THE AGE OF MIDDLE EAST OIL IS OVER

WASHPOST/"Reuters":

Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed on Monday that Moscow plans to build a major oil pipeline from Siberia to the Pacific coast and said oil supplies would eventually flow to major consumer Japan. "We plan to build the pipeline to the Pacific coast with eventual supplies to the Asia-Pacifc region including Japan," Putin said in a speech at a Russia-Japan investors forum in Tokyo.

When Middle East oil producers (Arabian, Iraq, Iran) lose their costumers in the Far East, then they are through as power-brokers in the oil world. They become run of the mill oil-producers - like so many others in Africa and South America. Adding to this likelihood is the fact that, due to the higher cost of a barrel of oil (in current dollars), ALTERNATIVE energy sources can now come to market effectively - such as WIND, SOLAR and OIL FROM COAL.

Lessening the world's dependence on Middle Eatern oil also increases our security: A diversified energy market is also less likely to be held hostage to any given nation or movement. AND AFTER ALL: It was President Jimmy Carter who (in his 1980 SOTU) first enunciated that oil (specifically Persian Gulf oil) was of VITAL NATIONAL SECURITY INTEREST TO THE USA, AN INTEREST WE WOULD DEFEND WITH ANY MEANS NECESSARY.

Perhaps this impending dimunition of Middle Eatern "oil power" and oil wealth was/is a GENERAL motivating factor for the islamofascists and jihadoterrorists: Maybe they see that their time is waning and that, as a result, if they hope to achieve the Caliphate, they must act QUICKLY, before the oil rich Arabs states and the Arab oil magnates who support them become unable to support them because they've lost their cash-cow.

That's one reason why I applaud this deal. It's mo' better for the world for Russia to be the energy power-broker than the Middle East - (unless and until the Middle East becomes a haven for democracy and liberty and stability).

UPDATE: ECONOPUNDIT relates info which may indicate that ALTERNATIVE fuels may have a tougher time getting the financing they need to become major facters. However, this same info reinforces my main point (INHO): Middle East oi-producers are no longer the major power-brokers in the industry.

ZARQAWI REPORTEDLY DEAD

Reportedly. HERE and HERE.

I predicted this would happen soon last week, HERE:

"(4) We will kill or capture Zarqawi and /or Binladen and/or Zawahiri"

"MURTHAGATE" - the loud tear-filled call for immediate withdrawal was a smokescreen

A commenter on this blog - "Noble" - suggested that perhaps (1) Murtha's sudden BIG LOUD TEAR-FILLED call for "immediate withdrawal from Iraq," (an OLD position for him, but one that he had NEVER tried to BROADCAST AS LOUDLY OR AS WIDELY BEFORE), AND (2) the sudden "play" it got from the House Democrats - led by Nancy Pelosi the Minority Leader - was a smokescreen intended to BOTH misdirect attention from impending ethics investigations over them both using influence to steer DOD business to their relatives and business friends.

Specifically it seems that Murtha steered business to HIS BROTHER'S LOBBYING FIRM - KSA - and helped Pelosi get a big project for her district which DIRECTLY BENEFITTED A RELATIVE OF HERS.

KJ Lopez of NRO's THE CORNER linked to a JUNE 13, 2005 LA TIMES article about just such an impending investigation: LATIMES (this link is to an anti-Bush blog which excerpted the article; the actual article has"mysteriously" disappeared from the LATIMEs own website) -

LATIMES: "When Congress passed the $417-billion Pentagon spending bill last ear, Rep. John P. Murtha, the top Democrat on the House defense appropriations subcommittee, boasted about the money he secured to create jobs in his Pennsylvania district.

But the bill Murtha helped write also benefited at least 10 companies represented by a lobbying firm where his brother, Robert "Kit" Murtha, is a senior partner, according to disclosure records, interviews and an analysis of the bill by The Times."

ROLL CALL put it this way:

Republican lawmakers say that ties between Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) and his brother's lobbying firm, KSA Consulting, may warrant investigation by the House ethics committee...

According to a June 13 article in The Los Angeles Times, the fiscal 2005 defense appropriations bill included more than $20 million in funding for at least 10 companies for whom KSA lobbied. Carmen Scialabba, a longtime Murtha aide, works at KSA as well. KSA directly lobbied Murtha's office on behalf of seven companies, and a Murtha aide told a defense contractor that it should retain KSA to represent it, according to the LA Times.

In early 2004, Murtha reportedly leaned on U.S. Navy officials to sign a contract to transfer the Hunters Point Shipyard to the city of San Francisco, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. A company called Lennar Inc. had right to the land, and Laurence Pelosi, nephew to House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), was an executive with the firm at that time.

Murtha also inserted earmarks in defense bills that steered millions of dollars in federal research funds toward companies owned by children of fellow Pennsylvania Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D).

Murtha also flexed his muscles with the DOD to get his boss, Pelosi a big DOD deal for her district:

The agreement came a few weeks after the Navy sent Newsom a letter saying that it was having doubts about going ahead with an agreement that was announced with great fanfare in Washington in January 2002 by Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, then-Mayor Willie Brown and Navy Secretary Gordon England.

When he was in Washington last Wednesday, Newsom met in the Capitol offices of Pelosi, the House minority leader, with Pelosi, Navy Assistant Secretary Hansford T. Johnson, representatives of California Democratic Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein, and Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., a big gun brought in by Pelosi to convince the Navy the time for delays had passed.

Murtha, the powerful ranking Democrat on the House military appropriations subcommittee, made it clear to the Navy that he wanted a binding agreement signed by Wednesday. Another meeting was held in Pelosi's offices Wednesday, minus Newsom, and the Navy signed the accord.

According to THE HILL Murtha is the number one Democrat money grubber in the Congress from the defense industry:

For the past three years, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), the ranking member of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, has been the No. 1 beneficiary of defense campaign donations in the House and has not fallen below No. 3 for Congress as a whole.

In fact, for just the 2006 cycle, Murtha ranks No. 1 overall, with $188,350 in donations from the defense industry. House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) follows with $118,350. In 2004, Murtha ranked behind only President Bush and his Democratic opponent, Sen. John Kerry, in overall defense-industry contributions, with $284,750.

During the 2002 election cycle, when Murtha was forced to campaign for his seat because of state redistricting that pitted him against a fellow congressman in the primary, he again scored No. 1 in all Congress, pulling in $309,299 in political donations from defense companies.

In 2000, Murtha slipped behind Hunter, who at that point was running for Armed Services chairman. “Murtha walks on water. If you want anything done on the committee, you go to Murtha. Murtha is the reason why the [defense appropriations] bill gets done each year,” said Ashdown about the veteran Congressman known to be a dealmaker who frequently reaches across the aisle.

But Murtha also has raised some watchdogs’ concerns because his brother Robert “Kit” Murtha runs KSA Consulting, a lobbying group that represents some 10 smaller defense companies. In 2004, Murtha’s brother was able to secure $20 million in the defense-spending bill for his clients. Kit Murtha repeatedly has denied working directly with his brother’s office.

I suspect that the tear-filled PR move Murtha made last week was intended to divert attention. My commenter "Noble" put it this way:

I am wondering IF he has Proposed this controversial CUT AND RUN proposal as a smoke screen, so he can come back and tell the public that the Bush White House is investigating him because they are trying to punish him..."

YES NOBLE, I THINK SO. MORE HERE.

UPDATE: Welcome AMERICAN THINKER readers. And a hearty welcome to LUCIANNE readers - please take a look around while here; I've had several hot post the last week or so! Same thing goes for you DAILY PUNDIT folks! Good morning ECONOPUNDIT readers! Check out today's post, while you're here, and scroll down! JAWA RULES! Jawa has linked - thanks - an has a linfest of other important reads. GO THERE! Welsome CHAPOMATIC readers and COLD-HEARTED TRUTH readers, too! And welcome to JAMES HUDNALL readers; check him out! COOOOOL: Blogs For Bush linked, too - AND HE'S GOT MORE; CHECK HIM OUT! And a HOWDY to all you SAY ANYTHING READERs - please scope out a few other recent HOT posts! UPDATE 11/23: WELCOME GATEWAY PUNDIT - one of the BEST!

SYRIA AND IRAN INCREASINGLY INTRANSIGENT - and marching in lockstep...

Here are two items which reveal that things are HEATING UP:

(1) Via ROGER L. SIMON: "The Iranian parliament voted to block United Nations inspectors if their nuclear program is referred to the Security Council." More here.

(2) IRNA: President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad discussed mutual and regional developments over phone on Saturday. According to the Press Bureau of the Foreign Ministry, the two presidents referred to the deep-rooted ties between the two nations and expressed satisfaction over expansion of bilateral relations. Exchanging views on mutual cooperation, the two presidents discussed regional developments and underlined the need to maintain regional security and help promote regional developments.

AS I HAVE POSTED SEVERAL TIMES SINCE SEPTEMBER 25: In order to deflect the mounting pressure on them, these two islamofascist nations and their jihadoterrorist stooges (IJ, Hiz b'Allah, Zarqawi, et al) are getting "ready to rumble" - and this includes trying to start an Israeli-Arab war and destabilizing Jordan.

To stop them we need to be militarily PRE-EMPTIVE (by assasinating more and more jihadoterrorists and closing their borders with Iraq), and to increase the domestic pressure on each tyrannical regime - by assisting democracy moevments in each nation. FASTER PLEASE!

KYOTO KAPUT

Here are two reasons to believe that KYOTO madness is finally coming to an end:

(1) UK GUARDIAN (hat tip Jonah/NRO): "Britain is to open the door for other nations to abandon setting compulsory targets to cut greenhouse gas emissions: the principle at the heart of the Kyoto agreement to tackle climate change. Margaret Beckett, the Environment Secretary, has told The Observer she is prepared to accept voluntary targets - a move hinted at this autumn by Tony Blair."

(2) The Korean Times: "North Korea agreed to the Kyoto Protocol, an international agreement aimed at reducing emissions of greenhouse gases, last April, a South Korean government official said on Sunday."

Blair is a realist: He knows the KYOTO TREATY is a bad thing - that the targets and costs of meeting the targetys are RIDICULOUS; he is simply trying to save as much of the things he likes about the issue he can.

But if Kim Jong Il is for it, then it MUST be a TERRIBLY bad thing which should be rejected in its entirety!

FACTCHECK.ORG ON WMD: What did Congress know and when did they know it?

Here's WHAT FactCheck says about Bush and WMD - and what Congress knew and when they knew it:

The President says Democrats in Congress "had access to the same intelligence" he did before the Iraq war, but some Democrats deny it. ...

The President's main point is correct: the CIA and most other US intelligence agencies believed before the war that Saddam had stocks of biological and chemical weapons, was actively working on nuclear weapons and "probably" would have a nuclear weapon before the end of this decade. That faulty intelligence was shared with Congress – along with multiple mentions of some doubts within the intelligence community – in a formal National Intelligence Estimate just prior to the Senate and House votes to authorize the use of force against Iraq.

No hard evidence has surfaced to support claims that Bush somehow manipulated the findings of intelligence analysts. In fact, two bipartisan investigations probed for such evidence and said they found none. So Dean's claim that intelligence was "corrupted" is unsupported.

IOW: FACTCHECK.ORG CONCLUDES THAT BUSH DID NOT LIE ABOUT WMD, OR DISTORT OR HYPE WMD INTEL, AND THAT CONGRESS HAD THE SAME DATA. So will the Dem/Left PLEASE stop saying we were "misled" into war?! Sheesh! Read the whole thing.

In case you don't know, here's what FactCheck is: "Our Mission

We are a nonpartisan, nonprofit, "consumer advocate" for voters that aims to reduce the level of deception and confusion in U.S. politics. We monitor the factual accuracy of what is said by major U.S. political players in the form of TV ads, debates, speeches, interviews, and news releases. Our goal is to apply the best practices of both journalism and scholarship, and to increase public knowledge and understanding.

The Annenberg Political Fact Check is a project of the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania. The APPC was established by publisher and philanthropist Walter Annenberg in 1994 to create a community of scholars within the University of Pennsylvania that would address public policy issues at the local, state, and federal levels.

The APPC accepts NO funding from business corporations, labor unions, political parties, lobbying organizations or individuals. It is funded primarily by the Annenberg Foundation."

VANUNU'S DEFENSE

YNET: Vanunu: 'I went to see Palestinian ghettos'

Nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu arrived at the Tel Aviv Magistrates court to have his remand extended after he was arrested for entering territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. “I want to leave Israel. I went to see the Palestinian ghettos,” he shouted in English as policemen ushered him inside the court.

This strikes me as about as believable as what Lenny Bruce said when he was arrested for possession of hypodermic needles (which he used for heroin), and he was asked what they were for by the cops. BRUCE: "I don't like the taste of aspirin."

I doubt that Vanunu still has any info which could help jihadoterrorists attack Dimona (site of Israel's nuclear reactor, and obviously - for that reason - a likely jihadoterrorist target), but they might not know that. Nevertheless, this demonstrates why this is the kind of person who should be locked up for life. UPDATE: A little more HERE.

ARAB STREET ERUPTS: 200,000 TAKE TO THE STREETS IN AMMAN

Well, it's FINALLY happened folks: The vaunted and much feared (by the Left) "ARAB STREET" has finally ERUPTED - er, um... BUT TO PROTEST THE JIHADOTERRORISTS, NOT THE USA! Via LE SABOT MODERNE's new blog - RELIGION OF PEACE?/"ROP?":

200,000 protest Amman hotel bombings
By THE WASHINGTON TIMES -- Published November 19, 2005

AMMAN, Jordan -- At least 200,000 persons demonstrated yesterday against the recent bombings of three luxury hotels, while a new online statement attributed to terrorist leader Abu Musab Zarqawi defended the attacks and threatened to cut off the head of Jordan's King Abdullah II. An anti-terrorist demonstration of such size is unprecedented in the Arab world, where Zarqawi, his mentor, Osama bin Laden, and their al Qaeda organization have attained folk-hero status among Muslim masses.

I guess that the Jihadoterrorists and the Left miscalulated a little. They always have. [ASIDE: I think we need to encourage and facilitate protests like this in IRAN and SYRIA - as we did in Lebanon and Ukraine! POWER TO THE PEOPLE! Right on!]

[ADDENDUM; File under "IRONIC IDIOCY": while Jordanians stage a massive protest AGAINST the jihadoterrorists - (and as our brave Iraqi allies struggle to form a democracy and, as a result, are murdered DAILY by the them), the Dem/Left wants us to "cut'n run." Sheesh!] MORE HERE AND HERE.

GAZA'S JIHADOTERRORISTS RALLY FOR ASSAD

Just as I predicted on September 25th, Syria is mobilizing its jihadoterrorists comrades in an effort to widen the confict and divert focus from hmself and his murderous regime; KHALEEJ TIMES:

GAZA CITY - Thousands of Palestinians rallied in the centre of Gaza City on Friday to voice solidarity with Syria’s beleaguered government, in a demonstration organised by the radical Islamic Jihad movement. The protestors packed into the streets around the Gaza City seat of the Palestinian parliament following the main weekly Muslim prayers, chanting slogans urging the regime in Damascus to “resist American pressure”. “These protestors have came to show their support for our brothers in Syria and their indignation at the arrogant American policy of blackmail,” Nafez Azzam, one of the main leaders of Jihad, told the crowd. He urged all Arabs and Muslims to “face up to the American offensive against our region as the fall of Damascus will herald the fall of Beirut, Cairo and Riyadh.” Amid cries of “Death to America and “Death to Israel”, the protestors burned the two countries’ flags.

Coordinated with this effort (IMHO), Iran is arming Hiz b'Allah to the teeth. These events soldify my view that Zarqawi, and Iran and Syria and their jihadoterorist comrades in Gaza and the West Bank and in Lebanon - and in the Sunni areas of Iraq - will make every effort to foment an Arab-Israeli War in order to save their own skins. I expect MORE attacks like the ones we saw in Jordan, and rocket and/ormissile launches into israel - to provoke a response, and escalation which can lead to war.

ZARQAWI IN DESPERATE ATTEMPT TO WIDEN WAR AND DIVERT OUR PRESSURE ON HIM

BREITBART/AP:

... Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, also threatened to kill Jordan's King Abdullah II and bomb more hotels and tourist sites. "Your star is fading. You will not escape your fate, you descendant of traitors. We will be able to reach your head and chop it off," al- Zarqawi said, referring to the king. Al-Zarqawi told Jordanians to stay away from bases used by U.S. forces in Jordan; hotels and tourist sites in Amman, the Dead Sea and the southern resort of Aqaba; and embassies of governments participating in the war in Iraq - saying those areas would be targeted.

I predicted on September 25th that this would happen. There are additional signs that my other predictions in that same post are playing out as I said they would:

Assad is hardening his position - ESPECIALLY with regard to Lebanon, and Hiz b'Allah is getting armed to the teeth.

These three events - along with Amahdi Nejad's blatant war cry against Israel - should convince EVERYONE that the Axis of Evil and their jihadoterrorist comrades are not going to go down without a fight (if they can help it!) and that this fight will be one they will attempt to wage in Israel and the occupied territories, Lebanon, and Jordan.

This is an attempt by them to divert our attention from them, and to stretch our resources and to enable them to recruit more jihadoterrorists. The more heat we apply to them - on all fronts: military and diplomatic - the more desperate they will become and the more terror attacks will be attempted in the areas I mentioned.

Our counter-attack will be multi-faceted: increased pre-emptive attacks by military and police forces arresting and assasinating as many jihadioterrorists as we can BEFORE they strike; and aggressively pushing back the infiltration of jihadoterrorists into Iraq from Iran and Syria; and cranking up the multi-lateral diplomatic pressure on Iran and Syria through the UN.

The most critical dates/mileposts in all this are: the Iraqi election on 12/15; and then the period between Christmas and the SOTU, when the enemy will make EVERY attempt to hit us hard EVERYWHERE AND ANYWHERE THEY CAN.

LET THE CONGRESS VOTE ON WITHDAWAL FROM IRAQ

Dem/Left doves like Murtha are literally CRYING about how we are losing in Iraq and should withdraw from this pointless quagmire and/or blunder. Their whining and dishonest revisionism is being loudly broadcast and re-broadcast over and over and over again as part of a Dem/Left/MSM propagandistic disinformation campaign which takes it inspiration from those who invented THE BIG LIE; that's the theory which asserts that if you repeat a lie often enough, then people will believe it. Polls shows - with regard to Iraq - it is working as well now as it did in the last century with regard to Vietnam - a war we were actually WINNING, though you'd hardly know that from reading press reports or from reading Dem/Left/dove press releases -- [I KNOW: that's redundant!]).

I agree with Jeff at PW:

So. How do pro-war conservatives proceed? Well, one move would be to call Congress to a vote for immediate withdrawal of troops from Iraq. If Democrats want to flirt with the idea of cutting and running as a means to stroke their rabid antiwar base, force them to put their votes on record; let history show which lawmakers were willing to surrender to terrorists and to leave to the mercy of murderous fanatics millions of Iraqis who trusted enough in our stated commitment to begin the political transformation into a functioning democracy, complete with provisional constitution. If that doesn’t put an end to this nonsense, nothing will.

YUP: This WILL either put an end to their posturing and pandering or it will finally expose them as the cowards, appeasers and defeatists they truly are.

WE'RE WINNING AND THE IRAQIS ARE BETTER OFF

The MSM and the Dem/Left are trying to convince Americans that we are losing and that the war was a blunder. THEY ARE WRONG. HERE ARE SOME FACTS AND PIC'S.

MORE HERE FROM THE AMEICAN THINKER.

SADDAM, WMD AND AL QAEDA: MIGHT A FULLER PICTURE SOON EMERGE?

GENERATION WHY has a link-filled post about: (1) what-we-know (but the MSM won't publicize); (2) AND WHAT WE MAY SOON KNOW; (hat tip GATEWAY PUNDIT). MORE HERE.

EX-DCI TURNER SLANDERS CHENEY ON TORTURE AND RENDITION

ITV: A former CIA director has claimed that torture is condoned and even approved by the Bush government. The devastating accusations have been made by Admiral Stansfield Turner who labelled Dick Cheney "a vice president for torture". ... he said "I'm embarrassed the United States has a vice president for torture."

I'd be shocked except the traitor who uttered these words - ex-DCI Turner - was the CIA Director under JIMMY CARTER - so it figures. He was DCI when Saddam ascended by coup, Afghanistan was invaded, and Iran fell - all by SURPRISE. "NICE JOB STAN!" NOPE: It's not surpising that the DCI with this abysmal record, who worked for the worst president in US history, would have an IDIOTIC opinion; it's just surprising he wouldn't EVEN BE SMART ENOUGH TO KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT WHEN THAT OPINION AIDA THE ENEMY! Sheesh.

More HERE. (BTW: I never heard him or any other Dem/Leftie complain about rendition during the Clinton Administration - WHEN IT STARTED!)

BIRD FLU IN CHINA: IS IT ALREADY HUMAN-TO-HUMAN?

Possible Human-to-Human transmission of H5N1Wild Bird Flu in China:

"... a 9-year-old boy from ... Hunan ... Was hospitalized with respiratory symptoms on 17 October and has since returned home, fully recovered. ... the boy's 12-year-old sister ... was hospitalized on 16 October and died the following day of severe bilateral pneumonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome. "

The above description in the latest WHO report on H5N1 raises the possibility of human-to-human transmission in the first reported familial cluster in China.

Although hospital admissions were just one day apart, media reports indicate the brother did nor develop symptoms until the day his sister died. Media reports indicate that family's chickens began to die on 6 October and the sister developed symptoms a few days later.

Thus, the brother did not develop symptoms until 5-10 days after his sister. This gap in disease onset dates is a common feature of human-to-human transmission, and supports boxun reports that indicate human-to-human transmission is widespread in China. ...

The boxun reports do show the highest number of human cases (Qinghai (143 deaths), Liaoning (69 deaths), Inner Mongolia (28 deaths), Hubei (25 deaths), Xinjiang (18 deaths), Hunan (8 deaths)) in the regions reporting wild bird linked poultry outbreaks, supporting the notion that human-to-human transmission of H5N1 in China is significantly more common than has been reported by China or mainstream media.

Well, well, well. If this suspicion is true, it is only a matter of time... Soon China may quarantine itself. And the shock to world economy will be... well severe. And of course, the flu will spread, too. Dear, dear... I fear this WILL be as serious as some have predicted.

UPDATE: SAPA/AP: According to W.H.O., there is no evidence that the bird flu is human-to-human yet - and they site the same case: "it sees no evidence of human-to-human transmission of bird flu in China's newly reported cases in people. "There is not any evidence for human transmission so far," said Henk Bekedam, the WHO representative in China. "If there would be something like that, we would expect more people would be unexpectedly dying of very severe pneumonia." ... Asked whether there was any sign that China might be facing a human pandemic of the virus, Bekedam said: "If there's evidence of human-to-human transmission, there will be small clusters. We are not at that stage."

Here's an article on Dr. Niman - who is making the more dire analysis of what's happening now in China ;(I link to his site above, leading this post). He also has a most dire prediction of what will happen globally - SOON .

Whom should we believe - WHO or Niman? TIME WILL TELL - very soon...

UPDATE #2: Are WHO and CHINA attempting to quarantine and cover-up a Human2human outbreak? (AFP via Breitbart; hat tip Drudge):

Chinese authorities had locked down the village in eastern Anhui province here a 24-year-old pregnant woman died of bird flu last week, becoming the nation's first confirmed human fatality from the virus. Several local officials in red arm bands were posted as sentries at the narrow dirt road entrance to Yantan, a small village of a few thousand residents in Zhoutan township where Zhou Maoya died on November 10.

The officials refused to answer questions, other than admitting that Yantan was where Zhou had died of avian flu and insisting that only local residents were allowed in and out of the village. "Don't come around asking questions about bird flu. If you want to understand the bird situation here you must go to the local government," said an official. Police then followed an AFP journalist several kilometres (miles) out of the area.

Seems like a cover-up to me - to avoid starting a panic - in case this is NOT the beginning of H2H bird flu, probably...

BRIT MP WANTS MUSLIM ENDOGAMOUS MARRIAGE BANNED

UK TELEGRAPH (hat tip LGF):

Marriages between cousins should be banned after research showed alarming rates in defective births among Asian communities in Britain, a Labour MP said last night. The report, commissioned by Ann Cryer, revealed that the Pakistani community accounted for 30 per cent of all births with recessive disorders, despite representing 3.4 per cent of the birth rate nationwide. "We address problems of smoking, drinking, obesity and we say it's a public health issue, therefore we have to get involved with persuading people to adopt a different lifestyle," the MP for Keighley, Bradford, told BBC2's Newsnight programme last night. "I think this should be applied to the Asian community. They must look outside the family for husbands and wives for their young people."

[NOTE: When Brits say "Asian" they mean Pakistani or people who we might refer to as South Asian.]

I posted about Muslim endogamous and polygamous marriage patterns and how they have negative socio-economic and political effects extensively in August, HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. And more recently HERE.

FRENCH CHURCHES BURN AND THE LEFT AND THE MSM IGNORE IT

One dozen Christian churches were defiled, ransacked and/or torched by rioters in France during the intifada. (HAT TIP: NO PASARAN.) That's more than one every other day over the last two and a half weeks. Quite a clip. And during the same period, not a single mosque was torched by the rioters, (whose Muslim-ness has nothing to do with the riots - according to the MSM. And nothing about these targeted attacks against churches has appeared in the MSM, either).

In the old days, when the KKK - (who were like today's islamofascists: a group committed to tyranny and willing to use terror to impose it) - were torching BLACK churches, liberals did not hesitate to join the fight against the KKK. WHY DO THEY STAND AT THE SIDELINES NOW!? WORSE: why do actively work to make it tougher to defeat today's "GLOBAL KKK" the jihadoterrorists!? Sheesh.

ANSWER: Today's Lefties are like yesteryear's reactionaries. Yesteryear's liberals are today's neo-cons. IOW: FDR and JFK would be neo-cons today. And the And the brave volunteers joing the US military to fight islamofascisim in Iraq today, are like the Freedom-riders of the 1960's.

[FRANCOPHONE LINK HERE.]

UPDATE - 11/18: a GOOGLE NEWS search, a NYTIMES search, and a NEWSNOW.CO.UK search turned up one single solitary MSM story by "Reuters" which mentions church arson during the French Intifada in passing. There is more coverage of two church burnings in Pakistan. Also by Muslims. As commenter Gandalin said,

"Just imagine for a minute that instead of crowds of jihadists shouting "Allah Akbar" and burning churches, gangs shouting "Christ is King" had burned 12 mosques. Don't you think that would have been a gigantic day-after-day story for the MSM? The fact that the MSM want to hide or minimize the facts shows that they are already behaving like dhimmis, and that Islam is already favorized in Western intellectual/literati/elite circles as a privileged religion which deserves a respect and deference that these same circles would never accord any other religion. In fact, they are openly hostile to Christianity and Judaism. The intellectual/literati/elite circles in the West have already surrendered to the jihad."

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THE ANTI-WAR CROWD SINGS THE SAME OLD TUNE

Who said this:

"[We are determined] to undertake one last mission, to search out and destroy the last vestige of this barbaric war, to pacify our hearts, to conquer the hate and fear that have driven this country these last ... [few] ... years and more, so that when, thirty years from now, our brothers go down the street without a leg, without an arm, or a face, and small boys ask why, we will be able to say ... [Iraq] ... and not mean a desert, not a filthy obscene memory, but the place where America finally turned and where soldiers like us helped it in the turning."

No; it wasn't said by crybaby John Murtha about Iraq; it was REALLY said about Vietnam by JOHN KERRY. Traitors then, traitors still. I found the real quote by Kerry at NRO, in a speech given by WFB to the grads of West Point in 1971. Here's how WFB - who is celebrating his 80th year, God Bless Him - ended his speech. The words are as fitting now as then:

... what I hope you will consider, during these moments of doubt, is the essential professional point: Without organized force, and the threat of the use of it under certain circumstances, there is no freedom, anywhere. Without freedom, there is no true humanity. If America is the monster of John Kerry, burn your commissions tomorrow morning and take others, which will not bind you in the depraved conspiracy you have heard described. If it is otherwise, remember: the freedom John Kerry enjoys, and the freedom I enjoy, are, quite simply, the result of your dedication. Do you wonder that I accepted the opportunity to salute you?

Let's not buckle under the pressure - as Murtha, Kerry, McGovern and others have over the years. We mustn't hand a victory to our enemies which they could never win.

WILSON WANTS WOODWARD INVESTIGATED

That treasonous liar Joe Wilson wants the WASHPOST to investigate their stellar icon Bob Woodward. I don't think this will go down well in the Blue cities where Woodward is still regarded as a hero for toppling Nixon. And perhaps it will help convince a few more folks that Wilson is a worthless self-aggrandizing blowhard. More HERE.

ISLAMOTERRORISM, SECURITY, IRAQ, THE LEFT AND DOUBLE STANDARDS

UK TIMES (hat tip CLIFF MAY / NRO's THE CORNER):

India fences off Bangladesh to keep out Muslim -- INDIA is accelerating the construction of a 2,500-mile fence to seal its border with Bangladesh amid growing fears that its Muslim neighbour could become “a new Afghanistan”. Indian officials and western diplomats have been alarmed by an increase in terrorist attacks by militant groups linked to Al-Qaeda and by the Dhaka government’s failure to crack down on them.

Cliff points out that the ICC ruled that such passive security measures were illegal – at least when Israeli's build them! And he says: "Should the U.S. be defeated in Iraq, it has to be expected that Bangladesh would give in to the intimidation. It would be clear to them -- and everyone else -- who the real superpower is, and who it is not. India just wants to be prepared." There will be GLOBAL FALLOUT if we fail in Iraq, and the only way we can fail THERE is if the DEM/LEFT wins HERE.

NYTIMES/PEW: ISOLATIONISM RESURGENT

There's apparently a "Revival of Isolationism Among Americans." GEE: I WONDER WHY!? NYTIMES:

Americans are turning inward, according to a Pew survey of United States opinion leaders and the general public.

The survey, conducted this fall and released today, found a revival of isolationist feelings among the public similar to the sentiment that followed the Vietnam War in the 1970's and the end of the Cold War in the 1990's. But at the same time, the survey showed, Americans are feeling less unilateralist than in the past, appearing to indicate a desire for a more modest foreign policy.

Forty-two percent of Americans think that the United States should "mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own," according to the survey, which was conducted by the Pew Research Center in association with the Council on Foreign Relations. That is an increase of 12 percentage points since a poll taken in December 2002, before the American -led invasion of Iraq; at that time only 30 percent of Americans said the country should mind its own business internationally. ...

In its analysis of the results, Pew said the Iraq war and continuing terrorism had "dramatically affected the way opinion leaders and the public look at potential threats from other countries." ... Regarding prospects for Iraq, a majority of opinion leaders believe that the United States will fail to establish a stable democracy, while the general public was more optimistic, with 56 percent expecting success. ... Full poll results and analysis are available at www.people-press.org.

The increase in negative feelings about engaging the world - and leading the world - is a DIRECT RESULT of the attacks made by the DEM/LEFT on Bush and the negative coverage of Iraq by the MSM. If people knew that the war was going better, that opur policies and tactics and strategies were working, and that our alliances are in good order, then they would NOT feel as negatively.

OF COURSE: This was the EXACT goal of the DEM/LEFT and the MSM; it's exactly what they did to get the USG to abandon the SVG in 1975, leading to the Fall of Saigon, the largest airlift in human history, 1.5 MILLION Vietnamese refugees fleeing as Boat People, 3 MILLION Cambodians murdered by Pol Pot, and the fact that 65 MILLION Vietnamese have been forced to live under tyranny and in poverty for the last 30 years.

The Vienamese know they were wrong; they are BEGGING the USA for investment - investment they COULD HAVE HAD 40 YEARS AGO WITHOUT A FIGHT! But the Amercian Left still cannot admit they were wrong about Vietnam and that they are wrong about Iraq for the very same reasons.

If America withdraws into an isolationist shell, then the enemy will win. That's why the enemy is rooting for the Democrats! The DEM/LEFT doesn't care. MORE HERE AND HERE AND HERE AND HERE.

DEM CONGRESSMAN WETS PANTS; CALLS FOR WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ

CNN/AP: An influential House Democrat who voted for the Iraq war called Thursday for the immediate withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq, another sign of growing unease in Congress about the conflict. "This is the immediate redeployment of American forces because they have become the target," said Rep. John Murtha, D-Pennsylvania, one of Congress' most hawkish Democrats. At times during his remarks to reporters, the decorated Vietnam War veteran and former Marine was choking back tears. "It is time for a change in direction. Our military is suffering, the future of our country is at risk. We cannot continue on the present course. It is evident that continued military action in Iraq is not in the best interests of the United States of America, the Iraqi people or the Persian Gulf region," Murtha said.

This is Vietnam War Redux: the Democrats are pleading that we must abandon an ally in a war we are winning! I am sad to say it, but the Democrat Party - which I have belonged to since 1974 - is once again under the thrall of McGovernism.

The change which Clinton promised - when he procliamed himself a "New Democrat," one who "would change welfare as we know it" - has EVAPORATED. What's left? THE LEFT. And based on how they are dealing with Iraq, I feel that they are not to be trusted with our nation's defense. More HERE and HERE and HERE. And HERE and HERE and HERE and HERE. Here, too. Take your pick.

UPDATE: WOW! It seems that Murtha's pants have been wet since May 2004! (IN OTHER WORDS: THIS IS NOT NEWS; MURTHA SAID THE SAME THING 18 MONTHS AGO!) HUGE TIP OF THE HAT TO KJ LOPEZ OF NRO.

UPDATE #2: "A decorated Vietnam veteran, he [Murtha] choked back tears during his remarks to reporters." What is it with these crybabies - Murtha, Voinovich, Durbin, and Blanco: are they really lachrymose wimps or were they just crocodile tears?

UPDATE #3: Gateway Pundit has a complete timeline - over the past few years - of Murtha's gyrations on Iraq! (Via Professor Reynolds.)