Thursday, July 26, 2007

Fairness Doctrine is Needed... for PBS

 
A recent PBS Frontline featured a retired "whistleblower" who claimed that "secret rooms" at AT&T facilities in cities throughout the U.S. had been tapped by the Government. The EFF filed a lawsuit in 2006, which is currently wending its way through the courts.

Notwithstanding whether anyone did anything illegal, I thought this portion of the interview was telling. I wonder if Mr. Klein has an agenda?

Q: There were terrorists who were living among us prior to 9/11. They were moving around; they were going to flight schools; they were renting apartments; they were traveling around. Doesn't the government need to do something in terms of gathering information to try to prevent the next terrorist attack?

A: ...you're asking this government -- which is full of prevarications and misleading statements and not very truthful and also a large component of simply [sic] incompetence -- handing them the keys to everybody's private information. I don't trust them with that... they're far more interested in just aggrandizing power for power's sake... the so-called war on terror, which is their excuse for everything they do. Everything is aggrandizing power secretly, with no oversight. And I'm against that. It's dangerous.

No oversight, that is, other than the bipartisan committees -- the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) and the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI) -- that vetted and approved the wiretaps.

Hey, I've got an idea. How about the fairness doctrine for PBS, since we foot the damn bill?

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

TSA: Terrorist Dry-Runs Point to Imminent Attack

 
Ed Morrissey provides an excellent summary of what may be an ominous series of terrorist dry-runs. The TSA alert (PDF) suggests that an attack on airliners may be imminent. The TSA discovered items that closely resembled C4 (explosives), IEDs, and remote triggers.

Furthermore, the explanations of the persons involved were "questionable" and investigations continue.

[Authorities] have intercepted several items at airports resembling improvised explosive device (IED) components. These items include wires, switches, pipes or tubes, cell phone components, and dense clay-like substances. The unusual nature and increase in number of these improvised items raise concern... Terrorists may repeat operational tests to desensitize, distract, or adapt plans for specific environments...

Individuals involved in these incidents were of varying gender, and initial investigations do not link them with criminal or terrorist organizations. However, most passengers’ explanations for carrying the suspicious items were questionable, and some investigations are still ongoing. Many of the incidents caused airport terminal evacuations and at times, brief closures...

Noteworthy incidents include the following:

5 July 2007, San Diego, CA – A U.S. Person’s (USPER) checked baggage contained two icepacks covered in duct tape. The icepacks had clay inside them rather than the normal blue gel.

4 June 2007, Milwaukee, WI – The carry-on baggage of a USPER contained several items resembling IED components, such as a wire coil wrapped around a possible initiator, an electrical switch, batteries, three tubes, and two blocks of cheese

8 November 2006, Houston, TX – A USPER’s checked baggage contained a plastic bag with a 9-volt battery, wires, a block of brown clay-like minerals, and pipes.

16 September 2006, Baltimore, MD – The checked baggage of a couple contained a plastic bag with a block of processed cheese taped to another plastic bag holding a cellular phone charger.

Maybe some enterprising reporter will actually ask a question about terrorism at the next Democratic debate, preferably before an airliner goes down.

The face of evil and the 6-year old suicide bomber

 
LGF points us to a UK Channel 4 interview with terrorist Mansour Dadullah. Dadullah is the scumbag killer who specializes in kidnappings, torture, murder, and recruiting of suicide bombers. The report features the Taliban’s failed 6-year old suicide bomber.


One can only hope that a Predator drone is poised to send a couple of Hellfire love-letters into Dadullah's tent.

Patton on Iraq

 

From the looks of things, General George Patton has not left the building.

CNN Technical Director on Double-Secret Probation

 
"Somebody at CNN is probably in huge trouble today because there were four or five instances where there was a camera placed right behind Mrs. Clinton's derriere. You forgot anything you were hearing at the time, believe me, when you watched that."   --Rush Limbaugh

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Global Terrorism Database: Shhh. Don't Tell the Democratic Candidates.

 
It ain't exactly beach reading, but the University of Maryland has released its new Global Terrorism Database, or GTD2. It's a detailed repository of the more than 80,000 incidents of terrorism that have occurred globally since 1970.

The level of detail is astounding. The perpetrators, weapons used, fatalities, casualties, types of target and related data fields are provided for each incident.

According to a spokeperson at the University, GTD2 "is the most comprehensive unclassified database on terrorist events in the world."

Potential users include law enforcement, first responders, civil defense authorities, and others who need to quickly log and identify terrorist activities. Furthermore, it can help identify attackers based upon the analysis of the details of an incident; i.e., the modus operandi.

The database was assembled by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terror (START), which is funded in part by DHS. It includes information on 27,000 bombings, 13,000 assassinations, and 2,800 kidnappings. The project currently requires 75 data collection analysts with 12 advisor-specialists in terrorism research. The team operates in six language groups. It gathers data from around 25,000 different sources including government agencies and the media.

But don't bother telling the Democratic candidates for President. During last night's "YouTube" debate... in the midst of a war involving 160,000 of our armed forces... only five years removed from the worst terrorist attacks in the history of the world, there was not a single question about terrorism.

So for everyone except for Democratic candidates, GTD2 is a fascinating source of data for those interested in combating the likes of Al Qaeda.

Update: LGF alerts us to a Rudy Guiliani press release:

Last night, the leading Democratic candidates once again failed to even utter the words ‘Islamic terrorism’ at their fourth debate... This morning, congressional Democrats are once again showing they just don’t get the Terrorists' War on Us by attempting to strip important protections for those who report suspected terrorists on airlines.

...The terrorists are at war with us - whether or not Democrats in Washington and on the campaign trail choose to acknowledge it...

The 'Hockey Stick' is on fire... must be global warming

 
Orson Scott Card has published a wonderful, wonderful article in Meridian Magazine concerning the provable falsehood of the so-called "hockey stick."

If you pay close attention, you'll find that Global Warming alarmists are not actually saying "Global Warming" lately. No, nowadays it's "Climate Change." Do you know why?

Because for the past three years, global temperatures have been falling.

Oops.

The thing is, we've had twenty years since the Alarmists first raised the banner of Global Warming. They told us that "If This Goes On" by 2010 or 2020, sea levels will be rising so high that coastal cities will be flooded, famines will cover the earth, and ... Oh, you know the list. They're still making the same predictions — they just move the dates farther back.

It's like those millennarian religious cults in the 1800s. Religious leaders would arise who would predict the Second Coming of Christ in 1838. When Christ didn't oblige them by showing up, they went back to their visions or scripture calculations or whatever they claimed and report that they miscalculated, now it was going to be 1843. Or whatever.

Here's the raw truth:

All the computer models are wrong. They have not only failed to predict the future, they can't even predict that past.

That is, when you run their software with the data from, say, the 1970s or 1980s, and project what should happen in the 1990s or 2000s, they project results that have absolutely nothing to do with the known climate data for those decades.

In other words, the models don't work. The only way to make them "work" is to take the known results and then fiddle with the software until it finally produces them. That's not how honest science is done.

It's light years beyond a "must read". Send it to all of your progressive friends who believe in this UN-sponsored scam. Just don't ask them why Greenland is called Greenland - that might make their heads explode.

Meridian Magazine: All in a Good Cause (hat tip: Noel Sheppard)

Boston Globe: 'The Fundamentalist Moderate'

 
The New York Times Company has come under heavy and deserved criticism for its serial mismanagement and shoddy reporting practices. But, as owners of the Boston Globe, the Times Company deserves credit for an outstanding article published in the Sunday Globe.

Islamic scholar Javed Ahmad Ghamidi is a Pakistani cleric known for his strict interpretation of the Koran. But, unlike many fundamentalists, his readings argue against terroristic jihad, gender discrimination, and Islamic government. This is a man who needs more attention and the Globe obliges.

...At a time when many pin their hopes on "moderate" secular Muslims to lead the charge against radical militant Islam, Ghamidi offers a more forceful and profound deconstruction of the violent and bitter version of Islam that appears to be gaining ground in many parts of the Muslim world, including Pakistan. He challenges what he views as retrograde stances -- on jihad, on the penal code of rape and adultery, on the curricula in the religious schools, or madrassas -- but he does so with a purely fundamentalist approach: he rarely ventures outside the text of the Koran or prophetic tradition. He meticulously recovers detail from within the confines of religious text, and then delivers decisive blows to conservatives and militants who claim to be the defenders of Islam. His many followers are fond of comparing his influence in South Asia to that of Tariq Ramadan, the Swiss Muslim Islamic thinker of global repute, in Europe...

If traditional Islam is to coexist with the secular world, clerics like Ghamidi are poised to play important roles. Congratulations to the Globe and the Times Company for publicizing his efforts.

Boston Globe: The Fundamentalist Moderate

Pelosi drains swamp, finds more Democrats

 
Robert Novak, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times, informs us of more stunning chicanery in Congress:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid picked up his ball and went home following his staged all-night session last week, he saved from possible embarrassment one of the least regular members of his Democratic caucus: Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Reform Republican Sen. Tom Coburn had ready a defense authorization bill amendment to remove Nelson's earmark funding a Nebraska-based company whose officials include Nelson's son. Such an effort became impossible when Reid pulled down the bill...

...Reid... is working behind the scenes with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to undermine transparency of earmarks and prevent open debate on spending proposals such as Nelson's...

Reid is plotting to strip anti-earmark transparency from the final version of ethics legislation... it would bar earmarks benefitting a senator's family members such as Reid's four lobbyist sons and son-in-law. Nelson's current $7.5 million earmark for software helps 21st Century Systems Inc. (21 CSI), which employs the senator's son, Patrick Nelson, as its marketing director. 21 CSI gets 80 percent of its funds from federal grants, mostly from earmarks...

I'm certainly glad that Nancy drained the swamp. The problem is, as it drains, we keeps discovering more Democrats like Reid, Nelson, William Jefferson and Allan Mollohan at the bottom of the septic tank.

Line 'o the Day: the Polyps

 
"The president had five polyps removed from his colon. Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, Carl Levin and Dick Durbin are all doing fine."
      --Rush Limbaugh

Monday, July 23, 2007

Behold: Markos the Merciless and the Democrats

 
The Daily Kos website, host to a large number of military-bashers, anti-semites, and 9/11 troofers, has begun a major pogrom intended to purge the site of embarrassing Leftists. From the looks of things, Kos is feeling some pressure to clean up his act prior to the YearlyKos event.

Why? All of the serious Democratic candidates are paying homage at the event, in the hopes of generating major Internet momentum. Problem is, the Kos site has become a hub of bizarre activities. Consider:

- Daily Kos: KILLITARY: Are America's Armed Forces Creating Serial Killers and Mass Murderers?
- Daily Kos: Arkin Was Right - We Do Have a Mercenary Army and They Do Owe Us!
- Daily Kos: "I support our troops - cowards, queers, and all"
- Daily Kos: Hamas brings peace and tranquility to Gaza
- Daily Kos: Neocon Fear of Iran is Worse than Iranian Nukes
- Daily Kos: Stopping Christian Zionism and Hanging with Hamas
- Daily Kos: The Apartheid Phone System of Palestine*
- Daily Kos: Support Hugo Chavez
- Daily Kos: Restoring the Palestinian Voice to Daily Kos
- Daily Kos: "Lieberman should be gassed"
* featuring infamous whackjob author Eileen "The ultimate goal of the Zionists is one-world government under the control of the Zionists and the Zionist-oriented Jewish international bankers" Fleming

And those are just a few of the entries captured since May 15th, 2007.

The Democratic candidates must be so proud to be associated with this fine, upstanding website!

Needless to say, Kos is is extremely upset with this unwanted attention, now that all of the Democratic candidates are paying him some attention. How upset is he that peeing in the pool has become routine? Well, by golly, he's reached the Genghis Kahn level of upset-hood:

I’ll act swiftly and mercilessly when I’m pushed into defending the effectiveness of this site. And at this moment, my patience is wearing thin.

Pity Markos the Merciless can't muster the same level of anger against the religious extremists who killed 3,000 of his innocent countrymen on September 11th -- and have promised to kill "four million [more] Americans, two million of them children."

But showing anger against Islamist terrorists wouldn't be "progressive."

Shocked that Democratic candidates cuddle up to the denizens of Daily Kos? Don't be. That's how far left the party of Jack Kennedy, Harry Truman, and Franklin Roosevelt has fallen. Those three, great presidents wouldn't even recognize today's Democratic Party. Sometimes I think it's the gyroscopic energy of FDR, JFK, and Truman spinning in their graves that keeps the Earth aligned on its axis.

Sometimes it's hard to tell how Gateway Pundit really feels

 
But this ain't one of those times: here's a great post regarding Harry Reid's criticisms of President Bush:

[Bush...]
* Led the country out of the 9-11 attacks
* Lifted the country out of the Clinton Recession
* Has grown the economy for 22 straight quarters
* Has kept unemployment at historic lows
* Has lifted the stock market to record levels
* Has lifted over 50 million people out of bondage from two of the most brutal regimes in history
* Kept the country free from continuous devastating terror attacks unlike the previous administration
* Fought a successful 5 year War on Terror losing less soldiers in battle than the previous administration did in peacetime! But, democrats and the media never liked like George, so he must be the worst ever.

Read it all.

By the way, GP is absolutely right. The mainstream media led by The New York Times and the AP -- with a four-year drumbeat of ceaseless, morale-killing disinformation -- can't die fast enough.

Now Wired Magazine pulls a New York Times

 
And reveals a freaking incredible military secret.


These leaks are getting out of hand.

Line o' the Day: Hillary Clinton and Industrial Policy

 
"Is Hillary Really Walter Mondale in Drag? On Economic Policy, Yes... Quick quiz: What does Hillary Clinton think is a "great organizing principle" for the American economy? Increasing our standard of living? Maximizing economic growth and economic freedom, maybe? Putting a chicken in every pot, perhaps? Nope, none of those. In a speech to the Chicago Economic Club last spring, she suggested that climate change would be a cool concept to organize an economy around..."
                  --James Pethokoukis

Sunday, July 22, 2007

New York Times troubled over Harry Potter spoilers

 
NRO's Online Media Blog on the ethical standards of the New York Times:

I find it sad that there is more uproar over the Times' review of [the Harry Potter] book before its "official" release than over the Times' constant leaking of US government classified information. Moreover, it is ironic that the Times opted not to "spoil" plot aspects of the book, when they ignore how their leaking of classified information might "spoil" legitimate and valuable programs designed to protect their readership.

I don't find it sad.

I find it disgusting that the Times is more concerned with the sanctity of Harry Potter's conclusion than the serial disclosures of national security secrets that help jihadists avoid detection.

US-Iran Talks Set for Tuesday

 
JPost reports that the US and Iran will meet on July 24th.

Rumor has it that a skilled negotiator, a Mr. C. Norris, will meet privately with Iran's Mr. M. Ahmedinejad.

Line o' the Day: Contempt of Congress

 
"Contempt of Congress is a crime? If so, then 250 million Americans must be criminals, because there is a deep and abiding contempt for the job the Democratic Congress has done in its 6 months in power." --Don Surber

Democrats Support Higher Oil Prices (and Higher Taxes)

 
Chart-of-the-Day offers an intriguing multi-decade view of oil prices, adjusted for inflation (hat tips: EagleSpeak and Larwyn).

The price of crude oil is rising once again. Today's chart provides some perspective to the latest price spike with a long-term view of West Texas Intermediate Crude. One point of interest is that oil is trading near 25-year highs but still well below the inflation-adjusted highs of 1980. It is also interesting to note that most oil price spikes were a result of Middle East crises and often preceded or coincided with a US recession.

Despite the catastrophic damage that high oil prices can wreak on our economy, Democrats oppose virtually every measure that would relieve the pain on average Americans.


The accompanying map depicts "The No Zone." This is the region surrounding the United States in which Democrats have blocked oil exploration.

Democrats oppose drilling in deepwater, even though Hurricanes Katrina and Rita proved that modern offshore drilling platforms pose little or no pollution risk. Democrats oppose exploration in a tiny, postage-stamp sized region of Alaska. As for new refineries or nuclear energy, well, the Democrats oppose those, too. The net impact of Democratic behavior is that America will become increasingly dependent on foreign oil.

While alternative energy sources remain an admirable goal, they are decades away from becoming serious alternatives to oil. For good or bad, America's economy and national security hinge on access to oil. Ben Stein comments:

...If we lost all oil and gas products tomorrow, ...the world would simply collapse. There would be an immense depression beyond anything we saw in the 1930s -- the economy would go back to a primitive state. There would simply not be a functioning society. It would be as if there had been nuclear war, minus the casualties from blast and radiation... In a word, we cannot as a modern society or even a modestly industrial society live without oil and gas. That is, [it is not] a luxury or a narcotic. [It is] a basic necessity of life, as basic as almost any commodity there is.

The Democrats like to pretend that oil is a needless luxury by preventing exploration in sensible locations. But, in the mean time, Cuba is permitting foreign countries to drain the Gulf of Mexico of its oil. Cuba granted China drilling rights in the Gulf. And, in fact, China will be drilling within 50 miles of Florida.


While countries such as China suck oil out of the Gulf, Democrats continue to stonewall against sensible energy policies.

Act accordingly in 2008.

Democrats Support Voter Fraud

 
Michelle Malkin alerts us to an important vote that almost certainly wasn't reported in your newspaper:

On the Senate floor right now, members just finished voting on an amendment... that would require voters to show photo ID at the polls. You know, so illegal aliens and other ineligible people don’t undermine the integrity of the election process.

The amendment failed 42-54.

You’ll notice that not a single Democrat cast a vote in favor of the photo ID requirement for voters.

Interesting. I need a photo ID to board a plane, to present a check, or to buy a bottle of single-malt. But not to vote, thanks to the Democratic Party.

There can be only one reason that Democrats opposed this measure: they hope to see massive voter fraud in 2008.

Think I'm exaggerating? Just consider this leaflet handed out at a 2006 Democratic "get out the vote" rally in Texas.

Act accordingly in 2008.

Saturday, July 21, 2007

Iran's Mullahs Poised for a Record Year!

 
Barry Bonds isn't the only one on the cusp of breaking a record. Iran executed a murderer and a drug dealer this week, bringing its execution total to 121 so far this year. At this pace, the Mullahs are poised to hit the magical 200 barrier, breaking 2006's record of 177 public executions.

In Iran, capital crimes include murder, rape, armed robbery, apostasy, blasphemy, drug trafficking, repeated sodomy, adultery or prostitution, treason and espionage.

And they say Dimaggio's hitting streak is the toughest record to break!

Hat tips: Atlas and Larwyn