Payback's a Bitch

When you're a loathsome cretin like Eliot Stein, there can never quite be enough payback for what he did to Cathy Seipp, but this is just a small down payment before he burns in hell (via Patterico).

Whoever created it has an incredible sense of humor and my gratitude.

Believe it or not, instead of laying low, this sack of shit actually has created a blog of his own and has a comment area, but the fat slob is censoring them.

Gee, I wonder why?

World Warms, Poor Hardest Hit

More gibberish, hysteria, and outright falsehoods from the New York Times.

Industrialized countries bound by the Kyoto Protocol, the climate pact rejected by the Bush administration, project that hundreds of millions of dollars will soon flow via that treaty into a climate adaptation fund.

Just a friendly reminder that Kyoto was rejected by the United States Senate 95-0 on July 25, 1997. George W. Bush was the Governor of Texas at the time.

Reverence for Vietnam

It's a wonder why the Left takes such pride in their cherished memories of Vietnam.

Read this and then ask why they're so proud.

Next door in Cambodia, a man by the name of Pol Pot capitalized on the vacuum of America's abrupt military withdrawal and precipitous rejection of funding for democratic governance. Pol Pot instituted one of the most vicious and swift genocides of the modern era. Killing as many as 3 million people, Cambodia instituted one of the most bizarre spectacles of human hatred, wherein even children were forced to perform the execution of their own parents under the supervision of the Khmer Rouge state. Though American and international media provided front row seats to the carnage, the outcry for international action was easily subdued by political movements for "peace" in Southeast Asia and an end to "American imperialism." The American left helped seal the deal on yet another dark chapter of brother abandoning brother into the outrageous public celebrations of human hatred immortalized by the Khmer Rouge.

And so today, many of us are still wondering what academics and intellectuals are speaking of when they say the magical word of 'Vietnam.' Is this the world that you speak of? When you speak of "peace" and the end of "imperialism," do you mean to confirm the world of abandonment and unmitigated ethnic hatred ? Is the world that looks less like Bagdad, a world that looks more like Rwanda or Darfur? What do your words mean? I would really like to know.

Fox Derangement Syndrome

This guy needs help.

Fox Cable Channel, in a desperate effort to pretend to be a news station, is once again attempting to sponsor a debate of the Democratic presidential primary candidates. This comes on the heels of the resounding rejection of their efforts in Nevada where Democrats made it clear that the fake news channel could not hide behind the Democratic Party. Smarting from that rejection, Murdoch, Ailes and company are pushing hard to find a life raft. They have just announced a new attempt to masquerade as a news organization -- partnering with the Congressional Black Caucus Institute to host a debate on Fox.

Once again, it's time to stop them and to let all the Democratic primary presidential candidates know they should in no way participate in this pretend debate. Fox is not a legitimate news source.

You can take action right now. Got to FoxAttacks.com and sign a new petition calling on presidential candidates to not attend the CBCI's Fox hosted debate. The CBC Institute has already announced another debate with CNN, which candidates can opt to attend instead of the Fox debate.

First if all, moron, it's Fox News Channel, and second, they're the No. 1 cable news outfit, by far.

Has it occured to these idiots that if candidates want to reach the largest audience possible they would go to the outlet with the highest ratings? Is that so difficult to grasp?

CAIR Thugs Proceed With Flying Imam Lawsuit

CAIR continues to push the envelope and I believe will justifiably suffer from the backlash.

And check out the quote from this piece.

The Muslim clerics say they were humiliated, and are seeking unspecified damages from the airline, the Minneapolis airport and, potentially, the John Does.

Omar Mohammedi, the New York City attorney for the imams, said the intent is not to go after passengers who raise valid concerns about security. But he suggested some passengers may have acted in bad faith out of prejudice.

"As an attorney, I have seen a lot of abuse by the general public when it comes to members of the community creating stories that do not exist," Mohammedi said.

Hello! Like making up false stories about nonexistent hate crimes?

The irony obviously escapes him.

UPDATE: More at Power Line.

Democrat Demogogues

Thomas Sowell, as usual, is right on the money when assessing the current state of demagoguery amongst the Democrats.

Unfortunately for the congressional Democrats, their left-wing supporters have taken the antiwar rhetoric of Mrs. Pelosi, Rep. John Murtha, et al., at face value and consider it a betrayal that they talk the talk but will not walk the walk.

It has been painfully clear Speaker Pelosi was serious only about scoring political points. Her big grin when she won a narrow vote for a nonbinding resolution was grotesque against the background of a life-and-death issue. You don't grin over a political ploy you have pulled when men's lives are at stake.

It is not just congressional politicians who are so preoccupied with scoring points against the administration that they show no sign of concern for the actual consequences of their words or actions for troops in the field, nations in the Middle East, or the global war on terror. Much of the media are similarly caught up in scoring points on Iraq. For example, the cover of the March 18 issue of the New York Times Magazine featured a story about women in the military who said that they had been raped in Iraq. A week later, the Times had to print a correction, after discovering one of these women had not even been to Iraq.

Read it all.

Delusions of Dialogue

Rich Lowry nails it on the absurd efforts to have a dialogue with Iran.

Where are the human-rights groups expressing their outrage? The liberal filmmakers readying their scathing documentaries? The European opinionmakers condescendingly tut-tutting? Nowhere to be found, because they never want to give up their pilgrimage to the shrine of Our Lady of Perpetual Engagement.

If talking with the Iranians doesn't work, it is because we aren't talking to them enough; or the wrong people (i.e., not the United States) are talking to them; or when we're talking to them, we aren't saying the right things; or we haven't talked to them long enough - or maybe they don't realize just how very sincere we are in our talking. But, surely, sometime soon, if we just keep talking and offering to talk, all these "misunderstandings" will fade away.

Read it all.

NY Times Harps on Bush AIDS Efforts

No amount of good the man does will ever be enough for some people. Let's overlook the fact the George W. Bush has devoted more money than any other President in the effort to fight AIDS. No, that's just not good enough. It's how the money is distributed that bothers the elitists at the New York Times.

President Bush’s $15 billion plan to fight AIDS globally is seriously hampered by restrictions imposed by Congress and the administration, a panel of medical experts said yesterday.

The country’s most prestigious medical advisory panel, the Institute of Medicine, was asked by Congress to assess the five-year plan at midway. The 13 members of the panel praised the efforts, saying the plan had “demonstrated what many doubted could be done.” But it needs to move from an emergency response to a long-term battle plan, the panel said, and its members listed these three restrictions that they felt were the most hindering:

¶The requirement that 33 percent of all money for prevention be spent teaching chastity and fidelity, even in countries where most cases are spread by drug injection.

¶The need for separate Food and Drug Administration approval of AIDS drugs that the World Health Organization has already approved.

¶Laws forbidding the use of taxpayer money to give clean needles to drug addicts.

Read the rest. They get around to casting aspersions upon the dreaded "conservative Christian" bogeymen later on, needless to say. What annoys me is the "restrictions" cited above are quite logical in the fight to stop the spread of the disease. But because a panel of "experts" and the New York Times reporter have an agenda, all the noble efforts and vast amounts of money devoted to the program are dismissed.

The President could throw a trillion dollars with no restrictions at the cause and they would still hate him.

Maybe we need to start funding the fight against BDS.

Europe Threatens Action Against Iran

The Iranians must be quaking in their boots.

Europe threatens action as Iran airs new 'confession'

The EU threatened to act against Iran last night if it did not immediately and unconditionally release the 15 British sailors and marines it has been holding for more than a week.

EU foreign ministers meeting in Bremen, Germany, threatened "appropriate measures" if Tehran did not let the group go, supporting Britain's position that the crew had been in Iraqi waters when they were seized eight days ago. The ministers did not spell out what measures would be taken, but British diplomats hoped they would involve an escalating array of punitive steps.

The tough statement was the kind of direct rebuke Britain had sought in vain from the UN security council on Thursday night when, in the face of resistance from Russia and others, the council only expressed concern but threatened no action. Despite the EU statement, prospects for a quick resolution to the crisis dwindled yesterday after another propaganda video and letter featuring more dubious confessions and apologies by the captives.

Forget statements. Here's a few suggestions: naval blockade, destruction of oil facilities, monetary freeze, sending home all their students, seizure of their assets.

A few more recommendations can be found here and here.

Bush Shows His Compassion

Sometimes it's the little things that show what a man is made of. This photo should be shown in newspapers and on websites across the world, but of course the biased media cannot bear to show people the kind, compassionate side of George W. Bush (via Don Surber and the Associated Press).

The Season for Treason

There used to be a time when cavorting with our enemies was left to garbage like Sean Penn and and useful idiots like Dan Rather. Now we have high-ranking government officials heading off to meet with dictators (via Hot Air).

ABC News has learned Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi plans to visit Syria next week to meet with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad. The visit will make Pelosi the most senior U.S. official ever to meet with President Assad.

Pelosi will be traveling to Syria has part of Congressional delegation [sic]. On the trip, she also plans to visit several other countries in the region, including Israel, where she will deliver a speech to the Knesset.

Pelosi's visit to Syria would come as the United States has severed high-level contacts with Assad's government.

The administration recalled the U.S. ambassador to Damascus after the February 2005 assassination of Rafik Hariri in Lebanon. There has been very little high- or mid-level U.S. contact with Syria since then.

Last December, a delegation of four Senators visited Syria, a trip that was made over the objections of the Bush Administration. At the time, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the trip as unhelpful.

These people are an absolute disgrace.

UPDATE: The White House doesn't think it's a good idea. Which is probably why this obnoxious woman is doing it. Forget about what's good for the country. She's playing to the insane nutroots.

Oh, Sweet Jesus

It's almost Easter, so what better time to insult Catholics?

Well, they got all the attention they wanted even though the exhibit is now being pulled.

A controversial planned exhibit of a milk chocolate sculpture of Jesus Christ, dubbed "My Sweet Lord" by its creator, has been cancelled, FOX News has learned.

The exhibit, set for Easter week, elicited outrage Thursday from a Catholic group infuriated by the anatomically correct confection.

"This is one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever," said Bill Donohue, head of the watchdog Catholic League. "It's not just the ugliness of the portrayal, but the timing -- to choose Holy Week is astounding."

The 6-foot sculpture by artist Cosimo Cavallaro was to debut Monday evening, the day after Palm Sunday and just four days before Roman Catholics mark the crucifixion of Jesus Christ on Good Friday. The final day of the exhibit at the Lab Gallery inside midtown Manhattan's Roger Smith Hotel was planned for Easter Sunday.

"The fact that they chose Holy Week shows this is calculated, and the timing is deliberate," said Donohue, whose group represents 350,000 Catholics nationwide.

Donohue was calling for an economic boycott of the hotel, which he described as "already morally bankrupt."

Naturally, the gallery director plays dumb as to why people might take offense, but still manages a cheapshot.

The gallery's creative director, Matt Semler, said the Lab and the hotel were overrun with angry telephone calls and e-mails about the exhibit. Although he described Donohue's response as "a Catholic fatwa," Semler earlier said the gallery was considering its options amid the criticism.

"We're obviously surprised by the overwhelming response and offense people have taken," said Semler, adding that the Holy Week timing was an unfortunate coincidence. "We are certainly in the process of trying to figure out what we're going to do next."

Sure, just a coincidence. What a dope.

Michelle Malkin wonders how the media would cover Chocolate Mohammed at Ramadan? We all know the answer to that one.

Still, so far there are no reports of rioting, murder or mayhem. Perhaps Catholicism should be referred to as the religion of peace?

Gitmo Suspect Claims Torture

Yawn. Another day, another claim of torture at Club Gitmo.

A suspected Saudi terrorist told a military hearing that he was tortured into confessing that he was involved in the bombing of the USS Cole, according to a Pentagon transcript released Friday.

Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, said he made up stories that tied him to the 2000 Cole attack, which killed 17 U.S. sailors and nearly succeeded in sinking the $1 billion destroyer in Aden harbor, Yemen.

"From the time I was arrested five years ago, they have been torturing me. It happened during interviews. One time they tortured me one way, and another time they tortured me in a different way," al-Nashiri said, according to the transcript. "I just said those things to make the people happy. They were very happy when I told them those things."

One day it was this way, another day that way. Thanks for clearing that up, Abd. Maybe it was loud music, maybe it was a few belly slaps. Get the ACLU on the case.

According to U.S. intelligence, al-Nashiri is the suspected mastermind of the Cole bombing, and was al-Qaida's operations chief in the Arabian Peninsula until he was caught in 2002. Nashiri, 41, a Saudi national of Yemeni descent, was allegedly tasked by bin Laden to attack the Cole.

In the transcript, al-Nashiri says he met with bin Laden many times and received as much as a half million dollars from the terror leader. The money, he said, was for "personal expenses" including for marriage and business deals.

He said he took money to buy a boat and develop a fishing business, and bin Laden later told him it could be used for a bombing. Al-Nashiri said he ended the project, and was not involved when bin Laden later used it "as a military tool."

The poor terrorist just wanted to go fishing and he mysteriously winds up in Guantanamo Bay. Oh, the horrors.

Consequences of Fecklessness

Ralph Peters nails it today.

Inviting Attack: Talk Surrender and Our Enemies Act

Seized illegally, 15 British sailors and Royal Marines are hostages in Iran. Thanks, Speaker Pelosi.

It's amazing that Big Media hasn't made the obvious connection between the congressional Democrats long-promised move to hand over the keys to Iraq to al Qaeda and the decision by Iranian hardliners to bolster their position within Iran by grabbing those Brits.

The Iranians didn't even wait for the final vote count. The rhetoric in the wake of the turnover in Congress was sufficient to convince them that Washington is ready to bail out of Iraq. The extremists in Tehran want to push us out of the Persian Gulf, as well.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and his faction have been losing ground internally, but they hope a confrontation with the West will unite the people of Iran behind them. The Revolutionary Guards weren?t ready to take on U.S. forces directly, but they felt confident they could get away with grabbing Brits - and so far, they've been proven right.

Iran's hardliners watch our actions closely. Sometimes they read the smoke signals correctly, sometimes they don't. They calculated that Prime Minister Tony Blair is now so weak that he wouldn't dare retaliate. Furthermore, they figured that the Bush administration has been pushed onto the defensive by Congress and wouldn't move to aid our main ally.

Read the rest.

Meanwhile, another hostage "apologizes" today.

One of the 15 British service members held captive in Iran appeared Friday on the government's Arabic-language TV and apologized for entering Iranian waters "without permission." Prime Minister Tony Blair said Iran will face "continued isolation" if it continues "in this way."

In London, the British Foreign Office also denounced the broadcast and said displaying the captives for "propaganda purposes" was "outrageous."

The serviceman, Royal Marine rifleman Nathan Thomas Summers, said he was aware that the incident in which he was seized was the second time since 2004 that British military personnel had entered Iranian waters.

"Again I deeply apologize for entering your waters," Summers said in the clip broadcast on Al-Alam television. "We trespassed without permission."

I'm sure renowned foreign policy analyst Rosie O'Donnell feels vindicated.

The Easiest Soft Targets

Read this and shudder.

Terrorists Targeting Students: The Kids are not Alright

Just a snippet, but read the whole thing.

Abu Gheith's 2002 warning; school plans in the hands of terrorists; Saudi's terrorizing American schoolchildren on buses; 172 Russian school-kids slaughtered; "extremists" seeking to get behind the wheels of bus-loads of our children; jihadists sacrificing children to kill a few Americans; now a new story of a nutjob in Manilla [sic] taking 30 kids hostage on a bus - ENOUGH!

It's become glaringly obvious that -- contrary to the words of both the FBI and the famous song by The Who - our kids are not alright. And it's high time that we parents see to it that appropriate and resolute action is taken to change that condition without delay.

Far too many people have grown complacent since 9/11, but if terrorist acts occur in schools or daycare centers, I believe there will be a violent backlash in this country like you've never seen, and no amount of whining from CAIR or Democrats will be able to contain the outrage.

Previously: School Bus Terror Alert

Deval Patrick and The Truthers

It's hard to believe Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick would be dumb enough to allow nonsense like this to remain on a site with his name on it, but it's apparently been up for at least five days, according to Michael Graham (via Wizbang!).

9/11 is being used to justify war after war and the coming state of martial law in America. 9/11 was clearly a fraud conducted by members of our own government in an effort to take over the world. Much like Operation Northwood’s, in 1962, 9/11 was scripted by a group within our government to create fear and allow for a doctrine of preemptive war against nations that are geostrategically important to our imperialistic desires.

Some of the issues at hand:

- PNAC (The Project for the New American Century) a conservative think-tank, whose founders include many within the current administration. This group published a document calling for a "new Pearl Harbor" prior to 9/11.

- PNAC members referred to 9/11 as an "opportunity" for change post 9/11

- WTC 7, 47 Story, steel framed, building that collapsed on 9/11. Building 7 fell at near free fall speed, and like WTC1 and WTC2, appeared to be a controlled demolition.

- Bush's reaction at Booker T Washington Elementary the morning of 9/11. While claiming to have seen the first plane strike live, despite it not being televised until the next day, Bush was allowed to remain at the school for 34 min after the beginning of the attack. This was despite standard secret service protocol to remove the president during a time of attack.

- Flight 77 hitting the Pentagon. It is a matter of common sense, and public record that the Pentagon is the most well defended building in the world. Despite this, the "official story" has a commercial airliner being able to hit it without a shot being fired.

- Hijackers alive post 9/11. At least 7 of the "hijackers" have been interviewed by major news networks.

This lunacy has been going mainstream now, especially with certain idiots on television. But for the governor of a state, even one as liberal as Massachusetts, to give it tacit support, is really beyond the pale. Says Graham:

This is his campaign, his money, his name. And yet, as of this writing, the governor has chosen to leave this vile, anti-Semitic, America-bashing 9/11 idiocy up for five days. It’s been debated on my radio show, written about in the Boston Herald, and the entire Web site is monitored by the staff of his committee. Why is this nonsense still there?

The conspiracy theorist in me suggests that Patrick needs these netroot nuts so much, he’s willing to abide their anger. They may be irrational and hateful, but they show up at campaign events. They send e-mails. They call legislators.

UPDATE: If the link above doesn't show enough lunacy, wade into some of the comments. Beyond belief.

U.N. Springs Into Action on Hostage Crisis

Well, it only took six days, but the cesspool of corruption and thievery known as the U.N. has now expressed grave concern over the kidnapping of 15 British sailors.

The U.N. Security Council expressed "grave concern" Thursday over the capture of 15 British sailors and marines and called for an early resolution of the problem, including their release.

Britain failed to win support for a stronger statement deploring weeklong Iran's detention of the Britons and calling for their immediate freedom, primarily because of Russian opposition.

Britain sought Security Council help as Iran rolled back on its promise to release Faye Turney, the sole woman among the captives, and a senior Iranian official suggested all 15 Britons might be put on trial.

Iran's military chief, Gen. Ali Reza Afshar, said that because of the "wrong behavior" of the British government, "the release of a female British soldier has been suspended," the semiofficial Iranian news agency Mehr reported.

I'm sure the Iranians are quaking in their boots. Surely, condemnation and a strongly worded letter of more concern are to follow.

Sniveling Babies Whine About Drudge

The whiny twerps at Media Matters have uncovered a nefarious conspiracy. Matt Drudge links stories from The Politico.

This is really shocking. Perhaps if these nitwits had anything to report, Drudge might some day link to them.

I think Sugar Daddy Soros needs to buy them some attention. Or perhaps they should put down their crackpipes and seek help.

If anyone can figure out their point, let me know.

Iran Just Begging For It

OK, it's been about 28 years now that they've been due their comeuppance. Time to smack these pissants down.

Iran: Britain Must Admit Navy Trespassed

Iran's foreign minister said Wednesday that Britain must admit that its 15 sailors and marines entered Iranian waters in order to resolve a standoff over their capture by Iranian authorities.

Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki's announcement came on a day of escalating tensions, highlighted by an Iranian video of the detained Britons that showed the only woman captive saying her group had "trespassed" in Iranian waters. Britain angrily denounced the video as unacceptable and froze most dealings with the mideast nation.

"First they have to admit that they have made a mistake. Admitting the mistake will facilitate a solution to the problem," Mottaki told The Associated Press in an interview in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. "But unfortunately the British have not admitted their mistake."

So those who didn't make any mistakes have to admit to one? Such cockiness must be answered with swift and decisive action. We're reduced to watching the Brits being paraded on television, and are supposed to do nothing, although it's a violation of the sacrosanct Geneva Conventions?

Some countries are going out of their way to mediate this crisis and we're still being smacked in the face? How about the U.N.? Oh, nevermind. If they can't blame the United States or Israel for this, they just don't care. Hey, maybe we can call Jimmy Carter, worst President ever.

Enough of this nonsense. Time to take them them down hard. The longer we delay the inevitable, the more difficult it will be. We have more than enough evidence they've been instrumental in the Iraq insurgency and have murdered many of our soldiers. What more provocation do we need?

More opinion from Don Surber, Flopping Aces, and Jules Crittenden.

More Money Down the Rathole

Will we ever learn?

U.S. to vet Abbas's forces before training begins

Members of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's presidential guard eligible for U.S.-funded training and equipment will be screened in advance for militant ties, U.S. documents showed on Wednesday.

The Bush administration is trying to allay concerns raised by some U.S. lawmakers and Israeli officials that a portion of the $59.4 million program for the presidential guard could inadvertently benefit militants from al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is linked to Abbas's Fatah faction, or Hamas.

The groups are considered "terrorist organizations" by the United States and
Israel.

Under the program, the United States will provide $14.5 million for "basic and advanced training" for the presidential guard and $23 million for non-lethal equipment.

Another $2.9 million in U.S. funds will be used to upgrade the presidential guard's training facilities, including a sprawling new base being build in Jericho, in the occupied West Bank.

A U.S. government document, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters, said members of the presidential guard will undergo a series of local background checks before receiving any U.S.-funded training.

Giving our enemies free money is not sound policy, to put it mildly.

Oil Tick Denounces U.S.

This piece of garbage should thanks his stars we stopped Saddam Hussein back in 1991. Considering 15 of the 19 9/11 hijackers came from his hellhole, he has a hell of a lot of nerve talking such trash.

King Abdullah denounced the American military presence in Iraq on Wednesday as an "illegitimate foreign occupation" and called on the West to end its financial embargo against the Palestinians.

The Saudi monarch's speech was a strongly worded lecture to Arab leaders that their divisions had helped fuel turmoil across the Middle East, and he urged them to show unity. But in opening the Arab summit, Abdullah also nodded to hardliners by criticizing the U.S. presence in Iraq.

"In beloved Iraq, blood is flowing between brothers, in the shadow of an illegitimate foreign occupation, and abhorrent sectarianism threatens a civil war," said the king, whose country is a U.S. ally that quietly aided the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq.

Hopefully, there will come a day when we're free of any oil dependence on these lowlifes and I really hope they get what's coming.

Islamist/Communist Alliance

Counterterrorism Blog calls it strange, but is it really? Both ideologies are enemies of freedom, so an alliance seems natural.

The John Doe Manifesto

From Michelle Malkin, via National Review.

You do not know me. But I am on the lookout for you. You are my enemy. And I am yours.

I am John Doe.

I am traveling on your plane. I am riding on your train. I am at your bus stop. I am on your street. I am in your subway car. I am on your lift.

I am your neighbor. I am your customer. I am your classmate. I am your boss.

I am John Doe.

Read the whole thing.

In the meantime, Malkin also exposes the cybergoons who think it's cute to issues death threats against people they don't agree with and is participating in Stop Cyberbullying Day, something all respectable bloggers, left, right, independent, should take part in.

Don't let the thugs win.

The John Doe Protection Act

As noted last week, Rep. Steve Pearce introduced a bill which would protect the public from being named in lawsuits by scam artists like The Flying Imams and the thugs from CAIR. Well, good news today from the House (via Power Line).

House Republicans today surprised Democrats with a procedural vote to protect public-transportation passengers from being sued if they report suspicious activity -- the first step by lawmakers to protect "John Doe" airline travelers already targeted in a lawsuit by Muslim imams that charges profiling.

The introduction of a motion to recommit the Rail and Public Transportation Security Act of 2007 back to committee with instructions to add the protective language was introduced by Rep. Peter T. King, New York Republican and ranking member of the House Homeland Security Committee.

Mr. King says all Americans, airline passengers included, must be protected from lawsuits if they report suspicious behavior that may foreshadow a terrorist attack.

A vote on the measure is expected tonight.

The language is based on a bill introduced last week by Rep. Steve Pearce, New Mexico Republican, to protect "John Does," or passengers targeted in the suit filed by six Muslim imams earlier this month in Minneapolis.

A Republican memo issued before the vote cites the November incident, in which the Muslim men were removed from a US Airways flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix for suspicious behavior, the details of which were first reported by The Washington Times.

As noted by The Jawa Report, the measure passed 304-121.

Take that, CAIR.

Meanwhile, the perpetually aggrieved whiners were up to some shenanigans today on C-SPAN, reports Marc Sheppard at The American Thinker.

Notwithstanding the moderator's televised reading from the Op-Ed, including those portions which clearly outlined the imams' startling behavior that triggered their removal, most of the callers stated that they were firmly behind the suit, blaming:

* The ignorance of White America
* Blatant Religious and Racial Profiling
* Americans' lack of knowledge about other cultures
* Denial of Freedom of Religion
* And, of course, President Bush

So, screaming anti-American slogans and words similar to the final cries of suicide bombers while changing assigned seats without authorization and brandishing potential restraints and weapons in a post-9/11 airplane cabin is within anybody's cultural or religious rights? Houston ... we've got a problem, a huge problem.

Adding fuel to this spreading fire is the fact that Washington Journal is as fair a call-in show as you're likely to find anywhere, with calls selected sequentially from Republican, Democratic and Independent lines. Yet the vast majority of callers appeared to have fallen hook, line, and sinker for CAIR's tactical rhetoric that the imams were innocent victims of discrimination. CAIR wouldn't stoop to lining-up callers with speed dialers to flood the lines, would it?

You can bet your last dollar they would.

More from Michelle Malkin and Hot Air, which added the roll call. Shocking. All those who voted no were Democrats.

Senate Votes 50-48 in Favor of Withdrawal Timeline

Let's just make sure we give an exact date so Al Qaeda and the Iranians can properly prepare.

The Senate today narrowly endorsed a Democratic-led effort to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. forces from Iraq a year from now, voting down a Republican amendment that would have stripped the provision from a $122 emergency spending bill.

Senators voted 50 to 48 to reject the amendment, which was introduced by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.), the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations Committee.

The vote came after the White House reiterated President Bush's threat to veto any bill that sets deadlines for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

In intensive floor debate before the vote, supporters of the amendment argued that including a deadline for withdrawal from Iraq -- even though it is put forth in the Senate bill as a nonbinding "goal" -- would hand victory to America's enemies, while opponents of it said it was time to stop giving President Bush a "blank check" to continue a failed war policy.

The $122 billion bill would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan this fiscal year and would provide about $20 billion in domestic spending.

U.N. Useless in Hostage Crisis

Curious how silent the U.N. is on the British sailors being held hostage by the maniacs in Iran. Counterterrorism Blog suggests the U.N. should demand immediate access to the hostages, but I won't hold my breath.

But even if the Iranian seizure were legal under international law, the lack of access by British embassy officials to the hostages is not. That issue should be the subject of an immediate statement by the new U.N. Secretary-General during this, the first international crisis which started on his watch. After all, another spokesperson said today that the U.N. has asked the Saudi government to grant a visa to all reporters traveling with the Secretary-General, including a French-Israeli journalist whose visa has been denied thus far (which says a lot about the Saudis' continued intolerance of all things Israeli). The Secretary-General could have addressed the lack of access in an off-the-cuff press conference after a meeting yesterday on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, but didn't use that opportunity.

So the U.N. stands up for reporters' visas but not for the hostages' right to meet with their embassy. The least the Secretary-General could do is demand that the Iranians allow a U.N. representative to meet with the hostages. On top of the weak resolution, the silence indicates to me that we shouldn't expect much statesmanship from the U.N. or the new Secretary-General at any point in this affair.

Meanwhile, The BBC say the Brits are in discreet talks with Iran.

The government is attempting to "discreetly" talk to the Iranians to secure the release of 15 Royal Navy personnel, Downing Street has said.

Tony Blair's spokesman said that if the talks were unsuccessful, the government may have to become "more explicit".

He said they were "utterly confident" the 15 had been in Iraqi, not Iranian, waters, when they were captured.

This report notes some U.S. maneuvers off the Iranian coast.

On Tuesday, the U.S. Navy began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, with warplanes from two aircraft carriers flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran.

U.S. commanders insisted the exercises were not a direct response to the seizure of the British sailors and marines, but they also made clear that the flexing of the Navy's military might was intended as a warning to Iran.

Things are heating up. Who blinks first?

Shed Your Burqas!

Yes, it's the return of the ERA, and I'm not talking about earned run average.

Democratic Lawmakers to Reintroduce ERA

Liberal Democrats in the Senate and House plan to resume "the fight for women's equality" on Tuesday, when they reintroduce the Women's Equality Amendment.

Sens. Ted Kennedy (Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (Calif.) and Reps. Carolyn Maloney and Jerrold Nadler, both of New York, plan to join Eleanor Smeal, president of the Feminist Majority, in making the Tuesday afternoon announcement.

This time around, supporters say they hope "women will finally achieve official equality in America." But a conservative group said women's rights activists are "fighting old battles."

First proposed in 1923, the ERA states: "Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex."

Mary Jo Kopechne was unavailable for comment.

Michelle Malkin has more.

Tony Snow's Cancer Has Returned

Terribly sad news.

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow's surgery to remove a small growth showed that his cancer has returned, the White House said Tuesday.

Snow, 51, had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. A small growth was discovered last year in his lower right pelvic area, and it was removed on Monday. Doctors determined that it was cancerous, and that his cancer had metastized, or spread, to his liver, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said.

She said Snow is resting comfortably after his surgery and has pledged to aggressively fight the disease with an as-yet-to-be-determined treatment course.

May God bless him.

UPDATE: Charles at LGF notes the incredibly vile comments littering the Washington Post comments section to this story (hello, Howard Kurtz!), while Allahpundit swings by the Huffington Post.

Truly sick human beings.

The Pantsuit Salutes the Military

OK, stop snickering. She means it this time. Plus, she's learning how to salute! That will surely earn her the respect of our men and women in uniform.

Mindful of Past, Clinton Cultivates the Military

Of all the early problems Bill Clinton faced as president, few stand out to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton as more frustrating and avoidable than his rocky relationship with the military, her advisers say.

During his 1992 campaign, Mr. Clinton was attacked for avoiding the Vietnam draft and organizing antiwar marches in the 1960s. After taking office, his early focus on gay men and lesbians in the military drew sharp criticism from the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin L. Powell, and other officers. Even his ability to salute properly was called into question.

Mrs. Clinton, to use a phrase, has been practicing her salute. As a senator and now as a presidential candidate, she has cultivated relationships with generals and admirals, prepped herself on wartime needs and strategy, and traveled to Iraq and Afghanistan.

Sister Toldjah and Michelle Malkin are also incredulous.

Aussie Terror Suspect Pleads Guilty

From this account, it appears he may be shipped back down under.

David Hicks has pleaded guilty to one count of supporting a terrorist organisation.

He pleaded guilty to a late night specially convened military commission after an apparent deal was reached between his defence attorney and the prosecution.

The plea raises the prospect that he will soon return to Australia.

It is unclear what sentence he will have to serve. There was no mention of how long he will have to serve, or if he will serve it in Australia.

The Military Commission will reconvene tomorrow (Tuesday) to enter a formal verdict.

It sure appears they have no shortage of bleeding-heart moonbats in Australia.

The Australian Demorats and Greens today condemned the ejection of Hicks's lawyers, saying it was further evidence of the the judicial process being rigged against the Australian.

"That's the problem with a kangaroo court, it makes its own rules," Democrats leader Lynn Allison said in Canberra.

"It's a continued abuse of justice and of David Hicks himself.

"We must remember this is just the beginning. It could be several years before he's brough to trial proper."

Australian Greens leader Bob brown compared the dismissal of Hicks's lawyers to the processes under the former Soviet Union's legal system.

"This court is nowehere near the level of justice that we expect in a Western democracy, particularly in Australia.

"It's got the Howard Governement's tick of approval but it is mightily unpopular with Australians and as it's unfolding it's going from bad to worse."

Newspaper Ad Revenue in Freefall

The headscratching continues in newsrooms across the land, as executives are perplexed as to why ad revenues continue to plummet (via Instapundit).

This may be an overly simplistic explanation, but two words come to mind: liberal bias.

At USA Today, the nation’s biggest newspaper, ad revenue was down 14 percent this February, compared with February last year. Gannett, which owns USA Today and is the nation’s biggest newspaper company, reported that its overall ad revenue declined 3.8 percent in February from February 2006.

Ad revenue at The New York Times Company fell 6 percent overall, declining 7.5 percent at The New York Times; ad revenue at the company’s New England Media Group, which includes The Boston Globe, was down 4 percent. At The Wall Street Journal, published by Dow Jones, it was off 10 percent.

The Tribune Company, whose papers include The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Tribune and The Baltimore Sun, reported losses of more than 5 percent. So did McClatchy, whose papers include The Miami Herald, The Sacramento Bee and The Lexington Herald-Leader in Kentucky.

Even papers in smaller markets, which are shielded from some of the forces buffeting some of the bigger metro dailies, saw losses in February. Ad revenue for the publishing division of Media General, which owns The Tampa Tribune, The Richmond Times-Dispatch and The Winston-Salem Journal, were down 5.8 percent.

There's no denying the overwhelming majority of newspapers lean far to the left. That point is no longer debatable. Still, online ad revenue rose, so they're not exactly going out of business--just yet. But just like their counterparts at the television networks who are losing their viewers in droves, those running these operations seem reluctant to admit the error of their ways and continue moving away from their audience.

I take no particular joy in seeing the decline of this medium, as I have friends and former colleagues still in the business. But there is a supreme arrogance when it comes to the media that turns off so many people. Most of that is denial of the obvious and the unwillingness to admit they have a problem, instead choosing to look elsewhere to point fingers.

The newspaper companies blamed the declines largely on the continuing shift of classified advertisers from print to online, especially to mostly free sites like Craig’s List. In some cases, particularly in Florida and California, they traced the weaknesses to volatile real estate markets.

The shift away from traditional readership and a younger audience is a factor, as well as people just no longer having time to spend reading a paper from front to back.

Online spending is projected to continue to grow, and many newspapers are investing more and more in their Web sites. But so far, the online revenue is too small to begin to compensate for the losses from print advertising.

Mr. Parr, the Jupiter analyst, said that gap was going to force the industry to adapt to survive and that the February results were just a symptom of this larger struggle.

“There is absolutely no question that the next 10 years are going to be really bad for the newspaper business,” he said. “This is a time of wrenching change and chaos. All of our assumptions about newspapers are going to be changed. The format, the business model, the organization of newspapers have outlived their usefulness.”

Part of that restructuring should involve reaching out to the audience they've lost, though I'd venture to say in most cases, those former readers are not coming back. Alternative media have made inroads and people are more willing to cherrypick their news from various sources rather than rely on one newspaper for their information. Newspapers should also consider their allegiance to the wire services, the Associated Press and Reuters, in particular.

They're paying a price for their arrogance.

Webb Aide Busted on Gun Rap

Since Webb is a Democrat, this will blow over quickly. Just like the Macaca story.

WASHINGTON (AP) - An aide to Sen. Jim Webb was arrested Monday when he entered a Senate office building with a loaded pistol, Capitol Police said.

Spokeswoman Sgt. Kimberly Schneider said the aide was charged with carrying a pistol without a license and possessing an unregistered firearm and unregistered ammunition.

The office of Webb, D-Va., identified the aide as Phillip Thompson and said he was "a former Marine, a long-term friend and trusted employee of the senator."

"To our knowledge, this incident was an oversight," the office said in a statement.

See, just an oversight. Let's move on.

My question is, does Webb have a permit for that rug on his head?

Also at Hot Air, Michelle Malkin, Riehl World View, Wizbang!

WaPo Hypes Bloomberg Candidacy

Every few months, the third-party candidacy of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is touted and today the Washington Post revives it once again, using racial arsonist Al Sharpton to boost him up.

"He would be a very compelling candidate," said civil rights activist Al Sharpton, himself a once and potentially future presidential hopeful from the Big Apple, and a friend of the mayor's. Sharpton called Bloomberg "Ross Perot with a resume" and predicted that "if he operates as he's done in other parts of his life, he will put both feet in."

This is all simply feeding Bloomberg's ego and he has absolutely no chance at being President. Still, once the media realizes one of their leftwing darlings, being it Obama or The Pantsuit, is trailing in head-to-head polls come next spring or summer, look for them to relentlessly promote independent candidates in order to siphon away GOP votes.

More from Michelle Malkin.

Mr. 24%

According to Rasmussen, only 24% of Americans consider The Goracle an "expert" on global warming.

Former Vice President Al Gore (D) received a warm welcome on Capitol Hill last week for his testimony on the environment and Global Warming. However, while he is now an Academy Award winner and celebrity activist, just 24% of Americans consider Gore an expert on Global Warming. A Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of 1,000 adults found that 47% say he is not an expert on the topic (see crosstabs).

In fact, just 36% of Americans say that Gore knows what he is talking about when it comes to the environment and Global Warming. Thirty-one percent (31%) say he does not know what he is talking about while 33% are not sure. Women, by a 2-to-1 margin, say Gore knows what he is talking about. Men, by a similar margin, say he does not.

After all the hype, after all the lies, he's only got 24% believing him.

Just for comparison, consider after six years of relentlessly negative and downright hostile coverage, according to Rasmussen, President Bush is at 40%, which some might consider good considering how he's been portrayed.

More from Roger L. Simon, Sister Toldjah, Ed Driscoll.

Howard Kurtz: Lazy Media Relic

In typically lazy drive-by media fashion, Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post selectively goes after Little Green Footballs for a couple of comments which the commenter himself quickly regretted while minimizing the vile hatred emanating from the Huffington Post.

In recent weeks, some of those who post comments on the conservative blog Little Green Footballs have said they wished that Khalid Sheikh Mohammed had succeeded in what the Gitmo prisoner says was a plot to kill Jimmy Carter. And some who posted comments on the liberal Huffington Post have expressed regret that the suicide bomber at a military base in Afghanistan failed to take out the visiting Dick Cheney.

No corner of the Net is safe from this bile. The Washington Post's Web site has been grappling with a surge in offensive and incendiary comments.

The really gruesome stuff represents a tiny minority of those online. But is there a way of policing the worst stuff without shutting down robust debate?

The comments about Cheney at the Huffington Post included: "You can't kill pure evil." "If at first you don't succeed . . . " "Dr. Evil escapes again . . . damn." Founder Arianna Huffington wrote that "no one at HuffPost is defending these comments -- they are unacceptable and were treated as such by being removed."

The comments about Mohammed and Carter at Little Green Footballs included: "Can we furlough him -- just so he can realize the Carter plot? Please?" and "Even this schmuck had some good ideas."

The site's founder, Charles Johnson, wrote on Little Green Footballs that such comments "reflect only the opinions of the individuals who posted them" and doubted that they "rise to the level of hatred that showed up in Arianna's readers' Cheney-related comments."

Read for yourself: Here is the LGF thread Kurtz notes.

Kurtz doesn't even mention more recent comments this past Friday at Huffington Post about Tony Snow.

Pajames Media notes Huffington was sanitizing history.

Michelle Malkin had Assassination chic, Cheney edition.

Just last week, there was yet another deluge of hatred toward Cheney. Does this comment sound rational?

I would like to take a sledge hammer to Cheneys foot......then tell the fucking terrorist bastard ''now you know what if feels like'. Then shove a .45 in his mouth and blow his fucking brains out.

By: PissedoffVietVet on March 20, 2007 at 06:57pm

Why doesn't Howrd Kurtz mention this? Is he too lazy?

Again, I do not minimize the fact that some commenters at LGF have on occasion stepped over the line. But to even make a comparison between commenters there and at the Huffington Post is intellectually dishonest.

UPDATE: Charles Johnson fires back. More also today from Michelle Malkin.

RINOs Express Doubts Over Gonzales

Of course the New Yorks Times doesn't call them RINOs, as they prefer to mislead the public by using three Republicans who seemingly are at odds with the administration over everything, namely Chuck Hagel, Arlen Specter, and Lindsay Graham.

You have to wait until the 15th paragraph of the story to have an actual Republican defend the administration.

On Sunday, the White House found its strongest Republican defender in a onetime adversary, Senator Trent Lott of Mississippi, the Republican whip. In an interview on “Fox News Sunday,” Mr. Lott mocked the Democrats for charging that politics were involved in decisions involving political appointees.

“The horrors of horrors — my goodness,” Mr. Lott said. “How were they selected in the first place?”

Mr. Lott also defended Mr. Bush’s decision to invoke executive privilege in refusing to provide his aides for sworn testimony before Congress, saying “he’d be making a huge mistake” if he decided otherwise.

As noted by Gateway Pundit, CNN is just as bad, with this ridiculous headline:

Key Republicans question Gonzales' credibility

And just who are these key Republicans? Hagel, Specter and Graham.

Terror Database Quadruples

The Washington Post notes today how terror watch lists are compiled using massive amounts of data, but of course, they seem to lament both how difficult the job is and how privacy may be violated.

TIDE has also created concerns about secrecy, errors and privacy. The list marks the first time foreigners and U.S. citizens are combined in an intelligence database. The bar for inclusion is low, and once someone is on the list, it is virtually impossible to get off it. At any stage, the process can lead to "horror stories" of mixed-up names and unconfirmed information, Travers acknowledged.

Sure, errors are possible, but wouldn't the Washington Post be leading the charges that we didn't connect the dots were another terror attack to occur?

Then they bring up the media's favorite Islamic convert, the cretin formerly known as Cat Stevens, who apparently is being confused with a U.S. senator's wife.

Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said last year that his wife had been delayed repeatedly while airlines queried whether Catherine Stevens was the watch-listed Cat Stevens. The listing referred to the Britain-based pop singer who converted to Islam and changed his name to Yusuf Islam. The reason Islam is not allowed to fly to the United States is secret.

In the end, this process is a necessity in this day and age, and if the media laments that there may be problems compiling and sorting the massive amounts of data, they should be leading the charge to have funding increased for the program, rather than denigrating it and dredging up some relatively minor problems.

New Miss USA Crowned

Of course, we'll always have fond memories of Tara Conner, but let us now congratulate the new Miss USA, Rachel Renee Smith, Miss Tennessee.

Now stay out of trouble. Otherwise, you'll become a fixture here. Actually, you may become a fixture anyway.

If you can stand it, here's a slideshow.

The Jawa Report has more.

Just Shoot Them

This makes total sense.

How to Treat Terrorist Dogs

The capture last week of Shiite insurgent leaders believed responsible for the murder of U.S. soldiers in Karbala last January is good news.

As far as it goes.

But we wonder: Why weren't these savages simply shot on the spot like the rabid dogs they are?

Such treatment would be better than the way they deal with prisoners.

Like the four GIs they grabbed during their attack on a security meeting at Karbala's provincial headquarters in January.

Read the rest.

Democrats Craving Defeat

Kevin McCullough examines the warped minds of Democrats. Read the whole thing, but this part alone ought to make you ill.

So not only did the Democrats author a resolution that called for the terrorists to claim victory on August 31, 2008, not only did they twist arms of lower ranking members to get them on board, now they were willing to spend the money that you and I are sending them by way of our tax bill - to fund the effort to buy congressional members' loyalty to the concept of the terrorists winning.

Am I the only one in America that thinks this is truly, dastardly, diabolically - sick?

Yes, I officially question their patriotism.

Where The Goracle is Wrong

Bjorn Lomborg has a lengthy piece in the New York Post today which actually adds some common sense to the issue of global warming without the theatrics and hysterics normally associated with the buffoonish Al Gore.

Yes, the media often carry far more dire descriptions of warming's consequences. Gore, for example: "We have just 10 years to avert a major catastrophe that could send our entire planet into a tail-spin of epic destruction involving extreme weather, floods, droughts, epidemics and killer heat waves beyond anything we have ever experienced." A fine phrase for such talk is "climate porn": This kind of language makes any sensible policy dialogue about our global choices impossible.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: As it turns out, Lord Nazh reminds me the term climate porn is already in vogue.

British Sailors "Admit" Entering Iran Waters

Sure they do. We shouldn't doubt what the Iranians say, right?

Fifteen British sailors and marines detained off Iraq by the Iranian navy have admitted illegally entering Iranian waters, senior Iranian commander General Alireza Afshar said Saturday.

"They are currently being questioned and have admitted to violating the territorial waters of the Islamic repubic," Afshar, the official spokesman of the army chief of staff, told the semi-official Fars news agency.

He told the Arabic language service of state television: "We have solid evidence that they were detained in our territorial waters. They themselves have confessed and admitted their mistake."

I question the timing.

The UN Security Council is due to vote in New York on whether to impose further sanctions against Iran.

The move was announced by Britain's UN envoy, who predicted a unanimous vote.

The sanctions would block Iranian arms exports and freeze the assets of individuals and companies involved in Iran's nuclear and missile programmes.

Elsewhere, Pajamas Media has High Stakes Hold 'em in the Persian Gulf.

Also see the American Thinker: Did Mahmoud Blink?

Gonzales Approved Firings

Am I the only one who finds this fact wholly unremarkable?

Documents show Gonzales approved firings

Last week, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said he was not involved in any discussions about the impending dismissals of U.S. attorneys.

On Friday night, however, the Justice Department revealed Gonzales' participation in a Nov. 27 meeting where such plans were discussed.

The firings of eight prosecutors has since led to a political firestorm and calls for his ouster.

At that meeting, the attorney general and at least five top Justice Department officials discussed a five-step plan for carrying out the firings of the prosecutors, Gonzales' aides said late Friday.

There, Gonzales signed off on the plan, which was drafted by his chief of staff, Kyle Sampson. Sampson resigned last week.

He's the Attorney General of the United States. It only makes sense he signs off on the dismissal of those who report to him.

This theater of the absurd has gotten way out of hand.

Petty Libs Deny Jeb Bush Honorary Degree

These people really are pathetic.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) - University of Florida President Bernie Machen said Friday he was "tremendously disappointed" with the school's Faculty Senate vote to deny former Gov. Jeb Bush an honorary degree.

The Senate voted 38-28 Thursday against giving the honorary degree to Bush, who left office in January.

"Jeb Bush has been a great friend of the University of Florida," said Machen, adding that the Senate's action is "unheard of."

Some faculty expressed concern about Bush's record in higher education.

"I really don't feel this is a person who has been a supporter of UF," Kathleen Price, associate dean of library and technology at the school's Levin College of Law, told The Gainesville Sun after the vote.

Bush's approval of three new medical schools during his tenure has diluted resources, Price told the newspaper.

Bush has also been criticized for his "One Florida" proposal, an initiative that ended race-based admissions programs at state universities.

Machen maintains, however, that Bush has benefited the university, such as by providing the funding to attract nationally recognized faculty.

I bet if his name was Clinton, Gore or Carter, they wouldn't have any problem. But since his name is Bush, well, we can't have any of that.

University officials said they could not recall any precedent for the Senate rejecting the nominees put forth by the Faculty Senate's Honorary Degrees, Distinguished Alumnus Awards and Memorials Committee. The committee determines whether nominees deserve consideration according to standards that include "eminent distinction in scholarship or high distinction in public service."

"The committee endorsed him," Machen said. "It is unheard of that a faculty committee would look at candidates, make recommendations and then (those candidates) be overturned by the Senate."

More at Power Line.

Ahmadinejad Chickens Out of UN Appearance

Looks like the hairy little munchkin got cold feet and is using some lame excuse about visas for his flight crew not being ready in time.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has canceled his trip to New York to address the U.N. Security Council before a vote on whether to impose further sanctions against his country for refusing to stop enriching uranium, the Foreign Ministry spokesman said Friday.

Mohammed Ali Hosseini, the spokesman, told Iranian state television that the trip was scrapped because of "America's obstruction in issuing visas" to the Iranian delegation that was to travel to New York.

A diplomat on the Security Council said Ahmadinejad would instead send his deputy foreign minister Saturday to address the Security Council before the vote. The diplomat spoke on condition of anonymity because there had not been an official announcement.

Just one problem with that story: visas indeed were issued.

Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had earlier claimed on Iranian state-run radio that the U.S. government had not issued a visa for Ahmadinejad.

But Daniel Wendell, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Switzerland said Ahmadinejad's and other Iranian officials' passports had been handed over in Bern on Friday. Another 31 other passports for support staff were to ready later in the day. The passports would then be taken by courier to Tehran in time for the Iranians to fly to New York.

Zarif told reporters "the visas for (Ahmadinejad's) crew were not ready yet."

Weak. Very weak.

More at Paleo Lithics.

Bush Hammers Party of Defeat

The disgusting Democrats are kvelling over giving aid and comfort to the enemy, but President Bush came out firing, and rightly so.

Bush Slams Democrats Over Iraq Timetable

A sharply divided House voted Friday to order President Bush to bring combat troops home from Iraq next year, a victory for Democrats in an epic war-powers struggle and Congress' boldest challenge yet to the administration's policy.

Just over an hour later, Bush appeared at the White House alongside veterans and family members of troops to accuse Democrats of staging nothing more than political theater that delays the delivery of resources to soliders fighting in Iraq. If the spending bill is not approved and signed into law by April 15, Bush said troops and their families "will face significant disruptions."

"A narrow majority in the House of Representatives abdicated its responsibility by passing a war spending bill that has no chance of becoming law and brings us no closer to getting the troops the resoures they need to do their job," the president said. "These Democrats believe that the longer they can delay funding for our troops, the more likely they are to force me to accept restrictions on our commanders, an artificial timetable for withdrawal and their pet spending projects. This is not going to happen."

Naturally, the medi portrays this vote-buying scam as a victory for the Democrats, but this will never pass in the Senate and would be vetoed anyway. Some victory.

Others blogging on this shameful porkfest and slap at our military: Michelle Malkin, Atlas, Captain's Quarters, Texas Rainmaker, Gateway Pundit, Hot Air, A Blog For All, LGF, Power Line, 7.62mm Justice, Strata-Sphere, Jawa Report, Wizbang!, Victory Caucus, Riehl World View, Right Voices.

Tony Snow to Undergo Surgery

He's taking an aggressive path and we hope it's going to be successful.

White House Spokesman to Undergo Surgery

Presidential spokesman Tony Snow is undergoing surgery Monday to remove a small growth in his lower abdomen, a procedure he said was being done "out of an aggressive sense of caution" because he had colon cancer two years ago.

He said Friday that cancer tests have been negative since the growth - about the size of the tip of his small finger - was discovered in his lower right pelvic area, but that doctors decided to remove it to be sure.

"Please do not leap to conclusions about this because we don't know what this is," Snow told reporters. "We know it's coming out and I know I'll be back soon."

Snow, 51, had his colon removed in 2005 and underwent six months of chemotherapy after being diagnosed with colon cancer. He and his wife have three young children.

UPDATE: Also at Michelle Malkin, Hot Air, Right Angles.

Typically, some of the commenters from Huffington Post cannot put aside their hatred. Not as bad as the bile toward Dick Cheney the other day, but give them time. Seems like just yesterday conservative bloggers were wishing Elizabeth Edwards well. Oh, that's right, it was yesterday.

The Goracle's Morality and Profits

A couple of good pieces from The American Thinker today further expose Al Gore as a fraud.

Why Did Global Warming Become a Moral Matter?

As a scientist, I find the current strategy of the global warming crusade to be fascinating. Particularly because I am a scientist, I also find it insulting. Everyone should find it very disturbing.

I am referring to the fact that the global warming issue is now regarded as a "moral" matter by its advocates. None other than The High Priest of Global Warming (Al Gore) has decreed it as such. Of course, there is some obvious humor in this because the liberals will also tell you that you "cannot legislate morality". Well, it does not take complicated logic to conclude that if global warming is indeed a moral matter and if it is true that you cannot legislate morality, then it should hold that you cannot legislate global warming.

The other piece underscores the profitability of Al Gore's obsession:

Global Warming's Patent Profitability

Al Gore is well schooled at manipulating the levers of power and money to his benefit. Heads or tails Al Gore almost never loses. It's been this way pretty much all his life. Starting when Daddy Al set up him in fine style, including an annuity from a Zinc Mine Pop finagled with Armand Hammer, the Communists' favorite capitalist, Al's always been well taken care of. By hook or crook, Gore has reputedly piled up more than $200 million in his bank account since his 2000 Presidential run.

It has been said that Donald Trump is an excellent example of what a shrewd man can accomplish when he inherits $40 million. Al Gore is also an excellent example of what one can accomplish with unusually good hereditary access to capital, of the monetary and political sort.

Mr. Gore's Capital Hill encore is the culmination of a long and well-financed campaign. Ostensibly, his purpose Wednesday was to outline a 10 point plan to combat what he declares is the coming catastrophe, more about which in due course. While his accomplices in the drive-by media slickly packaged up his appearance with fawning praise just in time for the evening news, the actual event was a far different story.

Read the rest of both.

Gore isn't the only one raking in obscene gobs of cash.

Wall Street insiders are abuzz over estimates that Bill Clinton alone may have roped in more than $200 million in funds from the Emir of Dubai and other individuals based in the United Arab Emirates.

"This includes personal funds, money paid into the Clinton Library charitable accounts, as well as money paid into the charitable organizations Clinton worked on for the Tsunami and Hurricane Katrina victims," says one knowledgeable Wall Street financier. "We're talking about a lot of money."

These greedy liberals just can never get enough of your tax money while they get fat and rich.

Environmental Wackos Give Up Toilet Paper

These people really are crazy, not to mention rather unsanitary.

The Year Without Toilet Paper

DINNER was the usual affair on Thursday night in Apartment 9F in an elegant prewar on Lower Fifth Avenue. There was shredded cabbage with fruit-scrap vinegar; mashed parsnips and yellow carrots with local butter and fresh thyme; a terrific frittata; then homemade yogurt with honey and thyme tea, eaten under the greenish flickering light cast by two beeswax candles and a fluorescent bulb.

A sour odor hovered oh-so-slightly in the air, the faint tang, not wholly unpleasant, that is the mark of the home composter. Isabella Beavan, age 2, staggered around the neo-Modern furniture — the Eames chairs, the brown velvet couch, the Lucite lamps and the steel cafe table upon which dinner was set — her silhouette greatly amplified by her organic cotton diapers in their enormous boiled-wool, snap-front cover.

A visitor avoided the bathroom because she knew she would find no toilet paper there.

You can almost see these nuts sitting around in the dark apartment wondering why nobody comes to visit any more. Read the rest of the piece if you can stomach the drivel.

UPDATE: Always the trooper, Michelle was brave enough to venture over to Beavan's website.

Duke Professors Free to Smear

While it appears the Duke rape case has unraveled and the unctuous Mike Nifong is headed for disbarment, those who sit in their lofty ivory towers are still free to smear with impunity.

John Podhoretz reminds us that academic freedom means there really never is any price to pay when you slander people.

Yet some of the most disgraceful actors in this case will go unpunished.

I'm referring to a huge cohort of the professors at the top-flight university attended by the three unjustly accused men.

Some 88 of them - more than 10 percent of the entire Duke professoriat - engaged in a shocking rush to judgment in the weeks following the party where the accuser falsely alleged she had been raped.

They signed an ad declaring they were "turning up the volume at a moment when some of the most vulnerable among us are being asked to quiet down."

Their shameful conduct helped create the lynch-mob atmosphere that tempted and seduced DA Nifong to believe he could ride an indictment of the three young men to political victory in the Democratic primary that took place only weeks after he charged them.

It is not too much to say that many of the adults at Duke, who should be stewards for their students, actually wanted the false rape story to be true because it fulfilled their ideological predilections.

Since the academic work of those who organized the ad centers around the notion that the white male power structure subjugates and violates all those who are neither white nor male, the case was actually a dream come true for them.

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Fox reports all charges will be dropped.

Nuclear Nightmare

We may often view Pervez Musharraf suspiciously, but when you think about it, he may be all that stands between Iran, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban getting nukes. Check out Front Page and The First Nuclear Terrorist Power

An Islamist insurgency is afoot in Pakistan, posing a dire threat of overthrowing Musharraf.

And this may happen sooner rather than later.

If the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is created, it means Islamists get their hands on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. This, in turn, means that such weapons will then be passed to the new regime’s allies – which will include, among others, the Iranian mullahs, Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Read the rest of this disturbing story.

There Ought To Be a Law

One would think crossing our border illegally would be enough for deportation. Think again. This really hit home this morning as I was making my way through a nearby local village and was struck by the hordes of hoodie-wearing day laborers massed on street corners.

Illegal Immigrants Required 6 Arrests to Warrant Federal Prosecution in Texas, Memo Says

Guidelines issued by U.S. attorneys in Texas showed that most illegal immigrants crossing into the state had to be arrested at least six times before federal authorities would prosecute them, according to an internal Justice Department memo.

The disclosure provides a rare view of how federal authorities attempt to curb illegal immigration. The memo was released this week in response to a congressional investigation of the dismissals of eight U.S. attorneys.

The Border Patrol makes more than 1 million arrests a year on the U.S.-Mexico border. T.J. Bonner, head of a union representing Border Patrol agents, said it's unrealistic to prosecute all violators.

"Let's be honest, there isn't enough jail space to incarcerate everyone who crosses that border," said Bonner, president of the National Border Patrol Council. "If everyone demanded hearing in front of an immigration judge, it would bring our system to a grinding halt in a matter of days."

It is unclear when the memo was written, but the Justice Department reviewed the guidelines sometime after a February 2005 performance review of Carol Lam, the top federal prosecutor in San Diego from 2002 until she was fired last month. Some Republican lawmakers had complained that Lam failed to aggressively prosecute immigration violations.

Justice Department spokesman Brian Roehrkasse said Thursday that immigration prosecutions are a high priority and that the government sent 30 additional attorneys to the border region in the second half of 2006. He said U.S. attorneys set guidelines that, in part, reflect local crime issues and staffing.

"Increasing the number of prosecutors will permit districts to adjust their guidelines and take in more cases," he said. "For law enforcement reasons, the department cannot discuss what the present prosecutorial guidelines are concerning the border."

The memo was written in response to Justice Department inquiries about immigration prosecutions by the five U.S. attorney offices that cover the 2,000-mile border — San Diego, Phoenix, San Antonio, Houston and Albuquerque, N.M.

More from Michelle Malkin.

Meanwhile, perhaps some day there will be tighter enforcement. Not holding my breath.

The chief House proponents of a path to citizenship for illegal aliens yesterday also embraced stricter enforcement, arguing they need to move that direction if they hope to pass a bill this year.

They introduced a new immigration overhaul that still grants almost all illegal aliens a path to citizenship, but would also speed up the requirement that they learn English, make them leave the country before they can start the path to citizenship, and make the entire program turn on the government showing it is making progress on border security and interior law enforcement.

Iranians Seize British Troops

This certainly is a provocative act on the part of the Iranians.

Iranian naval vessels seized 15 British sailors and marines Friday in Iraqi waters, the Ministry of Defense said.

The British personnel from the frigate HMS Cornwall were "engaged in routine boarding operations of merchant shipping in Iraqi territorial waters," and had completed their inspection of a merchant ship when they were accosted by Iranian vessels, the ministry said in a statement. "We are urgently pursuing this matter with the Iranian authorities at the highest level and ... The Iranian ambassador has been summoned to the Foreign Office," the ministry said.

"The British government is demanding the immediate and safe return of our people and equipment." A fisherman who said he was with a group of Iraqis from Basra in the northern area of the Gulf said he witnessed the event. The fisherman declined to be identified because of security concerns.

"Two boats, each with a crew of six to eight multinational forces, were searching Iraqi and Iranian boats Friday morning in Ras al-Beesha area in the northern entrance of the Arab Gulf, but big Iranian boats came and took the two boats with their crews to the Iranian waters," said the fisherman.

The United States said no U.S. personnel were seized.

More from Hot Air on recent hostile acts by Iran.

Also at Blue Crab Boulevard.

UPDATE: Iran training Iraqi death squads?

An Iranian opposition group says Iran's al-Quds force is heavily involved in training Iraqi death squads and militias. The latest reports from the Mujaheedin-e-Khalq, or the MeK, accuse the Iranian regime of secretly engaging in "the organization and training of large Iraqi terrorist networks in Iran and sending them back to Iraq."

The group opposed to the ruling clergy in Tehran says Iran's ultimate goal is to destabilize Iraq, forcing U.S. troops to leave the country, thus paving the way for the establishment of an Islamic republic in Iraq.

Time to hit back hard. Maybe when the hairy munchkin is visiting the UN this weekend, someone can grab him.

A Congressman Who Gets It

Hats off to Congressman Steve Pearce of New Mexico, who today introduced legislation to protect those who report suspicious and potential terrorist activity. I hope the terror frontgroup CAIR seethes over this (via Power Line).

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, United States Congressman Steve Pearce introduced H.R. 1640 the “Protecting Americans Fighting Terrorism Act of 2007.” If passed, this legislation would protect individuals from being sued for reporting suspicious activities to law enforcement and security personnel.

The language of the Act comes as a direct response to a recent incident in Minneapolis. As reported in the Minneapolis Star Tribune,

The imams engaged in a variety of suspicious behaviors while boarding a US Airways flight, according to the airport police report. Some prayed loudly in the gate area, spoke angrily about the United States and Saddam, switched seats and sat in the 9/11 hijackers' configuration, and unnecessarily requested seatbelt extenders that could be used as weapons, according to witness reports and US Airways spokeswoman Andrea Rader.

As a result of the aforementioned behavior, citizens contacted airline authorities and the pilot informed law enforcement to have the suspicious parties removed from the aircraft. The original incident occurred in November of 2006; now the group has filed suit against US Airways and the Minneapolis – St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Commission on 17 different charges. Included in the lawsuit as defendants, are “John Does” described as citizens who called authorities to report the suspicious behavior of the Imams.

Rep. Pearce commented on introducing the bill:

“It is a sad day in America when our own institutions of freedom are being used against us in the battle against terrorism. When I first heard about the lawsuit brought by the ‘imams’ in Minnesota, it was clear to me that this was an injustice against Americans who were simply trying to protect themselves. These brave citizens should be recognized as heroes for their efforts to report suspicious activity, particularly activity that has been associated with previous terror attacks.

A full copy of the bill, which has 10 cosponsors. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.