Courage In The Face Of Adversity

Yesterday, Charles over at Little Green Footballs focused attention on the mayor of Brussels, Belgium, who has cancelled a 9/11 memorial march because You Know Who might be offended.

From Flanders News:

It is feared that conflict would arise between the protesters and members of the capital's large Muslim community if the planned demonstration were allowed to go ahead.

Mr Thielemans told journalists that "there could be a counter-demonstration. I'm not prepared to allow something to take place that could bring chaos to the streets".

Mr Thielemans says that he receives between five and six hundred requests for demonstrations each year and has only banned about half a dozen demonstrations since becoming Mayor at the beginning of 2001.

The organisers claim that Mr Thielemans' reasons for banning the demonstration prove their point.

They add that the demonstration will be held and that Mr Thielemans "is not fully aware of his responsibility, for as a mayor at EU's capital you cannot simply forbid ordinary European citizens from expressing their constitutional freedoms."

Three organisations are behind the planned demonstration; the Danish anti-Islam party SAID, the British group No Sharia Here and the German organisation Pax Europa.

Stop the Islamisation of Europe announced on Friday afternoon that it is [to] mount a legal challenge to get the ban lifted.

In response to this nitwittery, Stop the Islamisation of Europe, proponents of the march, has also launched an online petition drive.

Someone was even so kind as to provide the email addys of the governor of Brussels, Mme. Veronique Paulus de Chalet and the mayor of Brussels, M. Freddy Thielemans.

I wonder if Mayor Numbnuts would have the courage of his convictions to ban a march that would feature slogans such as, Jews Out Of Palestine, What Holocaust?, Death To Israel And The Great Satan, Ahmadinejad Is Right, or Submit Or Die?

For some reason, I doubt it.

Wouldn't want to offend anybody, you know.

Ron Paul Kooks Hitch a Ride With Mitt

No good deed goes unpunished. In an effort at getting out some votes, GOP hopeful Mitt Romney is providing free transportation for potential voters.

But leave it to Ron Paul and his band of blithering idiots to sneak onboard.

Ron Paul’s Camp May Catch Romney’s Bus

Ron Paul’s supporters are actively encouraging Iowa voters to take advantage of Mitt Romney’s offers of free transportation to the Iowa Straw Poll in Ames on Saturday and then, once they are there, to vote for Mr. Paul.

“Some say if Mitt is willing to bus Iowans to Ames for the straw poll, they should take him up on his offer!” says a flier in Iowa and on the Internet in advance of the straw poll for the Republican presidential candidates. The flier says that after riding the Romney bus to Ames, and allowing the Romney campaign to pay one’s $35 entry fee, Iowans should then carefully weigh their options and “they may decide to vote for Ron Paul.”

The flier is topped with a banner that says “2008 Ron Paul News,” but Jesse Benton, a campaign spokesman, said it was the handiwork of independent supporters over whom the campaign had no control. “We can’t tell our supporters what to do or not do,” Mr. Benton said, adding that the campaign did not want to get “entangled” with federal finance regulations involving potential in-kind contributions.

But he conceded that infiltrating the Romney bus could certainly help Mr. Paul. It is his first visible attempt at converting his popularity online into success offline, which, alas, is where it counts.

Mr. Paul, a relatively obscure Congressman from Texas who caught fire online after appearing on the televised presidential debates, has only just started campaigning in Iowa. Mr. Benton said the fact that Mr. Paul was a full-time member of Congress prevented him from campaigning in Iowa sooner, although other candidates have been swarming over the state for months.

Seeing how this odd straw poll is vulnerable to who can pretty much buy votes, it opens the door for all sorts of mischief.

The Paul campaign has bought the minimum of 800 tickets to give to Iowans to vote. Other campaigns have bought thousands. Simple math would suggest that to do passably well, the Paul campaign is relying on Iowans who buy tickets from other candidates to vote for Mr. Paul. The suggestion that Paul supporters catch Romney buses and vote for Mr. Paul is being widely debated on the Internet; some see it as smart while others see it as dishonest.

Mr. Benton would not speculate where Mr. Paul might finish, but said he expected most of the candidates to receive between 1,500 and 3,000 votes. “If we can be somewhere in the middle of that pack, that would be a big success for us,” he said. “Our goal is to prove that we can translate our online support into bodies in Ames and prove we can run with the pack. We feel we have a lot of room to grow, while other campaigns might have reached their peak.”

Keep dreaming.

Still, no matter where he finishes, the wild-eyed Paul acolytes will claim it a success, and they'll still flood online polls as a mean of showing how "deep" his support is.

Maybe They Should Try Worms

Maybe it's some cultural differences, but whenever I go fishing, we usually use worms.

Two killed in fish bomb blast

An explosion in a house apparently being used to manufacture bombs for fishing killed two people and wounded four others in central Indonesia, police said.

The blast in a housing complex in Pasuruan town on Java island destroyed one house, badly damaged several others and tore the head off one of the victims, witnesses said.

One of the dead was a 65-year-old woman, local media reports said.

East Java Police chief Herman Sumawireja told Metro TV it appeared likely the house in the coastal town was being used to manufacture bombs for fishing, a common practice in the area.

He said police were hunting a relative of the owner of the house who was involved in the manufacture of the devices, often constructed from gunpowder salvaged from old bullets and mortar shells.

"We are not directing our investigation to terrorism, not at the moment," he said, adding that the owner of the house was being questioned.

Almontaser Still on NYC DOE Payroll

While former Khalil Gibran International Academy principal Debbie Almontaser resigned Friday, it's disturbing to see she's still on the payroll of the Department of Education. Of course, city officials are probably worried that the stormtroopers from CAIR would probably file some nuisance lawsuits.

Compounding the problem is the feckless Mayor Michael Bloomberg making nice-nice with this woman, who shouldn't be anywhere near a school.

INTIF-ADIOS TO SCHOOL CHIEF

The principal of a controversial city-funded Arab-themed school abruptly resigned yesterday after she ignited a firestorm by saying there was nothing wrong with T-shirts that said "Intifada NYC."

Pressure for Debbie Almontaser's ouster had mounted all week since her tortured explanation that "intifada" was a message of empowerment. The inflammatory statement was about Arab women in New York City "shaking off oppression" and not supporting the Palestinian uprising that killed thousands, she said.

Those remarks, first reported in The Post on Monday, focused renewed attention on her mission to create a dual-language Arabic school for grades 6 through 12. Critics say Khalil Gibran International Academy, which would be located in Boerum Hill, Brooklyn, will isolate Muslim students.

"I think she felt that she has become the focus of, rather than having the school focus, and so today she submitted her resignation, which is nice of her to do and I appreciate her service," Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday on his radio show.

Almontaser will remain on the Department of Education payroll and be reassigned to a position not connected with the academy.

"I became convinced yesterday that this week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized," Almontaser said in a statement. "I will not allow the recent outcry to undermine these possibilities for the children of our city."

She was to make $120,197 as principal.

The Department of Education said it remains committed to opening the school, and is searching for a new principal.

Numerous elected officials, citizens and advocacy groups said Almontaser's comments, made in a city already in the cross hairs of Islamic terrorists, raised doubts that she could handle the sensitivity of managing an Arab-themed school.

Maybe if she lit up a cigarette or served some food with trans-fats, then Bloomberg would spring into action.

Despite Almontaser's years of experience working in media and as a spokeswoman for the Arab community, Bloomberg said she simply misspoke about the tees.

"She's certainly not a terrorist. She really does care . . . She's not all that media savvy, maybe, and she tried to explain a word rather than just condemn," he said.

Yes, he's presidential material. He'd fit right in with the painfully pandering Democrats any day of the week.

Meanwhile, the Post editorial smacks School's Chancellor Joel Klein upside the head.

JIHAD'YA LATER

First the good news: Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser yesterday quit as principal-designate of the city's new Arabic-themed public school - though not without blaming her resignation mostly on The Post (not by name, of course).

But here's the bad news: The Department of Education says it still plans to open the Khalil Gibran International Academy. And Almontaser herself will remain on the DOE payroll in an undetermined role.

After she defended the sale of T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan "Intifada NYC," and then issued a quasi-apology that only made things worse, it was inevitable that Almontaser would have to step down as head of the Arabic academy she'd first proposed.

Her words had brought a sharp rebuke from, among others, teachers-union head Randi Weingarten (until then a strong supporter of the Gibran school), who said, "Parents and teachers have a right to be concerned" about a school run by someone who didn't seem to understand the difference between "peace and war-mongering."

Chancellor Joel Klein's office refuses to release Almontaser's resignation letter. (Why not? Did she write something that would embarrass the department even further?)

But it did issue a statement attributed to Almontaser in which she complained, "This week's headlines were endangering the viability of Khalil Gibran International Academy, even though I apologized."

That is, she's blaming the media - in this case, Post reporters Chuck Bennett and Jana Winter and this page - for reporting and commenting on her foolishness.

I doubt this is the last we'll hear from Almontaser, and if she continues down this radical path, the city will have some explaining to do as to why she's still on the payroll.

Elsewhere, the New York Sun reports there are increased calls for this school to be shut down entirely, which I wholeheartedly concur with.

"I hope that this is the beginning of the end for this entire project," a Democrat who represents Boro Park in New York's state Assembly, Dov Hikind, told The New York Sun Friday. "If this woman, who I hear is a nice woman, if she couldn't get this right, then I think the whole concept just doesn't work."

The Department of Education had backed Ms. Almontaser after her statements about the "Intifada" T-shirts, saying it accepted her quick apology, in which she said she regretted "minimizing the word's historical associations." But after the president of the teachers union, Randi Weingarten, issued a condemnation of Ms. Almontaser, the schools chancellor, Joel Klein, said he admired her decision to resign, saying the "controversy about her remarks threatened to destabilize the school."

Must everyone qualify their remarks by noting "how nice" Almontaser is? This pandering political correctness is simply nauseating.

Previously: "Intifada NYC Principal Resigns.

UPDATE: Reader NY Nana notes the NY Times has finally discovered the story after ignoring it all week.

Head of City’s Arabic School Steps Down Under Pressure.

So nice for the "paper of record" to catch up with the New York Post, New York Sun and the blogs after six days.

The More Things Change . . . .

Sixty-two years after the defeat of Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism remains alive and well in many parts of Europe. Defaced, toppled or broken headstones in France, Belgium, Poland or the Czech Republic. Or, the defacing of Berlin's Holocaust Memorial the same week it opened, societal losers continue to demonstrate their bravery through the perpetration of such acts.

Unbeknownst to these genii, they also demonstrate exactly who the untermenschen really are.

Is Anti-Semitism in Europe on the Rise?
A sober show in Berlin offers an introductory treatment -- if not a thorough examination -- of rising anti-Semitism in Europe and the Middle East since September 11.

When an exhibition on contemporary anti-Semitism opened this month at the Foreign Office in Berlin, Deputy Foreign Minister Gernot Erler said it was "appropriate" that the topic wasn't squirreled away in a historical museum but on display in the bright atrium of a German ministry.

"Anti-Semitism has sadly not been left where it belongs, in the poison cabinet reserved for the pathogens of hard-to-cure diseases of the past," he said. "Unfortunately it is a phenomenon of today's Europe which our foreign policy has to confront as well."

The exhibit, called "Anti-Semitism? Anti-Zionism? Criticism of Israel?" is a series of anti-Jewish posters and cartoons from Europe and the Middle East. It covers manifestations of anti-Semitism in the era of September 11, the second intifada, and the Iraq war -- from left-wing groups in Europe calling for boycotts of Israel to white supremacist bands and soccer hooligans behaving badly on the distant right.

"We have to uncover the roots of anti-Semitism," said Wolfgang Benz, director of Berlin's Center for Anti-Semitism Research, in an interview with the German daily Die Welt. (The Center organized the exhibition along with Jerusalem-based Yad Vashem, Israel's official Holocaust memorial.) "Above all we have to show that behind all forms of Jew-hatred there's some sort of instrumentalization: Jews are made responsible for grievances which they had nothing to do with."

The exhibition shows ugly examples of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories that surfaced after the September 11 assaults in America and the 2004 tsunami in Indonesia.

Perhaps Kosling Conspiracy Theory No.___ is on display in Berlin?

How appropriate.

There's more. Much more.

Bush Adviser: Consider a Draft

This is a non-starter and I'd expect a clarification before long.

Still, the Democrats will have a cow over this, even though they're usually the ones floating the idea, just to be mischievous.

Bush War Adviser Says Draft Worth a Look

WASHINGTON (AP) - Frequent tours for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan have stressed the all-volunteer force and made it worth considering a return to a military draft, President Bush's new war adviser said Friday.

"I think it makes sense to certainly consider it," Army Lt. Gen. Douglas Lute said in an interview with National Public Radio's "All Things Considered."

"And I can tell you, this has always been an option on the table. But ultimately, this is a policy matter between meeting the demands for the nation's security by one means or another," Lute added in his first interview since he was confirmed by the Senate in June.

President Nixon abolished the draft in 1973. Restoring it, Lute said, would be a "major policy shift" and Bush has made it clear that he doesn't think it's necessary.

The repeated deployments affect not only the troops but their families, who can influence whether a service member decides to stay in the military, Lute said.

"There's both a personal dimension of this, where this kind of stress plays out across dinner tables and in living room conversations within these families," he said. "And ultimately, the health of the all-volunteer force is going to rest on those sorts of personal family decisions."

The military conducted a draft during the Civil War and both world wars and between 1948 and 1973. The Selective Service System, re-established in 1980, maintains a registry of 18-year-old men.

Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., has called for reinstating the draft as a way to end the Iraq war.

Would Fed Rate Cut Be Effective?

With the upset in the financial market, many people are looking to the Federal Reserve to provide a quick fix. I doubt that is likely, let alone possible.

How effective would Fed rate cut be?

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Many financial market participants are clamoring for the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates to provide liquidity to markets, but some veteran Fed watchers question how effective a rate cut would be.

Earlier Friday, the Federal Reserve announced it was providing liquidity "to facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets."

For those not fluent in Fed-speak, that means they will not lower the rates right now, but they will expand the money supply through open market operations. Here's why:

The Fed has long avoided appearing to gear their monetary policy decisions to any particular happenings in the market at the time. To do that is to abdicate the control of monetary policy to the business decisions of others. They are not about to appear to be underwriting some bad loan decisions made by some investment companies. The Fed's main goal is to keep the currency stable and inflation low. So at this time, with inflation low, they will avoid lowering rates if they can.

But at the same time they cannot completely ignore the distress going on in the financial markets. So they will expand the money supply for a bit via open market operations and hope that the markets will settle down.

"Intifada NYC" Principal Resigns

Just breaking, via Hot Air.

I never thought anyone would have the guts to call for her resignation, but I guess once Randi Weingarten came down hard on her the other day, the writing was on the wall.

Now all they need to do is scuttle this school entirely.

Previously: Union Boss Slams "Intifada NYC" Principal

UPDATE: Michelle Malkin has more and Fox has a report. More also from Atlas Shrugs.

Illegals Ponder Leaving USA

Of course, this sob story doesn't call them illegal aliens, but it's not too difficult to figure out that's exactly what they are.

Who knows, maybe the pandering Democrats can set up a debate for illegals only. They've pretty much covered every other special interest group, why not the people they're desperate to give voting privileges to?

Migrants agree: It's harder to get jobs

He has a mother in Honduras who needs money for her medication, rent on a house in Homestead that he struggles to pay, and he has a daughter in South Florida whom he wants to support.

And each day, it seems, it's harder to get a job.

''The money I make means the survival of my family, and the work seems to have disappeared so quickly,'' said González, 42, who spends his days in a parking lot near the Cutler Ridge Home Depot with other day laborers. ``Things have gotten really terrible for immigrants.''

Well, excuse me for being so callous, but how about going back to Honduras to take care of your mother? Are we expected to foot the tab for someone not in this country who meeds medicine?

A new study indicates that González's view is shared by a growing number of migrants from Mexico and Central America. They are finding it harder to get jobs and are living under a dramatically increased sense of siege, according to the report by the Washington-based Inter-American Development Bank and the Bendixen polling firm in Miami.

The study for the first time demonstrates with hard numbers the impact that the immigration debate in Washington is having on America's streets.

More than one-third of Central Americans and 30 percent of Mexicans said their biggest problem in the United States was discrimination, against single-digit responses for similar questions in 2004. And 83 percent of Mexicans and 79 percent of Central Americans said discrimination was on the rise.

Well, cry me a river. Perhaps this perceived "discrimination" is a result of you entering the country illegally.

''What I have found is both ugly and sad,'' pollster Sergio Bendixen said. ``There are millions of Latin American immigrants, especially those living in the deep South and the upper Midwest, whose lives have been made miserable by the anti-immigrant sentiment that is now so prevalent in so many geographic areas.''

Boo-hoo.

How about those whose lives have been made miserable by illegal alien criminals?

Researchers interviewed 900 migrants from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. Just over half of those polled said they were undocumented. More than half of those polled were in the United States for more than 10 years and two of every 10 made less than $20,000 a year. The poll's margin of error is three percentage points.

The poll was conducted in June, at the height of the debate in the U.S. Senate to overhaul immigration laws. A proposal to provide an avenue for many migrants to legalize their status failed amid a backlash from mostly conservatives demanding a crackdown on illegal immigration.

Actually, we were demaning that our laws be enforced and the borders secured. But why confuse us with the facts when we have a puff piece to sell?

Those Mexicans who moved to nontraditional areas in recent years are now feeling the highest heat from anti-immigrant sentiments. Before, 80 percent of those Mexicans used to send money back home, against only 49 percent now.

''They feel unprotected,'' Bendixen said. ``They have nowhere to go for help.''

Um, how about back to where you came from?

Just under half of this ''new states'' group say they will leave the United States in five years, compared with two-thirds of those in the traditional states. Bendixen said previous polls showed only about 15 percent of Latinos planned to return to their home countries.

Both González and Raimundo said they are sick of the constant fear and the crushing days of waiting for work and are among those who are considering heading home.

''If the situation stays this way, not just me but maybe everyone will be leaving,'' Raimundo said.

González is already planning his departure.

''The only thing I'm waiting for is to make some money, because I don't want to go home empty-handed,'' he said. ``With all that's happening, I don't want to be here anymore.''

Can we get that in writing?

In English, of course.

Columnist: We Need Another 9/11

This may well be the dumbest column I've ever seen.The logic, if you can call it that, is we were united immediately after 9/11, so if we're attacked again in such fashion, we'll all come together. This moron also offers up some suggested targets for Al Qaeda.

Stu Bykofsky | To save America, we need another 9/11

What would sew us back together?

Another 9/11 attack.

The Golden Gate Bridge. Mount Rushmore. Chicago's Wrigley Field. The Philadelphia subway system. The U.S. is a target-rich environment for al Qaeda.

Is there any doubt they are planning to hit us again?

If it is to be, then let it be. It will take another attack on the homeland to quell the chattering of chipmunks and to restore America's righteous rage and singular purpose to prevail.

The unity brought by such an attack sadly won't last forever.

The first 9/11 proved that.

What this idiot fails to consider is that if or when we're attacked again, the left will reflexively blame George W. Bush one way or the other, be it accusations that he did it himself or it was a result of the Iraq War. Sure, we were united for a few days after 9/11. Then the conspiracy theorists on the left spawned a cottage industry with their cockamamie notions that the destruction of the World Trade Center was an inside plot hatched by the evil Bush/Cheney/Rove troika so we could go invade Iraq and steal their oil.

We can overcome a lot in this great nation of ours, but overcoming the stupidity of the left is an insurmountable task.


More at Captain's Quarters, Michelle Malkin.

Muslim Gunman Shot Dead in Jerusalem

The AFP works overtime on this story in an attempt to portray the Israelis as the bad guys. Notice every time an Israeli is mentioned it's usually prefaced by "ultra"; forget any mention of Muslims or Islamist extremists being portrayed as terrorists.

Palestinian killed in Jerusalem shooting

JERUSALEM (AFP) - A Palestinian man was shot dead in a gunfight with Israeli security guards from an ultra-nationalist Jewish association in the Old City of occupied east Jerusalem on Friday, police said.

It was the latest violent incident involving Jews and Arabs in the tense Arab sector of the city, whose fate is one of the thorniest issues at the heart of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Jerusalem police chief Aaron Franco said the Palestinian seized a pistol of one of the men not far from the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the walled Old City, which also contains sites holy to Jews and Muslims.

He said the Palestinian shot and wounded the guard from the ultra-Orthodox Ateret Cohanim yeshiva, whose colleague then fired on the assailant and killed him.

Ten other people were wounded in the shooting, three of them seriously, according to Israel emergency services.

Witnesses said passers-by were hit by bullets from the guard's weapon but a police spokesman told AFP it was "too early to determine which shots caused the injuries."

He said that the slain Palestinian was aged about 18 but gave no further information about his identity.

Israel captured east Jerusalem from Jordan in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war and later annexed it as part of its "eternal and indivisible" capital of the Jewish state.

However, its claims are not recognised by the international community and Palestinians hope to make the eastern half of the city, where 200,000 Palestinians live, the capital of their promised state.

Ateret Cohanim, founded in 1978, is one of several ultra-nationalist organisations which have bought land and homes from Palestinians through various means in order to place Jews in the Arab neighbourhoods of Jerusalem, including the Old City.

Tensions in the city often run high over the Temple Mount, the compound revered by Jews that is also known to Muslims as Haram a-Sharif and houses the Al-Aqsa mosque, the third holiest site in Islam.

In May, two Palestinian assailants were killed and four Israeli policemen shot and wounded in a gunfight near east Jerusalem in the Palestinian village of Sheikh Saad.

The Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, an armed group loosely linked to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah party, had claimed responsibility for the May attack.

The latest death brings to 5,811 the number of people killed in Israeli-Palestinian violence since the start of the intifada in late 2000, the large majority Palestinians, according to an AFP count.

Boo-hoo. Maybe the majority of dead Palestinians would still be alive if they weren't trying to kill Israelis.

Since it's Friday, expect plentyof seething and outrage from the holy Islamists after they leave the ammunition depots mosques today.

The Sky Is Falling! The Sky Is Falling!

More junk science from the Church Cult of Environmental Extremism.

Global warming: Met Office predicts plateau then record temperatures

British scientists are predicting a succession of record-breaking high temperatures in the most detailed forecast of global warming's impact on weather around the world.

Powerful computer simulations used to create the world's first global warming forecast suggests temperature rises will stall in the next two years, before rising sharply at the end of the decade.

Powerful computer simulations predicted 2006 would be a record hurricane year for the Southeast. And how many tore through Florida and the Gulf Coast? Yep, you got it.

From 2010, they warn, every year has at least a 50% chance of exceeding the record year of 1998 when average global temperatures reached 14.54C.

Which means that every year has at least a 50% chance of not exceeding 1998's average temps.

Junk science.

al-Goracle was too busy counting his carbon credit profits, thus making him unavailable for comment.

There's more.

Battle of the Crazies

This pathetic woman will just never go away, I'm sad to say.

Peace activist Cindy Sheehan announces candidacy

SAN FRANCISCO—Citing her son as inspiration, a tearful Cindy Sheehan announced her candidacy Thursday for the U.S. House of Representatives.

The anti-war activist is running as an independent against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco in Congress since 1987.

"The country is ripe for a change," said Sheehan, who spoke at a podium with her son's photograph attached to it. "It's going to start right here and right now."

Sheehan's 24-year-old son, Casey, was killed in Iraq in 2004. Since then, she has gained international notoriety by setting up camp outside President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, and demanding to meet with the president.

Last month, she announced her intention to run against Pelosi if the speaker didn't move to impeach Bush by July 23. On Thursday, she said Pelosi had "protected the status quo" of the corporate elite and had lost touch with people in her district, most of whom, she said, want American troops out of Iraq.

Calls to Pelosi's office seeking comment were not immediately returned.

Sheehan admitted she has no funds for a campaign, but planned to immediately get started raising money. Without giving further specifics, Sheehan said she wouldn't accept money from corporations and would run on a platform of universal health care. Sheehan said she also wants to make college affordable and improve ethics in the legislative and executive branches.

She stands no realistic shot, though never underestimate the stupidity of San Francisco voters. After all, they've voted for Pelosi all these years.

Inflated Self-Importance Leads to Delusions

This is what happens when you indulge children too much. Keep telling them how special they are despite their churlish and infantile behavior, and pretty soon they start running your life.

Keep them in line, instill some discipline, punish them when necessary and they behave well, develop an earned self-respect and grow into mature adults.

Well, the Democrats, barely beyond the juvenile stage as it is, have been catering to the insane left nutroots bloggers for several years now, and coming off the heels of their recent meeting of Koslamists in Chicago, the puerile left has grown to think they actually wield some real power in the Democrat Party.

They don't realize they're just being pandered to and are disposable, ready to be thrown under the bus on short notice.

Predictably, like spoiled children, they're now having a temper tantrum, and it isn't pretty.

The Blogs Are Alive With the Sound of Angry Democrats

WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 -- Progressive and liberal groups and left-leaning blogs are furious, tossing around fighting words like "spineless," "craven" and "weak."

So much for the hopes of Democratic leaders that they could avoid a withering political attack by clearing the way for Congress to approve an expansion of the Bush administration?s terrorist surveillance program before the August recess.

"Democratic leaders in Congress didn't put up much of a fight and they didn't stand up and say "no" to Bush," said an e-mail message that political operatives for the group MoveOn sent Tuesday to the organization's members, urging them to sign an online petition calling on Congress to reverse the new law.

Translation: Enough Democrats retain their sanity to realize this country needs to protect itself. The kook fringe at MoveOn are too stupid to realize that.

Activist groups were somewhat forgiving earlier this year when Democrats backed down in a fight with President Bush over war spending, but the concession on changes to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act seems to have touched a nerve.

From the perspective of liberal critics, Democrats again let themselves be hoodwinked into handing Mr. Bush substantial new power on the basis of White House warnings of an imminent threat. And they did so when Mr. Bush's poll numbers are low.

Yes, but their numbers are much lower than Bush's, so did they really have a choice?

The idiots cannot grasp that.

Chimpy McHitlerburton is such an idiot, and he outsmarted you! How can this be?

"Ultimately, it was the Democratic leadership on the Hill that rolled over to this demand," said Caroline Fredrickson, a top lobbyist for the American Civil Liberties Union. "Instead of standing strong and standing on principle, they panicked and gave the administration not only what it has been asking for, but more."

The caterwauling continues on.

Read the rest if you need a good laugh.

Another Illegal Alien Arrested for Murder While Media Celebrates Diversity

These cases have become so commonplace, they barely rate a mention in the newspapers. Forget about hearing this on any of the networks or cable outlets.

'MILK SLAY MONSTER' ARRESTED

August 9, 2007 -- An illegal Mexican immigrant and gang member wanted in the stabbing death of a Brooklyn dad killed on his way home from a milk run on his wedding anniversary was cornered yesterday in a Pennsylvania hideout, authorities said.

Mejia Cinto, 19, was nabbed at 3 a.m. in West Hazleton in the Poconos.

"His traveling companions, individuals that are known to him, concealed his identity, his whereabouts," said Pennsylvania State Trooper James Surmick.

The teenwaived extradition and faces murder and weapon charges in the coldblooded slaying of Anthony Senisi, 44, last Saturday night in Brighton Beach. Senisi's dad and NYPD brother were told of the arrest at the victim's wake last night, and were "grateful," a source said
Acording to a law-enforcement source, Senisi's murder was unprovoked.

"He [Cinto] came across the victim, who looked at him, and the suspect just stabbed him," the source said.

Doing the senseless, random murders other Americans refuse to do. No word on whether any of his traveling companions are facing any charges.

A Google search for this story yielded eight resultys today. COntrast that with 115 about the following story today "celebrating diversity" that is being blared nationwide.

Riverside, San Diego counties more diverse

Riverside County is getting younger as San Diego County begins to gray, but both counties are becoming more ethnically diverse, according to a new report being released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

After joining the ranks of U.S. counties without a majority ethnic group early this decade, Riverside County is quickly approaching the day when the number of Latinos will match the county's white population.

As of July 1, 2006, 45.6 percent of the county's population was white and 42.8 percent was Latino, according to the report, based on a Census survey.

Whites still constitute a majority in San Diego County. But their 57.5 percent share of the county's residents, as of the time the 2000 Census was taken, has declined to 53.7 percent. And that trend will continue, said Ed Schafer, a demographer for the San Diego Association of Governments, a planning agency.

"By the end of this decade there won't be a majority ethnic group in the county," Schafer said. "And probably, about 20 years from now, the Hispanic and white populations are going to be about the same size. Riverside County is almost there now. The whole state is moving in that direction."

Indeed, so is much of the country.

For the first time, the report states, in more than 300 counties nationwide -- or nearly one out of every 10 -- minorities outnumber whites. The Census said eight counties were added to the list in 2006, the largest being Denver County in Colorado.

Not a word on how many of them are illegal.

That might offend someone.

Again, take note. Thus far 115 news outlets are swooning over "diversity" while a mere eight even bother to mention this horrific murder.

Nope, no media bias there.

I Looked Into His Eyes . . . .

Soviet Russian president Vladimir Paranoid, not content with further unifying New Europe, displays his true intentions.

A 1999 encounter between a US F-15 Eagle and a Russian Tu-95 Bear

Russian bombers taunt US pilots in Guam

Russian bombers have flown to the US airforce base on the Pacific island of Guam for the first time since the Cold War.

The aerial brinkmanship, known as "buzzing", was part of an exercise yesterday designed to prove the nation's resurgent military power.

US pilots scrambling to intercept the two Tu-95 bombers received a cheery welcome from their adversaries, according to the commander of Russia's long-range bombing force.

During the Cold War, "whenever we saw US planes during our flights over the ocean, we greeted them," Maj Gen Pavel Androsov told a news conference.

"On Wednesday, we renewed the tradition when our young pilots flew by Guam in two planes. We exchanged smiles with our counterparts who flew up from a US carrier and returned home."

The flight to the Pacific Island was part of a three-day air force exercise during which Russia's strategic bombers made 40 sorties and launched eight cruise missiles, Maj Gen Androsov, who commands Russia's long-range bomber force, said.

Before the collapse of the Soviet regime, bombers routinely flew far over the Arctic, Atlantic and Pacific Oceans - the areas from where they would launch nuclear cruise missiles at the United States in case of war.

However the economic meltdown of the 1990s brought such manoeuvres to a halt.

Now, as the booming value of Russia's oil and commodity trade has revived the economy, President Vladimir Putin has felt able to reassert his country's military prowess.

Don't worry, Putie. If the Surrender Monkey Party progressives gain control of the White House next year, they're bound to give you everything you want -- and then some.

His belligerent rhetoric reached a peak when he threatened to train his nuclear arsenal on Europe's cities in response to a US plan to develop a missile shield on the continent.

[...]

The Russian military has also intensified air force exercises, sending strategic bombers to areas off Norway and Iceland, as well as Russia's northeast corner, across the Bering Strait from Alaska.

There's more.

Moonbat blame Bush hatefest in 5 ... 4 ... 3 ... because this wouldn't have happened if Karl Rove hadn't stolen two elections.

Or something.

Union Boss Slams "Intifada NYC" Principal

We have a bona fide flying pig moment here. Someone I've always found utterly detestable, NYC teacher's union boss Rondi Weingarten, has come out firing against "Intifada NYC" principal Debbie Almontaser.


RANDI RIPS 'INTIFADA' PRINCIPAL

Teachers-union boss Randi Weingarten slammed the principal of a new Arab-themed school in Brooklyn yesterday for not immediately condemning T-shirts linked to her that sport the inflammatory message "Intifada NYC."

In a conversation yesterday with The Post - and in a letter to the editor - the United Federation of Teachers president said her support for the Khalil Gibran International Academy was shaken this week by Principal Debbie Almontaser's dismissal of concerns that the shirts were an incendiary call to violence.

Almontaser backtracked the next day, but the damage was done, said Weingarten.

"I'm very concerned about it, and it's not often that I write as blistering a letter as I wrote, but it's not OK to explain away 'intifada,' " she said. "Maybe this was just a real error in judgment for which she has now apologized, or maybe, ultimately, she should not be a principal.

"She now has a much higher standard that she has to prove, that this is not the way she's going to run that school."

In typical pandering PC, Weingarten blindly supported this academic farce, but certainly now has doubts, likely due to the public outrage.

But that support took a significant hit when Almontaser defended the shirts, first reported Monday by The Post, by defining "intifada" as a "shaking off" of oppression rather than acknowledging its widespread association with the call to violence among some Palestinians against Israelis.

"I'm glad she apologized quickly, but this is the kind of thing that you immediately say, 'No. People shouldn't have T-shirts like that. That's warmongering. That's preaching,' " said Weingarten.

"That's something that ought to be denounced, not be explained away."

While Weingarten stopped short of calling for Almontaser's dismissal, she appealed for "extraordinary oversight" of the school and its principal.

We'll see about that.

Previously: Arab School All About "Peace"

Spreading the Joys of Islam

The global jihad against civilization continues unabated.

Muslim rebels kill 20 Philippine troops in south

MANILA, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Muslim rebels killed at least 20 Philippine soldiers on Thursday in gun battles on the remote southern island of Jolo, the army said.

At least nine soldiers were killed and two were wounded in an ambush in the morning near the town of Maimbung, where the troops were headed to buy food, Major-General Ruben Rafael said. One of the wounded later died.

Reinforcements were rushed to the area and troops began pursuing the rebels, officials said.

In a gun battle later in the day, at least 10 soldiers were killed in mountains near Maimbung, said Major Eugene Batara, a military spokesman in the city of Zamboanga, the headquarters of the Philippines' southern military command.

There was no immediate word of any rebel casualties.

The tropical isle of Jolo, a base for Muslim militants in the largely Catholic country, has seen an escalation in violence after the army started collecting unlicensed guns from civilians.

An army spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Ernesto Torres, said about 100 rebels from the Abu Sayyaf and a rogue faction of the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) were believed to be behind the ambush in the morning, retaliating for losses in an earlier clash.

On Wednesday, soldiers killed four Muslim rebels in a brief gun battle in nearby Parang town, where a soldier was also killed and five were wounded.

But, the mainstream MNLF, which signed a peace deal with the government in 1996, claimed it was behind the ambush, saying it was retaliation for the deaths of five people during an army offensive a day earlier.

Dougie Hooper was unavailable for comment.

City thanks police chief for his service in Iraq by firing him

He has been hired back but why did it even happen in the first place. The place is Doraville, GA, a suburb of Atlanta.

Mayor rehires Doraville chief
Absence due to Iraq duty cited as firing reason, his attorney says

Doraville mayor Ray Jenkins reinstated fired police chief and Iraq war veteran John King Wednesday as controversy brewed about the reasons for the chief's ousting.

Doraville city councilman Tom Hart called King a "part-time chief" and criticized him for being out of the loop while serving in Iraq, according to a videotape of a marathon-long council meeting reviewed by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

But wait it gets better. Apparently he stopped kids from lighting fireworks.

Other complaints made by Hart included police officers not allowing kids to light fireworks and not enough patrolling.

Where are the adults in this town?

He said some council members appeared upset because they didn't get invited to his wedding and held his service in Iraq against him.

Olbermann Debate Lowest Rated

Maybe if they keep repeating it like they do his unwatchable MSNBC "news" show, the unctuous and loathsome Keith Olberdunce can claim it outdrew The O'Reilly Factor Tuesday night.

AFL-CIO Forum Ratings: Lowest Yet

The AFL-CIO Democratic forum last night on MSNBC, was the lowest rated-yet of the eight primary debates/forums held this election season. Based on live +same day data, Nielsen found the debate had 960,000 total viewers and 340,000 viewers in the 25-54 demo.

These Democrat debates are impossible to watch, as each of these lunatics tries to outpander the other. They're all marching in lockstep toward some mythical socialist utopia, they all hate this country and frankly, debate fatigue has already set in.

On the upside, apparently they didn't take questions from any snowmen, just the psychopath Olberfraud.

A Billion Muslims Ready to Go Splodeydope

If they all prematurely detonate, that would solve a lot of the world's problems.

One billion Muslims to turn into suicide bombers if Makkah, Madina are attacked: NA

ISLAMABAD: The treasury and opposition members in National Assembly (NA) Wednesday have made it clear on US that one billion Muslims will turn into suicide bombers if the holiest places of Makkah and Madina are attacked and warned Vetican City will not remain secure if any such threat is materialized.

Of course, they fail to subtract from the alleged 1 billion those who would be vaporized should Mecca and Medina be nuked, though I guess such hostile action would instantly create more terrorists to offset the subtraction of those wiped out.

They said this unanimously while participating in debate on foreign policy. Opposition legislator Ghulam Murtaza Satti said US was pursuing double standards. Those talking of launching any military offensive against Makkah and Medina are accursed. This will not happen nor will we allow it to happen.

These illiterates, who have the emotional stability of Markos Moulitsas and the literacy of your average Huffington Post commenter, could so easily be duped.

Perhaps someone ought to put together some fake footage of these alleged holy sites being vaporized, just to see countless Islamic rage Boys lose their minds.

Treasury member Ejaz Chaudhry said US was not friend of any one. "We will teach the lesson to US if it dares to come forward to attack upon us. Americans are coward nation and they can do nothing. Army should not target their brethren. US aid is like killer disease AIDS We curse it. The whole nation does not want US aid. Those who are targeting humanity and justice are terrorists. Those who are engaged in freedom war are freedom fighters. US ship is close to sink. It is hurling threats like a coward.

He demanded president and prime minister should stop holding any talk with junior US officials like Richard Boucher. "If US dared to hatch unholy conspiracy to attack Makkah and Medina then one billion Muslims will become suicide bombers and I will also be among them", he added.

Nutroots Suicide Watch: News Corp. Earnings Increase

The pathetic morons from MoveOnToSocialism.org will be spinning furiously today after seeing this news.

Cable Unit Lifts News Corp.

News Corp. managed to offset a steep decline at its 20th Century Fox film business to report higher fiscal fourth-quarter net income, boosted by sharply higher results from its cable channels and its Italian satellite-TV operation.

News Corp. said the results also reflected the "first full year of profitability at Fox Interactive Media," the division that includes the company's social-networking Web site MySpace. The results weren't broken out in detail, although Chairman Rupert Murdoch told analysts and reporters on a conference call the division generated $550 million in revenue and predicted it would top $800 million in fiscal 2008.

Gee, the nonstop bashing of Fox News Channel by the sniveling Democrats and their sycophants really put a dent in their profits.

News Corp.'s net income rose 4.5% in the quarter ended June 30 from the year-earlier period, when it was boosted by an asset sale. The results were released after the market closed. In 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading, News Corp. shares were up 46 cents, or 2.1%, to $22.80.

How dare they make money. Don't they realize they should just give it up to the left so they can redistribute it fairly?

Much of the quarter's growth came from News Corp.'s cable-network segment, which includes Fox News Channel, FX and sports and international cable channels. Fox News's profit has been boosted by higher ad rates and increased fees from cable and satellite operators. Another big contributor to the quarter was the Sky Italia satellite-TV unit, as an increase in subscribers offset growing programming costs.

Contacted at the beauty parlor, John Edwards declined comment.

A Speech The Media Won't Cover

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moo has done the unthinkable.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus ---- Photo: CTK/Czech News Agency

U.N. invites Czech president to global warming conference

Czech President Vaclav Klaus will address a conference on global warming in late September in New York as he has been invited by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to the event, Klaus's spokesman Petr Hajek told CTK Tuesday.

Klaus is known as a fierce challenger of both the human factor in and the widely forecast effects of global warming. He opposes the views advocated by people like Al Gore, arguing that the "hysteria" surrounding the warming issue threatens freedom and democracy.

One of his slogans is that freedom, not climate is endangered. He regularly lashes out against "ambitious environmentalism."

Earlier this year, he published "Blue, Not Green Planet", a book summarizing his opinions challenging some scenarios of the planet's further development with regard to global warming.

Klaus told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL) last week that he plans to deliver a very radical speech in New York.

"It will be a gathering of 'Gore-ites,' so they're going to be shocked that they invited me 'by mistake,' too. And I'm going to give a very tough speech," he told the radio.

Fat al-Goracle, dreaming of triple-scoop ice cream cones, was busy screeching about how when ice melts, it leaves behind . . . water.

Nice Move, Obama

This is what happens when lightweight Democrats try and pretend they know what the hell they're doing when it comes to foreign policy.

Pakistan may declare state of emergency

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The government of embattled Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf said Thursday it may impose a state of emergency because of "external and internal threats" and deteriorating law and order in the volatile northwest near the Afghan border.

Tariq Azim, minister of state for information, said some sentiment coming from the United States, including from Democratic presidential hopeful Barak [sic] Obama, over the possibility of U.S. military action against al-Qaida in Pakistan "has started alarm bells ringing and has upset the Pakistani public."

So much respect this clown get, they can't even spell his name right. Granted, Obama's buffoonery isn't the cause of all Pakistan's woes, but it didn't do anything to help at such a crucial time for Musharraf.

But it appeared the motivation for a declaration of an emergency would be the domestic political woes of Musharraf, a key U.S. ally in the war on terrorism who took power in a 1999 coup.

His popularity has dwindled and his standing has been badly shaken by a failed bid to oust the country's chief justice — an independent-minded judge likely to rule on expected legal challenges to the Musharraf's bid to seek a new five-year presidential term this fall.

At the latest Democrat panderfest in Chicago, Obama did try and backtrack.

On Tuesday night, Obama appeared to soften his position during a debate with other Democratic presidential hopefuls.

"I did not say that we would immediately go in unilaterally. What I said was that we have to work with Musharraf, because the biggest threats to American security right now are in the northwest provinces of Pakistan."

Obama and his spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment Wednesday on Pakistan's possible declaration of a state of emergency.

How convenient.

Welcome to Your Worst Nightmare

This is truly disturbing, yet opens the door for so much comic relief.

We're always told how smart this shrew is, yet she constantly makes a joke of herself with cheesy stunts like this.

Of course, this leaves us with horrific images of the Breck Girl as a candy-striper.

NURSE HILLARY: STINT IN VEGAS HOSPITAL

August 8, 2007 -- WASHINGTON - Hillary Rodham Clinton is taking health care personally.

She will work a shift as a nurse at a Las Vegas hospital next week, it was disclosed yesterday.

The high-profile event is part of the Service Employees International Union's "Walk a day in my shoes program," which gets politicians to step out of their tasseled loafers and high heels to put in a hard day's work while the cameras roll.

Lame.

Of course, the first thing that pops into your head is Nurse Ratched.


Let the fun begin.

Memo to MSNBC: It's Called Summer

You just know they want to veer off into another insipid riff on global warming, but really, these people need to take a look at the calendar. It's August 8. We are in what used to be known as the "dog days of summer," when it usually gets really hot, people sweat, and we're warned on a daily basis to drink plenty of fluids and avoid resting on fresh blacktop between noon and 4 pm.

Alas, it's a crisis, and we're now into the second day of it.

Heat wave continues across much of U.S.

ST. LOUIS - Millions in the Midwest, South and East Coast on Wednesday expected a second straight day of a heat wave made worse by high humidity.

The heat index — how the air feels because of the combination of heat and humidity — was in the danger zone from the Eastern seaboard along into the Southeast and parts of the Midwest. The index was likely to make temperatures throughout those regions feel well above 100. Washington, D.C., for example, was expected to feel like 108 due to the humidity.

The East Coast should get some relief by Friday, but the heat will only get worse in parts of the Midwest by that time, forecasters predicted.

Now for most people with a brain, none of this is news. But then when your idea of a news anchor is a deviate like Keith Olbermann, you don't go find news--you just make it up as you go along.

Fortunately, thanks to modern science, we've had this thing called air conditioning for, oh, at least 50 years, well before my time.

Of course, not everyone has AC, and no doubt the Democrats will call for universal AC for all at their next debate. Even I suffered through many hot summers growing up in NYC; we usually just had fans. Heck, I didn't even have central air until I bought my first house.

Alas, we usually sucked it up, looked at the calendar, and realized fall was not far off. That's when things usually cool off here in the Northeast. Then, aftert that comes winter, though any time the temperature goes over 50 in December, the bloated Algore reminds us we're all about to die because of some such mythical global warming. Or climate change. Or whatever the idiot is calling it that day.

So relax, folks, soak up the AC, drink some cold water, hop in the pool, and know that if you don't have any of those, somewhere a scheming liberal is feverishly working to make it a right that you have all those comforts.

Pathetic Leahy Demands More Documents

The Democrats just get more pathetic by the day. Their endless investigations that go nowhere are likely just one reason why their approval ratings are at a record low of 14%, more than twice as low as President Bush, who has been rebounding in the polls despite the incessant whining and sniveling by the left.

The latest demand is from Vermont fossil Patrick "Leaky" Leahy, a grouchy old fart who really needs to hang it up. His hatred has so consumed him, he may just keel over and die on the Senate floor.

Leahy sets Aug. 20 deadline for NSA eavesdropping documents

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has given the White House until Aug. 20 to turn over internal documents on the NSA warrantless eavesdropping program. Leahy does not specify what will happen if the White House does not comply with the demand, but the House Judiciary Committee has already voted out a contempt citation against White House chief of staff Josh Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet Miers in a similar situation. The full House may take up the contempt citation next month.

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved subpoenas for the White House and Justice Department on the NSA program in late June, with a July 18 date set for complying with the demand. When Bolten and White House counsel Fred Fielding asked for more time to review the issue, Leahy agreed, and a new Aug. 1 deadline was set.

But according to a letter that Leahy sent to Fielding below, the White House has not shown any willingness to negotiate over the subpoenas. Leahy now wants the materials by Aug. 20, setting up another showdown with the White House over the extent of congressional subpoena power.

It's unclear where this moron thinks any of this leads.

The American people have no problem eavesdropping on our enemies, and the more the Democrats show favoritism towards terrorists, the better off the GOP will be.

Investigation fatigue has set in, especially when nothing will come of any of this.

Chavez Continues to Bury Venezuela

Well, the nut job in charge of Venezuela continues to make trade deals he can not back up long term.

Chavez offers LatAm energy pact

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has pledged to guarantee the energy needs of his allies in Latin America.

Speaking in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, he announced the signing of what he called an "energy security treaty" with Argentina.

Mr Chavez said he intended to sign similar treaties with Uruguay, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia.

What the socialists at the BBC do not tell you in the article is that production at the Venezuelan oil fields is plummeting due to Chavez's love affair with socialism, and he reportedly is having to buy some oil on the spot market now to live up to his present commitments.

Of course, BBC uses the story to print more anti-US ravings by Chavez.

I can't stand the BBC.

Arab School All About "Peace"

Try not to laugh too much. Apparently, they offered up this tripe with a straight face.

Arab School's Peace Goals

August 8, 2007 -- Internships with Muslim lawyers, trips to the Middle East and community activism are the hallmarks of the city's Arab-themed school scheduled to open this fall.

I guess education is out of the question.

What they apparently have planned is to have the "students" hang out with agitators figuring out ways to file frivolous lawsuits over perceived slights to their cherished faith, trips to Arab hellholes, and learning how to march to demand special privileges.

This is what a "school" is suppose to be about?

How about learning United States history? Reading? Writing? Science? Math?

Guess that's not on the agenda.

The controversial Khalil Gibran International Academy's grant application for private funds says the school wants to produce "agents of change" and "ambassadors of peace" by focusing on the "complexity of Arab history and the diversity of Arab culture."

Fine, if that's what you want to do, move to some Arab land, where no doubt you can learn the joys of Arab culture.

But this is America. Try to assimilate. You know, it just might work. Hundreds of millions have done it before.

Principal Dhabah "Debbie" Almontaser - who backtracked this week from comments condoning the "Intifada NYC" T-shirts that are sold by activists with ties to her - insists political dogma will not be on the curriculum.

All students, no matter their ethnicity, or religion, will be welcome, she said.

Sure.

Previously: Intifada NYC, Intifada NYC Principal "Regrets" Remarks

Shocking News: Bush Supporters Support Bush

Clearly, there is no IQ test required to become an Associated Press reporter.

Granted, President Bush has relatively low approval ratings, but is such a story even necessary?

Bush Down to His Base of Support

WASHINGTON (AP) -- To see the type of person who still backs him, President Bush need only look in the mirror. The president fits the composite of today's Bush supporter: a conservative, white, Republican man, an evangelical Christian who goes to church regularly.

Hammered by bad news in Iraq, congressional investigations and recent failed domestic initiatives such as immigration reform, Bush's job approval rating has spiraled to record lows for his presidency. Two-thirds of Republicans and about one-third of independents still support him, but virtually no Democrats are left in Bush's camp.

Naturally, this idiot fails to mention the latest Rasmussen numbers that have him at 37%, which is actually higher than the average for May and June.

Not great, for sure, but also not as low as the AP likes to imply.

Why report the news, when you can simply create it yourself?

Ster*id Freak B*nds Hits No. 756*

As America slept, steroid-drenched San Francisco Giants "slugger" B*rry B*nds surpassed Hank Aaron's alltime home run mark by hitting his 756th home run off Washington Nationals pitcher Mike Bacsik last night at AT&T Park.

B*nds slugs way past Aaron for home run record

SAN FRANCISCO -- The ball exploded off B*rry B*nds' bat, a small white sphere streaking through the dark San Francisco sky, headed for the right-center field seats and a hallowed place in baseball history.

It was 8:51 Tuesday, a night no one in the sellout crowd of 43,154 at AT&T Park would ever forget, a night to be lived and relived by word of mouth, digital camera and endless reels of highlight tape.

On a 3-and-2 pitch from Washington Nationals left-hander Mike Bacsik, B*nds, in his second game after tying Hank Aaron's career home run mark of 755, belted No. 756.

In this, his 23rd season in the major leagues, his 16th in a Giants uniform, the holder of the single-season home run record with 73 in 2001 and a record seven most-valuable player awards, B*nds added the final jewel to his home run crown.

A towering drive that has become B*nds' trademark, the ball, cheered on by a hysterical home crowd, traveled 435 feet before landing in a pile of straining arms and banging bodies, fans with visions of perhaps half a million dollars fighting for the souvenir of a lifetime.

Victor Conte was unavailable for comment.

Oddly enough, in the scrum for the ball, of all people, a New York Mets fan came up with it.

Queens native catches B*nds' No. 756

SAN FRANCISCO - Once Barry B*nds' 756th home run left the playing field, AT&T Park turned into a shrine for the new home run king, with nary a boo to be heard.

But the fan who caught the most valuable souvenir from this momentous event, hails from . . . Queens?

Mike Murphy, a 22-year-old from Queens, wore a Mets jersey as he prevailed in the battle for B*nds' home run ball.

According to the Giants, Murphy flew into town yesterday, purchased a ticket at the ballpark -- the club didn't know whether Murphy found a ticket from a scalper or acquired a standing-room-only ticket from the team -- and attended the game with a friend. He stopped here in San Francisco on his way to Australia.

Police escort the man who caught Barry B*nds' 756th home run ball.
(Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images)

In more important baseball news last night, the Yankees won, the Red Sox lost, and the once vaunted 14-game lead is now down to five.

Fear, loathing and panic grips Red Sawx Nation.

Bush Derangement Syndrome Rides Again

The Soviet Russian News and Information Agency has a piece only a Leninist Kosling could love. Conspiracy theories, paranoia, with a generous helping of Bushchimphitler Derangement Syndrome thrown in for good measure and you have a propaganda masterpiece that should be worthy of promoting in the dailyProtocols of the Elders of Koslam.

White House preparing to stage new September 11

A former Reagan official has issued a public warning that the Bush administration is preparing to orchestrate a staged terrorist attack in the United States, transform the country into a dictatorship and launch a war with Iran within a year.

Paul Craig Roberts, a former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, blasted Thursday a new Executive Order, released July 17, allowing the White House to seize the assets of anyone who interferes with its Iraq policies and giving the government expanded police powers to exercise control in the country.

Roberts, who spoke on the Thom Hartmann radio program, said: "When Bush exercises this authority [under the new Executive Order], there's no check to it. So it really is a form of total, absolute, one-man rule."

Note: Thom Hartmann's radio program is broadcast by that Arbitron rating book-busting radio network -- Air Amerika.

"The American people don't really understand the danger that they face," Roberts said, adding that the so-called neoconservatives intended to use a renewal of the fight against terrorism to rally the American people around the fading Republican Party.

Cool. We have the premise for Kosling Conspiracy Theory No.___.

Old-line Republicans like Roberts have become increasingly disenchanted with the neoconservative politics of the Bush administration, which they see as a betrayal of fundamental conservative values.

According to a July 9-11 survey by Ipsos, an international public opinion research company, President Bush and the Republicans can claim a mere 31 percent approval rating for their handling of the Iraq war and 38 percent for their foreign policy in general, including terrorism.

And what's the approval rating for the Congress led by the progressive kommissars Nancy Pelousi, Jacques Murtha and Harriet Reid?

"The administration figures themselves and prominent Republican propagandists ... are preparing us for another 9/11 event or series of events," he said. "You have to count on the fact that if al Qaeda is not going to do it, it is going to be orchestrated."

Sweet. Straight out of the Nazi playbook: The Big Lie Theory. Komrades Lenin & Stalin employed similar tactics, as did their successors.

Roberts suggested that in the absence of a massive popular outcry, only the federal bureaucracy and perhaps the military could put constraints on Bush's current drive for a fully-fledged dictatorship.

"They may have had enough. They may not go along with it," he said.

The radio interview was a follow-up to Robert's latest column, in which he warned that "unless Congress immediately impeaches Bush and Cheney, a year from now the U.S. could be a dictatorial police state at war with Iran."

Roberts, who has been dubbed the "Father of Reaganomics" and has recently gained popularity for his strong opposition to the Bush administration and the Iraq War, regularly contributes articles to Creators Syndicate, an independent distributor of comic strips and syndicated columns for daily newspapers.

What a disappointment! Roberts has these great theories but leaves out how the Jooooos were behind 9/11 and that fire can't melt steel.

Probably thought that if he included those "facts" with the ones cited above, people would think he's just another nut.


Leading presidential contender Ron Paul was unavailable for comment.

Largest Planet Discovered

PHOENIX (AP) - Scientists have discovered the universe's largest known planet, a giant ball made of mostly hydrogen that is 20 times larger than Earth and circling a star 1,400 light-years away.

Scientists believe the planet is 1.7 times the diameter of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, and has a temperature of 2,300-degrees.

"There is probably not a really firm surface anywhere on the planet. You would sink into it," said Georgi Mandushev, a research scientist at Lowell Observatory and lead author of an article announcing the finding in the peer-reviewed Astrophysical Journal Letters.

Lowell, along with the California Institute of Technology's Palomar Observatory in San Diego County and telescopes operating in Spain's Canary Islands, discovered the planet circling a star in the constellation Hercules.

Lowell announced the finding Monday. Scientists first spotted the new planet, called TrES-4, and a smaller one in spring 2006. Scientists at Caltech, Harvard University and the W.M. Keck Observatory in Hawaii later confirmed the discovery.

"It's very solid stuff," astronomer Alan Boss at the Carnegie Institution of Washington said of the discovery of TrES-4. He marveled at the planet's extremely low density, about half that of Saturn in our solar system.

"It's just letting us know that nature has some surprises for us ... a much wider range of possibility than we could imagine," Boss said.

In an unrelated development, scientists also discovered an enormous object of extremely high density, pink to red in color and tentatively called Planet Pantsuit. It is rather wobbly, changes appearances often, shows no signs of intelligent life and is quite willing to put aside personal dignity in a quest for planetary power.

Zimbabwe Headed Off the Cliff

Communism continues to destroy Zimbabwe.

Mugabe approves surveillance law

Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe has approved a new law allowing the security services to intercept postal, internet and telephone communications.

The law also establishes a state-run communications monitoring centre.

Sound like the KGB to anyone?

So how bad are things in Zimbabwe?

The United Nations World Food Programme warned on Wednesday that hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans are running out of food due to a poor harvest and the worsening economic situation.

Inflation is running at 4,500% - the world's highest - and 80% of the work force is unemployed.

Three million Zimbabweans have left the country and another 3.3 million rely on food aid.

This is Venezuela in a few years.

Just Don't Question Their Patriotism

The featured article of the August 7, 2007, Opinion Journal discusses how today's Left progressives and yesterday's communists reside in the same universe.

The author, Ion Mihai Pacepa, a Lt. General in the Romanian intelligence community during the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, is the highest-ranking intelligence official ever to have defected from the Soviet bloc.

His petition for political asylum was granted by Jimmy Carter [WPE] in 1978.

Propaganda Redux
[...]

Sowing the seeds of anti-Americanism by discrediting the American president was one of the main tasks of the Soviet-bloc intelligence community during the years I worked at its top levels. This same strategy is at work today, but it is regarded as bad manners to point out the Soviet parallels. For communists, only the leader counted, no matter the country, friend or foe. At home, they deified their own ruler--as to a certain extent still holds true in Russia. Abroad, they asserted that a fish starts smelling from the head, and they did everything in their power to make the head of the Free World stink.

The communist effort to generate hatred for the American president began soon after President Truman set up NATO and propelled the three Western occupation forces to unite their zones to form a new West German nation. We were tasked to take advantage of the reawakened patriotic feelings stirring in the European countries that had been subjugated by the Nazis, in order to shift their hatred for Hitler over into hatred for Truman -- the leader of the new "occupation power." Western Europe was still grateful to the U.S. for having restored its freedom, but it had strong leftist movements that we secretly financed. They were like putty in our hands.

The European leftists, like any totalitarians, needed a tangible enemy, and we gave them one. In no time they began beating their drums decrying President Truman as the "butcher of Hiroshima." We went on to spend many years and many billions of dollars disparaging subsequent presidents: Eisenhower as a war-mongering "shark" run by the military-industrial complex, Johnson as a mafia boss who had bumped off his predecessor, Nixon as a petty tyrant, Ford as a dimwitted football player and Jimmy Carter as a bumbling peanut farmer. In 1978, when I left Romania for good, the bloc intelligence community had already collected 700 million signatures on a "Yankees-Go-Home" petition, at the same time launching the slogan "Europe for the Europeans."

During the Vietnam War we spread vitriolic stories around the world, pretending that America's presidents sent Genghis Khan-style barbarian soldiers to Vietnam who raped at random, taped electrical wires to human genitals, cut off limbs, blew up bodies and razed entire villages. Those weren't facts. They were our tales, but some seven million Americans ended up being convinced their own president, not communism, was the enemy.

Jean-Pierre Kerry, useful idiot.

As Yuri Andropov, who conceived this dezinformatsiya war against the U.S., used to tell me, people are more willing to believe smut than holiness.

The final goal of our anti-American offensive was to discourage the U.S. from protecting the world against communist terrorism and expansion. Sadly, we succeeded. After U.S. forces precipitously pulled out of Vietnam, the victorious communists massacred some two million people in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

How can this be? Jean-Pierre says it didn't happen.

Another million tried to escape, but many died in the attempt. This tragedy also created a credibility gap between America and the rest of the world, damaged the cohesion of American foreign policy, and poisoned domestic debate in the U.S.

Unfortunately, partisans today have taken a page from the old Soviet playbook. At the 2004 Democratic National Convention, for example, Bush critics continued our mud-slinging at America's commander in chief. One speaker, Martin O'Malley, now governor of Maryland, had earlier in the summer stated he was more worried about the actions of the Bush administration than about al Qaeda. On another occasion, retired four-star general Wesley Clark gave Michael Moore a platform to denounce the American commander in chief as a "deserter." And visitors to the national chairman of the Democratic Party had to step across a doormat depicting the American president surrounded by the words, "Give Bush the Boot."

Read it all.

Where it's being discussed



And where it's not.



George Soros was unavailable for comment.

H/T The JammieWearingFool

AP: Check Your Calendar

So a little bit of good news oozes out of Iraq and the ghouls at the Associated Press decide to change the focus.

They are obsessed with death.

U.S. troop deaths up after drop in July

BAGHDAD - Four more U.S. troops and a British soldier have died in attacks, military officials said Tuesday, in a possible sign [hope? --ed.] that extremists are regrouping after a drop in American deaths last month.

The spate of recent U.S. deaths — 19 so far in August — seems certain to intensify the debate over U.S. progress to calm Iraq and gain ground against militants ahead of a key September report to Congress.

U.S. deaths had dropped slightly in July to 79 — the lowest monthly tally since 70 were killed in November. Before July, more than 100 American forces died each month in the April-to-June period as the U.S. military struck out at insurgents on dangerous streets and cities across Iraq.

Good grief, people, it's August 7! What if there are no further casualties for the balance of the month -- wishful thinking, of course -- or even one per day? It will be far lower for the month of August than for July.

So why on earth are they running absurd stories making statistical comparisons when you still have 24 days remaining in the month?

No media bias here...

For all you political junkies out there

Olbermann Set to Host ‘Biggest Job Interview in History’

The AFL-CIO simply calls it the AFL-CIO Presidential Candidates Forum at Chicago's Soldier Field.

It will be carried on the XM satellite radio channel 130. This is the channel that will be running full time starting in Sep and is dedicated to covering the presidential race.

The only problem is they seem to have left out one word. DEMOCRAT

Just in case you were interested.

MoDo, Krugman Freed From Obscurity

In an attempt at recapturing attention formerly paid to their stable of idiotic columnists, The New York Times has paved the way to return their overpriced and uninformed solons to the public consciousness.

Honestly, people had grown used to ignoring the likes of the besotted Maureen Dowd, affirmative action columnist Bob Herbert, clueless theater critic Frank Rich, and the psychotic-yet-entertaining Paul Krugman ever since The Times made the disastrous decision to actually charge people to read these morons.

Well, now we'll be able to poke fun at them on a more regular basis.

TimesSelect Content Freed

August 7, 2007 -- The New York Times is poised to stop charging readers for online access to its Op-Ed columnists and other content, The Post has learned.

After much internal debate, Times executives - including publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. - made the decision to end the subscription-only TimesSelect service but have yet to make an official announcement, according to a source briefed on the matter.

No doubt it will drive them crazy to see the New York Post reporting this, but then again, The Post has been beating them to major stories for quite some time.

The timing of when TimesSelect will shut down hinges on resolving software issues associated with making the switch to a free service, the source said.

Times spokeswoman Catherine Mathis would only say in an e-mailed statement, "We continue to evaluate the best approach for NYTimes.com."

While other online publications were abandoning subscriptions, the Times took the opposite approach in 2005 and began charging for access to well-known writers, including Maureen Dowd, Frank Rich and Thomas L. Friedman.

The decision, which also walled off access to archives and other content, was controversial almost from the start, with some of the paper's own columnists complaining that it limited their Web readership.

No kidding. When was the last time you heard anyone quoting what any of these people had to say?

The number of Web-only subscribers who pay $7.95 a month or $49.95 a year fell to just over 221,000 in June, down from more than 224,000 in April.

I'm surprised the number was that high.

Well, this will just gives us more opportunity to lambaste the incoherent ramblings of the bourbon-soaked Dowd and regale in the armchair military analysis of Rich, a man who couldn't find his way across midtown Manhattan without benefit of a chauffeur, let alone find Iraq on a map.

UPDATE: Others discussing include A Blog For All, Don Surber,
Sister Toldjah, Captain's Quarters, The Moderate Voice.