Saturday, June 30, 2007
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Saturday, June 23, 2007
The Antidote to Keith Olbermann?
Found somebody podcasting as Keith Oldermann, and he hits several nails on the head...
'Big deal' you say? Well, he spins Olbermann from an anti-American into a very clear-headed, America-loving sort...
But then, he IS Keith Oldermann!
Give him a FallBackLGF welcome!
Never heard of "Keith Olbermann"? Dig this: 1-900-REA-LITY
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Magazine Publisher Stupidly Uses Inflated Propaganda Statistics as Basis for Business Model
On June 18, the San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about a new magazine called Muslim Girl. I wrote a letter-to-the-editor about the article, but -- needless to say -- the Chronicle didn't run it. But I think the letter raises some important points, so I'll post it here!
San Francisco Chronicle Editors --
In Joe Garafoli's article about Muslim Girl magazine is this passage:Editors estimate that roughly 400,000 Muslim teenage girls live in the United States, part of the estimated 6 million to 8 million Muslims living in the country. The magazine's Toronto-based publisher, execuGo Media (some of the small editorial staff is in Chicago), believes much of its target market comes from affluent, well-educated families possessing untapped consumer spending power.I find it totally pitiable and almost sad that execuGo Media could based its entire business plan on a statistic that is known to be propaganda.
Activist groups like CAIR have famously inflated their pronouncements as to the number of Muslims in the US, rising by a million practically every time they issue a new press release. Eventually, they reached the laughable plateau of "8 million."
Why are these advocacy groups padding the numbers like this? To exaggerate the importance of Muslim-Americans as a voting bloc, and to increase the perception of their political importance.
But everybody who's paying atention knows it's a lie.
In fact, the latest Pew Research Center poll -- the most trusted and accurate polling institution in the country -- shows that the actual number of Muslims in the United States is (brace yourself) only 2.35 million:Based on data from this survey, along with available Census Bureau data on immigrants' nativity and nationality, the Pew Research Center estimates the total population of Muslims in the United States at 2.35 million.The fraudlent statistics of "8 million Muslims" bandied about by groups like CAIR are not meant to be taken seriously by Muslims themselves -- the stats are intended purely as propaganda for lazy politicians to cite. (See this essay at the "Miss Kelly" blog for some good analysis.)
How tragic, then, how absolutely laughable that a publishing company like execuGo Media would not only swallow the inflated numbers hook line and sinker, but use them as the basis of an actual business plan. I can only shake my head in pity.
They should count themselves lucky to have even gotten 25,000 subscribers, much less their fantasy of 100,000.
A further look at the Pew data shows an ever grimmer picture for execuGo's bottom line:
Of the 2.35 million Muslims in the US, only 40% attend mosque, and only 60% pray every day, which means that approximately only half of US Muslims are "observant." Also, about half (according to the Pew poll) think that Muslims "should adopt American customs" and should assimilate as much as possible. Which means that only half of those 2.35 million would have any interest in an "identity politics" magazine like Muslim Girl.
Without boring you with the details, the Pew stats (and other official stats) show that a significant minority number of Muslims in the US are college students here with student visas -- almost all of whom are male. And amongst that half of observant Muslims, a certain percentage are extremely observant (i.e. fundamentalist), and would never allow their daughters to read anything even closely resembling Muslim Girl.
Which leaves us with only about 1 million non-assimilated, non-fundamentalist, non-single-male Muslims living in middle class familes in the US (execuGo's market group). In any family, there will be a mother and a father, and for simplicity's sake we'll just say an equal number of daughters and sons -- which would leave us with only 1/4 of a million, or 250,000 potential customers (Muslim daughters) for the magazine.
But wait! Not all of those daughters are teenagers. Some are babies, some are toddlers, some are grade-schoolers, and some are college students or even adults. Being generous, we could estimate that there are in fact only 100,000 teenage Muslim girls who even identify as religiously Muslim in the United States.
So, what execuGo is projecting, is that they would get a 100% total market saturation for their magazine -- 100,000 subscribers out of 100,000 grand total potential customers. Which of course is ludicrous.
They're living in a dream world! How could they possibly have been so misinformed as to believe the inflated propaganda population statistics and use them as the basis of an actual real-world business model?
Someone need to go back to Business 101.
And I think Mr. Garafoli's article would have more incisive and would have actually counted as "journalism" if he had pointed out any of this. Instead, all we're left with is another fact-free puff piece.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Bush’s Favorite Muslim Fanatic
When is a moderate Muslim not a moderate Muslim? How about if he is an employee of a Saudi Wahhabi organization that has been identified by the Senate Finance Committee as one of a long list of Islamic charities that “finance terrorism and perpetuate violence”?
Last month, the White House appointed Talal Eid, an imam from Quincy, Massachusetts, to the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan panel that, according to the Boston Globe , “monitors religious freedom in countries around the world and recommends policies to the president, State Department, and Congress.” Eid is also participating in goodwill missions overseas for the State Department. Ishan Bagby, a University of Kentucky professor and member of the board of directors of the Islamic Society of North America, was pleased with the appointment : “It’s a very good sign that a mainstream, moderate Muslim leader like Imam Eid can be appointed to such a position.” Ibrahim Hooper of the Council on American Islamic Relations was pleased also, saying that Eid would bring “valuable perspective” to the Commission.
Eid was forced out of his position as imam of the Islamic Center of New England’s mosque in Quincy in July 2005, some said because he was too moderate. The Bush Administration has been determined since September 11, 2001 to find moderate Muslims with whom it could work and to whom it could show public support; unfortunately, however, in this quest it has sometimes been less discriminating than it should have been, and the case of Talal Eid is a prime example of this.
Talal Eid, reported the Globe in January 2007, “no longer has a mosque.” However, “he still has the original appointment from the Muslim World League, a theological and cultural entity in Saudi Arabia that certifies imams, that sent him to Boston in 1982.” The scrutiny from the Senate Finance Committee is just one of many things about the Muslim World League that should have raised red flags for the Administration when considering Eid’s appointment. Alex Alexiev of the Center for Security Policy told a U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Terrorism, Technology and Homeland Security in 2003 that “there is conclusive evidence from Saudi sources” that the League was “tightly controlled by the [Saudi] government.”
Given that the League’s stated purpose is to “to disseminate Islamic Dawah [proselytization] and expound the teachings of Islam,” this means that it is a vehicle for the propagation of the House of Saud’s Wahhabism, the virulent school of Islamic thought that teaches, in words that appeared on the website of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, D.C. until November 2003 , that “the Muslims are required to raise the banner of Jihad in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in this world, to remove all forms of injustice and oppression, and to defend the Muslims.” Waging jihad in order to make the Word of Allah supreme in this world means fighting against non-Muslims in order to impose Islamic law, Sharia, over them. Evgenii Novikov of The Jamestown Foundation notes, moreover, that the League’s publications are “often radical and vehemently anti-American.”
Nor has the Muslim World League contented itself with promoting jihad by words alone. A jihadist who played a part in an al-Qaeda cell in Boston before 9/11, Nabil al-Marabh, claimed to have worked for the League in Pakistan ; while this may have been his attempt to whitewash his record, also involved with the League in Pakistan was Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Osama bin Laden’s brother-in-law and self-described “best friend,” who at another time worked to set up al-Qaeda front groups in the Philippines.
Does all this mean that Talal Eid is a jihadist and a supporter of Osama bin Laden? No, it doesn’t. But his connection to the Muslim World League is not the only troubling item on his resume. Eid has proposed “five solutions for the unique problems of Muslims in America,” including “the establishment of Sharî‘ah courts which would manage the family affairs of American Muslims and mediate their religious affairs within the scope of American law.”
A similar initiative to introduce Sharia courts for mediation of personal disputes and marriage cases into Canada was defeated in 2005; Muslim women’s groups spearheaded the opposition because of Sharia’s institutionalized subjugation of women. In the thick of the battle, Alia Hogben of the Canadian Council of Muslim Women declared : “We’ve had a flood of e-mails from people asking, ‘How can we help stop what is so dangerous to Muslim women?’” In introducing a motion to disallow Sharia in Quebec in 2005, legislator Fatima Houda-Pepin saw an even greater threat: “The application of Sharia in Canada is part of a strategy to isolate the Muslim community, so it will submit to an archaic vision of Islam. These demands are being pushed by groups in the minority that are using the Charter of Rights to attack the foundation of our democratic institutions.”
Will the U.S. now do what Canada drew back from doing, and introduce private Sharia courts, despite the harm they will cause Muslim women and the encouragement they will provide to establishing the Muslims in the U.S. as a separate, self-governing enclave? Apparently, if Talal Eid gets his way, yes. And that’s why he has no business being on the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom. The Bush Administration should reconsider this appointment, or at very least call upon Eid to renounce any desire to introduce Sharia in any form into U.S. law, as well as all ties to the Muslim World League. After all, George W. Bush said it best: You’re either with the terrorists or with us.
Monday, June 18, 2007
Keith Oldermann Admonishes Bush
Another Keith Oldermann special, just for Y'ALL!
Hamas = Fatah, George!
Some Things Never Change
On February 21, 1918, Life magazine published the editorial cartoon shown below (entitled "The Pessimist"), which mocked the defeatists and "peace-at-any-cost"ers advocating an American withdrawal from WWI.
Click on the image to see a larger (and more readable) version:
What's so amazing about this cartoon is how relevant it is to contemporary politics -- the "pessismists" of 1918 are exactly like the "peace movement" today -- the arguments are the same, the attitude is the same, and the message of the man on the stage in the cartoon is exactly the message of today's Democratic party leadership. (And notice the Germans in the orchestra playing the "No Hope Waltz" as an accompaniment to the defeatist American media's "Peace at Any Price Dirge" -- an exact parallel of the Left/Islamist alliance today.)
The cartoon comes courtesy of the excellent American Art Archives.
What makes this especially interesting is that the very concept of an "ant-war movement" was started during WWI, and that the motivation and strategies of the movement have been unchanged since its inception.
Of course, the reason the peace movement started during WWI was that -- of all the wars the US has been involved in -- it was one of the more "pointless" conflicts, in that it started over nothing and ended in a stalemate. But WWI was a rarity -- most wars before and (especially) since have had a strong moral justification and were much more "necessary": WWII, the overall "war against communism" (which included its component battles, such as the Korean War, the Cold War, the Vietnam War, and so on), and the modern misnamed "War on Terror" which everyone knows is actually a war to neutralize the ongoing jihad of Islamic extremism.
Let this cartoon echo through the ages and be a warning to Americans today: don't let the pessimists lose the war on our behalf.
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Thursday, June 14, 2007
Son of Nasrallah: "Most Honorable Death Is at the Hands of the Murderers of the Prophets"
VIDEO: Jawad Nasrallah, Son of Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah: The Most Honorable Death Is at the Hands of the Murderers of the Prophets
The following are excerpts from an interview with Jawad Hassan Nasrallah, son of Hizbullah's secretary-general, which aired on NBN TV on June 11, 2007.
Jawad Hassan Nasrallah: The Prophet said: The most honorable death is to die for the sake of Allah... or something to that effect. The most honorable death is when one is martyred for the sake of Allah, especially if it is at the hands of the Zionists, the murderers of the prophets, the violators of the covenants, with all their evil characteristics.[...]
Interviewer: People get the impression that many of those who join Hizbullah are children. The West criticizes this phenomenon. Is it recommended to raise children on a certain ideology, which some claim resembles that of the Nazi Party?
Jawad Hassan Nasrallah: First of all, can 15-or 18-year-olds be called children? Besides, when you talk to these people about Israel – what would you say about it? That it loves us? We saw pictures of [Israeli] children writing "gifts to the children of Lebanon" on missiles and shells. They teach their children that they are the "Chosen People," that no other people are human beings, and that the whole world is enslaved to them. It wasn't us who came and attacked others. They attacked us.Are we supposed to tell the [children] they should surrender to the Israelis? What are we supposed to tell them about the people who were killed – that they were electrocuted? That their death was due to force majeure? What are we supposed to say? You should be dealing with them, rather than asking what we tell our children and what our parents told us. We have seen with our own eyes that what our parents told us was true. We will tell our children the same thing, and, Allah willing, when they grow up, they will not have to see it with their own eyes, because [the Israelis] will be gone, eradicated.
Laugh of the Day
 | |
| Venezuela's Chavez to finalise Russian submarines deal | |
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez is expected to finalise a deal on buying up to nine Russian submarines during a visit here later this month, a Russian newspaper reported on Thursday.
Caracas has already ordered five 636-type diesel submarines and four of a new model of diesel submarine, the 677E Amur, the Kommersant broadsheet said, quoting unnamed sources in the ship-building and arms export sectors.
Chavez may have to settle for the older 636 submarines for the time being as the new 677E Amur has not yet been presented to Russia's own navy, a source at the arms export agency Rosoboronexport said.
"To start off with they were insisting on only the Amurs but were then persuaded to take the 636 vessels," the source told Kommersant. Link
Ugly Jolie Hates Free Speech
Bans FOX News from the premiere of 'A Mighty Heart'.
Angelina Jolie's true colors came out Wednesday as she promoted a film about freedom of the press and then tried to censor all her interviews.
Jolie is touting press freedom these days, playing the widow of murdered Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in a new movie called "A Mighty Heart."
But Jolie turns out to be a mighty hypocrite when it comes to her own freedom of the press. Her lawyer required all journalists to sign a contract before talking to her, and Jolie instructed publicists at first to ban FOX News from the red carpet of her premiere.
Ironically, Wednesday night's premiere of the excellent Michael Winterbottom-directed film was meant to support an organization called Reporters Without Borders. Jolie, however, did everything she could to clamp down on the press and control it.
Nothing To See Here, Move Along
A terrorist watch list compiled by the FBI has apparently swelled to include more than half a million names.
Privacy and civil liberties advocates say the list is growing uncontrollably, threatening its usefulness in the war on terror.
The bureau says the number of names on its terrorist watch list is classified.
Link
"They Are Executing Them One by One"..
Hamas Overruns Fatah Security Command
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas fighters overran one of the rival Fatah movement's most important security installations in the Gaza Strip on Thursday, and witnesses said the victors dragged vanquished gunmen from the building and killed them in the street.
The capture of the Preventive Security headquarters was a major step forward in Hamas' attempts to complete its takeover of all of Gaza. Hamas later called on Fatah fighters to surrender the National Security compound within the hour.
The moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, for the first time in five days of fierce fighting, ordered his elite presidential guard to strike back. But his forces were crumbling fast under the onslaught by the better-armed and better-disciplined Islamic fighters.
Fatah officials said seven of their fighters were shot to death in the street outside Preventive Security. A witness, Jihad Abu Ayad, said the men were being killed in front of their wives and children.
"They are executing them one by one," Abu Ayad said. "They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting."
Some of the Hamas fighters kneeled down outside the building, touching their foreheads to the ground in prayer. Others led Fatah fighters out of the building, some of them shirtless or in their underwear, holding their arms in the air. Several of the Fatah men flinched as the crack of gunfire split the air.
"We are telling our people that the past era has ended and will not return, " Islam Shahawan, a spokesman for Hamas' militia, told Hamas radio. "The era of justice and Islamic rule have arrived."
"We spent our night in the hallway outside the apartment because the building came under crossfire in 2002," Hammad said. "We haven't had electricity for two days, and all we can hear is shooting and powerful, earthshaking explosions.
"The world is watching us dying and doing nothing to help. God help us, we feel like we are in a real-life horror movie," he said.
Shaher Hatoum, a nurse at nearby Al Quds hospital, said the facility had no electricity, water or blood, and that wounded were propped up on ward floors. Hundreds of bullets flew through windows, and fighters ignored the hospital's appeals to hold fire just long enough to have the generator and water pipes fixed, Hatoum said.
"We are waiting here for our end," Hatoum said.
Immigration "Reform"
This article begins by trashing Republicans, of course, but about halfway down begins to reveal the truth:
The poll hardly brings reassurance for the Democrats, who control both the House and Senate. Amid political gridlock on domestic issues and inconclusive debates over Iraq, the approval rating for Congress stands lower than Mr. Bush's, at 23%. Just 41% of Americans say their representative in Congress deserves re-election, comparable to levels before Democrats swept Republicans out of power in November. Link
Enjoy the joke guys!
School Prayer Issue Revisited
“Free to pray at recess”
Christians, Jews want equal time for prayer in San Diego school district that accommodates Muslim students obligated to pray five times a day toward Mecca
San Diego public school students may have some time set aside in their school day to invoke Allah's blessings, ask the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, or praise the Lord -- if Christian and Jewish students have religious rights equal to those of Muslims.
In the early 1960s, the U.S. Supreme Court prohibited state sponsorship of prayers in public schools. But now the question has a new slant as some schools have taken steps to accommodate Muslim students’ strict obligation to pray five times a day towards Mecca. Link
Flag Day, June 14, 2007
Google is of course so overjoyed with the country that brings it such wealth and is celebrating with a special logo today:
Oil Supplies To Begin to Run Out in Four Years?
World oil supplies are set to run out faster than expected, warn scientists
Scientists challenge major review of global reserves and warn that supplies will start to run out in four years' time
By Daniel Howden
Published: 14 June 2007
Scientists have criticised a major review of the world's remaining oil reserves, warning that the end of oil is coming sooner than governments and oil companies are prepared to admit.
BP's Statistical Review of World Energy, published yesterday, appears to show that the world still has enough "proven" reserves to provide 40 years of consumption at current rates. The assessment, based on officially reported figures, has once again pushed back the estimate of when the world will run dry. Link
New Hampshire Union Leader: Communism Killed 100 Million
In one of the most startlingly on-target and clear-headed articles I've ever seen in the MSM, the New Hampshire Union Leader shows the world just what the journalism profession could be like if it hadn't been taken over by crypto-Marxists:
Silenced no more: Communism still claims victims
COMMUNISM, crusher of the human spirit and killer of 100 million people, did not collapse into the rubble of the Berlin Wall 20 years ago. It limps along, fed by blood shed decades ago and today.Wow! Compare this lightning bolt of truth to the murky moral relativism pumped out by the New York Times on a daily basis.
On Tuesday President Bush dedicated the Victims of Communism Memorial in Washington, D.C. His speech, a reminder of communism's human toll, is reprinted on the opposite page. His warning -- that we must always stand against the forces of totalitarianism, whatever form they take -- bears heeding.
The West's victory over Communist tyranny is not complete. Victims of the red menace still cry out for rescue. Dissidents languish in Chinese gulags right now. North Koreans starve as their "dear leader" watches Hollywood action films. Vietnamese who dare challenge the government face harassment and arrest. Terrified Cubans still drown trying to escape the clutches of an island despot. And in Venezuela a dictator in training is quickly collectivizing the economy and silencing and imprisoning his political opponents.
And of course, on university campuses across the West, students are taught that communism is the purest, best form of government and one to which we all should aspire.
Believers in individual liberty still have work to do to weaken the grip of this toxic ideology. It is not enough to remember the tens of millions of victims. We must continue to speak out against the evils of totalitarian collectivism and stand up to its aggression.
The newspaper industry wouldn't be going down the toilet if every "journalist" wrote like this.
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Once More Unto the Breach
Friends, please remember that this is a CHOSEN purification and re-ordering of the Indexes of Data. The Hamsters are dutifully trudging up and down the aisles of Langerhans, cleaning up truncated indexes and malformed requests.
When its all over, you won't have Fallback to kick around any more...
/snurff
Enjoy a new, open thread!
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Monday, June 11, 2007
The Defenestration of Gaza
In 1618, the Czechs settled their political differences by hurling each other out of the window, an incident now called "The Defenestration of Prague."
We in the West like to think we've moved past the defenestration stage of political debate.
Not so in Gaza.
In fact, the Gazans have taken it to the next level, and are now settling their domestic disputes by hurling each other off the roof.
Windows? That's for amateurs.
Militants throw rivals off high-rise Gaza buildings
GAZA CITY (AP) -- Rival Palestinian forces clashed in Gaza on Sunday, killing two militants by throwing them out of high-rise buildings.
Hamas militants kidnapped an officer in a Fatah-linked security force, took him to the roof of a 15-story apartment building and threw him off. Mohammed Sweirki, 25, from the Presidential Guard of President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, was killed in the plunge.
What UN Peacekeepers?
Tel Aviv within Hizbullah range...
Hizbullah has amassed an undisclosed number of Fatah-110 rockets, which could theoretically be fired at Tel Aviv, according to a report in Britain's Sunday Times. The projectile, an upgraded Chinese assault rocket, has a 500-lb warhead and a range of 200 kilometers.
According to the report, close to the Israel-Lebanon border, under the noses of United Nations peacekeeping forces in southern Lebanon, the guerrilla group has built a network of underground military bunkers that can withstand air strikes.
Pali Truce Update; Ceasefire Sunday night, broken Monday
New Violence between Fatah and Hamas with 6 people abducted
'Sheikh Taysser Al Tamimi the president judge of the religious court in Palestine stated shortly after Monday's clashes that, "It is against our culture and our religion to kill each other. Our Prophet Muhammad prohibited Muslims killing each others." '
Apparently, some Muslims never got that memo.
Terror Causes
In the wake of Sept. 11, Robert Pape, a professor in international security affairs at The University of Chicago, speculated on TV news shows on the causes of suicide terrorism.
“Like everyone else, I jumped to the conclusion that it was radical Islam,” he says. “I even bought a Koran to see what’s wrong with Islam.”
Some surprising (and debatable) conclusions, some not so surprising. Robert Pape also spoke before CAIR, so be forewarned.
Woman Beaten For Not Covering Up
*Warning*
This will make you spittin' mad. Hat tip/Ben Hur & Killgore Trout
Laugh of the Day
Ready for a good laugh?
Gore goes green, making changes to Nashville house
"This plan has been in the works for a long time," the former vice president said in an interview Friday with The Associated Press. "The only thing that has changed is that we're more public about it because of the misleading attack by a global-warming denier group." Link
News Item from the AP
Surprise, surprise:
UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The U.N. Security Council refused to approve a statement Friday that would condemn remarks about Israel's impending destruction attributed to Iran's hard-line president because of objections from Indonesia, council diplomats said.
Qatar, the only Arab nation on the council, said it had no instructions, which also meant approval on Friday was impossible, the diplomats said. The statement must be approved by all 15 council members.
What nation had objections?
Indonesia, the world's largest Muslim country, said Ahmadinejad had not really threatened Israel, council diplomats said.
But the shocker is right here:
France's U.N. Ambassador Jean-Marc de La Sabliere, who called for condemnation of the remarks attributed to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, said it was unfortunate that the council could not act immediately. But he said he would try again on Monday to get all 15 council members to approve the statement.
Read the whole sordid tale
Insurgent group threatening Christians
Life in Baghdad with the Religion of Peace™:
BAGHDAD -- A group affiliated with al Qaeda is giving Christians in Baghdad a stark set of four options: Convert to Islam, marry your daughters to our fighters, pay an Islamic tax or leave with only the clothes on your back.
A U.S. military official said American forces became aware of the threats only last month and have erected barriers around the largest Christian enclave in Baghdad's Dora neighborhood in an effort to protect residents.
Christians in Baghdad refuse to discuss the threats by Islamic State of Iraq, an insurgent umbrella group that's dominated by al Qaeda in Iraq, for fear of retribution. Link
Which may be why Pope Benedict XVI mentioned the topic to President Bush:
The pope expressed to Bush a "deep concern" about Christians living in Muslim-majority Iraq.
"He was concerned that the society that was evolving would not tolerate the Christian religion, and I assured him we were working hard to make sure that people lived up to the constitution -- that modern constitution voted on by the people from different walks of life and different attitudes," Bush said. Link
'U.S. Dollar Bill' Handed Out by Anti-Semites at DC Rally
More photos and report from This Ain't Hell.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Age of Hooper: Anti-Israel protest in DC
The Age of Hooper blog a nice apoplexy-inducing photo up from Sunday's anti-Semitism rally in Washington DC:
PROTEST/COUNTER-PROTEST on the Capitol Mall.
Lovely.
This photo is just a teaser, for now. More to come tomorrow.
One question that is forever left undiscussed:
Does the swastika mean "You Jews, YOU are the Nazis!"...or does it mean, "Watch out, Jews -- I am a Nazi!" ?
UPDATE:
Age of Hooper has added many more photos and a video of the protest in a new post:
"The World Says No to Israeli Occupation March and Rally".
News Item
WASHINGTON (AP) - Sen. Joseph Lieberman said Sunday the United States should consider a military strike against Iran because of Tehran's involvement in Iraq. "I think we've got to be prepared to take aggressive military action against the Iranians to stop them from killing Americans in Iraq," Lieberman said. "And to me, that would include a strike over the border into Iran, where we have good evidence that they have a base at which they are training these people coming back into Iraq to kill our soldiers." The U.S. accuses Iran of fostering terrorism and Tehran's nuclear ambitions have brought about international reproach.
Lieberman: U.S. Should Weigh Iran Attack
Fred Thompson
Signs of Intelligence?
By Fred Thompson
One of the things that's got to be going through a lot of peoples' minds now is how one man with two handguns, that he had to reload time and time again, could go from classroom to classroom on the Virginia Tech campus without being stopped. Much of the answer can be found in policies put in place by the university itself.
Virginia, like 39 other states, allows citizens with training and legal permits to carry concealed weapons. That means that Virginians regularly sit in movie theaters and eat in restaurants among armed citizens. They walk, joke, and rub shoulders everyday with people who responsibly carry firearms — and are far safer than they would be in San Francisco, Oakland, Detroit, Chicago, New York City, or Washington, D.C., where such permits are difficult or impossible to obtain.Link
(This isn't new but a lot of people are beginning to take a closer look at Fred Thompson and this is an important issue to a lot of people.)
New Tactic Upsets Press
JERUSALEM - Journalists on Sunday condemned Palestinian militants for using a television truck to disguise their assault on an Israeli military position, saying the new tactic would make their jobs significantly more dangerous.
Link
Running the Numbers
Inmates File Suit
Inmates File Suit After Prisons Ban Some Religious Books Over Terrorism Fears
NEW YORK — Inmates at the federal prison camp in Otisville, N.Y., were stunned by what they saw at the chapel library on Memorial Day — hundreds of books had disappeared from the shelves.
The removal of the books is occurring nationwide, part of a long-delayed, post-Sept. 11 federal directive intended to prevent radical religious texts, specifically Islamic ones, from falling into the hands of violent inmates.
Three inmates at Otisville filed a lawsuit over the policy, saying their Constitutional rights were violated. They say all religions were affected.
Link
What Might Have Been
JFK Plot: What Might Have Been
By Rich Lowry
Before the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, al Qaeda targeted another U.S. destroyer. It wanted to hit the USS The Sullivans. But as recounted in Lawrence Wright's Pulitzer Prize-winning book The Looming Tower, the terror operatives overloaded their skiff with C-4 explosives, causing it to sink harmlessly into the surf.
They had to shoo away Yemeni locals who discovered the boat and started throwing the C-4 bricks around. Anyone discovering the operatives at that moment would have concluded that they were buffoons whose ambition to sink an American ship of war far exceeded their capabilities. Of course, nine months later, they nearly succeeded, blowing a 40-feet-by-40-feet hole in the Cole, killing 17 sailors.
Link
Open Thread
Hopefully, Charles has the HD installed and is reloading the data right now. Per request, an open thread...
IEDs in DC?
WASHINGTON - If you have friends or relatives planning a trip to the region this summer you might want to tell them to bring their walking shoes, especially if they plan on taking a tour bus.
New security restrictions around Capitol Hill that went into effect Saturday will move tour bus routes farther away from the Capitol complex. The U.S. Capitol Police say the new measures are precautionary and are not based on any known threats.
"Part of it comes from vehicle born improvised explosive devices," said Capitol police spokeswoman Kimberly Schneider. "If we can prevent that from moving the threats further away from the Capitol then we certainly will."
Link
Thompson Shakes Up GOP Race
Poll: Thompson shakes up GOP race
By Alan Fram and Trevor Tompson, Associated Press Writers | June 9, 2007
WASHINGTON --Fred Thompson's expected entry into the tight Republican presidential race is drawing crucial strength from conservatives and older men, vaulting him into the thick of the nomination fight, an Associated Press-Ipsos poll says.
snip
That has helped place Thompson firmly in the top tier among GOP contenders in the AP-Ipsos poll released Saturday. It shows former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani with 27 percent; Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., at 19 percent; Thompson essentially even with McCain at 17 percent; and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 10 percent.
Link
Al Qaeda's new enemy -- Iraqis
In the midst of the doubt and fear that grips the United States about Iraq today, however, it's critically important to recognize the positive trends. Iraq's Sunni Arabs, once one of the most supportive communities of Al Qaeda, are now among the most hostile, repudiating their alliance of convenience with the terrorists and risking their lives to fight with us against our worst enemies. This is a trend worth fighting to continue, and Iraqis who now stand with us at their own peril are people worth fighting for.
Actually printed in the LA Times
Big Thanks to All Who are Protesting the Anti-Israel March Today in DC
Looking forward to all the pics, videos and reports from thosewho went to DC today to stand up for Israel.
Photos can now be seen at This Ain't Hell. Thanks, Jonn Lilyea!
Colin Powell to Paris Hilton, "Move Over"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State
Colin Powell said on Sunday the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay for foreign terrorism suspects should be immediately closed and its inmates moved to the United States.
Powell, who in a 2003 speech to the
U.N. Security Council made the case for war against
Iraq for possessing weapons of mass destruction that were never found, said the controversial prison in Cuba had become a "major problem" for the United States' image abroad and done more harm than good.
"Guantanamo has become a major, major problem ... in the way the world perceives America and if it were up to me I would close Guantanamo not tomorrow but this afternoon ... and I would not let any of those people go. I would simply move them to the United States and put them into our federal legal system," Powell told NBC's Meet the Press. Link
Ethanol; A Less than Perfect Solution?
How ethanol bites you in the wallet
It may help at the gas pump, but the ripples emanating from the ethanol boom are higher prices for corn, fertilizer and the food on your table. Investors, adjust your portfolios.
Ethanol is attractive as a solution to high gasoline prices because it promises a free lunch:
* U.S. farmers would grow corn.
* U.S. ethanol companies would turn the corn into ethanol.
* U.S. consumers would go about business as usual.
* And everyone in the U.S. would be less dependent on foreign oil producers.
* But, repeat after me: There is no free lunch.
Link
The Terrorists Friend
June 9, 2007: The American Senate Judiciary Committee has voted to rescind certain portions of the Military Commissions Act – a move that will draw few headlines, but which holds the potential to do great damage to intelligence agencies, which are vital in the war on terror. Should the practice of giving terrorists access to federal courts be resumed, the Department of Defense would face the choice between protecting the means of gathering intelligence and the sources of intelligence, and letting terrorists go free, or placing the information gathered on the record, and risk aiding terrorists' counter-intelligence efforts. Link
Bush is: "Instilling a lot of fear"
A day of Korans and camaraderie.
Islamic culture is celebrated at Penn's Landing
They came from far: Pakistan, Lebanon and India, organizers said. And from near: 80 percent were African Americans from Philadelphia, they added.
With the Delaware River flowing serenely in the background and strains of Middle Eastern music rising from red-capped singers on a bright and warm late spring day, an estimated 3,000 Muslims had gathered by midafternoon yesterday at Penn's Landing for the 15th annual Islamic Heritage Festival. Link
Caribbean Connection to JFK Plot
PORT-OF-SPAIN, TRINIDAD — The war on terror has come to this Caribbean island nation, irritating many residents, worrying others and picking at the scars of old social feuds.
U.S. charges that Trinidadian and Guyanese Muslims hatched a terrorist plot targeting New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, and sought funding from a militant Islamic group here, have resurrected concerns of Islamic militancy on the island. Link
News Item
Israel Air Force holds joint exercise with visiting U.S. pilots
By Reuters
The Israel Air Force held a joint drill with visiting United States pilots on Sunday, stirring interest in a region bracing for a possible armed showdown over Iran's nuclear program.
The Israel Defense Forces said the exercise was "part of a multi-year working plan involving joint flights for the purpose of mutual learning" and would be held annually.
Reports on the exercise were carried in Arab media, fuelled by speculation that Israel or the United States could bomb Iran should United Nations Security Council sanctions fail to curb its nuclear program. Iran insists its atomic ambitions are peaceful. Link
The "Cat Meat" Sheik Has Resigned!
Australia's top Islamic cleric, who triggered a furor last year when he referred to women without head scarves as "uncovered meat," stepped down Sunday, prompting Muslim leaders to appoint a new mufti. Link
