Senator Kerry owes an apology to the many thousands of Americans serving in Iraq, who answered their country's call because they are patriots and not because of any deficiencies in their education. Americans from all backgrounds, well off and less fortunate, with high school diplomas and graduate degrees, take seriously their duty to our country, and risk their lives today to defend the rest of us in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere.
They all deserve our respect and deepest gratitude for their service. The suggestion that only the least educated Americans would agree to serve in the military and fight in Iraq, is an insult to every soldier serving in combat, and should deeply offend any American with an ounce of appreciation for what they suffer and risk so that the rest of us can sleep more comfortably at night. Without them, we wouldn't live in a country where people securely possess all their God-given rights, including the right to express insensitive, ill-considered and uninformed remarks.
Senator John McCain
BUSH: 'KERRY COMMENTS INSULTING AND SHAMEFUL.. THE MEMBERS OF THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ARE PLENTY SMART, AND PLENTY BRAVE... AND THE SENATOR FROM MASSACHUSETTS OWES THEM AN APOLOGY'...
American Legion to Sen. Kerry: Apologize Now
AMVETS Calls on Senator to Apologize to Troops
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Senator Kerry's Nasty Little Remark: A Real Window into his Soul
Monday, October 30, 2006
Magnificent Arial Tour of Israel
For those who have never seen Israel, the following two videos will give you a magnificent overview in a way that you will never see in the news. With all its history and political significance, Israel is still a tiny country and can be viewed entirely by helicopter in no more than a day or two (which I have done). Yet as you will see, the variety of landscapes and diversity of religions and cultures is simply stunning. Enjoy.
Part 1:
Part 2:
Leading UK Imam: It's OK To Kill Gays
A week after Australia's leading Imam declared that female rape victims are like exposed meat and largely responsible for their own rape, a leading UK Imam declares that killing "active" gay people is "OK". Where is Act Up when you really need them? Hat tip to LGF.
AnotherAustralian Islamic cleric steps in it
The Neocon is encouraged that moderate Muslims and a few undercover non-Muslims, are attending these Mosques and bringing their tape recorders along to tape the sermons and expose the extremism and incitement. This could prove an effective method of operation.
U.S. stymied in al-Qaeda anthrax case
Sunday, October 29, 2006
ONE MORE REASON TO LOVE AMERICA
You won't see this on Osama Lucka Lucka TV
Lots of Love over at the Peace Moombeam Chronicles
SI FRUMKIN Joins the World Wide Web
Si Frumkin is a personal friend of the Neocon of 15 years. He is a survivor of the Nazi Dachau concentration camp where he was a child slave laborer. His story is told at the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles and at the Steven Spielberg Holocaust Project.
In addition to being a successful businessman, he is a tireless activist, a powerful intellectual and writer with a strong knowledge of Russia, the former Soviet Republics and the Middle East. He has decided to start his own website and the Neocon certainly encourages everyone to visit it routinely. I will be linking to his site today. We wish Si all the success in the world as he ventures into this new realm (at his age!!!), just kidding Si. So lets all give Si a strong welcome to the World Wide Web.
Al-Qaeda warns Canada: Leave Afghanistan or face attack
Steyn: Only choice on war is to win or lose it
Islam, Terror and the Second Nuclear Age
How the UN lets genocidal states get away with murder
Khamenei: Beware of watching non-Muslim women
Looking at non-Muslim women can lead to "vile consequences," Iran's Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei warned a reader on his website.
Israelis put nuclear bunkers in gardens
Saturday, October 28, 2006
Obsession, Radical Islam's War Against The West
"Obsession" is one of the most powerful, expertly crafted and undeniably important films I've seen this year. This courageous, utterly gripping expose' deserves the attention of every American -- and merits serious consideration for the Academy Award for Best Feature Length Documentary."
-- Michael Medved
The Neocon certainly encourages all to purchase this film, you can do so here, or you can view a 12 minute version of the film here.
Harold Ford: Australia 'a nuclear threat'
Tackle Teheran or face A-bomb Ahmadinejad
Thursday, October 26, 2006
Australia's Top Muslim Cleric: Rape Victims are Like 'Uncovered Meat'
Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, Australia's most senior Muslim cleric: What? What I do wrong?
"There were women who sway suggestively and wore make-up and immodest dress and then you get a judge without mercy and gives you 65 years. But the problem, but the problem all began with who?" he said, referring to the women rape victims – whom he said were "weapons used by Satan to control men...If you take out uncovered meat and place it outside on the street, or in the garden or in the park, or in the backyard without a cover, and the cats come and eat it ... whose fault is it, the cats or the uncovered meat? The uncovered meat is the problem. If she was in her room, in her home, in her hijab, no problem would have occurred." Remember, this is not some backstreet preacher, he's the number one Mulism in Australia: A new survey shows that 84% of Australians believe the Imam should be deported.
I have recieved a number of complaints that I am selectively quoting the Imam, so I give you the entire speech; I believe that the speech in its entirety is actually more damning than my selective quotes:
“Those atheists, people of the book (Christians and Jews), where will they end up? In Surfers Paradise? On the Gold Coast? Where will they end up? In hell and not part-time, for eternity. They are the worst in God’s creation.”
“When it comes to adultery, it’s 90 percent the woman’s responsibility. Why? Because a woman owns the weapon of seduction. It’s she who takes off her clothes, shortens them, flirts, puts on make-up and powder and takes to the streets, God protect us, dallying. It’s she who shortens, raises and lowers. Then, it’s a look, a smile, a conversation, a greeting, a talk, a date, a meeting, a crime, then Long Bay jail. Then you get a judge, who has no mercy, and he gives you 65 years.”
“But when it comes to this disaster, who started it? In his literature, writer al-Rafee says, if I came across a rape crime, I would discipline the man and order that the woman be jailed for life. Why would you do this, Rafee? He said because if she had not left the meat uncovered, the cat wouldn’t have snatched it.”
“If you get a kilo of meat, and you don’t put it in the fridge or in the pot or in the kitchen but you leave it on a plate in the backyard, and then you have a fight with the neighbour because his cats eat the meat, you’re crazy. Isn’t this true?”
“If you take uncovered meat and put it on the street, on the pavement, in a garden, in a park, or in the backyard, without a cover and the cats eat it, then whose fault will it be, the cats, or the uncovered meat’s? The uncovered meat is the disaster. If the meat was covered the cats wouldn’t roam around it. If the meat is inside the fridge, they won’t get it.”
“If the woman is in her boudoir, in her house and if she’s wearing the veil and if she shows modesty, disasters don’t happen.”
“Satan sees women as half his soldiers. You’re my messenger in necessity, Satan tells women you‘re my weapon to bring down any stubborn man. There are men that I fail with. But you’re the best of my weapons.”
“...The woman was behind Satan playing a role when she disobeyed God and went out all dolled up and unveiled and made of herself palatable food that rakes and perverts would race for. She was the reason behind this sin taking place.”
Al Gore: Earth is in a 'Full-Scale Planetary Emergency'!!!!!!! Holy S*#%T!
This is not a joke folks; this is louder than Chicken Little ever got. It’s truly embarrassing; I mean for how long anyone can make such hysterical claims before being deemed a crackpot is a mystery. I remember back in the 70’s when Newsweek Magazine announced the coming of a new Ice Age, and that Oil resources would run dry in 15 years and all the rest of it. And as for the recent stuff, I'm still waiting for bird flu to kill us all. But seriously, if the world doesn’t come to an end in the next 10 years are we then finally allowed to say that Al Gore is kooky? Can somebody please tell me how long Gore gets a pass on this stuff?
Poll shows Muslims in U.S. lean Democrat
Georgetown gets $20 million from prince promoting Islam
The Dark Ages -- Live From the Middle East!
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Beccy Cole Will Hit it Big in the US With This One
In extreme contrast to the nasty Galloway videos below, this is a wonderful video of Australian Country-folk singer Beccy Cole who was recently criticized by Aussie lefties for performing for Australian troops (Diggers) in Afghanistan. In response to the criticism she wrote this gentle but stinging song about her love for and pride in Australia, and contempt for the malcontents; I predict that this song will make her career in the USA, enjoy, and please spread far and wide:
Beccy Cole singing her heart out for Aussie troops in Afghanistan
Australian Muslim cleric condemned over sermon
Australia's top Muslim cleric has compared women who do not ware a headscarf to uncovered meat and hinted they are to blame for sexual assaults, prompting calls on Thursday for his deportation from Australia. The mufti of Sydney's biggest mosque, Sheikh Taj El-Din Hamid Hilaly, said sexual assaults might not happen if women wore a hijab and stayed at home. (Reuters)
Killer Video's at Infidel Bloggers Alliance (IBA)
One Blog that I check in on daily is Infidel Bloggers Alliance : This week they have featured a number of killer videos that I can't help but post here as well. The first pair of videos are of that absolute nut-job and ugly disgrace, British MK George Galloway. To understand exactly how whacky this man is simply view his latest rants at a London rally celebrating the end of Ramadan. A real mouthpiece for Jihad with an oh-so friendly Scottish accent...yuk!.
Monday, October 23, 2006
US Central Command: ISLAMIC EXTREMIST GOAL: RESTORING THE HISTORIC CALIPHATE
The following is from a press release today by the US Military's Central Command. It is encouraging that our military understand the nature of the threat and the objectives of this brutal enemy:
Al Qaeda and some Islamic extremist groups have stated that their ultimate goal is to restore a caliphate encompassing all former and current Muslim lands. The totalitarian state would impose a strict interpretation of Islamic law, curbing freedom of speech and religion, and women’s and minority rights.
Though maps vary, the plan would extend the caliphate into the middle of Africa, South Asia and parts of Europe and Southeast Asia. After the historic caliphate is established, some plans show long-term efforts for it to encompass the entire globe.
Breeding Hatred: Ahmadinejad Calls for More Babies
One really has to hand it to Iranian President Ahmadinejad; say what you will but he clearly understands the importance of demographics in the struggle for whose values will dominate the future. While NOW and Planned Parenthood are obsessed with abortion on demand and birth control on every street corner, the man who would really turn back the clock for women to the 12th century is busy encouraging Muslim men to get busy with their wives. Ahmadinejad publicly rejoices over Europe’s negative population growth and sees a Muslim baby boom as one more weapon in this war that many folks in the West don’t even grasp is happening.
Fiddling While Europe Burns
Rice: The High Priestess of the Palestinian State
Ahmadinejad: Iran's nuclear capability has increased tenfold
Diplomats: Iran Expanding Enrichment
Sunday, October 22, 2006
Clothes Aren't the Issue: The 34th Verse of the Fourth Chapter of the Koran Is
If this article in the Washington Post today dosn't give you a clue, than little if anything will ever lift the veil from your clouded brain: When dealing with a "disobedient wife," a Muslim man has a number of options. First, he should remind her of "the importance of following the instructions of the husband in Islam." If that doesn't work, he can "leave the wife's bed." Finally, he may "beat" her, though it must be without "hurting, breaking a bone, leaving blue or black marks on the body and avoiding hitting the face, at any cost." Where is NOW when you really need them?
What amazes me about the Washington Post is that on the same day that they run a clear thinking and honest article about the rights (or lack there of) of women in Islam, in the fashion section they have the nerve to run this article, where a real bimbo inks an article called: "How I Came to Love the Veil." Wow, maybe it's just me.
Saturday, October 21, 2006
BBC News: We are biased...The Neocon: Really? Who Would have Thunk?
So the BBC is biased and the sun rises in the east; nothing new but the admission itself: A leaked account of an 'impartiality summit' called by BBC chairman Michael Grade, is certain to lead to a new row about the BBC and its reporting on key issues, especially concerning Muslims and the war on terror.It reveals that executives would let the Bible be thrown into a dustbin on a TV comedy show, but not the Koran, and that they would broadcast an interview with Osama Bin Laden if given the opportunity. Further, it discloses that the BBC's 'diversity tsar', wants Muslim women newsreaders to be allowed to wear veils when on air. None of which is news to most of us.
Malkin vs. AIPAC
Michelle Malkin seems perplexed as to why most bloggers (with the noted exception of conspiracy theorists and anti-Semites) are ignoring the so-called “scandals” involving AIPAC. I will attempt to help her out on this: First, it's not a gigantic conspiracy of Jews and Christian Zionists controlling bloggers through telepathy; simply put, most bloggers, right and left, instinctively know what the deal is with these “scandals,” which explains the lack of enthusiasm to play into the hands of those who wish Israel ill. They also know that there are forces in Washington, in every government agency in fact, which do not support a strong US-Israel alliance, are weak on the war on terror, are inherently suspicious and resentful of Israel in general and of Jews specifically and will do anything they can to undermine the alliance.
To the allegations specifically: The leaking of information (sometimes even classified information) from a US government employee to a lobbyist or journalist happens, for the better or worse, every single day in Washington. Context and intent are keys to assessing the seriousness of any leak allegation. By any measurement, the known material passed on by Pentagon employee Larry Franklin (who is not Jewish) to the former AIPAC employees (who were approached by Franklin, not the other way around) was not threatening to US national security and was related entirely to Iran, which is threatening the very existence of Israel. Although he clearly violated the law, Franklin did not intend to damage US national security, and the former AIPAC employees had no such intention either. Certainly, they used bad judgment in passing on that Iran-related material to a journalist and Israeli Diplomat. But no matter how one tries to spin this, it’s not a case of even a minor threat to US national security, unless one is motivated for some reason to engage in intellectual gymnastics to try to make it so.
As for the latest “scandal” that Congresswoman Jane Harmon is “rumored” to have received AIPAC support for her appointment as the ranking Democrat on the Intelligence committee; I doubt it. But even if true, so what? You mean a lobby attempted to influence an appointment? Wow! Stop the presses! Would we rather have Barbara Lee? The accusation is that a few citizens who also happen to be AIPAC contributors exercised their right to free expression and called Nancy Pelosi in support of Harmon’s appointment. Really? Wow!
So, Michelle, that is the short version. You are normally a strong supporter of Israel, and I understand that it’s important not to appear as though you are supporting Israel blindly or without criticism. There are plenty of opportunities to criticize Israel: its socialist ways; its inappropriate past exchanges of terrorists for hostages; its bizarre embrace of Yasser Arafat in the 90’s; the whole concept of “territory for peace”, etc… But to play in to classic images of the scheming Jew pulling the strings of power and manipulating the unsuspecting goy is… well… unseemly, which also helps explain why most bloggers simply don’t go down that route. I hope that you will avoid that trap as well.
de Borchgrave: Korea's Dr. Strangelove
Security Council to Iran: Go for it
Britain's race chief warns of violence over veil row
Friday, October 20, 2006
CNN: Hypocrisy in the Service of Jihad
Dread Pundit Bluto reports that CNN has come under fire for broadcasting enemy propaganda videos of Jihadi snipers shooting down US troops. CNN’s response to the criticism? "Whether or not you agree with us in this case, our goal, as always, is to present the unvarnished truth as best we can."
CNN seems in favor of “unvarnished truth” in the service of enemy propaganda. Many of us recall however, how CNN refused to show the “unvarnished truth” when it came to the Danish cartoon controversy last year:
“CNN is not showing the negative caricatures of the likeness of the Prophet Mohammed because the network believes its role is to cover the events surrounding the publication of the cartoons while not unnecessarily adding fuel to the controversy itself.” Where was the "unvarnished truth" then? CNN: Hypocrisy in the service of Jihad.
House Defense chair asks Pentagon to remove embedded CNN reporters
Nothing of particular interest to write about, so I put up this cool Drudge Report-like siren as a meaningless attention grabber. Below are a few links of interest today.
Iran: Europe may pay "heavy price" for supporting Israel
Iran: Israel Will Disappear, Threatens Its Allies
Anti-Americanisms
Krauthammer: Allow Japanese Nukes
Gaffney: Empty Rhetoric Is No Deterrent
Real Muslims can never conform to our ways:
"Ministers appear whimsically to be shifting from the multi-cultural society towards an integrated one. They are whistling in the dark if they think that will play well with the followers of Islam in our midst. Muslims are rooted in their faith and it governs the way they live. It is the only faith on Earth that persuades its followers to seek political power and impose a law — sharia — which shapes everyone's style of life."
Thursday, October 19, 2006
Mukarak Takes Baby-Steps in the Right Direction
"Shouldn't we Muslims shoulder part of the responsibility of these wrong ideas about Islam? Have we fulfilled our duty in correcting the image of Islam and the Muslims? What did we do to face a terrorism that wears Islam's cloak and targets the lives of the people...We need a new religious approach that teaches people the correct things in their religion that gives greater value for interrelations, behavior, devotion and advocates principles of forgiveness and stands against exaggeration and extremism."
The Neocon gives credit where credit is due.
UK: Man Convicted for Anti-Muslim Banner
Only an insecure, weak-kneed and deeply confused society would fail to grasp the irony. A UK citizen was convicted in a court of law for “causing distress” because he placed a banner on his own property that read: "Kill all Muslims who threaten us and our way of life." Now, the Neocon certainly does not approve of any such banner, but I do find it stunning that this British citizen would be convicted by his own government of something that extremist Muslim groups get away with virtually every day in the UK on public property (see photo above). Another part of this that seemed troubling, was that those who complained about the banner did so not so much because of the message itself (again, which I disaprove of), but because the message might attract radical Muslims to take violent action which could endanger the neighborhood. In other words, fear of Muslim retaliation. Nobody seems to grasp the irony of all this in the UK?
Ahmadinejad: Israel cannot survive.
Ahmadinejad: Iran will not back down on nuclear plans.
North Korean General: 'War Is Inevitable'
Will: Prosperity Amid the Gloom
BOLTON CORRALS EL LOCO
Harper: Canada Will Not Be Nutral as Israel Battles Extremists
Influential British Islamic scholar Denied US entry
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
Iran President Ahmadinejad: 'I Have a Connection With God'
'I Have a Connection With God, Since God Said That the Infidels Will Have No Way to Harm the Believers'; 'We Have [Only] One Step Remaining Before We Attain the Summit of Nuclear Technology'; The West 'Will Not Dare To Attack Us'
If this dosn't speak for itself...
Tuesday, October 17, 2006
Mark Steyn: A DARK GLOBALISM: How Islamist Terror Spread Its Tentacles Worldwide
Mark Styen is one of the Neocon’s favorite writers and he clearly understands what is at stake. Miles ahead of a seemingly oblivious public walking around like zombies; Styen is a walking encyclopedia of the Islamo-fascist threat. I highly recommend his new book: ‘America Alone.’ Below are some excerpts:
THE dragons are no longer on the edge of the map: That's the lesson of 9/11.
When you look at it that way, the biggest globalization success story of recent years is not McDonald's or Microsoft but Islamism. The Saudis took what was not so long ago a severe but peripheral strain of Islam - practiced by Bedouins in the middle of a desert miles from anywhere - and successfully exported it to Jakarta and Singapore and Alma-Ata and Grozny and Sarajevo and Lyons and Bergen and Manchester and Ottawa and Dearborn and Falls Church. It was a strictly local virus, but the bird flew the coop. And now, instead of the quaintly parochial terrorist movements of yore, we have the first globalized insurgency.
But Islam is not just a religion. Those lefties who bemoan what America is doing to provoke "the Muslim world" would go bananas if any Western politician started referring to "the Christian world." When such sensitive guardians of the separation of church and state endorse the first formulation but not the second, they implicitly accept that Islam has a political sovereignty too. Thus, it's not merely that there's a global jihad lurking within this religion, but that the religion itself is a political project - and, in fact, an imperial project - in a way that modern Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism and Buddhism are not.
So we have a global terrorist movement, insulated within a global political project, insulated within a severely self-segregating religion whose adherents are the fastest-growing demographic in the developed world. The jihad thus has a very potent brand inside a highly dispersed and very decentralized network much more efficient than anything the CIA can muster. And these fellows can hide in plain sight.
NOT long after 9/11, I said, just as an aside, that these days whenever something goofy turns up on the news chances are it involves some fellow called Mohammad.
A plane flies into the World Trade Center? Mohammad Atta.
A sniper starts killing gas station customers around Washington, D.C.? John Allen Muhammad.
A guy fatally stabs a Dutch movie director? Mohammed Bouyeri.
A gunman shoots up the El Al counter at Los Angeles airport? Hesham Mohamed Hedayet.
A terrorist slaughters dozens in Bali? Noordin Mohamed.
A British subject self-detonates in a Tel Aviv bar? Asif Mohammad Hanif.
A terrorist cell bombs the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania? Ali Mohamed.
A gang rapist preys on the women of Sydney, Australia? Mohammad Skaf.
A group of Dearborn, Mich., men charged with cigarette racketeering in order to fund Hezbollah? Fadi Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud, Mohammad Fawzi Zeidan and Imad Mohamad-Musbah Hammoud.
A Canadian terror cell is arrested for plotting to bomb Ottawa and behead the prime minister? Mohammad Dirie, Amin Mohamed Durrani and Yasim Abdi Mohamed.
AND there are minimal degrees of separation between all these Mohammads and the most eminent figures in the Muslim world and the critical institutions at the heart of the West. For example, in 2003, Abdurahman Alamoudi was jailed for attempting to launder money from a Libyan terror-front "charity" into Syria via London.
Who's Abdurahman Alamoudi? He's the guy who until 1998 certified Muslim chaplains for the United States military, under the aegis of his Saudi-funded American Muslim Armed Forces and Veterans Affairs Council. In 1993, at an American military base, at a ceremony to install the first imam in the nation's armed forces, it was Mr. Alamoudi who presented him with his new insignia of a silver crescent star.
He's also the fellow who helped devise the three-week Islamic awareness course in California public schools, in the course of which students adopt Muslim names, wear Islamic garb, give up candy and TV for Ramadan, memorize suras from the Koran, learn that "jihad" means "internal personal struggle," profess the Muslim faith, and recite prayers that begin "In the name of Allah," etc.
OH, and, aside from his ster ling efforts on behalf of multicultural education, Alamoudi was also an adviser on Islamic matters to Hillary Clinton.
And it turns out he's a bagman for terrorists.
Infiltration-wise, I would say that's pretty good. The desk jockeys at the CIA insist, oh no, it would be impossible for them to get any of their boys inside al Qaeda. But the other side has no difficulty setting their chaps up in the heart of the U.S. military, and the U.S. education system, and the U.S. political establishment, and the offices of U.S. senators and former First Ladies.
Our failure to confront radical Islam
Korea's Nightmare: Horrors of Life in the North
Monday, October 16, 2006
Borat Clips
YouTube offers up a few clips from the upcoming movie ‘Borat: Cultural Learning’s of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan’, to be released next month. Below is one particular seen which I found funny and painfully disturbing at the same time, when the Jewish comedian Sacha Baron Cohen, in full Borat character, decides to test a crowd at a Tucson Western honky-tonk to see what their reaction to an anti-Semitic song from “back home in Kazakhstan” would be. Some in the audience were shocked, but most just sang along in laughter, which is something of an eye-opener. Anyway, it was this particular clip that the Anti-Defamation league expressed concern about, stating that some might miss Sacha Cohen’s intent (to expose drunken ignorance with humor) in creating this clip unbeknownst to those cheerfully singing along.
This next clip below shows “Borat” speaking to a local Republican Club. I found this video to be hysterical. The naiveté but good-heartedness of those in attendance was telling; they had no idea they were being used as props for a comedy and displayed courtesy, patients and perhaps an undue level of tolerance as the Borat character becomes gradually more outrageous.
Jihad Incorporated
American Leftist gets 28 months jail for aiding terrorism
Ahmadinejad: God told me we will win
Saturday, October 14, 2006
The Left: Banking on Ignorance and Casualty Hysteria
While the Neocon, of course, considers every casualty in our military a tragedy, it is important to put things into proper historic perspective in this environment of hysteria generated by lefty moonbats during an election year. Please go to this link, which gives official US Department of Defense “active duty military death figures.” These numbers will clearly show that by historic standards, even during peace-time, active duty military death figures are currently actually lower than most years since 1980. Furthermore, to put current numbers in historic perspective, for example; during the battle of Iwo Jima, Feb 19 to March 26, 1945 (corrected), over 6,800 US servicemen lost their lives. During the civil war, casualties were astounding; in 1864 as General Grant marched on Richmond, a series of battles cost the following:
The Wilderness, May 5-7: 17,666
Spotsylvania, May 10 and 12: 10,920
Drewry's Bluff, May 12-16: 4,160
Cold Harbor, June 1-3: 12,000
Petersburg, June 15-30: 16,569
And those are just Union numbers; confederate numbers are harder to assess. Many other examples are readily available but the point is clear, history did not begin yesterday, and it did not begin with the invasion of Iraq. Perspective and an understanding of history are necessary in such times. Unfortunately, politics and playing off of peoples ignorance during an election year seems to be the name of the game.
The following note came in from the Neocon official Military Historian:
Joe: FYI, Iwo ran from Feb 19-Mar 26, not the Mar 19 you list; as you correctly write 6,800 US KIA AND 20,000 WIA and missing. Losses at Iwo were so bad, 3 Marine divisions were virtually gutted. American parents complained to Gen Marshall that Marine leadership was incompetent and bloodthirsty.
Also, Battle of the Bulge aka Battle of the Ardennes, 20,000 US KIA and 75,000 WIA and missing, most since civil war.
In the practices leading up to Normandy invasion, German subs penetrated landing ships and sunk troop carriers, apx. 800 US KIA in just few hours!
In Italy invasion, US beaches had been pummeled so badly by Germain air force, when wave of C47s loaded with paratroops passed over for inland jump, US navy and ground guns opened up, shooting down dozens of aircraft. Hundreds killed in this accident.
Candidly, I'm impressed that US casualties in Iraq and Afghan are so relatively low; and that enemy has not downed more aircraft, especially choppers. US performance has been magnificent!
Future in the balance
Sam Nunn: U.S. must act to confront nuclear threat
Buckley: Diplomacy Hits Kim
de Borchgrave: GALLIC INTIFADA
BBC Audio: separation of Muslim's from the rest of Britain
Who has controlled the Middle East over the course of history? Pretty much everyone. Egyptians, Turks, Jews, Romans, Arabs, Greeks, Persians, Europeans...the list goes on. Who will control the Middle East today? That is a much bigger question.
Friday, October 13, 2006
Apple's 'Mecca Project' Insults Islam ? The Next Riot?
On October 10, 2006, an Islamic website posted a message alerting Muslims to what it claims is a new insult to Islam. According to the message, the cube-shaped building which is being constructed in New York City, on Fifth Avenue between 58th and 59th Streets in midtown Manhattan, is clearly meant to provoke Muslims. The fact that the building resembles the Ka'ba (see picture above), is called "Apple Mecca," is intended to be open 24 hours a day like the Ka'ba, and moreover, contains bars selling alcoholic beverages, constitutes a blatant insult to Islam. The message urges Muslims to spread this alert, in hope that "Muslims will be able to stop the project."
Hyscience reports: From The Register we learn that it's a bit late to stop the project since the store opened for business back in May (gee, too bad). However, the building is not called the "Apple Mecca", it "does not serve alcoholic beverages, and neither Jack Straw nor Salman Rushdie work behind the counter." So the outraged members of what many believe to be the religion of perpetual outrage should be able to breathe more easily, until they find some other ridiculous offense to become outraged over - again.
Jawa Report writes: "They claim they don't worship Idols. But replicate their cube and they get all hissy about it."
Krauthammer: What Will Stop North Korea
The Desperate Dictator: Kim Jong-Il
Noonan: The Sounds of Silencing
What's YouTube?
Kim Jong Il plays high-stakes nuclear poker.
Reid deeds, a More Serious Matter than Foley E-mails
Harry's Hang Up
Air America Radio Files for Chapter 11
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Metacafe Offers Quality Alternative to YouTube
I hear a lot of complaining lately about YouTube from fellow conservative-leaning bloggers. On the surface of things it does seem that YouTube have gone partisan with more frequent removals of conservative-leaning video clips that they deem “offensive.” One way to fight back is to aggressively use and promote a quality alternative to YouTube, and hit them where it hurts most, in traffic numbers. Metacafe.com offers exactly such a high-quality and efficient alternative to YouTube. With over 2.7 million registered users. Metacafe.com was founded by a former Israeli Air force fighter pilot who is not likely to impose PC speech codes conservatives. Hate-America Jihadies may have a problem, but conservatives should be OK; kind of like the opposite as YouTube. Watch how quickly YouTube change their policy if a small movment towards Metacafe.com is organized by the right side of the net.
Warren: Out of Their Misery
Mowbray: Will Dems Embrace CAIR Candidate?
Goldberg: When Multilateralism Falls Short
Coulter: Clinton's New Glow Job
"Hey Clip": 4th Most Watched Internet Video Clip in History with Over 10,000,000 Views...and counting
I try to keep it light every few posts which explains the following: I came accorss this really cool video on Youtube that has already reached world-wide cult status and has been viewed over 10,000,000 times, making it the 4th most viewed video clip in the history of the internet! It's a couple of Israeli girls (who made the video for a boyfriend) goofing around and lip-syncing to music in their room and is guranteed to raise a smile even for the most grumpy among us, and no, it's not racey, compared to any Madonna Video anyway. It has an innocent and authentic feel to it which is probably what makes it so successful. How come we never get to see fun stuff like this coming out of..say...Syria or Iran?
Dr. Wafa Sultan to Travel to Israel
Dr. Sultan recounts that when she lived in Syria, she was taught to hate Israel , to think of Israelis as inhuman, a different kind of creature. When she was in California with her husband, she discovered that a shoe salesman was an Israeli Jew. Hysterical, she ran out of the shop barefoot. When her husband asked her what was wrong with her she answered that the man was her enemy and that she hated him. It was the first time she had ever met an Israeli Jew face to face. "Slowly, I learned how wrong and stupid we were...I lived in fear for 32 years. 32 years of my life were stolen from me by radical Islam." She now believes that her mission is to "breach the walls of the prison of the Islamic world...this is my mission in life. Nothing will stop me."
The Pseudo-Histories of the Iraq War
Wednesday, October 11, 2006
Clinton, Carter and Korea
Bill Clinton's agreement 12 years ago was a complete failure. As Senator John McCain has now noted: "the North Koreans received millions and millions in US energy and food assistance. They then diverted millions of dollars to their military efforts." In short, Clinton set up a state of affairs in which the U.S. spent billions of US taxpayer dollars trying to bribe North Korea, then we crossed our fingers that it would behave itself. It didn't work. Much of our aid was secretly diverted by North Korea to their uranium enrichment program, which has paved the way for the North Korean bomb. How could it have ever been other than a failure? Look who Clinton sent to sit down with the communist leader — Jimmy Carter.
The Clinton "engagment" (read bribery efforts) didn't work with North Korea, we can all see that now. Civilized "engagment" does not work with such a regime, how many times must it be tried?. Last year, South Korea offered to supply the electricity equivalent of what two nuclear plants would produce in exchange for the regime abandoning nuclear weapons. It threw in 500,000 tons of rice for the starving masses, plus an array of other supplies and services, all to no avail. The starvation of millions is meaningless to North Korea's pseudo-Stalinist ideology.
Iran: We will continue Nuke program "without fear,"
N. Korea Threatens War
“If the U.S. keeps pestering us and increases pressure, we will regard it as a declaration of war and will take a series of physical corresponding measures,” the North’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency. Even along the razor-wired no-man’s-land separating the divided Koreas, communist troops on the North’s side were more boldly trying to provoke their Southern counterparts: spitting across the demarcation line and making throat-slashing hand gestures.
We Need a New Deterrent
Republicans Back on the Offensive
Poisoning the Water's Edge
Don't Bring that Booze into my Taxi
George Soros’ Shadow Party on Colision Course With the FBI.
Al-Qaida urges followers in new video to "go nuclear"
Tuesday, October 10, 2006
David Zucker: The Albright Identity
Madman heralds a grave new world
Our World: History's dangerous repetition
Jimmy Carter: I'm Convinced the North Koreans Won't Go Nuclear
You won't be reminded of this in the Main Stream Media: Former President and ex-Clinton envoy to North Korea Jimmy Carter, on CNN, June 22, 1994 (shortly after his dealings with North Korean dictator Kim Il-sung):
CARTER: What the North Koreans were waiting for was some treatment of their exalted leader with respect and a direct communication. I didn't have to argue with him. When I outlined the specific points that were the Clinton administration's position, I presented them to him. And with very little equivocation, he agreed. I think it's all roses now. I've known that there were people in Washington who were sceptical about any direct dealing with the North Koreans. They were already condemned as outlaws. Kim Il-sung was already condemned a criminal.
Question: Are you absolutely convinced that the North Koreans are going to honour this agreement, that while talks are going on that it's not just a matter of buying time on the part of the North Koreans, that they will not secretly pursue the nuclear program they were pushing earlier?
Carter: I'm convinced. But I said this when I got back from North Korea, and people said that I was naive or gullible and so forth. I don't think I was. In my opinion, this was one of those perfect agreements where both sides won. We should not ever avoid direct talks, direct conversations, direct discussions and negotiations with the main person in a despised or misunderstood or condemned society who can actually resolve the issue.
Now if I were at CNN (God forbid), I would get Carter on the air and play back that interview multiple times.
This Election is about whether you are a serious or frivolous person
The Straw that Broke the Burqa
Monday, October 09, 2006
It’s the Nukes, Stupid
Shivering Alaskans to Hugo Chavez: Keep your oil
Bolton: An Attack on South Korea or Japan is an Attack on the USA
This article by Robert Kaplan in the Atlantic Monthly is an absolute must read to gain a solid grasp on the North Korean threat. It is long, but well worth the read:
"Korea may be the most dismal place in the world for U.S. troops to be deployed—worse, in some ways, than Iraq. While I traveled on the peninsula, numerous members of the combat-arms community, both air and infantry, told me that they would rather be in Iraq or Afghanistan than in Korea, which constitutes the worst of all military worlds... The threat from north of the DMZ is formidable. North Korea boasts 100,000 well-trained special-operations forces (and over a million troops just north of the DMZ) and one of the world’s largest biological and chemical arsenals. It has stockpiles of anthrax, cholera, and plague, as well as eight industrial facilities for producing chemical agents—any of which could be launched at Seoul by the army’s conventional artillery."
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France and Its Muslims: In this leangthy article in 'Foreign Affairs,' Stephanie Giry makes the case that Muslim assimilation in Europe is going just dandy (with a few minor problems). Fortunatly, David Warren of the Ottawa Citizen delivers a sharp rebuttal, illustrating that long-winded articles like Giry's do not nessisarily reflect deep thought.
THE HOUSE & THE WAR
North Korea? SCORE ONE FOR BILL CLINTON and Jimmy Carter
Harry Reid today announced that the North Korean nuclear test is all Bush’s fault. Good lord Harry! Please scroll down and notice the photo of Madeline Albright, you know what they say about a picture being worth a thousand words. Rusty crusty Harry Reid is, to paraphrase Churchill, an old town clerk looking up the wrong end of a municipal drainpipe. In the depths of his dusty soul there is nothing but abject surrender. As much a curse to this country in peace as he is now in war, a real merchant of discourtesy. A sheep in sheep’s clothing; a seemingly modest man who has a good deal to be modest about. In short, he has all of the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire.
Sunday, October 08, 2006
Report: NORTH KOREA EXPLODES A NUCLEAR WEAPON
In a somewhat predictable yet still stunning development…news that has absolutely nothing to do with Mark Folly sending e-mail to male Pages… it is reported that North Korea tested moments ago a nuclear weapon. If proven true, this will change the world as we know it, for the worse. South Korea and Japan will now feel compelled to counter this development with nuclear development of their own, expanding the nuclear club and the likely ultimate proliferation of nuclear bombs, as North Korea will now be in a position to sell the bomb to a third party, including possibly to terror groups. This is truly a frightening threshold that has been crossed. Not enough to wake up Liberals, but close to it.
Madam Albright paves the way for the North Korean Bomb
Page scandal makes America look silly
Mark Steyn:
I'm a foreigner, so I might not be up to speed on how things work around here. But, insofar as I understand it after the last week, American politics is divided between: teenage pages; guys who are hot for teenage pages; guys who are enablers for guys who are hot for teenage pages; guys who devote inordinate time and effort to entrapping guys who are hot for teenage pages; guys who are rattled by guys accusing them of having devoted insufficient time and effort to nailing the guys who are hot for teenage pages and get panicked into holding press conferences where they announce the following: "As the speaker I take responsibility for everything in the building. The buck stops here. ... That is why I directed the clerk of the House to establish a hotline for reporting any information concerning pages or the page program. As of this morning, the clerk of the House has activated the tip-line. . . . The page program tip line is 866-348-0481." (If the clerk's not there, you can have him paged.)
Charles Kruthammer:
IN 1983, REPRESENTATIVE GERRY Studds, Democrat of Massachusetts, admitted to having sex with a 17-year-old male page. He was censured by the House of Representatives. During the vote, which he was compelled by House rules to be present for, Studds turned his back on the House to show his contempt for his colleagues' reprimand. He was not expelled from the Democratic Caucus. In fact, he was his party's nominee in the next election in his district--and the next five after that--winning reelection each time. He remained in the bosom of the Democratic Caucus in the House for the next 13 years.
In 2006, Republican congressman Mark Foley was found to have been engaged in lurid sexual Internet correspondence with a 16-year-old House page. There is no evidence yet of his ever laying a hand on anyone, let alone having sex with a page. When discovered, he immediately resigned. Had he not, says Republican House Speaker Dennis Hastert, "I would have demanded his expulsion." Not only is Foley gone, but half the Republican House leadership has been tarred. Hastert himself came within an inch of political extinction. Am I missing something?
America at 300 Million
Inside Hezbollah's big Miscalculation.
Sign of Hope: Massive Venezuela opposition rally
Friday, October 06, 2006
The Gathering World Storm
The gathering storm of the 21st century is quite visible in many places in the world, but apparently not sufficiently for many Americans to see it coming. When individuals, including the president of the United States, try to warn the citizenry that this storm has yet to hit the country in full force, they are dismissed by many Americans, most of them bitter partisans of the party out of power, as well as pacifists and radical populists, as prevaricators, warmongers and incompetents.
the attack on the pope was only the latest signal from the supranational terrorists that their target was not merely the State of Israel, the American government and Jews everywhere. Evangelical Protestants, already identifying with Israel and the fate of Judaism as tied with their own, had very early recognized the gathering storm. So did individual Catholics. But with the brutal reaction to Pope Benedict XVI, the terrorists made plainer than ever before their true target and goal, the destruction of western civilization itself by violence. Liberal religious persons, and secular Christians and Jews, in many cases, remain skeptical of the storm ahead, and often lead the rhetorical campaigns in the media and in political campaigns to denounce those who warn of its imminence and try to prepare for it. When the next wave of attacks do come, these naysayers, of course, will try to make the world forget their shortsightedness, just as the isolationists did after Pearl Harbor, just as those Frenchmen who caved into Hitlerism tried to do after the Vichy regime fell, just as Europe tried to do after the Holocaust was revealed in its full horror, just as the Common Market did after ethnic cleansing in Yugoslavia, just as Africans are doing while Darfur sinks into further depravity.
When American apologists for terrorists, and others who feed on their own political correctness or other grievances, recently criticized the use of the phrase "Islamo-fascism," they attempted, consciously or unconsciously, to avert the world's attention from actual and historical origins of the hatreds in the Middle East, and the womb of the ideology of much of the terrorism from which has grown a supranational threat and a gathering world storm.
Recent gloating by these apologists that they had successfully suppressed the term "Islamo-fascism" by associating it with their negative perceptions of President Bush, Prime Minister Blair, and the efforts to prepare for and combat the gathering storm, was premature. The term is exactly and historically accurate. It will not go away. Nor will the storm.
Barry Casselman
Seizures of radioactive materials fuel 'dirty bomb' fears
Op-Ed of the Day: The Gathering World Storm
How the world would change if North Korea tests a bomb
COLUMBIA'S SPEECH THUGS
The Religious Left Cuddles Ahmadinejad
Thursday, October 05, 2006
THE NEOCON EXPRESS: A MOSTLY MARK FOLEY FREE ZONE
Iran's Khameini: Don't masturbate during Ramadan (No Joke)
Former British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw triggered a row by revealing that he asks Muslim women to remove veils from their faces when they visit his constituency office to seek his help. Will riots ensue?
US: "We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea"
North Korea "can have a future, or it can have these weapons. It cannot have both...We are not going to live with a nuclear North Korea," Assistant Secretary of State Chris Hill told the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University Wednesday. "We are not going to accept it." Them is real fight'n words, time will tell how serious we really are. Meanwhile, a military plane capable of detecting radiation has taken off from southern Japan amid concerns over the threatened nuclear test. The plane, which can collect and analyze radioactive substances in the air, took off from the U.S. air base at Kadena on the southern island of Okinawa.
A new report claims that an Israeli company discovered oil at a drilling site near the Dead Sea. If true, and the discovery is sizable, that will have a substantial impact on the balance of power in the Middle East. As is, Israel has no major natural resources and still has an economy twice the size of Saudi Arabia which sits on the largest known oil reserves in the world.
Meanwhile,French Police report that "Muslims are waging civil war against us." Thhat's pretty strong language and will likely impact the upcoming French election, helping hard-liner Nicolas Sarkozy in his bid to replace the whinnie President Chiraq.
Coulter: Who Knew Mark Foley was a Closeted Democrat?
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
Begala's Not So Civil Discourse
By TOM BEVAN at Real Clear Politics
Anybody remember the penultimate paragraph from a column Paul Begala wrote on November 13, 2000? It has stuck with me as one of the truly despicable pieces of discourse of the last few years - and believe me, there have been quite a few. Here's a refresher:
Yes, Barnicle is right when he notes that tens of millions of good people in Middle America voted Republican. But if you look closely at that map you see a more complex picture. You see the state where James Byrd was lynch-dragged behind a pickup truck until his body came apart -- it's red. You see the state where Matthew Shepard was crucified on a split-rail fence for the crime of being gay -- it's red. You see the state where right-wing extremists blew up a federal office building and murdered scores of federal employees -- it's red. The state where an Army private who was thought to be gay was bludgeoned to death with a baseball bat, and the state where neo-Nazi skinheads murdered two African-Americans because of their skin color, and the state where Bob Jones University spews its anti-Catholic bigotry: they're all red too.
You really can't paint with a much broader brush than labeling half the country racist, anti-gay bigots and neo-nazis. What struck me about Begala's comments at the time was that he wasn't some no-name nutroot blogger crying out for attention (they didn't exist yet), he was a top strategist in the Democratic party. He remains that today - even though his penchant for most uncivil type of discourse seems as great as ever. Here is Begala concluding his first post at the new Washington Monthly Election '06 blog:
The Capitol needs a change. Hell, it needs to be fumigated. And as the stench and filth of GOP sleaze slowly oozes away, let us never forget that these slimeballs, these dirtbags, these moral midgets think they're better than you and me.
Such highmindedness. As I said, this stuff isn't coming from a member of the kooky lunatic fringe but from a top Dem political strategist and one of the people who has their hand on the rudder of the Democratic party.
Our Leaders Get it, Our Public is Another matter
Australian PM John Howard – A clear-thinking, straight-talking, no-BS leader. In fact, the Neocon observes that all of the leaders of the English speaking world, John Howard of Australia, Stephen Harper of Canada, Tony Blair of Great Britain, and of course George W. Bush of the United States, all get it. They all clearly understand the threat to the civilized world. Also as observed many times on this site, our leaders are far ahead of the public on this. Below we give you some of the latest words from John Howard:
WITH the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of Soviet communism, it became all too easy to pretend that the outcome of the Cold War was an inevitable result of large-scale, impersonal forces that ultimately left totalitarianism exhausted and democratic capitalism triumphant. Nothing could be further from the truth. This was a struggle fought by individuals on behalf of the individual spirit.
It's worth recalling just some of the philo-communism that was once common in Australia in the 1950s and '60s:
- Manning Clark's book Meeting Soviet Man likened the ideals of Vladimir Lenin to Jesus Christ;
- John Burton, the former head of the External Affairs Department, argued Mao's China provided a model for the transformation of Australia;
- All those who did not simply oppose Australia's commitment in Vietnam but who actively supported the other side and fed the delusion that Ho Chi Minh was some sort of Jeffersonian Democrat intent on spreading liberty in Asia.
To quote George Orwell: One has to belong to the intelligentsia to believe things like that: no ordinary man could be such a fool.
There is a view that the pro-communist left in Australia in decades past was no more than a bunch of naive idealists, rather than what they were - ideological barrackers for regimes of oppression opposed to Australia and its interests. In taking on the communist left and their fellow-travellers, people like Richard Krygier, James McAuley, Peter Coleman, Bob Santamaria, Heinz Arndt and Frank Knopfelmacher were not only right in practice. They were right in principle and part of a noble and moral cause. In the eyes of the new left, the Cold War became a struggle defined by moral equivalence where the Soviet bloc and the American-led West were equally to blame, each possessing their own dominating ideologies. It became the height of intellectual sophistication to believe that people in the West were no less oppressed than people under communist dictatorship.
In time, the world would luckily see the emergence of three remarkable individuals whose moral clarity punctured such nonsense: Ronald Reagan; Margaret Thatcher; and Pope John Paul II. Again, it would take the brave voices of a few individuals to take a stand against the orthodoxies of the day.
Despite a more diverse and lively intellectual environment in Australia compared with past decades, we should not underestimate the degree to which the soft left still holds sway, especially in Australia's universities.
Let me say a few words about the global struggle we now face at the start of the 21st century. Let me repeat what I have said before. This is not a struggle against Islam. It is a struggle against a perverted interpretation of Islam. To those who want to portray the West as anti-Muslim I would say that it was not the Arab League who went to war in the 1990s on behalf of Muslim minorities in the Balkans. It was the governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and their NATO allies. Let me also remind people who now talk as if Iraq was some island of pro-Islamic tranquillity before 2003 that the person who probably killed more Muslims in history is Saddam Hussein. There are, as Owen Harries reminds us, people who legitimately opposed the original action to oust Saddam Hussein, but it remains (to borrow a phrase) an inconvenient truth that if countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia simply abandon the people of Iraq this would be an enormous victory for the forces of terror and extremism around the world.
The fact is we are part of a global campaign for the very ideals that some people wistfully dreamed were unchallengeable after the Cold War. No less than in that long, twilight struggle, this too will be a generational struggle for ideals of democratic freedom and liberty under law.
Emerson: THE JIHAD ON PETER KING
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Who Are the 'Progressives' These Days?
I came across this great piece by one of my favorite artists, Seal, on Youtube. I post it not only because it appeals to my particular taste in music, but also because I sometimes tend to wonder if indeed: "We're Never Going to Survive Unless We Get a Little Crazy." Enjoy.
Will the "clash of civilizations" becomes a campaign issue?
To end Iran standoff, plan for war
Correction for: "Hijackers of Commercial Jet “Protesting” Popes Comments About Islam and Violence"
“Anonymous” makes the point in his comment that this hijacking story should be corrected given the now-known, full circumstances of the incident. Of course “Anonymous” is right. As it turns out, the hijacker was a lone Turkish Muslim man who had recently converted to Christianity and was about to be drafted into the Turkish Army. Apparently, as a convert to Christianity, the man feared what may happen to him in the Turkish Army which is made up almost entirely of Muslims, so he hijacked the plane seeking political asylum in Italy. Apparently, the confusion about the Pope was a result of the man’s ramblings to the pilot, where he mentioned that the Pope should cancel his visit to Turkey, which was initially (and wrongly) interpreted as a protest against the Pope or a demand. In any event, I will leave up the original post so that folks can now see it in context:
Hijackers took over a Turkish commercial jet in rout to Albania. Apparently, the Muslim hijackers are protesting the Popes recent comments that inferred that Islam has a propensity for violence. There is no word yet if the hijackers are aware of the irony that their act of violence serves to further substantiate the Popes comments. Stay tuned.
ADL: Concerned over Borat's depiction of anti-Semitism
Germany Awakes to Reality of Islam-inspired self-censorship
End the blame game and start fighting terror
North Korea says it will conduct nuclear test
Stephen Harper - The New Face of Canada
The Dow Jones Industrial reached an all time intra-day trading high for the first time in six years. In an incredible display of the US economy’s resilience; overcoming the bursting of the high-tech bubble, 9/11, the war on terror, record high oil prices, and the relentless (politically motivated) negativity of segments of our society; nothing could stop the advance of a robust US economy, which remains the envy of the world.