Islamofascists Still Celebrating 9/11

This letter, reprinted by Minerva, comes to us from an anonymous author in Italy via Gates of Vienna:

Dear Dymphna,I found this anonymous letter recently, reproduced on an Italian blog called “Penelope alla guerra.” As you can see the letter is not recent, but the situation has not improved in the meantime. If anything, it has gotten worse.Mark the optimism with which, at the end, the writer speaks of our government (at the time the centre-right one headed by Silvio Berlusconi). My opinion then was that Berlusconi simply managed the catastrophe of illegal immigration without doing anything to actually solve the problem.With the present left-wing government things are worse.Note: The punctuation is this letter is erratic, but I left it as it was because it reflects the writer’s deep anguish.Ciao, all the best,Minerva

This letter must reach everyone; spread it around as much as possible…Milan, September 11 ’04Saturday afternoon September 11 2004. In front of my house there is a mosque of sorts, or rather there’s a building where practically only Muslims live and they’ve set up a room for prayers, they’re all dressed in white, they’re celebrating… yes they’re celebrating September 11, they usually never meet on Saturdays but on Fridays so this is a special day, they’re celebrating the fall of the Twin Towers, they celebrate the massacre that is still vivid in my eyes and in anybody’s eyes…

Read the rest at Gates of Vienna

Antitrust Run Amuck

The U.S. federal government has brought many ridiculous antitrust lawsuits, but this one is one of the stupidest. They are going to court to block the propsed merger between Whole Foods Market and Wild Oats, saying this would monopolize the retail health food industry:

When the U.S. government goes to court this week to try to block Whole Foods Market Inc.'s planned purchase of Wild Oats Markets Inc., the judge will wrestle with this question: Which of John Mackey's arguments is most convincing?
The Federal Trade Commission contends Whole Foods and Wild Oats operate in a distinct market for premium natural and organic groceries and the $565 million deal would curtail competition and raise prices in that segment. To make its case, the agency is relying on comments by Mr. Mackey, the chief executive of Whole Foods, which suggest he considers his company's playing field different than that of typical grocers.
"Safeway and other conventional retailers will keep doing their thing -- trying to be all things to all people," Mr. Mackey has said, according to the FTC. "They can't really effectively focus on Whole Foods' [clientele]."

To see just how ridiculous this lawsuit is, compare the 2006 sales revenue of Whole Foods and Wild Oats with some of their competitors in retail grocery:

Whole Foods $5.6 billion

wild Oats 1.2 billion

Safeway 40.2 billion

Kroger 66.1 billion

A&P 6.8 billion

And this list doesn't even include Walmart, nor Target. (I scanned their annual reports but was unable to determine what portion of their sales are derived from groceries.)

It is ludicrous for the government to worry about the acquisition of a grocery chain that has less than one percent of the total sales in the USA. It is time that the government stayed out of business affairs altogether. They should stick to enforcing contracts and enforcing the criminal laws, especially the immigration laws. And try to protect the country from foreign enemies, include illegal immigrants.

Further Proof that Lefties Can't Stand Dissenting Opinions

The "liberals" at Moveon.org and Daily Kos have begun a campaign against Fox News channel by targeting their advertisers:

NEW YORK (AP) - Liberal activists are stepping up their campaign against Fox News Channel by pressuring advertisers not to patronize the network.
MoveOn.org, the Campaign for America's Future and liberal blogs like DailyKos.com are asking thousands of supporters to monitor who is advertising on the network. Once a database is gathered, an organized phone-calling campaign will begin, said Jim Gilliam, vice president of media strategy for Brave New Films, a company that has made anti-Fox videos.

The left are so accustomed to having a monopoly on mass communications of national political events that they CAN'T STAND the fact that Fox and the blogosphere exist. It's perfectly ok with them that CBS ABC NBC CNN and the New York Times, Washington Post, etc, etc, etc, have extreme leftwing bias.

"We're not trying to silence anybody," Green said. "Rush Limbaugh has a right to be on the air—he admits his point of view. Fox doesn't."

Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!! The left have been trying to silence Rush for years. And they don't seem to have any problem with the unadmitted bias of the "mainstream" media.

I have said it before, but it bears repeating. The left are the most narrow-minded, intolerant, bigoted, pro-censorship group of jackasses in the world. They think that anything a conservative or libertarian says or does constitutes a hatecrime. If it were up to them, people like me would be thrown in prison or executed. Their appellation of "liberal" is an oxymoron. They are about as liberal as the National Socialist German Workers Party.

The Yield Curve is Re-Inverting

The only long-term rate that is above the short-term rates is the 30 year Treasury bond, and that one not by much.

Iranian Supreme Mullah Says Harry Potter is a Billion Dollar Zionist Project

According to Memri blog, the Grand Imperial Poobah of the Terrorist Islamic Republic of Iran Ayatollah Ali Khameini says Harry Potter is a Zionist project:

In an article, the Iranian daily Kayhan, which is identified with Iranian Supreme Leader 'Ali Khamenei, criticized Iran's Culture and Islamic Guidance Ministry for approving the distribution of the new book in the "Harry Potter" series.
The paper said that "Harry Potter" was a Zionist project in which billions of dollars had been invested in order to disrupt the minds of young people.
Source: Kayhan, Iran, July 26, 2007

Be sure to check out Memri. They got a cool, anti-terrorist blog.

U.S. District Judge James Munley Says its Illegal to Crack Down on Illegals

Once again, we have a leftwing judge legislating from the bench. U.S. District Judge James Munley struck down the Illegal Alien Relief Act of Hazleton Pennsylvania:

ALLENTOWN, Pa. --A federal judge on Thursday struck down the city of Hazleton's tough crackdown on illegal immigrants, ruling unconstitutional a law that has been emulated by towns and cities around the nation.
The Illegal Immigration Relief Act, pushed by the city's Republican mayor last summer after two illegal immigrants were charged in a fatal shooting, was voided by U.S. District Judge James Munley following a nine-day trial in March.
The decision will almost certainly be appealed by the city.
Hazleton had sought to impose fines on landlords who rent to illegal immigrants and deny business permits to companies that give them jobs. A companion measure would have required tenants to register with City Hall and pay for a rental permit.
Mayor Lou Barletta, chief proponent of the crackdown, contends illegal immigrants have brought drugs, crime and gangs to the city of more than 30,000, overwhelming police, schools and hospitals.

Now get a load of the reasoning of the judge and the plaintiffs in the case:

Hispanic groups and illegal immigrants sued in federal court to overturn the measures, saying they usurp the federal government's exclusive power to regulate immigration, deprive residents of their constitutional rights to equal protection and due process, and violate state and federal housing law.
In a 206-page opinion, Munley said the act was pre-empted by federal law and violated the plaintiffs' due process rights.
"Whatever frustrations ... the city of Hazleton may feel about the current state of federal immigration enforcement, the nature of the political system in the United States prohibits the city from enacting ordinances that disrupt a carefully drawn federal statutory scheme," Munley wrote.
"Even if federal law did not conflict with Hazleton's measures, the city could not enact an ordinance that violates rights the Constitution guarantees to every person in the United States, whether legal resident or not," he added.

First of all, if illegal aliens show up in a U.S. District Court to file a lawsuit, why wasn't the Border Patrol called so that they could be apprehended and deported? In addition, since when does the constitution guarantee any illegal alien the right to employment in the U.S., and where does it guarantee illegal aliens the right to rent an apartment?

There are no constitutional guarantees of rights to illegal aliens. They only right they have is for a one-way ticket out of the country.

I wonder who appointed James Munley to the bench? Was it Carter or Clinton?

Update: Munley was appointed on October 26, 1998. That means he was appointed by Clinton! For that matter, Hillary had a major role in selecting judges for the federal courts. If she gets elected president, we may look forward to many more of these looney jurists.

Update 2: Here is Munley's contact information:

James M. Munley

U.S. District Court, Middle District of Pennsylvania

235 N. Washington Ave.

Scranton, PA 18501

Phone: 570-207-5780

Do Gold and Silver Prices Track Expected Inflation?

Former U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan (1993) mentioned the price of gold as an indicator of expected inflation:

Moreover, inflation expectations, at least by some measures, appear to have tilted upward this year, possibly contributing to price pressures. The University of Michigan survey of consumer attitudes, for example, reported an increase in the inflation rate expected to prevail over the next 12 months from about 3.75 percent in the fourth quarter of last year to nearly 4.5 percent in the second quarter of this year. Preliminary data imply some easing of such expectations earlier this month, but the sample from which those data are derived is too small to be persuasive. Moreover, the price of gold, which can be broadly reflective of inflationary expectations, has risen sharply in recent months.

As I recall, Greenspan was widely ridiculed for using the price of gold as an indicator of expected inflation. Back then there was no direct method of estimating expected future inflation. But beginning in 1997 the U.S. Treasury began issuing the Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) whose principal are indexed to the Consumer Price Index. We can estimate investors' inflation expectations by subtracting the yield on a TIPS bond from the yield of a nominal U.S. Treasury bond of the same maturity.
The black line at the bottom of the above graph is our estimate of the inflation expectations over a 5 to 10 year horizon for each month from 1997 to 2006. Above that are the spot prices of gold and silver bullion. You can easily see the co-movements between the metals prices and inflation expectations, except for the period beginning in September, 2005 when the metals increased rapidly in value without any corresponding increase in expected inflation.
Anyone who is interested in this research may see our paper here.

Barack Models Campaign After Reagan's

According to Obama pollster Cornell Belcher, Barack's campaign will try to capture Reagan's message of hope and optimism:

Awash in money and publicity but behind in the polls, Barack Obama, advisers say, is planning a classic insurgent's campaign to wrest the Democratic nomination from Hillary Rodham Clinton -- one that relies on a surge of momentum from early-state victories and faces a make-or-break test in the South Carolina primary. Obama is touting a new and unconventional brand of grass-roots politics, but his strategy borrows from precedents set by a previous generation of Democrats such as Jimmy Carter and Gary Hart. His advisers also invoke as inspiration a surprising Republican: Ronald Reagan. "Now, it is blasphemy for Democrats," Obama pollster Cornell Belcher said of Reagan, "but that hope and optimism that was Ronald Reagan" allowed him to "transcend" ideological divisions within his own party and the general electorate.

The irony is so thick you could cut it with a knife.

Drink Your Coffee Black

Starbucks says they are raising their coffee prices:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Starbucks Corp will raise U.S. prices on coffee, lattes and other drinks by an average of 9 cents a cup next week to help offset soaring costs for milk and other commodities, a spokesman said on Monday.
The widely anticipated move marks Starbucks' second price increase in less than a year and comes a month after the coffee shop chain's chief financial officer warned it would be "very challenging" for Starbucks to meet the high end of its 2007 earnings forecast, in part because of rising dairy prices.

They can't blame this on me. I don't drink lattes nor cappuccinos.

Ortega Says Washington is Scheming

Nicaraguan Presidente Daniel Ortega says the USA is trying to undermine his plan to feed the poor of Nicaragua:

MANAGUA (Reuters) - Leftist Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega accused Washington late on Saturday of conspiring with local opposition groups to obstruct his programs to help the poor.
Ortega, a Cold War foe of the United States again heading Nicaragua's government, said U.S. officials and Nicaraguan opposition groups want to undermine anti-hunger programs and other social initiatives.
"They are undoubtedly working below the surface," Ortega said of Washington. "They are conspiring with puppets."

So what great idea did you get to feed your poor, Daniel? Did you get any tips from Robert Mugabe? Or are you gonna do like you did to the Miskito Indians during your first term as El Presidente: If they're dead they can't get hungry, can they?

Tiger Woods Hits Ulster Scot Woman with Golf Ball

But he was a gentleman about it. It's just one of those risks you have to be willing to take if you get on a golf course.

CARNOUSTIE, Scotland — A woman was hit in the head by Tiger Woods' ball when he sliced an approach at the British Open on Saturday. She needed two stitches to close the wound.
Jennifer Wilson, from Antrim, Northern Ireland, was treated by medical staff after being driven away in a golf cart. Woods had earlier apologized and given the 63-year-old an autographed glove.
Wilson was struck just short of the green at the par 5 sixth hole at Carnoustie, where she was standing with her husband.
"We were standing 30 yards short of the green and I said to Jennifer: 'Get your crash helmet on, Tiger's coming,'" Cecil Wilson said. "I could not believe it when Jennifer then got 'clunked,' but he does go off line from time to time. She just sank to her knees and we laid her down flat. She's had two stitches and there was quite a lot of blood. A guy in the crowd said he was a doctor, but to be honest we didn't really need him.

I tried to get into golf when I was younger, but couldn't quite hack it. It is very difficult and I find it dull. There's nothing to compare with hunting wild pheasant or quail over a Springer Spaniel.

My dad loved golf. That's all he ever did in his free time.

Producer of 'Great Global Warming Swindle' Talks About the Fatwa Placed on Him

Martin Durkin, who made a documentary that questioned much of the global warming dogma, has been subjected to intense personal attacks. He was ready for this, because we are constantly hearing about how anyone who doubts that global warming is caused by human CO2 emissions must be either stupid or on the payroll of ExxonMobil or Halliburton.

Martin talks about his experiences and has some interesting insights as to why the global warming faithful are so intolerant and vindictive:

Why are the global warmers so zealous? After a year of arguing with people about this, I am convinced that it's because global warming is first and foremost a political theory. It is an expression of a whole middle-class political world view. This view is summed up in the oft-repeated phrase "we consume too much". I have also come to the conclusion that this is code for "they consume too much". People who believe it tend also to think that exotic foreign places are being ruined because vulgar oiks can afford to go there in significant numbers, they hate plastic toys from factories and prefer wooden ones from craftsmen, and so on.
All this backward-looking bigotry has found perfect expression in the idea of man-made climate disaster. It has cohered a bunch of disparate reactionary prejudices (anti-car, anti-supermarkets, anti-globalisation) into a single unquestionable truth and cause. So when you have a dig at global warming, you commit a grievous breach of social etiquette. Among the chattering classes you're a leper.

Above all, the denizens of the left simply can't stand it when someone expresses ideas that clash with their own. In spite of all their claims to being 'open-minded', and their use of the oxymoronic 'liberal' moniker, they are the most intolerant, bigoted, and narrow-minded people in the world.

Thirty Eight Years Ago

Our government actually did something good for a change. My dad worked for NASA from 1962 to 1973. It was an exciting time.

And it makes me happy to know that there are decent people in our government, not just Teddy Kennedys.

Shannon Rossmiller, Terrorist Hunter

Get a load of this. This young woman poses as a terrorist online and has helped authorities nab at least two would-be terrorists:

SCRANTON, Pa. – Shannen Rossmiller isn't a terrorist. She just plays one on the Internet.
In the wee hours of the morning, while her family sleeps, the former Montana judge goes online and assumes the identity of a Muslim extremist – the better to strike up conversations with actual terrorists and, she hopes, ferret out possible plans to harm the United States and its allies.
Then the 38-year-old former Miss Congeniality and married mother of three feeds the intelligence she gathers to the FBI.
Her moonlighting as a volunteer terrorist hunter has brought down two suspects in the United States, including Michael Reynolds, an unemployed ex-convict found guilty in federal court in Scranton last week of offering to help al-Qaeda blow up U.S. pipelines and refineries.

Isn't that rich, those misogynist islamofascists being brought to justice by a woman?

SiCKO patients got VIP treatment in Cuba

I'm shocked, I tell you, shocked!

HAVANA (Reuters) - Three New York rescue workers injured in the September 11 attacks got the best treatment Cuba can offer in Michael Moore's film critique of U.S. health care, the Cuban doctors who attended them said this week.
The 9/11 responders spent 10 days on the 19th floor of Cuba's flagship hospital with a view of the Caribbean sea, a sharp contrast to many Cuban hospitals that are crumbling, badly lit, and which lack equipment and medicines.

But how could this be? Didn't Mikey say that all Cubans get the same quality health care. For Free?

Blacks in U.S. imprisoned at 5 times the rate of whites

According to a criminal justice policy group, this is a racial injustice:

DES MOINES, IOWA — Blacks in the United States are imprisoned at more than five times the rate of whites, and Hispanics are locked up at nearly double the white rate, according to a study released Wednesday by a criminal justice policy group.
The report by the Sentencing Project, a Washington-based think tank, found that states in the Midwest and Northeast have the greatest black-to-white disparity in incarceration. Iowa had the widest disparity in the nation, imprisoning blacks at more than 13 times the rate of whites.
Such figures "reflect a failure of social and economic interventions to address crime effectively," as well as racial bias in the justice system, said Marc Mauer, the group's executive director.

You are asking the wrong question, Mr. Mauer. What you should research is: What percentage of blacks who commit crimes get convicted and incarcerated vs. white and hispanics? If blacks commit five times as many crimes, then it stands to reason that they should be incarcerated five times as often.

It's the Thirty-Eigth Anniversary!

Of Ted Kennedy's murder of Mary Jo Kopechne. Why would anyone vote for that loser for dogcatcher, much less US Senator?

Read the details of what happened at Chappaquiddick here.

Al Gore Serves Endangered Species for Daughter's Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

Actions speak louder than words. We are constantly hearing "Owl" Gore tell us that we must carpool, turn down our thermostats in winter, and buy carbon "offsets" from his company while he maintains two mansions with heated swimming pools and jets aroud the world, spewing carbon dioxide emissions. And now we hear that Eco-warrior Al Gore serves up endangered fish at daughter's party

Only a week after Live Earth, eco-warrior Al Gore didn't do much for his green credentials when he shocked fellow environmentalists by serving up an endangered fish at his daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner.
The former US vicepresident provided 75 guests with Chilean sea bass - one of the world's most threatened fish species.
Gore, 59, who created the climate change documentary An Inconvenient Truth, sampled a sixcourse tasting menu at Beverly Hills' Crustacean restaurant which included the sea bass - also known as Patagonian toothfish.

Also known as Patagonian toothfish, the species is under huge pressure from illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing activities in the Southern Ocean, jeopardising the sustainability of remaining stocks.
It is known as one of the world's most endangered species of fish. Evidently a fact not known by the Gores.

So what are you planning for your Christmas dinner, Al? How about roast Whooping Crane under glass?

Jimmah and Friends to Solve All the World's Problems

Jimmah Carter and several other world-famous figures including Nelson Mandela and Desmond "Don't Mess with my" Tutu have formed a group that will solve all the world's problems and bring perpetual nirvana to earth:

JOHANNESBURG: Melding serious statesmanship and a large slug of audacity, the former South African president Nelson Mandela and a clutch of world-famous figures plan to announce on Wednesday a private alliance to launch diplomatic assaults on the globe's most intractable problems.
The alliance, to be unveiled on Wednesday during events marking Mandela's 89th birthday, is to be called "The Elders." Among others, it includes the retired Anglican archbishop Desmond Tutu; Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. president; the retired United Nations secretary general Kofi Annan, and Mary Robinson, the human-rights activist and former president of Ireland.

Here's my favorite part:

Many, including Mandela, have been early and harsh critics of President George W. Bush and American foreign policy, particularly toward Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The group's members and backers insisted in interviews, however, that they are guided neither by ideology nor by geopolitical bent.

Ha Ha Ha

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

Katherine Prudhomme Threatened with Arrest for Asking Hillary Clinton about Bill Clinton's Alleged Rape of Juanita Broadrick

Mrs. Prudhomme, who previously asked Al Gore about the alleged rape during the 2000 campaign, asked Hillary Clinton about it last friday and was removed from the campaign event and threatened with arrest:

I was not too far from the former President so I called out to him but he didn’t see me. Hillary came up next and I held out an old light green colored postcard towards her as others were holding tickets, baseballs and stuff like that.She took my postcard, signed it and asked “Whose is this?” I said it was mine and asked her if she believed Juanita Broaddrick. “Who is that?” she asked.I replied “The woman who said she was raped by Bill Clinton in 1978.”“I don’t know anything about that” Ms. Rodham Clinton said, still holding my card“I sent you a videotape of the interview she gave to Dateline NBC and I’m sure you have received it, I sent it by certified mail and that’s the receipt showing your office got it that your holding.”At some point around this time someone behind her asked my name so I told them what it was.She gave the receipt back to me.I asked her again if she believed Juanita Broaddrick.“I don’t know what your talking about.” she then started going back towards the direction she had come from, away from her husband.

A well groomed, handsome man in a suit with one of those clear, curly wires in his ear, a Secret Service agent perhaps, grabbed both my arms above the elbow and began pushing me backwards and telling me I had to leave.So I did. Well, I began to.An enthusiastic, yet clueless young campaign worker invited me to take a sign up card thing so I could get campaign updates.I declined her offer by muttering a swear phrase that encourages people to go have fun with themselves but I don’t think she heard me.As I passed the media stage I thought I’d at least talk to some media folks and tell them my side of the story. I had printed it up on a sheet of paper I could give them.About four guys in suits with wires in their ears were joined by an equal number of Nashua Police officers who told me I couldn’t do that. So I began to leave again..

That’s when he told me that on the other side of the gate was state property. After I crossed over it, if I were to come back I would be arrested.I was shocked, I’ve never even gotten a speeding ticket in my life. I said stuff like “What!?, I’ll be arrested!?”“Why,why would you arrest me? What did I do?”and “I can’t believe this, why?”He only said the same thing over again but this time with an emphatic “Mamn” at the beginning of his sentence.

This is standard operating procedure for the Clintons.

Ex-BBC Journalist Talks About Leftwing Bias

An interesting article by Antony Jay:

It is of particular interest to me because for nine years (1955-1964) I was part of this media liberal consensus. For six of those nine years I was working on Tonight, a nightly BBC current affairs television programme. My stint coincided almost exactly with Macmillan's premiership, and I do not think my ex-colleagues would quibble if I said we were not exactly diehard supporters. But we were not just anti-Macmillan; we were anti-industry, anti-capitalism, anti-advertising, anti-selling, anti-profit, anti-patriotism, anti-monarchy, anti-Empire, anti-police, anti-armed forces, anti-bomb, anti-authority. Almost anything that made the world a freer, safer and more prosperous place, you name it, we were anti it.

Sounds just like the journalists here in the USA.

Astronomer David Whitehouse Says the Sun Cannot Be Ignored As a Potential Cause of Global Warming

In spite of the lies and propaganda being constantly disseminated by the Algore loonies, there is no consensus among scientists concerning the issue of whether human carbon dioxide emissions are causing climate change. For example, read this article by astronomer David Whitehouse:

The world certainly warmed between 1975 and 1998, but in the past 10 years it has not been increasing at the rate it did. No scientist could honestly look at global temperatures over the past decade and see a rising curve.
It is undisputed that the sun of the later part of the 20th century was behaving differently from that of the beginning. Its sunspot cycle is stronger and shorter and, technically speaking, its magnetic field leakage is weaker and its cosmic ray shielding effect stronger.
So we see that when the sun's activity was rising, the world warmed. When it peaked in activity in the late 1980s, within a few years global warming stalled. A coincid-ence, certainly: a connection, possibly.

The sun is by far the single most powerful driving force on our climate, and the fact is we do not understand how it affects us as much as some think we do.

Dallas 'Peace' Conference

At the International Women's Peace Conference being held in Dallas, Nobel 'Peace' Prize laureate Betty Williams made an assassination threat against President Bush:

"Right now, I could kill George Bush," she said at the Adam's Mark Hotel and Conference Center in Dallas.

Am I the only one who sees a disparity here? Ms. Williams appears to be unconcerned about any negative consequences of making an assassination threat in the President's own country, and even in his home state! If Bush were such an ogre that she claims he is, she would be in fear for her very life.

And to make things even better Rigoberta Menchu Tum, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for lying, will also be speaking at the conference.

Goodbye, Lady Bird

You served our country with grace and class. You will be missed.

Claudia Taylor Johnson: 1912 - 2007

A Witness to the Horrors of a Marxist Hellhole

The International Herald Tribune tells the story of a young North Korean man who spent his entire childhood and youth in the gulag:

On Nov. 29, 1996, 14-year-old Shin Dong Hyok and his father were made to sit in the front row of a crowd assembled to watch executions. The two had already spent seven months in a North Korean prison camp's torture compound, and Shin assumed they were among those to be put to death.
Instead, the guards brought out his mother and his 22-year-old brother. The mother was hanged, the brother was shot by a firing squad.
"Before she was executed, my mother looked at me," Shin said in a recent interview. "I don't know if she wanted to say something, because she was bound and gagged. But I avoided her eyes.
"My father was weeping, but I didn't cry," he said. "I had no love for her. Even today I hate her for what I had to go through because of her."

The idiots on the left, who think they are so smart, advocate the very same policies that would lead to such a nightmare. They want everything under the control of the government. And how many times have I heard them say that communism/socialism is good for people?

The mind boggles.

History's Bloodiest Siege: Standing Up Against Islamic Terrorists in 1565

James Jackson has a fascinating recount of the Siege of Malta in The Mail:

A hot and fetid June night on the small Mediterranean island of Malta, and a Christian sentry patrolling at the foot of a fort on the Grand Harbour had spotted something drifting in the water.
The alarm was raised. More of these strange objects drifted into view, and men waded into the shallows to drag them to the shore. What they found horrified even these battle-weary veterans: wooden crosses pushed out by the enemy to float in the harbour, and crucified on each was the headless body of a Christian knight.

This was psychological warfare at its most brutal, a message sent by the Turkish Muslim commander whose invading army had just vanquished the small outpost of Fort St Elmo - a thousand yards distant across the water.
Now the target was the one remaining fort on the harbour front where the beleaguered, outnumbered and overwhelmed Christians were still holding out: the Fort St Angelo. The Turkish commander wished its defenders to know that they would be next, that a horrible death was the only outcome of continued resistance.
But the commander had not counted on the mettle of his enemy - the Knights of St John. Nor on the determination of their leader Grand Master Jean Parisot de la Valette, who vowed that the fort would not be taken while one last Christian lived in Malta.

And the author makes an excellent point:

Malta was no mere siege. It teaches us many things: the need for courage and steadfastness by an entire populace in the face of threat; the fragility of peace; and the destructiveness of religious hate.

Canadian Climatologist Says Sun Causing Global Warming

Confounding Al Gore and his legion of global warming zealots, climatologist Tim Patterson says the fluctuations of the sun's output are to blame:

Another scientist has added his voice to the Global Warming debate. Canadian climatologist Tim Patterson says the sun drives the earth’s climate changes—and Earth’s current global warming is a direct result of a long, moderate 1,500-year cycle in the sun’s irradiance.
Patterson says he learned of the 1,500-year climate cycle while studying cycles in fish numbers on Canada’s West Coast. Since the Canadian West had no long-term written fishery records, Patterson’s research team drilled sediment cores in the deep local fjords to get 5,000-year climate profiles from the mud. The mud showed the past climate conditions: Warm summers left layers thick with one-celled fossils and fish scales. Cold, wet periods showed dark sediments, mostly dirt washed from the surrounding land.
Patterson’s fishing profiles clearly revealed the sun’s 87 and 210-year solar cycles—and the longer, 1500-year Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles found since the 1980s in ice cores, tree rings, and fossil pollen.
“Our finding of a direct correlation between variations in the brightness of the sun and earthly climate indicators is not unique,” says the climatologist from Carleton University. “Hundreds of other studies, using proxies from tree rings in Russia’s Kola Peninsula to water levels of the Nile, show exactly the same thing: The sun appears to drive climate change.”

What does he think of the theory that CO2 emissions are causing the warming?

The Canadian expert concludes, “CO2 variations show little correlation with our planet’s climate on long, medium and even short time scales.” Instead, Earth’s sea surface temperatures show a massive 95 percent lagged correlation with the sunspot index.
Patterson says climate change is the most complex field we’ve ever studied. He notes that a 2003 German poll of 530 scientists from 27 countries found two-thirds of the respondents doubted that “the current state of scientific knowledge is developed well enough to allow for a reasonable assessment of the effects of greenhouse gases.”
Attempting to stop global warming with the Kyoto Protocol, he warns, could be as useless as King Canute commanding the tides to cease.

Perhaps when Al Gore becomes King of the universe, he can command the sun to stop fluctuating.

Victor Davis Hanson: "The Revolt on Illegal Immigration"

Some interesting insights from Victor Davis Hanson on the issue:

After the utter collapse in the Senate last week of a comprehensive immigration bill, Washington insiders are blaming everyone and everything.
Supposedly, talk-radio hysteria killed the bill. Or was it the purported racism of yokels? Or did most of us fail to appreciate the hidden benefits of open borders so clear only to those in Washington?
In reality, the 1,000-page bill failed because millions of Americans opposed it, believing, among other things, that it provided virtual amnesty to illegal aliens. Through the "Z visa," the bill offered illegal aliens legal worker status - along with a ticket to eventual citizenship - after only a precursory background check.

I know that for a long time there has been a great divide between the Washington insiders and the rest of the country. They simply don't look at things the same way we do. But I am amazed at how stark the contrast was displayed during the debate over the illegal immigration bill. I wonder if they come from the same planet that we do.

What in the world is going on in Washington?

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin.

Race-Baiting Smear Tactics Didn't Work This Time

The losers on the left, and even many Republicans like Lindsay Graham (D- South Carolina) and president Bush, thought they would be successfull in their attempt to grant amnesty to 12 million illegal aliens by adopting race-baiting smear tactics. Fortunately it didn't work this time, as explained by Christopher Chantrill in the American Thinker:

As we know, the reason it was possible for "junior Republican senators" to tie "Democratic leaders into legislative knots" was because of the tidal wave of public opinion generated by talk radio and the conservative blogosphere against the bill. And it wasn't just that talk radio hosts whipped up raw emotion against the bill. Many of them had actually read it.
The principal argument advanced by the immigration bill's sponsors was that if you didn't support it, you were a bigot and a nativist. Even President Bush was guilty of this.
In the old days the "you're a bigot" gambit was an argument that could not be answered. The opponents of the bill would have slunk away, shamed and blamed, knowing that they could not win an argument against a guy who owned a printing press, a TV channel, or a bully pulpit.
But no longer.
With conservative talk radio and the blogosphere you can now fight back and win an argument with the media. Above all, you can say things that you are not allowed to say elsewhere in the public square: in the elite newspapers, in the TV news shows, in the newsmagazines, in the women's magazines, and in the universities.
In the early days of talk radio, people would call up the Rush Limbaugh Program in awe, saying: Rush, don't you know that you are not allowed to say that?
People don't do that any more.

Amazingly, some jackasses on the left still think they can get away with race-baiting and use it to effect. Last night watching Fox News Channel I chuckled as I listened to Juan Williams and Mara Liasson claim that the opposition to the proposed amnesty bill was motivated by racism against Latinos. That is patently ridiculous. What is there not to like about Latinos? If European Americans are so prejudiced against them then why do so many of us visit Mexico frequently? Why do so many of us like to eat their delicious food? And why are so many Hispanic Americans opposed to the amnesty, are they prejudiced against themselves?

It's too bad the blogosphere didn't exist back in the 1990s when Clinton was pulling his shenanigans: The unlawful prosecution of Billy Dale, multiple violations of campaign finance laws, jailing people for speaking out against him, renting out rooms in the white house like it was a Motel 6, etc, etc, etc. Clinton would have been toast and his ethically-challenged wife would never have been elected to the senate.

Recall Senator Mel Martinez

Some Floridians have set up a website to gather signatures for a petition to recall US Senator Mel Martinez (R- Florida). According to the website, Martinez was quite vocal in his opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens during his campaign for election as a senator in 2004:

"Our immigration policy should first and foremost ensure the security of our great Nation and those individuals posing a terrorist threat should be prevented from entering our country. I strongly oppose amnesty for illegal aliens; our immigration laws should not reward lawlessness."

But more recently this clown went back on his promises (as did Bush) and has led the charge to grant amnesty to some 12 million lawbreakers.

Wouldn't it be cool if the people of Massachusettes recalled Fat Teddy? We can always dream!