Pakistan reports Clinton says "convict publishers" of Muhammed Cartoons

UPDATED!!!!Scroll down. This story looks like it's not true.

This can't be correct. A Pakistani newspaper, the Daily Times, is reporting that ex- president Bill Clinton

on Friday condemned the publication of Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) caricatures by European newspapers and urged countries concerned to convict the publishers.

Talking to reporters after meeting Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz in Islamabad, Clinton said he disagreed with the caricatures and that the publication was against religious and ethical norms.

Let's take this with a grain of salt because it is coming from a Pakistani publication. I would like to see some verification of this report. I cannot believe that Clinton would actually call for the convictions of editors and publishers who printed or reprinted these cartoons. According to the Pakistani paper, Clinton went on to say,

He said the people’s religious convictions should be respected at all costs and the media should be disallowed to play with the religious sentiments of other faiths. He said the media could criticise any issue including governments and people, but nobody had the right to play with the sentiments of other faiths.

Clinton said people in the US had also condemned the publication and were deeply concerned over it. He said they respected Islam, as it was the fastest growing religion in the US.

If this is true, then the ex-president has joined the pandering of the Democratic party's top guns, from Hillary Clinton to Dean to Sharpton to Kerry to Kennedy to Jesse Jackson to Pelosi to Gore and all the rest which knows no bounds of decency. They are willing to spout whatever poison they deem to be most pleasing to the ears of their listeners. The verdict is pretty well in on all the rest but I thought that Clinton would at least try to avoid Jimmah Cartering himself so obviously in front of whatever salivating host was present. Especially in the presence of a leader of a country that is one of the worst offenders in the day-to-day, week-to-week, month-in and month-out and year-to-year vicious denegrating of the Jewish, Christian, European and American peoples as pigs, dogs and sons of monkeys.

Again, I say if this is true. I pray that it is not. Naaah, can't be . . . can it?

UPDATE: Checking 60 some sources now on the net with this story: VOA doesn't corroborate the "convict publishers" comment.
PakTribune doesn't corroborate
M&C, via Deutsche Presse-Agentur doesn't corroborate
Kaiser doesn't cooborate
Outlook India.com not only does not corroborate the Pakistan Daily Times story, but seemingly contradicts it.

"We live in societies where people are free to say the wrong things and right things. But I would not be surprised if the person who drew those cartoons and the newspaper which decided to print them may not even know that it was considered blasphemous to have any kind of personal depiction of the Prophet," he (Clinton) said.

The BBC doesn't corroborate.

I think I see what has happened here. The ex-president is quoted in several of the news sources as saying that

religious convictions of the people should be respected at all costs and no media should be allowed to play with the religious sentiments of people of any faith.

The Pakistan Daily Times needs an English translator.

Should I take down the post or should we find a Pakistani consulate to burn, anyway?
How many times can I hurredly misspell corroborate?

TAGS: Bill Clinton, Muhammed Cartoons, Pakistan

Richard Dreyfuss and other loveable losers

Richard Dreyfuss
Latest loveable loser of "cause worth fighting for" and brings own sign. Says, "No one ever gives up power, ever," and claims to be a "libo-conservo-middle-of-the-roado." Here are some other losers who eventually learned that they, too, were going to lose and how Dreyfuss' statements applied to them in their own times.

Pierre de Rigaud, marquis de Vaudreuil-Cavagnon
Lost Canadiens, lost Red Wings, lost Kwame Kilpatrick.
Discovered that British could "get men into ships and move them to the right battlefield" pretty damned quickly.

King George III
Lost Ford, lost Chrysler, lost General Motors, lost Microsoft, lost Enron, lost Fargo, lost Popeil Pocket Fisherman.
Repeatedly told Sons of Liberty, "don't kid yourselves."

Presidente y General Antonio Lopez de Santa Ana
Lost Willie Nelson and Luckenbach, lost job, won French pastries war and job back, lost leg, lost Arizona, lost New Mexico, lost California, lost Colorado, lost Utah, lost Nevada, lost Wyoming, lost job - again.
Learned that, in the greater metropolitan Washington-On-the_Brazos area, the "need for revenge after an attack inevitably weakened" only after the succcessful counter attack.

Robert E. Lee
Won Harpers Ferry, lost slave Wesley Norris, regained slave Wesley Norris, whipped slave Wesley Norris, rubbed brine into lacerations on back of slave Wesley Norris, lost Custis's back yard at Arlington, lost Civil War.
Tried to kill "people in Kansas."

Admiral Pascual Cervera
Lost battle of Santiago Bay - 510 casualties, 1670 prisoners.
Americans: 1 dead, 6 wounded, 1670 more mouths to feed.
His "instantaneous, reflexive response" was to frantically wave white flag.

Kaiser Wilhelm
Lost Mont Blanc, lost hamburgers, lost frankfurters.
Was "truly staunch of heart and truly zealous" to "keep up that hatred" of the French.

Enver Pasha
Lost the last Caliphate, lost OPEC, lost Baghdad Bob
Prone to be "pretty thoughtless, pretty terrified and do some pretty impressive damage" (check with the Armenians).

Tsar Nicholas II
Lost Rasputin, lost Smirnov, lost Anastasia, lost family, lost life.
Probably thought, "none of this happened because of any conspiracy."

Francisco Madero
Won revolution, lost gunfight, assassinated.
Kind of resembled Richard Dreyfuss, in that he was 5'3" and Villa considered him "Mister Too-Complex-for-Your-Own-Good".

Bonus Loveable Losers Collage!
CW from top right:
Porfirio Diaz: lost revolution, exiled to Paris
Emiliano Zapata: lost 2nd revolution, assassinated
Venustiano Carranza: lost 3rd revolution, assassinated
Pancho Villa: lost 4th revolution, assassinated
All insisted "that we refuse to endorse bad behavior" but most succumbed to environmental problems - lead poisoning.

William Jennings Bryan
Lost a lot of elections, lost Monkey Trial, lost self respect, lost health.
Taught by Darrow what "maintain the integrity of that debate" really meant.

Adolph Hitler
Lost Paris, lost Volkswagen, lost Porsche, lost wife, lost life.
Very "libo-conservo-middle-of-the-roado" on whether to gas'em or shoot'em.

Benito Mussolini
Lost Ferrari, lost wife, lost life.
Died in "middle-of-the-roado".

Emperor Hirohito
Lost entire Pacific Ocean, lost Polynesia, lost Marlon Brando.
Ended up on boardo the Missouri-o signing surrendero with MacArthur-o while considering whether he should become "become poisoned and die".

Che Guevara (w/o beanie)
Lost head, lost hands, lost life.
Very "libo-conservo" in millinery fashion but was "taught the tools of debate and dissent" with a bullet and an ax.

Mikhail Gorbachev
Lost Eastern Europe, got buried.
Thought, "I'm deeply in love with the country that I was taught about in school," then discovered it was being run by that Reagan guy..

Al Gore
Lost 2000 election, lost control of mind and precious bodily fluids
Never had any power to worry about giving up.
Not too "libo-conservo" when in Arab desert getting paid in 6 figures but does "fill the air with the same terrible clips, the same blaring intro music, the same screaming fonts, and then the same clips again and the same screaming fonts again and again".



John Kerry
Lost 2004 election, lost Ohio, lost Jane Fonda, lost taste for Wendy's chili.
Insisted that he would "refuse to debate the appropriateness of the process" of crawling around in a bunny suit and looking like a complete idiot.






Other close encounters of the 3rd kind with loveable losers:
PunditGuy says the Democratic Party has been killed deader than Francisco Franco.
Junk Yard Blog mentions some losers I missed - Fidel Castro and al Qaeda.
Crazy Politico's Rantings seems unhappy to have Hollywood tell us what to do.
Blue Star Chronicles invites Dreyfuss to have a close encounter of the 2nd time with Canada.
Random Thoughts thinks Dreyfuss is looking for his crappy career - maybe he left it in Canada.

TAGS: Richard Dreyfuss, losers, Impeach Bush

Algebra? I don't gots to show you no stinkin' algebra.

Pharyngula has an excellent post up in response to a horrifying column by Richard Cohen. In a nutshell, Cohen tells some unfortunate high school student that she doesn't need and will never need algebra because, well, Cohen can't calculate 40% of 20 and has done quite nicely.

I will sympathize with Cohen just a bit. I used, or was force fed, as it were, Yale's SMSG Advanced Mathematics. I was taught to caculate 40% of 20 as follows.

40/100 = x/20
100x = 800
x=8
My dad thought that was the funniest thing he'd ever heard of, especially when I entered high school and still didn't know that you could calculate 40% of 20 by just multplying .4 by 20. Of course, when I got stumped a bit on (x2 + 3x) = (8x - 6), he suddenly remembered that he needed to go check the car for a low tire, or mow the lawn, or something.

In any case, telling a high school student that she doesn't ever have to learn algebra is like telling her she doesn't ever need to learn how to cook a hamburger or paint a picture or change a diaper or sing a song or write a legible and decipherable sentence. It's all important. It will all be used later and many times over, even if you don't realize it.

What I wonder is why the young lady is just now, in high school, being exposed to algebra. My kids are already beginning to get a taste of it, at the ages of 6 and 9. Oh, Los Angeles city schools. Now I understand.

TAGS: Pharyngula, algebra, Richard Cohen, Los Angeles City Schools

Mormons run into trouble in Mexico

I thought something was a little strange here and this LA Times story explains a lot. I live in a gated compound which holds 6 houses. My neighbors across and down the street are Mormon officials. The Mormons are big in Oaxaca. I know of 4 churches in the city with the main church being closest to my home. My neighbors are Mexican from Mexico City, originally.

This couple is the nicest you would want to find. They gave my kids a beautifully illustrated book of the Bible for Christmas. It is really quite nice and does not contain anything that would set my wife's Roman Catholic hair on fire. They also gave us The Book of Mormon (in Spanish) which we thanked them for and then put away. Out of sight, out of mind.

They told us two weeks ago that the church had purchased some land a little closer to the church and was building its own gated and guarded compound. The "guarded" description got my attention a bit because, while we do not employ guards, the entire compound is ringed with a 5-strand electric fence all around the tops of the walls which completely encircle the houses and is connected to an alarm. Every two or three weeks an unlucky or careless cat will get zapped and someone has to go outside and reset the blaring alarm.

Why would these nice people think they would need to hire guards? We've never had a spot of trouble in the compound. Also, the land that the church bought is commercial property and outrageously expensive by US standards. The property that they will be building on is surrounded by 4 autombile dealerships, an Office Depot, a KFC and a Burger King. Not exactly prime residential space. Very strange.

After reading the LAT article, I see that they are anticipating trouble. I'll skip all the details, read the article, but I think the Mormons may be anticipating possible violence against them by people who feel betrayed. I've always thought it was a sad spectacle that a people with brown skin should aspire to be "saved" so that, when they travel to that great beyond, their skin might be made white.

And I also have always itched to debate a Mormon on the Fancher Party massacre at Mountain Meadows, Utah, in 1857 and the role in it of John D. Lee, adopted son of Brigham Young. For me, until the Mormon church admits responsibility for the massacre of 120 mostly women and children pioneers and the role of Brigham Young in ordering the massacre and of John D. Lee's leading the Mormon killers, I have little use for the faithful.

Until, like, 1999, the Mormon church insisted that Indians had done the dirty deed, in spite of the fact that Lee was tried and hung for the massacre some 20 years after the fact. In 1999, excavations at the massacre site showed that skeletons unearthed there demonstrated massive evidence of gunshot wounds, not hatchet or club wounds as would have been inflicted by Indians. There was no evidence found of any arrowhead or spear point wounds, either.

The last I heard, the Mormon church has admitted only to the possible involvement of some Mormons "acting independently" along with the Indians. The worst thing that I've heard is that Brigham Young ordered the massacre and then blamed the Indians as a demonstration to the federal government that only he could control the Indians. Young was trying to set up and control a theocracy independent of the federal government. Don't rely upon Wikipedia on this. It's been thoroughly whitewashed.

TAGS: Mormons, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, Mexico, Central America, South America, Polynesia, Brigham Young, John D. Lee, Mountain Meadows Massacre

The two faces of Jon Meacham

I was wandering around and stumbled into The Note, the ABC News blog. In the middle of lots of the usual clever snark on the Wild Bill Cheney and the Texas 28 Gauge Shotgun Massacre, there was a mention made of Don Imus and his tough but fair questioning as well as a reference to Imus apologizing to Mary Matalin 4 times. "What was this about," I wondered. I moved over to Imus' page and found nothing from today, but I did find an interview that Imus did on Feb. 13 with Jon Meacham, Managing Editor of Newsweek Magazine.
Meacham was, to be fair, outrageous. For the managing editor of what is supposed to be one of the premier weekly news magazines in the United States, he was an embarrassment. This is the kind of accuracy we might expect from an Iranian Mullah or a grubby Saudi living in a cave and ducking every time a drone buzzes overhead.



On the quail hunt at the Armstrong Ranch:

This is what, at least in Tennessee, we used to call Bloody Mary hunting where you ride around and the servants beat the grass and the quail come up.

Uh, 'cause these are farm-raised quail. Oh, I'm sure, I mean, I don't know that for a fact - I can't imagine, you can't be hunting wild quail and just sort of drive up to one place, get out and, "Hey! Good Lord! There they are." I mean, if you're hunting wild quail you have pointers and retrievers and you're actually trying to find them.

It's like Cheney's combat record. It's kind of like playing paintball, a little bit.

So, in just a handful of sentences Meacham has slandered the Vice President of the United States by intimating that he was drinking - which he was not;
that he was using servants to beat the grass - which he was not;
that he was not using dogs to flush the quail - which he was;
that the quail were "farm raised (he meant pen raised because most quail in the Midwest grow up wild . . . on farms) - which they were not, he was hunting wild quail or "ranch raised" quail;
and that because he did not see any combat in the armed forces he is a paintball warrior, like FDR, Harry Truman and Bill Clinton, I guess.

Cheney was using outriders on horseback to locate likely quail coveys and then dogs to flush the quail. He was not using dogs to retrieve the quail, apparently. That's not at all uncommon. Ask someone who has hunted quail in Mexico, like, ummm, me, for instance.

Here we use hired campesinos - not servants - to both flush and retrieve the quail. You have do be damned careful not to shoot your campesino. It helps keep everyone on their toes when you know you have men in front of you and you do not take low shots. And no one would be caught dead using a 28 guage shotgun, but then none of us are in our sixties and sporting bad tickers, either, knock on wood.

The limit per day per hunter in central Tamaulipas state, just outside Ciudad Victoria in the Lake Guerrero area is 24 quail per day. I last shot 48 in two days. You leave the quail with your campesino to dress out for you and leave some of the quail to him and his family as a tip in addition to the $20 per day that you pay him (I left him half and my Mexican friends thought I was nutz). Quail are little boogers and 24 will feed only 4-6 adults.

As far as driving is concerned, we drive to central areas out on a ranch to where we can hunt 2 or 3 fields. Then, we get in our trucks and SUV's and move to another area. The hunters all wear snake chaps and argue with the campesinos who want us to shoot all the eagles - Mexico's national bird - that we see. The campesinos don't splurge on snake chaps. The first time I did it, I said, "What?" But with proper care very few campesinos get killed, either by gunshot or snakebite.

I am not joking.

On the victim, Harry Whittington:

Mr. Whittington, who as I understand it, was once appointed to the Texas Funeral Service Commission in a odd moment of foreshadowing, perhaps . . .

It could be one way of doing entitlement reform since he's (Whittington) 78.

On the Corpus Christi paper that had the story called in to them by Anne Armstrong, the owner of the ranch:

I'd bet you anything it was the weekend police reporter (for the Corpus Christi paper) going through the hospital reports and they saw that this, you know, rich guy had gotten shot.

So, on Monday morning, a full 16 or so hours after the story had come out and a lot more details were known as well as a lot that were still not yet disseminated, the managing editor of Newsweek on a nationally syndicated radio show demonstrates his ignorance of quail hunting outside the state of Tennessee with servants and Bloody Marys, insults the victim (twice) and slanders the vice president. Does one wonder why ad revenues are down at Newsweek and the magazine survives with pithy stories about Michael Jackson's sexual preferences for young boys and Janet's boob flopping? I don't.

Then, just as I'm ready to declare jeeeehad, burn effigies and hurl small boulders at newsstands, Meacham comes out with this regarding George Bush and the War on Terror:

One of my points about this is every plot looks smalltime until it happens.

If you had broken in and gotten to Oswald on November 21, 1963, he would have looked like a loser.

If you'd gotten to James Earl Ray on April 3, 1968, he would have looked like a loser.

If you'd busted Muhammed Atta up in Portland, Maine, on September 10, and had then said, "Oh, by the way. He was going to be the mastermind of 19 hijackers who were going to do this," all of us would have just scratched our heads.

So, everything is sort of implausible until men with guns or men with planes change history.

And that's why what Bush and Cheney are doing is so hard, it seems to me.

So, I really believe that, so, all kidding aside, I have great sympathy for the men who are fighting this war and I believe their hearts are in the right place.

Have they done everything right? No. Find me somebody who has, in the last 6000 years of recorded history.

Well, he saved himself from the jeeeehad with that. I am going to assume that Meacham is a late riser who doesn't get his brain working until after a dozen cups of coffee, like yours truly, and his comments on the Wild Bill Cheney and the Texas 28 Guage Shotgun Massacre were early morning and very lame attempts at humor.

When Meacham decided to get serious, his thoughts were quite lucid, and, to my way of thinking, quite correct. And, whether you like this or not, could be applied to past and future administrations. Listen to the entire tape. The Cheney crap is at the beginning and the serious stuff comes at the end.

TAGS: Jon Meacham, Newsweek, Bush, Cheney, War on Terror

Impeach Bush? Not for the time being.

The Senate Intelligence committee voted not to authorize an investigation into the highly classified surveillance operation run by the National Security Agency. This article persists in calling the operation a "domestic surveillance program", a label which the Bush administration challenges.

The Senate committee will review the program again on March 7 to decide if the White House has provided it with al the information that it has asked for. The House could still call for an investigation but I think that's looking a little more doubtful at this time.

Also today, the Senate approved by a vote of 96-3 a slightly modified Patriot Act. The House had already approved the Patriot Act so a conference committee will hammer out the final details.

All-in-all, a successful day on Capitol Hill for the Bush administration. Nobody got everything they wanted but then, according to John E. Sununu, Republican of New Hampshire,

"In an effort like this no party ever gets everything that they want."

TAGS: Senate Intelligence Committee, NSA, surveillance, patriot Act

What's up with these Saddam tapes?

Two former directors of the CIA, John Deutch and James Woolsey, have resigned from the board of directors of Intelligence Summit. This is the organization that got its hands on some of the tapes of meetings between Saddam Hussein and his flunkies. The organization has given some of those tapes to ABC News which made them public in a Nightline telecast last night.

While the tapes that have so far been released to the public do not prove beyond doubt that Iraq had WMD's and moved them all to Syria prior to our attack, there is mounting evidence that this may be so. There is also mounting evidence that Saddam worked far more closely with al Qaeda prior to 9/11 than was known before. Apparently US intelligence agencies are in possession of a mountain of tapes and documents that have yet to be examined or translated.

In fact, the CIA, FBI, and directorate of national intelligence have been refusing to examine the documents, having concluded that they are irrelevant. This has led to the Intelligence Summit gaining access to some of the documents and making them public. In addition, Intelligence Summit is holding its annual conference in Arlington, VA, beginning tomorrow, and will make all the recordings that it has available to the public.

The intelligence directorate is also being pushed by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, chaired by Rep. Peter Hoekstra. Rep. Hoekstra says that there are some 36,000 boxes of tapes, documents and other materials that should be examined. And now, between the efforts of Intelligence Summit and the House committee, results are beginning to show.

There are enough elements in the national Security Agency (NSA) and the Defense Intelligence agency (DIA) that believe that the documentation found so far deserves analysis that a "quiet" effort has been undertaken. According to a congressional staff member, connected to the House intelligence committee, I presume, says, "This includes the imagery, documents, and human sources. They also think a more extensive debriefing of knowledgeable human sources and third party nationals is in order."

An interagency operation called the Media Exploitation Center, administered by the Defense Intelligence Agency, started its own search of this mountain of evidence last month to attempt to discover the location of the weapons of mass destruction.

Now, back to Deutch and Woolsey. Why did they resign from Intelligence Summit? First of all, what is Intelligence Summit? Intelligence Summit is the name of their annual, er, summit. The full name of the organization is International Intelligence Summit (IIS). This is how it describes itself:

Welcome to the International Intelligence Summitsm (sic), a non-partisan, non-profit, neutral forum that uses private charitable funds to bring together for the first time the intelligence agencies of the free world and the emerging democracies. The purpose of The Summit is to provide an opportunity for the international intelligence community to listen to and learn from each other, and to share ideas in the common war against terrorism. The Summit's Advisory Council includes Generals, former senior FBI official, former senior Mossad officer, and the former Chair of British Joint Intelligence Committee.

The list of presenters at The Summit will include many of the top leaders of the intelligence, espionage, counter-terrorism and counter-intelligence agencies from around the free world. The Summit is intended to be the most prestigious world conference on international studies, intelligence policy, terrorism, and homeland security.

The IIS also has its own blog, run by ???. I dunno. The main sponsor of the summit is the Michael Cherney Foundation, and therein lies the problem supposedly, with Deutch and Woolsey.

Michael Cherney with Shimon Peres




The foundation states that its function is to provide aid to low-income victims of catastrophes and terrorist acts in Israel as well as the rest of the world. Michael Cherney is a Russian emigre to Israel who, according to John Loftus, president of IIS, has been falsely linked to the Russian Mafia. Loftus presents a vigorous defense of Cherney here and includes a wealth of documentation to support his position. Cherney was denied a visa by the US Department of State to attend the summit.

Who is John Loftus? John Loftus is the president of the IIS and former federal prosecutor as well as the "author of four history books, three of which have been made into films, two were international best sellers, and one was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize." These include The Secret War Against the Jews: How Western Espionage Betrayed the Jewish People, Unholy Trinity: The Vatican, the Nazis, and the Swiss Banks, Belarus Secret: The Nazi Connection In America (critiqued here) and Valhalla's Wake: The Ira, M16, and the Assassination of a Young American

Loftus also appears on the John Batchelor radio show. Loftus, whose three books and numerous writings involving Israel, Jonathan Pollard, Nazis etc. might lead you to believe he is Jewish, is a Boston Irish Roman Catholic. And he's no friend of the politicians. He has attacked Cheney and Clinton for their ties to big oil and officials of just about every administration all the way back to Allen Dulles for links to big oil, Saudi Arabia, Nazi Germany and former Nazi officials. In fact, Loftus says that President Bush may be overly friendly and forgiving of Israel because of some sense of shame for the actions of his grandfather and great-grandfather.

John Deutch

So why did Deutch and Woolsey quit the board of International Intelligence Summit just a week before the, er, summit? It's all on account of Michael Cherney's involvement, or so they say.

James Woolsey

Woolsey says in an email, "My only response is that I got new information this week about the funder from someone I know and whose judgment on these matters I trust. Based on that information I decided to withdraw. If Mr. Loftus is saying that anyone pressured me about this issue he is quite wrong."

Loftus responds,

Their departure is part of a campaign by the directorate of national intelligence to punish him for releasing the recordings.

And,

"Why is Negroponte and the FBI trying to smash my little charity operation? They have called my board members saying you have to resign. As soon as the audio tapes hit Negroponte's office, they are told they have to quit."

Loftus maintains that Cherney's involvement as a major sponsor was made well known to all involved including Deutch and Woolsey.

Mr. Loftus said he checked with his board last year when Mr. Cherney offered to make a large donation to Intelligence Summit and did not hear any reservations. In December, Mr. Loftus authored a piece for the group's Website titled, "The Framing of Michael Cherney (linked above)."

So what do we have here? Probably a lot of behind-the-scenes machinations to discredit the International Intelligence Summit as much as possible and to blunt the further damage to the CIA if and when the current locations of Saddam's WMD's can be determined.

George Bush must be gritting his teeth. First, the CIA, along with every other intelligence service in the world, said that Saddam had dangerous WMD's and was either prepared to use them against either us or Israel or prepared to give them to those who would use them. Then, when the WMD's were not found, Bush had to admit that we were "probably" mistaken. Now, if and when the locations of Saddam's WMD's are determined, and I think they will be, Bush will have to say, "Wow! We were right, after all." It is apparent that President Bush must operate on a daily basis with no real idea whether the intelligence data he receives is accurate to 10% or accurate to 99% or accurate to some unknown value in between. This is a tremendous disadvantage for the man charged with protecting his people (that would be us) from another attack.

Others with interest in this highly convoluted subject:
Right Wing Nut House - doubts Loftus' reliability
Super Fun Power Hour - worries that the message may get lost over questioning the messenger
No More Mister Nice Blog - says it's Rove - and I have no better explanation
Lorie Byrd at PoliPundit - "It will take a heck of a lot to convince them to admit that Bush didn't lie about it" - yes, more than this, I'm afraid.
Ace of Spades HQ - is as mystified as all the rest of us, except for Stevie M.

Bill Quick "can't wait for the ropey-dopes to start telling me this is all a Rovian plot to lure the lefties into disaster." Uh, Bill, it's already happening - see above.

Debbie Schlussel: This probably should be an update if not a new post, but here goes: Debbie was a scheduled speaker at the IIS Summit. She canceled. She says, in so many words, that she believes Loftus to be a liar, an exaggerator, a resume padder, and that the IIS claims to be a 501(c)(3) organization but its tax returns, which must be public, are non-existent. She goes on to give about, oh, a dozen examples, more or less, to back up her opinions.

I'm beginning to think that if Loftus came forward with Saddam and Tariq Aziz themselves, walking arm-in-arm, to tell us where the WMD's were hidden, we wouldn't believe them because Loftus was with them.

TAGS: Saddam tapes, Nightline, John Loftus, John Deutch, James Woolsey, Intelligence Summit, Michael Cherney

Latest European cartoon outrage

This is the cartoon published in the German newspaper, Der Tagesspiegel, last Friday. My German is worse than rusty but I think the caption says something to this effect, "Why we need the German army at World Cup Football".

The cartoonist, Klaus Stuttmann, was responding to the ongoing debate inside Germany about whether to use the German army for World Cup security. That would be an alleged violation of the German constitution. Herr Stuttman, now in hiding because of death threats he has received, made the error of stepping on the toes of the Iranian Islamofascists.

The Iranian government has demanded an apology. This report says that the German embassy in Tehran is under attack by stone-throwing mobs. The report also indicates that my German is not as bad as I thought.

(click for larger view)

TAGS: cartoon, Islam, Iran, Islamofascists, death threats

Muslim preacher goes berserk

Watch this short video. It's titled "Muslim Rave Party" and shows a Muslim cleric, probably in Gaza, going totally berserk during a sermon, or speech, or whatever. glumbert.com media has set it to music to heighten your viewing pleasure. Hilarious.

Thanks to Free Republic.

TAGS: Muslim preacher, Palestinian

Golf 2006: Tiger Woods 2, Opposition 0

Tiger Woods in Arabic

Remember Tiger Woods, that over 30 has-been? Two tournaments so far in 2006 and he's won them both - in playoffs. Woods won the Dubai Desert Classsic last weekend in a playoff over Ernie Els, the number three ranked golfer in the world, to go with last week's playoff win in The Buick Open. And Woods won it in style. Els was sitting in the clubhouse with a 2 stroke lead as Woods teed off on number 17. Woods birdied 17 and then birdied 18 as Els watched. Els must have just hung his head and sighed deeply.

The two golfers then proceeded back to number 18 for the playoff. Els had played 18 in total at 5 under during the four rounds - 3 birdies and an eagle. So what does he do? Tee shot into the forest, 2nd shot into the lake, misses par putt and picks up his ball in resignation. When Els picked up his ball, he conceded defeat. Woods was on the far front edge of the green in 2, then 3 putted for par and the victory.

Here's a fact about Woods that I did not know. He has now won 57 tournaments world-wide. 47 of those are recognized as PGA Tour tournaments. 10 are recognized as European Tour tournaments, only. However, of the 47 PGA Tournaments he has won, 15 of those are also recognized by the European Tour, such as the US Open and The Masters. So, Woods has now won 25 tournaments either sponsored by or recognized by the European Tour. This puts him halfway to Jose Maria Olazabal's record of 50, and Woods does not specifically play the European Tour. Amazin'!

TAGS: Tiger Woods, 2006 PGA Golf, 2006 Dubai Desert Classic, 2006 Buick Open, PGA Tour, European Tour

Wild Bill Cheney creates lefty blogswarm

Wild Bill Cheney and his Hole-in-the-Wall gang have created a lot of yadda, yadda, yadda in the oxygen starved lefty blogworld. To wit:

firedoglake: says it's not laughing matter - regales us with tales from his youth - a real Daniel Boone.
AmericaBlog: No, wait, that's AMERICAblog - says it was "fishy" - must have mis-read the news reports. I don't think fish can fly much better than quail can swim.
Hullabaloo: demonstrates he knows much more about hunting than Anne Armstrong, owner of the ranch.
The Democratic Daily: "it should be noted that Whittington is actually in 'stable condition in the intensive care unit.'" What does that mean?" It means, Pamela, that Whittington is actually in stable condition in the intensive care unit.
Oliver "Take-home-a Fatass" Willis: "And were the police called - is there a police report of this incident of the Vice President shooting someone?" I dunno Oliver. Try reading the news. The shooting occurred about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, Kenedy County Sheriff Ray Salinas said. He said his deputies are investigating the shooting but consider it an accident.
Democrat Taylor Marsh: Says that no, her husband is the real Daniel Boone.
The Carpetbagger Report says that no, it's not The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang, it's The Bush Gang.
Shakespeare's Sister: Says it's not the sex, it's the lying. Huh? She must think that Wild Bill Cheney screwed the pooch.

This is fun. I continue:

Pam's House Blend: Says, "Cheney pulled off a shot with Whittington in the line of fire." Brilliant! Now we know how Whittington got hit. And I thought maybe the birdshot turned left before hitting him.
Wonkette: Says Wild Bill is best VP ever because he "shot a man in cold blood".
The Majority Report: Says Wild Bill Cheney "SHOOTS SOMEBODY AND DOENS'T (sic) REPORT IT FOR 18 HOURS". That would be news to Sheriff Ray Salinas and the Secret Service agent who called in the report within minutes.
TalkLeft: Asks breathlessly, "Will Cheney face charges over the shooting?" No, you twit.
Reason: Compares Wild Bill Cheney favorably to noted warrior Slick Willy Clinton.
Phayngula: Says Wild Bill Cheney's "torturing and killing helpless animals is one of the signs of a sadistic sociopath," and that Wild Bill "takes glee in unfeeling butchery." Jesus! I thought Whittington just got peppered with birdshot. I didn't realize that he was tortured before being butchered unfeelingly.
Markkkos Mule-itzaz: Screw'im.
Rising Hegemon: Squawks "it took them two-hours and forty-five minutes to get Harry to the Hospital." Must think a 50,000 acre ranch is much like community library with hospital only seconds away.
BradBlog: "Ranch Owner Hired Cheney at Halliburton, on Covert FISA Board Under Reagan, Bush Pioneer..." Brad believes that those were critical factors that led to the accident . . . I guess.
The Left Coaster: Asks, darkly, "Or is something else at play here?" And hints, more darkly still, that Wild Bill was perhaps, "drunk as a skunk?" I need clarification here, having never seen nor heard of a drunk skunk.
TBogg: can't resist linking to old story about Laura Bush's murder/suicide attempt (the murder was successful, the suicide not). Classy topical political commentary, if I do say so myself.
Crooked Timber: Has absolutely nothing of any consequence to add but commenter Jacob does; "When can we start the Aaron Burr jokes?" That is funny, if I do say so myself.
Direland: Quotes a "smart mid-western friend who has a lot of quail-hunting experience" who doesn't know WTF he's talking about.
The All Spin Zone: Says, "certainly Cheney will take no responsibility." So, who shot Whittington? One of the quail? A Secret Service sniper/assassin? Laura Bush? Inquiring minds want to know.
Loaded Mouth: Helps us greatly by quoting "a reasonably experienced fisherman."
No More Mister Nice Blog: Says, "By the way, among lefties with hunting experience, Reddhedd at firedoglake thinks "Something is weird about this," while TBogg thinks "peppering" a fellow hunter is not all that unusual. Bet you'll see that first quote show up somewhere as an example of crazed speculation by libs who don't know anything about hunting, even though Reddhedd grew up hunting." No, Mister Nice Blog, it was the stench of freshly deposited raw sewage from TBogg's gratuitous link to the Laura Bush murder/suicide scatology that first got my attention.

Well, I'm out of time but I leave you with this thought from Professor Bainbridge:

It's kind of a pathetic commentary on the state of political discourse, when prominent folks like this can't even rise to the level of a bad Saturday Night Live sketch.

Well spoken.

TAGS: Dick Cheney, shooting

Cheney shoots lawyer - IMPEACH BUSH!

Vice President Dick "Wild Bill" Cheney shot a lawyer at a Texas ranch, Saturday. The boneheads on Cheney's staff, now to be known as The Hole-in-the-Wall gang, didn't announce it and only confirmed it on Sunday when called by a curious reporter. They apparently didn't want to unnecessarily divert attention from the always exiting and hyper-competitive NFL Pro Bowl, won yesterday by, uh, who cares? I scraped around and found some mention of the incident here, here, here, here, here, here, just to mention a few.




Richard "Wild Bill" Cheney

Sigh. We'll be hearing about this for the next, oh, 99 hours. No comment as yet from President George "Texas Jack" Bush.

TAGS: Dick Cheney, shooting

Most excellent Muhammed cartoons

Excellent! Courtesy of Maggie's Farm via New England Republican from the New York Post

TAGS: Muhammed Cartoons

Lynn Swann gets weepy

Lynn Swann has received the official endorsement of the Pennsylvania Republican Fatcats Party. Said Swann,

"I haven't cried this much since I was inducted into the Hall of Fame," Swann told the applauding crowd as he wiped tears from his eyes.

Ok, dry the tears and start KICKING ASS!

Note: Swanny needs dough. His opponent, incumbent Governor Ed Rendell, has $12 mil to Swann's $1 million. Hint, hint.

Linked to:
Weekend Specials at Jo's Cafe
Picnic at Basil's Blog
Ping Festival at Conservative Cat
The PIAPS Factor at Stuck on Stupid
Who's minding the blog at Adam's Blog

TAGS: Lynn Swann, governor, Pennsylvania, Beat the Cowboys

Shocking Images: Muslim & Hindu anger over Valentines Day

Muslims and Hindus are protesting Valentines Day and here are some shockingly violent images of those protests. These images are not meant to inflame, merely to inform.

In this shockingly violent photo, protesters sacrifice their own protest sign! Shocking!

In this shockingly violent photo, protesters set fire to San Valentino himself! Shocking!

In this shockingly violent photo, a protester beats
the crap out of someone just for wearing a red shirt!
Shocking!

Linked to:
OTA Weekend at Samantha Burns
Into the Great Wide Open at Stop the ACLU
An Experiment at Rhymes With Right
Weekend Party at The Uncooperative Blogger
End your week the Right way at RightWinged


Open trackback Saturday at A Tic in the Mind's Eye
Next they came for Valentines Day at Michelle Malkin
More attempts at dhimmitude at Kim Priestap
Islam attacks Valentines Day at ZardozZ
Dhimmitude Part Deux from OKIE on the LAM in LA

All your Valentine are belong to us at This Isn't Writing, It's Typing
Don't be my Valentine at Alpine Summit
Next they came for Valentines Day at Leather Penguin
Jihad against Valentines Day at California Conservative
I {HEART} Those Wacky, Intolerant Muslims! at Rhymes With Right


A doll named Mustafa from Sweet Spirits of Ammonia
Saturday afternoon links from Maggie's Farm
More than just cartoons at Martin's Musings
Oh, for the love of Lynn Swann at Joni Mueller
Artistic courage and Valentine's Day at Winds of Change


TAGS: Valentines Day, Muslim Protests, Hindu Protests, fake photos, so sue me

Salim Mansur on Islam

Salim Mansur is, I believe, a practicing Muslim. PBS refers to him here as a "Muslim thinker". He is a writer for the Toronto Sun. I said a writer, not a reporter. And, by the way, its Doctor Mansur to you, as he holds BA, MA, and PhD from the University of Toronto and is also an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Western Ontario.

Mr. Mansur is of the "spit it out" philosophy of thinkers. He calls 'em as he sees 'em. In fact, a couple of years ago I sent an email to Mr. Mansur after reading a particularly blunt column in which he had attacked al Qaeda and the Islamofascists. I suggested that he should find himself on the highway heading for a place a couple of hours southeast of Toronto called the Bluewater Bridge. Once across that bridge he might find himself protected from those who would wish to kill him for he was surely on their short list marked for death and the Canadian government of the time would be unwilling to assure his safety. I'm not so sure that it's such a short list now. Mr. Mansur responded by thanking me for the advice and assuring me that he had little to fear. He's still alive and kicking so I guess he was right and my fears were unfounded.

Mr. Mansur has written extensively on, among other things, the world-wide conflict between Islam and, well, the wide world. Here are a few quotes from some of his writings that I dug up today. I hope I have not taken anything out of context.

Responding to a questioner asking if there was something within Islam that justified the killing of innocents because of the Israeli/Palestinian power differential:

None. But people will seek legitimacy to their most grotesque behavior, including murder, regardless of how they twist the reading and meaning of the Quran.

He also wrote, as I can best remember it but cannot source it this morning:

No former Arab-Muslim leader is to be found living in peaceful retirement in his home country.

And

Islam is tribes with flags.

On Osama's godfathers:

Muslims in general, fundamentalists in particular, hearken back to the founding years of Islam as the perfect age when the Prophet Muhammad and his companions instituted the divine plan on Earth. In this view, what followed was a regression from belief to unbelief. This picture of Islam's early years is a myth that deprives most Muslims of a critical and rational perspective on history.

The reality, as documented by the earliest Arab-Muslim commentators on Islam's founding decades -- from Ibn Ishaq (d. 761) to Al-Tabari (d. 923) -- was one of internecine strife, bloodshed and war. Immediately after the Prophet died in 632, wars were fought to compel Arabs of contemporary Saudi Arabia and Yemen to re-submit to Islam as the only permissible religion of the new empire. Three of the Prophet's first four successors as rulers of the expanding realm of Islam -- Umar, Uthman and Ali -- were murdered as a result of grievances and factional strife. The Prophet's immediate family were the most conspicuous massacre victims in these seventh-century conflicts. The wars of succession left permanent schisms within Islam.

Ever since those early blood-lettings, Muslims have been the primary victims of Muslim violence.

Writing in The Middle East Quarterly (where he rubs shoulders with the likes of Daniel Pipes), Mansur says of Muslim orthodoxy:

From the earliest accounts of Islamic historians Ibn Ishaq (d. 761), Al-Waqidi (d. 823), and At-Tabari (d. 923) among others, it is clear that the founding of Islam was neither a peaceful affair nor did the new religion eliminate tribal and familial conflicts. Blood readily flowed. Muslims in the first age of Islam were not simply moved to accept the new faith as taught by Muhammad and by the wonder of the sublime majesty of divine revelation that descended upon him. They had to be subdued forcibly. The Qur'an itself provides testimony to the obduracy and violent resistance of those among whom Muhammad was born, lived, and preached. Islam prevailed, but the cultural predisposition of the desert Arabs remained sufficiently strong in shaping the message of Islam for posterity.

These are just a few examples that I present in order to show that the guy doesn't pull too many punches, if any at all.

Now comes Dr. Salim Mansur with a very novel and interesting viewpoint on Islam, today.

For a plausible figurative explanation consider the following: Chronologically speaking Islam is in its 15th century, Christianity in its 21st and Judaism in its 58th.

We might express the ages of these three faith-traditions in terms of human life span, with Islam being in its adolescent years, Christianity having entered into its adult years and Judaism being well past its middle age.

He goes on to remind us of what Christianity was like in its "adolescent years".

Several centuries ago when Christianity was about the same age as Islam is today, it too often showed characteristics of adolescents lacking in introspection, readily prone to committing violence and in taking offence, behaving uncharitably toward others and being self-righteous.

He speaks, of course, of things that we Christians would like to forget, like the Inquisition in France and Spain, witch burnings in Massachusetts and the like. And, I might add, some Christian areas have yet to outgrow their adolescence. To see that, one just need visit Belfast, Northern Ireland on any 12th day of July and watch the Catholics and Protestants have at it. Or listen closely to the occasional rantings of a Pat Robertson or a Jerry Falwell.

On Judaism in its late middle age:

The remarkable achievement of Judaism, from the perspective of its relatively long life, is survival against terrible odds.

This has provided Judaism with the wisdom of respectful coexistence with other faith traditions.

On the Muslim majority:

Not all Muslims are adolescents, or engage in violence and reprehensible behaviour. But it is undeniable that Muslims who indulge in violence, irrespective of the reasons they offer, have not been effectively repudiated and checked by the Muslim majority.

The majority then, troubled and saddened as it is with watching its faith-tradition wrecked by its religious compatriots, is not entirely blameless.

On the rest of the world which must deal with Islam:

This also suggests the world must find the means to adequately deal with those Muslims who behave as destructive adolescents, until they grow up and become responsible.

An interesting, albeit short, read. I would suggest that you Google Salim Mansur and read more of his writings and opinion pieces. There is a wealth of stuff out there, from his newspaper columns to his forum participation to his book reviews. It will be well worth your time.

TAGS: Salim Mansur, Islam, Muslim, Muhammed, al Qaeda, bin Laden

Latest on the Muhammed cartoons

I thought I'd take a look around on the latest happenings all around the world on the Muhammed cartoon fiasco. First, through Lucianne:

NEWS Scotsman.com: Muslim hard-liners "ready to die". Report from Indonesia says that 175 students from an Islamic boarding school are ready to die to defend the honor of their prophet and all his wives, including the 9 year-old. Also, 3000 protesters outside the Danish embassy chanted the usual threats, or are they entreaties? "Long live Islam. Destroy Denmark. Destroy Israel. Destroy George Bush. Destroy America." That last bit is probably my fault.

Islamic Republic News Agency: Major cleric calls on cartoon protesters not to attack embassies. Hey, that sounds promising. Uh-oh, wait a minute.

Slogans, demonstrations and condemnation of the shameful measure of the western media are all sacred; but they (westerners) like their embassies set ablaze so that they will be able to outcry their innocence worldwide.... When gasoline is kept in the cellar of an embassy, this means that they do like their embassies set ablaze.

We Westerners are pretty smart, no? Reverse psychology at work. Make them think we really want our embassies torched and they'll immediately stop. Now, if we can only convince them that we like our citizens kidnapped and beheaded, blown to bits in the streets and we really, really want to see the Jews wiped off the face of the earth, all our troubles should be over, no?

The Weekend Australian: says that about 200 Venezuelan Muslims marched to the Danish embassy in Caracas and burned two flags. They burned a Danish flag and guess what was the other one? My bad, again, I s'pose.

The Toronto Star: Reports that a dimwit professor of philosophy at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, pinned the Muhammed cartoons to his office door " . . . merely trying to promote a reasoned debate . . ." when he found himself surrounded by 100 angry Muslims. What a twit. Reasoned debate with these people? From what planet did professor Peter March come?

Kudos, however, to Zain Esseghaier, a spokesperson for the Muslim community on Prince Edward Island.

To see people insult him (Muhammed) is an insult to Muslims and to Islam.

Our faith does not teach us to react in such a way to people who insult us. To the contrary, the reaction should be calm, composed and dignified and that is how we intend to conduct ourselves here.

News-Gazette.com from Illinois: Reports that the students who run The Daily Illinii, the student newspaper at the University of Illinois, have defended their printing of the cartoons. However, spokesman Chuck Prochaska demonstrated his cluelessness when he said,

Everyone knew there were catoons and that they were allegedly offensive, but they were very difficult to find (on the Internet) if you don't speak Danish.

Jeez! And this guy is representative of our youth in higher education, today? I don't speak Danish and it took me maybe 1 minute or less to find the cartoons on the internet and that was, like Monday or Tuesday.

The local Muslim imam didn't take Prochaska too seriously, either. Said Imam Mujahid Al-fayadh,

It's not a big deal. They're just repeating the whole story, trying to be famous by reprinting this junk.

He said that local Muslims were only "mildly disappointed by the action."

Aljazeera gleefully reports that the editor of the Norwegian Christian newspaper Magazinet has apologized to Muslims for reprinting the cartoons on January 10. Said editor Vebjoern Selbekk,

I address myself personally to the Muslim community to say that I am sorry that your religious feelings have been hurt.

It was never our intent to hurt anyone.

I, as editor, did not fully understand how hurtful the publication of the facsimile was. I would like to apologise for that today.

The more than 20 death threats he has received may have influenced his thinking just a touch.

Moving along to see what the Freepers have posted:

Dawn.com - apparently another "It's eveybody's fault except ours" website: has an article by a Ayaz Amir who says that America should be the target because the American media isn't allowed to write anything bad about Israel.

You won’t find much of it in the American media when it comes to Israel. Try pointing out Israeli atrocities in the occupied Palestinian territories and you’ll attract strange glances and be hounded or ostracized if you are in the media or the exalted world of academe.

He's obvioulsy never visited any California state university where he'd be greeted as the second coming of Marx.

WRAL.com, Raleigh-Durham, Fayetteville, NC: N.C. College Paper Publishes Cartoon Depicting Muhammad. says that teh Daily Tar Heel, campus newspaper at the University of North Carolina, received a letter from the Mulsim Students Association after the Daily Tar Heel published the cartoons. The letter said,

The intention of bigotry was clear. One must question the DTH's ethics in advancing a widely protested issue to cause a riot of their own. The MSA not only found this cartoon derogatory but is also shocked at the editor's allowance of its publication . . . one that incites hate in the current political and social context.

The "current political and social context," eh? That would be torching embassies, blowing up fellow Muslims, murdering helpless women and children, hanging rape victims by the neck until dead. Did they mean that political and social context?

Zaman on line - a Turkish publication - Putin: Denmark Should Apologize. Vlad "The Self-impaled" Putin equates the Muhammed cartoons with child pornographt:

When we denounce child porn, we do not hide behind freedom of press as an excuse for it.

Whatever, Vladdy.

And from Google:

KHON in Hawaii has a nice rundown on protests and violence around the world:
Islamabad, Pakistan - tens of thousands marching and burning;
Kenya - police shot and wounded one person as they sought to keep hundreds of demonstrators from marching to the residence of Denmark's ambassador;
Egypt - police hit demonstrators with water cannons and tear gas;
Jerusalem, Israel - 2000 women, young boys and older men marched around the Dome of the Rock shrine on the compound, chanting "Bin Laden, strike again." (Israel had banned all men under the age of 45 from attending Friday prayers);
New Delhi and Kashmir, India - thousands kicked, spat on and burned danish flags and effigies;
Bangladesh - 5000 marched, burned Danish flags and shouted, "Death to those who degrade our beloved prophet!" (I think they were referring to Muhammed.);
Australia - Prime Minister John Howard said he considered the violent reactions to the cartoons

"are completely disproportionate to the offense that could possibly have been given."

Capital FM Kenya reports that the demonstrator who was shot has died.

TAGS: Muhammed Cartoons

Convicted teacher's union official now claims mental illness

This is a hoot. Gwendolyn M. Hemphill, former office manager of the Washington Teachers Union, was convicted on 23 counts of embezzling nearly $5 million in union dues from 1995 to 2002.

She and former union treasurer James O. Baxter, also convicted, used the money "to pay for designer clothing and fur coats, silverware and a champagne cooler, antiques and art objects, wigs, plasma televisions, dental implants, $77,181 worth of tickets to basketball games, and Louis Vuitton and Chanel handbags, among other items."

Now that she faces sentencing of up to 24 years in prison, she and her defense attorney have produced a psychiatrist who says that Mrs. Hemphill "suffers from a serious mental disease, including psychotic episodes in which she is confronted by 'a small, dark-skinned person with a thin Roman nose, small lips and a spear, who is dressed like a native African.'" Uh-huh, and his name is Shaka Zulu, no doubt.

TAGS: Gwendolyn M. Hemphill, James O. Baxter, Washington Teachers Union, embezzlement

Karl Rove pleased

Steven Groopman, writing in TNR Online, says that liberals are playing right into the hands of Karl Rove. Groopman relates that he watched the president's State of the Union address at a gathering

. . . sponsored by the Center for American Progress Action Fund, perhaps the most high-profile liberal advocacy organization in the country. A panel of pundits--which included radio commentator Sam Seder as well as several liberal bloggers--were there to "decode, debunk, and deride" Bush's speech in real time on Air America.

A packed house of 100 or so viewers huddled around a few plasma screen TVs to watch the address. Early on, when Bush invoked September 11, the audience let out a loud groan and snickered. Seconds later, the president mentioned "weapons of mass destruction" for the first time. A bell rang, and the audience laughed; then Bush said the words "freedom" and "terror" and bells rang again, followed by more laughter. This ritual was repeated throughout the speech whenever Bush uttered any of these words or phrases.

Groopman wonders,

Why the visceral reaction to these particular formulations?

And,

But spreading freedom around the world is--or should be--a paramount goal of liberalism. Meanwhile, terrorism remains a real threat to America, and a source of continuing death and destruction the world over. As for "weapons of mass destruction": A fanatical regime in Iran with a history of sponsoring terrorism and a stated desire to see Israel "wiped off the map" is well on its way to having such weapons. This is not an invention of the Republican imagination; it is reality. Why, then, laugh at Bush's warning that "Dictatorships shelter terrorists, and feed resentment and radicalism, and seek"--get ready for that bell to ring--"weapons of mass destruction"?

Groopman hypothisizes that the liberals' visceral hatred of Bush blinds them to the realities of the post 9/11 world. They disagree with Bush's methods and therefore feel compelled to mock his goals. And Groopman says that is a big mistake:

And yet when Bush spoke of "writing a new chapter in the story of self-government," spectators burst into laughter. When he said, "Ultimately, the only way to defeat the terrorists is to defeat their dark vision of hatred and fear by offering the hopeful alternative of political freedom and peaceful change," I heard a mix of bell ringing and belly laughs. Why is the goal of promoting "political freedom" worthy of such derision?

Not only must the liberals mock Bush's goals, but,

And any Democrats, like Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden, who oppose the Bush administration yet decline to scoff at the notion that America ought to stand for the spread of human freedom are liable to be labeled weak, neoconservative, or traitorous to their own cause.

The result, according to Groopman:

When Democratic bloggers and activists mock Bush for privileging these issues, it may please some liberals. But the person it pleases most is Karl Rove.

Liberals seem to have this almost pathological fear of Karl Rove. Groopman seems to be saying that the liberals are really doing it to themselves.

TAGS: Karl Rove, Air America, TNR Online, Steven Groopman

Another New York Times editor falsifies a report

From Drudge:

NEW YORK TIMES’ Eric Lipton today writes that President Bush was “on vacation in Texas” on August 30th but their own reporter filed a pool report that day from San Diego where POTUS giving a speech on the War on Terror and was visiting soldiers and families of the fallen. Sources tell DRUDGE that the original story filed by Lipton did not contain the sentence about Bush being on vacation and that it was added by an editor.

Drudge includes part of the actual report, filed by Times reporter Anne Kornblut who was traveling with the president, from San Diego on August 30.

The White House has asked the New York Times for a retraction. The "paper of record", eh?

UPDATE: The New York Times has modified the story now on its newyorktimes.com homepage. I couldn't find a cached version of the report but I found this version of Lipton's report at The Online Ledger of Lakeland, Florida:

But the alert did not seem to register. Even the next morning, President Bush, on vacation in Texas, was feeling relieved that New Orleans had "dodged the bullet," he later recalled. Mr. Chertoff, similarly confident, flew Tuesday to Atlanta for a briefing on avian flu. With power out from the high winds and movement limited, even news reporters in New Orleans remained unaware of the full extent of the levee breaches until Tuesday.

Here is how the same paragraph in the New York Times story reads now:

But the alert did not seem to register. Even the next morning, President Bush was feeling relieved that New Orleans had "dodged the bullet," he later recalled. Mr. Chertoff, similarly confident, flew Tuesday to Atlanta for a briefing on avian flu. With power out from the high winds and movement limited, even news reporters in New Orleans remained unaware of the full extent of the levee breaches until Tuesday.

TAGS: New York Times, Eric Lipton, President Bush, liberal bias

Happy Ashura! Muslims kill another 22 of themselves

Sunni Muslim extremists were blamed for the suicide bombing of a Shia procession celebrating the festival of Ashura in Hangu in the North West Frontier Province

Ashura marks the death of the Prophet Mohammed's grandson, Imam Hussein (Husayn), an event that led to the schism between Shia and Sunni Muslims.

A total of 22 36 Muslims have killed one another so far in Pakistan alone.

Hussein was the grandson of Muhammed, son of Muhammed's daughter Fatima and Muhammed's cousin, Ali. Most Shia regard Hussein as the third Imam, Ali being the first and Hasan, Hussein's older brother, the second. Some Shia sects, however, consider Hussein to be the second Imam and Hasan the first because only they carried the blood of the prophet Muhammed while Ali did not. In any event, Ali was murdered while at prayer in a mosque.

The governor of Syria had been battling Ali over control of the Muslim people since Muhammed's death. After the murder of his father, Hasan stepped in but had to continue fighting the Syrian governor, Muawiyah. The Syrian governor, so the story goes, paid Hasan's wife with gold and the promise of marriage to his son, Yazid, if she would poison Hasan, which she did. Hasan died and she married Yazid on the same day, although other stories say that Muawiyah reneged on the deal. This may be where part of the antagonism towards women in Islam originates. Muawiyah declared his son caliph although many Muslims now recognized Hussein.

The difference between the Shia Imam and the Sunni caliph is that the Shia consider the Imam to be chosen by God and should be a direct descendent of Muhammed. The Imam is both the political and religious leader of Islam. The Sunnis, on the other hand, believe that the caliph should be chosen as the one best able to protect and promote Islam and exercises political rather than spiritual control. In other words, caliphs are chosen by force.

For the Shia, some sects believe in only 12 Imams and the coming of the 13th signals the end of times, the death of all non-believers and the ascension to heaven of all true believers. I'm not sure where the Sunni stand on this. In any case, this is apparently the dangerous belief of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who believes that the time of the 13th Imam is nigh and wants nuclear weapons to hurry it along.

After the death of Muawiyah, his son Yazid declared himself Caliph and continued to fight Hussein for control. Yazid was much more powerful than Hussein and chased him out of Mecca. Hussein fled towards Kufa, in Iraq, but he never made it. He had only about 70 people with him, mostly family and many women and children. He was caught by Yazim's forces, he and his men were killed and beheaded (sound familiar?) and the women and children were taken as slaves.

His death at the battle of Karbalah is remembered on the holy day of Ashura, usually with bombs, assassinations and widespread murder. The violence will occur wherever there are Shia and Sunni populations living in close proximity and in about equal numbers, like in Pakistan.

Before you start laughing and pointing fingers at the Muslims too much, remember what happens annually when the Orange march through Belfast every July 12. Don't be too smug.

There have been many caliphs but only 12 Imams, according to the Shia. Let me be fair to the Sunni, here. In the Arab tribes, when the leader dies the tribal elders meet in a sura to choose a new leader. That leader does not necessarily have to be the son of the deceased. The elders would opt for strength and wisdom over bloodline. The Sunni insist that this is what Muhammed expected as he was a member in good standing of the Bani Hashem desert tribe.

The Shia say he chose Ali as his successor and all successors must be chosen by their predecessors and be direct descendents of Muhammed. It was over all this Ali / Muawiyah / Hasan/ Hussein / Yazid business that the schism between Sunni and Shia became permanent and they have continued killing one another through today.

To keep things as confusing as possible, there were caliphs and Imams operating simultaneously and in direct opposition to one another. For instance, the first 3 caliphs are not recognized by the Shia. The Shia and Sunni both recognize the 4th caliph, Ali, who was also the 1st Imam, although the Shia consider him to be the first caliph, also. Whew!

Then there were the warring dynasties that fought one another all over North Africa, Egypt, the Holy Land, Spain and the Arabian Peninsula for the last 1400 years, or ever since the death of Muhammed. Each claimed to have its own caliph and to have the rightful caliph, Imam, Emir or whatever. In any event, the title caliph became more honorary than effective about 800 years ago. The Ottomans in Turkey tried to revive it for a time but it was finally abolished by Kemal Attaturk and is defunct today.

Today, the Sunni claim to manage their affairs by means of the ulema, a group of Islamic scholars, clerics, and religious specialists in whatever country they can control. The Sunni political leader of the country must be subservient to the ulema, except where he's not, like in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Oman, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Yemen, etc. That's at least the program, even if it doesn't work too well.

The Shia, on the other hand, believe that their Grand Ayatollahs are the spiritual and political leaders of the religion in the countries that they control. This view by the Shia is probably closer to reality in Shia dominated countries than the Sunni ulema in Sunni dominated countries. As an example, if Grand Ayatollah (and Supreme Leader) Ali Khamenei of Iran wanted rid of president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Mahmoud would be mah-mooted. And if Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, our great Shia friend in Iraq, said, "Civil war," then civil war it would be. To take this a step further, if and when we go to war with Iran, we had best have al-Sistani or his successors on our side or civil war in Iraq will explode.

The point of all of this is to emphasize that, from its inception in the hearts and minds of the followers of Muhammed through 1400 years of history and up until today, the great caliphate that is so wistfully spoken of by the likes of Hamas and bin Laden was a myth and always has been a myth.

It appears that the only people that Sunni Muslims and Shia Muslims hate more than the Americans, the Jews and the Danes are each other. They've just killed twice three times as many of each other over a religious holiday than they have, to date, killed each other over the Muhammed Cartoons.

UPDATE: Death toll now stands at 36. Alahu Akbar!

TAGS: Ashura, Imam Hussein, Imam Husayn, Muhammed, Muhammed Cartoons, Sunni Muslims, Shia Muslims

A Muhammed Cartoon menage a trois

A complete collection of the Muhammed Cartoons including:
1) the original set of 12 cartoons as published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten;
2) the 3 faked cartoons as presented by the Danish imams and falsely represented as being published in Denmark and;
3) the AP photograph from which one of the Muhammed Cartoons was forged.



TAGS: Muhammed Cartoons, Denmark, Jyllands Posten, Danish Cartoons, Danish imams, forgeries