Waiting For The Riots

clipped from www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org Another cause highly esteemed by all of you is the defence of religious liberty, which is a fundamental, irrepressible, inalienable and inviolable right rooted in the dignity of every human being and acknowledged by various international documents, especially the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The exercise of this freedom also includes the right to change religion, which should be guaranteed not only legally, but also in daily practice. In fact, religious liberty corresponds to the human person’s innate openness to God, who is the fullness of truth and the supreme good. For this reason, God can never be excluded from the horizon of man and world history! That is why all authentically religious traditions must be allowed to manifest their own identity publicly, free from any pressure to hide or disguise it.

The Real Stalingrad

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com All the campaigns listed above, including the massive battle for Okinawa, are dwarfed by the Sixth and Eighth Army's Philippine Campaign of 1944-45. The raw statistics are astonishing. The Philippine Campaign was the graveyard of the Imperial Japanese Army: IJA KIA exceeded the estimated (300,000) German and Axis dead at Stalingrad. In terms of raw effort, Wikipedia notes that "in all, ten U.S. divisions and five independent regiments battled on Luzon, making it the largest campaign of the Pacific war, involving more troops than the United States had used in North Africa, Italy, or southern France." It also included the largest urban battle of the Pacific War, the Battle of Manila, in which 100,000 civilians were killed. Two of the most famous divisions in the US Army, the 1st Cavalry and 25th Infantry, participated in the Philippine Campaign. And yet it is nearly forgotten. It will not even be remembered in Spielberg's sequel to the Band of Brothers.

A Little Less Silent

clipped from www.timesonline.co.uk Israeli commandos seized nuclear material of North Korean origin during a daring raid on a secret military site in Syria before Israel bombed it this month, according to informed sources in Washington and Jerusalem. The attack was launched with American approval on September 6 after Washington was shown evidence the material was nuclear related, the well-placed sources say. They confirmed that samples taken from Syria for testing had been identified as North Korean. This raised fears that Syria might have joined North Korea and Iran in seeking to acquire nuclear weapons. Israeli special forces had been gathering intelligence for several months in Syria, according to Israeli sources. They located the nuclear material at a compound near Dayr az-Zwar in the north. Diplomats in North Korea and China believe a number of North Koreans were killed in the strike, based on reports reaching Asian governments about conversations between Chinese and North Korean officials.

My Town

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com In a world where students were held accountable for their bad behavior, this would be cause for immediate dismissal of the editorial staff of the The Rocky Mountain Collegian. TASER THIS F*CK BUSH This is the view of the Collegian editorial board. They didn’t use the asterisk, of course. But in this world, university officials have no control over these whiny moonbat creeps, who are now complaining that they’re being criticized.

Foul-mouthed, puerile fascifism is what passes for righteous journalism at my local university.

I'm sure they'd invite Ahmedinejad to speak if they could...

(I'm obviously having real problems now regarding my pledge to clean the blog up. But I have a hard time glossing this over. You can't make stuff like this up.)

A Razor Rather Reminder

clipped from www.flounder.com So we have the following two hypotheses contending for describing the memos Attempts to recreate the memos using Microsoft Word and Times New Roman produce images so close that even taking into account the fact that the image we were able to download from the CBS site has been copied, scanned, downloaded, and reprinted, the errors between the "authentic" document and a file created by anyone using Microsoft word are virtually indistinguishable. The font existed in 1972; there were technologies in 1972 that could, with elaborate effort, reproduce these memos, and these technologies and the skills to use them were used by someone who, by testimony of his own family, never typed anything, in an office that for all its other documents appears to have used ordinary monospaced typewriters, and therefore this unlikely juxtaposition of technologies and location coincided just long enough to produce these four memos on 04-May-1972, 18-May-1972, 01-August-1972, and 18-August-1973.

And Newcomer ends thus:

"Which one do you think is true? Which one would a 13th-century philosopher [that would be Occam -ed.] think made sense? How many totally unlikely other juxtapositions are expected to be true? How could anyone believe these memos are other than incompetent forgeries?

This letter concentrates only on the raw technology of the fonts and printing. It does not address many of the issues others on the Internet have raised, such as the incorrect usage of military titles and abbreviations, incorrect formatting relative to prevailing 1972 military standards, etc. I am not qualified to comment on these. All I can say is that the technology that produced this document was not possible in 1972 in the sort of equipment that would have been available outside publishing houses, and which required substantial training and expertise to use, and it replicates exactly the technologies of Microsoft Word and Microsoft TrueType Fonts.

It is therefore my expert opinion that these documents are modern forgeries."

Silence (Part 23954)

clipped from article.nationalreview.com Apart from the usual suspects — Syria, Iran, Libya, and Russia — only two countries registered strong protests to the Israeli strike: Turkey and North Korea. Turkey we can understand. Its military may have permitted Israel an overflight corridor without ever having told the Islamist civilian government. But North Korea? What business is this of North Korea’s? Unless it was a North Korean facility being hit. Which raises alarms for many reasons. First, it would undermine the whole North Korean disarmament process. Pyongyang might be selling its stuff to other rogue states, or perhaps just temporarily hiding it abroad while permitting ostentatious inspections back home. Second, there are ominous implications for the Middle East. Syria has long had chemical weapons — on Monday, Jane’s Defence Weekly reported on an accident that killed dozens of Syrians and Iranians loading a nerve-gas warhead onto a Syrian missile — but Israel will not tolerate a nuclear Syria.

Pick Your Godhead

clipped from proteinwisdom.com philosophically, at least, there is a vast area of intellectual overlap between the foundational principles informing most every totalitarian movement — and that, to many Muslims, bin Ladenism is a form of “progressivism,” though when placed in the paradigm of Islamic thinking, that “progressivism” leads backward rather than forward (and so to western eyes appears reactionary rather than radical — one of the reasons, one can argue, that it is frequently tied to social conservatism). Still, it is a kind of reform movement aimed at the excesses of capitalism and western liberalism — a way to control the natural diversity of outcome brought about when freedom is allowed to govern in fact (instead of being worn like a friendly facade) — and in its core foundational assumptions finds common cause with other material manifestations of those same principles. Which is why, I suppose, bin Laden sounds so much like Chomsky. The only difference is the godhead and the place of worship.

I'd Be Worried About This...

clipped from pajamasmedia.com The staffing and internal rules of the Interior ministry were set up by Biyat Jabr, an affable and charming Shia Muslim who once worked for Saddam Hussein. (He was never a member of the Ba’ath party and thus survived de-Ba’athification with ease.) Jabr is widely believed to be in the pay of Iranian intelligence services, although U.S. officials caution that there is no firm evidence of this charge. Jabr left the ministry in August 2006 and is now Finance Minister, but before he exited he salted the ranks with people loyal to Iran and hostile to the U.S. “Innocents dying [in the Sunday gun battle with Blackwater] is just a pretext,” the same State department source said. If Blackwater and other private contractors are shut out of Iraq, Democrats in Congress and Iranian intelligence operatives may have stumbled on a way to end the Iraq War—less than a week after Gen. Petraeus testified that the U.S. is turning the corner.

... if I thought that CIA or State were on our side...

The Hidden Obvious

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com That Iranian nutjob wants to visit Ground Zero to "pay his respects." Why is it so hard to understand his intentions? He wants to be able to return home and tell the world that he honored the 19 fanatics who CREATED Ground Zero, and killed 3,000 of us in the process. And how spineless the Americans were for letting him do it... clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com To echo Hitchens, this is a course of masochism. Which is being proposed to us by sadists.

Dura Lex, Sed Lex

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com The employment of the Israeli Air Force to bomb an unspecified target funded by unknown other countries passing through the airspace of an unmentioned allied Muslim Nation for reasons that are still mysterious shows how total this legal paralysis is. Despite the third-rate military capability of Syria, none dare act against except it but an "outlaw nation", which by definition, can operate outside international law. With Syria and Hezbollah knocking off one opposition politician after the other what can the moral mandarins of the West Left do, except hope the despised Jew will do their dirty work? We all know how this works. The enemy can torture Americans but Americans must always abide by the Geneva Convention. Dura lex, sed lex.. And one way, too.

Choked Up Again

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com "Like Moses, I get to see the Promised Land, but I don't get to step foot in it," Dr. Pausch said. "That's OK. I will live on in Alice." Dr. Pausch's speech was taped so his children, ages 5, 2 and 1, can watch it when they're older. His last words in his last lecture were simple: "This was for my kids." Then those of us in the audience rose for one last standing ovation.

Oh Those Passers By

clipped from neoneocon.com But now comes the astounding news that in Karsenty’s appeal case the court has done the unthinkable and ordered France 2 to produce the tapes for viewing. Since everyone independent of France 2 who has seen these tapes alleges that they fail to show what France 2 has said they show—the terrible death throes of the boy, too devastating for viewing—and that what they actually show is staged scenes, people strolling past unperturbed, no blood, bullet holes incompatible with having been fired from the Israeli position, and the boy al Durah raising his head and looking around after he is supposedly dead, this should be interesting.

If you want a preview of what everyone will see, go take a look at Pallywood. You'll never look at the Palestinians the same again...

Ground Zero

clipped from instapundit.com FRANK J.: "In the Fred Thompson administration, there will be no need for the leaders of terrorist states to visit Ground Zero; Ground Zero will be wherever they live."

It Has Frozen Over

clipped from www.cbc.ca The French government under President Nicholas Sarkozy has shifted the country's policies more in line with the administration of U.S. President George W. Bush, who had a frosty relationship with Sarkozy's predecessor, Jacques Chirac, highlighted by France's vocal criticism of the Iraq war. In a candid interview on French radio last week, Kouchner re-enforced France's tough stance on Iran by declaring his country should prepare for war if Iran obtains nuclear weapons.

But Not Beyond Your Reach

clipped from instapundit.com WHEN GEORGE BUSH'S METAPHORS ARE TOO COMPLEX FOR YOU TO UNDERSTAND, a career in journalism may be beyond your capacities. But not beyond your reach!

The Terrible Engagement

clipped from www.jpost.com IN PURPORTING to want to use Hamas against al-Qaida, the "engagement" lobby would apparently sacrifice Israel's interests to appease Islamist demands. But as the relatively moderate Arab regimes understand only too well, legitimizing Hamas, Hizbullah and the Brotherhood will put rocket fuel behind Islamism itself throughout the region. Israel is merely the pawn in a much broader war - and the big loser will be a Western world which does not understand the suicidal game that it is being seduced into playing. Ultimately, the Western "engagement" rationale is a brutal one. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy, for example, appears to believe that Israel must talk to Hamas because it is inevitable that Hamas will defeat Fatah. It is a doctrine which effectively holds that power confers legitimacy, however illegitimately it has been pursued. It is hard to imagine an argument that hands terror a greater victory.

Bush And Blair

clipped from tigerhawk.blogspot.com In the end, the pointlessness of the death and destruction was not lost even on the famously obtuse "Arab street." It remains to be seen whether, when the dust literally and figuratively settles, al Qaeda will have succeeded either in rendering Iraq ungovernable under Western norms or in persuading a sufficient number of Americans that we have "lost." It is clear, though, that however much the Arab world may hate the United States for bringing the war into its midst, it is increasingly lining up against al Qaeda in the waging of that war. In the fullness of time history will reveal that the polarization of the Arab and Muslim world against al Qaeda is essential for victory against the transnational jihad, and that it was the direct result of the forward foreign policy of Bush and Blair.

Half-Wits

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com One can imagine President Ahmadinejad nervously preparing for President Bollinger's "sharp challenges," and wondering whether those challenges will detract from the propaganda victory Bollinger's invitation has given him. He's undoubtedly concluded it won't be a big problem. Indeed, the Iranian President must be rolling on the floor laughing along with the Mullahs about the incredible victory handed to them by the morally bankrupt Bollinger, a man who symbolizes all that is most nauseating about the political left today. ROTC at Columbia has been banned since the 60's, and Bollinger was instrumental in keeping it off campus, despite a majority of students who thought it should be allowed back. In the minds of the "peaceful, loving, compassionate and gentle" left, the ROTC stands for the evil military and all those associated imperialist/capitalist warmongers of the West.

MC-PC-RE: The Chart

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com UPDATE: Columbia's recent decision to invite the Iranian president to speak is a case in point about how comfortable our academic elite are with terrorism and terrorists for all their prattle about "free speech." Do you doubt that Lee Bollinger would have coddled up to Hitler in much the same way if these "superior" senisbilities of postmodern man had been prevalent on campus in the 30's ("Tell me, Mr. Hitler, do you realize how disappointing it is that you are murdering Jews in gas chambers in such large numbers? Don't you see how upset that makes us?") I expect that any human monster would be confident of a place at Bollinger's table.

Multi-Culti PC Radical Environmentalism

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com In an article from City Journal, Theodore Dalrymple makes a compelling case that Islam is fast becoming the Marxism of our time. Islam is not simply the alternative that today's angst-ridden, alienated youth turn to because Marxism is waning in intellectual circles; it's extremism and violence resonates harmonically with the socialist revolutionaries of the 20th century; and they have appropriated the jihad as an essential component of their political and intellectual strategy to revive Marxism in the 21st century. Let us take a look at the strategy and how it has evolved to include the Islamic fanatics. Multiculturalism and political correctness are two of the fundamental pseudo-intellectual, quasi-religious tenets that have been widely disseminated by intellectuals unable to abandon socialism even after its crushing failures in the 20th century. Along with a third component, radical environmentalism, they make up three key foundations of leftist dogma

MC, PC, RE. Just not for me.

The Superstition Of Evil

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com The therapeutic sensibility that now dominates our public thinking reinforces this tendency to excuse Islamic terror. Unlike the old tragic vision of the classical West, which saw human suffering as the consequence of an imperfect human nature and our own bad choices, the therapeutic sensibility sees suffering as a temporary glitch caused by unjust social and economic structures. Evil is just a superstition, for people’s environments, not their own choices, cause destructive actions. The terrorists whom the unenlightened call “evil,” then, are themselves victims; we should assist them in reforming their unjust environments. Meanwhile, we ignore the numerous Islamists, from Sayyid Qutb to Osama bin Laden, who tell us very plainly why they want to destroy us: because we are infidels who must convert to Islam, live in submission to it, or die.

Sharia By Any Other Name

clipped from drsanity.blogspot.com Definition: Leftist Sharia - the dynamic body of leftist quasi-religious dogma that dictates suitable behavior for everyone...or else. ...So now liberals are lashing out at the gays. Two weeks ago, the New York Times turned over half of its op-ed page to outing gays with some connection to Republicans. There is no principled or intellectual basis for these outings. Conservatives don't want gays to die; we just don't want to transform the Pentagon into the Office of Gay Studies. By contrast, liberals say: "We love gay people! Gay people are awesome! Being gay is awesome! Gay marriage is awesome! Gay cartoon characters are awesome! And if you don't agree with us, we'll punish you by telling everyone that you're gay!" In the left's obsession with "diversity", it is interesting, is it not, that they have completely omitted the concept of diversity of thought as being worthy of inclusion into their little multiculti religion?

How Little Has Changed...

clipped from littlegreenfootballs.com Seventy years before this week’s invitation to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Columbia rolled out the red carpet for a senior official of Adolf Hitler’s regime. The invitation to Iran’s leader may seem less surprising, but no less disturbing, when one recalls that in 1933, Columbia president Nicholas Murray Butler invited Nazi Germany’s ambassador to the United States, Hans Luther, to speak on campus, and also hosted a reception for him. In 1936, the Columbia administration announced it would send a delegate to Nazi Germany to take part in the 550th anniversary celebration of the University of Heidelberg.  This, despite the fact that Heidelberg already had been purged of Jewish faculty members, instituted a Nazi curriculum, and hosted a burning of books by Jewish authors.  Prof. Arthur Remy, who served as Columbia’s delegate to the Heidelberg event, later remarked that the reception at which chief book-burner Josef Goebbels presided was “very enjoyable.”

Ugghh.

My New Policy ...

clipped from instapundit.com Columbia doesn't host ROTC or (I think) military recruiters on campus, because it would be just too offensive to do so, because the military obeys the law passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by Bill Clinton which bars open homosexuals from serving in the military. OK. But Columbia does host Ahmedinejad who heads a government which executes homosexuals for the crime of being homosexuals. So it's obnoxious beyond belief to exclude homosexuals from military service, but it's not obnoxious beyond belief to hang them from the neck until dead. Why does Lee Bollinger think a man who heads a regime that executes homosexuals--not just excludes them from military service, but hangs them by the neck until dead, in public ceremony-- should be honored with an invitation to speak at Columbia?

... of cleaning up my language is really making it tough to make some of the comments I would like. So I'll go without comment for now.

But you know what I'm thinking. And if you're not thinking the same thoughts you need to look long and hard at yourself in the mirror.

Welcome the "academic" echo chamber. On its way to becoming the gas chamber. Without the quotes I'm beginning to suspect.

Sins Of Policy

clipped from phibetacons.nationalreview.com Why do I think... That a Holocaust-denying, American-killing, terrorist-supporting, hostage-taking, violent megalomaniac like Mahmoud Ahmadenijad will get a better, more respectful reception at Columbia than the school gave a fellow American who's only sin was a policy disagreement with the academic mainstream?

Selective

clipped from instapundit.com GOOD QUESTION: "I have a question for the Columbia crowd, since Holocaust deniers are welcome, would you allow a speaker in favor of a return to black slavery? I hope not. Well, that's how I feel about Holocaust deniers. What are the speaker rules at Columbia? Does anybody know? How far can you go?" As far as you want, but only so long as the message is sufficiently anti-Bush. UPDATE: Columbia won't cancel Ahmadinejad speech. Their concern for the free exchange of ideas seems a bit . . . selective.

Rather Cuckoo

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Several former colleagues said they were baffled by the move. "I think he's gone off the deep end," said Josh Howard, who was forced to resign as executive producer of "60 Minutes II" after CBS retracted the story. "He seems to be saying he was just the narrator. "He did every interview. He worked the sources over the phone. He was there in the room with the so-called document experts. He argued over every line in the script. It's laughable." Rome Hartman, a former executive producer of "CBS Evening News" who now works for the BBC, said: "It's got to be about this lasting sense of hurt and pride. I was flabbergasted. I just don't get it." It didn't take long for this to get hot -- and these people should be sympathetic to Rather's cause.

For laughs, you might want to go back and read this again to understand why his old pals aren't supporting him...

Well, Actually ...

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com In a world of perfect karma, Ahmadinejad would be captured by American "students" and held hostage for over a year, paraded before TV cameras and threatened almost daily with death.

... if the U.N. had existed during WWII and Hitler came to speak, FDR would have exterminated him like a bug. And would have flattened the whole U.N. complex if required to do so without a second thought. But he would have sunk the ship or shot down the plane long before that of course.

Don't believe me?

Yes, you need to go brush up on your history now, don't you? What's that? You're shocked to learn that FDR also incarcerated the entire Japanese population of the western U.S. just so there was less chance the Japanese would learn of the Manhattan project?

Human rights? FDR? Not the synonyms you thought perhaps?

Ahmedinejad Loves Ya Baby

clipped from www.powerlineblog.com

Luckily, we're not at war or anything. Unless you believe your eyes.

And just when I swore off bad language

At least it's not mine...

Hamas Wants War? Who'd A Thunk It?!

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com Israel has declared Hamas-run Gaza as a "hostile entity," a move that allows Israel to consider ending supplies of water and electricity to the region. Hamas objected to the designation, calling it an act of war, which never seemed to bother them while they called for Israel's destruction: The Israeli government has declared the Gaza Strip a "hostile entity" in response to the continued rocket attacks by Palestinian militants there. The Israeli decision could lead to Israel cutting off vital water, fuel or electricity supplies to the territory. ... Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's office said his security cabinet had approved the "hostile entity" classification at a meeting on Wednesday morning. Under any rational analysis, these are acts of war and hostility towards Israel. The Israelis have shown remarkable patience in waiting this long to recognize the obvious -- that Hamas wants war.

The Duranty Dunces

clipped from www.captainsquartersblog.com The Post awards Thompson "four Pinocchios" for his statement. I'd award the Post about ten dunce caps for borderline illiteracy. Thompson specifically mentions that we shed our blood for "other people's liberty", not our own. That excludes any nation that fought to defend its own territory. The Soviet Union had allied itself with Nazi Germany -- right up to the moment of Hitler's invasion of June 1941. The Soviets did not fight the Germans to liberate anyone except themselves. Had Hitler not launched Operation Barbarossa, Stalin wouldn't have lifted a finger for anyone's liberty, let alone those of his own people -- which he proved in the post-war Iron Curtain he imposed on Europe. Anyone who can't figure this much out has no business writing for a professional newspaper. It's a ludicrous, almost ghoulish argument in the face of what followed World War II in Europe. It's worthy of Walter Duranty, the disgraced Soviet apologist of the 1930s New York Times.

The Hated Fiends

clipped from www.michaeltotten.com “Old school methods defeat insurgencies,” Captain McGee said, “not brute force or technology. The key is to kill existing terrorists and prevent additional recruitment. Al Qaeda must have a safe haven or they will barely be able to operate.” That doesn’t mean they can’t operate at all, but it does mean they can’t control territory, work out in the open, or oppress others from above. They are hunted now and must spend an enormous amount of energy avoiding detection instead of stirring up trouble. The former would-be “liberators” have become hated fiends who lurk in the shadows and lash out in rage at the society that has rejected them. Victory for them, in this place, is all but impossible now. “Having the Arabic press note that AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq] is rejected by Sunni Arab Iraqis is better than any message we could ever put out,” Major Lee Peters said.

Of "Peace" And "Guidance"

clipped from article.nationalreview.com In Arabic, “Embrace Islam and you shall have peace” is simply a two-word pun: aslam taslam, which most literally means “Submit, have peace.” In fact, perpetual warfare — that is, jihad — has been the true legacy of Mohammed’s ominous missive to the Christian emperor. After Heraclius refused to submit to Islam, an infinite barrage of jihad campaigns erupted, for centuries, until Constantinople — seat of Christendom — was finally conquered Indeed, the above scenario best explains the etymological relationship between the words “Islam” and “peace” — a relationship often distorted through conflation. Even though “Islam” and the Arabic word for “peace” are formed from the same three-lettered root “s-l-m” — and thus are in fact related — only the word “Salam” means “peace.” “Islam” means “submit” or “surrender.” The connection between the two words, then, is clear: In Islam, peace is the goal, but only through submission — just as Mohammed plainly proclaimed to Heraclius.

Stupid W ... And FDR?

clipped from www.americanthinker.com One of the clichéd questions of the Left is "Why did Bush invade Iraq? We were attacked by Saudi Arabians on 9/11!" Or so goes the customary narrative. This mantra is supposed to expose President Bush's stupidity. But in fact The Question reveals the asker's own clueless blunder about war and strategy. The proper answer is to point to other presidents and other wars. Like FDR after Pearl Harbor.  After the "day that will live in infamy" FDR's first land attack took place in Morocco and Algeria, then French colonies, in alliance with the British.  Why? Morocco is about as far from Pearl as you can get. Why punish the poor North Africans for what the Japanese did to us?  Well, FDR understood the enemy, and so did the American people.  It wasn't just Tojo who attacked the US on December 7, 1941. It was the Axis imperial alliance -- Germany, Japan and Italy.

The Tribes

clipped from www.michaelyon-online.com Although the Iraqi Soldiers are nearly always embarrassed when an American like Captain Morris bolts around and tells them to cut out the idiocy, the most interesting dynamic is how it also engenders respect from the Iraqi Soldiers for the Americans. Before the war, our people had no street credibility in Iraq. Iraqis thought American Soldiers were soft, and that the body armor was a type of personal air conditioner. But if the Iraqis knew back then what they know now about American willingness to suffer and fight, it’s doubtful that Saddam would have taunted an angry America. And so when someone like Captain Morris points out to Iraqi Soldiers something they already know they are doing wrong (like painting the wall of someone’s house, for instance), their respect for Americans grows. Day after day, Iraqis come to Americans asking for justice, because they see countless thousands of daily actions by people like Captain Sheldon Morris. Our military is a powerful tribe.

Which Is The Worse AQ?

clipped from fallbackbelmont.blogspot.com AQ Khan...still no bullet in his brainpan...how feckless our CIA...too busy booking Vanity Fair pieces or the next NYT disclosures....

They may be one and the same soon if they're not already...

Our Founder's Noisy Graves

clipped from www.iht.com It will not be possible to achieve these objectives in a single, dramatic move. The military outcome in Iraq will ultimately have to be reflected in some international recognition and some international enforcement of its provisions. The international conference of Iraq's neighbors, including the permanent members of the Security Council, has established a possible forum for this. A UN role in fostering such a political outcome could be helpful. Such a strategy is the best road to reduce America's military presence in the long run. None of these objectives can be realized, however, unless two conditions are met: The United States needs to maintain a presence in the region on which its supporters can count and which its adversaries have to take seriously. And above all, the country must recognize that bipartisanship has become a necessity, not a tactic.

Of course he doesn't mention the elephant in the room (hint: it also starts with an "I") by name so this can't be considered a seminal article. But he does end with the obvious point about the home front.

Which reminds me about something I had been meaning to illuminate for a long time. Who the hell is the American Congress to be lecturing the Iraqis on how to run a democracy??? Virtually all the Democrats (now that Lieberman isn't official any more) and most of the Republicans are at least venal if not outright corrupt porkmeisters.

Congress has virtually become a velvet prison colony to keep these jokers out of productive businesses where they could do even more damage than what we have today.

Even if I have to ruefully admit that compared to the rest of the world we're doing well, it only reflects what sad shape the rest of the world is in. As I noted recently, when France headed toward a war footing, serious trouble is brewing.

And those soft, nagging cries of agony you can't get a fix on are from our founders graves as they review the state of our government's readiness to deal with it...

You Know Things Are Bad...

clipped from www.africasia.com The world should "prepare for the worst ... (which) is war" over the Iranian nuclear crisis, but seeking a solution through talks should take priority, French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Sunday. "We have to prepare for the worst, and the worst is war," he said in an interview broadcast on television and radio. "We must negotiate right to the end," with Iran, he said, but underlined that if Tehran possessed an atomic weapon, it would represent "a real danger for the whole world."

... when the French are on your side. Look for the MSMemoryHole to keep burying this -- right along with other inconvenient facts like the huge proportion of nuclear power plants they have.