American Report

2005-01-14T16:50:00.000-08:00

Harry the Nazi
Doesn't Need to Visit Auschwitz.
Just Visit London or the Library.

Nazi Planes Bombing London

2005-01-14T13:09:00.000-08:00

Sharon Cuts Ties With Abbas
Over Terrorist Attacks
(Yahoo! News)

"'Israel informed international leaders today that there will be no meetings with Abbas until he makes a real effort to stop the terror,' Sharon spokesman Assaf Shariv said."

2005-01-14T11:06:00.000-08:00

Prince Harry the Nazi
(BBC News)

"Prince Harry at a friend's fancy dress party
wearing a Nazi Uniform"

American Report: So, "Prince" Harry of England finds it humorous, stylish, ironic, daring to wear a Nazi uniform to a "fancy dress" party. The British press, while pasting his picture and the headlines "Harry the Nazi" on the front page, still seem willing to accept the act as boyish mistake that is merely offensive to Britain's Jewish community.

Excuse me for not knowing World War II history very well. But, just how many British civilians and soldiers died in WW II, protecting "King and Country?" I seem to remember that the Nazis were bombing London from the air. Hitler, the Nazis, and Germany were determined to destroy England and the British Empire, despite the best efforts of British Nazi sympathizers and appeasers. If not for Churchill, the British fighting forces and, most of all, the United States, everyone in Britain might be wearing Nazi uniforms every day. Now, that might not be such a bad thing for the British "Royals." After all, they would be re-united with their German cousins. But, it would be a very bad thing for the rest of the British and the world.

Today, the Anglosphere of the United States, Great Britain, and Australia, along with our coalition of the willing nations, are engaged in what may be World War IV, against a Fascist and virulently anti-Semitic enemy across the globe. It would be nice if "Prince" Harry knew his history, current events, and most of all, his place.

Update: Read Isaac Schrodinger's blog for more personal insight into dangers of the ignorance of Fascism.

2005-01-14T10:02:00.000-08:00

The Man Who Would Be President -
Kerry Kowtows to Despots and Islamists
(Little Green Footballs)

Ramallah January 9, 2005 (Yahoo! News)

"ArabicNews.com says Kerry “admitted the US committed terrible mistakes,” in a meeting with the Grand Imam of Al Azhar University.... The Grand Imam of Al Azhar is on record supporting suicide bombing as a legitimate form of “resistance” against “occupiers.” "

2005-01-14T09:44:00.000-08:00

Charles Krauthammer: Rather Biased
(washingtonpost.com)

Dan Rather with Gun (Rather Biased)

"First comes the crime: Dan Rather's late hit on President Bush's Air National Guard service, featuring what were almost immediately revealed to be forged documents.

Then comes the coverup: 12 days of CBS stonewalling, with Dan Rather using his evening news platform to (a) call his critics 'partisan political operatives,' (b) claim falsely that the documents were authenticated by experts, and (c) claim that he had 'solid sources,' which turned out to be a rabid anti-Bush partisan with a history of, shall we say, prolific storytelling.

Now comes the twist: The independent investigation -- clueless, uncomprehending and in its own innocent way disgraceful -- pretends that this fiasco was in no way politically motivated. "

2005-01-14T09:32:00.000-08:00

The Texas Republican President
and his New York Democratic Friend
(The New York Times)

Roland W. Betts, a New York Democrat, and President Bush have been close friends for more than 40 years, since they were freshman at Yale.

2005-01-13T14:47:00.000-08:00

Norman Podhoretz:
The War Against World War IV
(Commentary Magazine)

"Will George W. Bush spend the next few years backing down from the ambitious strategy he outlined in the Bush Doctrine for fighting and winning World War IV?

To be sure, Bush himself still calls it the "war on terrorism," and has shied away from giving the name World War IV to the great conflict into which we were plunged by 9/11. (World War III, in this accounting, was the cold war.) Yet he has never hesitated to compare the fight against radical Islamism, and the forces nurturing and arming it, with those earlier struggles against Nazism and Communism. Nor has he flinched from suggesting that achieving victory as the Bush Doctrine defines it may take as long as it took to win World War III (which lasted more than four decades—from the promulgation of the Truman Doctrine in 1947 until the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989). "

2005-01-13T14:18:00.000-08:00

National Security Hacked on T-Mobile
(Gizmodo)

"A twenty-something hacker owned most of T-Mobile's internal customer records last year, giving him access to such inconsequential information as Secret Service documents and Social Security numbers. But 'worst of all' — are reports that the hacker was able to get "grainy, candid shots" of Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Nicole Richie, and Paris Hilton, presumably stolen from the servers that host the Sidekick data."

2005-01-13T13:39:00.000-08:00

MoveOn.org Ad in NY Times
Against Alberto Gonzales
(MoveOn.org)

"MoveOn.org is airing TV commercials and running NY Times ads against Alberto Gonzales' nomination as Attorney General."

2005-01-13T13:11:00.000-08:00

Victor Davis Hanson: Islamicists hate us for who we are, not what we do
(Jewish World Review)

"Muslim fascists understood that the course of American-led world history — democracy and globalized capitalism — was leaving them behind. Thus they strike the United States before they are made irrelevant."

2005-01-13T11:24:00.000-08:00

Peter Beinart: Golden
(The New Republic)

Gov. Schwarzenegger "unveiled a proposal that could do more to improve U.S. politics than any government reform in a long, long time."

2005-01-12T10:10:00.000-08:00

MSN tests new blog, search features
(CNET News.com)
"MSN on Tuesday evening is expected to quietly begin testing new features for searching and syndicating blogs, in a nod to the online publishing format.... In a recent interview, Microsoft founder Bill Gates said even he was pondering penning his own blog."

2005-01-12T09:40:00.000-08:00

Standing with Ukraine
(Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
"This week, as most Ukrainians celebrate the Christmas holidays according to the Julian calendar, a traditional carol, 'Nova Radist Stala' ('New Joy Has Come'), will take on additional meaning. Its lyrics speak to the country's long struggle for liberty: 'God grant our motherland, Ukraine, freedom, happiness and good fortune.' "

2005-01-12T09:34:00.000-08:00

Howard Fineman: The 'Media Party' Is Over
(Newsweek)
A political party is dying before our eyes—and I don't mean the Democrats. I'm talking about the "mainstream media," which is being destroyed by the opposition (or worse, the casual disdain) of George Bush's Republican Party; by competition from other news outlets (led by the internet and Fox's canny Roger Ailes); and by its own fraying journalistic standards. At the height of its power, the AMMP (the American Mainstream Media Party) helped validate the civil rights movement, end a war and oust a power-mad president. But all that is ancient history.

2005-01-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

William Safire: Character Is Destiny
(The New York Times)
William Safire, you will be deeply missed: "It is that growing strength of national character - more than our individual genius or political leadership or military power - that ensures the future success of America and brightens the light of liberty's torch. "

2005-01-11T19:44:00.000-08:00

Sharon Congratulates Abbas in Phone Call
(Yahoo! News)
"Sharon congratulated Abbas 'on his personal achievement and his victory in the elections and wished him luck,' said a statement from Sharon's office, adding, 'They agreed they would continue talking in the near future.' "

2005-01-11T14:19:00.001-08:00

Apple debuts new, low-priced iPod
(CNET News.com)

iPod Shuffle

"'iPod Shuffle is smaller and lighter than a pack of gum and costs less than $100,' Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a statement. 'With most flash-memory music players, users must use tiny displays and complicated controls to find their music. With iPod Shuffle, you just relax and it serves up new combinations of your music every time you listen.' "

2005-01-11T13:50:00.000-08:00

Daniel Pipes: Abbas More Tactical and Dangerous than Arafat
(Jewish World Review)
"By insisting on a 'right of return,' Abbas signals that he, like Yasir Arafat and most Palestinians, intends to undo the events of 1948; that he rejects the very legitimacy of a Jewish state and will strive for its disappearance. But he differs from Arafat in being able to imagine more than one way of achieving this goal.

No matter what the circumstances, Arafat persisted from 1965 to 2004 to rely on terrorism. He never took seriously his many agreements with Israel, seeing these rather as a means to enhance his ability to murder Israelis. Arafat's diplomacy culminated in September 2000 with the unleashing of his terror war against Israel; then, no matter how evident its failure, it went on until his death in November 2004.

In contrast, Abbas publicly recognized in September 2002 that terror had come to harm Palestinians more than Israel. Intended to prompt demoralization and flight from Israel, this tactic in fact brought together a hitherto fractured body politic, while nearly destroying the Palestinian Authority and prostrating its population. Abbas correctly concluded that 'it was a mistake to use arms during the Intifada and to carry out attacks inside Israel.'

Abbas shows tactical flexibility. Unlike Arafat, who could never let go of the terrorist tool that had brought him wealth, power, and glory, Abbas sees the situation more cogently. If stopping the violence against Israel best serves his goal of eliminating the sovereign Jewish state, that is his program."

2005-01-11T13:25:00.000-08:00

Natan Sharansky on Abbas
(OpinionJournal)
"Though many of Abu Mazen's recent statements are not encouraging--from pledging to follow in Yasser Arafat's path to assuring Palestinian terrorists that he will protect them from Israeli reprisals to demanding a so-called right of return to pre-1967 Israel--George W. Bush's understanding that the key to peace lies in building a free society for the Palestinians is a source of optimism. If Mr. Bush makes it clear that the U.S. will support him only if he dedicates himself to expanding freedom within Palestinian society rather than on feeding resentments, then the chances that Abu Mazen will become a genuine partner will improve immeasurably."

2005-01-11T12:49:00.000-08:00

More from Michael Chertoff
(Michelle Malkin)
"There are a host of terrorism-related legal questions that require thought: What should our structure be for incapacitating terror suspects at home? The administration has invoked precedents that allow the president to deal with terrorists within our borders as military combatants. Yet are we comfortable using traditional battlefield rules when we apprehend someone in New York? Or should we explore a third way in dealing with detention of terrorists, such as the English or French models: Should we set up specialized courts to deal with terrorist detentions?

What military actions can we take legally within our own borders? When al Qaeda is conspiring globally, does it make sense to divide legal authority between the FBI and CIA based on whether enemy acts occur at home or abroad? Basic policy questions like this cannot be simply left to the judiciary."

2005-01-11T10:17:00.000-08:00

Michael Chertoff: Law, Loyalty, and Terror
Our legal response to the post-9/11 world
(Weekly Standard, December 1, 2003 issue)
"In this dynamic and dangerous moment--shrouded in the proverbial fog of war--the government approach to domestic security was based on three goals: (1) enhancing our intelligence capability to predict what might happen next; (2) preventing those who could be identified as an active threat from carrying out their deadly missions; and (3) disrupting the networks and institutions from which terrorists might draw sustenance and support.

At the same time, and of equal importance, the leaders of our domestic security effort understood a principle that the attorney general himself repeatedly articulated: We must think outside the box, but not outside the Constitution. Put another way, everyone involved in formulating the response to the challenge of September 11 was acutely aware that this effort would be subject to the verdict of history, in the same way that we have rendered that verdict on the actions of our forefathers when they stepped forward to defend the country during times of peril.

I cannot, of course, render the historical judgment on the actions of the generation with which I served. I do, however, think that those who would write even a rough first draft cannot fairly do so without comparing the steps taken in our own time with our nation's past actions in facing domestic threats. "

2005-01-11T10:09:00.000-08:00

Michael Chertoff:
The International Criminal Court is even worse than its critics have said
(Weekly Standard, April 12 / 19, 2004 issue)
"ICC partisans have dramatically understated the potential power and reach of this new court. More remarkably, American critics may have understated the risks posed by this new permanent tribunal. Because now we have it on very good authority that the ICC need not be--and is not--confined to investigating and punishing the Pol Pots and Idi Amins and other major war criminals of the modern world. Rather, the ICC's own prosecuting authority has expressed a vision of its mission that would target even ordinary private American citizens, such as businessmen and bankers."

2005-01-11T10:03:00.000-08:00

French Hostages in Iraq
(Weekly Standard)
"During their very first interrogation, Malbrunot remembered, he and Chesnot 'immediately played the 'French journalist card,' while insisting on the fact that France is against the war.' Then, 'we told them that we'd understood them to be a 'resistance' from the moment there was an 'illegal occupation' of Iraq. Or, put another way, 'we gave them pledges to demonstrate that we weren't pro-American.' It was only privately, 'to myself,' that Malbrunot found himself fondly daydreaming about the United States Marines: 'If only an American patrol would come through, take out this lovely bunch, and set us free.'"

2005-01-11T09:54:00.000-08:00

Democrats Plan To Block Bush
(Yahoo! News)
"Bush has opened the year with calls for bipartisanship, telling newly elected members of Congress last week that he hoped to work across party lines to solve the country's problems. Democrats, however, appear to have little interest in building bridges to the White House, saying they do not believe Bush is genuinely interested in cooperation or compromise with the opposition. "

2005-01-11T09:46:00.000-08:00

Inmate Says Graner Laughed During Abuse
(Yahoo! News)
"A Syrian inmate at Abu Ghraib said Army Spc. Charles Graner Jr. was the Baghdad prison's primary torturer who laughed while physically abusing him and threatened to kill him more than once. Amin al-Sheikh, testifying via videotaped deposition shown in court Tuesday, said Graner also made him eat pork and drink alcohol, in violation of his Muslim faith, and that he listened through his cell wall while Graner and other Americans forced a Yemeni prisoner eat from a toilet."

2005-01-11T09:44:00.000-08:00

Michael Chertoff for Homeland Security
(Yahoo! News)
"Chertoff headed the Justice Department's criminal division from 2001 to 2003, where he played a central role in the nation's legal response to the Sept. 11 attacks, before the president named him to appeals court position in New Jersey."

2005-01-10T17:32:00.000-08:00

Bill Gates - Not a Communist
(CNET News.com)
Bill Gates said, "'There are fewer communists in the world today than there were. There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.' "

2005-01-10T14:22:00.000-08:00

Patriarch of Terror
(FrontPage magazine.com)
"Michel Sabbah, the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, has praised jihad, justified suicide bombing, and led marches at the behest of the late Yasser Arafat."

2005-01-10T13:22:00.000-08:00

The Thornburgh Report
(Power Line)
"It criticizes 60 Minutes harshly, and is a treasure trove of factual information."

2005-01-10T11:16:00.000-08:00

Koppel, Hamas, and Tea
(The Nudnik File)

Ted Koppel is Laughing

Friday night, Ted was interviewing Khaled Mashaal, the “political leader” of Hamas.... In his “Closing Thoughts” segment, Ted Koppel said:

“Years ago in Nairobi Kenya, I remember Jomo Kenyatta pulling up his trouser leg to show visiting secretary of state Henry Kissinger the scars he still bore from leg irons he was forced to wear in prison. The British had jailed him as a terrorist. Kenyatta would go on to become the first president of an independent Kenya and the British went home. Similarly, in British occupied Palestine, Menachem Begin, and his Irgun fighters were considered terrorists. Begin of course went on to become prime minister of Israel. After 26 years in prison, Nelson Mandela became president of South Africa. Yasser Arafat, certainly a terrorist earlier in his career, received a state funeral in Cairo just a few weeks ago. He died, of course, president of the PA.

Do all terrorist leaders go on to become revered statesmen? Certainly not. Just don’t be surprised if one of these days Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal shows up at the White House for tea. Such things have happened before.”

2005-01-10T10:52:00.000-08:00

Syria and Iran in Iraq
(National Review Online)
"While there are certainly plenty of Saddam loyalists among the terrorists fighting against us, they are receiving support from Damascus and Tehran."

2005-01-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

David Frum's Diary: Scowcroft and Kerry
(National Review Online)
"During the 2004 election, Brent Scowcroft - the former National Security Adviser to the elder President Bush - played a curious and often mysterious role. By reputation, Scowcroft is an intimate of the Bush family's, yet throughout campaign season he dropped hints that he much preferred John Kerry's approach to that of his friend's son."

2005-01-10T10:46:00.000-08:00

David Frum's Diary: Raising Eyebrows
(National Review Online)
"I don't know whether the rumor of Paul Wolfowitz's departure from the Pentagon is valid, but this story does have the ring of at least a partial truth. Combined with the news that Condoleezza Rice passed over John Bolton in favor of Robert Zoellick for her deputy at the State Department, the foreign policy appointments of the Bush second term should raise a lot of eyebrows among administration supporters."

2005-01-10T10:31:00.000-08:00

CBS Ousts 4 For Bush Guard Story
(CBS News)
"CBS News failed to follow basic journalistic principles in the preparation and reporting of the piece. The panel also said CBS News had compounded that failure with a “rigid and blind” defense of the 60 Minutes Wednesday report."

2005-01-10T10:28:00.001-08:00

The Future Of The New York Times
(Business Week)
"There are those who contend that the paper has been permanently diminished, along with the rest of what now is dismissively known in some circles as 'MSM,' mainstream media."

2005-01-10T05:32:00.000-08:00

The Silent Muslim Majority
(FrontPage magazine.com)
"Their silence is empowering not only the terrorists and brutal dictatorships, but all of the cultural, political and social pathologies behind them. "

2005-01-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

Tower of Babble
(FrontPage magazine.com)
"I was struck by a sense that the world was becoming far more anarchical than anyone had anticipated at the end of the 1991 Gulf War.... From my vantage point, the UN seemed to be directly connected to this global deterioration."

2005-01-09T20:56:00.000-08:00

Abbas Sees 'Difficult Mission' After Win
(Yahoo! News)
"'There is a difficult mission ahead to build our state, to achieve security for our people ... to give our prisoners freedom, our fugitives a life in dignity, to reach our goal of an independent state,' Abbas said in an acceptance speech in the West Bank city of Ramallah. "

2005-01-08T13:52:00.000-08:00

American Report:
The NYT and "The Boys" of Hamas

During the past several years, it has been painful to become aware of how biased news organizations and "journalists" are against Israel. Still, most of that bias has come through, whether subconsciously or consciously on the part of the news, through the use of editing what to report and what not to report. Report that Israelis killed 7 Palestinians including a child. Don't report that the Israeli military was responding to a rocket launch against a school bus and that the group responsible was hiding among civilians. Use the word "militants" instead of "terrorists." Equate self-defense with terrorism. Fair enough.

However, this morning, the front page of The New York Times ran an "article" by a "writer" named STEVEN ERLANGER that goes so far beyond the pale in every word it uses that not even a publicist for terror would dare write such words. The first paragraphs of the article are quoted verbatim below:

"The boys from Hamas were busy ripping down the placards to put up a message of their own, under the snapping green flags of Islam. But their message was not about Sunday's presidential election; it was a commemoration of a Hamas hero, Yahya Ayyash, a master bomb maker known as the Engineer who was killed by Israel nine years ago this week with a booby-trapped cellphone.
Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction, is urging its supporters to boycott the election, which is to replace Yasir Arafat. Yet the poll is nearly as big a test for Hamas as for those actually running. For several years, its popularity was on the rise. But now, after four years of violence and the death of Mr. Arafat, Hamas is struggling against a shift in political sentiment toward the mainstream and a new possibility for improved relations with Israel."

It starts with the words, "The boys from Hamas," as if these terrorists were simply "The Little Rascals" - a club of disadvantaged, plucky, cute, slightly mischievous kids. Or, perhaps, they are "The Boys from Company C" - a band of clean-cut 19 year old soldiers, carrying a Kodak camera and a transistor radio with them, as they go off to fight a battle not-of-their-choosing. The first sentence finishes with the vivid snapshot of "the snapping green flags of Islam."

However, ERLANGER and The New York Times are just clearing their throats for the next sentence in this love letter. The "boys" are busy with a "commemoration" of a Hamas "hero." Now, the kids are simply fans of their favorite home-run hitter. But, this "hero" is a "master" "bomb maker" known as the "Engineer." The sentence is still only half-done. The New York Times has just described a bomb maker as a master craftsman as if this is the Arts & Leisure Section. The fact that those bombs were used to blow up Israeli children, women, and men in buses and pizza parlors is either beside the point, or just the wonderful artistic culimination of this "master's" beautiful work. The sentence then finishes with the tragic news that this "boys'" "hero," this "master," this super-hero named "the Engineer" (an Engineer designs, creates, builds), was barbarically "killed by Israel" "nine years ago this week" "with a booby-trapped cellphone." It's an anniversary! And the Israelis are the terrorists who use booby trapped cellphones to kill individuals. It's difficult to dissect a sentence whose every word is so fully loaded. At least the editors have shown some restraint. The first draft undoubtedly described the Israeli's as "assassinating" or "murdering" instead of simply "killing."

The next paragraph begins with a sentence as simple as a bomb. "Hamas, which seeks Israel's destruction, is urging its supporters...." No different than a boyscout motto, "seeks Israel's destruction." It's practically, "truth, justice, and the American way." It's as obvious and plain as a brown paper bag. No further comment needed. Seeks the violent death of every Jew, the policide of an entire nation off the map, to be replaced with a fascist murderous form of society, and it's simply a descriptive mission statement between two commas. This is exhausting. The paragraph ends with the troubling news that Palestinian political "sentiment" is shifting "toward the mainstream and a new possibility for improved relations with Israel." God forbid. How horrible. What will Hamas and The New York Times do?

There should be an investigation of the New York Times and this writer, STEVEN ERLANGER. No organization or individual could write and publish such an article without a clear and present vested interest with a group that the United States classifies as terrorists.

2005-01-07T13:34:00.000-08:00

Bush Confident About Iraqi Elections
(Yahoo! News)
"Bush said that some Sunni Muslim areas, in particular, are being targeted by insurgents. 'And their message is, 'If you vote, we'll kill you.' But the real message is, 'We can't stand democracy.'

2005-01-07T11:41:00.000-08:00

Charles Krauthammer:
The History of Oslo Repeats Itself
(Jewish World Review)
"During the decade of Oslo, Arafat's every statement of hatred, incitement and glorification of violence was similarly waved away. Then bombs began going off in cafes and buses, and the Middle East wise men realized he meant it all along. Now once again they are telling us to ignore the words. Abbas does not really mean it, they assure us. This is just electioneering. We know his true moderate heart. Believe us."

2005-01-07T11:31:00.000-08:00

Jonah Goldberg: The Reasonable Man
(National Review Online)
It is mostly thanks to him (Oliver Wendell Holmes) that we have what lawyers — and the rest of us — call the "reasonable man" doctrine.

2005-01-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Iraqi Elections
(National Review Online)
We have a country facing a national election during bloody sectarian conflict, with a significant portion of the electorate refusing to participate, but a timeline that mandates balloting on a specific day fast approaching. Should the election be postponed? Americans did not think so in 1864. Our country was facing a situation more deadly, more divisive, more significant than anything currently transpiring in Iraq. Federal authority was openly defied — in fact nonexistent — in a third of the country. An alternative government was operating, defended not by small groups of masked cowards with bombs but by a bloodied but still-dangerous conventional fighting force that had shown it could take on the U.S. Army in battle and win. Nevertheless, the 1864 election went ahead. It even included electoral votes from West Virginia, a state carved out of one of the areas in rebellion. Imagine the tuttings of the Kofi Annans of the time. Such irregularities. Can Lincoln's presidency possibly be considered legitimate by the international community?

2005-01-07T11:09:00.000-08:00

Victor Davis Hanson:
Imagine No United States
(National Review Online)
Imagine a world in which there was no United States during the last 15 years. Iraq, Iran, and Libya would now have nukes. Afghanistan would remain a seventh-century Islamic terrorist haven sending out the minions of Zarqawi and Bin Laden worldwide. The lieutenants of Noriega, Milosevic, Mullah Omar, Saddam, and Moammar Khaddafi would no doubt be adjudicating human rights at the United Nations. The Ortega Brothers and Fidel Castro, not democracy, would be the exemplars of Latin America. Bosnia and Kosovo would be national graveyards like Pol Pot's Cambodia. Add in Kurdistan as well — the periodic laboratory for Saddam's latest varieties of gas. Saddam himself, of course, would have statues throughout the Gulf attesting to his control of half the world's oil reservoirs. Europeans would be in two-day mourning that their arms sales to Arab monstrocracies ensured a second holocaust. North Korea would be shooting missiles over Tokyo from its new bases around Seoul and Pusan. For their own survival, Germany, Taiwan, and Japan would all now be nuclear. Americans know all that — and yet they grasp that their own vigilance and military sacrifices have earned them spite rather than gratitude. And they are ever so slowly learning not much to care anymore.

2005-01-07T09:51:00.000-08:00

The Incredible Shrinking Dems
(Weekly Standard)
On foreign policy, Democrats traditionally were idealistic internationalists in favor of an assertive U.S. presence in the world ready to oppose various tyrannies. They've abdicated that role to Republicans. The chief foreign-policy idealist today is Bush, who champions a crusade for democracy in Afghanistan, Iraq, the Middle East and elsewhere. Democrats flirt with isolationism.

2005-01-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

The State of the Arnold
(Weekly Standard)
"Political courage is not political suicide. Ignore the lobbyists. Ignore the politics. Trust the people." - Arnold Schwarzenegger, State of the State 2005

2005-01-07T09:32:00.000-08:00

Islamic Education in German Public Schools
(Little Green Footballs)
BERLIN—Told that she couldn’t sit in on religion classes for the Muslim students at Rixdorfer Elementary School, (the Principal) Marion Berning went into the classroom anyway on the pretext of fixing a window. What she found stunned and angered her. The teacher was saying that “women are for the house, for the children. And the girls were sitting like this,” she says, placing her hands in her lap, slumping her shoulders in an imitation of a meek posture, and casting her eyes downward. “While all of the boys,” she is yelling now, “they were talking and playing. This is fundamentalism.”

2005-01-06T17:29:00.000-08:00

Top 5 Arab Tsunami Conspiracy Theories
(MEMRI)
5. The Tsunami is Allah's Revenge at Bangkok Corruption (Palestinian Friday Sermon by Sheik Mudeiris)

4. The Nations were Destroyed for Lying, Sinning, and being Infidels (Advisor to Saudi Arabia's Justice Minister)

3. Allah Punishes for Homosexuality and Fornication at Christmas (Saudi Professor Sheikh Fawzan Al-Fawzan)

2. Allah Finished Off the Richter Scale in Revenge of Infidel Criminals (Saudi Cleric Muhammad Al-Munajjid)

1. U.S.-Israel-India Nuclear Testing May have Caused Asian Tsunami; The Goal: Testing how to Liquidate Humanity (Egyptian Nationalist Weekly)

2005-01-06T17:15:00.000-08:00

"Holy Warriors" Arrive for Tsunami "Relief"
(Little Green Footballs)
"An extremist Islamic group with alleged links to Al Qaeda has set up a relief camp in the tsunami-stricken Aceh province on Sumatra island, raising concerns its fiercely anti-American members could stir up sentiment against U.S. and Australian troops helping to distribute aid."

2005-01-06T17:14:00.000-08:00

Democrats Disgrace Themselves
(Power Line)
"Today's Democrats have no respect for our country's insitutions or for democratic processes. Partisanship is all. Surely they must understand the damage they do to our institutions when they refuse to accept the basic principle of democracy: when you lose an election, the other guys get to govern. "

2005-01-06T11:13:00.000-08:00

American Report:
Top 5 Recent Quotes by Mahmoud Abbas

Mahmoud Abbas in Nablus 1/6/2005 (AP)

5. "We will never forget the rights of the refugees, and we will never forget their suffering. They will eventually gain their rights, and the day will come when the refugees return home...."

4. "We came to you today, while we are praying for the souls of the martyrs who were killed today by the shells of the Zionist enemy in Beit Lahiya...."

3. "We speak near your temporary grave until the soil of liberated Jerusalem embraces you."

2. “…continue the struggle to make your dream and our dream come true and to have a Palestinian child raise the Palestinian flag on the walls of Jerusalem, the capital of our independent Palestinian state.”

1. “Ariel Sharon is an elected leader and we will negotiate with him.”

2005-01-06T11:00:00.000-08:00

Tom Friedman: The Fight for Iraq
(Instapundit)
"It needs to be clear that these so-called insurgents are not fighting to liberate Iraq from America, but rather to reassert the tyranny of a Sunni-Baathist minority over the majority there. The insurgents are clearly desperate that they not be cast as fighting a democratically elected Iraqi government - which is why they are desperately trying to scuttle the elections.

Because if it is impossible for the peoples of even one Arab state to voluntarily organize themselves around a social contract for democratic life, then we are looking at dictators and kings ruling this region as far as the eye can see. And that will guarantee that this region will be a cauldron of oil-financed pathologies and terrorism for the rest of our lives."

2005-01-06T09:55:00.000-08:00

Muslim Girls Force-Fed to be Fat
(Daniel Pipes)
The article begins with a mildly horrific tale of gavage (French for force-feeding, the technique used to fatten geese for foie gras) applied to an 8-year-old girl in the western Sahara, Jidat Mint Ethmane.

Ms. Ethmane says she was required to consume four liters of milk in the morning, plus couscous. She ate milk and porridge for lunch. She was awoken at midnight and given several more pints of milk, followed by a prebreakfast feeding at 6 a.m. If she threw up, she says, her mother forced her to eat the vomit. Stretch marks appeared on her body, and the skin on her upper arms and thighs tore under the pressure. If she balked at the feedings, her mother squeezed her toes between two wooden sticks until the pain was unbearable. "I would devour as much as possible," says Ms. Ethmane. "I resembled a mattress." …

Force-feeding is usually done by girls' mothers or grandmothers; men play little direct role. The girls' stomachs are sometimes vigorously massaged in order to loosen the skin and make it easier to consume even greater quantities of food. … Local officials say some women are so fat they can barely move. In [a Mauritanian] survey, 15% of the women said their skin split as a result of overeating. One-fifth of women said one of their toes or fingers were broken to make them eat.

2005-01-06T09:52:00.000-08:00

From a Student of Nazi Germany
(The New York Times)
"'The Jews in Central Europe welcomed the Russian Revolution,' he said, 'but it ended badly for them. The tacit alliance between the neo-cons and the Christian right is less easily understood. I can imagine a similarly disillusioning outcome.'"

2005-01-06T09:42:00.000-08:00

George Will:
The Mind That Changed the World
(washingtonpost.com)
"Einstein's theism, such as it was, was his faith that God does not play dice with the universe -- that there are elegant, eventually discoverable laws, not randomness, at work. Saying 'I'm not an atheist,' he explained:

'We are in the position of a little child entering a huge library filled with books in many different languages. The child knows someone must have written those books. It does not know how. It does not understand the languages in which they are written. The child dimly suspects a mysterious order in the arrangement of the books but doesn't know what it is.' "

2005-01-06T09:35:00.000-08:00

East-Boston Salvadoran Gang
Linked to Al Qaeda
(Little Green Footballs)
A burgeoning East Boston-based street gang made up of alleged rapists and machete-wielding robbers has been linked to the al-Qaeda terrorist network, prompting Boston police to “turn up the heat” on its members, the Boston Herald has learned.

2005-01-06T09:34:00.000-08:00

Palestinian Terrorists Using
More Women and Children
(Little Green Footballs)
"Between 2003 and 2004, there was a 64 percent increase in the number of minors involved in terrorism. One hundred sixty-eight minors were involved in terrorism in 2004 compared to 102 in 2003."

2005-01-06T09:32:00.000-08:00

Kerry Bashes Bush in Baghdad
(Little Green Footballs)
Visiting with U.S. troops in Baghdad on Thursday, John Kerry bashed George Bush for making “horrendous judgments” and “unbelievable blunders” that have undermined the war effort.

2005-01-06T09:28:00.000-08:00

(Anti-)American Government Professor
(Power Line)
"A Kuwaiti Muslim student who is attending college in California... was told by his American Government professor that he was in need of psychological treatment when he wrote an essay that spoke favorably of the founders."

2005-01-06T09:15:00.000-08:00

Schwarzenegger's State of the State
(Instapundit)
"Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, noted that of the 153 seats in the California Congressional delegation and Legislature that were on the ballot in November, not one changed party hands. 'What kind of a democracy is that?' he asked in his address. "

2005-01-06T09:05:00.000-08:00

Abbas Calls Sharon a Partner in Peace
(Yahoo! News)
"'After the elections, we will start negotiations,' Abbas said at a news conference. 'Ariel Sharon is an elected leader and we will negotiate with him. We will put the road map on the table and say that we are ready to implement it completely.' "

2005-01-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

William Safire: Two Internal Splits
(The New York Times)
"The optimistic Sharon looked beyond the Arab-Israeli impasse to what he considers the threat to his nation's existence: 'There is an 'axis of terror.' It runs through Syria and Hezbollah, which has 13,000 rockets deployed in Lebanon, to Iran. And Iran's nuclear missile program is today the greatest danger not just to Israel, but to the world.' "

2005-01-05T13:32:00.000-08:00

American Report: One Voice - Celebrities, Leftists, and Terrorists

Richard Gere "speaks for the world"

There was a time when Vanessa Redgrave essentially had to forfeit her acting career for 20 years (she's been back for a while now) because she publicly supported the Palestinians. She is a fine actress, but she had crossed a moral line in the view of the public and the powers-that-be in Old Hollywood. At least, she was willing to stand by her principles despite the cost.

Today, C-List Celebrities like Richard Gere feel free to "speak for the world" and publicly support Muslim clerics who call for the eradication of Israel and the extermination of the Jews. In fact, such stupidity is practically required and rewarded in today's free-agent celebrity world.

Welcome to the brave new intersection of Celebrities, Leftists, and Islamo-Fascist Terrorists.

"Richard Gere, together with an Islamic cleric and a Greek Orthodox Church official, recorded a public service announcement calling on the Palestinians to vote in the Jan. 9 election to replace Yasser Arafat.

One of Gere’s co-stars, Sheikh Tamimi, was quoted in 1994 as saying: “Where Hitler failed, we must succeed.” He has also called for the liberation of Palestine ‘from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river.’ "

2005-01-05T11:01:00.000-08:00

Letter from a Muslim Woman
(Andrew Sullivan)
"I still find it difficult not to instinctively justify and defend the (often barbaric) behaviour and beliefs of Muslims against the white infidels or try to deflect the blame from Islam as it is practiced today by a few misguided souls. But I see now that by doing so, I only harm our faith - and the possibility that it might sit in harmony with the world's other great religions. "

2005-01-05T09:57:00.000-08:00

Jackie Mason & Raoul Felder:
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished
(Jewish World Review)
"It is hard to imagine an anti-Semite going to a Jewish doctor with a broken foot, and holding out his foot, telling him, 'Here, fix this, you Jew bastard.' And yet this is what is happening today, but with a different twist. It is now, although virtually unreported by the world's press, a case of, 'Don't fix this, you Jew bastard. Just send money.' "

2005-01-05T09:52:00.000-08:00

Nazi Influence on the Middle East
(FrontPageMagazine.com)
“Our fundamental condition for cooperating with Germany was a free hand to eradicate every last Jew from Palestine and the Arab world.... The answer I got was: 'The Jews are yours.'”
- Former Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini in his post-WWII memoirs.

2005-01-05T09:50:00.000-08:00

The Next Arafat
(FrontPageMagazine.com)
"While the EU and the US are falling back into the same pattern as they did with Arafat—willfully ignoring reality—Abbas is promising his people a very different resolution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict in Arabic than what he is promising the West in English."

2005-01-05T09:42:00.000-08:00

Saudi Donations for
Muslim Suicide Bombers vs.
Muslim Tsunami Victims
(Little Green Footballs)
"An email from Naomi Ragen points out that last year, Saudi Arabia raised more than $150 million for the families of suicide bombers. To help their Muslim brothers and their devastated families in Southeast Asia, the oil-rich country is contributing $10 million."

2005-01-04T18:25:00.000-08:00

Al Gore's INdTV Network
(Captain's Quarters)
"The potential must-see lineup includes: "That's F*&#ed Up" - Is there something unfathomable going on around the corner or down the street? Some state of affairs that just doesn't make sense? You can rant all you want -- it just better be good TV."

2005-01-04T18:04:00.000-08:00

Banner Year for Blogs
(Infoworld)
"Blog readership skyrocketed 58 percent in 2004, according to a new study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The study reports that 27 percent of Internet users in the U.S. say they read blogs, representing a 58 percent jump in readership from the 17 percent reported in February 2004. Pew Internet said that by the end of 2004, 32 million Americans were blog readers."

2005-01-04T16:41:00.000-08:00

Email from a Soldier: The Military's Mission
(Andrew Sullivan)
"Most military personnel don't see any difference between the mission in Iraq and the mission in tsunami-stricken south Asia. The goal is to help people who have been ravaged by forces beyond their control..."

2005-01-04T15:09:00.000-08:00

State Department: Anti-Semitism on Rise
(Fox News)
"In Europe, where millions of Jews died in the Holocaust, anti-Semitic acts have increased both in frequency and severity since 2000, the report said."

2005-01-04T14:53:00.000-08:00

Americans Donate more than $200 million for Tsunami Relief
(Yahoo! News)
"From antibiotics to clothes to cash — lots of it — U.S.-based relief groups report an overwhelming response from donors moved by the devastation of the Indian Ocean tsunami, with more than $200 million raised as of Tuesday."

2005-01-04T14:50:00.000-08:00

Baghdad Governor Slain; 5 U.S. Troops Die
(Yahoo! News)
"The governor of the Baghdad region, known for cooperating closely with American troops, was assassinated along with six bodyguards as he drove to work Tuesday in yet another bloody day of insurgent attacks...."

2005-01-04T14:08:00.000-08:00

Natan Sharansky: The Case for Democracy
(FrontPageMagazine.com)
"I was inspired to write this book by those who are sceptical of the power of freedom to change the world. I felt that the arguments of these sceptics had to be answered. The three main sources of scepticism are first, that not every people desires freedom; second, that democracy in certain parts of the world would be dangerous; and third, that there is little the world’s democracies can do to advance freedom outside their countries.

This scepticism is the same scepticism I heard a generation ago in the USSR when few thought that a democratic transformation behind the iron curtain was possible. Just as the sceptics were wrong then, I am convinced they are wrong now about the possibility of freedom spreading to the Middle East."

2005-01-04T13:40:00.000-08:00

Secret Egyptian Nuclear Program
(Blogs of War)
"The UN atomic watchdog has found evidence of secret nuclear experiments in Egypt that could be used in weapons programs, diplomats said Tuesday."

2005-01-04T10:52:00.000-08:00

Hamas vows to avenge killing of eight Palestinians
(China View)
"'Our response to this criminal massacre will be continuous rocket and mortar attacks on Jewish settlements until the Zionists leave our territories,' the group said in a leaflet. The group also criticized Palestine Liberation Organization chief Mahmoud Abbas for his recent remark that rocket attacks on Israeli targets are not useful, slamming it as 'very dangerous with negative impact on our legal resistance.' "

2005-01-04T10:23:00.000-08:00

Daniel Pipes:
Arab Victories in the Language War
(Jewish World Review)
"Arabs may have fallen behind Israel in per capita income and advanced weaponry, but they lead by far on the semantic battlefield."

2005-01-04T10:09:00.000-08:00

British Poll Reveals Anti-Israel Sentiment
(Little Green Footballs)
"A poll commissioned by the Telegraph shows that Britons think Israel is one of the world’s “least democratic” countries, and the country least deserving of “international respect.” "

2005-01-04T10:02:00.000-08:00

More Action Vs. Talk In Indonesia
(Power Line)
"The US military has arrived and is clearly establishing its presence everywhere in Banda Aceh. They completely have taken over the military hospital, which was a mess until yesterday but is now completely up and running. They brought big stocks of medicines, materials for the operation room, teams of doctors, water and food. Most of the patients who were lying in the hospital untreated for a week have undergone medical treatment by the US teams by this afternoon. US military have unloaded lots of heavy vehicles and organize the logistics with Indonesian military near the airport. A big camp is being set up at a major square in the town. Huge generators are ready to provide electricity. US helicopters fly to places which haven't been reached for the whole week and drop food. The impression it makes on the people is also highly positive; finally something happens in the city of Banda Aceh and finally it seems some people are in control and are doing something. No talking but action. European countries are until now invisible on the ground. "

2005-01-04T10:01:00.000-08:00

Action Vs. Talk In Indonesia
(Power Line)
"Well, dear friends, we're now into the tenth day of the tsunami crisis and in this battered corner of Asia, the UN is nowhere to be seen -- unless you count at meetings, in five-star hotels, and holding press conferences. Aussies and Yanks continue to carry the overwhelming bulk of the burden, but some other fine folks also have jumped in: e.g., the New Zealanders have provided C-130 lift and an excellent and much-needed potable water distribution system; the Singaporeans have provided great helo support; the Indians have a hospital ship taking position off Sumatra. Spain and Netherlands have sent aircraft with supplies. The UN continues to send its best product, bureaucrats. "

2005-01-04T09:54:00.000-08:00

Abbas Calls Israel the 'Zionist Enemy'
(Yahoo! News)
"Mahmoud Abbas, the front-runner in the campaign for a new Palestinian leader, called Israel the 'Zionist enemy,' a marked escalation in anti-Israel rhetoric for the relative moderate. "

2005-01-03T17:34:00.000-08:00

Democrats Split Again Over Party's Agenda
(Los Angeles Times)
"On one front, a liberal operative at a top think tank has accused the Democratic Leadership Council, the principal organization of party centrists, of pushing the party toward a pro-corporate agenda "that sells out America's working class — the demographic that used to be the party's base."

In equally combative terms, a leading young centrist commentator published a manifesto in the New Republic magazine accusing the Democratic left of slighting the struggle against Islamic terrorism and undermining the party's image on security — an argument instantly embraced and promoted by the Democratic Leadership Council."

2005-01-03T17:03:00.000-08:00

Abbas: Refugees Will Return to Israel
(Yahoo! News)
"'We will never forget the rights of the refugees, and we will never forget their suffering. They will eventually gain their rights, and the day will come when the refugees return home,' Abbas told the cheering crowd."

2005-01-03T16:42:00.000-08:00

Saudi executed and crucified
(United Press International)
"Saudi Arabian authorities Friday beheaded and crucified a Saudi national.... "

2005-01-03T14:22:00.000-08:00

Democrats Won't Win by Whining
(Los Angeles Times)
"Has there ever been a political party so prone to adolescent crises of insecurity as the Democrats? After every dispiriting election, the Democrats turn themselves into a desperate high school suitor, begging a would-be prom date: 'Tell me who you want me to be. I promise I'll change.' "

2005-01-03T14:17:00.000-08:00

John Kerry Speaks
(Newsweek)
"I'm not going to go lick my wounds or hide under a rock or disappear. I'm going to learn. I've had disappointments and I've learned to cope. I've lost friends, a marriage; I've lost things in life."

2005-01-03T13:05:00.000-08:00

The 40 Most Obnoxious Quotes Of 2004
(Right Wing News)
"1) The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not 'insurgents' or 'terrorists' or 'The Enemy.' They are the REVOLUTION, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow -- and they will win. -- Michael Moore"

2005-01-03T11:50:00.000-08:00

Angered Swiss Jews demand explanations
(NZZ Online)
"Jews in Switzerland are reportedly “infuriated” at a passage in the government’s new extremist report that refers to Jewish extremism in the country."

2005-01-03T11:17:00.000-08:00

Top Ten Arab and Iranian Conspiracy Theories Ending 2004
(Jewish World Review)
These are conspiracy theories repeatedly voiced in mainstream Arab and Iranian media:

10) U.S. and Zionist Control of Al-Jazeera
9) Zionists Spreading Diseases Amongst Arabs
8) Iran Accuses Al-Zarqawi of Working for Jordan
7) Jews Were Behind the Sept. 1st-3rd Chechen Beslan School Attack
6) Israel Stealing Body Parts of Palestinian Children
5) Jews Tamper with The Koran
4) U.S. To Invade Pakistan and Annihilate Muslims
3) U.S./Jews Behind the October 7th Taba Attacks in Egypt
2) Israel Killed Yasser Arafat
1) U.S. Soldiers Stealing Organs from Iraqis

2005-01-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

Iraqis Undeterred By Violence for Election
(Power Line)
"Poll results that appeared in the Iraqi Arabic newspaper Alsabaah this morning. The poll was of 4,974 Iraqis living in and around Baghdad:

Will the security problems cause you to?
Not come out and vote the day of elections = 18.3%
Come out and vote the day of elections = 78.3%
No opinion = 3.4%

Do you support military action against the terrorists?
Yes = 87.7 %
No = 11.1%
Don’t Know = 1.2%"

2005-01-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

How the Left Betrayed My Country - Iraq
(FrontPageMagazine.com)
"We finally comprehended how little we had in common with these “peace activists” who constantly decried American crimes, and hated to listen to us talk about the terrible long nightmare that ended with the collapse of the regime. We came to understand how these “humanitarians” experienced a sort of pleasure when terrorists or former remnants of the regime created destruction in Iraq—just so they could feel that they were right, and the Americans wrong!"

2005-01-03T10:23:00.000-08:00

Safire Interviews Sharon
(New York Times)
" 'Are you optimistic, Arik Sharon, about 2005?'
'Yes. We have faced harder times. Jews now have the capability of defending themselves by themselves.' "

2005-01-03T10:20:00.000-08:00

Ex-Presidents Bush and Clinton to Lead Fund-Raising Push
(New York Times)
"President Bush on Monday tapped two former presidents -- his father, President George H.W. Bush, and his predecessor, President Clinton -- to lead a nationwide, private fund-raising campaign to help victims of the Asian tsunamis."

2004-12-31T16:25:00.000-08:00

Threat to the Israel-America alliance
(Jewish World Review)
"The crisis revolves around Israel's upgrade or servicing of Israeli-made Harpy unmanned aerial vehicles which Israel sold to China in the mid-1990s."

2004-12-31T08:17:00.000-08:00

A Liberal Fighting Faith? Alterman v Beinart
(The Nation)
"Keep in mind that I have only scratched the surface of the problems with Beinart's piece. I've left untouched, for instance, his hopelessly inappropriate analogy between Soviet totalitarianism and violent Islamic fundamentalism. Unlike, say, Al Qaeda, the Soviet Union was fundamentally a conservative power, uninterested in inciting revolutions it could not control. We were not dealing then, as we are now, with the potential to inspire thousands of freelance terrorists armed with dirty bombs or worse. "

2004-12-31T06:46:00.000-08:00

The Return of Shimon Peres (and Oslo?)
(Power Line)
"Vital advocates of Oslo such as Shimon Peres are still respectable public figures playing significant roles and urging the same policy. It is as if Neville Chamberlain (if he had still been alive -- he had the grace to die in 1940) were still advising Winston Churchill on the statesmanship of appeasement in 1942."

2004-12-30T13:51:00.000-08:00

A Top Kofi Annan Aide Insults Israeli Leader
(The New York Sun)
"Speaking on Belgian radio and to the Belgian senate last week, Mr. Brahimi compared Mr. Sharon to an assassin, urged Europeans to increase their pressure on Israel, and said that the world is too accepting of 'cynical and ridiculous' Israeli positions on peace with the Palestinian Arabs...."

2004-12-30T13:46:00.000-08:00

Victor Davis Hanson: Right and Left
(National Review Online)
"What has happened? Sometime around the 1980s, the Right saw the demise of the Soviet Union as an opportunity to evolve beyond realpolitik to promote not just anti-Communism but grassroots democracy, coupled with free-market globalism from Eastern Europe to Latin America and Asia. In contrast, the hard Left stayed in its knee-jerk suspicion of the West and continued to give a pass to authoritarians from Cuba to Iran who professed socialism...."

2004-12-30T13:32:00.000-08:00

GOP Got More Bang For Its Billion
(washingtonpost.com)
"The Kerry campaign, in addition to being outspent at key times, was outorganized and outthought, as Democratic professionals grudgingly admit."