Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.
Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.
Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.
Some have suggested that variations in solar activity account for climate change, but that's patently ridiculous. How could a mere ball of gas 93 million miles away have any effect on Earth's climate?
7/7 Terrorists Known to Authorities Prior to Attack
The Associated Press reports that details revealed during the trials of five jihadis (just sentenced to life terms) show that British investigators were aware of the 7/7 terrorists, but failed to connect the dots:
Details kept secret to ensure a fair trial showed that counterterrorism agents tracking the five men had also stumbled onto the transit plotters. And despite disturbing signs that the transit plot was in the works, the agents failed to piece them together in time to prevent the July 7, 2005 bombings that killed 52 people, testimony and official briefings during the trial showed.
Of course, the bits and pieces always fit together seamlessly after the fact.
And, also of course, the information will immediately be used for partisan purposes:
The revelations are at odds with statements by Tony Blair's government after the 2005 attack. Senior ministers, who a month earlier had lowered the country's alert status, said the 2005 attack was unexpected and the perpetrators unknown.
A baker has been ordered to rename a confection she calls "Pig Tarts" because there isn't any pork in them. And that's not all:
She also said she was told to rename her 'Robin Tarts', as the bird does not feature in the ingredients, and her 'Paradise Slice' would also have to have a new moniker because it doesn't come from paradise.
Well, changing the names is one option. Alternatively, the baker could start using real pig snouts and robin guts. I'm sure the Trade Council could specify minimum acceptable amounts.
The "Paradise Slice" is a little toughter. Maybe she could add some C-4 and serve them with a hearty "Allahu akbar!"
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (AP) - The armored carrier has a grim black slash across its side, burn marks on the door and a web of cracks along the window. Like most of the Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in Anbar province, this one has been hit as many as three times by enemy fire and bomb blasts. Yet, to date, no American troops have died while riding in one.
But efforts to buy thousands more carriers—each costing about $1 million—could be delayed if the White House and Congress do not resolve their deadlock over a $124.2 billion war spending bill.
And, before you ask, yes, I am questioning their patriotism. Especially majority leader Harry Reid, who is determined to subvert the US Constitution's separation of powers provisions, as well as offering as much comfort and aid to the al Qaeda propaganda effort as he possibly can.
"Art, music, film, dance, poetry — all the arts — have long been our greatest tools to explore the regions of imagination that defy our efforts to think rationally about subjects that our emotions tell us are too painful to contemplate."
The capture of a senior al Qaeda terrorist commander, late last year was announced:
WASHINGTON - A senior al-Qaida commander who was handed over to U.S. custody this week is believed to be a close confidant of Osama bin Laden who has provided U.S. intelligence officials with hundreds of important leads into al-Qaida’s operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan, U.S. officials said Friday.
Break out the waterboard, suck him dry, then put him down.
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Police have arrested 172 militants who were plotting to attack Saudi Arabia’s oil fields, storm its prisons to free the inmates and use aircraft in their attacks, the Interior Ministry said Friday.
Be sure to tune in to NBC News tonight, where Brian Williams will explain exactly why it's all futile and balance the coverage with some new, created-just-for-Western-media pro-al Qaeda propaganda. Perhaps a juicy suicide bombing.
This edition features stories on the re-opening of a school and teacher's institute in Baghdad, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers conducting a sewage project in Baghdad and Iraqi troops performing traditional tribal songs and dances to U.S. Soldiers. Hosted by Pvt. Rheanna Douglas. Freedom Journal Iraq #634 Yahoo Video copy of Freedom Journal Iraq #634
The lead paragraph from the Chcago Tribune tells the story:
High school senior Allen Lee sat down with his creative writing class on Monday and penned an essay that so disturbed his teacher, school administrators and police that he was charged with disorderly conduct.
And a report from WBBM News in Chicago reveals that the reportedly straight-A student intended the entire essay as a joke, and indicates, perhaps, why the teacher was so very offended:
"At the very last sentence, I said that this teacher's method of teaching could lead to a school shooting," Lee said Wednesday. He said he'd intended the entire essay as a joke.
Gee, an adolescent making a tasteless joke in a creative writing assignment? Who ever heard of such a thing?
This first-year teacher overreacted. Instead of providing a calming influence, the school administration held a "roundtable" discussion that fed the hysteria, resulting in an even greater overreaction.
If a teacher has a legitimate concern about a student, the appropriate action would be to remand the child for counseling, not have him publicly arrested and charged.
WASHINGTON (AP) - A defiant Democratic-controlled Senate passed legislation Thursday that would require the start of troop withdrawals from Iraq by Oct. 1, propelling Congress toward a historic veto showdown with President Bush on the war.
Hugh Hewitt reports that Harry Reid's shameful "Lost" quote traveled immediately to Kabul:
Schaffer had just flown in from a trip to Afghanistan, and he brought back a copy of Kabul's leading English language newspaper, "The Daily Outlook." It was from this week and had been slipped under the door of his hotel, and no doubt circulated widely among the English-speaking Afghans and was translated for the non-English speaking community.
Above the fold was a headline: "Iraq War Is 'Lost' Says US Democrat Leader."
Whether Reid intended to deliberately betray his country or not, he now owns a percentage of the carnage; his idiotic statement will quite obviously encourage the barbarians to soldier on, secure in the notion that a large percentage of Americans are as cowardly as the Spanish electorate.
WaPo Started Jessica Lynch Myth Despite Warning From Military
Ray Robison, writing in The American Thinker, reveals the true genesis of the Jessica Lynch myth:
...the story of her shoot-out with Iraqi forces was not a product of the US military but of the US media.
The US media created this recounting of her exploits from vague, unofficial statements by "undisclosed officials" and having been revealed as rumor mongers started looking for someone to blame. Who else would they pin it on but the US military?
Robison cites this Washington Post story as the first time that Lynch was incorrectly reported as having shot several Iraqi soldiers. This story was the catalyst for other media accounts, despite this warning from the article:
Several officials cautioned that the precise sequence of events is still being determined, and that further information will emerge as Lynch is debriefed. Reports thus far are based on battlefield intelligence, they said, which comes from monitored communications and from Iraqi sources in Nasiriyah whose reliability has yet to be assessed. Pentagon officials said they had heard "rumors" of Lynch's heroics but had no confirmation.
Of course now, media and other anti-war forces are trying to paint the military as having created the Jessica Lynch myth.
Companies and individuals rushing to go green have been spending millions on “carbon credit” projects that yield few if any environmental benefits.
A Financial Times investigation has uncovered widespread failings in the new markets for greenhouse gases, suggesting some organisations are paying for emissions reductions that do not take place.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may refuse to abide by a subpoena issued by a congressional committee. Rice considers it a separation of powers issue:
"I addressed these questions, almost the same questions, during my confirmation hearing," she said. "This is an issue that has been answered and answered and answered."
Rice noted that she had been serving as President Bush's national security adviser during the period covered by the panel's questions and stressed the administration's position that presidential aides not confirmed by the Senate cannot be forced to testify before Congress under the doctrine of executive privilege.
Rice said she will respond to the committee via letter.
This edition features stories on members of the Iraqi Army doing their part in protecting citizens, coalition forces creating an adult literacy program in Ramadi and service members reopening a medical clinic in Baghdad. Hosted by Pvt. Rheanna Douglas. Freedom Journal Iraq # 633 Yahoo Video copy of Freedom Journal Iraq #633
In a report from Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government, Marvin Kalb paints a grim picture of modern Western journalism, both as hapless dupes and biased advocates:
Based on content analysis of global media and interviews with many diplomats and journalists, this paper describes the trajectory of the media from objective observer to fiery advocate, becoming in fact a weapon of modern warfare. The paper also shows how an open society, Israel, is victimized by its own openness and how a closed sect, Hezbollah, can retain almost total control of the daily message of journalism and propaganda.
Especially interesting is Kalb's examination of the infamous (though almost unreported) Adnan Hajj "Fauxtography" scandal.
Twice Hajj had altered photographs, not presumably to contrive events where none existed but rather to heighten the drama of real events (“to hype the story,” an old journalistic sin) and perhaps deliberately to worsen Israel’s image in the world and, by comparison, to soften Hezbollah’s image. Hajj denied that he had wittingly doctored the two photographs, saying he was simply trying to remove dust marks in poor lighting.55 We may never know the absolute truth, but Hajj’s photographs served to heighten doubts about journalistic credibility. “Fauxtography,” they were called. Johnson (and many others in the West) thought the incident proved that Hezbollah would exploit any advantage to win the war of images—in its strategy, as crucial an element as winning the war itself.
MANCHESTER, N.H. —- Rudy Giuliani said if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.
What's really scary is, he may be right. The Democratic Party has so invested itself in American defeat that a Democratic President's options would be severely limited, and his or her election would be taken as a sign of weakness by Islamists.
From the BBC, six followers of radical sheik Omar Bakri Mohammed arrested.
UPDATEEXCLUSIVE: An Islamist forum connected with Omar Bakri Mohammed, and previously exposed here at The Jawa Report, has listed the names of the six terror suspects arrested today. Many of the names seemed mispelled, but here is how the forum listed them:
Abu Izzadeen from London Abdul Haqq from London Sulayman Keeler from London Abu Muwaheed from London Omar Zaheer from west London Rajib Jhan (Khan) from Luton
All are followers of radical exiled cleric Omar Bakri Mohammed. The message also claimed those arrested were "victims of the British crusade", urged Muslims to pray for their release, and prayed that Allah would curse the kuffar (unbeliever).
The Jawa Report has exclusive coverage here and here.
The nutjobs who run the "Queen of the Pacific" (no, really, that's San Francisco's official nickname) are at it again:
Mayor Gavin Newsom vowed Sunday to maintain San Francisco as a sanctuary for immigrants and do everything he can to discourage federal authorities from conducting immigration raids.
The mayor cannot stop federal authorities from making arrests, Newsom told about 300 mostly Latino members of St. Peter's Church and other religious groups supporting immigrants. But no San Francisco employee will help with immigration enforcement.
"I will not allow any of my department heads or anyone associated with this city to cooperate in any way shape or form with these raids," Newsom declared. "We are a sanctuary city, make no mistake about it."
Of course, given the fixations and predilections of many of San Francisco's denizens, perhaps it's appropriate for the mayor to be an asshole.
What you say, El-Najjar surely did not call Ansar al-Sunnah, one of the most infamous murdering head chopping terror groups on earth, part of the legitimate resistance did he?
I was amazed at some of the terrorist supporting websites that list al-jazeerah.info as their "reliable source." NoT a lot of commentary on el-Najjar's site but take a gander at the people linking him. It will make you skin crawl.
...From a Marine corporal serving in Ramadi. Full text and a photo of Corporal Rock at Pat Dollard's site (quick, somebody teach Drudge's editors how to make a hotlink):
yeah and i got a qoute for that douche harry reid. these families need us here. obviously he has never been in iraq. or atleast the area worth seeing. the parts where insurgency is rampant and the buildings are blown to pieces. we need to stay here and help rebuild. if iraq didnt want us here then why do we have IP’s voluntering everyday to rebuild their cities. and working directly with us too. same with the IA’s. it sucks that iraqi’s have more patriotism for a country that has turned to complete shit more than the people in america who drink starbucks everyday.
Michelle Malkin has posted letters from Americans serving in the military in response to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's recent despicable comments. All perceived Reid's verbal diarrhea as yet another knife in the back from the American Left.
Here's a sample from 1SG Steven G. Cotton:
This loss will be compared to Vietnam, as you wish, but the loss will not be mine. It will be yours. It will be Speaker Pelosi's. It will be the Democrats' loss, forever and ever. In fact, since the Democrats' conceded defeat in both Iraq and Vietnam when we were winning militarily, the only Vietnam parallel you will likely achieve is how the Democrats so readily accept defeat.
He's correct in the parallel to Vietnam. And it wasn't enough for congressional traitors to arrange an ignominious retreat. After the US withdrawal, South Vietnamese forces held off their Communist enemies until Congress, in its wisdom, cut off all funding. ARVN faced the massive invasion from the North, washing used bandages for re-use and with three or four rounds per soldier. Today's Democrats would be overjoyed to arrange the same thing in Iraq today.
The war in Iraq "is lost" and a US troop surge is failing to bring peace to the country, the leader of the Democratic majority in the US Congress, Harry Reid, said Thursday.
What Benedict Reid isn't saying, of course, is that, politically, he and his co-conspirators in the Democratic Party need for the war to be lost.
At the end of this "Islamic State of Iraq" (al Qaeda's umbrella organization) propaganda video the twenty hostages are murdered execution style - shot in the back of the head.
WARNING: Graphic Islamist violence
These are the people that Moby Mike and Democrat leftists wish us to surrender to in Iraq.
BOULDER, Colo. (AP) - A University of Colorado student was arrested after making comments that classmates deemed sympathetic toward the gunman blamed for killing 32 students and himself at Virginia Tech, authorities said.
During a class discussion of Monday's massacre at Virginia Tech, the student "made comments about understanding how someone could kill 32 people," university police Cmdr. Brad Wiesley said...
The student, identified by police as Max Karson of Denver, was arrested Tuesday on suspicion of interfering with staff, faculty or students of an education institution. He had a court appearance set for Wednesday afternoon.
Karson is certainly tasteless, but is he really dangerous? Karson has a history of provocative humor and satire aimed at provoking reactions from authority figures.
Last November, Karson created a stir at Colorado University by publishing an essay about "the myth of the female orgasm" with the express purpose of generating publicity and controversy.
As a high school student, following the discharge of an administrator for seuxally harassing a male student, Karson wrote this (from the same article cited above):
"My response to Mr. Myers' controversial hobby of molesting children?" he asked in print. "I'm going to break up with him, and had I known he was a child molester, I never would have gone out with him in the first place."
And Karson's satirical bent had already been noticed by the CU News:
He begins another one of his newsletters saying "I`m afraid of black people" and goes on to describe how slavery is taught in schools.
"Given that I`ve been taught that I am a member of a race of evil slave-masters ever since I was five years old, it`s a wonder that I can even look a black person in the eye," he wrote.
With Karson's easily verifiable history of making outlandishly provocative statements, his arrest seems to be a gross overreaction, not to mention a violation of his First Amendment rights.
Hokie Deaths Provide Grist for Liberal Political Agenda
This is the face of modern liberalism. Joseph A. Palermo is already seeking to capitalize on the tragedy at Virginia Tech to push his anti-First and anti-Second Amendment agenda.
Not satisfied to stick to actual events, Palermo invents strawmen:
We will hear right-wingers, like David "Bobo in Paradise" Brooks, blame the shootings at Virginia Tech on Quentin Tarrantino movies and violent video games.
Okay. Maybe you should wait until those arguments are actually made, then try to counter them. But no, Palermo continues a few paragraphs down:
Also, if David Brooks and the Rightwing can blame video games and the violent movies coming out of Hollywood for the school shootings, then I think it is also fair to place some of the blame on our political leaders who called for us to invade and occupy Iraq.
But Joseph, you haven't established that they have yet done that; you simply suggested that they will. And Palermo has some words for the liberals, too:
The liberals, like Hillary Clinton and Nicholas Kristof, will launch into hand-wringing "analyses" about the availability of guns in our society...
Leave out the obvious fact that Palermo himself is one of these "hand wringers;" his solution is to restrict the First Amendment to ensure a pure election in 2012 by banning contributions from people he doesn't like. You know, the usual suspects, the NRA, big oil, etc. - while Joey doesn't actually use the word Bushitlerburton I'm sure he's thinking it.
What Palermo neglects to mention is that trade unions, teacher's unions, the AARP, and ethnic/religious organizations use lobbyists to donate money to politicians, too. The Constitution guarantees them the right to have their voices heard.
Palermo's bio says his doctorate is from Cornell. I nominate this passage as the most simple-minded assertion ever to appear on a blog:
Whoever the killer is, if he didn't have access to a gun those 31 people would be studying for their midterms right now.
Really? Nothing that a new American Gestapo, empowered to enter every home in the country to confiscate weapons, and backed up by Soviet-style re-education camps couldn't ensure.
If this is the kind of thought that comes from an Ivy League PHD, state universities are looking pretty good.
We'll never know how many lives Virginia Tech professor Liviu Librescu saved yesterday.
Librescu, a Holocaust survivor, interposed his seventy-five year old body between the gunman and the students in his charge, allowing some to escape before he was killed.
"My father blocked the doorway with his body and asked the students to flee," Joe Librescu said in a telephone interview from his home outside of Tel Aviv. "Students started opening windows and jumping out."
Gonzales Testimony Postponed for Propaganda Purposes
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick "Leaky" Leahy has postponed the Attorney General's testimony on the firings of eight Federal Prosecutors (more than one hundred fewer than Clinton fired), which was scheduled for tomorrow:
Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy made the decision Monday to postpone the long-awaited hearing that has been considered Gonzales' last chance to quiet a controversy that has prompted calls in both parties for his resignation.
Leahy said the hearing had been rescheduled for Thursday. He said he made the decision after conferring with Gonzales and the committee's senior Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania. "All three of us agree," he said.
Leahy wants to make sure that news coverage of the Virginia Tech tragedy doesn't disrupt full play for his carefully orchestrated political hit job over the firings.
Lunatic fringe accusations that the Bush Administration engineered the shootings to take the heat off Gonzales in ten...nine...eight...
BLACKSBURG, Va. - A gunman opened fire in a dorm and classroom at Virginia Tech on Monday, killing 21 people in the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history. The gunman also was killed.
Update: Fox News is now reporting 32 dead; AP reports 31, with 29 wounded.
Update II: The discrepancy was caused by Fox counting the shooter in the death toll. Current toll stands at 31 dead (plus the shooter), 29 wounded. Witnesses have described the gunman as an Asian male in his twenties.
I'd like to thank the incompetent asshats at Google's Blogger for vandalizing my blog. I have no idea how long it's going to take to figure out just what they screwed up, or how to restore the sidebar.
Apparently because Imus was going to reveal what "really" happened on 9/11.
Oh. My. God. I hope this is a joke, but a Whois search does put the website in Moscow:
In a clear sign of its intent to reign in dissident American media personalities, and their growing influence in American culture, US War Leaders this past week launched an unprecedented attack upon one of their most politically 'connected', and legendary, radio hosts named Don Imus after his threats to release information relating to the September 11, 2001 attacks upon that country.
The article doesn't specify, but apparently the Bushitlerburton machine has developed a drug to cause people to utter the phrase, "...nappy-headed 'ho's.
Of course, now we know why Truth Porker Rosie O'Donnell came to Imus's defense.
In the latest sign that the leaders of the current Iranian regime are not evolved enough to use Geico.com (so easy a caveman can do it), an American journalist is being detained against her will in the eighth century theocracy:
PRAGUE, Czech Republic (AP) - The U.S.-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said Saturday that Iranian authorities have prevented one of its journalists from leaving the country. Parnaz Azima, who is based in Prague where she works for Radio Farda—Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Persian service operated jointly with the Voice of America radio broadcaster—arrived in the capital, Tehran, on Jan. 25 to visit a sick relative, the broadcaster said in an e-mailed statement.
On arrival, authorities seized her Iranian passport and have failed to return it to her, it said. It was not clear what the reason was. The statement said Azima was once asked to cooperate with Iran's intelligence services, which she refused.
Near Fallujah, Iraq Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet destroys a dump truck loaded with chlorine tanks, observes secondary explosion from vehicle-borne explosives. Second F/A-18 Hornet strikes insurgents associated with the dump truck.
Though the headline of this AP story was written to give al Qaeda publicity, the real story is both the revision of the death toll downward from eight to one, and the defiant tone set by Iraqi representatives, some of whom are still bandaged from the blast:
Al-Qaida-linked group claims Iraq blast
BAGHDAD - An insurgent umbrella group that includes al-Qaida in Iraq claimed Friday one of its "knights" carried out the parliament suicide bombing in Baghdad's Green Zone, and the U.S. military revised the death toll sharply downward to one dead...
"The more they (terrorists) act, the more solid we become. When they take from us one martyr, we will offer more martyrs," Vice President Adil Abdul-Mahdi said. "The more they target our unity, the stronger our unity becomes."
While the Iraqi lawmakers were the immediate victims, the real targets were the Western journalists cowering in the Green Zone.
COLUMBUS, Ohio - A federal grand jury indicted a U.S. citizen on charges of joining al-Qaida and conspiring to bomb European tourist resorts and U.S. government facilities and military bases overseas.
The investigation of Christopher Paul, 43, of Columbus, spanned four years, three continents and at least eight countries, FBI agent Tim Murphy said Thursday.
It appears likely that Paul was detected using domestic surveillance programs that have come under political assault from the Left.
Charles Cooper, Executive editor of CNET News.com reviews Andrew Keen's new polemic against new media in general and blogs in particular, "The Cult of the Amateur: How the democratization of the digital world is assaulting our economy, our culture, and our values."
Cooper's sympathetic look at Keen calls him an "...elitist--in the best sense of that term," as if "elitist" has any more shades of meaning than "terrorist." What Keen really is, is a snob, and not a particularly bright one, at that, as proven by this passage from his book:
These days, kids can't tell the difference between credible news by objective professional journalists and what they read on joeshmoe.blogspot.com."
Silly rabbit. "Objective professional journalists?" An extinct species, replaced by the "opportunistic, blown-dry agenda-pusher." The exposure of agenda journalism and resultant loss of power by big media is what gets Andrew's knickers in a bunch. That's why he's trying to lead the charge back to the twentieth century, when "objective professional journalists" brokered Presidential elections and determined major powers' foreign policies virtually unchallenged, and unaccountable.
That's why new media is essential. Without amateurs, no one would ever know about frauds like Dan Rather or the Israeli/Hizballah war fauxtography scandal being perpetrated in the name of "objective professional" journalism.
Blogs and internet amateurs are here to stay, despite the scandalized objections of troglodytes like Mr. Keen, who simply don't trust the little people to process information that isn't spoonfed to them by a network newsreader.
ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) - Bombs heavily damaged the prime minister's office and a police station Wednesday, killing at least 23 people and wounding about 160, the country's official news agency said. Al-Jazeera television said it received a claim of responsibility from group al-Qaida in the Maghreb for both bombings.
200,000 people have died in Algeria since 1992, the result of Islamist violence, despite amnesties offered to terrorists willing to lay down their weapons (lefties aren't blaming the President for the 200,000 deaths yet, but, give them time).
Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem:
"The Algerian people stretched out a hand to them, and they respond with a terrorist act."
Well, duh. They're bloodthirsty religious fanatics. The only correct way to deal with them is extermination, as with any other dangerous vermin.
Via Drudge, The Arizon Republic reports that "Islam vs. Islamists," a film about the conflict between moderate Muslims and radicals, has been dropped from the heavily promoted PBS series "Crossroads."
PBS executives fear of radical Muslim reaction to the film has led them to some bizarre behavior, even by PBS standards, including demanding the firing of consultants to the project because of their political views, and pre-screening parts of the film to...radical Muslims. The radicals threatened to sue.
While the producer has now gone public with allegations of bias at PBS, PBS execs are busily trying to polish this turd:
The problems that the PBS-WETA producers had with Islam vs. Islamists are complex. On The Arizona Republic's news pages today, reporter Dennis Wagner details many of those issues.
But much of their hostility seems to boil down to this: They could not bring themselves to declare people like Jasser "moderate" because that would mean criticizing the fundamentalists whom the Jassers of the world oppose.
As the PBS producers affirmed time and again in their letters and e-mails, who is an Islamic "extremist" and who is a "moderate" depends entirely on which side of the street you're standing. In large part, it is about "context."
Here's a clue for intellectually challenged PBS executives. This is a radical:
Allegedly British blogger Jamal (Radical Muslim) looks forward to the day when all dissent is repressed:
Some may ask ‘What is a Fatwa?’, while others may wonder what had made them worthy as with those deviants whom have recently linked to me in this respect. A fatwa is an Islamic religious ruling, a scholarly opinion on a matter of Islamic law. Therefore, when the Shari’ah again rules the world (inshAllah) the importance may be placed on a fatwa requiring acceptance that Islamophobic sites be peacefully shut down and no longer be permitted to exist. Untill this occurs it may be considered our duty to list such sites and even write/contact websites, media outlets and relevant officials in order to campaign for such sites be closed.
And Jamal, imbecile that he is, has an icon on his site that declares "I blog for human rights." Of course, in Jamal's mind, infidels are not really human, so, in a twisted, evil way, the icon makes sense.
Thanks to The Jawa Report, which is mentioned by link, if not by name, as being worthy of a fatwa.
The Ministry of Defence has given its permission for the British sailors and marines kidnapped and released by the Iranian mullahcracy to cash in on their experience:
Captured sailor Faye Turney and her fellow hostages were accused of 'behaving like reality TV stars' after being given permission to cash in on their ordeal.
The 15 sailors and Marines have been told they can sell their stories to the media by the Ministry of Defence, which bracketed the "exceptional circumstances" surrounding their 13-day ordeal with winners of the Victoria Cross.
Faye Turney is expected to make at least £100,000 ($196,000)
Keith Olbermann caught deliberately misquoting Bill O'Reilly? Well, yeah, a dog-bites-man story for sure, but it's important to document the petty crimes of these weasels. And remember, Olbermann's betrayals are more about money than partisanship. That makes him marginally more loathsome than the average liberal surrender monkey.
Organized by John Hawkins, who consults for Hunter, the teleconference was quick, lasting from 3:00 to 3:20 ET. Hawkins also suggested the YouTube video appeal to conservative bloggers below.
Duncan Hunter is running as a traditional conservative, strong on defense and border security (he helped write the border fence law), convinced that we need to win in the middle east, and determined to fix the US balance of trade and stop the bleeding of manufacturing jobs to foreign sources and offshore companies.
Hunter notes that the United States was once known as "the arsenal of democracy," and argues that high paying white collar jobs will follow the blue collar ones out of the country, eventually idling much of America's industrial base and weakening national security. He favors mirroring foreign trade laws and holds the GATT, the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, pretty much in contempt, as a treaty intentionally designed to weaken the US trade position.
I asked the congressman for his reaction to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's attempts to set up a shadow presidency (what the Washington Post described as the "foolish" "Pratfall in Damascus"). Hunter said that Pelosi's actions were "bad news for our country," then proved himself an astute and quick-thinking pol by quoting Democrat Scoop Jackson, "American foreign policy should leave our shore with one voice."
Asked about the harsh, partisan tirades that characterize today's political discourse, Hunter noted that many of the partisan Democrats who praised Ronald Reagan at his funeral hardly had a kind word for the man while he was alive, and that many had called him a "liar" during the Contra wars. In other words, partisan rhetoric is nothing new.
Hunter is a Vietnam veteran, and his son has served two tours in Iraq with the Marines. Hunter said that he may deploy for a third tour.
Definitely a dark horse, but Hunter came to Congress as a dark horse, defeating an incumbent Democrat who had held the seat for 18 years.
ROYAL MARINE BASE CHIVENOR, England - Fifteen Royal Navy sailors and marines held captive by Iran returned home Thursday to a nation relieved at their freedom but also outraged that they were used by Tehran's propaganda machine.
Prime Minister Tony Blair insisted that no deal had been cut for their release and he called for continued international pressure on the hard-line Iranian regime.
Recent intelligence estimates say that Iran may have weapons-grade uranium as soon as 2009.
Once again, Iran has shown itself to be subjugated by a barbarous regime that shuns the norms of civilization. The time for empty, toothless diplomacy is nearly past.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran would free the 15 detained British sailors and marines Wednesday as an Easter holiday "gift" to the British people.
He said the captives, who were seized while on patrol in the northern Persian Gulf on March 23, would be taken to the airport following his news conference, but Iranian state television reported they would leave Iran on Thursday. An Iranian official in London said they would be handed over to British diplomats in Tehran.
I wouldn't advise celebrating until the Brits are actually on home soil. Ahmadinejad does, after all, have different standards of behavior than a civilized person.
On the one hand, Bush has crushed al Qaeda to the point where they no longer have the ability to mount an attack in the United States:
Even as al Qaeda tries to rebuild operations in Pakistan, experts including current and former intelligence officials believe the group would have a hard time staging another September 11 because of U.S. success at killing or capturing senior members whose skills and experience have not been replaced.
"If the question is why al Qaeda hasn't carried out another 9/11 attack, the answer I think is that if they could have, they would have," said a former senior U.S. intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
But, every silver lining has a cloud, especially if Reuters disapproves of the President's political party. Most of the article is about how horrible success has been for us:
Some experts warn that the successes of Bush's war on terrorism have been undercut by huge security costs, strains on the U.S. military from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and resentment of the United States abroad.
And there you have it. Where Bush went wrong was to pursue the terrorists to their home bases and shift the battlefield from Manhattan to Afghanistan and Iraq. Far better to have allowed bin Laden to continue launching attacks directly against American civilians. At least then we'd have less "resentment abroad."
An editorial from Quebec that seems to offer proof that Fwench pussyhood is a cultural, rather than a racial, phenomenon:
The latest involves the Quebec government giving a Muslim woman who wants to be a prison guard a choice: She could either remove her hijab or she could train to be a prison guard. But she could not do both. The woman chose the hjiab.
Predictably, Muslim advocacy groups have been crying racism. “It is an ultimatum, remove the hijab or you’re out of here,” said the head of the Muslim Council of Britain. “That’s not a security issue, this is much more a bigoted issue.”
The government stuck to its guns.
“As a security measure, the hijab cannot be accepted as an element of the uniform to execute the functions of a correctional officer,” a department spokesman said.
Nor was this a rare or isolated incident:
This incident follows a long line Quebec has faced with reasonably consistent resolve. First there was the attempt to use Islamic tribunals to settle family disputes. Next there was the adoption of a code of conduct for immigrants by the small towns of Saint-Roch-de-Mekinac and Herouxville. Finally, there was the soccer referee who ejected a player for wearing a hijab on the pitch, a violation of the province’s sports regulations.
The Quebec government stood by principle and said yes to assimilation and integration and no to accommodation.
So there. If you still think speaking Fwench automatically brands a person as a snail sucking surrender monkey, you could try telling it to a Cajun...once.
Australian Michael Ware is assigned to CNN's notorious Baghdad bureau - the one that stayed open by agreeing to help out Saddam with his propaganda efforts - supposedly as a "reporter."
Michael Ware is an Australian journalist reporting for CNN as an international correspondent based in Baghdad. Though many no longer consider Ware a reporter, but an activist. Has CNN plummeted even deeper into the anti-war camp by placing the reporter turned activist on air to give reports of his version of the war in Iraq? Apparently Ware still has an attitude about Senator McCain's earlier comments that the situation is getting better in Iraq...
Now it appears that he has stepped up his assault and there is a report that Ware has now turned to heckling. Matt Drudge is reporting that that during a live press conference in Bagdad, Senators McCain (R-AZ) and Lindsey Graham (R-SC) were heckled by CNN reporter Michael Ware. An official at the press conference called Ware’s conduct “outrageous,” saying, “here you have two United States Senators in Bagdad giving first-hand reports while Ware is laughing and mocking their comments. I’ve never witnessed such disrespect. This guy is an activist not a reporter.”
CNN has a far different definition of "reporter," than do most English speakers. If CNN leaves this clown on their payroll, the cable network deserves all the damage they accrue to their already soiled reputation.
Earlier today, Kafir at The Jawa Report reported that a man had been impersonating an Ontario Provincial Police officer, asking "disturbing questions" at Canadian hospitals. In an update, Kafir noted that the man has been apprehended. Police are not releasing his name, but say that he is from Ramara Township, north of Toronto.
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): In the remote Ramara Township, 90 miles north of Toronto, Mike Cotay (ph) says he came across a group of men in what he calls Sikh camouflage.
The men told him they were doing extreme camping, but he suspected they were up to something more dangerous, and alerted the police, who told him they already had the group under surveillance.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You just hear about what's going on in the rest of the world, and, you know, that you do put two and two together. It's not -- you know, I guess it's stereotyping in its own way.
MESERVE: Canadian officials allege, the men Cotay (ph) saw were part of an al Qaeda-inspired group training to blow up targets in Canada with three tons of ammonium nitrate, the fertilizer that, fashioned into a bomb, devastated the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.
It will be interesting to see if there's a connection here.
Who knew that there were still enough un-dhimmified Brits left to protest the recent act of piracy by Iranians? Enough Brits with a pair big enough to publicly declare that the Iranian mullahcracy is a boil on the ass of civilization?
TEHRAN, Iran - About 200 students threw rocks and firecrackers at the British Embassy on Sunday, calling for the expulsion of the country’s ambassador because of the standoff over Iran’s capture of 15 British sailors and marines.
This is not something to be taken lightly. The "spontaneous" demonstrations were obviously orchestrated by the Iranian government - the same barbaric regime that came to power by violating the American embassy and taking US diplomats hostage.
