Dems to captured terrorists: Help is on the way!

Democrats to revisit detainee issues

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Senate Democrats plan to use their newfound power to revisit one of the most contentious national security matters of 2006: Deciding what legal rights must be protected for detainees held in the war on terrorism.

In September, Congress passed a bill that gave President Bush wide latitude in interrogating and detaining captured enemy combatants. The legislation, backed by the White House, prompted three months of debate -- exposing Republican fissures and prompting angry rebukes by Democrats of the administration's interrogation policies.

With the November 7 elections handing control to the Democrats, the issue is far from settled. A group of Senate Democrats and one Republican, Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, want to resurrect the bill to fix at least one provision they say threatens the nation's credibility on human rights issues.

As Democrats plan to revisit detainees' rights, Saddam Hussein's chief lawyer is trying to cast doubt on the U.S. handling of the ousted leader. Hussein is expected to remain in a U.S. military prison until he is handed over to Iraqi authorities on the day of his execution. Hussein's lawyer, Khalil al-Dulaimi, said Thursday that international law should protect Hussein from being handed over to his enemies.

Human rights groups contacted on Thursday said that while they have expressed concerns about the Iraqi legal system, this latest claim has not been one of them.

The proposed revisions to the terrorism detainee bill could surface in the new Congress early in the year, staffers say -- with new sympathetic ears in leadership and a slim Democratic majority in Congress.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nevada, who will take control of the Senate as majority leader next year, "would support attempts to revisit some of the most extreme elements of the bill," including language stripping detainees of habeas corpus rights, although no immediate action is planned, said Reid spokesman Jim Manley.

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Leahy and other Democrats, led by Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Connecticut, have another proposal that would go much further by eliminating other provisions of the White House bill. Among other things, Dodd's legislation would specifically bar coerced statements as testimony and limit the president's authority in interpreting international standards for prisoner treatment.

In contrast, the bill signed by Bush in October allows coerced evidence under narrow circumstances and leaves it up to the president to implement Geneva Convention standards.

Dodd and other Democrats say such protections should be afforded to terror suspects because the United States would want other nations to apply similar rights to U.S. troops captured in war.

"I strongly believe that terrorists who seek to destroy America must be punished for any wrongs they commit against this country," Dodd told Bush in a November letter, urging the president to delay implementation of the bill.

"But in my view, in order to sustain America's moral authority and win a lasting victory against our enemies, such punishment must be meted out only in accordance with the rule of law," Dodd added.

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Great thanks are due to Denny Hastert, Bill Frist and all the other weak-as-water Republicans whose leadership produced a Disloyal Opposition majority in both houses.

Is Dodd for real?

First of all, the "rule of law" is what Congress passed and the president signed earlier this year.

But more important -- does he truly believe that if with we play nice with these savages that they are going to think twice about beheading and mutilating captured American soldiers?

Mohammed to Senator Dodd: Get a fricking grip!

These are the same people who question the president's intelligence.

Gonna be a long two years for the defenders of Civilization.

al Qaeda to Dems: We won, not you

Al Qaeda Sends a Message to Democrats

December 22, 2006 2:28 PM

Brian Ross and Hoda Osman Report:

Al Qaeda has sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists.

In a portion of the tape from al Qaeda No. 2 man, Ayman al Zawahri, made available only today, Zawahri says he has two messages for American Democrats.

"The first is that you aren't the ones who won the midterm elections, nor are the Republicans the ones who lost. Rather, the Mujahideen -- the Muslim Ummah's vanguard in Afghanistan and Iraq -- are the ones who won, and the American forces and their Crusader allies are the ones who lost," Zawahri said, according to a full transcript obtained by ABC News.

Zawahri calls on the Democrats to negotiate with him and Osama bin Laden, not others in the Islamic world who Zawahri says cannot help.

"And if you don't refrain from the foolish American policy of backing Israel, occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims, then await the same fate," he said.

Well, that's nice.

Always helpful when the Disloyal Opposition can do the bidding of the enemies of Civilization!

To paraphrase an old Cold War crack: The only difference between a Jihadist and a "liberal" is that the Jihadist knows what he 's doing.

We wish you a Happy Festivus

We have no grievances to air and there's no way we could be pinned in the "feats of strength" celebration.

Posts will be sparse for a few days.


FRANK: Kramer, I got your message. I haven't celebrated Festivus in years! What is your interest?

KRAMER: Well, just tell me everything, huh?

FRANK: Many Christmases ago, I went to buy a doll for my son. I reach for the last one they had - but so did another man. As I rained blows opon him, I realized there had to be another way!

KRAMER: What happened to the doll?

FRANK: It was destroyed. But out of that, a new holiday was born. " A Festivus for the rest of us!"

KRAMER: That musta been some kind of doll.

FRANK: She was.

Rod Dreher's Terrifying Adventure

More on Separationism

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At the Dallas Morning News the other day, our editorial board received a delegation from the local Muslim community. They came in large part to complain about editorial coverage of the community, which is to say they came mostly to complain about me. Which is fine: they accurately recognize that I don't believe their claims that they are completely innocent of radicalism, and are wholly victims of irrational fear of Muslims. Once again, I came away from a meeting with them even more convinced of my views in this regard. I recorded the entire meeting, and hope to have the time in the next week or so to post lengthy excerpts. In summation, though, the group was defensive, evasive, and wouldn't give a straight answer to simple questions.

I asked the delegation's leader to clarify something he'd said to me and some colleagues last time we met, about his belief that homosexuals should be killed, adulterous women stoned, etc. He launched an elaborate defense of this position, saying that Judaism and Christianity are against homosexuality. (Emphasis ours.) Yes, I said, but they don't require that gays be killed for being gay. Do you believe that they should? An imam jumped in to explain why the sharia is right to require hand-chopping of thieves. Later, the delegation's leader said that if I'm asking him to apologize for what his religion requires, he's not going to do it.

Trying to get at the heart of the matter, I asked if they thought sharia should be the law of the land in our secular pluralistic democracy. Another round of long-winded answers, amounting to, "It would never happen here." That's not what I'm asking, I said; should it happen here. Someone explained that Muslim community would never be big enough in this country to make that happen. Which is, of course, entirely beside the point, but we moved on. I had my answer.

...

I don't want to think ill of the Muslim community in Dallas, or anywhere. But like I said, wanting to believe something does not make it true. Oh, and it was instructive to hear from this group that the adulteresses in the Prophet's time asked to be stoned to death. The Prophet was apparently doing them a favor. Wonderful.

What I keep seeing from these meetings is an attempt -- a sincere attempt -- to mau-mau the media into ignoring disturbing things going on in the American Muslim community. By all means we should cover the good stuff. The group the other day kept making the point, "You focus on the few bad things, and ignore all the good things." But charitable works don't somehow make it okay to include hate literature against Christians and Jews in your mosque, and certainly don't make it un-newsworthy. Being kind to others doesn't obviate concerns over what kind of fanatical jihad literature you're teaching to your teenagers. I do believe that most of the American media are unwilling to give this kind of thing the scrutiny it deserves. I'm pleased that my editorial board does not give them a free pass, and is not willing to turn a blind eye to this sort of thing -- even though it does cast into doubt the idea that Islam can be assimilated into American life.

It would help the case made by men and women like those of the delegation if instead of engaging in denial and trying to make journalists feel like heels for even raising questions, they would deal with them straight on. But to do that, I suspect, would amount to conceding that Islam, as they understand it, is incommensurate with basic American values.

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"[W]anting to believe something does not make it true."

It certainly does not, and there comes a point where continuing to believe it borders on the fatuous, if not sheer childishness: It's much easier to go through life believing that everyone would get along if we'd just all mindlessly repeat multicultural pieties.

It's almost funny that those whose greatest fear is that somewhere a Christian is voting are so unaware of the true threat of a "theocracy" metastasizing in their midsts.

Life under a pluralistic representative republic where people of faith have the audacity to participate in civic life will look like the good old days when and if the Sharia is imposed.

John Kerry's Haughty Adventure

Caption this photo

"Did you know I was in Vietnam?"

Soldier: Whither the Loyal Opposition?

Soldier Asks Rumsfeld Where U.S. Solidarity Has Gone

Soldier Asks Rumsfeld Where U.S. Solidarity Has Gone
By Jim Garamone
American Forces Press Service


MOSUL, Iraq, Dec. 10, 2006 – A soldier in Mosul told Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld he was worried because the American people seemed to have lost the combined will they had immediately following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The secretary, who visited Iraq to thank the troops before he steps down from office, allowed that this is true. “In the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11, the American people came together and were united in their concern about our country,” he said.

But in the years since, there have been no big land, sea or air battles that grab the attention of the American people, Rumsfeld said. The battle against a shadowy enemy is much more complex and less familiar than any conflict America has been involved with before, he explained.

He said the United States has also been fortunate that there hasn’t been another attack on the scale of Sept. 11 in the country. The farther removed some people get from the events of Sept. 11, the more the cohesion and solidarity the American people felt during that period dissipates, Rumsfeld said.

Part of the reason this feeling has dissipated is because there have been no more attacks in the United States. There have been terror attacks in other parts of the world – Madrid, London, Bali and Russia, to name just a few.

The war on terror, Rumsfeld said, is like the Cold War. During the Cold War, public opinion ebbed and flowed. “Millions of people demonstrated against the United States, not against the Soviet Union,” he said. “They acted as if the Soviet Union wasn’t one of the most repressive regimes in history. People were granting moral equivalence to the Soviet Union – a vicious dictatorship – in the free countries of Western Europe and the United States. People can drift off.”

The same is true today, Rumsfeld said. There are many who believe that governments can negotiate with terrorists or who believe if just left alone, they will somehow leave freedom-loving people alone. But that is not possible, Rumsfeld said. “The dangers today, the lethality of the weapons today, the risks to our country, are real,” he said.

A tabletop exercise a few years ago posited a release of smallpox in two airports in the United States. The simulation showed that inside of a year, almost 1 million people would die, Rumsfeld said.

“There are dangers, there are real people out there – as you well know – who will put in place a small number of clerics that will tell everyone how they will live and how they will behave,” he said. “And that’s not what we’re about.”

But overall, the United States and its allies weathered the Cold War. The countries stuck together and today the Soviet Union is no more. “Our country would not be here if we didn’t have the ability to ride through some ups and downs in respect to opinion and come out the other end having made some right decisions,” Rumsfeld said. “I expect the same today.”

To our brave defender in Mosul:

What happened? Michael Moore, Howard Dean, John Murtha, The New York Times, MoveOn.org, Kos ... and on and on.

Can't swing a dead cat in America today without hitting an aider and abettor.

Culture of Corruption triumphs in LA

Jefferson savors a landslide win that defies conventional wisdom

NEW ORLEANS U-S Representative William Jefferson savored his landslide win in the comfort of supporters and family today, and put to rest a grueling campaign that shined the spotlight on an F-B-I bribery investigation overshadowing his long political career.

Analysts say his victory was stunning and defied conventional thinking that averred he could not retain his seat and overcome allegations the F-B-I found 90,000 dollars in bribe money in his freezer.

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La plus ça change ...

Sharia Watch: UK

'Muslim only' pool outrage

By BEN ASHFORD
December 08, 2006

A COUNCIL has sparked fury by virtually shutting a swimming pool on Sunday afternoons for "Muslim-only" sessions.

All women are banned and non-Muslim men may swim IF they follow the strict Islamic dress code of swim shorts that hide the navel and extend below the knee.

Croydon Council in South London runs the sessions at Thornton Heath leisure centre between 4.45pm and 6.45pm.

Similar slots are laid on for Muslim women outside opening hours, where bathers must be covered from the neck down to the ankle.

Locals who flock to the area's only major leisure centre each week are furious.

Member Daniel Foley, 44, said: "I turned up and saw a sign saying it was closing early for Muslim afternoon. I couldn't believe it."

Nearby Croydon Mosque defended the move. It said: "Muslims are not allowed to show off intimate parts of their body. This is non-negotiable. Muslims have as much right to go swimming as anyone else."

Croydon Council said: "We are keen to ensure sports facilities are there for everyone."

Funny stuff.

Try moving to Tehran and demanding separate swimming hours for Dhimmi when Speedos and thongs could be worn.

Good luck retrieving your head.

That ISG "report"

So, Iran is arming and training the "insurgents" yet it has no interest in seeing the Iraq Project fail?

Further, we are supposed to engage Iran, Syria and every other crackpot regime in the region in talks?

And exclude Israel?

Reminds us why we haven't missed Jim Baker.

Howz it that every bipartisan panel/commission includes weak as water Republicans?

Ambassador Kirkpatrick, RIP

Jeane Kirkpatrick, Former UN Ambassador, Is Dead

By Bill Varner

Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Jeane J. Kirkpatrick, an assertive voice for American power during the Cold War as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations for President Ronald Reagan, died at age 80.

Kirkpatrick, a Democrat turned Republican, was the first woman to serve as U.S. ambassador to the UN, from 1981 to 1985. She died in her sleep yesterday at her home in Bethesda, Maryland, said her assistant, Andria Harrington. The cause of death was congestive heart failure, according to James Denton, director of Heldref Publications in Washington, where Kirkpatrick had an office.

``She was one of the most outstanding advocates of American foreign policy in our history,'' said current Ambassador John Bolton, a close friend who had to stop to regain his composure while talking with reporters at the UN. ``She spoke clearly for liberty in the world, made it clear during tensions in the Cold War that America's interests here at the UN were advanced when the cause of liberty was advanced.''

Friends and colleagues recalled Kirkpatrick's toughness at the UN during the Cold War struggle with the Soviet Union. She also defended Israel's invasion of Lebanon in 1982 and argued against Nicaragua's left-wing Sandinista government. In 1984, she attended a National Security Planning Group meeting and spoke in favor of U.S. efforts to aid the Contras, the rebel group that tried to overthrow the Sandinistas, the New York Times

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One of Madam Kirkpatrick's best

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They said that saving Grenada from terror and totalitarianism was the wrong thing to do - they didn't blame Cuba or the communists for threatening American students and murdering Grenadians - they blamed the United States instead.

But then, somehow, they always blame America first.

When our Marines, sent to Lebanon on a multinational peacekeeping mission with the consent of the United States Congress, were murdered in their sleep, the "blame America first crowd" didn't blame the terrorists who murdered the Marines, they blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When the Soviet Union walked out of arms control negotiations, and refused even to discuss the issues, the San Francisco Democrats didn't blame Soviet intransigence. They blamed the United States.

But then, they always blame America first.

When Marxist dictators shoot their way to power in Central America, the San Francisco Democrats don't blame the guerrillas and their Soviet allies, they blame United States policies of 100 years ago.

But then, they always blame America first.

The American people know better.

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Just a couple weeks ago we lost Milton Friedman.

Last night, we lost another great one.

Kirkpatrick was our Iron Lady. A staunch opponent of the CCCP and champion of liberal democracy everywhere.

She was a wonderful example of a woman "having it all", and she did it in the right order.

The U.S. could use a woman like Mrs. Kirkpatrick at the U.N.

Actually, we currently HAVE a MAN like Mrs. Kirkpatrick at the U.N. but he apparently cannot be confirmed by the Senate.

Thankfully, at the time of Mrs. Kirkpatrick's confirmation process, the loyal opposition truly was loyal.

As a staunch advocate for America and Her principles she never would have made it past this current bunch who make her "San Francisco Democrats" look like a passle of Scoop Jacksons.

Americans are often asked the fatuous poll question "Is the U.S. ready for a woman president?"

Our answer was always: "If the woman is Jeane Kirkpatrick, a fulminating YES."

Godspeed, Madam, and thank you.

So, this is "moderate" Islam?

Protestant missionaries face nine years for insult to Islam

When Hakan Tastan wanted to amend the religion on his Turkish identity card, his enthusiastic championing of Christianity exasperated the official barring his way. Eventually, the official gave up trying to oppose the controversial change. “Change this heathen’s religion and make him go away,” the devout Muslim told his clerks.
More than ten years later, the missionary zeal of Mr Tastan and his fellow Christian convert, Turan Topal, has led to much graver things than being called names.



They face up to nine years’ jail after going on trial last week for “insulting Turkishness” during their religious work, under the notorious Article 301 of the Turkish penal code. It is the same law that put Orhan Pamuk, the Nobel literature laureate, in the dock, and which the European Union wants amended.

The case against two members of the tiny Turkish Protestant community has attracted criticism from the EUand cast a shadow over Pope Benedict XVI’s visit this week.

Mr Topal and Mr Tastan, who are charged with illegally gathering information on people and “insulting Islam”, have faced public anger in Turkey, where a mistrust of Christians has been growing, fuelled by the Iraq war, the EU’s critical attitude, the Pope’s comments linking Islam with violence and the Danish cartoons row.

At last week’s hearing, a friend was punched and bystanders told them to leave the country if they didn’t like it.

“Where are we supposed to go? We are Turkish. I am a patriot. I hang out the Turkish flag on national days and have a picture of Atatürk (the founder of modern Turkey) in my office,” says Mr Tastan, 37.

“There is a lot of misunderstanding about us here,” said Mr Topal, 45. “They think that missionary work is part of a foreign-financed effort to split the country.”

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Some of you have no idea what a true "theocracy" looks like.

Keep on propping up the real enemy, Moonbats.

Good luck retaining your bath house and library porn privileges!

America loses top advocate

Bush Accepts Bolton's U.N. Resignation

WASHINGTON — Unable to win Senate confirmation, U.N. Ambassador John Bolton will step down when his temporary appointment expires within weeks, the White House said Monday.

Bolton's nomination has languished in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee for more than a year, blocked by Democrats and several Republicans. Sen. Lincoln Chafee, a moderate Republican who lost in the midterm elections Nov. 7 that swept Democrats to power in both houses of Congress, was adamantly opposed to Bolton.

Critics have questioned Bolton's brusque style and whether he could be an effective public servant who could help bring reform to the U.N.

President Bush, in a statement, said he was "deeply disappointed that a handful of United States senators prevented Ambassador Bolton from receiving the up or down vote he deserved in the Senate."

"They chose to obstruct his confirmation, even though he enjoys majority support in the Senate, and even though their tactics will disrupt our diplomatic work at a sensitive and important time," Bush said. "This stubborn obstructionism ill serves our country, and discourages men and women of talent from serving their nation."

Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass, said Bolton's departure could be a turning point for the administration.

"With the Middle East on the verge of chaos and the nuclear threats from Iran and North Korea increasing, we need a United Nations ambassador who has the full support of Congress and can help rally the international community to tackle the serious threats we face," Kerry said. He said it was an opportunity for Bush to nominate an ambassador "who enjoys the support necessary to unite our country and the world and who can put results ahead of ideology."

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Thanks, Linc. Good luck making a living in the private sector.

As usual, John Kerry is clueless -- without clue. With the exception of the UK and Australia, the vaunted "international community" is a feckless lot.

Bolton was just the man the U.S., hell, the Civilized World, needed at the U.N. representing the last best hope of Mankind. He was not, as Kerry desires, a U.N. Ambassador to the U.S., rather he represented our interests in front of that corrupt, effete assemblage of crooks, savages and anti-Semites.

Any hope of reforming the UN is pretty much shot to hell. It has essentially reduced itself to providing a forum for lunatics like Chavez and Ahmadinejad while sittling idly by as genocide continues in places like Darfur.

In light of that, perhaps Kerry is correct. Who better to represent the U.S. at the UN than an anti-American, anti-Israel, dictator coddler.

We understand Jimmy Carter is available.