Aleut Village Rejects Chavez Offer

Very Cool

"Despite the critical need for fuel in our region, the Unangan (Aleut) people are Americans first, and we cannot support the political agenda attached to this donation," read a statement from Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association released late Thursday.

Send donations to the Unangan's in care of here probably:
First Alaskans Institute
606 E Street, Suite 200
Anchorage, AK 99501

UPDATE: Conservative Mutant left a comment at Done with Mirrors with the real address. Cool.

Unangan Energy Assistance Fund
c/o Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association
201 East Third Ave.
Anchorage, Alaska 99501
Donations are tax deductible as a contribution to a 501c3 Not For Profit TIN # 92-0073013."

The Border Fence

Varifrank says it well this morning.

Will it keep people out? If it was me on the southside of the fence wanting to go North, hell no, but thats not the point. The point of any fence isnt just to say "stay out" but also to say:

"Mine"

and

Oh, you can come over for a visit us anytime. Just use the front door. The way the new fence works is this; you knock at the front door, we answer, and if we are feeling up to company, you come on in and we have a grand old time.

Heck, just go read it. There are gems throughout. This is a step in the right direction if only to let illegals know we mean it this time. Really. Get it started and we the people will probably be more than happy to ok some easier standards to get in but get something started to close the border as is.

Just for Laughs

Musharraf says:

Pakistan's president has warned the West would be "brought to its knees" without his country's co-operation in the so-called war on terror.

Cigarette smoking contributes to global warming.

The UN had an "emergency session" called by Russia over Georgia and caused them to maybe express "grave concern" over recent "provocative actions" by Georgia, "leading to a further aggravation of the situation."

Zawahiri is more insistent on martydom in spite the fact they Bush is "losing" to them.

The other side of doom and gloom

Doom

Al-Qaeda in Iraq's leader, Abu al-Masri, has issued a call for nuclear scientists to join the jihad and urged insurgents to kidnap Westerners so they could be traded for Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman, the Egyptian cleric who was convicted in 1995 of seditious conspiracy for his role in a plot to blow up five New York City landmarks.

(Though personally I think it's a great sign that he feels the need to "advertise" for nuclear scientists. Wouldn't they already realize their skills are valuable to Al-Qaeda?)

Gloom

According to Woodward, insurgent attacks against coalition troops occur, on average, every 15 minutes, a shocking fact the administration has kept secret.

(read the rest of the post. It's actually a good one)

The other side

Part of the American spirit is the ability to accomplish seemingly insurmountable tasks. We, as soldiers, are instruments of a national policy that seeks to bring stability and freedom to the world –a seemingly insurmountable task. The soldiers that I work with are up to the task. That fact, that we are up to the task, is what gives me confidence and optimism. Despite the news, despite the airline warnings and troubling developments abroad, America will be OK, thanks to the American fighting man.

And we thank you! (both fighting men AND women. Sorry Charlie)

Good News from Iraq

From Captain Ed regarding Moqtada. Ok, it may not be good news. He has no control over his gang of thugs. That could be good or bad.

The Jawa Report notes Iraqi cleric's help in fighting Al qaeda.

Confusion in the Papers today

From the Washington Post:

PESHAWAR, Pakistan, Sept. 27 -- Three weeks after Pakistan's president, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, announced a peace pact with Taliban radicals in a tribal area bordering Afghanistan, recent visitors say there is now pin-drop silence in a territory that once shook with artillery and bomb blasts.

I didn't realize that Musharraf had a pact with "Taliban radicals", did you? From the Washington Post on the 13th:

Mr. Musharraf, whose country has been the main base for leaders of both al-Qaeda and the Taliban since 2002, last week concluded a peace deal with tribal leaders in North Waziristan, a territory near the border with Afghanistan.

It may well be semantics, but to say he's signed a peace pact with "Taliban radicals" needs to be fact checked.

From CNN we get:

Musharraf said in his Tuesday interview, however, that Afghanistan and Pakistan were starkly different theaters in the war on terror, hence his bristling over a Bush remark that U.S. troops would enter Afghanistan if they had good intelligence bin Laden was hiding there.

I think they mean "enter Pakistan".

Israel/Palestinians

JustoneMinute notes what I noted yesterday.

Having glanced through the newly-declassified portions of the NIE, I am wondering whether one needs a decoder ring to make sense of this - nowhere does this report mention the Israel/Palestine conflict as a source of tension, a motivation for jihadists, or a factor in global anti-American sentiment.

It's still a good question.
(ht instapundit

Steyn

On Juan Williams' book.
Enough: The Phony Leaders, Dead-End Movements, and Culture of Failure That Are Undermining Black America -- and What We Can Do About It

The NIE Report

Michelle Malkin links to the Key Judgements in the report that were released yesterday. It's only 3 1/2 pages, I suggest reading it. If not, then lucky for you I have.

First off, let me note a couple of things: After the press and Democrats about peed their pants enjoying the first conclusions and then the President released what could be, the Democrats are now requesting that the classified parts be released. From the BBC:

US Democrats have urged the Bush administration to release in full a report which finds that US involvement in Iraq has fuelled global terrorism.

What has made this assessment so important, now? That's the question at this point. In the Washington Post this morning Karen DeYoung and Walter Pincus note:

Democratic claims of an administration coverup seemed less justified yesterday as it became apparent that the complete classified report had been made available to lawmakers within days of its completion in April.

Copies of the NIE were sent to the House and Senate intelligence, armed services and foreign affairs committees at the time, through normal electronic information channels available to all members, intelligence and congressional sources said. It arrived at the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on April 26.

Anyway on to the report: Basically it was what you would expect. I think I could have written it as a report back in high school based on common sense. Jihadists are increasing. Big surprise. Now how to fix that. Let's look at this report from the eyes of the President's big plan. The one that notes we don't seem to get attacked by democratic countries/peoples.

They (the NIE)

assess that the underlying factors fueling the spread of the movement outweigh it's vulnerabilities and are likely to do so for the duration of the timeframe of this Estimate.

Those underlying factors are
1. Entrenched grievances
2. The Iraq "Jihad"
3. The slow pace of improvements
4. Pervasive anti-US sentiment
(Please note the complete absense under underlying factors of the existence of Israel and a certain Key leader in the Middle East who questions it's right to existence. My high school report would have added that one!)

The vulnerabilies:
1. Most Muslims don't really like Sharia
2. Muslim clerics are stepping up and condemning violence
3. Countering the spread of the jihadist movement will require coordinated multilateral efforts that go well beyond operations to capture and kill terrorists leaders.

So Bush's plan to spread democracy will deal not only with the underlying factors,
1) we'll support democracy over friendly dictatorships, 2) once stable we'll be basically out of Iraq, 3) with democracies, there is generally institutional improvements (not guaranteed I know) and 4) anti US sentiment will always be there.
Also the plan will deal with the vulnerabilties. 1) By making clear the distinction between the west and Sharia people will need to make choices 2) Terrorists are generally blowing up Muslims because they are terrorists and civilians make easier targets than military. This will bring about more Muslim cleric condemnations and 3) the WOT goes beyond just killing leaders.

As noted in many other places, the reports says that if jihadists win in Iraq they will gain ground and more terrorists. If they lose Iraq, they will lessen their influence. That's exactly what Bush has been saying all along.

President Talibani agrees that the US should stay in Iraq.

Iraqi President Jalal Talabani said that the US military presence in Iraq keeps neighbors from invading his country.

And President Karzai is appreciative of our staying in Afghanistan.

WASHINGTON - Afghan President Hamid Karzai told President George W. Bush yesterday that he appreciates what the United States has done for his country, and Bush said the United States is prepared to stay the course in Afghanistan.

Because of the mere threat of removing financing from the war in Iraq yesterday by Rep. Rangel, I am going to be voting for a representative that I can't stand. Marilyn Musgrave. I would rather have this woman representing me badly than allow Democrats to take over and leave our new friends, the Iraqis to a worse fate.

Just linking today

The latest news around the world not involving a Clinton:

The BBC notes what's going on in Somalia. The Islamists are threatening Ethiopia who may or may not be trying to help the recognized government.

"The incursion of Ethiopian troops into Somali territories is a declaration of war on Somalia," said UIC national security chairman Sheik Yusuf Indahaadde.

"We call on the international community to urge Ethiopia to withdraw its troops from Somalia. If that doesn't happen the consequences of insecurity created by Ethiopia will spread to neighbouring countries and to East Africa as a whole."

But Somali government spokesman Abduraman Dinari denied that any Ethiopia had crossed the border and said the reports were being fabricated by the Islamists to distract attention from their advance into Kismayo.

.........
The Adventures of Chester clarifies what's going on in Thailand and why the King may have supported the coup. (ht Instapundit who is today's celebrity mention. My sister may be having breakfast with him and Ace this morning.)

It seems Thailand has made two strategic errors in the past 15 years, the first of which was the dismantling of intelligence assets in the south.

.......

In the absence of this lack of knowledge, it seems that ousted PM Thaksin made his second error: he responded to the insurgency with heavy-handed tactics, rather than classic counterinsurgency strategy. This only served to make things worse.

......................................................
More on the NIE report from Powerline. This thing was written in April and leaked now. The answer to this is to open it up to scrutiny as much as possible. Daylight. Powerline has a source with some other quotes from the report that you won't see in the NYTimes.
....................................................
And of course Clinton. Varifrank has a great post reminding us of what things were like during Bush's first 8 months which brought back memories. Newsbusters takes a peak at CBS's Harry Smith interview.
There's a blogswarm over this alright but it wouldn't have occurred without "the rant". Drudge's headlines early this morning were awful incendiary. Sure it drew you to the story but then Secretary Rice had a nice calm reasoned response to Clinton. Not a rant. Drudge has since change his headline from "Condi calls Clinton a lyer!!" to "Condi says Clinton: Wrong!"
There's a bit of difference there. I can't figure out how to link to his old headlines though. Sorry.

Off to work

UPDATE: No breakfast with Glenn or Ace today. It was a signing ceremony they went to.

Fact checking the President.

No, the other president. At Hot Air. (see the updates)

Pre-election freakout.

"the President is going to attack Iran to win the election!!

Yeah, right and:

Recall 2004, when Madeline Albright and Teresa Kerry told people that the Bush administration had already captured Osama bin Laden and would announce it right before the presidential elections. Recall also that John Kerry told people that George Bush was secretly planning to reinstate the draft after the presidential election, which would have been more of a November surprise, even though the only people proposing it were Democrats Charles Rangel and Fritz Hollings. (In fact, Democrats insisted on considering a draft in 2005.)

Alos, let's not forget the Howard Dean theory on 9/11 -- that the Bush administration had advance knowledge of it but allowed it to happen in order to gain politically from the war, saying it was an "interesting theory" during his presidential run in 2003-4. The Democrats responded to this conspiracy-mongering by putting Dean in charge of their party.

Chirac's "help"

By Amir Taheri.
The Past:

It is now clear that Chirac's assurances played a crucial role in persuading Saddam not to offer the concessions that might have prevented war and regime change. From his prison cell, former Iraqi Vice President Tariq Aziz told U.S. and Iraqi interrogators that Saddam was convinced that the French and, to a lesser extent, the Russians would save his regime at the last minute.

And now:

"Iran should not be asked to stop uranium enrichment as a precondition," Chirac said. "And there is no sense to refer the Islamic Republic back to the Security Council."

The NIE Report

Had I waited a day I would have found out that the NIE report does look at the question about the future. Can you imagine the Times and the Post putting spin on such a document??

Also, Sunday's newspaper articles on the National Intelligence Estimate — by the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times — were "not representative of the complete document," the White House said. That assessment was echoed by National Intelligence Director John D. Negroponte, whose office prepared the report.

"The Estimate highlights the importance of the outcome in Iraq on the future of global jihadism," he said. If Iraq develops "a stable political and security environment, the jihadists will be perceived to have failed, and fewer jihadists will leave Iraq determined to carry on the fight elsewhere."

Rally in Lebanon

Gateway Pundit has photos. It looks like "protest babes" are back!

This was choice

Instapundit links to Secrets of South Park.

President Clinton -redux

I saw the Mike Wallace interview and then read this perfect piece out of the NRO and have to take back what I said about being nice. Yes, the world changed on 911 and hindsite is 20/20 but Byron York makes a great point about who exactly was the "commander in chief".

Clinton said during the Wallace interview that he couldn't get the CIA on board. Um, wasn't he the boss? There was a time when the answer was "the buck stops here". vs "what does this look like?". I really believe that right or wrong, for the most part, President Bush does what he thinks is best rather than what he thinks will look the best.
Clinton did what he thought was best also, but in a different manner. It mattered to him that everyone believe him. They didn't and he couldn't take the criticism.

Republicans boxed Clinton in, Clarke writes, beginning in the 1992 campaign, with criticism of Clinton’s avoidance of the draft as a young man, and extending all the way to the Lewinsky scandal and the president’s impeachment. The bottom line, Clarke argues, is that the commander-in-chief was not in command.

Clinton is a different man than Bush. Different things mattered to him vs Bush. And though Clinton wasn't "evil", Bush is better. Clinton's defense of himself did not come across very well in my opinion.

The UN

From Steyn.

What to do? Alan Dershowitz is a big liberal but he's a sane liberal and, unlike many of his chums, he acknowledges the threat. So what's his big idea?

He thinks Iran should be expelled from the United Nations.

Yeah, right. There's more chance of the Twelfth Imam eloping with Paris Hilton.

The Real Question

Should not be whether or not terrorism is growing because we're in Iraq. It is, per the National Intelligence Estimate
The question should be, if President Bush's plan works and Iraq becomes a stable democracy and we get to go home with another solid democratic ally in the middle east, will that contribute to terrorism or will it help to lessen terrorism?

We're midplan now. That's always a mess.

President Clinton

In regards to his rant. And frankly in regards to a lot of right wingers out there getting upset about Pelosi and Rankin being "political" in their attacks on Hugo Chavez. Let it go. If we're ever going to have any sort of dialogue between left and right there has to be "outs". Clinton is right, he gave getting Bin Laden a shot. It didnt' work. (And frankly I recall that people were having a cow about him deflecting attention away from Lewinsky and trying to put it overseas.) If he had killed Bin Laden the right would have had another cow because he wasn't captured.

The hate going around it enough already. Same with Pelosi and Rankin. Let it go. What they said against Chavez may very well be political. So what. They are politicians. At least for once in their careers it sounded like they supported this country. We already know the leftoid crowd is full of hate. So packed full of it that they end up off the deep end when they speak. The right is in power and even when out of power they sounded more like "reasonable" human beings.

Go with the acronym WWWD. What would W do? That's a guy with graciousness.
This goes for me too. I'm working on a change of tone we'll see if I can keep it up!

Migrant Workers

I read the same story that Uncorrelated refers to in this post, but missed the point he found. lol. In regards to not getting fruit picked at harvest being Congress's fault:

For decades, Mr. Ivicevich said, migrant pickers would knock on his door asking for work climbing his picking ladders. Then about five years ago they stopped knocking, and he turned to a labor contractor to muster harvest crews.

I was thinking, "so you have to advertise now, and raise your rates." Uncorrelated nots that the migrant workers stopped knocking five years ago. Before the big, keep our borders safe push began.

If he was having problems five years ago, you can hardly point the finger at increased border enforcement, now can you? According to the breathless reports of the media, some half million illegals crossed the border every year for those five years--a far larger number than in the 80s and 90s when migrants were knocking on Mr. Ivicevich's door.

The problem isn't that we don't have enough illegals, its that they are taking better jobs.

So Mr. Ivicevich's problem is that these illegals also are aware of how things work here. Hmmm, become a roofer and make $30/hr, or become a picker and make $5/hr....? What to do, what to do. And hence Mr. Ivicevich has no pickers. And it's the fault of the current Congress. Uncorrelated has some suggestions for Mr. Ivicevich that are worth noting.

Interrogation Rules

I have a guest blogger today! He didn't mention if I could use his name, so I'll leave that out for now. But for all of you reading, he is very very smart and a bit of an insider with tons of great ideas. In regards to this story about the Senate/WH compromise......take it away:

You know….I watch the media “report” the events and I wonder if they have any sense of examination or perspective whatsoever….for a few weeks now, the MSM has been reporting that the valiant John McCain was standing up to the mean evil George Bush. Now, what exactly happened? Well, it was a teaming of John McCain, with Lindsay Graham (AF Reserve Lawyer), John Warner, Senior statesman of the Senate, WWII Navy Veteran and not a man to do things frivolously, and Susan Collins of Maine. Where were the Dem’s, claiming to stand with these Senators and gleefully watching the Repubs “self destruct.” What idiots!

What happened today? I watched all of the above Senators AND Duncan Hunter, no slouch himself….announcing the agreement between these Senators and who walks out? Drum roll: the National Security Advisor! And where were the Dems? Nowhere near, but guess what, Charlie Rangel and Nancy Pelosi were ATTACKING wait for it…….wait for it…Hugo Chavez for going after the President!!!!

Does anyone NOT see that this might have all been a set up, I mean, McCain, yes, I buy he’s pissed off but Warner? Hmmm, what happened? A few Senators showed some backbone against the Administration burnishing their image as independent AND the GOP having a big tent. And the President looked like his usual determined guy and yet, what is he always accused of? Unwillingness to negotiate, and what happened? A negotiation? And where are the Dems, watching Fitzmas turn into ThanksAmitage!

To quote John McLaughlin……………Bu Bye!

(Thanks! And feel free to blog here anytime)

Musharraf

The threat from Armitage could be true, or maybe not. You get two different stories from the two parties. But the REAL question is whether or not Musharraf would have helped had he not been threatened like he said he was. I mean sure he was insulted, and sure

he took action in the interest of his nation.

But what would he have done had he not been threatened? Is that why he was threatened? (assuming his and not Armitage's story is correct. Since we already know Armitage is not exactly brimming over in integrity!)

Is that why he's walking away now? Does he think the threat (from the US) is over?

Auto Industry in CA

I support the Environmental Republican

If I were those car companies, I'd close any plants that manufacture vehicles in the state (starting with this one near San Francisco.) I would also discontinue buying any parts made by California companies.

Next, I would jack up the price of the cars sold to cover the costs of legal expenses that will surely be incurred by this frivolous lawsuit. If all the companies effected did this, it would send a strong message.

California has always been extremely over regulated and this is just a slap in the face to companies who've brought Billions of dollars into the local economies.

ps Scott updated his site a bit along with his blog roll. Its still my favorite one to go to when I just want to wander about the blogophere. (and not solely because I'm on it! Go, click, wander!)

Hugo

I can't let this guy go today. Remember back in high school - yeah, a while back but still - there was always somebody who'd just read Atlas Shrugs and then knew all the answers. And quoted Ayn Rand every second. This book was the be all and end all. There were others out there too, but you remember the person. The one who read one, yes, one book and then knew all the answers. Never giving the whole complete picture. ie in Atlas Shrugs it's all about competition and how good it is. And it is - I'm not knocking it. And the book was good and had tons of good points. But the book never does mention (as it concerns railroads) that the railroads received their land free from the taxpayers. They didn't do it themselves. They received protection from in the west from the taxpayers. In other words, big business is great and fine but "the people" generally subsidize parts of it. No big deal. Again, I'm not knocking the book just reminding you of those people who became all out capitalists because of The Book. So now we have Hugo Chavez who also has read a book. Good for him.
He's still a dumbass.

Read the link.

Ahmadijinad

I won't bore you with all the details but here's what I don't get. You've heard Ahmadijinad with Mike Wallace. You've read his letters. You know what kind of "arguer" he is. And now you're going to meet him in NY. Is it just the papers or did were people really not prepared to deal with his asinine ideas?
The NYTimes writes:

Never raising his voice and thanking each questioner with a tone that oozed polite hostility, he spent 40 minutes questioning the evidence that the Holocaust ever happened

Whatever. 40 minutes. Why? He wants a study, so study it. It's only Europeans who aren't allowed to. What's stopping him? There are plenty of witnesses about. Why was there 40 minutes of conversation on this?

“In World War II about 60 million people were killed,’’ he said at one point, when pressed again on his refusal to accept that the Holocaust happened. “Two million were military. Why is such prominence given to a small portion of those 60 million?’’

Did anyone suggest it might have something to do with spheres of influence. What were the good guys going to do about the dead in Russia? And yet the British still had a mandate in Palestine. They'd already been inviting Israelis there. The place had a ton of Israelis and with British backing the UN had a place that would work out. The British had a mandate in Iraq too. Does Ahmadijinad suggest that the homosexuals that were persecuted during WWII be allowed into Iraq? Didn't the British beat the Ottomans? Yes. Doesn't that count for something Mr. Ahmadijinad?
Why on earth was the council on foreign relations amazed at the skill of the President of Iran to turn questions back on themselves? It's been on tv for the last 6 months!

Mr. Ahmadinejad’s habit of answering every question about Iranian policy with a question about American policy was clearly wearing on some of the members, but at the end they acknowledged that he was about as skillful an interlocutor as they had ever encountered. “He is a master of counterpunch, deception, circumlocution,’’ Mr. Scowcroft said, shaking his head.

I have friends who could've taken this boy down with words alone.

Assisted Suicide

I have no clue what real pain and suffering feel like but my gut takes similar views to Captain Ed when it comes to assisted suicide. He notes the slippery slope happening now. My thoughts have always been towards those who would feel they were a "burden" and would choose that out when they really don't want to.

Good News

Iraq the Model notes that the mobs against the pope aren't quite as bad as the those in charge would like to see. Is the "Arab Street" becoming more rational as they interact more and more with the west?

In the meantime, via Instapundit, there was a pro Israeli rally in NYC with 35,000 people, yes, 35,000 people. I didn't read about it. Did you?

Can you find a news source for the rally against Ahmadinejad at the UN yesterday? Correction: Can you find a non-Jewish media source, or a non-blogger source, for the rally?

I can’t. Except for the New York Sun.

I checked AP. Nothing. Reuters. Nada. I checked Google News. Nothing. 1010WINS. Nothing. I checked WABC, NY1, all the New York media sites. Gridlock alerts are the only thing you can find about the march. After all, it’s not newsworthy. The fact that 2,000 people marched a day earlier to protest the Iraq war? Oh, yeah, that made the news.

Hunches

Hey there, Jawa has the same hunch I do. Though of course mine is based on not much at all and he seems to be at the head of most news cycles! lol

Sudan

And who's at fault for their problems. Apparently its Israel and Jews. I would not have thought that.

UNITED NATIONS - Sudan's president said on Tuesday his country would never allow United Nations peacekeepers into Darfur and charged that the West wanted to dismember his country in order to help Israel.

"It is very clear there is a plan to redraw the region," especially after the invasion of Iraq, President Omar Hassan al-Bashir told a news conference on the sidelines of a ministerial UN General Assembly session.

"The main purpose is the security of Israel. Any state in the region should be weakened, dismembered in order to protect the Israelis, to guarantee the Israeli security," he said.

So does this dude think he's strong enough to scare Israel? He's a freakin thug. To re-cap the events:

Non-Arab tribes took up arms against the government in February 2003 to protest alleged neglect and deprivation.

In turn Sudan, unleashed and armed Arab militia, known as Janjaweed, who murdered and raped civilians. In recent months, factions of rebel groups and bandits have done the same.

UN and humanitarian groups estimate some 200,000 people have died from the conflict, hunger and disease. But Bashir said humanitarian groups exaggerated the crisis.

Bashir said the United Nations should punish those who started the conflict rather than Khartoum, which had to send in soldiers, a position Arab nations have echoed.

So Bashir wants the UN to punish those who "started the conflict". Where does Israel figure in to who started the conflict?

ps This was a quick post worth looking at. I've said the same myself a time or two.

National or strategic interests? Zero. Liberal reaction on American interventionism in the Middle East - where we have vital national and strategic interests? Unrelenting excoriation of the Bush administration.

What should he do?

Because it's funny

Tim Blair notes a fun time in kid's camp in Lebanon.

I know, I know, it's sad, but you have to admit, it's kind of funny.

Iraq the Model

Asks the all important question.

When will we be able to accept criticism?

Yes there are Muslim rioters and Imans who are calling for death, but there are reasonable people out there too. It's good to remember that.
From Mohommed:

Regardless of what the pope said, the Arab and Muslim world, through the tense and offensive reactions, showed once again how incapable its leaders are to respond to criticism in a civilized way.

There are others out there too.
From Amarji:

At a time when much violence continues to be wrought in the name of Islam, and at a time when Muslim jurists remain remiss in their duty to voice a unanimous and clear condemnation of this tendency, this is indeed a very legitimate issue to raise, especially within the context of the call that the Pope later made for conducting intercultural dialogue and for accepting the continued relevance of faith, in all its varieties, to the modern world. By simply attacking the person who raised this question, Muslims all over the world have shown that they are not ready for dialogue.

From Iraqpundit

On the other hand, I can think of a lot more pressing matters for Muslims to be angry about. How about taking to the street over the murderers who have been disgracing our religion by shedding oceans of innocent blood in its name? On Thursday, a car bomb blew up outside a Baghdad orphanage. In all the wide sweep of the Muslim Street, is there no one sufficiently disgusted to raise his voice over such a thing? It should be easy enough, especially since a common excuse has been that the perpetrators of such evil cannot be Muslims. Surely, if such "non-Muslims" are killing Iraqi Muslims in great numbers, it's worth the attention of the pious. Speak up, the death cries of hundreds and hundreds of innocent Iraqis murdered every month are drowning your outrage

Anyway - it's out there.

Is the Pope Catholic?

Americablog just thinks he's supposed to be spin machine. Not the infallible head of the Catholic Church.

I wonder what Chavez and Ahmadijinad are talking about inregards to the Pope row these days? Since they're so close.

(speaking of the Pope's infallibility, Godweb has this to say:

Even the most staunch defenders of the Papacy and of the Roman Catholic Church understand that infallibility applies to teachings of the Pope only when he is speaking ex cathedra, that is, on behalf of the whole church and in ways that are consistent with its councils, and with the collective wisdom of its cardinals and bishops as the truth has been revealed to them over time.

Further, infallibility applies only when the Pope is speaking about matters of faith or morals. For example, when the Vatican press office issues a statement of the Pope concerning a hotly contested, political issue, such statements are not regarded as being infallible, or even authoritative for all Christians.

Kofi Annan,

Is not the man in this article. That's for sure.

James Traub is giving Mr. Annan credit for re-legitimizing the UN.

Annan did not get the Nobel Peace Prize for temporarily averting war in Iraq. In fact, he did something harder: He restored the relevance of the U.N. The new U.N. head brought Washington back into the fold through a combination of unflagging solicitude and gentle prodding.

Yeah, right. If we go with the idea that the UN has found new relevance it is only because the US has decided to act like they are legitimate again. And that is definitely not due to any love for Annan.

No matter what one thinks of Annan, there can be no doubt about the success of his campaign to revalidate the U.N. (for which many others also deserve to share credit). The U.N. fields more than 80,000 peacekeepers, and by deploying a muscular force in Lebanon, it is playing an indispensable role in the Mideast for the first time in decades.

That first "muscular force" is only going to be muscular if and only if Israel insists that it is. It has nothing, nothing to do with Annan.

His highly ambitious campaign to reform the institution's doctrines and machinery barely avoided catastrophic failure; the achievements, on humanitarian intervention and human rights enforcement and "peace-building," were almost eclipsed by the divisiveness of the debate itself.

Yeah - it was the "divisiveness of the debate itself" that was the problem. Please. How can you write an aritcle like this and not mention the oil for food except as a sideline mentioned by critics? Or about sex for food? Or about nepotism? Or about the Tsunami disaster?

If the UN has any legitimacy at all - it is only because the US has insisted on it. And even that can be set aside when the UN is ridiculous. We tout the report on Hezbollah and ignore the one of the US. One is legitimate and the other isn't. Because we say so. Not because of Kofi.

Stay Strong Pope.

Tim Blair has links.

American Future discusses Irony.

Great Blogging

By the Anchoress.
On Oriana Fallaci but I recommend you head to her main page and read about the Pope's current troubles too.

Great Line from another of her posts in regards to the universe and great people:

There have only been 43 American Presidents in 230 years. There have only been 267 popes in 2000 years. There have been billions of other people. Greatness is not an illusion.

Read her, she's awesome!

For Fun

Owen is going around the world. I just found his blog this morning while trying to look something up. He's just now leaving Pakistan and has some gorgeous pictures in this post.

Sad but Hilarious: the Pope

Tim Blair keeps it simple with a simple quote from ABC:

Middle Eastern leaders and analysts have warned of a potentially violent backlash in the region to the Pope’s remarks implicitly linking Islam to violence.

As evidence, the Washington Post notes that 2 west bank churches have been firebombed.

In a phone call to The Associated Press, a group calling itself the "Lions of Monotheism" claimed responsibility. The caller said the attacks were meant as a protest against the pope's remarks about Islam.

You know the remarks, the ones suggesting that religions should protest, not encourage violence. (do these bombers have any self reflective tendancies??)

The good news part is that in the above story and in the NYTimes editorial today asking for the pope's apology, both, yes both newspapers of record have actually quoted the pope! Vs explaining what he said while veiling the actual words. Remember the cartoons? These papers refused to print the cartoons because they were offensive. Has the MSM found their cojones? Here's the quote:

he pope quoted the emperor saying, “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.”

(ht Environmental Republican)

War: part II

In yesterday's Post I agreed that we were not in "full-out war". I still think that's true and think that full out war is there in our hip pocket for future reference.

Is it the right way to go? I don't know. I'm no military person. I do not believe that President Bush just "stays the course" with his original plan without reviewing things all the time. At what point would we the people put up with a full out war? Probably not until/unless we get attacked here at home in a major way. That's the point I was trying to make. Our people - FBI, CIA, Military all the way through the ranks, local police, regular joes/janes and other people's people are doing a great job of keeping that major attack from happening. I prefer that.

In regards to this war,
It looks like the military is going to change tack in Baghdad for a bit and I think that's good. A security ring is to be built around the city.

Johnson, the U.S. military spokesman, said the Baghdad project has been underway for a few weeks and that building has begun. The plan is to use the natural terrain where possible and reinforce existing barriers, "complementing them with trenches, in other places berms, and other types of fencing."

It's hard to imagine putting up with that, but if in Denver we were finding 50 dead people a day, we would choose the same thing.

In Pakistan, Musharraf has released 2500 prisoners of war. That guy is losing it. I hate to be one of those people who think the US actually runs everything/everybody, but I really hope we have a huge handle on this and it's all actually about allowing US forces into Waziristan and finishing the job there.

War

There has been a lot of indignation on the net about the nonattack on the cemetary during a ceremony where a number of Taliban leaders were present in Afghanistan. SixMeatBuffet calls us a nation of pussies.

We are being led to slaughter by self-absorbed idiots who care more about their own retirement funds than protecting Americans from global jihad. This is why GOP is now short for “Gutless Old Pussies”. It’s like the GOP is working its ass off to be as weak as the Donks - which is hard to pull off.

The American Future discusses in regards to this whether we're really at war or not.

If you want to understand why the War on Terror drags on and on, this is a good place to start:

U.S. military officials tell NBC News they had "high-level" Taliban fighters in their gunsights during a July reconnaissance flight but decided not to fire. The decision to pass on the target angered some in the military, but commanders say they have "no regrets."

....

"The reason for these rules of engagement is that we're not engaged in a full-out war [!], where we have unconditional surrender as the objective. In that case we would bomb everyone and sort it out later on," Jacobs said. "You have a very heavy political component here, and that's why (the rules of engagement) are difficult to change."

I'm not at all sure why this is such a surprise. We have not been engaged in a full-out war since the day President Bush told us that our part in this war was to go shopping and keep the economy going.

Puhlease.

A big part of this has to do with who we're fighting here. We're not fighting a country. We're fighting Al-qaeda. And Al-Qaeda lives in and amongst populations of countries. If we were willing to kill more civilians who are basically captured by Al-Qaeda themselves then sure, bomb away. But we don't have the stomach for it anymore. Does that make us pussies? I wouldn't go that far. We have our limits. 911 crossed those limits and the action was immediate. In full out everyone and their mother contributes war, there is enough enemy "action", enough killing of your own people, enough anger to sustain the effort until the very end.

Our people, those protecting us, are too good for those things to happen. Frankly I think that's a good thing. I would far prefer arguing with Democrats concerning cut and run, Geneva conventions and lying than hearing about a new bombing in NYC or hearing that 2,000 of our men died last night in combat. I fully believe that if we were fully engaged terrorists in Baghdad who left another 50 people in the streets last night would not last any longer. But then again neither would Baghdad. It's kind of cool that way. We know we can win. Without a doubt. Yes we have to deal with those jihadists who think we don't know but that's something else.

In the meantime, however, with Pakistan surrendering Waziristan we may well be getting set to declare Waziristan the next abettor of terrorism and declare a real war. That would narrow the focus eh?

The Upcoming Election

Wherein Democrats run against, Walmart, McDonalds and now CocaCola. Winning Strategy all the way. New slogan:
"We Love this country and want to make it better but we have zero respect for the people in it and want to make you better!"

Israeli/Hezbollah War

Captain Ed notes that Arabs are turning out to be none too happy with the results of this war.

Nasrallah now has to contend with the fallout from his impatient attack on Israel, from the Lebanese and also from the Iranians who had wanted Hezbollah and their rockets as a threat to be feared, not an attack to be weathered and then discounted. His image as the protector of Lebanon has been shattered, and the Lebanese now see him as a threat instead of a savior. After years of Syrian control, they now have to recognize that a large portion of their country is under de facto Iranian occupation, and they're not happy about it.

Good news/Bad news from Iraq

Iraqi soldiers prevent a massacre.

Iraqi soldiers defused a 2000 pound vehicle-born bomb that was prepared for detonation in downtown Baghdad

You have to like that.

For the big picture from a military perspective, Op-For sees fighting escalating. In both Afghanistan and in Iraq.

I was wr wr wr wr wr wro wro wron wrong

Ok, not the first time either but the success I heard we had the other day in caputuring Hekmatyar was not real.
From Bill Roggio

An independent intelligence source confirmed the initial report, which led to my post on this matter, however a subsequent identification by fingerprinting indicates the person in question is not Hekmatyar. The capture suspect is a high level commander in Hezb-i-Islami, and is said to be a dead ringer for Hekmatyar.

So, not a bad catch anyway.
Here's another story from him on Waziristan and what's going on. I guess I was wrong when I said that the US would not put up with Pakistan surrendering. Read the whole thing.

Yesterday's "Good News" in Syria

Faked by Syria?? Walid Phares takes a peek at how those in Counterterrorism have to think like. It gave me a headache.

One of the main tactics of this old school, refined by Hafez Assad during his rule of Syria is based on the following concept: If the equation is to your disadvantage, create a new problem, offer to solve it, obtain recognition; and by that you'd change the equation.

A special thank you today to all of you who do this work!

Free Speech

Captain Ed and Bradley Smith take on Russ Feingold. It's an easy smackdown.

The President's Speech

I loved it. I laughed..here's the opening line,

"Good evening. Five years ago, this date, September the 11th, was seared into America's memory.

(some speech writer had fun with that one eh?), I cried, I was inspired and yes, noted a little bit of politics in it. I would have liked to see him acknowledge that there are other points of view on how to handle things. Throw that in along with "but this is how we're doing it because based on everything we know, this is the best way'. That would have thrown off the 'politics' question. Ah well.

So this morning imagine my surprise after the speech and the good news, (see the previous good news posts) Richard Cohen's column state without hesitation that Bin Laden has won. What the hell? So I read it. Now I understand. Mr. Cohen is well, mentally challenged. In spite of all the blatherings from Islamists about why they are fighting us, Mr. Cohen has decided that Bin Laden actually had a completely different plan and it's worked.:

It is, rather, that his (Bin laden's) initial strategy has borne fruit. It was always his intention to draw the Americans into Afghanistan, where, as had been done to the Soviets, they could be mauled by the fierce mujaheddin.

So Bin Laden has WON the war on terror because he drew us in Afghanistan where al-Qaeda is kicking butt? Like I said, mentally challenged.

So let's move on to the next opinion column in the post. Mr. Dionne has the Democrats answering VP Cheney today.

Cheney seemed terribly impatient with democracy Sunday on "Meet the Press" when he suggested that those who oppose President Bush's Iraq policies are helping -- excuse me, validating -- the terrorists.

Wow - VP Cheney doesn't like democracy? Well come to find out what he notes for Meet the Press is that our allies in the WoT (Iraq) want solid confirmation that we'll be there for them. He notes that doubts spread every time congress people start talking about leaving Iraq before the Iraqis are ready. He's not against democracy, he's against comforting the enemy. Mr. Dionne sees the opposition differently.

As the administration's failures have become obvious to an American majority, Democrats have begun to play the opposition's essential role of offering alternatives.

That would be awesome-if only they would propose alternatives! Instead it's just "we have to get out of Iraq". OK....but then what about Iraq?
-When it blows up, do we go back in?
-Do we stay on the edge and help immediately, or
-do we give them a chance to work things out?
-Do we move our forces to Afghanistan completely or
-do most of them come home or......
I'd even be happy with "we've talked with Iraqi's and we're thinking that if we back away that that could end the insurgency's excuses." But they haven't even done that. We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi govt. And by the grace of God and a strong president we will stay there, as needed, at least until 2008.
Thank you Mr. President for your speech last night. It was awesome. I am with Instapunk:

My guess is, not too many of us would want to be living inside George W. Bush's head right now. It's too much. For anyone.

I admire this man, President Bush, and his belief in goodness and people. I doubt I could sustain those beliefs in his position. And I'm optimist!

UPDATE: The enddate year is fixed. Doh!

Waziristan

I still think that Pakistan's decision to back off of Waziristan was done with US ok. I would think it gives this task force a lot more freedom to move without having to deal with diplomatic repercussions. (if the Pakistan military isn't there to tell the US that "No, don't go in there, we'll handle it" then that leaves the US with the ability to make spur of the moment decisions that may not work well diplomatically.)

A special US unit now has the authority to go after Osama bin Laden inside Pakistan without having to seek permission first, according to two US officials. A comprehensive report on the hunt for bin Laden run by the Washington Post on Sunday says that Lieutenant General Stanley A McChrystal, the commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) operates on the understanding with Pakistan that U.S. units will not enter Pakistan, except under extreme circumstances, and that Pakistan will deny giving them permission.

With the Pakistani military out of the area.........
Bill Rogio notes that we may be getting close.

Another one for the Good Guys!

A bomb attack on the US embassy in Damascus has been foiled by local security forces, Syrian officials say.

Yeah!

"Three terrorists were killed and one was wounded," the Interior Minister, Gen Bassam Abdel Majid, said.

And the wounded one was captured.
One embassy guard was lost and a Chinese diplomat had a minor wound.

Success

On the day of the fifth anniversary of the 9-11 attack, Coalition forces score a high value target in Afghanistan. Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the commander of Hezb-i-Islami and ally of al-Qaeda and the Taliban, has been captured during a joint U.S. and Afghan Army raid in “eastern Afghanistan.” Hekmatyar, contrary to his rhetoric gave up to the Coalition forces without a fight. Hekmatyar's arrest is said to be part of an 'ongoing operation.'

Yeah!

9/11 The Good

Happy Birthday to my sister Julie today! I searched under Puppy stories to come up with a good news story of the day you might be interested in. But while looking for the 2nd page news stories of the day I came across this, which I think is cool.
You may be wanting a different present from me though....lol

Baby Bang Experiment could open door to new Dimension.

9/11

I'm with Michael Leeden. Still Angry after these few years.

I'm with Amir Taheri. I think we're doing well.

I'm with Varifrank. We're still here. Thhhffffft

I'm in full support of Thai teachers. Learning how to shoot guns because Islamic terrorists want them dead!

And I'm probably with these guys in anNRO Symposium because I usually am, but haven't read it yet.

Those documents

Yesterday I mentioned them. Now get today's revelation.

"Captured document:: AP employee spied for Saddam"

The Age of Horrorism

I liked the name. Though I don't believe this age is worse than past ages. I bought a book in Oxford when I was there on the history of torture. It's long. from India Uncut (via Instapundit)

Links

Salmon Rushdie on terrorism.

VDH on war.

Steyn on John Howard.

From the CIA on Saddam/Al Qaeda ties, from a year ago! Now that those documents from Iraq have been declassified, I'd like to see the new report. And I'd like to seem them before the next election.

Powerline on the ABC 911 movie. I'm basically with him on this and LOVE the Lileks line. PS, someone I know suggested that ABC might end up using the President's speech on Monday to preempt the show. Makes sense to me.

Good news for Horses

The House OKs bill to end Horse Slaughtering for food. Amen. Horses may have a lot of meat on them but they are raised, like dogs, to be working for us or as our pets. They shouldn't have to end their lives slaughtered. The article is concerned about the 90,000 unwanted horses that we'll have to deal with in the future without any concept that people change to accomodate their circumstances. If horses are harder to get rid of once they are unwanted, people will try harder to quit getting horses they aren't going to want in the end.

Bin Laden

"I can not believe it! Those damn fool Americans think I am tooo stoopid to pull off 911. They think that devil George Bush brought America to it's knees!! Listen to this Zawahiri:

Around 75 top professors and leading scientists believe the attacks were puppeteered by war mongers in the White House to justify the invasion and the occupation of oil-rich Arab countries.

Get me on video again!"
From Al Jazeera

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Al-Jazeera broadcast Thursday a previously unshown video of the preparations for the Sept. 11 attacks, in which al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden is seen meeting with some of the planners in an Afghan mountain camp.
The station said that bin Laden also is shown greeting some of the hijackers, although their faces were not clear and it was not immediately known which are purportedly shown.
The video included the last wills and testaments of hijackers Wail al-Shehri and Hamza al-Ghamdi.
Al-Jazeera did not say how it obtained the video, which was produced by As-Sahab, al-Qaida's media branch.

"There, that ought to do it. I need that credit of killing infidels. There is no way I, I, Osama Bin Laden, am a mere puppet of George Bush."

"Sorry sir, those conspiracy theorists still think that you are really a DC neocon working closely with those others like Wolfowitz and Luti."

"Waaahhhhh"
"Say - are you crying or saying Wahabi in a new way that we must all follow now?"

Bush's big news

He's done what he should have done. Made Congress "Step up" and take responsibility for the things they think he is doing illegally. Good on him. I've run out of time to comment more, but Scott does a good job of dissecting the other side.

UPDATE Let me add this link too from Protein Wisdom. He confronts those who are objecting to the "timing" due to politics by noting that

Sullivan characterizes this as a gambit to “legalize torture” and despairs that those who secretly wish they could vote against such legalization won’t be able to now, because politically they would see doing so as a liability.

In other words, voting their consciences might lose them an election—and when the choice comes down to a vote between conscience and appearance, the people Sullivan wishes us all to vote for will of course choose appearance and sacrifice principle.

Talk about fathomless cynicism.

Amen to that.

9/11 the movie

From what I understand it's pretty good, though not specifically accurate. Kind of like most docu-dramas....! So people are complaining about parts that are completely inaccurate like:

In the scene, a CIA field agent places a phone call to get the go ahead to kill Osama Bin Laden, then in his sights, only to have a senior Clinton administration official refuse and hang up the phone. Sandy Berger, President Clinton's National Security Advisor, called the same scene "a total fabrication. It did not happen." And Roger Cressey, a top Bush and Clinton counterterrorism official, said it was "something straight out of Disney and fantasyland. It's factually wrong. And that's shameful."

I'd probably be made too, but do you suppose they would have preferred Sandy Berger in the roll of document thief, putting papers down his pants? That would have been truthful anyway.
This is what cracked me up today though. The Democratic Underground wants to have a campaign of sorts so that:

To counteract the effects the ABC 9-11 movie could have on the midterm elections, I recommend this course of action:
The night of, and the morning after, people will be hitting the internet looking for information on the events as depicted in this movie.

Our biggest opportunity will be to have nearly identical blog posts waiting, then submit them to be found internet wide the morning after the movie. Google and Technorati will pick up on these posts quickly. We can make these entries dominate the first several pages of the search engines.

MAKE SURE THE POST TITLE HAS THE TITLE OF THE MOVIE IN IT!

I find it hard to believe that "people will be hitting the internet" in such numbers that this is going to have any effect. They can dream though!

September 6th

Jeff Goon's Birthday!
Happy Birthday oh hiker of the 93 mile Wonderland Trail around Mt. Rainier in 3 (yes, I said 3) days!

The Wonderland Trail is 93 miles with 23,000 ft of elevation gain. It circles Mt Rainier in Mt Rainier National Park. This trail usually takes 1-2 weeks to complete. Wonderland Trail

Not bad for an old man!

2 Views on Pakistan and Waziristan

Captain Ed sees cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan in ousting the Taliban.

The Times of London reports that a new pact between Pakistan and Afghanistan regarding border security will force the Taliban to run for cover. Pervez Musharraf will travel to Kabul for the first time in two years to seal the treaty and to coordinate the implementation of the new border protocols:

Michelle Malkin sees surrender from Pakistan.

Milblogger Bill Roggio warned about Pakistan's deal-making with the Taliban. Now, Bill reports on the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Waziristan and has details of the "truce" (that is, surrender) meeting:

There is no way in hell that the US is going to allow a free w independant Taliban country. I'm going with Captain Ed's opinion. There is something going on all right, but it isn't as straight forward as a truce. I'll be back with perfect hindsight later! lol

Mark McClellan

is stepping down.

McClellan's signature task was overseeing the implementation of the new Medicare prescription drug benefit, which now helps more than 3 million seniors pay for their prescription medications. The start-up was anything but smooth.......(is any startup of this magnitude smooth?) Seniors complained of confusion during the enrollment process, and more than a dozen states stepped in with emergency measures after many of the poorest beneficiaries were turned away or overcharged at pharmacies. Despite that rough transition, recent polls have found that most beneficiaries are satisfied with their choice of plan.

It was a HUGE job and it went well!
Now, who to replace him??

Possible successors, at least on an interim basis, include Leslie V. Norwalk, the deputy administrator of CMS; Herb Kuhn, director of the agency's Center for Medicare Management; and Julie Goon, a special assistant to Bush and formerly the director of Medicare outreach at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Good luck Mark!
And a very big congratulations for your recognition Julie!

Flying

I hated flying before it was cool to hate flying. Now if this sort of thing spreads, I may never fly again!

Jewish man removed from airplane for praying

(Yes, it was a misunderstanding)

Plame (again)

Yesterday David Corn wrote this item for The Nation.
"What Valerie Plame Really did for the CIA".
If you don't care to read it, the summary is that Valerie Plame had a real job there, managing a secret group of people that were investigating WMD in Iraq.

Valerie Wilson was no analyst or paper-pusher. She was an operations officer working on a top priority of the Bush Administration. Armitage, Rove and Libby had revealed information about a CIA officer who had searched for proof of the President's case. In doing so, they harmed her career and put at risk operations she had worked on and foreign agents and sources she had handled.

Let's walk back through history once again.
Joe Wilson, Plame's husband went to Niger to find out if Saddam was trying to buy yellowcake from the Nigerians. He returned, wrote a memo saying:

Wilson's reports to the CIA added to the evidence that Iraq may have tried to buy uranium in Niger, although officials at the State Department remained highly skeptical, the report said.

Later he then wrote an oped for the NYTimes essentially saying that Iraq never tried to get yellowcake and that the administration didn't listen to him.

if the president had been referring to Niger, then his conclusion was not borne out by the facts as I understood them.

In and amongst all of this, Wilson also said:

The report also said Wilson provided misleading information to The Washington Post last June. He said then that he concluded the Niger intelligence was based on documents that had clearly been forged because "the dates were wrong and the names were wrong."

"Committee staff asked how the former ambassador could have come to the conclusion that the 'dates were wrong and the names were wrong' when he had never seen the CIA reports and had no knowledge of what names and dates were in the reports," the Senate panel said. Wilson told the panel he may have been confused and may have "misspoken" to reporters. The documents -- purported sales agreements between Niger and Iraq -- were not in U.S. hands until eight months after Wilson made his trip to Niger.

Based on all of this, I personally can only conclude that Valerie Plame likes to pillow talk. It seems that Joe returned, briefed everyone, went to bed, came up with different conclusions from his trip, later came up with some dates he shouldn't have known, wrote a new memo for the NYTimes based on his wife's data and caused this whole affair to start rolling.

Richard Armitage should not get the blame for ending Valerie Plame's career. (though he should be blamed for many, many things including wasting my taxpayer dollars)
Valerie's very loose lips should be blamed and she should be sueing herself!

The Bad news

In Darfur

But Sudan seems intent on accelerating the massacre in Darfur: the government has actually proposed that the African Union troops depart when their mandate expires, to be replaced by 10,000 troops from the same Sudanese army that created the Janjaweed in the first place. Thus is set in place the most massive calculated campaign of slaughter, rape, and displacement since the Rwandan genocide (a slaughter that itself could have been mitigated had the then-head of UN peacekeeping, one Kofi Annan, not hamstrung General Roméo Dallaire, commander of the blue helmets in the benighted Central African country).

In Iran

TEHRAN, Iran (AP)-- Iran's hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called Tuesday for a purge of liberal and secular teachers from the country's universities, urging students to return to 1980s-style radicalism.

The good news being that he's actually in charge of the universities himself and could insist on change. Instead he's requesting the students to involve themselves. Yet these same students were not happy when he
"named a cleric to head the country's oldest institution of higher education, Tehran University, despite protests by students."

In Mexico

What comes next? If, as is likely, the final ruling of the Electoral Tribunal of the Federal Judiciary confirms Calderón's victory, López Obrador will do as he has warned: On Sept. 16, Mexico's Independence Day, he'll gather tens of thousands of people in the central square of Mexico's capital to declare him "president" by acclaim. He may even try to control "his territory" in the southern states of Oaxaca, Chiapas, Tabasco and Guerrero, and the capital itself. His aim for the near future will be to lay siege to the institutions he despises ("let them go to hell," he said recently) and force Calderón to resign.

If that happens do you suppose they'll ask us for help? I'd be surprised if we weren't already involved but it sure isn't very public. I doubt we'd put up with a leftist revolution right on the border.

That's enough bad news for one day.
Under good news - Rasta no longer needs to wear his halter all the time! We celebrated with a party yesterday.

Steve Irwin

and Kos. Who believes that once you're a parent, you no longer get to live. (click through LGF)

Just Because

It's labor day and Steyn has a Topical Take on it that seems to be an argument I often get into with people. So it cracked me up.

Why do we, with all our gadgets and cars and such want for the poor people to live without them! The last time this happened was with a women who was working in a gift shop in the mtns. She said she was an Indian Shaman from a tribe back east. She'd come out here because her tribe had gotten into the gambling casinos and she couldn't take it. Even though she later talked about tribal loyalty and doing what you can for your communities. She then proceded to wax philosophical about the days of yore when Navajos spun their own wool for their blankets and now, ptooh, they are buying yarn from Walmart. We were looking for a leather cowboy hat, but she only carried the Australian hats because the American hats use imported leather. You know the story, it just went on.
No discussion about the uplifting of the 3rd world economies as they import their leather. No discussion about the ability to sell more Navajo blankets and increase personal wealth when you don't have to spend a year spinning the yarn by hand. So Steyn was funny to me today, though written in 2002. Enjoy the day!

Hope

This sounds like hope to me.

Mahdi, Sistani and other Shiite leaders in the government don't share Washington's perception of a downward spiral. They also don't buy the American sense of urgency -- the oft-expressed idea that the new government has only a few months to succeed. Consequently, the many ideas for silver bullets tossed around in the U.S. debate mostly don't interest them.

This during VP Mahdi's visit to DC to confirm Bush's committment to Iraq.
The NYTimes doesn't quite see it.

But in a country long on disappointment and short on hope, Dora represents only the embryo of progress.

This on a story of the re-focus of troops into violent neighborhoods.
I'm going with hope myself. We're committed until 2008 at the very earliest. After that Mr. Mahdi may need to request re-newed committments again, but I believe he can trust Mr. Bush to do what what was promised, while he can.

RIP

to Steve Irwin. He died doing what he loved. Ok, not exactly but you get my drift. Stung by a sting ray. Sadly in front of his daughter. May she be as enthusiastic about life as her dad.

Steyn

On the conversions of the Fox news guys.
Far be it from me to judge their actions, I'm not positive what I would do with a knife to my throat and I think I'm a good Christian. I just thank God that there are people out there who ARE willing to die for the ideals we live under. Thank you!

It doesn't matter how "understandable" Centanni and Wiig's actions are to us, what the target audience understands is quite different: that there is nothing we're willing to die for. And, to the Islamist mind, a society with nothing to die for is already dead.

Columns to Read

Donald Rumsfield on his speech a few days ago and the furor it's raised.
Charles Krauthammer on Hezbollah's "victory".

Credit where credit due

The NYTimes has this headline 'above the fold' online today.

Payrolls Grew by 128,000 in August

Good news!

Judgement by the US of A

John R. Hamilton thinks the world is sick of the US judging them all the time.

The tolerance of other societies for being publicly judged by the United States has reached its limits.

I don't blame them. I would be too.....as a matter of fact - I too am sick of the world judging the US all the time. I think the more important thing is, is that the world is sick of the US judging them AND being able to do something when the judgment is "bad". Ie, no more trade deals, tougher visa requirements etc. etc. Whereas, when the UN or France judges the US, who cares? What are they gonna do about it anyway?!

Those "conversions"

They bug me. Apparently they bug Diana West too.

The most shocking thing about the Centanni-Wiig "conversion" is the silence that has followed. First, there is silence from Islam. Shouldn't Muslim religious leaders, and particularly "beautiful and kind-hearted" Palestinian Muslim religious leaders, vehemently condemn the forced conversions? As Mr. Bostom put it, "Will such Muslim authorities at least recognize the acute predicament of Centanni and Wiig by issuing a fatwa stating that their 'conversion,' being under duress, was not bona fide, condemning in advance any Muslim who might now attack these journalists for 'apostasy' from Islam?"