVILIZATION AGAINST GLOBAL JIHAD.

SOME MUMBAI HEADLINES PROVE IT ONCE AGAIN; THE NYTIMES:

Sophisticated Attacks, but Al Qaeda Link Disputed

By ALAN COWELL and MARK McDONALD 30 minutes ago

Experts said that they had never heard of the group that claimed responsibility for the Mumbai attacks and that it was probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda.

THEY QUESTION WHETHER AL QAEDA IS INVOLVED AS IF IT MAKES A DIFFERENCE: " ... probably not a cell or group linked to Al Qaeda."

• IT DOES NOT MAKE A DIFFERENCE IF THEY WERE "LINKED" TO AL QAEDA OR NOT.
  

• IT MATTERS NOT ONE WHIT WHETHER THIS ATTACK IN MUMBAI WAS PERPETRATED BY ONE JIHADOTERROR GROUP OR ANOTHER.

• THERE ARE MANY JIHADOTERROR GROUPS - ALL OVER THE WORLD, FROM THE PHILIPPINES TO MOROCCO.

• WHAT LINKS THEM ISN'T A CLANDESTINE ORGANIZATION, BUT AN IDEOLOGY WHICH IS PLAIN FOR ALL TO SEE:

• ISLAM.

WE MUST RETALIATE ACCORDINGLY.

Don't know much about history--Public officials edition

US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their civic knowledge, with an average grade of just 44 percent, the group that organized the exam said Thursday. Ordinary citizens did not fare much better, scoring just 49 percent correct on the 33 exam questions compiled by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI)....

Among the questions asked of some 2,500 people who were randomly selected to take the test, including "self-identified elected officials," was one which asked respondents to "name two countries that were our enemies during World War II." Sixty-nine percent of respondents correctly identified Germany and Japan. Among the incorrect answers were Britain, China, Russia, Canada, Mexico and Spain.

Forty percent of respondents, meanwhile, incorrectly believed that the US president has the power to declare war, while 54 percent correctly answered that that power rests with Congress.

Asked about the electoral college, 20 percent of elected officials incorrectly said it was established to "supervise the first televised presidential debates." In fact, the system of choosing the US president via an indirect electoral college vote dates back some 220 years, to the US Constitution.

The question that received the fewest correct responses, just 16 percent, tested respondents' basic understanding of economic principles, asking why "free markets typically secure more economic prosperity than government's centralized planning?" ...

I think they have blundered into an explanation of liberalism. It requires an ignorance of history and economics to survive. As the recent Zogby poll indicated Obama voters were even grossly ignorant of facts related to the election campaign. What is really strange about this is that liberals tend to think they are the smartest people in the room. Go figure.

Source

Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your daily roundup of pro-environment but anti-Greenie news and commentary at GREENIE WATCH . Email me (John Ray) here

ON THE DAY BEFORE ONE OF MOST OUR IMPORTANT NATIONAL HOLIDAYS, THE NYTIMES PUBLISHES AN ANTI-CHRISTIAN ANTI-AMERICAN, ANTI-THANKSGIVING OP-ED

THAT THEY WOULD PUBLISH THIS BIASED CRAP THE DAY BEFORE THANKSGIVING PROVES ONCE AGAIN THAT THE NYTIMES IS SCUM.

GRAMSCIAN, ANTI-AMERICAN SCUM.

MUSLIM RAGE AND RIOTS AGAINST CHRISTIANS IN CAIRO

THOUGH HORRIFIC IN ITS DIMENSIONS, THE JIHADOTERROR ATTACKS IN MUMBAI ARE NOTHING NEW - AND FAR FROM THE ONLY INSTANCE OF JIHAODTERROR THIS WEEK:

VIA SONDRAK:

COMPASS/TURKEY:

Thousands of Muslim protestors on Sunday (Nov. 23) attacked a Coptic church in a suburb of Cairo, Egypt, burning part of it, a nearby shop and two cars and leaving five people injured. Objecting to a newly constructed extension to the church of St. Mary and Anba Abraam in Ain Shams, the huge crowd of angry protestors gathered outside the church at around 5 p.m. following a consecration service for the addition earlier that day. Chanting, “We will demolish the church,” “Islam is the solution” and “No God but Allah,” rioters pelted the church with stones and burned part of the structure; priests and worshipers were trapped inside, and five people were injured. “It was a terrifying moment,” said lawyer Nabil Gobrayel, who was inside the church at the time. “They were shouting ‘holy slogans’ like, ‘We will bring the church down,’ ‘The priest is dead’ and ‘The army of Muhammad is coming.’”

AINA:

Thousands of Muslims stormed a church in Ain Shams, Cairo, on Sunday and set fire to the building. The Muslims were enraged by an extension that was added to the church of St. Mary and Anba Abraam (AINA 11-26-2008)

The following videos show the mob storming the church, chanting "Allahu Akbar!" (God is greatest).

Video 1
Video 2

DHIMMITUDE REPORTED BY THE AFP:

Coptic pope bars prayers in Cairo hall after clashes

1 day ago

CAIRO (AFP) — Coptic Pope Shenuda III has banned Egyptian Christians from praying in a church-owned building in Cairo after sectarian clashes there with Muslims, state news agency MENA reported on Tuesday.

Police arrested at least eight men after Muslims on Sunday night clashed with Copts in the Cairo neighbourhood of Ein Shams in protest at the building's use as a Christian prayer hall, throwing stones and burning two cars.

Pope Shenuda III "has ordered a cessation to prayers in the building belonging to the Church of Virgin Mary... after confrontations between the worshippers and some of the neighbourhood's residents in front of the building," the agency quoted him as saying.

The building was a disused factory that the church had bought.

Copts complain of an antiquated law, inherited from when Egypt was under Ottoman rule, that obliges them to secure presidential permission before building a church or expanding an existing church.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has delegated such decisions to provincial governors, but human rights groups say that sectarian problems will persist until the state passes a single law for both Muslim and Christian places of worship.

Egypt's Copts -- the largest Christian community in the Middle East -- account for an estimated six to 10 percent of the country's 80 million inhabitants.

DHIMMITUDE ISNLT THE ANSWER.

WIPING OUT ISLAMOFASCISM IS.

WHATEVER IT TAKES.

BUSH AND PETRAEUS PRVED WE VCAN DEFEAT THEM IF WE HAVE THE RESOLVE.

I FEAR OBAMA WILL BEHAVE MORE LIKE THE COPTIC POPE.

OBAMA IS ENTIRELY, DANGEROUSLY, AND BLATANTLY WRONG ABOUT AGW - THIS LINK PROVES IT...

READ IT AND PASS IT ALONG...

EXCERPT:

... facts are inconsistent with the notion that "global warming" is occurring, still less that it is dangerous. The Sun continues to show very few sunspots. Many solar physicists now predict at least half a century of global cooling, which would be a far greater and more destructive problem than a little warming.

... fossil fuels are not a threat to the planet's climate, and it is no longer credible to pretend that they are...

IN FACT, IT IS DANGEROUS TO ARGUE THEY ARE!

THE ARTICLE LISTS SIX BLATANT ERRORS MADE BY OBAMA AND THE AGW ALARMISTS. RTWT.

THE MUMBAI ATTACKS SHOULD REMIND OBAMA AND THE SCOWCROFTIANS THAT WW4 AIN'T ABOUT ISRAEL OR THE JOOOOOOOZE!

GATEWAY HAS A LOT OF LINKS, JPEGS AND VIDEO OF THE HORRIFIC AND EVIL ISLAMOTERROR ATTACKS IN INDIA.

• IN INDIA.

• NOT ISRAEL.

• NOT THE WEST BANK.

• INDIA.

LET THIS BE A REMINDER TO OBAMA AND ALL THE SCOWCROFTIAN ANTISEMITES WHO THINK THAT WW4 WILL GO AWAY AS SOON AS THE JOOOOOOZE DO WHAT'S RIGHT AND APPEASE/SURRENDER TO THE ARABS.

• THE OBAMA FOREIGN POLICY TEAM IS DOMINATED BY PEOPLE WHO WANT TO MAKE THE "PEACE PROCESS" BETWEEN ISRAEL AND THE ARABS JOB#1, AND WHO INTEND ON PUTTING MORE PRESSURE ON ISRAEL, AND EVEN WANT TO INSERT NATO FORCES INTO THE WEST BANK!

• GLOBAL JIHAD WASN'T CAUSED BY ISRAEL OR THE 1967 WAR OR ZIONISM. OR THE CRUSADES.

• AT BEST, FOCUSING ON ISRAEL AND PRESSURING ISRAEL IS TANTAMOUNT TO TAKING OUR EYES OFF THE BALL.
  

• ISRAEL IS ONLY AS IMPORTANT AS KASHMIR AND SOUTHERN THAILAND AND THE MORO ISLANDS AND SO ON.
  

• GLOBAL JIHAD IS A PROACTIVE MOVEMENT AT THE VERY CORE OF ISLAM.

WE MUST CONFRONT AND ATTACK AND DEFEAT THE JIHADISTS GLOBALLY - NOT APPEASE THEM REGIONALLY.

• REMEMBER: WHEN THE ISLAMOTERRORISTS GET WMD, THEY WILL USE THEM IN THE SAME WAY THEY USED THE JETS ON 9/11: WITHOUT WARNING.

• IF WE DON'T GET EVEN MORE PROACTIVE AND EVEN MORE KINETIC - AGAINST AL QAEDA, IRAN, SYRIA AND THEIR STOOGES - THEN THE NEXT WAVE OF ATTACKS WILL MAKE THE MUMBAI ATTACKS LOOK LIKE A PICNIC.

• MARK MY WORDS: OBAMA AND HIS APPEASING TEAM OF ANTISEMITES ARE ALREADY EMBOLDENING THE ENEMY BY SENDING THEM SIGNALS THEY WILL GET TOUGHER ON ISRAEL THAN BUSH WAS.

REMEMBER: IF WE DO NOTHING BUT SEEK TO TALK AND NEGOTIATE, THEN THE WORST IS SURELY YET TO COME.

COMPLETE ROUND UP HERE.

"I PLAN TO INDICT YOU IN RISHONTOURS AFFAIR"

That's what Israel's attorney-general is now telling Ehud Olmert:

Attorney-General Menahem Mazuz notified Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Wednesday that he planned to indict him on several criminal charges relating to the Rishon Tours affair.

Mazuz told Olmert to expect an indictment on charges of fraudulent receipt of goods under aggravated circumstances, fraud, breach of public trust, false registration in corporate documents and tax evasion.

The prime minister is suspected of having sent bills to more than one non-profit organization for trips that he made abroad to raise money for them. When he spoke on behalf of two or three different non-profit organizations on the same trip, he would charge each of them the full flight fare.

According to the allegations, the extra money went into a special account managed by Rishon Tours, his travel agency, and was used to pay for private trips made by him and his family. Police estimate that he collected $110,000 by this system.

The Jerusalem district attorney notified the prime minister's close aide Shula Zaken that she, too, would be indicted for her alleged involvement in affair.

Prior to the final decision on the matter, Mazuz will hold a hearing during which Olmert's attorneys will have a chance to present factual and legal arguments.

The prime minister released a statement saying, "I was shocked to read details over which I haven't even been interrogated."

Olmert's lawyers said that their client "vehemently rejects the accusations leveled against him in the 'Rishon Tours' case."

They said that the decision to summon the prime minister for a hearing in the case, while other investigations were still ongoing, was "astonishing and unreasonable."

Also Wednesday, Ra'anan Dinur, the director-general of the Prime Minister's Office, was interrogated under caution by the National Fraud Unit over suspicions of fraud and breach of public trust.

The suspicions are tied to Dinur's alleged involvement in political appointments during his term as director-general of the Industry, Trade and Labor Ministry, between 2003 and 2006, when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert headed the ministry.

Cabinet Secretary Oved Yehzekel, who served at that time as a senior aide to Olmert was also interrogated in recent days, the National Fraud Unit said.

On the TV news, it was said that, in reaction to this, Olmert nixed a program whose purpose was to help Israel's local economy, which is also in trouble. That's certainly quite a way to show how spiteful he is. I certainly hope he gets jail time when he finally leaves.

Hamas, Fatah women fistfight in Gaza as factional tempers flare

From Haaretz:

Flying chairs and punches thrown by women students at a Gaza university this week may seem a rather minor manifestation of the factional fighting that has riven Palestinian society over the past year or so. 

But with Hamas and Fatah still smarting from bloody armed clashes in 2007, when the Islamists routed President Mahmoud Abbas's PLO forces in the enclave, the scuffle shows how deep the rift runs. 

It will be hard to bridge by a year-end deadline Abbas has set.

The fight at the university in Khan Younis was, according to witnesses, triggered by arguments over mutual allegations of repression between leaders of Hamas, who now control Gaza, and of Abbas's Fatah, which dominates the West Bank. 

"I saw chairs flying over heads and some students were injured. And I saw two or three teachers hit," said one witness, who refused to be named. 

Hamas police arrived and fired in the air to disperse the students. Classes were suspended for a second day on Wednesday. 

But the university row is only the tip of the iceberg. 

If dialogue on reconciling the two side has not started by Dec 31 there are fears of more serious factional violence in January when Abbas plans to call an election for April. 

With Hamas apparently set on retaining its control of Gaza and Abbas demanding a reversal of last year's Hamas "coup" there, prospects for such a deal seem slim. 

It looks like the Palestinians are just about ready to make peace with Israel.