Sunday, December 02, 2007

Megahed and Mohamed's "Roadtrip on a Budget" Defense

 
Remember the case of the two South Florida students who were detained near a military base in South Carolina after pipe bombs were found in their car? You've may have forgotten about this terrorism trial because our mainstream media's "pro journalists" haven't seen fit to cover the story.

As a quick refresher, the pair of USF students were traveling on a lonely highway, just miles from a sensitive military installation. In the car with them: pipes filled with fertilizer, Karo syrup, kitty litter, bullets, fuses, a laptop with a history of web searches on Jihadist martyrdom, Hamas and Qassam rockets and video instructions for turning remotely controlled toy cars into detonators.

In July, Mohamed (pictured at right) had posted the YouTube video on the use of toys as detonators. The video's narrator says that it was intended "to save one who wants to be a martyr for another day in battle."

Authorities were also concerned about Megahed's recent love affair with firearms. He had purchased a rifle with a telescopic sight, discussed buying a Beretta handgun, and had joined a shooting range. Megahed also possessed "multiple Egyptian passports" under different names and visited a Sears photography center in July to acquire additional passport-sized photos. Megahed's recent travel to Egypt, Canada, Saudi Arabia, and Nigeria had also raised prosecutors' fears.

The apologists

In August, shortly after their arrests, the usual suspects -- CAIR and MAS ("Guilty Until Proven Innocent is Not American Justice") -- claimed that "racial profiling" was to blame.

In a perfect storm of racial profiling and shoddy police tactics, several cases have evolved throughout North and South Carolina where unnecessary arrest detainment has given way to a racial profiling study conducted by ACLU of North Carolina Legal Foundation, and headed by attorney Azadeh N. Shahshahani, Muslim/Middle Eastern Community Outreach Coordinator...

Although due process has not been as timely as it should have been MAS Freedom-NC is pleased to announce the pending release of Youssef Megahed and Ahmed Mohamed...

MAS is still awaiting the "pending release" of the pair.

Latest news: the defense strategy

The strategy of the defense team is becoming more apparent. Yesterday, an AP article ("Student Says Supposed Bomb Was Fireworks") stresses the fun-loving innocence of the pair:

[Mohamed was] charged with trying to aid terrorists [and] says the supposed explosives found in his possession were just cheap fireworks that could only travel a few feet, according to a court filing.

Ahmed Mohamed said he made the fireworks, called "sugar rockets," because it was cheaper than buying fireworks at a roadside stand, the defense filing said.

Mohamed told investigators that he became interested in fireworks just before July 4, public defender Adam Allen wrote...

In a similar vein, the St. Petersburg Times' synopsis of the defense ("Two road-tripping college kids on a budget") characterizes the pair as tourists on a shoestring budget.

In a pleading filed Friday, Megahed's attorney, Adam Allen, said Mohamed and Megahed were headed to Sunset Beach, N.C., the cheapest way possible.

They bought a global positioning system at Wal-Mart in Ocala, he wrote, so that they could find the cheapest gas prices at Wal-Marts and Murphy Gas Stations along the way.

When a deputy stopped the pair near a naval base on Aug. 4, Mohamed, 26, volunteered that he had "fireworks" and fuses in the car, Allen wrote, but Megahed, 21, didn't know about them.

According to the pleading, Mohamed, who had been in the United States only six months, became fascinated with fireworks before July 4, when he learned they were widely available. But after visiting several fireworks stands, he decided they were too expensive.

So, he turned to YouTube for instructions on how to make "sugar rockets" with stump remover, sugar and cat litter. Mohamed brought the fireworks on the beach road trip with his buddy in hopes he could find an open field to try shooting them off again, Allen wrote...

Reviewing the 'road-trip on a budget defense'

The price of a Garmin eTrex GPS at Wal-Mart ranges from about $105 to $260. And let's say the GPS magically allows you to find gas stations where fuel is a whole 10 cents-a-gallon cheaper than normal.

Thus, to pay for the $105 GPS, the pair would have had to consume over 1,000 gallons of gas. At 24 miles-per-gallon, that's roughly around the world: 24,000 miles.

I'm not sure I would've gone with the "I had to buy a GPS to find cheap gas" argument.

And you can buy one heck of a lot of fireworks for $105 -- the price of the GPS.

This is just a hunch, but I'm guessing the defense team doesn't consist of Louis Nizer, Samuel Leibowitz, or Clarence Darrow.

Saturday, December 01, 2007

CNN's YouTube Debate: alternate 'undecideds' you didn't see

 
There have been many complaints about CNN's stereotyped questioners at the recent GOP debate. But, if time had permitted, the alternate YouTube questioners -- as chosen by CNN -- were even more representative of typical Republicans. That is, as Republicans are imagined to be by liberals progressives.

I wanna know which o' y'all own a machine gun?

Arggggh! Should gays be allowed to appear in public?

Which candidate's wife wants a dinner date with me?

Do you believe in equal rights for Blacks, Jews, Catholics, Eye-talians, Irish, Hispanic-types, and other non-pure-whites?

Which of ya'll are goin' to hail???

* * *

Yep. Just "randomly selected undecided voters". Like the gay General who coincidentally happened to be a Hillary Clinton staffer.

Sermon on Iwo Jima

 
If this message from the Sergeant doesn't send chills down your spine and bring a tear to your eye, well, you may not be human.

An interesting fact that many of you may be unaware of is the historic events that surrounded a Jewish chaplain on [Iwo Jima, where of 70,000 American Marines, 1,500 were Jewish].

Rabbi Roland B. Gittelsohn, assigned to the Fifth Marine Division, was the first Jewish chaplain the Marine Corps ever appointed. Rabbi Gittelsohn was in the thick of the fray, ministering to Marines of all faiths in the combat zone. His tireless efforts to comfort the wounded and encourage the fearful won him three service ribbons. When the fighting was over, Rabbi Gittelsohn was asked to deliver the memorial sermon at a combined religious service dedicating the Marine Cemetery.

Unfortunately, racial and religious prejudice led to problems with the ceremony. What happened next immortalized Rabbi Gittelsohn and his sermon forever.

It was Division Chaplain Warren Cuthriell, a Protestant minister, who originally asked Rabbi Gittelsohn to deliver the memorial sermon. Cuthriel wanted all the fallen Marines (black and white, Protestant, Catholic and Jewish) honored in a single, nondenominational ceremony. However, according to Rabbi Gittelsohn's autobiography, the majority of Christian chaplains objected to having a rabbi preach over predominantly Christian graves...

To his credit, Cuthriell refused to alter his plans. Gittelsohn, on the other hand, wanted to save his friend Cuthriell further embarrassment and so decided it was best not to deliver his sermon. Instead, three separate religious services were held. At the Jewish service, to a congregation of 70 or so who attended, Rabbi Gittelsohn delivered the powerful eulogy he originally wrote for the combined service:

Here lie men who loved America because their ancestors generations ago helped in her founding. And other men who loved her with equal passion because they themselves or their own fathers escaped from oppression to her blessed shores. Here lie officers and men, Negroes and Whites, rich men and poor, together. Here are Protestants, Catholics, and Jews together. Here no man prefers another because of his faith or despises him because of his color. Here there are no quotas of how many from each group are admitted or allowed.

Among these men there is no discrimination. No prejudices. No hatred. Theirs is the highest and purest democracy! Whosoever of us lifts his hand in hate against a brother, or who thinks himself superior to those who happen to be in the minority, makes of this ceremony and the bloody sacrifice it commemorates, an empty, hollow mockery. To this then, as our solemn sacred duty, do we the living now dedicate ourselves: To the right of Protestants, Catholics, and Jews, of White men and Negroes alike, to enjoy the democracy for which all of them have here paid the price.

We here solemnly swear this shall not be in vain. Out of this and from the suffering and sorrow of those who mourn this, will come, we promise, the birth of a new freedom for the sons of men everywhere.

Among Gittelsohn's listeners were three Protestant chaplains so incensed by the prejudice voiced by their colleagues that they boycotted their own service to attend Gittelsohn's. One of them borrowed the manuscript and, unknown to Gittelsohn, circulated several thousand copies to his regiment. Some Marines enclosed the copies in letters to their families.

An avalanche of coverage resulted. Time magazine published excerpts, which wire services spread even further. The entire sermon was inserted into the Congressional Record, the Army released the eulogy for short-wave broadcast to American troops throughout the world and radio commentator Robert St. John read it on his program and on many succeeding Memorial Days.

In 1995, in his last major public appearance before his death, Gittelsohn reread a portion of the eulogy at the 50th commemoration ceremony at the Iwo Jima statue in Washington, D.C. In his autobiography, Gittelsohn reflected, "I have often wondered whether anyone would ever have heard of my Iwo Jima sermon had it not been for the bigoted attempt to ban it."

ANOTHER DAY TO SERVE THE CORPS Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Semper Vigilo, Fortis, Paratus, et Fidelis!

Best o' the November Posts


What can and must be done


The Clintons, Vin Gupta and InfoUSA


Calling out the 'head in the sand' co-Presidents


Al Gore: Set to Profit from Eco-Suckaz... again


"I'm not just running a campaign. I'm having a conversation."


All six of CNN's "undecided voters" were Democratic operatives

Friday, November 30, 2007

Copperheads: a flashback to the Democrats of 1864

 
Gateway Pundit has today's essential reading. Noting Howard Dean's quote --

When the other side's candidates get up, they look like the 1950s. And when they talk, they sound like they're from the 1850s.

-- GP goes medieval on Dean.

Democrats haven't changed a lick in 143 years as you can tell from this 1864 political cartoon by Thomas Nast.


...this very revealing 1864 campaign poster... described the uncanny comparisons to today's anti-war party:

1.) Showing the enemy soldier stronger and more resilient than our own. Here the Southern soldier (enemy) is upright and strong, the Northern (US) broken and dejected.
2.) The "useless war" on the tomb. Even then the pessimist couldn't see the righteousness of the conflict [against the scourge of slavery].
3.) The flag flown upside down in a distress display; even then they saw... only failure.
4.) The grieving widow.

...My, God! We know the outcome of that war, and if not for the strength and foresight of President Lincoln (and a new willingness for sacrifice from the soldiers) did the north come out victorious in the end. This poster was produced in 1864. The former battlefield failure General McClellan was running on the Democratic ticket as the peace promoter - a position opposite of the President... just like today.

...With the conclusion of the war in 1865 the Peace Democrats were thoroughly discredited. Most Northerners believed, not without reason, that Peace Democrats had prolonged war by encouraging the South to continue fighting in the hope that the North would abandon the struggle.

The Democratic party was not fit to run this country in 1864. And, the Democratic party is not fit to run this country today, either...

Dear Howard:

For over 164 years, the Democrat Party has proudly marched under the banner of weakness, surrender, and defeat. Hold your head high, loser.

Warmest Regards,

Doug

Bin Laden terrorizes 9/11 "Truther" movement

 
Usama Bin Laden has been reduced to begging the Allies to leave Afghanistan. In a rant that can only be described as hysterical, he claimed the Taliban knew nothing of his plans to level Manhattan and Washington. In so doing, he has shredded the hallucinations of the 9/11 conpiracy theorists.

Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden called on the Europeans to stop helping the United States in the war in Afghanistan, according to excerpts of a new audiotape broadcast Thursday on Al-Jazeera television.


Bin Laden said it was unjust for the United States to have invaded Afghanistan for sheltering him after the 9/11 attacks, saying he was the "only one responsible" for the deadly assaults on New York and Washington.

"The events of Manhattan were retaliation against the American-Israeli alliance's aggression against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, and I am the only one responsible for it. The Afghan people and government knew nothing about it. America knows that," the al-Qaida leader said.

Now, perhaps, the 9/11 conspiracy theorists known as "Troofers" can focus their attention on the only real questions surrounding the attacks of September 11th.


That is, which material Sandy Berger removed from the National Archives... and why he destroyed it.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

My Newspaper: buh bye, legacy media!

 
Bonus flashback post from January...


The Fedex truck pulled up this morning.


They dropped off my newspaper replacement. It's a very specialized printer called NewsPrinter.


You plug it in and then attach the USB jack to your computer.


Then watch your computer monitor.


A really cool application automatically starts and it interviews you. It asks just a few questions. What time each morning do you want your newspaper printed? How many pages? And do you want to preview an on-screen copy?


If you're okay with the layout, you quit. Elapsed time since Fedex arrived? About four minutes. When you wake up in the morning, your newspaper is already printed and waiting for you at the printer. And it's up-to-the-minute.


The software can even tell where you're located, so the Local section will default to your area.


Want to change the defaults? The software can actually step you through an easy configuration. Need coverage of your favorite football or baseball team? Just choose the team's logo from the list. The neatest thing about NewsPrinter? You can completely customize every aspect of the newspaper down to the tiniest detail.


Getting older? You can completely adjust the size of the typeface and headlines.


So who makes money from NewsPrinter? How's the business-model work? I'm not really sure, but the printer manufacturer didn't charge me for the printer. I pay for paper (of course) and special inkjet cartridges, the price of which I'll admit are slightly inflated.


The content is provided by blogging networks and, I think, the McClatchy news service. The news service has a partnership with the printer manufacturer and gets a cut of NewsPrinter ink cartridges.


I have two words for legacy media and the New York Times, specifically.

Buh. Bye.

Political Correctness and the First Amendment at risk

 
Investors' Business Daily interviews Rep. Susan Myrick (R-NC) regarding political correctness and the war on terror. Myrick strongly objects to the PC veil that prevents honest debate.

We should explore every means of encouraging moderate Muslims to speak out against the radicals. There are many who want to, and do — such as Sheikh (Muhammad Hisham) Kabbani (of the Islamic Supreme Council of America) and Zainab al-Suwaij (of the American Islamic Congress) and Dr. Zuhdi Jasser (of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy). But they do not get the media attention...

...We need to shed the veil of political correctness that shields government officials from speaking out against them... groups like [Council on Arab-Islamic Relations] CAIR seek to silence the debate. The American people deserve to see and hear the debate, but most people in positions of influence are afraid to say anything...

In that regard, Blogcritics' Selwyn Duke is one of only a handful of folks covering an important First Amendment case. CAIR has organized an advertiser boycott against controversial radio announcer Michael Savage and the stakes couldn't be higher. I say that no matter what you might think of Savage's diatribes: love 'em or hate 'em, he's got every right to express his opinion.

[CAIR has ] carried out campaigns against National Review magazine, radio personality Paul Harvey, the producers of the television program 24, and many others...

[Now] CAIR has been pressuring Savage's advertisers to pull their spots from his show, and I'm dismayed to learn that some businesses have capitulated to their demands. Among these cowardly companies are AutoZone, TrustedID, OfficeMax, Citrix Systems Inc., [Wal-Mart] and JCPenney...

Trade rag Radio Ink reports that a group called Act for America is taking its First Amendment message to consumers.

...Act for America, which says it "was created to provide American citizens a means to be a collective voice for the democratic values of Western civilization," is asking consumers to contact OfficeMax and tell the company they won't shop at OfficeMax stores until the ad boycott is lifted. The group plans to launch similar efforts targeted at other advertisers boycotting Savage Nation.

William Mayer reports that CAIR's "press conference" at San Francisco's AM 910 (Savage's flagship station) was attended by all of about seven people.

...Basim Elkarra, Executive Director of CAIR's Sacramento branch..., refused to condemn the terrorist group HAMAS, specifically and by name, when challenged to do so... though he was given ample opportunity.

CAIR carries some heavy baggage in this regard. Last summer, it was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation [HLF] prosecution and the founder of CAIR's Texas chapter, Ghassan Elashi, was found guilty and sentenced in the Infocom terror case. Elashi remains a key defendant in the HLF trial...

There's only one word for a group that refuses to condemn Hamas, is an unindicted co-conspirator in a major terrorism trial, and has had a variety of its members and executives run afoul of the law, all while pillorying Savage. It's chutzpah.

First they came for Savage. Who's next, Rush? And then Hannity? Then Colmes?

If Americans don't act now -- and I mean all Americans -- there's no telling where this might end. Someday, liberals might dominate talk radio. And they would be at risk as well.

Contact Information and Sample Letter

As for AutoZone, TrustedID, OfficeMax, Citrix Systems, [Wal-Mart] and JCPenney: my recommendation is to tell them why you're steering clear. I've linked each of the company's names to go directly to a contact form or customer email address - just click, paste, and send the following message or your own equivalent.

The advertising boycott of the Michael Savage Radio Show at the behest of unindicted co-conspirator CAIR is misguided at best. Multiple federal officials (including current members of Congress) have stated "we know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism."

A swarm of bloggers are jumping on this issue.

I ask, respectfully, that you reconsider this misguided political correctness.

Sincerely, _____________

Moronic Convergence: a Kucinich-Paul Ticket

 
LGF alerts us to a looming episode of Real World '08: a Kucinich-Paul ticket.

“I’m thinking about Ron Paul” as a running mate, Kucinich told a crowd of about 70 supporters at a house party here, one of numerous stops throughout New Hampshire over the Thanksgiving weekend. A Kucinich-Paul administration could bring people together “to balance the energies in this country,” Kucinich said.

Why, this would triple their chances of getting elected!

A bit of back o' the napkin math... let's see... 0.0000000000000000000001% * 3 is what?

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

China goes to Sesame Street

 
Earlier this year, China conducted an ominous anti-satellite weapons test, blowing one of their old weather satellites to pieces with a sophisticated missile. Analysts said that these weather satellites travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites; therefore the anti-missile test represented an indirect threat to critical U.S. defense systems.

And just how did the Chinese military acquire these advanced missile technologies? A glimpse into a timeline of donations and actions by the Clinton Administration -- as entered into the Congressional Record -- may help explain.

April 24, 1995: Loral chairman Schwartz gives $25,000 to the Democratic National Committee.

June 30, 1995: Schwartz gives $20,000 to Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, which provide support for Democratic Senate candidates.

Aug. 30, 1995: Schwartz gives $75,000 to DNC.

Sept. 30, 1995: Schwartz gives $20,500 to DSCC.

Oct. 9, 1995: Secretary of State Warren Christopher decides satellites should remain a military munitions item.

Nov. 29, 1995: Schwartz gives $100,000 to DNC.

Nov. 29, 1995: A Chinese government agency writes Loral, asking for help in getting an upgrade for its dual-use imaging technology, exports of which are prohibited under U.S. sanctions.

Jan. 26, 1996: Loral is sold to Lockheed for $9 billion.

CLINTON APPROVES LAUNCH

Feb. 6, 1996: Clinton approves the launch of four communications satellites on Chinese rockets.

Feb. 6, 1996: Wang Jun of CITIC, owners of percentages in Chinese satellite companies, visits the White House for coffee and dines with Commerce Secretary Ron Brown.

Feb. 8, 1996: The White House and Commerce Department begin to talk about the satellite export issue again.

Feb. 14, 1996: A Chinese rocket carrying Loral Intelsat satellite explodes, destroying a Chinese village.

Feb. 15, 1996: Schwartz gives $15,000 to DSCC.

Feb. 15, 1996: The State Department gets an urgent request from the White House to speed up the process of switching the satellite licensing to the Commerce Department.

Feb. 29, 1996: Schwartz gives $50,000 to Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which bankrolls Democratic House candidates.

March 8, 1996: China launches missiles.

March 14, 1996: Clinton decides to move the satellite licensing function to the Commerce Department.

March 15, 1996: Loral President J.A. Lindfelt writes Commerce to say the export of a dual-use technology, known as synthetic aperture radar, is being held up by the Defense, State and Commerce departments.

April 1996: Schwartz announces the formation of Loral Space and Communications.

April 24, 1996: Schwartz gives $50,000 to DSCC.

June 10, 1996: Schwartz gives $100,000 to DNC.

July 22, 1996: Liu Chao-Ying of China Aerospace meets Clinton with Johnny Chung.

July 31, 1996: Schwartz gives $5,000 to DSCC.

INFLUX OF CHINESE MONEY

August 1996: Chung accounts show an influx of $300,000 from Liu Chao-Ying.

Aug. 18, 1996: Chung gives $20,000 to DNC to attend Clinton's birthday party.

Aug. 28, 1996: Chung gives $15,000 to DNC at Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Sept. 16, 1996: Schwartz gives $30,000 to DSCC.

Sept. 20, 1996: Schwartz gives $20,000 to DSCC.

Oct. 16, 1996: Schwartz gives $10,000 to DSCC.

Oct. 18, 1996: Schwartz gives $70,000 to DNC.

Oct. 24, 1996: Schwartz gives $5,000 to DSCC.

Nov. 5, 1996: New guidelines on Commerce licensing of satellites are published.

Nov. 5, 1996: Clinton is elected to his second term as president.

Oct., 1997: A federal investigation of Loral begins.

Feb. 12, 1998: As Clinton ponders whether to sign another waiver allowing launch of a Loral satellite aboard a Chinese missile, National Security Adviser Sandy Berger sends him a memo saying the Justice Department `has cautioned that a national interest waiver in this case could have a significant adverse impact on any prosecution [of Loral] that might take place based on a pending investigation of export violation.'

But Berger adds that `the advantages of this project outweigh the risk,' and `it is inappropriate to penalize [Loral] before they have even been charged with any crime.'

Feb. 18, 1998: Clinton signs a waiver allowing Loral satellite to be lifted into orbit by the Chinese.

All told, Schwartz was the largest single contributor to Democrats during the 1996 election cycle. He and his wife contributed over $1.1 million to federal campaigns, almost all of which went to Democratic candidates and party committees.

So, not only did Democrats provide critical missile technology to the Chinese that directly threatens the United States -- they actively oppose the missile defense systems that would help protect us. You heard me right: even in an age of Kim Jong-Il and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Democrats oppose missile defense.

And that's precisely why the Democratic Party is accurately referred to as "the Sesame Street Party."

As for voting for Hillary Clinton or any Democrat? Consider yourself warned about their greed and the resulting consequences.