Sunday, December 30, 2007

China (Dali Lama) Now 40% Smaller is Still Poisoning Its Own (Dali Lama)

The Chinese Govt (Dali Lama) absolutely detests the mention of the Dalia Lama and of course Jack Burton, being the incontrovertible trickster will now and forever more attach the Chinese Govt. + Dali Lama until hell freezes over or Jack Grokes. All this is a round about way of reiterating the point, which Jack Burton has suspected that China is smaller than greedy stateside salesman have been selling. As a matter of fact it really was not that long ago that Jack Burton wrote a certain U.S. Marine and said "China is in a s@** load of trouble". Jack Burton, however, is so far down the food chain that sunlight has to be pumped down to him to keep his tan up that, of course, no one paid Jack Burton any mind. Excuse me. No never mind. Hey, No problem. Buddy. The bottom of the food chain is not the bottom of the food chain for nothing. Today we reel in the news that Ch(Dali Lama)ina is 40% smaller. Shoot boy. Around these parts that's what we call old news. The hell of it is that we have been reading scholars who, after writing their reports, have a snowball's chance in Hell of ever getting back into China (Dali Lama). After reading a surfeit of what agrees with you you begin to wonder if you really know what's going on or have you had too many extra helpings of what you want to believe. No matter. From across the vast expanse, comes word from from a god: Walter Russell Mead's article in the LA Times

"Revised GDP calculations show that Beijing isn't the giant we thought it was."
Statistics.
When economists calculate a country's gross domestic product, they add up the prices of the goods and services its economy produces and get a total -- in dollars for the United States, euros for such countries as Germany and France and yuan for China. To compare countries' GDP, they typically convert each country's product into dollars.

The simplest way to do this is to use exchange rates. In 2006, the World Bank calculated that China produced 21 trillion yuan worth of goods and services. Using the market exchange rate of 7.8 yuan to the dollar, the bank pegged China's GDP at $2.7 trillion.

That number is too low. For one thing, like many countries, China artificially manipulates the value of its currency. For another, many goods in less developed economies such as China and Mexico are much cheaper than they are in countries such as the United States.

To take these factors into account, economists compare prices from one economy to another and compute an adjusted GDP figure based on "purchasing-power parity." The idea is that a country's GDP adjusted for purchasing-power parity provides a more realistic measure of relative economic strength and of living standards than the unadjusted GDP numbers.

Unfortunately, comparing hundreds and even thousands of prices in almost 150 economies all over the world is a difficult thing to do. Concerned that its purchasing-power-parity numbers were out of whack, the World Bank went back to the drawing board and, with help from such countries as India and China, reviewed the data behind its GDP adjustments.
It learned that there is less difference between China's domestic prices and those in such countries as the United States than previously thought. So the new purchasing-power-parity adjustment is smaller than the old one -- and $4 trillion in Chinese GDP melts into air.
The political consequences will be felt far and wide. To begin with, the U.S. will remain the world's largest economy well into the future. Given that fact, fears that China will challenge the U.S. for global political leadership seem overblown. Under the old figures, China was predicted to pass the United States as the world's largest economy in 2012. That isn't going to happen.
Walter Russell Mead

Saturday, December 29, 2007

Iraqi Army Puts the Cuffs on Ahmed Turki Abbas, "defense minister al Qaeda Islamic State of Iraq"

The Iraqi Army is kicking serious Orc tuckas and has captured the "defense minister of the al Qaeda-linked group Islamic State of Iraq" AKA Ahmed Turki Abbas as proof.

Baghdad security spokesman Qassim al-Moussawi said the orc Abbas was slightly wounded and captured in a fight near the town of Mahmudiya south of Baghdad.



Friday, December 28, 2007

The Combat Tax for College, the GI Bill and The Fund for Veterans Education

When it comes to finding money to fund services for the our veterans the current crop of congressional leadership is woefully deficient except,of course, when it comes to tooting their own horn of greatness or greed. For example, last year U.S. House members spent $20.3 million in hard earned taxpayer money to send constituents the government equivalent of junk mail. Little gas bags mailings of what the congressman/woman did or who shook whose hand or pithy advice like "keep your tires inflated". This week, these spend thrift worthies finally passed a $555 billion bill that funds the Iraq warbill but included 9,800 earmarks, aka PORK that totals more than $10 billion to fund their little "monuments to me". Projects you will later see as the Senator BlahBlah Highway or dam or recreational center. But when it comes to making sure the vet gets a GI Bill that keeps up with the current tutition rates, well, forgetaboutit. Fortunately, the folks at The Fund for Veterans Education, many of them vets themselves, are looking out for our greatest generation by helping make the dream of college a reality. They need your help. With your dollars and letters to your congressman or woman you can help hold congressional leadership feet to the fire to provide a better GI Bill that pays educational bills in the 21st century and not WWII.

What is the Fund for Veterans’ Education?
The Fund for Veterans’ Education (FVE) was established to provide scholarships
to veterans of all branches of the United States Armed Forces who have served
in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Why is the Fund for Veterans’ Education needed?
The educational opportunities that the G.I. Bill of 1944 gratefully offered to
veterans of World War II are no longer provided to today’s generation of veterans.
While the cost of tuition, room, board and fees has increased, the benefits
available to veterans have decreased. The College Board reports that the average
yearly expenses for an in-state student at a public institution are $16,000 and
more than $26,000 for an out-of-state student. By contrast, the maximum
educational benefit available to veterans who served in Iraq or Afghanistan is
just $1,101 per month. Those veterans who served combat tours in the National
Guard or Reserves are eligible for even less—typically just $440 per month.

The lack of adequate resources and aid available to veterans who want to get a higher education is one of the most important untold stories in America. Everyone supports the troops, and we assume that most of their needs will be taken care of. But, in terms of giving our veterans a chance to go to a college or technical school, the facts show too many of them face significant hurdles.

Did you know that:

· America’s soldiers must pay $1,200 in order to “sign up” for military education benefits?

It’s true. In 1988, Congress voted to require our service members to pay a $1,200 non-refundable fee, in order to receive money for college at a later date. If a veteran eventually opts not to go to college, the money is not given back to the veteran, but to the U. S. Treasury. That amounts to a “combat tax” for those who serve this nation in uniform.

· The G.I. Bill, which was designed to give cover all of the expenses for college for our veterans, is now doing anything but that?

While the G.I. Bill still provides some financial assistance, and stands as a landmark pledge to those who serve our nation, it falls short of its promise because of the rising cost of higher education.

The maximum yearly benefit available through the current GI Bill (to active duty veterans) is $9,675 or $38,700 over 4 years. That’s about half of what it costs to go to a public college as an in-state student, a little more than one-third the cost for an out-of-state student, and less than a third of the cost of a private institution.

· Those who were injured in war don’t even get full G.I. Bill benefits?

Sadly, disabled veterans lose out on G.I. Bill benefits. If a service member is discharged for disability, they are only entitled to as many months of G.I. Bill benefits as they served in the military. So, for instance, if someone signed up for service and was deployed to Iraq three months later, and lost their leg in an enemy attack during their second month, that veteran would only be eligible for five months of G.I. Bill benefits – or just about one semester of school.

· National Guardsmen and Reservists are not eligible for any benefits, once their contracts are up?

The National Guard and Reserves have been deployed in large numbers to Iraq and Afghanistan. Unlike those who served in the Army, Marines, Air Force, or Navy, National Guardsmen’s and Reservists’ education benefits are cut off once they separate from the service. That is regardless of whether they received their full benefits or not. Even while serving their contract with the military, Guardsmen and Reservists are only entitled to 3,960 a year in benefits – a small fraction of the cost to attend most colleges and universities.

· Most enlisted men and women do not have a college degree?

Because so many men and women enlist directly after high school, or soon thereafter, ninety percent of enlisted personnel do not have a bachelor’s degree or higher. 375,000 troops are separating from the military each year to resume their civilian lives. While many potential employers value their service, we are simply not equipping our veterans with the education they need to fairly compete in today’s competitive job-placement environment.

These factors have created a situation where many veterans who want to go to a college, university, or technical school cannot get the assistance they need. It is for these heroes, who honorably served our nation, that the Fund for Veterans’ Education exists. The Fund will help bridge the benefits gap for as many veterans as we possibly can, giving them a chance to fulfill their dream of a higher education. Learn more about our work on our About Us page.

Also, please consider making a donation today, to support the work we are doing. We are fully funded through generous endowments and donations, from people who support the troops, like you.

Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Abu Abdullah AKA Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zuba’i Sent Off to Gather Virgins

BAGHDAD, Iraq

Abu Abdullah, also known as Muhammad Sulayman Shunaythir al-Zuba’i, a high-level Orc al-Qaeda in Iraq leader for a network operating in the Salah ad Din province has been killed by Coalition and Iraqi forces. Abdullah- an experienced bomb-maker and attack planner coordinated attacks on Coalition and Iraqi forces over the past three years, using a variety of improvised explosive devices combined with small-arms fire.

Abdullah was responsible for the kidnapping, extortion and murder of local Iraqis, and believed to have led a group of foreign terrorists to conduct car-bombing campaigns. Press Release A071226a December 26, 2007

Intelligence reports led Coalition forces to a location where Abdullah was operating. The ground force observed Abdullah, fired warning shots directing him to stop and was then engaged by enemy fire. Responding in self-defense, Coalition forces returned fire, igniting the vehicle. The ground force observed secondary explosions erupt from the vehicle, indicating that explosives were inside. Abdullah and an associate were killed during the engagement.

Intelligence indicates that Abdullah had historical ties to the Battle of Fallujah in 2004, and was a close contact of the former al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed by Coalition forces in June 2006. Prior to leading an AQI network in Salah ad Din Province, reports indicate Abdullah was a regional Emir controlling AQI terrorists in an area between west Baghdad and east of Fallujah.

Tuesday, December 25, 2007

Merry Christmas To All the Troops Everywhere From Jack Burton

http://www.desktop-xp.com/images/free-christmas-screensaver/big3.jpg
image free from desktopxp

POTUS Makes Merry With Christmas Day Calls To Troops

American Troops who POSTUS called this morning w/Christmas Greetings:

Staff Sergeant Anthony R. "Tony" Lewis,
U.S. Army, Sergeant Cleveland W. "Cleve" Upton,
U.S. Army, Specialist Joseph E. "Joe" Sizemore,
U.S. Army, Sergeant Joseph K. "Joe" Jenkins,
U.S. Marine Corps, Corporal Orlando P. Anaya,
U.S. Marine Corps, Personnel Specialist First Class Claudine A. "Toni" Gayle,
U.S. Navy, Construction Electrician First Class Kelly Mumm,
U.S. Navy, Senior Airman LaTishia B. "Tishia" Hall, U.S. Air Force,
Airman First Class Rachael R. Whitlow, U.S. Air Force,
Boatswain Mate First Class Michael W. Tapp, U.S. Coast Guard

Monday, December 24, 2007

Shia and Sunni join hands to Celebrate Peace in Rawaniyah

Sunday, 23 December 2007
Iraqi citizens march together while playing music during a Peace March in the Karkh District of Baghdad, Dec. 19. Approximately 1,000 Iraqi citizens, both of Shia and Sunni religions, gathered to march with one another to bring the two sects together as one.  Photo by Sgt. James Hunter, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.
Iraqi citizens march together while playing music during a Peace March in the Karkh District of Baghdad, Dec. 19. Approximately 1,000 Iraqi citizens, both of Shia and Sunni religions, gathered to march with one another to bring the two sects together as one. Photo by Sgt. James Hunter, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (AA) Public Affairs.
BAGHDAD
— Approximately 1,000 Iraqi citizens, of both Shia and Sunni religions, joined together on the sectarian fault line in Rawaniyah, the Karkh District of Baghdad, to march with one another in what they called a “Peace March”, Dec. 19.

It was an Iraqi initiative to ease sectarian tensions, solely driven by Iraqi Neighborhood Council (NAC) and District Advisory Council (DAC) leaders and Sheiks from both religious sects in the area, said Capt. Marcus Melton, commander of Pale Horse Troop, 4th Squadron, 2nd Stryker Cavalry Regiment, attached to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault).

With Iraqi Army and Iraqi policemen maintaining the security on the streets and within the crowd during the event, they were able to successfully complete the march for united peace among all Iraqis.

Drums beat, children ran, silly string littered the air and one man nearly wept. It was an exciting, yet emotional day for the Iraqis who participated.

A local Sheik came over a loud speaker during the march to talk with his local comrades. He expressed his joy for their wanted peace, but nearly wept in the thought of those who have lost their lives in the battle for sectarian dominance. Many families, friends and sons have lost their lives during this time.

“But dominance by one religious group is just a mindset, filed in the heads of the Iraqis”, said Melton, a native of Atlanta, Ga.

This area is relatively calm today, but in January of this year violence raged through the streets, especially on Haifa.

“The mindset that Shias stay on this side of the fence and Sunnis stay on the other carried over from the violence which once plagued the area,” Melton said. “There is only a street, Sheik Murah Street, which separates these men. To the west of this street is a Shia neighborhood. To the east is a Sunni neighborhood.

“So it’s a sectarian line dividing the two,” he said. “They are working really hard within themselves to kind of get over this (sectarian mindset).”

If they continue their quest for peace among all, Melton said the area will stabilize and move things forward in several areas.

“If the neighborhoods come together and start really working together at the NAC and DAC levels without sectarian issues, the government will become much more efficient and more self-sustaining,” Melton said. “Same thing on the security front in terms of the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi Police being trusted by the community and being able to secure the community--both of which are positive things for us, which will allow us to transition out of a more direct role into more of an over-watch role.”

Melton, who is in his second tour in Baghdad, said “I know they are moving forward and making progress. Certainly they have issues and problems and growing pains, but they have made a tremendous amount of progress.”

One Iraqi boy, Omar, 11, said because of the continued peace in his homeland, he came to celebrate with his fellow Iraqis.

Awass, with the Iraqi flag draped over his body, carried himself with much enthusiasm and excitement in his journey in Karkh.

He said the flag—one he is very proud to display— describes his great country. “Red is for the blood shed. White is for our handshake. Green is for their land, and Black is for their oil,” he said.

“We thank our God, our families and our friends that our neighborhood is safe and free of Violence,” an Iraqi man who participated in the march said.

They marched for their peace, for their friends and for their brothers, said the Sheik. “Today we march for us being brothers forever.”

(Story by Sgt. James P. Hunter, 101st Airborne Division Public Affairs)

Operation Rat Hunt, 3RD LAR Checking for Vampire Orcs

Photo/story:Cpl. Adam Johnston

“Intel points to a number of [ORCS] who call this area home,”
Capt. Max Stapp, CO for Bravo Co., 3rd LAR said. “They’re constantly on the move, using family connections to hide out and operate in the surrounding villages. Our AO is so large, it can be difficult to cover at times.”

At 565 sq. miles, Bravo Company’s battlespace is more than twice the size of Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif.

“We try to stay out there as long as humanly possible,” said Staff Sgt. Mark F. Erhardt, the platoon sergeant for 1st Platoon, Baker Company, 1st Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment. “It’s all about keeping the enemy on their toes; making it harder for them to do business.”

“This is the first time I’ve ever spent more than 24 hours outside the wire without returning to base,” Erhardt said. “Once we’re done for the day, we try and find an easily defendable spot to go firm for the night. It definitely adds a bit of realism to this deployment; there’s nowhere safe out there to lay our heads.”

“Working with the LAV’s has been nothing but positive,” Erhardt said. “As a mobile assault force, we can move two squads of Marines anywhere in our AO within a short amount of time.”

















Lance Cpl. Shelton H. Foerster






Photo/story:Cpl. Adam Johnston














Tuesday, December 18, 2007

An Orc Enlists in the U. S. Yankee Army

UnF!!ngbelieveable! According to Front Page Magazine an Orc enlisted in the Army and is stationed somewhere in Iraq. Today, the FPM put out an APB for info leading to the capture of one Orc now in U.S. Army uniform, in Iraq, call sign Deep Thought, currently commenting at a website infested with Orcs.

"A potential disaster should be averted. If anyone has any information regarding Deep Thought, a.k.a. Lawrence, a.k.a. Bilal, please contact the U.S. Army immediately. Or, if you wish, you can send an e-mail to info@americansagainsthate.org, and the information will be forwarded to the proper authorities."

On November 26, 2007, DT wrote, “Well, I have been in Iraq for 2 months now.. I have pretty much seen this entire country... I have takened some very nice pictures of Iraq which I will be posting on a later date.. I'll be sure to give a link to them when its complete.. Well, I hope all is well with EVERY member of this forum... I am sooo homesick and wish I was home now.... But, my life is here and now... In Iraq..... It feels good to finally have decent internet access.”

"There are a number of problems with the abovementioned: 1. While he is wearing a United States military uniform, and while he is supposed to be fighting against terrorists in Iraq, Lawrence is writing on a forum that has many outspoken members that support terrorist groups (himself included) and that was founded by an organization, ICNA, that has been implicated in the financing of Hamas and Al-Qaeda; 2. The pictures and information he posts to WI may very well contain sensitive material that could put U.S. troops in harms way; and 3. Past statements of his show that Lawrence has a vehement distaste and disloyalty to the war in Iraq, to begin with."



Monday, December 17, 2007

Newt Gingrich:I suggest we defeat our enemies (the Orcs)

Sleepwalking Into a Nightmare

Speech by Newt Gingrich

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich delivered the following remarks to a Jewish National Fund meeting Nov. 15 at the Selig Center.

I just want to talk to you from the heart for a few minutes and share with you where I think we are.

I think it is very stark. I don't think it is yet desperate, but it is very stark. And if I had a title for today's talk, it would be sleepwalking into a nightmare. 'Cause that's what I think we're doing.

I gave a speech at the American Enterprise Institute Sept. 10th at which I gave an alternative history of the last six years, because the more I thought about how much we're failing, the more I concluded you couldn't just nitpick individual places and talk about individual changes because it didn't capture the scale of the disaster. And I had been particularly impressed by a new book that came out called “Troublesome Young Men,” which is a study of the younger Conservatives who opposed appeasement in the 1930s and who took on Chamberlain. It's a very revealing book and a very powerful book because we tend to look backwards and we tend to overstate Churchill's role in that period. And we tend to understate what a serious and conscientious and thoughtful effort appeasement was and that it was the direct and deliberate policy of very powerful and very willful people. We tend to think of it as a psychological weakness, as though Chamberlain was somehow craven. He wasn't craven. Chamberlain had a very clear vision of the world, and he was very ruthless domestically. And they believed so deeply in avoiding war with Germany that as late as the spring of 1940, when they are six months or seven months into they war, they are dropping leaflets instead of bombs on the Rohr, and they are urging the British news media not to publish anti-German stories because they don't want to offend the German people. And you read this book, and it makes you want to weep because, interestingly, the younger Tories who were most opposed to appeasement were the combat veterans of World War I, who had lost all of their friends in the war but who understood that the failure of appeasement would result in a worse war and that the longer you lied about reality, the greater the disaster.

And they were severely punished and isolated by Chamberlain and the Conservative machine, and as I read that, I realized that that's really where we are today. Our current problem is tragic. You have an administration whose policy is inadequate being opposed by a political Left whose policy is worse, and you have nobody prepared to talk about the policy we need. Because we are told if you are for a strong America, you should back the Bush policy even if it's inadequate, and so you end up making an argument in favor of something that can't work. So your choice is to defend something which isn't working or to oppose it by being for an even weaker policy. So this is a catastrophe for this country and a catastrophe for freedom around the world. Because we have refused to be honest about the scale of the problem.

Let me work back. I'm going to get to Iran since that's the topic, but I'm going to get to it eventually.

Let me work back from Pakistan. The dictatorship in Pakistan has never had control over Wiziristan. Not for a day. So we've now spent six years since 9/11 with a sanctuary for al Qaeda and a sanctuary for the Taliban, and every time we pick up people in Great Britain who are terrorists, they were trained in Pakistan.

And our answer is to praise Musharraf because at least he's not as bad as the others. But the truth is Musharraf has not gotten control of terrorism in Pakistan. Musharraf doesn't have full control over his own government. The odds are even money we're going to drift into a disastrous dictatorship at some point in Pakistan. And while we worry about the Iranians acquiring a nuclear weapon, the Pakistanis already have 'em, So why would you feel secure in a world where you could presently have an Islamist dictatorship in Pakistan with a hundred-plus nuclear weapons? What's our grand strategy for that?

Then you look at Afghanistan. Here's a country that's small, poor, isolated, and in six years we have not been able to build roads, create economic opportunity, wean people off of growing drugs. A third of the GDP is from drugs. We haven't been able to end the sanctuary for the Taliban in Pakistan. And I know of no case historically where you defeat a guerrilla movement if it has a sanctuary. So the people who rely on the West are out-bribed by the criminals, outgunned by the criminals, and faced with a militant force across the border which practiced earlier defeating the Soviet empire and which has a time horizon of three or four generations. NATO has a time horizon of each quarter or at best a year, facing an opponent whose time horizon is literally three or four generations. It's a total mismatch.

Then you come to the direct threat to the United States, which is al Qaeda. Which, by the way, we just published polls. One of the sites I commend to you is AmericanSolutions.com. Last Wednesday we posted six national surveys, $428,000 worth of data. We gave it away. I found myself in the unique position of calling Howard Dean to tell him I was giving him $400,000 worth of polling. We have given it away to both Democrats and Republicans. It is fundamentally different from the national news media. When asked the question "Do we have an obligation to defend the United States and her allies?" the answer is 85 percent yes. When asked a further question "Should we defeat our enemies?" – it's very strong language – the answer is 75% yes, 75 to 16.

The complaint about Iraq is a performance complaint, not a values complaint.

When asked whether or not al Qaeda is a threat, 89% of the country says yes. And they think you have to defeat it, you can't negotiate with it. So now let's look at al Qaeda and the rise of Islamist terrorism.

And let's be honest: What's the primary source of money for al Qaeda? It's you, re-circulated through Saudi Arabia. Because we have no national energy strategy, when clearly if you really cared about liberating the United States from the Middle East and if you really cared about the survival of Israel, one of your highest goals would be to move to a hydrogen economy and to eliminate petroleum as a primary source of energy.

Now that's what a serious national strategy would look like, but that would require real change.

So then you look at Saudi Arabia. The fact that we tolerate a country saying no Christian and no Jew can go to Mecca, and we start with the presumption that that's true while they attack Israel for being a religious state is a sign of our timidity, our confusion, our cowardice that is stunning.

It's not complicated. We're inviting Saudi Arabia to come to Annapolis to talk about rights for Palestinians when nobody is saying, "Let's talk about rights for Christians and Jews in Saudi Arabia. Let's talk about rights for women in Saudi Arabia."

So we accept this totally one-sided definition of the world in which our enemies can cheerfully lie on television every day, and we don't even have the nerve to insist on the truth. We pretend their lies are reasonable. This is a very fundamental problem. And if you look at who some of the largest owners of some of our largest banks are today, they're Saudis.

You keep pumping billions of dollars a year into countries like Venezuela, Iran and Saudi Arabia, and Russia, and you are presently going to have created people who oppose you who have lots of money. And they're then going to come back to your own country and finance, for example, Arab study institutes whose only requirement is that they never tell the truth. So you have all sorts of Ph.D.s who now show up quite cheerfully prepared to say whatever it is that makes their funders happy – in the name, of course, of academic freedom. So why wouldn't Columbia host a genocidal madman? It's just part of political correctness. I mean, Ahmadinejad may say terrible things, he may lock up students, he may kill journalists, he may say, "We should wipe out Israel," he may say, "We should defeat the United States," but after all, what has he done that's inappropriate? What has he done that wouldn't be repeated at a Hollywood cocktail party or a nice gathering in Europe?

And nobody says this is totally, utterly, absolutely unacceptable. Why is it that the number one threat in intelligence movies is the CIA?

I happened the other night to be watching an old movie, “To Live and Die in L.A.,” which is about counterfeiting. But the movie starts with a Secret Service agent who is defending Ronald Reagan in 1985, and the person he is defending Ronald Reagan from is a suicide bomber who is actually, overtly a Muslim fanatic. Now, six years after 9/11, you could not get that scene made in Hollywood today.

Just look at the movies. Why is it that the bad person is either a Right-wing crazed billionaire, or the CIA as a government agency? Go look at “The Bourne Ultimatum.” Or a movie like the one that George Clooney made, which was an absolute lie, in which it implied that if you were a reformist Arab prince, that probably the CIA would kill you. It's a total lie. We actually have SEALs protecting people all over the world. We actually risk American lives protecting reformers all over the world, and yet Hollywood can't bring itself to tell the truth, (a) because it's ideologically so opposed to the American government and the American military, and (b), because it's terrified that if it said something really openly, honestly true about Muslim terrorists, they might show up in Hollywood. And you might have somebody killed as the Dutch producer was killed.

And so we're living a life of cowardice, and in that life of cowardice we're sleepwalking into a nightmare.

And then you come to Iran. There's a terrific book. Mark Bowden is a remarkable writer who wrote “Black Hawk Down,” has enormous personal courage. He's a Philadelphia newspaper writer, actually got the money out of the Philadelphia newspaper to go to Somalia to interview the Somalian side of “Black Hawk Down.” It's a remarkable achievement. Tells a great story about getting to Somalia, paying lots of cash, having the local warlord protect him, and after about two weeks the warlord came to him and said, "You know, we've decided that we're very uncomfortable with you being here, and you should leave."

And so he goes to the hotel, where he is the only hard-currency guest, and says, "I've got to check out two weeks early because the warlord has told me that he no longer will protect me." And the hotel owner, who wants to keep his only hard-currency guest, says, "Well, why are you listening to him? He's not the government. There is no government." And Bowden says, "Well, what will I do?" And he says, "You hire a bigger warlord with more guns," which he did. But then he could only stay one week because he ran out of money.

But this is a guy with real courage. I mean, imagine trying to go out and be a journalist in that kind of world, OK? So Bowden came back and wrote “Guests of the Ayatollah,” which is the Iranian hostage of 1979, which he entitled, "The First Shots in Iran's War Against America." So in the Bowden worldview, the current Iranian dictatorship has been at war with the United States since 1979. Violated international law. Every conceivable tenet of international law was violated when they seized the American Embassy and they seized the diplomats. Killed Americans in Lebanon in the early '80s. Killed Americans at Khobar Towers in '95 and had the Clinton administration deliberately avoid revealing the information, as Louis Freeh, the director of the FBI, has said publicly, because they didn't want to have to confront the Iranian complicity.

And so you have an Iranian regime which is cited annually as the leading supporter of state terrorism in the world. Every year the State Department says that. It's an extraordinary act of lucidity on the part of an institution which seeks to avoid it as often as possible.

And you have Gen. Petraeus come to the U.S. Congress and say publicly in an open session, "The Iranians are waging a proxy war against Americans in Iraq."

I was so deeply offended by this, it's hard for me to express it without sounding irrational. I'm an Army brat. My dad served 27 years in the infantry. The idea that an American general would come to the American Congress, testify in public that our young men and women are being killed by Iran, and we have done nothing, I find absolutely abhorrent.

So I'm preparing to come and talk today. I got up this morning, and a friend had sent me yesterday's Jerusalem Post editorial, which if you haven't read, I recommend to you. It has, for example, the following quote: "On Monday, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said, 'The problem of the content of the document setting out joint principles for peace-making post-Annapolis has not been resolved. One of the more pressing problems is the Zionist regime's insistence on being recognized as a Jewish state. We will not agree to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. There is no country in the world where religious and national identities are intertwined.' "

What truly bothers me is the shallowness and the sophistry of the Western governments, starting with our own. When a person says to you, "I don't recognize that you exist," you don't start a negotiation. The person says, "I literally do not recognize" and then lies to you. I mean the first thing you say to this guy is "Terrific. Let's go visit Mecca. Since clearly there's no other state except Israel that is based on religion, the fact that I happen to be Christian won't bother anybody." And then he'll say, "Well, that's different."

We tolerate this. We have created our own nightmare because we refuse to tell the truth. We refuse to tell the truth to our politicians. Our State Department refuses to tell the truth to the country. If the president of the United States, and again, we're now so bitterly partisan, we're so committed to red vs. blue hostility, that George W. Bush doesn't have the capacity to give an address from the Oval Office that has any meaning for half the country. And the anti-war Left is so strong in the Democratic primary that I think it's almost impossible for any Democratic presidential candidate to tell the truth about the situation.

And so the Republicans are isolated and trying to defend incompetence. The Democrats are isolated and trying to find a way to say, "I'm really for strength as long as I can have peace, but I'd really like to have peace, except I don't want to recognize these people who aren't very peaceful."

I just want to share with you, as a grandfather, as a citizen, as a historian, as somebody who was once speaker of the House, this is a serious national crisis. This is 1935 or 1936, and it's getting worse every year.

None of our enemies are confused. Our enemies don't get up each morning and go, "Oh, gosh, I think I'll have an existential crisis of identity in which I will try to think through whether or not we can be friends while you're killing me." Our enemies get up every morning and say, "We hate the West. We hate freedom." They would not allow a meeting with women in the room.

I was once interviewed by a BBC reporter, a nice young lady who was only about as anti-American as she had to be to keep her job. Since it was a live interview, I turned to her halfway through the interview and I said, "Do you like your job?" And it was summertime, and she's wearing a short-sleeve dress. And she said, "Well, yes." She was confused because I had just reversed roles. I said, "Well, then you should hope we win." She said, "What do you mean?" And I said, "Well, if the enemy wins, you won't be allowed to be on television."

I don't know how to explain it any simpler than that.

Now what do we need?

We need first of all to recognize this is a real war. Our enemies are peaceful when they're weak, are ruthless when they're strong, demand mercy when they're losing, show no mercy when they're winning. They understand exactly what this is, and anybody who reads Sun Tzu will understand exactly what we're living through. This is a total war. One side is going to win. One side is going to lose. You'll be able to tell who won and who lost by who's still standing. Most of Islam is not in this war, but most of Islam isn't going to stop this war. They're just going to sit to one side and tell you how sorry they are that this happened. We had better design grand strategies that are radically bigger and radically tougher and radically more honest than anything currently going on, and that includes winning the argument in Europe, and it includes winning the argument in the rest of the world. And it includes being very clear, and I'll just give you one simple example because we're now muscle-bound by our own inability to talk honestly.

Iran produces 60% of its own gasoline. It produces lots of crude oil but only has one refinery. It imports 40% of its gasoline. The entire 60% is produced at one huge refinery.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan decided to break the Soviet empire. He was asked, “What's your vision of the Cold War?” He said, "Four words: We win; they lose." He was clearly seen by The New York Times as an out-of-touch, reactionary, right-wing cowboy from California who had no idea what was going on in the world. And 11 years later the Soviet Union disappeared, but obviously that had nothing to do with Reagan because that would have meant he was right. So it's just a random accident the Soviet Union disappeared.

Part of the war we waged on the Soviet Union involved their natural gas supply because we wanted to cut off their hard currency. The Soviets were desperate to get better equipment for their pipeline. We managed to sell them through third parties very, very sophisticated American pipeline equipment, which they were thrilled to buy and thought they had pulled off a huge coup. Now we weren't playing fair. We did not tell them that the equipment was designed to blow up. One day in 1982, there was an explosion in Siberia so large that the initial reflection on the satellites looked like there was a tactical nuclear weapon. One part of the White House was genuinely worried, and the other part of the White House had to calm them down. They said, "No, no, that's our equipment blowing up."

In the 28 years since the Iranians declared war on us, in the six years since 9/11, in the months since Gen. Petraeus publicly said they are killing young Americans, we have not been able to figure out how to take down one refinery. Covertly, quietly, without overt war. And we have not been able to figure out how to use the most powerful navy in the world to simply stop the tankers and say, "Look, you want to kill young Americans, you're going to walk to the battlefield, but you're not going to ride in the car because you're not going to have any gasoline."

We don't have to be stupid. The choice is not cowardice or total war. Reagan unlocked Poland without firing a shot in an alliance with the pope, with the labor unions and with the British. We have every possibility if we're prepared to be honest to shape the world. It'll be a very big project. It's much closer to World War II than it is to anything we've tried recently. It will require real effort, real intensity and real determination. We're either going to do it now, while we're still extraordinarily powerful, or we're going to do it later under much more desperate circumstances after we've lost several cities.

We had better take this seriously because we are not very many mistakes away from a second Holocaust. Three nuclear weapons is a second Holocaust. Our enemies would like to get those weapons as soon as they can, and they promise to use them as soon as they can.

I suggest we defeat our enemies and create a different situation long before they have that power.

Saturday, December 15, 2007

Famous Last Names in the Marine Corps

Second Lt. Lejeune reads the Marine Corps Birthday message by his great-great uncle Major General John A. Lejeune

Second Lt.
Learlin Lejeune, an Acadia Parish, Louisiana-native, is the great-great nephew of the 13th Commandant of the Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Lejeune. The renowned name of Lejeune on your name tape doesn't cut you any slack says Second Lt. Learlin Lejeune III,
“When I was going through OCS they found out what my last name was, and of course, there was some extra ‘special treatment’,” Learlin Lejeune said jokingly. “During my class there was myself, another Marine whose last name was Marine and a Marine with the last name Sailors. So everyday after class we would get together and see who had the most interesting afternoon.”

Now, a platoon commander with the “Walking Dead”, Learlin Lejeune prepares to lead his Marines on an upcoming deployment in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom, like his great-great uncle did during the Spanish-American War as a lieutenant."


There are a lot of famous last names in the Marine Corps and some not so famous. I haven't forgotten, for example, the @#@!%!! lifers in my unit who tripped over each other in their eagerness to promote a new replacement private whose last name was Major to Sergeant. Sgt. Major was placed on permanent phone answering detail to play a long running joke on all who dared call the base newspaper office. On a military base the phone is answered by announcing the office followed by your rank and name. No one ever heard the office name but they sure heard name: "Sergeant Major" The inattentive thought they had dialed the Base Sgt. Major's office office and hang up. Those were simpler times before the arrival of the Orcs.
By the way, the name of the young Private First Class who wrote the original story on Lejeune is .....

Casey Jones

Thursday, December 13, 2007

Nine Democrat Grinches Vote NO! Recognizing the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.

Previously the Nine Democrat Grinches had no problem voting YES to Resolutions honoring the Islamic holiday of Ramadan and the Hindu holiday of Diwali but choked on Christmas.

---- NAYS 9 ---

Ackerman
Clarke
DeGette
Hastings (FL)
Lee
McDermott
Scott (VA)
Stark
Woolsey



The nine Grinches voting NO were Rep. Gary Ackerman (D-NY), Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), Rep. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) (FL), Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA), Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA), Rep. Pete Stark (D-CA), and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA).


Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Fourth class of Iraqi National Policemen (NP) Graduates

Soldiers in 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi National Police Division undergo a final training exercise taught by the 1-4-1 National Police Military Transition Team. The NPTT members are Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, based out of Fort Riley, Kansas and currently attached to 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. U.S. Army photo by Spc. Courtney E. Marulli, 2nd IBCT, 2nd Inf. Div. Public Affairs.
Soldiers in 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi National Police Division undergo a final training exercise taught by the 1-4-1 National Police Military Transition Team.
FORWARD OPERATING BASE RUSTAMIYAH
— After four days of intense training, the fourth class of Iraqi National Policemen (NP) graduated from the leadership course, Nov. 29. The course is designed by Iraqis and taught by members of the 1st Battalion, 4th Brigade, 1st Iraqi National Police Military Transition Team (NPTT).

Maj. Robel Ramirez, 1-4-1 Battalion NPTT chief, said the policemen go through several training exercises during the week leading to an extensive exercise on the last day that combines all the tactics. The course is also taught according to what Col. Kassim, the 1-4-1 battalion commander wants his policemen to improve upon.

The skills learned include stacking to enter a house, tactical movement through a courtyard, clearing a house, reaction to contact and treating and evacuating a casualty. The policemen learned how to rely on each other as the exercise involved detaining a suspect and treating a casualty while under fire.

Ramirez, a native of Naranjito, Puerto Rico, said each class is unique, but that this class had more experienced and mature policemen. Since they have done police work longer, they had to focus on getting past preconceived notions of how to do things. Once they did that, Ramirez said they progressed and were very successful during their training.

“Overall, I’m really proud of the progress we have made in the past year,” he said of all the policemen that have been trained. “Training is the key.”

With each class that graduates, Ramirez said things are getting closer for them to become self-sustaining. The idea is to offer this training once a month, and eventually get the NPs to the point that they are teaching their own classes with Coalition forces merely there to interject if need be, Ramirez said.

“We’re closer than we were six months ago,” he said.

Capt. Woodrow D. Pengelly, operations officer for the 1-4-1 NPTT, said they would not have been able to train the NPs without Kassim, the NP’s strong and aggressive battalion commander.

Pengelly, a native of Portland, Ore., said Kassim supports the training and is willing to work around mission requirements to ensure his policemen get the proper training they need.

Master Sgt. Richard A. Jones, a native of Cadiz, Ohio, and the noncommissioned officer in charge of the 1-4-1 NPTT, said seeing younger American Soldiers working with the Iraqi Soldiers is good because it enables them to really learn about the culture as they might find themselves over here two or three more times.

“It expands their minds, and they get experience working with them,” he said.

Master Sgt. Jeff N. Curd, a native of Paducah, Kentucky, and an operations NCO for the 1-4-1 NPTT, said this is his second time being on a transition team. The first time he worked with the Iraqi Army.

“I love it,” he said. “Both times I asked to come and I probably would come back again.”

Curd said an American private is more experienced to train others just by working with his peers. The typical private goes to Basic Combat Training, then Advanced Individual Training and then arrives at his unit where he continues to train. The Iraqi National Policemen, Curd said, go from basic training to working. They learn on the job.

“They just do basic training and the next time they deal with IEDs is when they find them on the road,” he said.

Spc. Thomas B. Richardson, a native of Chambers County, Ala., Pfc. Allen J. Wick, a native of Medicine Lake, Mont., and Spc. Erik D. Rillera, a native of Cerritos, Calif., are all infantrymen in Headquarters and Headquarters Company, 2nd Battalion, 16th Infantry Regiment, based out of Fort Riley, Kansas, and currently attached to 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division.

Each Soldier played a role in the training. Richardson was the driver of a truck with a bomb, Wick was a shooter and Rillera was a casualty.

Wick said it makes him feel like he’s accomplishing something when he helps train the Iraqi National Policemen.

“They catch on pretty quick…,” he said.

Richardson, who made the NP’s work while detaining him, said the training made them realize what they will face with detainees. He said they learned that a detainee isn’t always just going to sit there and that they have to keep a vigilant watch.

Training was a little rough in the beginning, Richardson said, but overall it went well. “I think it gives them motivation to be working with us,” he said.

(Story by Spc. Courtney E. Marulli, 2nd IBCT, 2nd Inf. Div. Public Affairs)

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Cozy Up boys, cozy up


[abdullah+ahmadinejad.jpg]


With so many holding hands, doing the bosom buddy life long friends dance, you'd think all were getting on famously would you. Actually, nothing could be further from the truth. The fact is the Saudi King is terrified of Mahmaoud and the free pass the nut jobs from the NIE have presented the new hegemone. Read this and this

For all the oil money these guys are raking in you would think an immature upstart like Mahmaoud would be a piece of cake to kick into the corner and mind his manners. All of the oil states are too chicken shit to unite and blast this mongrel to hell. What a scurvy lot. Billions and billions of dollars converted into high tech state of the art military tech and no guts. Just like our NIE. Billions of dollars spent on intell and the best of the best can only come up with 100% barn yard bullshit that effectively neuters POTUS.

Whose side are these sappy appeasing lapdogs on?

NBC Will Run 'Thank You To Our Troops' Ad by Freedom's Watch

"This will confirm that the Freedom's Watch spot is approved for air."

Alan Wurtzel,NBC's Mr. Big email to Freedom's Watch's President Bradley A. Blakeman last night announced a quick u-turn on NBC aka Mr. Grinch policy to shut out a Christmas ad thanking our troops for their service.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, on the Fox News , called for a boycott of NBC which started to gain traction on the internet blogs. Before the tsunami of protests and blogger agnst could gain full strenght Wurtzel decided to cave and yes, thank you very much, we will take cash for your Christmas ad to the troops. The ad is supposed to run tonight.

Saturday, December 08, 2007

Newt: Boycott NBC

NBC Grinch Tells Freedoms Watch--No Ad Space For You!



www.FreedomsWatch.Org
"Washington, DC- Today, Bradley A. Blakeman, CEO and President of Freedom’s Watch, had this to say about NBC’s Refusal to air the organization’s holiday ads supporting thanking the troops, “The fact that FreedomsWatch.org appears in a TV spot thanking our troops stationed around the world this holiday season does not justify their refusal and reeks of censorship. NBC’s decision is sad and unfortunate.” The ads began running yesterday, December 6, on CNN and Fox News and will continue running through December 21. They can be viewed here and here. Below is a letter sent to John Kelly, NBC Vice-President of News Network Sales, demanding an explanation of why NBC refuses to air the ads."

Friday, December 07, 2007

More Yellow Journalism---By NBC--Refuses to Run This Thank You To the Troops Ad



POWER LINE
Freedom’s Watch President, Bradley A. Blakeman, sent a letter to NBC Vice-President of News Network Sales, John Kelly, demanding an explanation of why NBC refuses to air the Freedom’s Watch holiday ads. The ads began running yesterday, December 6 and will continue running [on CNN and FOX News] up to December 21...
Here is the text of Blakeman's letter:
December 7, 2007

John Kelly
Senior Vice-President of NBC News Network Sales
30 Rockefeller Plaza
12th Floor
New York, NY 10112

Dear Mr. Kelly,

We understand that NBC, MSNBC and CNBC (the “Networks”) are refusing to sell advertising time to Freedom’s Watch (“FW”) to air a series of advertisements that thank our troops for their service and encourage the American public to show their appreciation for the sacrifices they have made on behalf of our country. It is our understanding that the purported basis for the denial is the Networks’ demand that FW remove reference on the advertisement to the FW website.

Given your past rejection of FW advertisements in August 2007 and your history of airing ads addressing controversial issues, as addressed in detail in my correspondence to you of August 28, 2007 (to which we have received no response), we are left to believe that your denial to FW is a subjective decision because the network officials disagree with FW. It is hard to comprehend how your demand to remove the FW website is anything but direct censorship of the positions taken by FW, particularly our support for the War on Terror. It is highly troubling that the Networks favor censorship over airing a magnanimous effort to thank the many men and women of our Armed Services who protect our freedoms every day.

FW has requested to purchase time on your networks to air advertisements thanking our American troops for their service and for spending time away from their family and friends this Holiday season. The FW website, www.freedomswatch.org, provides information to the American public about numerous ways to support our troops. For example, the FW website provides readers with links to Books for Soldiers, Adopt a Platoon and other worthy causes dedicated to assisting our troops during this Holiday season.

It is deeply troubling that the Networks appear to be rejecting an effort to air messages that thank our troops for their sacrifice and, in so doing, remind Americans of the sacrifices made by them this Holiday season. An effort to thank our troops should not be silenced by national broadcast and cable networks. Your denial begs the question of whether the Networks disagree with FW and, due to the level of your disagreement, you would prefer to censor FW’s effort to thank our troops and encourage an outpouring of support from the American people for them. A detailed explanation of your censorship appears to be very necessary.

If you refuse to air FW’s advertisement, we thus request an explanation of your basis in writing or station policy within two (2) days from the date above as time is of the essence.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request. Please respond to me at the above address.

Very Truly Yours,
Bradley A. Blakeman
President and CEO

Uncle Walter, Master of Yellow Journalism, another Dead Dinosaur Talking

Uncle Walter, the back stabber of Hue, hasn't changed one goddam bit since I last saw him in Hue. The gooks had been pushed back across the river and a house was commandeered to serve as hostel for the incoming civilian correspondents. Some where, somebody found a board and paint and the "One Hue Hotel" was opened for business. His "fellow guests" weren't happy to see him. They were pissed he flew in on a chopper while they had to ride in a convoy all the way from DaNang. He flew out in a chopper too. Left lots of angst behind. The IBD details his consistency:

War In Iraq: He said that "for every means we have to escalate, the enemy can match us," and that "we are mired in stalemate." It was Walter Cronkite on Feb. 27, 1968. And he's at it again.





As Democrats search for words to justify defunding the war in Iraq or imposing restrictions on our constitutionally defined commander in chief, they might revisit Uncle Walter's post-Tet offensive broadcast, when he conned a trusting nation by describing a massive North Vietnamese defeat as a Communist victory.

The "most trusted man in America" said Vietnam was unwinnable. Then-President Lyndon Johnson reportedly told an aide, "If I've lost Cronkite, I've lost Middle America."

href="http://www.ibdeditorials.com/IBDArticles.aspx?id=281837665866406#" onclick="JavaScript:popup=window.open('PhotoPopUp.aspx?id=281837665866406','largeimg',largeimgprops);popup.focus();">Cronkite: King Tet's deja vu.

Cronkite: King Tet's deja vu.

Cronkite has called the broadcast, "Report From Vietnam" — and LBJ's reported reaction — one of his proudest moments.

But John Murtha & Co. needn't go back that far. Cronkite, like Jimmy Carter, refuses to leave the public stage and, while experiencing everything, seems to have learned nothing.

The 90-year-old pundit was in San Jose, Calif., last week to proclaim that the war in Iraq is also a "terrible disaster," and "the earlier we get out, the better."

Cronkite opined in an interview with the Bay Area's CBS 5: "Look at the loss of lives of our young Americans there and those who have been maimed for life. For what purpose? No purpose we can define." He says "we're probably less safe," and that the only thing we've accomplished is that the "entire Arab world has put us down as an enemy."

Cronkite and the Democrats were wrong then, and they're wrong now. But in their world of naive appeasement, failure is not only an option, it is the desired result. Iraq is not Vietnam, but they're trying to make it so.

The Viet Cong didn't reach a single one of its objectives and lost most of its 45,000 troops in its attacks on 21 South Vietnamese cities. So massive was its defeat that it convinced Hanoi to send North Vietnamese Army regulars south to carry on the fight.

What Cronkite does not mention is that defeat came not on the battlefield but in the halls of Congress, when the "Watergate babies" of 1974 cut off aid to the valiant South Vietnamese who'd been successfully defending their country. The Democrats defunded that war, and they want to defund this one, too.

Cronkite, Murtha et al. seem determined to once again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory, to prove that Osama bin Laden was right when, after Clinton's debacle in Somalia, the bearded one said America was weak and didn't have the stomach to resist.

Cronkite and Murtha mourn our dead while trying to make their sacrifice meaningless. Now that's what we would call "yellow" journalism.

Helen Thomas! ROTFLMAO!!!!!! Make a Hole--Dead Dinosaur Talking!

Ripped From Riehl World View

"It appears Public Eye at CBS has plucked a gem from an interview with Helen Thomas at HuffPo I imagine few Right-siders read. It's a real laugher if you've followed Thomas at all, particularly her pronouncements as regards America killing civilians in Iraq.

Q: Do you think technology is changing [journalism]? That a good reporter will always find a venue because there are so many media outlets now?

Thomas: No, but I do think it is kind of sad when everybody who owns a laptop thinks they're a journalist and doesn't understand the ethics. We do have to have some sense of what's right and wrong in this job. Of how far we can go. We don't make accusations without absolute proof. We're not prosecutors. We don't assume.

Q: So if there's this amateur league of journalists out there, trying to do what you do...

Thomas: It's dangerous."

Wednesday, December 05, 2007

Arabs Launch Campaign to Stop Al-Jazeera Broadcasts in Europe

MEMRI:"Arabs in Europe have launched a public campaign to stop Al-Jazeera TV broadcasts in Europe. In a petition, they accuse the channel of fostering extremism among European Arab youth and of supporting terrorism.

Arabs in Europe have launched a public campaign to stop Al-Jazeera TV broadcasts in Europe. In a petition, they accuse the channel of fostering extremism among European Arab youth and of supporting terrorism.


The following are excerpts from the petition and from Shallal's article:

"Since Its Inception, Al-Jazeera Has Chosen the Path of Fostering Violence and Hatred"

"Why should Al-Jazeera be blocked in liberal Europe?

"More than 10 years after the emergence of the extremist Al-Jazeera channel, the time has come for Arabs who live in Europe and believe in a free Europe to defend the principles of a continent that has sacrificed millions of victims to reach its current state of progress, respect for human rights, rejection of extremism, and rejection of the fostering of hatred.

"Since its inception, Al-Jazeera TV has chosen the path of fostering violence and hatred in the world, and has acted so as to be an arm of terrorist forces, such as Al-Qaeda and other extremist forces. [Al-Jazeera TV] has already been prevented from operating in many countries, and some of its presenters and technical crew have been arrested for their involvement in aiding obscurantist terrorist forces like Al-Qaeda and others."

"The Time Has Come for… 'The Bin Laden Channel' to Face Its Day of Reckoning on the European Continent"

"The time has come for Al-Jazeera TV, whose name has become 'the bin Laden channel,' to face its day of reckoning on the European continent.

"It would be difficult, in this brief [overview], to provide examples of the calamitous influence, danger, and ignominy that Al-Jazeera TV has presented and continues to present. Every day that this channel [continues to] broadcast constitutes a clear violation of the principles of the media, and poisons the minds of the youth…"

Al-Jazeera is Exploiting Europe's Democratic Environment in Order to Wholeheartedly Oppose Freedom and Respect

"One cannot remain silent in the face of the dangerous insinuations broadcast by Al-Jazeera, that are aimed at trying to show that there is an extremist religious campaign against Muslims in Europe.

"One cannot remain silent, given the statements of European political and cultural researchers as to Al-Jazeera's dangerous influence on the Arab youth in Europe.

"One cannot remain silent in the face of [Sheikh Yousef] Al-Qaradhawi calling Christians and Westerners 'infidels' on Al-Jazeera, [and in the face of] his calls for violence.

"European governments cannot but note Al-Jazeera's record in the Middle East, and the restricting orders issued against it in countries such as Iraq, Kuwait, and Saudi Arabia. Perhaps these countries are not models of the kind of democracy found in Europe - but their judges and media personnel presented clear and irrefutable evidence of Al-Jazeera's involvement in actions unbefitting a media outlet.

"One cannot remain silent in the face of Al-Jazeera's continued exploitation of the European continent's democratic environment in order to practice a media policy that is wholeheartedly opposed to the freedom and respect that European principles promote.

"It is not our intention here to mention further examples of the Qatari Al-Jazeera channel's extremism. We will leave it to every free and sincere Arab individual to remember the many hours of anger he has spent viewing Al-Jazeera's destructive discourse."

"Sign Your Name With Us and Take a Stand Against Hatred and Extremism"

"Who is behind this campaign?

"This is a campaign of Arabs and Europeans aimed at implementing peaceful pressure against European governments and the European Union to stop broadcasting by the extremist Al-Jazeera satellite channel on European cable networks, as a first step towards stopping the channel from broadcasting over the European satellite [service] Hotbird…

"This is an appeal to all Arabs and Europeans, those who live in the European continent and those outside it, to add their names to the campaign.

"This is an appeal to all academics and intellectuals, to provide us with their testimony regarding the terrorist channel.

"This is an appeal to all lawyers and rights specialists, in Europe and elsewhere, to help us with their legal expertise in order to draw up a legal paper that we can present to the European parliaments and the EU.

"This is an appeal to you, as an Arab and a European, and as a consumer, to join us in pressuring the European cable networks to remove Al-Jazeera… You do not want yourself, or anyone close to you, to turn to extremism and to hatred for the countries that have given us so much love.

"Sign your name with us, and take a stand against hatred and extremism. Sign on to our campaign for 'a Europe without Al-Jazeera.'

"Sign at this address: stop_aljazeera_in_eu@yahoo.com."

"When Will Al-Jazeera's Hatred for Iraq and the Iraqis End?"

In an article titled "When Will Al-Jazeera's Hatred for Iraq and the Iraqis End?" published November 28, 2007 by the Arab left-liberal Modern Discussion website, Joseph Shallal, an Iraqi exile living in Germany, wrote that Al-Jazeera is biased against Iraq, and urged a boycott against it. (It is not clear whether Shallal is connected to the petition initiative.) He also argued that Qatar, which sponsors Al-Jazeera, is hypocritical, since it is home to the largest U.S. military base in the region:

"The Al-Jazeera channel was struck with hysteria after the fall of the late Saddam regime…

"The goal of Al-Jazeera, and of those who stand behind it, is to harm intra-Arab relations as well as relations between Arabs and the countries of the world, and to sow and deepen religious and [Sunni-Shi'ite] sectarianism and hatred among all elements if the Arab region.

"Most guests on its shows are from a single school and tendency… If we look at the Al-Jazeera Direct broadcasts, all we see are things harmful to the Iraqis and to Iraq - speeches, meetings, and conferences by Islamist terrorists from Al-Qaeda and from [other] terrorist organizations…

"At the same time, Al-Jazeera Direct ignores anything positive, inside or outside Iraq… While it carried a speech by wanted Iraqi terrorist Harith Al-Dari, who represents nothing in Iraq, it did not carry the ceremony of Iraqi Patriarch Emmanuel Delly's ordination as cardinal…

"What can we hope for and expect from a channel whose religious spokesman [i.e. Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi] calls day and night for jihad, killing, and terrorism, and issued a fatwa permitting the killing of Iraqis, and another fatwa permitting criminal terrorist suicide operations - so-called martyrdom operations - that violate all international laws[?]…

"The channel [i.e. Al-Jazeera] says that Iraq is occupied. The occupation of Iraq was [based on] international resolutions, and was declared openly by the American administration. What we don't know is how Qatar was occupied and became the largest U.S. base… Did it take place with the agreement of the Al-Jazeera channel and its religious spokesman, or with that of the ruler of Qatar and his group?

"The occupation of Iraq will end one day. But is the ruling family of the Qatari emirate and mini-state capable of expelling the Americans from their land?...

"For these reasons, I call for a boycott of Al-Jazeera, and of Qatar. Every noble Iraqi should refrain from participating in Al-Jazeera programs, and refrain from visiting Qatar. And we demand that European countries remove Al-Jazeera from European satellite [services], particularly Hotbird, and that the channel's employees be denied entry to European and Arab countries because there are question marks regarding some of them - as was the case with Al-Jazeera correspondent and cameraman [Sami Al-Hajj] in Afghanistan.

"We demand that Iraq break off all relations with the mini-state of Qatar, its government, and its biased media…" [11]


Tuesday, December 04, 2007

ISLAMOPHOBIA?! The IBD Nails the Masters of the The Islamist Head Fake

The Islamist Head Fake

New FBI data on hate crimes reveal Muslim groups are crying wolf about exploding anti-Muslim abuses. They're actually shrinking, belying claims of mass Islamophobia.


It’s plain that CAIR, which claims to be the “Muslim NAACP,” has been hyping tensions.

Every year the pressure group releases a report citing thousands of alleged civil-rights and physical abuses against Muslims, which largely are based on anecdotal reporting from members. Despite CAIR’s obvious bias (and proven record of dissembling), the PC-addled media report its numbers unfiltered and without question.

But if you peel them back, you find they’re mostly victimless crimes. For instance, in its 2006 report released in June, CAIR listed as a “hate crime” the following example: “A copy of the Quran was found in a toilet at the library of Pace University in New York.” There are other atrocities, too, such as someone trampling on a “flower bed” at a mosque in Texas.

Even in the aftermath of 9/11, when Americans were still raw with anger over 19 Muslims killing almost 3,000 of our fellow citizens, there was virtually no vigilantism or violent backlash against Muslims. In November and December 2001, Zogby polled American Muslims and found that only 6% had suffered “physical abuse or assault.”

These are all inconvenient facts for CAIR and its antiwar agenda. It can’t roll back the Patriot Act and key counterterror measures, such as mosque surveillance and passenger profiling, without ginning up sympathy in Washington for Muslims as a persecuted minority.

Each time CAIR releases another overhyped hate crimes report, it argues that violence and harassment against Muslims have multiplied because of the U.S. war on terror. “Government acts” — including airport searches, detentions and interrogations — “send a green light to mistreat Muslims,” claimed CAIR executive director Nihad Awad.

Monday, December 03, 2007

The Claws of "political correctness" never left a mark on John Howard---He will be Missed

Mark Steyn laments the loss of John Howard as Prime Minister of Australia. Howard never fell for the politically correct bullshit of Islam-the "religion of peace". Indeed, what our defense needs is more leaders like Howard who are able to talk the talk unlike so many leaders here who run at CAIR's first scream of "Islamophobia!"

"What mattered to the world was the strategic clarity Howard's ministry demonstrated on the critical issues facing (if you'll forgive the expression) Western civilisation.

First, the prime minister grasped the particular challenge posed by Islam. "I've heard those very silly remarks made about immigrants to this country since I was a child," said the Democrats' Lyn Allison. "If it wasn't the Greeks, it was the Italians ... or it was the Vietnamese." But those are races and nationalities. Islam is a religion, and a political project, and a globalised ideology. Unlike the birthplace of your grandfather, it's not something you leave behind in the old country.

Indeed, the pan-Islamic identity embraced by many second and third-generation Muslims in the West has very little to do with where their mums and dads happen to hail from. "You can't find any equivalent in Italian or Greek or Lebanese or Chinese or Baltic immigration to Australia. There is no equivalent of raving on about jihad," said Howard, stating the obvious in a way most of his fellow Western leaders could never quite bring themselves to do.

"Raving on about jihad" is a splendid line which meets what English law used to regard as the reasonable-man test. If you're a reasonable bloke slumped in front of the telly watching jihadists threatening to behead the Pope or Muslim members of Britain's National Health Service ploughing a blazing automobile through the check-in desk at Glasgow airport, "raving on about jihad" fits in a way that President George W. Bush's religion-of-peace pabulum doesn't. Bush and Tony Blair can be accused of the very opposite of the traditional politician's failing: they walked the walk but they didn't talk the talk. That's to say neither leader found a rhetoric for the present struggle that resonated. Howard did.

Likewise, Peter Costello. Sympathising with Muslims who wish to live under sharia law, he mused: "There are countries that apply religious or sharia law: Saudi Arabia and Iran come to mind. If a person wants to live under sharia law these are countries where they might feel at ease. But not Australia." It's a glum reflection on the times that such an observation should be controversial.

Yet it stands in marked contrast to, say, the Dutch Justice Minister Piet Hein Donner, who remarked that if the electors voted to bring in sharia he'd be OK with that, or the Swedish politician who said that Swedes should be "nice to Muslims while we are in the majority so that when they are in the majority they will be nice to us".

Underpinning those words is the realisation that most of the Western world is very demographically weakened. Immigration adds to the gaiety of the nation, improves the choice of restaurants and makes pasty-faced white folks feel very virtuous about their multiculti bona fides, but a dependence on immigration is always a structural weakness, and should be addressed as such. At a time of unparalleled prosperity and peace, the majority of developed nations have chosen, in effect, to give up on the future. Howard's ministry was one of the first governments to get this and, in contrast to the dismal Euro-fatalism above, to try to do something to reverse it.

Costello's exhortation to Aussie couples - have one for mum, one for dad, and one for Australia - gets the stakes exactly right. The mid-20th century entitlement state was built on a careless model that requires a constantly growing population to sustain it."