Right-Wingers: Why is Your President Convinced That Torture Makes Americans Safer?

"Mr Bush told reporters at a hastily arranged press conference that his controversial plans were essential for the protection of the United States.

"He was speaking a day after four key Republican senators rebelled, backing an alternative draft proposal."

Even though Republicans are finally speaking up against Bush's attrocities, the president is determined that his way is the only way.

Question 1: What's up with your boy?

Question 2: Why have Republicans been so slow in condemning this criminal and immoral behavior?

Question 3: Is this condemnation coming because it is election season and the President is more unpopular than ever?

FBI's Most Wanted

This piece of human fecal matter is suspected of planning and masterminding some sort of large-scale terrorist attack here in the U.S. sometime in the near future. I trust even Nadir would turn him in if he identified him.

Keep your eyes peeled.

A Nightmare for the U.S.A.

It’s been five years since the tragedy of September 11. I’ve been suffering from repeated sleepless nights due to the same nightmare:

The bad dream goes like this. It’s some time in the near future, 2007, 2008 or soon after. Guided by a religious fanatic whose goal was to spread American Style Democracy throughout the world, the USA has lost its financial and moral standing. It turns out that liberating people at gunpoint simply does not win hearts and minds. "Coalition" Troops were not showered with flowers as they marched into Baghdad. It was not a re-enactment of the Liberation of Paris.

In the nightmare, America stands on the brink of a Third World War.

Pope Claims He Meant No Offense to Islam

Aren't you Islam haters disappointed?

Nadir's Report from Camp Democracy

Activists from all over the nation have literally set up camp in Washington DC.

From September 5 to September 21 Camp Democracy will create a ruckus in front of the Washington Monument and the US Capitol organizing, teaching and rallying the troops in the struggle to change the direction the nation has taken, and to hold the Bush administration accountable for its criminal actions.

Al-Qaida joins Algerians against France

Yep, appeasement has served those cheese-eating surrender monkeys well, hasn't it? Wake up you morons. It's not our foreign policies, or our support for Israel, it's us being us. Plain and simple.

PARIS - Al-Qaida has for the first time announced a union with an Algerian insurgent group that has designated France as an enemy, saying they will act together against French and American interests.

Current and former French officials specializing in terrorism said Thursday that an al-Qaida alliance with the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, known by its French initials GSPC, was cause for concern.

Al-Qaida’s No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, announced the “blessed union” in a video posted this week on the Internet to mark the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States.

France’s leader have repeatedly warned that the decision not to join the U.S.-led war in Iraq would not shield the country from Islamic terrorism. French participation in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon could give extremists another reason to strike.

The Pope Confronts Islamic Jihad

I like to call myself a "Recovering Catholic", but I have to say that I really like this Pope's chutzpa:

His discourse Tuesday sought to delineate what he sees as a fundamental difference between Christianity’s view that God is intrinsically linked to reason (the Greek concept of logos) and Islam´s view that “God is absolutely transcendent.” Benedict said that Islam teaches that God’s “will is not bound up with any of our categories, even that of rationality.” The risk he sees implicit in this concept of the divine is that the irrationality of violence can potentially be justified if someone believes it is God’s will. “As far as understanding of God and thus the concrete practice of religion is concerned, we find ourselves faced with a dilemma which nowadays challenges us directly. Is the conviction that acting unreasonably contradicts God’s nature merely a Greek idea, or is it always and intrinsically true?”

This is indeed Benedict doing it on his own terms. Rather than tackling the challenge of fundamentalist terrorism with a pithy remark packaged for the 9/11 anniversary or reaching for a John Paul-inspired sweeping gesture, the professor Pope went digging into his books. He went so far as to quote a 14th century Byzantine emperor´s hostile view of Islam’s founder. “The emperor comes to speak about the issue of jihad, holy war,” the Pope said. “He said, I quote, ‘Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.’” Benedict added “I quote” twice to make it clear these were someone else’s words. Nevertheless this reference was undoubtedly the most provocative moment of a provocative lecture. In a sense, explicitly including the Muslim prophet by name, and citing the concept of jihad, was a flashing neon signal to the world that the soft-spoken Pope intends to make himself heard clearly on this defining tension of our times.

It is not the first time he has entered the fray. On his last trip to Germany, to Cologne for Catholic World Youth Day in August 2005, he told a group of Muslims that they have a responsibility to try to halt the violence carried out in the name of their religion. Even earlier on this trip to Bavaria, which ends Thursday, he seemed to refer to Islam’s negative view of a Western society that has too little faith, and cited it as the cause for tensions.

The man's got cahones.

Anybody want to wager who has an assassination attempt on him first? George W. Bush, or the Pope? I know for some of you it wouldn't break your heart to see them both get wacked.

In fact, you'd probably go out and celebrate.

Amnesty Intl Charges Hezbollah with war crimes against Israel

Pigs Fly!
The militant Shiite group Hezbollah committed war crimes in its deliberate targeting of civilians in the recent conflict with Israel, Amnesty International has said in a report.

Rubberstamping the Pirates: GOP Backs Bush's Criminal Policies Again

Federal judges (a district judge and the Supreme Court respectively) have ruled that Bush's wiretapping and military tribunals are both unconstitutional and illegal. So instead of upholding the Constitution as the oath they have sworn requires, the Republican congress seeks to change the laws.

How will you guys rationalize this one? The Constitution is so passe', right? Those are ancient 18th century values, right?

The Three Godfathers of Rock?

Nadir, I suppose that Hank Williams, Jr is too inconsequential for us to care about his opinion. But he was on Imus this AM, and Imus claims that this guy has created some truly great music. And Hank repeated his assinine proclamation: "There are three godfathers of rock: Elvis, Fran Sinatra, and Hank Williams, Sr." Imus didn't challange this bizarre proclamation. And Hank claims that he made issued this same statement to Kid Rock, another person who produces zero music of interest to me (not that I can name a song), and that Kid Rock agreed. I would like to think that Kid Rock (or anybody) who "agreed" with such a comment simply chose not to disagree, out of politeness. Surely the three Anything of Rock must include Chuck Berry and Little Richard (originals, groud breakers, innovators), and omit Elvis (immitator) and Frank Sinatra (crooner, non-composer, non-writer, big band arranger). Perhaps it would also include BB King. Maybe some cracker qualifies. What an idiot.

Wise: Rationalizing the Irrational

"But however logical it may be to harbor and rationalize racist views, and to defend racism in practice, in the long run, doing so is detrimental and counter-productive, even to those whites who, in the short-run, reap the benefits.

"After all, when folks start believing that a certain group is the dangerous one, to be avoided or repressed in some way, they are likely to let down their guards to the dangers posed by others--dangers that might, for them in fact, be greater than those about which they are hyper-alert."

Sin City, Batman Cartoonist Waves US Flag

This guy sounds like so many spoiled-brat ingrate Americans, many whom I know personally. The difference? This guy grew up. It took 9-11-2001 to do it, but he grew up.

Frank Miller is a comic book artist whose titles include Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Sin City (which he co-directed for the movies). Miller recently announced that he's working on a new graphic novel in which Batman pits himself against terrorists.

One Arab's Apology

This gentleman voices what I have all along suspected of peace-loving, moderate Muslims:

"September 12, 2006 -- WELL, here it is, five years late, but here just the same: an apology from an Arab-American for 9/11. No, I didn't help organize the killers or contribute in any way to their terrible cause. However, I was one of millions of Arab-Americans who did the unspeakable on 9/11: nothing.

The only time I raised my voice in protest against these men who killed thousands of innocents in the name of Allah was behind closed doors, among the safety of friends and family. I did at one point write a very vitriolic essay condemning their actions, but fear of becoming another Salman Rushdie kept me from ever trying to publish it.

Well, I'm sick of saying the truth only in private - that Arabs around the world, including Arab-Americans like myself, need to start holding our own culture accountable for the insane, violent actions that our extremists have perpetrated on the world at large.

Yes, our extremists and our culture."

Petro Prices Drop. Nobody Cares.

I just filled up at $2.20/gal. A few weeks ago I paid over $3/gal. The price increases inspired massive media attention, and riotous cries against evil petro companies. The price decrease has occured quietly. Competent economists point out that when prices rise, people rush out, fill up, and cry foul; when prices drop they respond tepidly. This explains why prices tend to rise faster than they fall.

Who was it that predicted this price drop, anyway? Oh, yeah: people who understand economics, including me. Expect $1.50/gal again in the next year or so.

The Liberty Manifesto

From a speach by libertarian PJ O'Rourke. I suppose he opposes Bush's aim to construct a democracy in Iraq:
============
All we have is the belief that people should do what people want to do, unless it causes harm to other people. And that had better be clear and provable harm. No nonsense about second-hand smoke or hurtful, insensitive language, please...

Freedom is not empowerment. Empowerment is what the Serbs have in Bosnia. Anybody can grab a gun and be empowered. It's not entitlement. An entitlement is what people on welfare get, and how free are they? It's not an endlessly expanding list of rights -- the "right" to education, the "right" to health care, the "right" to food and housing. That's not freedom, that's dependency. Those aren't rights, those are the rations of slavery -- hay and a barn for human cattle...

There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please. And with it comes the only basic human duty, the duty to take the consequences...

If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it's free.

Islamic Crusade Terror Against US Over-Hyped?

So say my and Six's eco heros at Cafe Hyek. I have always proclaimed my support for the Bushie view as far from 100%, and opposed most of the Homelad Security / Patriot Acts, including all the increased hysteria at the airports. Don't all these extra expenses of time and fortune represent a victory for the Islamic Terror Tyrants? Would the best response have been merely to crush the Taliban, then leave Afgahnistan? Could be, I say. Maybe Nadir and Pat Buchannon have been correct all along...

Racism Againt Mixed Couple

Corresponds with my experiances. "Mixed" couples get no nasty treatment in white enviornments, but do get it in black enviornments. At least for the past 20 years. A long time ago, it was the other way around.

Muslim Critics Love USA

This NYT article about muslim immigrants in the US includes the usual vague claims of discrimination. In one example, a woman says that she gets "stares" when she wears her funny costume. I wonder how many "stares" a Scottsman would get wearing a skirt, or a German would get wearing one of those smart short-pants overalls and that feather cap. Imagine the stares they would get in Moroco or Saudi Arabia!

The article mostly has the muslim immigrants opposing US foriegn policy, but praising the US. The writer doesn't challange the claims of "discrimination", even as she notes that muslim immigrants enjoy an "average salary" greater than 20% above the US average and that last year 9.5 million applicants vied for US citizenship.

Armitage On CIA Leak: 'I Screwed Up'

Done and done:

"First of all, I felt so terrible about what I'd done that I felt I deserved whatever was coming to me. And secondarily, I didn't need an attorney to tell me to tell the truth. I as already doing that," Armitage explains. "I was not intentionally outing anybody.

As I say, I have tremendous respect for Ambassador. Wilson's African credentials. I didn't know anything about his wife and made an offhand comment. I didn't try to out anybody." That was nearly three years ago, but the political firestorm over who leaked Valerie Plame's identity continued to burn as Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald began hauling White House officials and journalists before a grand jury.

Armitage says he didn't come forward because "the special counsel, once he was appointed, asked me not to discuss this and I honored his request."

"I thought every day about how I'd screwed up," he adds.

Armitage never did tell the president, but he's talking now because Fitzgerald told him he could.

Lefty Media Silence On Wilson - Plame

Hillarious how Chris Mathews is weaseling out of this story now. Why doesn't he just adopt the Nadir view: The Armatidge revelation changes nothing.

Zimbabwe's Housing Mess

Nadir will explain to us how evil honkey imperialist capitalists caused this. Long live Mugabe, freedom fighter! He sure won freedom for Zimbabweans! Punish the honkies at any cost!

VDH: Is the Western Way of War Dead?

This paragraph from Hanson's column illustrates how the jihadists take the anti-war, anti-Bush, anti-U.S. peacenik talking points such as Nadir's and use them as ammunition against the free, democratic West:

"(So) this anti-Western bias among elites inside the West has given the terrorists enormous advantages in this conflict. If one doubts the sophistication of al Qaeda in echoing Western self-loathing, examine the recent communiqué in which Adam Gadahn condemns Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson, while praising Seymour Hersh, Robert Fisk, and George Galloway. Not long ago Osama bin Laden tried to interject himself into the 2004 elections by hinting that each state will have to accept the consequences of its vote. Earlier he had praised William Blum’s savage take on America, Rogue State."

So Nadir, while you may see freaks like Adam Gadahn as not a real Muslim and not a true representation of Islam, he and his bretheran are a real threat and they are very good and have become very adept at taking the anti-war, peacenik, conspiracy-theory laden Democrat talking points and using them against us.

As Paul stated the other day, you're well within your rights to believe what you want and to disagree with this President and with this war, but remember, much of what you say is being used as propaganda against us.

With freedom of speech comes responsibility. But then again, since you seem to believe that the U.S. and the rest of the "imperialist" free West deserves it's comeuppance, maybe you think it's your "responsibility" then to make sure it gets it.

Leftist & Repo War on Science

Leftists claim that the Repos ignore or suppress science on the issues of "Global Warming" and evoltion. I happen to agree somewhat on the evolution point.

But what about the "dismal science" of economics? Even Repos join Demos insisting that "anti-gouging" laws will help during a disaster. And what about Leftists believing that higher tax rates produce higher tax revenues, and lower tax rate produce lower tax revs?

Hitchens on Niger - Hussain - Wilson

More info on the Niger - Hussain connection, at the center of the Wilson - Plame hysteria. What happens when one of these fanatic regimes gets a working nuke? Hussain and the North Korean psychopaths primarily care about their own self-comfort and agrandizement, so probably wouldn't themselves launch one. But slip one to people like the Hezbo or Iranian psychopaths, who relish death in a war against the infidels? I don't want to find out.

Broder: Wilson-Plame Hysteria Unfounded

Another sober assessment of the Wilson - Plame hysteria, accounting for the new Armatidge revelation. Would anybody today know who Plame was if Wilson hadn't reacted as he did to Novak's column? I doubt it.

Coulter's plea for common sense

I think that even Nadir will agree here with Ann Coulter, whose brain he abhors, but whose countenance and figure he relishes (I think he's got it backwards). She points out that when somebody gets shot with a gun during a "domestic situation", the lefties point out the dangers of home gun ownership, and advocate that people forbid guns from their homes. But when single girls go out, get drunk, then leave by themselves with strangers and end up getting drunk, killed (or otherwise missing), NOBODY uses the incident in public to emphasize the danger of this activity.

She uses even the Duke Rape/Hoax case, taking no sides: either a rape occured, or a false rape accusation occured. In either case, the offended parties placed themselves in a very risky situation. Want to avoid false rape charges, guys? Don't hire strippers to come to your home. Don't want to get raped, girls? Don't go to strange men's homes and trade cash for stripping.

Coulter points out that just people have a "right" to own a gun, exercizing that right comes with risks. Men have a "right" to hire strippers, and women have "rights" to drink heavily in public and leave alone with strange men, and to strip at the homes for strange men. I had a "right" to leave my kid's guitar on the backseat when I parked my car in downtown a few years ago; I will not excersize that right again!

Y'know, Coulter's a Grateful Dead fan. Though Nadir's music is much different, I reckon that band plays high-quality music, and thus Coulter might develop an adoration for Nadir...

Clinton Administration Officials Assail ABC's 'The Path to 9/11'

An ABC docudrama promises to hold the Clinton administration accountable for its pre-9-11 failings, and Bubba doesn't like it.

(Sandy "Burglar") Berger said in an interview that ABC is "certainly trying to create the impression that this is realistic, but it's a fabrication."

Maybe 'ol Sandy feels confident making this statement because he made off with the damning evidence by stuffing it in his pants and socks. Can someone please explain to me again how it is that this fat slob isn't behind bars?

So much for your "legacy", Bubba.

Coulter's Wilson-Plame Assessment

She does a pretty good job of laying out the facts, and interpreting. There seems to be some controversy about the difference between "classified" and "covert". I read Coulter as saying that "classified" is a lower status, that Plame's employment was "classifed" but not "covert", and that this excluded revelation of her employment from the law in question.

As with the columns by Novak and Hitchens, she asserts that Wilson's assessment about Niger to be non-definative. Bush in his speech only refered to what "British intelligence" had concluded, and the Brits stood by that assessment even after this controversy erupted (or, more precisely, after Wilson created a controversy). I surmise that Bush retracted the statement because after the speech we learned that the Niger issue involved a document later deemed forgery, probably by somebody by the person who sold it to western intelligence officials. The British re-investigation included this fact, but stuck to its original conclusion, which apparently did not turn on that document. Bush's retraction thus may have constituted not an admission of error, but rather a rhetorical consession to the difficulty in standing on this point now associated with a forged document and a shrieking Joe Wilson.

This incident really has amazed me. It's consisted of leftists like Nadir fiercely defending secrecy at the CIA using a law that all the leftists opposed when it passed. It also revealed a long-standing rivalry between the White House and CIA, showing that the White House lacks complete control over the CIA, and that CIA personnel can cause problems for a President at odds with them.

Adam Gadahn, "the American Al Qaidi"

Why, if I didn't know any better I'd swear this ass-f*ck has been reading some of Nadir's blog posts!

Nice still shot. He looks like he's preparing to perform some kind of oral sex act.

Obit for Egyptian Writer

Naguib Mahfouz was a muslim intellectual. And thus in recent years he faced a crazed islamic retard. Imagine the retard attacking the 83-year-old Mahfouz, stabbing him in the neck, attempting to execute him for "blasphemous" writing. Mahfouz survived the stabbing, but the injury blocked writing for five years. Where outside the muslim world does religion today inspire assassinations as penalty for expressed thought?

There was a time when Islam's people were more mature than those outside Islam. This article says that Mahfouz adored the fact that during the time of Islamic civilization, its leaders traded European prisoners for Greek literature. In those days muslims didn't kill people for the words that they wrote or spoke, though christians did. Today the worse that christian nuts do is boycott and demand the firing of people who "offend" them. That's a lot closer to civilization than executing them.

Thomas Sowell: The new nomenklatura

"The green nomenklatura talk egalitarianism like the old red nomenklatura and similarly ride roughshod over others while doing it. Their economic ethnic cleansing has driven tens of thousands of blacks out of some liberal Democratic counties.

There were 79,000 blacks living in San Francisco in 1990 and 46,000 today. So any people with children are leaving these bastions of liberal Democratic environmentalists as to force many schools in these counties to close.

But the new nomenklatura go around feeling good about themselves while leaving havoc in their wake."

"We Must Not Confuse Dissent with Disloyality"

Keith Olbermann's response to Donald Rumsfeld's tirade last week.

More Absurdity of Interscholastic Athletics

These guys got arrested for maryjane and weapons possession. Why should they miss playing a football game? Why should their athletic interests compel them to attend a university? Why should a university stage sports spectacles?

FEAR FACTORY: Judge Throws Out Cell Phone Conspiracy Case

"A federal judge threw out conspiracy and money laundering charges Tuesday against three Texas men who originally were accused of planning terrorism, saying there wasn't enough evidence to bring them to trial."

Okay. Call me gullible, but when I heard that these guys bought 80 cell phones at a Wal-Mart, I completely bought their "We're going to take them to Texas and resell them" story. It looks like both the state and federal judges agreed. WHY ARE YOU PEOPLE SO FREAKIN' AFRAID????

Lending Credibility Where Credibility is Due

What Valerie Plame Really Did at the CIA

Was she merely analyst--as Bob Novak and others have claimed? Was she only a desk-jockey--as Jonah Goldberg of The National Review insisted? No. She was operations chief of the Joint Task Force on Iraq (JTFI), a unit of the Counterproliferation Division of the clandestine Directorate of Operations.

For the two years prior to her outing, Valerie Wilson worked to gather intelligence that would support the Bush White House's assertion that Saddam Hussein's Iraq was loaded with WMDs. This means that Armitage--as well as Karl Rove and Scooter Libby--leaked classified information about a undercover CIA officer whose job it had been to look for evidence of Saddam's WMD programs. Any irony here? During this part of her career, Valerie Wilson traveled overseas to monitor operations she and her staff at JTFI were mounting.

Some critics (Paul) have argued that a woman recommending her husband for a job for which he is uniquely qualified should cause a professional to lose credibility. This article by David Corn reveals that Plame-Wilson was most qualified to know who could best handle the task of searching for Iraqi connections in Niger.

Could it be that Valerie Wilson was illegally outed because she more than any other person could confirm that the White House's claims of WMDs in Iraq were false?

Bill Ford steps down from CEO post

Now if he'd only do the really important thing and step down as the the guy in charge of the Detroit Lions.

But seriously, Ford Motor Co. is in some deep, deep, doo-doo.

M. Osman Siddique: Muslims must come forward

Refreshing words of clarity and common sense from an American Muslim:
===============
I am embarrassed when I read the names of the terrorists in the newspaper. What must non-Muslims think when some criminal claiming to act in the name of Islam and bearing the same name as the Prophet Muhammad is arrested?

I am also embarrassed that not all American Muslims do all they can to expose those in our community who would commit mayhem or would give succor in any way to those who would cause harm. Too many American Muslims hold back from publicly speaking out against extremist ideologies that threaten us all because they fear being stigmatized by their coreligionists for cooperating with security agencies.

Why is this? In part it is because some Muslim immigrants are relatively recent arrivals from nations in which security forces were corrupt and could not be trusted. Some shy from cooperation because of their immigration status or the status of those around them. Still others hold back because they disagree strongly with American foreign policy. They truly believe that the current administration is fighting a war against Islam under the guise of fighting terrorism. Regrettably, this sentiment is widespread among Muslims, more so abroad but to a substantial degree in America as well.

Our government may act incompetently and unwisely. But I'm confident that it holds no animosity toward Muslims simply because they are Muslims. Sadly, it is Muslims who perpetrate most of the worst terrorist attacks today. As we approach the fifth anniversary of September 11, this reality must be acknowledged by all Muslims.

Back to $1/gal petro?

At the height of the petro price crisis I predicted here that petro prices would again fall to record levels. In the past week experts have predicted a fall to about $2/gal this autumn. A few months ago the industry announced a major petro discovery in Cuba's waters. Now comes word of the discovery of an even bigger storehouse -- 50% the size of all existing known reserve! -- in US waters in the same gulf. As predicted, the price and profit spikes that panicked so many people led to new discoveries that will reduce the price of petro. Those evil CORPORATIONS!

As the petro epoch continues (stomping on its periodic obituaries), so does the development of the technology that will surely one day -- as it always has -- lead humans to yet a new source of fuel.

US gift to Iraq

Consider this book by a Lebonese - Shiite who advocates secular democracy. He's a history professor at Johns Hopkins. He did an excellent job tonight on Bill Maher making the case I have articulated for Bush's Iraq war.

Johnson: Smearing the Wilsons and Sliming America

It looks like Larry Johnson has been reading my comments here at Reformed Leftist, but the point of view we share is the most logical conclusion when THE FACTS of the Plame/Wilson case are explored.

How low can they go?

I refer of course to the latest vitriol directed at Valerie and Joe Wilson by the likes of Christopher Hitchens and Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post, who claim that Joe Wilson, not Bush administration officials, is responsible for destroying his wife's cover and exposing her as a CIA operative.

Hitchens's battle with the bottle may account for his addled thinking, but what is Hiatt's excuse?

Both men perform like Cirque du Soleil contortionists in dreaming up excuses for the nutty and destructive policies and actions of the Bush administration. In watching their behavior, we see a parallel with the devotees of Jim Jones, who gathered in Guyana almost 30 years ago to drink poisoned kool aid.

Zinn: War Is Not a Solution for Terrorism

The repeated excuse, given by both Pentagon spokespersons and Israeli officials, for dropping bombs where ordinary people live is that terrorists hide among civilians. Therefore the killing of innocent people (in Iraq, in Lebanon) is called accidental, whereas the deaths caused by terrorists (on 9/11, by Hezbollah rockets) are deliberate.

This is a false distinction, quickly refuted with a bit of thought. If a bomb is deliberately dropped on a house or a vehicle on the grounds that a "suspected terrorist" is inside (note the frequent use of the word suspected as evidence of the uncertainty surrounding targets), the resulting deaths of women and children may not be intentional. But neither are they accidental. The proper description is "inevitable."

Unhappy Anniversaries of Bush's Failure

As if we needed them, the last few weeks have offered several reminders of why the presidential administration of George W. Bush is the worst in US history. A quick review of recent events highlights the reasons this failed businessman should never have been given the job of chief executive in the most powerful nation on earth.

Hitchy's Foriegn Affairs Commentary on Iraq

Somehow, leftists believe that the US govt's role in Hussein's despotic ascension contradicts its current effort to correct that mistake. Christopher Hitchens regards that initial mistake as an obligation to set things right.

"The United States can contemplate leaving Iraqis to settle their sharp internal differences by themselves, but it cannot abandon them to a victory for clerical and political fascism and has its own reasons for demonstrating that such a threat can be met, engaged, and defeated. Those who believe, or half-believe, that the insurgency is produced by the Coalition presence are deceiving themselves, and have paid no attention to the countries where such tactics are used against the population in the absence of any Western involvement or even concern. At present, then, the United States is acting as a militia for the majority of Iraqis who do not have a militia of their own. (It is not without significance that when sectarians are found operating private or semi-official squads and prisons, the victims take their complaints to the Green Zone.)"

Also:
http://www.foreignaffairs.org/special/roundtable_hitchens

The Clash of Civilizations Doesn't Exist... Yet

"The neocons who are pushing a Clash of Civilizations are mirror-images of the terrorists that inspire their hyperbolic fear -- they are just as irrational and just as great a threat to our security."

Our friend, Josh Holland, is on the money again.

Losing the War on Terror - Losing the War on Drugs

The following news doesn’t bode well for two of the United States’ ill-conceived wars: the so-called “War on Terror” and the so-called “War on Drugs”.

From The New York Times:

Afghanistan’s opium harvest this year has reached the highest levels ever recorded, showing an increase of almost 50 percent from last year, the head of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Antonio Maria Costa, said Saturday in Kabul.

He said the increase in cultivation was fueled by the resurgence of Taliban rebels in the south, the country’s prime opium growing region. As the insurgents have stepped up their attacks, they have also encouraged and profited from the drug trade, promising protection to growers if they worked to expand their opium operations.

Another Plame-gate Outrage

The special prosecuter, Patrick Fitzgerald, discovered the leaker's name on the first day of his investigation! So, why did Fitzy continue the investigation for two years, and without revealing this information... enabling the Nadirs of the world to insist loudly and daily with absolute certainty that the leaker was obviously a Bush operative working to punish Joe Wilson?

Joe Wilson's response to the Novak column fairly proves that he lacked any genuine interest in protecting his wife's identity and occupation; his wife's subsequent behavior showed that she lacked such an interest as well. Their behavior revealed that above protecting her CIA status, they prized scoring points against Bush and appearing as heros in this regard. Wilson's famous NYT essay misrepresented his role in pre-war activities, exaggerating his position and the weight of his conclusion. It appears that the Novak column acted as a welcome excuse for him to launch a massive publicity campaign for himself and his wife.

The accusation that Novak's column represented the obvious work of angry Bush partisans retaliating against him by "going after his wife" and "outing" her never made sense to me. Clearly we know now with certainty that the accusation was false.

Inventing Anti-Muslim Strawman

Lots of claims that Americans and Britons "stereotype" Muslims. But never any concrete facts showing this. Here's an article about a Muslim Afgahni broad in England, making these same claims, as always without no specific factual backup (as in this case) or the slightest incident (Arab with political slogan on airplane frightens passengers). What did the allegedly predjudiced British public do to her? They made her Miss Britain. And what did ths allegedly besieged British Muslims do to her? Well, some threatened her life for "betraying Islam"!

To recap: Britain makes an Afgahni Muslim their Miss Britain. No non-muslims complain. But some muslims threatent to kill her for violating retarded muslim superstition. In the midst of this, she complains about the non-muslims.

Durham in Wonderland

Excellent blog devoted to the Duke Rape Hoax, by an NYC history professor.

People who profess a devotion to "justice" surely must seek it even for the people they dispise. If rich white guys can get railroaded like this, what will stop DAs from employing these unfair, unethical, and illegal tactics again, next time to somebody you (Nadir!) care about? Will it be too late then to speak up? What moral authority will you have then?

MediaWhoregate: The End Of Much Ado About Nothing

Still waiting for the apologies.

"It now appears that the person most responsible for the end of Ms. Plame’s CIA career is Mr. Wilson. Mr. Wilson chose to go public with an explosive charge, claiming — falsely, as it turned out — that he had debunked reports of Iraqi uranium-shopping in Niger and that his report had circulated to senior administration officials. He ought to have expected that both those officials and journalists such as Mr. Novak would ask why a retired ambassador would have been sent on such a mission and that the answer would point to his wife. He diverted responsibility from himself and his false charges by claiming that President Bush’s closest aides had engaged in an illegal conspiracy. It’s unfortunate that so many people took him seriously."

Bush Assassination Film Spooks Speach Mummers

My partisans on the right are embarrassing me by caring at all that some film maker has created a drama depicting Bush getting successefully assassinated. What a sorry show last night on the gabfests. Even my hero Ann Coulter shamed me, using this opportunity to remind me that she wants to outlaw flag-burning. Some of these supposed freedom-lovers want broadcasters in the US arrested for showing images of a sitting president assassinated! They make this case on the grounds that it might inspire somebody to kill the president. SO WHAT? Surely we cannot make the US president a special citizen! That would violate the entire concept of the US. These people are no better than those Britons seeking to boycott the BBC for broadcasting the show, "Shoot The Messenger," for portraying black people stating opinions that "offend" the boycotters.

If somebody makes a show that you find distasteful, why not just watch something else? These people trying to ban or punish those who convey comments or images which they find "offensive" are nullifying the First Amendment. One right wing commentator coined a clever line about celebrities using their forums to issue earnest socio-political messages: "Shut up and sing." I endorse that line, but this one also: "Shut up and turn the channel."