Good News: 165 Mutants Off to Visit Allah

Wanted: 11,880 virgins.

No experience necessary.

165 insurgents killed in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan - Two battles killed more than 165 Taliban fighters and a U.S.-led coalition soldier in southern Afghanistan on Wednesday as President Hamid Karzai prepared to discuss the escalating violence with President Bush in New York.

One of the clashes began Tuesday when several dozen insurgents attacked a joint coalition-Afghan patrol with machine guns, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades near the Taliban-controlled town of Musa Qala in Helmand province, with Taliban reinforcements flowing in all day, a coalition statement said.

The coalition said it returned artillery fire and called in fighter aircraft, killing more than 100 of the Taliban fighters. One coalition soldier was killed and four wounded.

The coalition said there were no immediate reports of civilian deaths or injuries.

Taliban militants overran Musa Qala in February, four months after British troops left the town following a contentious peace agreement that handed over security responsibilities to Afghan elders. Musa Qala has been in control of Taliban fighters ever since.

Situated in northern Helmand province, Musa Qala and the region around it have seen the heaviest fighting in Afghanistan this year. It is also in the middle of the country's poppy-growing belt.

In neighboring Uruzgan province, more than 80 Taliban fighters attacked a joint Afghan and coalition patrol from bunkers near the village of Kakrak in a six-hour battle Tuesday night, the coalition said.

Coalition artillery and air support bombarded Taliban positions, killing more than 65 insurgents, it said.

Three civilians were wounded in the crossfire, it said. No Afghan or coalition forces were hurt.

No doubt the big story will be the three civilians injured, not the 165 savages put on ice.

Militant Pakis Behead "U.S. Spies"

The religion of peace continues the savagery.

Why can't we have dialogue?

These are the same kind of people this nitwit wants to negotiate with.

Militants behead "U.S. spies" in Pakistan

Pro-Taliban militants have shot dead two men for allegedly spying for the United States in Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region.

The militants slit the throat of 35-year-old Badshah Wazir and put him in a coffin near the village of Edik, while the bullet-riddled body of Maulvi Shamsuddin, 45, was found dumped in a desolate place in the Miran Shah area, an official said Wednesday on condition of anonymity.

The words "He was a top hypocrite and met the fate of hypocrites" were written on the coffin, while a note attached to Shamsuddin's body said: "This is the result of working for Americans," the official noted.

North Waziristan has been considered by US officials as the new international headquarters for Osama bin Laden's resurgent al-Qaeda network, allied with local pro-Taliban militants.

Reuters notes the beheading in the restive tribal region.

MIRANSHAH, Pakistan (Reuters) - Pro-Taliban militants beheaded two men in Pakistan's restive tribal region on the Afghan border on suspicions they were spying for U.S. forces in Afghanistan, intelligence officials said on Wednesday.

The decapitated bodies of an Afghan refugee and a Pakistan tribesman were found dumped by the road near Miranshah, the main town of the North Waziristan region.

Hand-written notes were lying near both bodies, saying they were killed because they were "U.S. spies".

"Those spying for the Americans will have a similar fate," ones of the notes said.

Such lovely people.

Polish Body Politic

All I know is they look much more appealing than a dragon lady in an ill-fitting pantsuit.

Women's Party Bares All on Election Poster

The Polish Women's Party is looking to attract votes with a poster featuring seven naked candidates. "We are beautiful, nude, proud," says the party's founder.

A bit of nudity is a surefire attention-getter in conservative Poland. A recent magazine cover featuring a Photoshopped image of German Chancellor Angela Merkel breastfeeding the Kaczynski twins caused a furor. Now a new women's political party is raising eyebrows in the Catholic country with an election poster featuring the body politic in all its glory.

Seven Women's Party candidates for the upcoming Oct. 21 parliamentary election appear on the poster, completely naked but with their private parts hidden by a sign featuring the slogan "Everything for the future ... and nothing to hide."

"This poster is intended to shatter stereotypes in the anachronistic world of politics, which is more often dominated by uncommunicative men with their black tie outfits," the party's founder, novelist Manuela Gretkowska, told the news agency AFP. "We are beautiful, nude, proud," said Gretkowska, who herself appears on the poster. "This is not pornography, there is nothing to see in terms of sex. Our faces are intelligent, concerned, proud."

Bikini Battalion

A morning eye-opener.

Bikini battalion sets a record

It happened on Bondi Beach today and it set a Guinness world record.

A total of 1010 women in bikinis lined up to pose for a photographer.

And, as stunts go, it was a record breaker.

Sadly, I was unable to attend.

Palestinian Cave Dwellers

They really are cavemen. A modern stone-age family.

But the evil Jooos want to occupy that cave.

Oh, the horrors.

AL-MUFAQARA, West Bank (AFP) - Mahmud Hamamda still lives in the cave his grandfather chiselled out of a rocky hillside in the remote hills of the southern West Bank more than 100 years ago.

But above ground Jewish settlements now huddle on nearby hills, his grazing land has become a special military zone, and Hamamda, a poor shepherd, has had to defy the Israeli occupation so he can remain in his underground home.

His nine children -- who grew up watching television wired to an outdoor generator -- say that given the chance they would prefer to leave the dark and humid cavern and live in real houses.

"It's a new generation, they have a different way of thinking. They want to get married and have a better life," Hamamda's wife Rasmia says.

"But the land is all we have, and if we move the Israelis will take it from us. This is what they want."

The Hamamdas do not know when exactly their forebears moved into the caves, but Mahmud says his grandfather dug out the first of the 25 caves sometime around the turn of the last century. Today they house more than 150 people.

It's a wonderful life.

Convicted Terror Lawyer to Teach Ethics Class

The only surprise here is Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wasn't offered the position first. Actually, maybe he was.

Hofstra University has much to answer for and I suspect they'll be facing some heat today.

Stop the ACLU has details.

More here.

A disbarred lawyer convicted of aiding terrorists will be teaching at an upcoming law school ethics conference.

Lynne Stewart, who was found guilty of conspiring with terrorist Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, will be speaking October 16 at Hofstra Law School�s "Legal Ethics: Lawyering on the Edge," in Hempstead, New York.

The speaking engagement comes only a year after Stewart was sentenced to twenty-eight months in prison on charges of conspiracy and providing material support to terrorists.

Prosecutors alleged that Stewart had passed on messages to Abdel Rahman's radical Muslim followers, authorizing a resumption of terrorist operations against the Egyptian government.

Disgusting.

More from Michelle Malkin, Ace of Spades, LGF, American Pundit.

UK Defense Secretary: Taleban Needed for Afghan Peace

I guess the notion of eliminating these creatures might endanger peace.

It's mushy thinking like this that will put the lights out in Great Britain. Probably sooner than we thought.

Taleban 'needed for Afghan peace'

The Taleban "will need to be involved" at some stage with a peace process in Afghanistan, UK Defence Secretary Des Browne has said.

At a fringe meeting at the Labour Party conference, he said a solution would have to be "Islamic based".

Mr Browne said Taleban involvement would happen "because they are not going away" any more than Hamas was from the Palestinian territories.

He said the UK needed to see through "commitments" in Afghanistan and Iraq.

'Progressive' agenda

There are more than 7,500 British troops fighting the Taleban in Afghanistan, and about 5,500 soldiers in Iraq.

Mr Browne told delegates at the meeting hosted by the IPPR think-tank: "These are challenges we should not take on if we are not prepared to see them through and some of them are commitments for decades, some of them may be commitments for generations."

However, he stressed the commitment would not necessarily be military.

The defence secretary also said Labour needed a "progressive agenda" on defence.

Just surrender now and get it over with.

Iran Universities Denounce Bollinger

You have to love the spin from the state-controlled Iranian media, seeming parroting nutroots blather.

Iranian universities, MPs denounce Columbia U. president

TEHRAN -- Columbia University President Lee Bollinger’s insult to Iranian President Mahmud Ahmadinejad seriously lowered the status of the university, MP Kazem Jalali said here on Tuesday.

Talking to reporters on the sidelines of a Majlis session, Jalali said Bollinger was goaded on by the Zionists and the U.S. neoconservatives.

Ahmadinejad delivered a speech on Monday at New York’s Columbia University.

The school’s president used disrespectful epithets in his introduction of the Iranian president.

Ahmadinejad responded by saying that Bollinger’s remarks were an insult to the intelligence of the audience, adding that that he had fallen under the influence of hostile elements in the U.S. press and political scene.

I get the sense we may be seeing some riots soon. Probably Friday.

Meanwhile, the presidents of six leading Iranian universities wrote a letter to Bollinger, criticizing him for insulting the Iranian president.

“Your insult to the president of a country with a population of 72 million and 7000 years of civilization and culture in an academic milieu is shameful,” the letter said.

“Although it seems that you uttered those sentences, which were filled with hostile sentiments, under strong pressure from the media, what is regretful and surprising is the fact that the media’s owners and policymakers (were allowed to) determine the contents of the (introductory) speech of the president of a prestigious university.”

Here's a few questions they have for Bollinger. I wonder where I've heard this stuff before?

Why has the U.S. been unable to locate Osama bin Laden, despite all its sophisticated equipment?

What do you have to say about the longstanding friendship between the Bush family and the Bin Laden family and their cooperation in the oil industry?

What do you think about Bush’s efforts to undermine the 9/11 investigation?

Al-Qaida Targeting European Recruits

It makes perfect sense, obviously, when your borders are so vulnerable and entry to the country so easy to gain. And why not, since it's already happening.

Al-Qaida Taps Europe for New Recruits

WASHINGTON (AP) — Al-Qaida continues to recruit Europeans for explosives training in Pakistan because Europeans can more easily enter the United States without a visa, the nation's top intelligence officer said Tuesday.

Director of National Intelligence Mike McConnell said European al-Qaida recruits in the border region of Pakistan are being trained to use commercially available substances to make explosives, and they may be able to carry out an attack on U.S. territory.

McConnell also said he worried that Osama bin Laden's recent video and audio releases may be a signal to terrorist cells to carry out operations, he told the Senate Judiciary Committee.

"That's unusual. He had been absent from airwaves over the last year. Our concern is that's a signal," McConnell said. "It just causes us to be concerned and vigilant."

Europeans are being recruited specifically because they generally do not need visas to enter the United States, he said.

"Purposely recruiting an operative from Europe gives them an extra edge into getting an operative, or two or three, into the country with the ability to carry out an attack that might be reminiscent of 9/11," he said.

Doing a search of "al-Qaida European," I came across this chilling warning from August 11, 1998, one obviously that wasn't taken seriously. And it serves as a stark reminder how long we've been dealing with this monster bin Laden and how it was all going on well before 9/11.

One name keeps popping up as investigators search for suspects in the two African embassy bombings -- Osama bin Laden, the terrorist financier who has vowed to wage a "jihad" on U.S. forces in the land of Islam's holiest shrines. No evidence yet has officially linked bin Laden with the car bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, or two previous attacks on Americans in Saudi Arabia to which he has been linked by Washington.

But the U.S. State Department has identified bin Laden, born to a wealthy Saudi family but stripped of his citizenship and exiled first in Yemen, then Sudan and now Afghanistan, as a major sponsor of Islamic militants. Counterterrorism experts in Washington said after Friday's explosions in Kenya and Tanzania that bin Laden topped the list of suspects.

OK, we clearly know his history now, but still aren't getting the message.

Osama bin Laden has the resources to hit anywhere that has open borders. And he will strike again.

If you believe that I am the only one thinking like this ... reconsider. On Monday, a diplomat questioned Secretary of State Albright at meeting that was attended by 800 State Department personnel. The diplomat asked whether the United States sets such a heavy standard of evidence -- that which could hold up in a court of law -- that punishment of terrorists is unlikely. Despite tough statements by successive U.S. presidents and other officials, investigations into most of the 13 terrorist attacks against American facilities overseas since 1983 have produced no arrests or convictions.

Albright could only weakly acknowledge that catching "terrorists" was extremely difficult because they could easily be hidden. While she insisted U.S. law enforcement agencies were working hard on the unresolved cases, she gave the usual line of: "we need to redouble our efforts" and more international cooperation was needed.

Albright, at the meeting, also stood firm against summary justice, stressing: "We are not a nation that retaliates just in order to get vengeance or ... forgets our own legal system while searching for those who have harmed us."

Great. She and Sandy Berger served their nation well.

So did her boss.

Some might ask, how do we find bin Laden? Well, if ABC News and CNN can find him, we should all hope that the massive United States intelligence apparatus, with some help from its allies, could easily find him. After his location is found, you can use your own imagination about how we believe the Navy Seals, Army Rangers or Delta Force should resolve the problem.

For me, the only thing that is "beyond a shadow of a doubt" is that more innocent people will die in the future unless the U.S. stands up and acts soon. The question is: does Bill Clinton and the U.S. government have the political and ideological will to act and save those lives?

Supremes to Decide Photo ID Law; "May Deter Democrats From Voting"

It figures any move to legally show your true identity at the ballot box would have the Democrats up in arms.

They claim to want clean elections, so why should something so innocuous as a valid photo identification have them fretting?

Court to decide photo ID voting law

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Supreme Court said on Tuesday it would decide whether voters can be required to show photo identification, a move that can limit participation of the elderly and poor in elections.

The justices, acting ahead of next year's national elections, said they would review Indiana's voting law, which is considered one of the most restrictive in the country. It requires voters to present photo ID like a driver's license or passport.

Now how exactly that's restrictive, they don't explain.

Democrats spend untold millions with their annual voter registration drives, how about taking the time between now and next November helping issue photo IDs?

Or are they afraid all those mysterious votes them seem to conjure up in certain precincts might suddenly disappear?

The 2005 law has been challenged by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union and the Indiana Democratic Party, who charge it unfairly limits the right to vote, especially affecting the elderly, poor, disabled or homeless.

Opponents of the law said those people often can't afford the costs of obtaining identification documents or have trouble negotiating the bureaucracy involved in applying for them.

Well, cry me a river. If you're too lazy or incompetent to get a photo ID, then it's your problem that you may not be eligible to vote.

As if it weren't obvious enough such a law will affect Democrats most, this subhead should remove all doubt.

MAY DETER DEMOCRATS FROM VOTING

A U.S. appeals court upheld the law, acknowledging it would discourage some people from voting and was more likely to deter Democratic voters than Republicans.

Is that because maybe Democrats are more prone to voter fraud?

State Solicitor General Thomas Fisher said granting Supreme Court review of the issue now would likely prompt a spate of lawsuits across the nation that would disrupt the 2008 presidential primaries and create new uncertainty over the validity of all voter identification requirements.

He said the justices should wait for another case after the 2008 elections.

But the Supreme Court rejected that recommendation. It is expected to hear arguments in the case early next year, with a decision due by the end of June.

Fair enough. That will give these hapless Democrats more than four months to get off their asses and get a valid photo identification.

Journalistic Trainwreck in Oklahoma

The recent flap in Oklahoma between football coach Mike Gundy and Oklahoma reporter Jeni Carlson is a perfect example of what is wrong with journalism today. For those unfamiliar with the story Carlson wrote an article about the benching of OSU QB Bobby Reid.

In the article, Carlson questioned Reid's heart and toughness, citing as an example that he ate a sandwich with his mother by the team bus. She also questioned whether or not he was seriously injured enough to sit out certain games, again questioning Reid's heart.

Coach Gundy responded in the above video.

So today Carlson responds with a column defending her original article and saying that she stands by her original story and sources, and pointing fingers at Gundy for not pointing out where she was wrong about the injuries.

But there is one big problem with this defense by Carlson, and if she were a competent journalist, she would know it.

First, a careful reading of her original article shows that she cited no sources. Cute.

Second, if Carlson were a competent reporter, she would know that HIPPA laws make the injury information mostly confidential, so the coaches can not talk about it a whole lot anymore. Regardless, she goes after the coach in her column for not pointing out where she is wrong about the injuries.

Again, very cute.

So what we have here, is a reporter hiding behind unidentified sources to do a slam job on a 21-year-old amateur athlete, claiming he jaked it with injuries and all based upon the fact that the QB had a sandwich with his mother.

Well Ms. Carlson, my own mother died 19 years ago and I wish every day that I could still have a sandwich with her for just a few minutes. How dare you question this young man's heart for spending a few minutes with his mother while he still has the chance in life to do so. He has much more heart than you will certainly ever show.

You, Ms. Carlson, are nothing but a sleazy cheap shot artist and a good example of what is wrong with journalism today.

More at Hot Air.

Kos Kid Projecting: "Ahmadinejad would be an ideal Republican congressman"

How pathetic is this? For days now the Kos Kids have been smitten with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and maybe it's occuring to them they look really stupid, especially since the hairy munchkin basically spouts Democrat talking points everywhere he goes.

So what's the new strategery? Compare him with Republicans.

Weak.

I live in the most Republican congressional district east of the Mississippi River -- the Alabama Sixth District. We haven't had a Democrat run for this seat since 2000 and we are unlikely to have one in 2008 either.

In fact, the only time the election here got interesting was when Roy Moore's lawyer ran against incumbent Rep. Spencer Bachus for the GOP nomination because he though Bachus was too liberal.

If Bachus is too liberal for some of my neighbors, then I have just the man for them -- Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. He'd be the perfect Republican congressman.

1. Not only is he anti-gay, he is in total denial of the existence of gays. This is a huge step forward in Republican thought, which until now simply tried to assert that gays can be cured with intensive religious therapy. How much easier would it be to simply deny they exist? Poof!

2. He likes to build big-ass weapons, make threatening statements about other countries and tell the world community to fuck off. Sound like anyone else you know? Don't be surprised if he buys a ranch with a lot of brush in need of clearing to position himself for a future career in Texas politics.

3. He has fiddled while the economy of his country heads for collapse. His jobs record is even worse than Bush's. With a record like that he's GOP leadership material.

4. He tries to use 9/11 and the WTC site for political purposes. Can't you just see the TV campaign ads of Congressman Ahmadinejad laying a wreath at Ground Zero?

5. He believes that the end times are near. No need to worry about global warming if the whole planet is about to be fried by the wrath of God.

6. He is the ultimate family values guy -- they even stone adulterers in Iran.

It get's uglier, if you can believe it.

Ron Paul Girl

Keeping up with the low-rent Ron Paul standards we've come to know and love.

She's no Obama Girl.

Baboons Terrorizing South Africa

Via Breitbart.tv

No truth to the rumor they have Kos Kid diaries.

Though they do bear an eerie resemblance to this chap.

EU Starting to Fragment

I've always said that the European Union will fall apart. Don't believe me? Take a good look at this.

ECB attacks France over finances

European Central Bank chief Jean-Claude Trichet has attacked France for being Europe's "number one spender".

Mr Trichet warned that in comparison to its GDP, the country was well on the way to spending much more than its European neighbours during 2007.

The warning came as Prime Minister Francois Fillon warned that France's finances were in a "critical" state.

So how bad are things in France? Well, they have 8.7% unemployment and the debt is 64.7% of their GDP as of 2006. Of course, some in France are blaming the European Central Bank for their troubles and are looking to break away from the EU in response.

Euro Threatened with 2007 Meltdown, as French Economy Slumps

French Premier Dominique de Villepin even called for limits on the power of the ECB, espousing the need to reassert national control over the economy.

"We must clarify matters in exchange rate policy, which means taking back our sovereignty," he said. A clause in the EU's Maastricht Treaty (111-4) could allow them to do exactly that. The "get-out" clause allows EU states to set their own interest rates, effectively stripping the ECB of independent control."

"Derek Scott, Tony Blair's former economic adviser, clearly believes the British view has been vindicated. Describing the euro system as " unworkable" he said, "The ECB faces an impossible task because there is no such thing as euroland: there are groups of countries going different ways."

He noted that while "Germany had clawed back competitiveness by squeezing its economy . . . Italy, France, Spain and others have been enjoying property booms. Boom goes bust," he said. "In the end, the ECB may have to respond to the needs of the weakest economies, or monetary union will fall apart."

Yep. And constantly having to address those weaker economies will wear the EU out.

It's just a matter of when.

Kurtz Moves On With Kos Kid Talking Points

Howard Kurtz asks whether it's time to "Move On" from the wholly discredited New York Times/MoveOn.org fiasco and has snippets from a couple of conservative bloggers such as Michelle malkin and Roger L. Simon.

Then it all goes downhill as he includes ridiculous screeds from nutroots hacks such at Americablog and Daily Kos and even quotes from The New Republic.

Now there's a credible source.

Memo to Howie: If you'd like to "move on" from this mess, use more reliable sources, so to speak.

Not that there are many left in the nut-o-sphere.

Another Teacher Murdered by Islamists in Thailand

The religion of peace strikes again. Of course, it's down in the restive south.

Suspected separatist insurgents shot and killed a Buddhist teacher on Tuesday in Thailand's restive Muslim far south, police said.

Somchoke Chitkongsat, 59, a teacher at a government-run secondary school was shot while waiting for a bus to school in Yala provincial township, said police Lt. Veerakij Kaewnuanjing.

Somchoke teaches in nearby Pattani province but lived in Yala, which is 780 kilometers (480 miles) south of Bangkok, and traveled by bus to work everyday.

"Police believe that the insurgents knew that he waited for the bus at that point every morning, and shot him today," Veerakij said.

Witnesses told police that the gunman arrived on the back of motorcycle and shot Somchoke at close range, then sped away, Veerakij said.

More than 2,400 people have been killed in Thailand's Muslim-majority southernmost provinces of Yala, Pattani and Narathiwat, and the southern part of nearby Songkhla, since a long-simmering Islamic separatist insurgency flared up in January 2004

More at Jihad Watch.

The Iran-al Qaeda Connection

The second anyone mentions al Qaeda and Iran in the same breath, you're shouted down that Iran has nothing to do with 9/11, which may not be the case. Still, it doesn't mean the state sponsor of terror is not working with them, not does it negate the fact that a number of the 9/11 hijackers just happened to find their way through Iran pre-9/11.

What's disturbing is why President Bush won't note any of this when he speaks at the UN today.

Douglas Farah outlines the connection here.

The Bush administration squandered the opportunity to make the point that this is not a free speech issue as Ahmadinejad claims, but a terrorism-related issue. Iran is harboring senior al Qaeda leaders, has trained with al Qaeda and maintains at best an ambiguous relationship with al Qaeda in Iraq.

And, while I am a strong advocate of freedom of expression here and abroad, would it not be an interesting experiment to let demagogues like Ahmadinejad and others speak to university groups here on the condition that they allow a reciprocal speech on one of their country’s premier university campuses?

It need not be a U.S. official, but perhaps a dissident, a Nobel laureate, or any number of options, but force the closed societies to give something in exchange for their willingness to use the freedoms offered here.

The evidence of Iran’s support for al Qaeda, lacking in the Iraq case, is clear in public testimony from al Qaeda defectors long before 9-11 as well as testimony of Iranian officials in European court cases and intelligence dossiers both in the United States and Europe.

The collaboration is also amply noted by the 9/11 Commission, which found that eight to 10 of the hijackers traveled to Iran in the year before 9/11. That speaks to how safe the al Qaeda operatives felt moving there as they planned their spectacular attacks, when no any security breach would have been lethal.

This is not to argue in favor of military action against Iran, only to point out that, as many in the U.S. intelligence community said before the misadventures in Iraq, the real danger to the United States and the stability of the Middle East was Iran, not Iraq.

Also at Counterterrorism Blog.

Coming to Their Senses, Germans Drop CIA "Kidnap" Case

No doubt the left will have a cow over this story once they're finished celebrating Little Mahmoud's sticking it to the man at the UN.

Germany Drops Pursuit of CIA Kidnappers

The German government has said it will not pursue extradition requests for 13 CIA agents charged with kidnapping a German citizen and taking him to Afghanistan for interrogation and abuse. Relations with the US government, Berlin says, are more important.

That, and not exactly having a credible witness.

For a moment earlier this year, it seemed as though Germany might turn international relations on their head. A Munich court in January issued arrest warrants (more...) for 13 CIA agents allegedly responsible for kidnapping a German citizen. The agents are accused of flying him to Afghanistan for interrogation before dumping him on the side of an Albanian road in May 2004 after they realized they had abducted the wrong man.

Now, though, in the face of US intransigence, Germany has backed down. SPIEGEL has discovered that, in order to avoid a conflict with Washington, Berlin has decided to forgo forwarding a formal request that the agents be arrested. Germany's Justice Ministry sent out a feeler in late August to determine how Washington might react to such a request. The answer was clear: Washington is fundamentally unprepared (more...) to move against the agents.

Shocking, isn't it, the U.S. would be hesitant to act against their own interest just to placate far-left activists?

Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, was abducted in December 2003 in Macedonia and taken to a prison in Kabul where he was abused. El-Masri has said he was beaten and sodomized by his captors. He was released five months later and claims his captors admitted it was a case of mistaken identity. The US has never owned up to the error, but Merkel has said that US officials acknowledged to her that they had taken el-Masri by mistake.

What a fine, upstanding citizen this fellow is.

The 43-year-old el-Masri has suffered from psychological instability since his return to Germany in 2004; his lawyer Manfred Gnjidic described him as a "psychological wreck" earlier this year. In May, el-Masri was arrested (more...) for attempting to set a supermarket on fire following an argument over a defective MP3 player el-Masri had purchased at the store.

Herbert: Republicans "Anti-Black"

Racially obsessed New York Times "columnist" Bob Herbert babbles incoherently today about the GOP being "anti-black," while conveniently overlooking the fact that more than 40 years of fealty to the Democrat Party hasn't exactly worked wonders for the people he purportedly represents.

Of course, this is the type of nonsense we've come to expect from Herbert and the New York Times, but now that he's no longer hidden behind the New York Times Select wall, even more people can now be exposed to his ugly bigotry.

The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came remarkably close to realizing a goal they have sought for decades — a voting member of Congress to represent them.

A majority in Congress favored the move, and the House had already approved it. But the Republican minority in the Senate — with the enthusiastic support of President Bush — rose up on Tuesday and said: “No way, baby.”

At least 57 senators favored the bill, a solid majority. But the Republicans prevented a key motion on the measure from receiving the 60 votes necessary to move it forward in the Senate. The bill died.

At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.

The radio and television personality Tavis Smiley worked for a year to have a pair of these debates televised on PBS, one for the Democratic candidates and the other for the Republicans. The Democratic debate was held in June, and all the major candidates participated.

The Republican debate is scheduled for Thursday. But Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson have all told Mr. Smiley: “No way, baby.”

They won’t be there. They can’t be bothered debating issues that might be of interest to black Americans. After all, they’re Republicans.

This is the party of the Southern strategy — the party that ran, like panting dogs, after the votes of segregationist whites who were repelled by the very idea of giving equal treatment to blacks. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. (Willie Horton) Bush, George W. (Compassionate Conservative) Bush — they all ran with that lousy pack.

Of course the fact Southern segregationists were Democrats, including Al Gore Sr. and Robert Byrd, is an inconvenient truth Hebert doesn't bother to mention. He continues with bizarre rants about Ronald Reagan and Lee Atwater, a man who's been dead for many years.

Nothing like besmirching a man who can't defend himself.

Herbert also perpetuates the myth that the elder George Bush invented the Wille Horton issue, when it was actually the son of segregationist Al Gore Sr.

But why bother with the facts when you have a racist spiel to deliver?

He ends with this gem, wholly unsubstantiated by any facts.

Republicans improperly threw black voters off the rolls in Florida in the contested presidential election of 2000, and sent Florida state troopers into the homes of black voters to intimidate them in 2004.

Some supporting evidence would be nice.

We know the Democrats disenfranchised military votes in Florida in 2000, but I guess that's OK since most of them likely voted for George W. Bush, evil racist.

It's not just giving MoveOn.org whopping discounts for slanderous ads that is driving their stock value to new lows.

It's garbage like this delievered by their esteemed "columnists" that has people fleeing the alleged paper of record.

UPDATE: Gateway Pundit smacks down this racist bilge.