Citizen Cain

Police State

2007-03-15T11:53:00.000-04:00

A teenager taken from her home and parents by German police officers and institionalized in a psychiatric ward for homeschooling is pleading with the international community for help so she can return home.

In Germany, it is illegal to homeschool your children. They FORCE your children to attend public school. They brought FIFTEEN police officers to this girl's house to take her.

The authorities in Germany have set up a Ministry of Education reminiscent of Hitler, abusing the laws in order to punish homeschooling parents. In Germany, they will indoctrinate - by any means necessary.

This is the girl's letter:

Dear Sir or Madam,

I was taken away from my family on the first February 2007 and brought with more than 15 police men to the psychiatry in Nuremberg. There I was 2 weeks. I was brought there, because I was homeschooled 2 1/2 years. Now I am in a foster family and I am allowed to see my family only once a week. I want to ask you for help, to get my right to go back to my family, as I wish. I am not sick as the doctor said and my family is the best place for me to live.

Yours sincerely,

Melissa Falona Busekros

This is an outrage, and a perversion of the legal justice system. The German authorities are conducting Hitler-like purges of homeschooling families, tearing their children away from them and placing them in foster care. These despicable acts must be stopped. Let them know how you think:

edeltraud.hoellerer@stadt.erlangen.de
stadtjugendamt@stadt.erlangen.de
monika.muzenhardt@stadt.erlangen.de

-CK

Valiance rises up again...

2007-02-20T17:06:00.000-05:00

Bravery and stoicism are not dead. In the Russians crude quest to halt the missile defense operation, the Czechs have proved to be quite the obstacle. Read below:

Czech Foreign Minister Karel Schwarzenberg said threats by Russian officials over the plans, which would involve placing a radar system on Czech land and a missile battery in Poland, would only make Czechs more determined to defend themselves.

"The Czechs will now think the shield is even more necessary," Schwarzenberg told Reuters on the sidelines of a business conference in Warsaw.

"We have quite an experience with Russians. You have to make clear to them you won't succumb to blackmail. Once you give in to blackmail, there's no going back. We have to be strong."

These are rather strong statements by the Czech official. Clearly, there's no love lost between the two countries. And finally, when hope had been fading in my mind, the Czechs rise up to prove a thorn in the side of the Russians' national ambitions. Men of valor still exist.

Welfare Bums

2007-02-10T16:14:00.000-05:00

I wasn't going to post for a while, but I just couldn't pass this up.

So the Palestinians have essentially been going crazy since the US and Europe stopped giving them welfare money. They don't have an economy, aren't very innovative, and there's not much money to be made in the carbomb-making business, unless it's Iran footing the bill.

So they've really had nothing to do but shoot and kill each other - constantly. And finally, they decided they've had enough and they'd really like that free money they used to get. And the result of this is probably one of the most pathetic ploys I've ever seen.

The PA leadership is hoping that the very fact of the Fatah-Hamas national unity agreement reached in Mecca will end a Western embargo against the Hamas-led PA. The Western nations ended aid to the PA after the Islamist Hamas terror organization swept into power in Authority-wide elections in January 2006.

Speaking to Reuters, Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said, "They (the West) cannot ignore this agreement and impose their own conditions."

I know, I know. Stop laughing for a minute and actually consider their retarded logic. The Western nations stopped giving aid because a terrorist organization(Hamas) was in a disunified government.

Now a terrorist organization(Hamas) is in a - are you ready for this? - a unified government.

I know, don't fall off your seat. All that has changed in the space of, oh, I don't know, a YEAR, is that they've finally formed a unity government.

And the retarded part is that wasn't even what the West objected to. They wanted Hamas to either leave the government or renounce their terrorist principles. (I know, "terrorist" and "principles" in the same sentence is funny, right?)

Hamas did neither. They still hate Israel with the fury of a thousand suns, they're still packin' AK's, and still send mothers and children to Israel with bombs strapped to their bodies.

But it gets better:

Ahmed Yousef, an advisor to the PA's Hamas prime minister, warned the European Union, "I count on the Europeans to change their policies, and to say that what happened in Mecca shows ideological flexibility. The Europeans have their own interest, and they should care about the image and perception. They don't want their image in the region to be like the US."

Translation below:

Arab Terrorist : Give us welfare.

Europe and US : No. You're terrorists.

Arab Terrorist : But we're unified.

Europe and US : No. You're still terrorists.

Arab Terrorist : Europe, you better give us welfare money or we'll call you names in our country.

Note : This is so retarded and the Europeans so feckless it might actually work. But consider the logic of it; a Muslim government is threatening Western governments with giving it money, or else facing the consequences of demonization and hate-speech against it. WHICH ALREADY HAPPENS. These guys truly are nuts.

The Coming Storm

2007-02-10T15:58:00.000-05:00

So the evil villain Vladimir Putin has been selling missile defense systems to Iran, weapons to Venezuela, terrorists in general, etc...and now Iran is asking for a favor.

At an international conference, Putin has this to say:

Speaking at a conference of the world's top security officials, including Iranian nuclear negotiator Ali Larijani, Putin said nations "are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper use of force in international relations."

"One state, the United States, has overstepped its national borders in every way," he told the 250 officials, including more than 40 defense and foreign ministers.

"This is very dangerous: Nobody feels secure anymore because nobody can hide behind international law," he said through a translator.

The entire message of this speech is to get the US to back off. You can tell they're feeling the heat. The US has just sent another destroyer to the Gulf, and Iran is probably frantically calling in every favor they can, in order not to get bombed back to the Stone Age.

So Putin accuses the US of "overstepping it's borders" and violating "international law". The only people the US has gone after in recent years have been terrorists and dictators. So these are clearly the people Putin is protecting, as well as being his greatest customers. But it gets better.

"This is nourishing an arms race with the desire of countries to get nuclear weapons," he added, without singling out any particular nation.

So in one brief sentence, he excuses Iran's rush for the nuclear bomb. It's not Iran's fault that they are continuously violating the NPT, you see, it's the US that makes Iran so afraid they need the Bomb.

So this rhetorical assault has a much more potent objective than sullying the United States' name internationally. With it, Putin was hoping to accomplish two points.

1. Deter the US from launching a military strike on Iran's nuclear facilities.

2. Ease international pressure against Iran's nuclear program.

It is essentially liberal strategy at it's finest. Put the enemy(US) on the defensive with a sweeping, intentionally confusing accusation. Then use the (mythical)consequences of that same accusation to defend your ally's(Iran) actions. It all ties together with a neat little bow.

So this is Putin being Putin, and I really wish we had nothing to do with any of these people. Not economic-wise, financial-wise, anything. Then we could take our money out of that dump of the United Nations, and bomb all terrorist-loving nations back to the Stone Age.

-CK

Hiatus

2007-01-26T16:59:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I've last blogged. Much has happened, much has been happening on this globe we call our world. Iran is heating up, confrontation is nearing, and sightings are on the rise. And I'm talking MAINSTREAM sightings, not fringe. Especially important distinction.

Another thing that has been increasing, for me personally, has been 11:11 sightings. A while ago, they would be a nuisance, nothing more, nothing less, but lately it's changed. I have been seeing 11:11 with greater frequency, to the point where it's almost every day. I believe it has to do with our inter-dimensional visitors, and the increasing frequency with which world affairs are escalating.

Israel is secretly drawing up plans to give up the West Bank to the other side. This only moves the peace process forward, and only brings the peace plan closer. First the West Bank, which interestingly enough comes first under "European" control, then a peace treaty. And we all know where that leads.

Not much news out of the Vatican, however. The enemy groups are on the rise, however. Russia, China, Iran, Venezuela, are all ramping up. Considering this is their permanent mode, it would be foolish to read too much into it. But every provocation is a testing of the waters. Every move is a shift of power. Every nuanced attack brings their nemesis closer to crossing the line, to full-scale confrontation and conflict. Of course, for them, it matters not which way it goes. Long-term, absolute power is the goal. Incremental stages are completely fine with them. Distraction, corruption, division, and infighting only further that goal. Our enemy is determined, and most importantly single-minded.

While we are at war with ourselves, bickering over minor conflicts, the real enemies gleefully burn down our undefended walls. And so it continues, until we are left standing amidst the ruins of what was once our castles, slaves to our ignorance and pettiness. Only the wise survive beyond this stage we call life. Many are called, but few are chosen. State of mind is key. It is crucial. We must always be prepared, always be looking down the road, always looking forward with the correct vision of the future.

We must not get caught up in petty squables, or allow our mindset to fall into that of confusion or depression over petty beefs. Keep the bigger picture in mind. Redemption is near. True justice will be done. First comes the trials and tribulations, then come the cleansing. If not this year, next year. If not next year, five, ten years from now. The when is not important. How we will be ready, how our state of mind is, when that final day comes, and whether we are able to accept the true light with open arms is the key question. Never give up.

-CK

Russia's elimination of Litvinenko Legal

2006-11-27T16:23:00.000-05:00

A new law was passed in Russia's legislative body called the Duma.

This law permits the use of secret services as "death squads" to eliminate "extremists" anywhere in the world.

Another law on "extremism" was amended so anyone who says or writes something "libelous" about Vladimir Putin's government is an "extremist".

That means, if YOU say anything "libelous" about Vladimir Putin's government, you are an "extremist" to Russia.

They have the legal authority to send a "death squad" to "eliminate" you as an extremist.

Considering most of the world's terrorism originated in Russia, this is rather ingenious on Putin's part. Create a problem, and within the solution create the legal authority to kill dissidents.

This guy is a madman.

The balance of power is shifting

2006-11-21T16:48:00.000-05:00

J.R. Nyquist at his absolute finest, lamenting the state of the nation and encapsulating my thoughts more perfectly than I ever could:

The suicide of the West is happening before our eyes. From the assassination of Anna Politkovskaya to the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko, from the fall of South Africa to the electoral victory of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, the same old Communists continue to kill their enemies as they advance from victory to victory. The KGB rules Russia openly, flooding China with weapons, encouraging Iran’s nuclear ambitions, arming Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, subverting the Western alliance through economics, neutralizing Germany by way of German unification, undermining NATO as one Warsaw Pact country after another joins under false democratic colors. Do the Americans have eyes? Do they have sense?

From outward appearances it would seem that the old Soviet Union has returned. A thing crucified, dead and buried has been resurrected. Four weeks after Vladimir Putin’s re-election, a procession led by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church arrived at the Church of Christ the Redeemer in Moscow. In keeping with ancient tradition the doors of the church were shut, symbolizing the sealed cave where Christ’s body was placed following crucifixion. “After midnight,” noted Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, “the Orthodox faithful taking part in the procession await the opening of the church doors. The patriarch stands on the steps at their head and is the first to enter the empty temple where the Resurrection of Christ has already occurred.” In due course the Patriarch offered up a prayer, the doors of the Church of Christ the Redeemer were opened and out stepped President Vladimir Putin. If any Christians were present for this ceremony they offered no protest to this blatant sacrilege. The woman who reported this event for the benefit of Western readers has since been assassinated. The KGB defector who was investigating the circumstances of her death has been poisoned (i.e., Litvinenko). The West thinks it an amusing spy story, something out of fiction. But the situation is hardly amusing. As Russian dissident Yuri Yarim-Agaev recently explained to Jamie Glazov of Frontpagemag.com, “That in foreign policy, the U.S. remains for them [Russia] enemy number one, and that they would support anyone who tries to undermine American power whether it be North Korea, Iran, you name it. That in domestic policy they consider their major enemies democracy, human rights, and the free market, and they will try to suppress them by all means, and the bring back under their control most parts of the former Soviet Union.”
Russia is a big player, despite what we’ve been told about “the fall of communism.” The Kremlin now acts boldly, in the open, so that every Russian understands. It is a case of terrorism. It is a case of instilling fear. Writers are being killed, and now intelligence defectors have been targeted. Decisive cards are being played, and the international press, the public and many politicians are clueless.

I strongly suggest reading the whole thing.

-Citizen K

State of the Nation

2006-11-09T16:23:00.001-05:00

It is November 9. The elections are over, and after Republican control of the House of Representatives, the Senate, and the Presidency, major changes have been applied to two of the three. The American people, speaking as best they could, with one flick of the pen or the push of a button, switched power from one political party to the other.

Democrats, in an incredible election, now control BOTH congressional houses and only the Presidency is beyond their control - for the moment. This is remarkable. With one election, the American people took the power from the Republicans and handed it over to the Democrats.

And I don't think it was because people particularly like the Dems. Bush had been politically frozen from doing what needed to be done in Iraq; nothing was happening, and American soldiers were dying. He HAD to be prepared to accept civilian casualties as the cost of completely eliminating the insurgency; and yet, the MEDIA's power had grown so much that they had literally frozen him. He wasn't going to withdraw; he wasn't going to crush the insurgents either for fear of incurring civilian casualties and seeing them that same night on CNN.

This is perhaps the most incredible element of this whole debacle. The media, as a political force, has grown so much that it now influences PRESIDENTS as to their actions. The media sets the agenda. The media demonizes and at the same time glorifies who they wish. The media has no police, no watchdog to discipline them. They are the 600-pound elephant set loose on the playground. They couldn't get Bush to withdraw, but they could focus so much attention on EVERY SINGLE CASUALTY of the war that Bush wouldn't have the confidence to OK the necessary operations in Iraq.

And so this is how it ends. The media froze Bush, the situation in Iraq grew into a stalemate, soldiers started dying, and the American people started realizing that Bush wasn't aggressively pursuing victory. And they decided. Better the soldiers live and withdraw, than die and stay. The intent was good, the resolve weak. And so they took his power away.

And yet the consequences will be far-reaching. As a result of this, yes, Bush will most likely be forced to abandon Iraq, but the Democrats will now also utilize their power. Impeachment hearings will most likely begin, and the Democrats will begin to implement their Socialist agenda as much as they can. Perhaps the most dangerous consequence of this election is the impact it will have on our national security. Other countries, especially renegade nations, now see a weak and divided superpower. They will become more provocative, more aggressive and begin to prod and test the United States. How we will respond is already written; look to the Carter years, the Clinton years. Bush is the last vanguard. But even he can't last forever. The people shouldn't have been so shortsighted.

Absolute Garbage Going on...

2006-10-19T17:37:00.000-04:00

Every FREAKING year, the media goes hogwild during election month, predicting a HUGE win for Democrats and a MONUMENTAL loss for Republicans.

And every year, the Republicans retain control and the Democrats lose. And you wonder why the Democrat base is feeling demoralized?

The weird thing is how even Republican pundits are deceived by this phenomenon. They start to believe the media, EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW THE MEDIA IS LIBERAL.
UN-FREAKING-BELIEVABLE!!!

I don't even have to say it anymore - the Republicans will retain control of Both houses. It's not even a question. The Dems will lose - their base will feel like sh%t. Everyone will scratch their heads and wonder why. And I'll still be here, screaming at my TV set, "You stupid fu**ers!!!"

Crest of the Wave

2006-10-07T21:35:00.000-04:00

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Computer hackers based in China have launched sustained attacks on the computers of a US Commerce Department technology export office, a department official said.

Chinese-based hackers, especially in the Chinese province of Guangdong, have mounted systematic efforts to penetrate US government and industry computer networks in order to access secret information, according to computer security experts.
The experts and some US lawmakers believe the attacks are sanctioned by Chinese government agencies.

No kidding.

Christmas comes early for the AP

2006-10-03T17:03:00.000-04:00

It appears Mark Foley was gay, and liked younger men.

It does not appear, however, that he broke any laws.

Nothing he did was illegal. Now Bush is calling for an investigation.

The identity of the mysterious "page" has not yet been released, although word is it will be revealed tomorrow.

When that happens, we can finally close the book on this whole sorry chapter.

I'll leave you with some typical dishonesty from the AP:

The president spoke after Hastert brushed aside any suggestion of resignation Tuesday as House Republican leaders struggled to contain the fallout from an election-year scandal involving sexually explicit messages from the disgraced former Florida Republican lawmaker to underage male pages

-Cain

Reflect the Friendship, Baby!!!

2006-09-30T15:47:00.000-04:00

Eduardo Castillo of the AP treats us to this gem:

MEXICO CITY - Mexico said it will try to persuade President Bush not to sign a bill that would extend a wall along the border in an effort to stop illegal immigrants.

Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez strongly criticized the legislation to build a 700-mile border fence, which the Senate approved Friday and sent to Bush to sign.

Wow, Mexico "strongly criticized" an American domestic policy decision, huh?

That's annoying. Why are they doing that?

"We think it is a gesture that doesn't reflect the friendship between nations of Latin America and the Caribbean and the United States, Derbez said."

Oh, it doesn't reflect the friendship.

So it's not that it stops you from shipping your poverty problem to the US?

It's not the fact that it cramps your state-supported drug-running efforts?

It's not that a border fence might force you to update those handy "How to Sneak into the US" brochures?

Might set you back a few years in that whole Reconquista plan, huh?

Yeah, too bad about that. Good luck. I guess we just weren't the kind of "friend" you expected.

Aliens Plan for World Domination

2006-09-22T20:42:00.000-04:00

The Aliens will wait for the One World Government

The world will be under the control of One Government.

The Head of that Government will be a tool of the Aliens.

He will deliver the World into the hands of the Aliens.

The Aliens will then control the Government, and in turn control the People.

They are waiting until all the Nations are United under a One World Government.

As long as there are Individual Nations, the Aliens will wait.

Individual Nations could make War with the Aliens.

The Aliens want as Bloodless a Coup as possible.

This also explains how the Aliens will orchestrate several Natural Disasters that will weaken Large Governments, hastening the way to them joining the One World Government.

No doubt about it...

2006-09-20T18:09:00.000-04:00

The new video on FoxNews really cleared things up.

In that video, you can clearly see four orbs forming a triangle with a handle, very similar to the robotic arm on the Atlantis, ironically enough.

But it is the orb in the bottom right of the video that is so fascinating.

It is pulsing.

In the top left corner of the orb, it phases in and out. Like an intelligent craft.

Now go back and look at the footage from David Sereda's UFO documentary, "Evidence", where the NASA ultraviolet cameras captured IDENTICAL actions.

Secondly, I would add that all of the "space debris" are perfectly round with holes in the middle.

I would bet that if we had any more closeup video, we would notice notches cut out in the corner of each "space debris".

This is such a clear cut case of UFO's, it is truly laughable NASA is attempting to pass it off as anything other than that.

The real question is : why?

UFO's in flight are inherently invisible. They reach such stupendous speeds when they travel that the actual material of their craft is vibrating at such a high frequency as to make them invisible.

The fact that they have revealed themselves to the NASA cameras, first one yesterday, then four today begs the question : why?

Why are they revealing themselves?

And the only possible answer is : The time has come.

The time has come for the aliens to reveal their presence to the world.

-SOF

We won't be missing you...

2006-09-19T16:54:00.000-04:00

Nick Wadhams slobbers all over Kofi with gems such as these:

As he neared the end of his speech, Annan's voice rose with emotion, describing his "difficult and challenging but at times also thrillingly rewarding" job.

Perhaps Dickwad should have stayed at his old job writing romance novels.

Delusional Reality

2006-08-26T01:43:00.000-04:00

Kofi Annan has triumphantly proclaimed that Europe will provide the backbone of the peacekeeping force.

"Europe is providing the backbone of the force," Annan said. "We can now begin to put together a credible force."

The commitment of up to 6,900 European soldiers relieved concerns that the peacekeeping force might be stillborn because of reluctance by many countries to send troops into the Middle East cauldron without clear instructions or authorization to use their weapons.

Back when France was bleating for a ceasefire, it was thought that they would provide a sizable amount of soldiers to contribute to the "peacekeeping" efforts. But of course, they predictably backpedaled on their words, and the final tally for France : 400 soldiers.

Pathetic, huh?

I know, I know, it's France. They've never done anything, and probably never will. The land of wine, and cheese, and softbellied bureaucrats blabbering meaningless words to whomever will listen. But even this kind of cowardice was astonishing for it's simple indifference. They didn't even care how bad it looked.

This is the kind of stuff that makes me worried about the state of the world. But back to the story:

So according to the open mouth of the AP, who have been slobbering and drooling, hoping to dress this up somehow as a victory, this is it. The beginning. The "backbone", a word you will most likely hear overused in the days to come, in a triumphant tone, heralding the courage of the European nations in summoning their peacekeeping efforts in assembling this truly puny force.

Okay.

So, let me ask this.

By my calculations, we still need 8,100 soldiers. What if the Ukraine, or Turkey, or any other non-European country contributed more soldiers than the "backbone" the European nations are so generously providing?

Would that mean we have 2 "backbones"?

Or just a "backbone" with a few larger bones?

Reason is, you'd think a "backbone" would at least be more than 50% of the "body" you're attempting to build. I mean, they couldn't even muster 7,500 soldiers and Kofi is still gloriously touting this as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Man, am I glad an ocean separates us.

Whatever. France sucks. We all know it. This ceasefire is a disaster. Anything after it is just the aftershow...

Russia and China Plan to Attack United States

2006-08-17T22:04:00.000-04:00

I have just discovered some quite fascinating information about the perceived fall of the Soviet Union and the supposed "fall" of Communism. There is a Russian defector, named Anatoliy Golitsyn, who warned of a long range strategic deception by the Soviets, with its only purpose the defeat of the United States.

Essentially, this is the message. The Cold War was never over; it only took a different form. The Soviets knew they could never beat us militarily, so they decided their only usable strategy was deception.

They decided to fool the West into thinking Communism was dead, and that they were embracing Western concepts like "capitalism", "democracy", and the like.
Christopher Story, editor of Soviet Analyst, had this to say about the deception:

"All contemporary collective political arrangements — the so-called European Union; the North American Free Trade Area; the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, an intergovernmental agreement requiring the pooling of military intelligence and other anti-state measures; and new regional blocs like the South African Development Community, which has set Southern Africa on the road to integrated security, military and foreign policies, and seeks to usurp national sovereignty in the region — all are devices designed to undermine the state in order to replace nations with regional blocs which are to be the components of a world government. The destruction of national sovereignty is the paramount objective, since as long as nation states continue to exist, world government cannot be established."

This is quite important. I always knew the Soviets and the Chinese harbored enmity towards the United States, but to see such clear evidence of a conspiracy to take down America is astounding, to say the least.

God bless.

Bush lied, People died

2006-08-16T23:26:00.000-04:00

It's funny how people call Bush a liar and yet they have no evidence
for it.

They point to Iraq and say, "Look! No WMD's! Bush was lying!"

Well, was he?

Bush and many people in his Cabinet DID say Iraq had WMD's, and 500
such weapons have been FOUND in Iraq, albeit old and rather decrepit.
So let's assume those don't count. Let's assume Iraq doesn't have
WMD's. Does that make Bush a liar, or somebody who was "fooled" by the
intelligence?

This is an important distinction. I have not seen ONE shred of
evidence swinging the distinction into any one camp. Did he lie, or
was he deceived?

Is it alright for our leader to make a mistake?

Does that make Saddam any LESS of an evil man? Does that magically
resurrect the THOUSANDS of Kurds he GASSED to death?

Why does Saddam's own general say WMD's were moved to Syria? These are
all important questions to think about before making a knee-jerk
reaction and convicting somebody right away, pointing the accusatory
finger of blame, saying "You Liar!"

When you say Bush was lying, what you're saying is that you know his
heart. You're essentially saying you knew what he was thinking when he
said Iraq had WMD's, and that's the ONLY possible way you know he was
lying. Unless, of course, there's another concrete way that you
determined he lied. Unless there's evidence you have. If so, my ears
are open, my mind open, ready to listen and consider....

I'm listening...

Terror Tracks?

2006-08-10T02:48:00.000-04:00

Police in London have uncovered a nefarious plot to blow up planes. 20 planes, to be exact. The BBC has more:

Home Secretary John Reid confirmed that there had been a plot "to bring down a number of aircraft through mid-flight explosions causing a considerable loss of life".

Security at all airports in the UK has been tightened and delays are expected. MI5 has raised the UK threat level to critical - the highest possible.

So yet another terrorist plot foiled - and all this while there is still violence in the Middle East. Israel had decided to press all the way to the Latani River - before halting that operation.

Israel has put its massive new ground offensive into southern Lebanon on hold to give the U.N. Security Council more time to come to an agreement on a cease-fire, an Israeli Cabinet minister and senior officials said Thursday.

Asked by Israel Radio about the plans for such a delay, Cabinet minister Rafi Eitan said: "There are diplomatic considerations. There is still a chance that an international force will arrive in he area. We have no interest in being in south Lebanon. We have an interest in peace on our borders."

This is a bad idea for the Israelis. Olmert has shown himself time and time again in this situation to be weak and ineffective. Hezbollah has been pounding Israeli cities with Kaytusha rockets day in and day out, and the response has not halted that barrage in the slightest. The initial decision to conduct the ground operation and push Hezbollah to the Latani River was the best strategic move I'd seen all month, and to finally see it halted in it's tracks before it even gets off the ground is the most dispiriting thing to see. If this is how I feel, I can only imagine how Israelis actually living in that country and having to endure it everyday must be holding up.

The Countdown has begun...

2006-08-01T01:12:00.000-04:00

Associated Press - Security Council Resolution Demands Iran Suspend Uranium Enrichment

On Monday, July 31st, the United Nations passed a resolution calling on Iran to halt all uranium enrichment. The AP frames this as a weakened resolution, which it essentially is, since China and Russia have been stalling the hell out of this "diplomacy". All they've been doing is buying time for Iran, and the question is why.

Everyone knew this would eventually happen. The minute Bush brought the allies in and consolidated the opposition to Iran's nuclear program, the international mindset had been solidified. Iran's defiance was an insult to the "international community", not just the U.S, as Iran would have liked. Iran's gameplan had been dividing the opposition, pacifying the Europeans with declarations of peaceful intentions, while having two erstwhile allies in China and Russia through economic ties.

I've always felt this will end in confrontation eventually. The U.S will not back down from it's position, and Iran won't back down either, and clearly they're opposite viewpoints. The U.S says Iran is enriching uranium for malevolent purposes and must stop. Iran says it is enriching uranium for peaceful purposes and has the right to continue. The resolution today is the clearest sign yet of escalation.

Iran started this war to stall for more time, although that was not the sole reason. Iran, along with Syria, is really one of the only sponsors of terrorism in the WORLD. Think about it. Essentially Iran is responsible for the MAJORITY of terror attacks. And they made the decision to start a war. I am convinced U.S preventative measures have been largely successful, and Iran's greatest blow was against Israel. They had no larger options, as they had been mostly thwarted by America's anti-terror measures, along with the U.S's international allies.

SO THINK ABOUT IT. The biggest attack Iran could plan was to co-ordinate Hezbollah and Hamas to cross Israel's borders and kidnap their soldiers. Now with Israel's massive ground, air and sea offensive, Israel stands a good chance of crushing Hezbollah's arsenals, logistics, and severely crippling it's ability for command and control. Think about how much more Iran's terror capabilities will be retarded if Israel is successful, and succeeds in liberating Lebanon from the terror-masters' iron grip.

All of this is related. Hezbollah, Hamas, Iran, the Security Council Resolution, Al Qaeda, Iraq - all of it.

Pray for Israel.

Unseen Benefit?

2006-07-24T17:25:00.000-04:00

Israel has begun it's raids into Lebanon, striking Hezbollah and collecting weapons caches. As I was pondering this, a few words coming from the drone of the TV in the background suddenly came into sharp focus.

Bekaa Valley.

Where Saddam's legendary WMD's were buried.

Israel would be conducting raids there.

And looking for weapons.

The coincidence here is ridiculous. But furthermore, check out this link.
It contains this juicy nugget of information:

The Syrians received word from Saddam Hussein in late 2002 that the Iraqi WMD would be arriving and Syrian army engineering units began digging huge trenches in the Bekaa Valley.

Now, granted, it is possible the WMD's have been moved already. And it is possible that they are hidden so well a cursory inspection by IDF soldiers might overlook them. But you have to admit this; there is the tiniest, teensiest possibility the Israelis will find the Weapons of Mass Destruction we've been looking for all along.

Don't forget where you heard it first.

Sovereign Right

2006-07-24T00:50:00.000-04:00

Lebanon has pledged to fight alongside Hezbollah if Israel begins raids into Lebanon. This kind of thinking is patently ludicrous and logically unacceptable. Whoever made this statement is betraying the people of Lebanon. Alan Colmes on H&C formulated this tortured question:

Colmes : "Lebanon has promised to fight Israel if they invade in the South. Do they have a sovereign right to defend themselves?"

There is a fundamental flaw in Alan's reasoning here. Namely, the two statements have nothing to do with each other. The whole world would like nothing more than to see Lebanon exercise it's sovereign right to defend themselves, if only they would. But Lebanon must realize one simple fact; there is an occupying force already in Lebanon. There is an alien entity stationed in the country that harbors malevolent intentions towards Lebanon, and Lebanon must evict this organization. What is this group's name? Why, Hezbollah, of course, Iran's bunch of thugs running Lebanon through force, being funded by Iran to the tune of about 200,000,000 $ a year, most of it Oil Money from the West. Pretty nice, huh?

These are the facts. Lebanon does have a sovereign right to defend themselves. The problem is, Lebanon is corrupt and weak. Those that would like to see Lebanon remain under Iran's control far outnumber those who wish to see a free, independent state. Lebanon is still under Iran's thumb, and until Israel roots out and kills all those terrorist belonging to Hezbollah, it will remain as such. Do some research next time, Alan.

Operation Final Stages

2006-07-22T22:12:00.000-04:00

So Israel is beginning the final stages of their military operation today. They have begun the "land incursion". Liberal media fanatics aren't doing their job if they can't reference this stage of the operation with some kind of malevolent overtone, using words like "foothold, incursion, occupation," etc...

It's actually rather amusing to see how clueless the major media outlets are without an agenda. They truly have no clue how to present pure, unvarnished news. With no liberal spin, they're like lost sheep, wandering around, bleating helplessly away for the New York Times to give them their perspective.

But as Charles Krauthammer wrote several days ago in his latest column, a land campaign was crucial to ridding the Southern Lebanon area of the Hezbollah terrorists. The air strikes have dampened the rocket attacks somewhat, but much of the Hezbollah strongholds consist of underground bunkers, weapon caches, stashes...etc. These can only be eliminated by a consistent, man-to-man fighting method of carefully decimating the enemy through hand-to-hand combat. Israel will clearly excel in this area. They are the superior force, militarily, and Hezbollah is simply a disorganized collection of rabble with no real military skills aside from the occasional snatching of an IDF soldier or the occasional killing of an Israeli civilian, usually via any one of the Kaytusha's they fire at Israel, indiscriminately and with no real military goal in mind.

So, overall, it is good that Israel is doing this. We have to kill all the terrorists eventually, anyways, and this military operation is just one of the many steps we will have to take to accomplish this goal.

eaten from within...

2006-07-12T15:48:00.000-04:00

A member of Knesset, Israel's political party, has admitted he advised Palestinian terrorists to capture IDF soldiers:

According to a report in Maariv newspaper on Sunday, Taha told surfers on Thursday that he repeatedly advised the PA Arabs to stop shooting and targeting civilians, and to concentrate on IDF targets. An English translation of Maariv's Hebrew translation of Taha's Arabic words:
"We told them more than once that the Palestinians, who are subjected to murder and ongoing crimes on the part of the Israeli army, have two options: One is to explode and kill civilians - and these are much easier operations. The second option is the military option, in the framework of which a military unit from the resistance [i.e., terrorist infrastructures - ed.] is established in order to break into a military camp, clash with the soldiers and battle them and take them and the conquest into captivity."

Pretty unbelievable, right? It gets better:

Taha also had words of advice for the PA on the publicity front, saying that the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit should not be called "kidnapped" but rather "imprisoned" or "captive." Taha said, "Kidnapping is an act carried out by gangs, terrorists, and the like. But 'captive' means that [it is carried out by] an organized, legitimate group that makes decisions. Israel is trying to present our resistance as something less - as terrorism, murder, and kidnapping - in order that the diplomatic circle will be closed to it."

So a member of Knesset is publicly advocating the kidnap and murder of his own country's soldiers. But not only that, he is also giving P.R advice on how to frame the public dialogue.

If you read the comments on the article, you will find most people are outraged this man holds any office at all. Most of them echo MK Zevulun Orlev's opinion that this man is "traitorous" and should be stripped of his position, if not imprisoned and convicted of aiding and abetting the enemy.

What is Israel thinking?

catching up...

2006-07-12T01:40:00.000-04:00

A lot has been happening recently. It's been difficult to keep up, although I definitely need to stay more up to date on this blog. What with Japan introducing a TOUGH resolution, China relishing the United States' plight regarding N.Korea, and the recent bombings in India, the plate has been quite full.

(Sidenote : Somebody mentioned this earlier, and it is interesting. Somebody in the planning department at Al Qaeda is into the occult or numerology; note the dates of attacks:

3/11 : Spain attack
7/11 : India attack
9/11 : U.S. attack

But we're getting off track. Back to topic.)

Robert Novak has agreed to appear in a tell-all on the Fox News Channel. He will appear on both Special Report w/Brit Hume and Hannity and Colmes to discuss his role in the Plame affair. Needless to say, the media is already trying to portray it in a different light.

A spokesman for Rove's legal team, Mark Corallo, said that Rove did not even know Plame's name at the time he spoke with Novak, that the columnist called Rove, not the other way around, and that Rove simply said he had heard the same information that Novak passed along to him regarding Plame.

Get this : Rove simply CONFIRMED information Novak already knew. In other words, he didn't tell Novak anything he didn't already know. And libs are saying Rove "leaked" Plame's name?
This blows their argument to shreds.

The sad thing is, the media will grind this story into the dust no matter what the facts are. Just don't let anybody get away with that "Rove leaked Plame's name". Call them on it. Right away.

Chinese wish to conquer and invade North America

2006-07-09T00:24:00.000-04:00

Take a look at this:

Chi Haotian's Speech:
.
Comrades, I'm very excited today, because the large-scale online survey sina.com that was done for us showed that our next generation is quite promising and our Party's cause will be carried on. In answering the question, "Will you shoot at women, children and prisoners of war," more than 80 per cent of the respondents answered in the affirmative, exceeding by far our expectations.

Today I'd like to focus on why we asked sina.com to conduct this online survey among our people. My speech today is a sequel to my speech last time, during which I started with a discussion of the issue of the three islands [Taiwan, Diaoyu Islands and the Spratley Islands], mentioned that 20 years of the idyllic theme of 'peace and development' had come to an end, and concluded that modernization under the sabre is the only option for China's next phase. I also mentioned we have a vital stake overseas.

The central issue of this survey appears to be whether one should shoot at women, children and prisoners of war, but its real significance goes far beyond that. Ostensibly, our intention is mainly to figure out what the Chinese people's attitude towards war is: If these future soldiers do not hesitate to kill even non-combatants, they'll naturally be doubly ready and ruthless in killing combatants. Therefore, the responses to the survey questions may reflect the general attitude people have towards war. ... . We wanted to know: If China's global development will necessitate massive deaths in enemy countries, will our people endorse that scenario? Will they be for or against it? ...

The fact is, our 'development' refers to the great revitalization of the Chinese nation, which, of course, is not limited to the land we have now but also includes the whole world. ... As everybody knows, according to the views propagated by the Western scholars, humanity as a whole originated from one single mother in Africa. Therefore, no race can claim racial superiority. However, according to the research conducted by most Chinese scholars, the Chinese are different from other races on earth. We did not originate in Africa. Instead, we originated independently in the land of China. ... Therefore, we can assert that we are the product of cultural roots of more than a million years, civilization and progress of more than ten thousand years, an ancient nation of five thousand years, and a single Chinese entity of two thousand years. This is the Chinese nation that calls itself, 'descendants of Yan and Huang.' ...

During our long history, our people have disseminated throughout the
Americas and the regions along the Pacific Rim, and they became Indians in the Americas and the East Asian ethnic groups in the South Pacific. We all know that on account of our national superiority, during the thriving and prosperous Tang Dynasty our civilization was at the peak of the world. We were the centre of the world civilization, and no other civilization in the world was comparable to ours. Later on, because of our complacency, narrow-mindedness, and the self-enclosure of our own country, we were surpassed by Western civilization, and the centre of the world shifted to the West.

In reviewing history, one may ask: Will the centre of the world
civilization shift back to China? ... Actually, Comrade Liu Huaqing made similar points in early 1980s. Based on an historical analysis, he pointed out that the centre of world civilization is shifting. It shifted from the East to Western Europe and later to the United States; now it is shifting back to the East. Therefore, if we refer to the 19th Century as the British Century, and the 20th century as the American Century, then the 21st Century will be the Chinese Century. ...

Our Chinese people are wiser than the Germans because, fundamentally, our race is superior to theirs. As a result, we have a longer history, more people, and larger land area. On this basis, our ancestors left us with the two most essential heritages, which are atheism and great unity. It was Confucius, the founder of our Chinese culture, who gave us these heritages. These two heritages determined that we have a stronger ability to survive than the West. That is why the Chinese race has been able to prosper for so long. We are destined 'not to be buried by either heaven or earth' no matter how severe the natural, man-made, and national disasters. This is our advantage.
Take response to war as an example. The reason that the United States
remains today is that it has never seen war on its mainland. Once its
enemies aim at the mainland, the enemies would have already reached
Washington before its congress finishes debating and authorizes the
president to declare war. But for us, we don't waste time on these trivial things. ...

Maybe you have now come to understand why we recently decided to further promulgate atheism. If we let theology from the West into China and empty us from the inside, if we let all Chinese people listen to God and follow God, who will obediently listen to us and follow us? If the common people don't believe Comrade Hu Jintao is a qualified leader, question his authority, and want to monitor him, if the religious followers in our society question why we are leading God in churches, can our Party continue to rule China?

The first issue is living space. This is the biggest focus of the
revitalization of the Chinese race. In my last speech, I said that the
fight over basic living resources (including land and ocean) is the source of the vast majority of wars in history. This may change in the information age, but not fundamentally. Our per capita resources are much less than those of Germany's back then. In addition, economic development in the last twenty-plus years had a negative impact, and climates are rapidly changing for the worse. Our resources are in very short supply. The environment is severely polluted, especially that of soil, water, and air. Not only our ability to sustain and develop our race, but even its survival is gravely threatened, to a degree much greater than faced Germany back then.

Anybody who has been to Western countries knows that their living space is much better than ours. They have forests alongside the highways, while we hardly have any trees by our streets. Their sky is often blue with white clouds, while our sky is covered with a layer of dark haze. Their tap water is clean enough for drinking, while even our ground water is so polluted that it can't be drunk without filtering. They have few people in the streets, and two or three people can occupy a small residential building; in contrast, our streets are always crawling with people, and several people have to share one room.
Many years ago, there was a book titled Yellow Catastrophes. It said that, due to our following the American style of consumption, our limited resources would no longer support the population and society would collapse, once our population reaches 1.3 billion. Now our population has already exceeded this limit, and we are now relying on imports to sustain our nation. It's not that we haven't paid attention to this issue. The Ministry of Land Resources is specialized in this issue.

But the term 'living space' (lebensraum) is too closely related to Nazi Germany. The reason we don't want to discuss this too openly is to avoid the West's association of us with Nazi Germany, which could in turn reinforce the view that China is a threat. Therefore, in our emphasis on He Xin's new theory, 'Human rights are just living rights,' we only talk about 'living,' but not 'space,' so as to avoid using the term 'living space.' From the perspective of history, the reason that China is faced with the issue of living space is because Western countries have developed ahead of Eastern countries. Western countries established colonies all around the world, therefore giving themselves an advantage on the issue of living space. To solve this problem, we must lead the Chinese people outside of China, so that they could develop outside of China. ....

Would the United States allow us to go out to gain new living space? First, if the United States is firm in blocking us, it is hard for us to do
anything significant to Taiwan and some other countries! Second, even if we could snatch some land from Taiwan, Vietnam, India, or even Japan, how much more living space can we get? Very trivial! Only countries like the United States, Canada and Australia have the vast land to serve our need for mass colonization.

Therefore, solving the 'issue of America' is the key to solving all other issues. First, this makes it possible for us to have many people migrate there and even establish another China under the same leadership of the CCP. America was originally discovered by the ancestors of the yellow race, but Columbus gave credit to the White race. We the descendant of the Chinese nation are entitled to the possession of the land! .... It is historical destiny that China and United States will come into unavoidable confrontation on a narrow path and fight ... In the long run, the relationship of China and the United States is one of a life-and-death struggle. ... Of course, right
now it is not the time to openly break up with them yet. Our reform and opening to the outside world still rely on their capital and technology. We still need America. Therefore, we must do everything we can to promote our relationship with America, learn from America in all aspects and use America as an example to reconstruct our country. ...

Only by using special means to 'clean up' America will we be able to lead the Chinese people there. ... Only by using non-destructive weapons that can kill many people will we be able to reserve America for ourselves. There has been rapid development of modern biological
technology, and new bio weapons have been invented one after another. Of course we have not been idle; in the past years we have seized the opportunity to master weapons of this kind. We are capable of achieving our purpose of ' cleaning up' America all of a sudden. When Comrade Xiaoping was still with us, the Party Central Committee had the perspicacity to make the right decision not to develop aircraft carrier groups and focus instead on developing lethal weapons that can eliminate mass populations of the enemy country. ...

Biological weapons are unprecedented in their ruthlessness, but if the
Americans do not die then the Chinese have to die. If the Chinese people are strapped to the present land, a total societal collapse is bound to take place. According to the computation of the author of Yellow Peril, more than half of the Chinese will die, and that figure would be more than 800 million people! Just after the liberation, our yellow land supported nearly 500 million people, while today the official figure of th population is more than 1.3 billion. This yellow land has reached the limit of its capacity. One day, who knows how soon it will come, the great collapse will occur any time and more than half of the population will have to go. ...

It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we'd have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party. ... The last problem I want to talk about is of firmly seizing the preparations for military battle. ... The central committee believes, as long as we resolve the United States problem at one blow, our domestic problems will all be readily solved. Therefore, our military battle preparation appears to aim at Taiwan, but in fact is aimed at the United States, and the preparation is far beyond the scope of attacking aircraft carriers or satellites. Marxism pointed out that violence is the midwife for the birth of the new society. Therefore war is the midwife for the birth of China's century.
***

Link
(Hat tip : Thanks to Gold is Money for the link.)

clear and hold

2006-06-30T00:49:00.000-04:00

I haven't been blogging in a while, and for that I apologize to those of you that have been waiting with baited breath for my latest post. Thing is, lately I've felt like I'm slipping, at least mentally. I used to have a very analytical approach to life, compartmentalizing and organizing all the things I needed to do, and in general just very at peace at the end of the day with the accumulated success of my efforts. Although lately I feel like I've been adopting a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of attitude, and while it certainly is easy, it is not the direction I would like to be headed in. I need to get back on track, I will try to organize, ponder the moves I make more carefully, look at it from all angles before moving, and above all, be speedy. I will be praying later on tonight for God to help me with this. I fear one cause for this entropy of the mind is all the weed I was smoking, and so now that I have rid it from my daily regimen, and am walking the straight and narrow for all intensive purposes, my brain should begin a slow process back to the original form. Excellent planning, reading, intelligence-increasing, and above all, determination to succeed in being steadfast in my goal, never wavering should accomplish the desired result.

White House Correspondents Dinner : Belated Stephen Colbert Analysis

2006-06-21T03:18:00.000-04:00

Note : I have decided to conduct an analysis of the methods employed here by famed liberal Stephen Colbert in his virulent attack on President Bush under the guise of "comedy" for the purposes of further familiarizing myself and others with the dirty tactics liberals use, and better improve strategies of negating and defeating them.

Analysis of Stephen Colbert's performance at the White House Correspondents Dinner:
Section 1A:
____________________________________________________________________
Joke 1:

Stephen Colbert makes fun of a shooting accident Dick Cheney had where the vice president accidentally shot his friend. Make fun of an accident where somebody got shot in the face, that's real funny, Colbert.

Joke 2:

Stephen Colbert makes joke about how the NSA is listening in on the conversations the people at the dinner are having, i.e. "Speak into your napkin for a drink order".
This is not only not funny, it's inaccurate. The NSA case involved overseas calls between suspected terrorists and persons inside the United States.

Joke 3:

Stephen Colbert makes joke how feelings "from the gut" are factless. Not sure if he's saying Bush has ever used that phrase in any meaningful context before, if at all.

Joke 4: Says that Fox News is a "no fact zone". Uhh, ok. Good one. How can I think up zingers like those?

Joke 5: Says America exists, can't wait to see how the Washington Post spins that. Supposed to be sarcasm, Colbert is mocking those that say the Washington Post is biased. Problem is, he used a strawman argument, i.e. setting up a false contrast.

Joke 6: Colbert says democracy is our greatest export with heavy sarcastic tone. Not sure if lifting paragraphs from Bush's speeches, twisting them, and delivering them with obvious sarcasm is supposed to be funny, or if the sheer ludicrousness of it all is supposed to be.

Joke 7: Says "The government that governs best is the government that governsl least, and by those standards we have set up a fabolous government in Iraq". Not much here other than an attack on the Iraq war effort, saying the government is not governing that much. Obviously the plan in Iraq is to help the government get on their feet, apparently not everybody is on board with that plan and don't really care if Iraq succeeds or not. It seems by now that the format for tonight will be misrepresenting the President's views on domestic and foreign policy into obviously absurd positions, and then delivering them with a straight face. So basically, he's playing to the far-left crowd, and by the sound of the correspondents, they're eating it up. Who needs articles to prove media bias? Just turn up the sound to hear their guffaws as they listen to some cable goof slandering and mocking the President of the United States.

Joke 8: Colbert says he's a Christian, then says "I respect all religions, though, I believe there are infinite paths to accepting Jesus Christ". The implication here is that although Bush says he respects all religions, he is forcing his own religious views on other people, expecting them to become Christians too. Another distortion, there's never been any evidence of forced Christianity anywhere, especially by Bush.

Joke 9: Says Bush has 32% approval rating, approval ratings reflect public opinion in "reality", and "reality" has liberal bias. I guess he doesn't know approval ratings are only polled from about 1-10000 people. And there's 300,000,000 people in the United States. As well as it would be a sorry politician who changed their views whatever the wind blew. But it's not really about the ratings. Colbert simply wanted to insult the President, and the approval ratings were the tool. He says the ratings don't have a liberal bias, although most of the time it's liberal newspapers who are conducting these same polls, or liberal organizations.

Joke 10: I don't even know if I could safely qualify these as jokes anymore. I'll just start calling them bits, because this guy is just a complete fool. But here's 10:
Colbert compares Bush to Rocky, then describes Rocky getting "repeatedly punched in the face, hitting the mats, everybody's telling him to stay down, eventually he loses". Weak comparison, all that Colbert wanted here was to create the visual of all these violent things happenning to Bush. And people say liberals aren't insane, violent people. This gives you a glimpse into one man's imagination, and it's not pretty.

I will continue more on this speech later. Next up will be another 10 Bits, maybe more if I have the time. I think it is important to do this for the dissection of liberal tactics. As for those who say we've seen those tactics enough, I say you cannot know your enemy well enough.

North Korea and Brinkmanship

2006-06-21T01:41:00.000-04:00

I haven't been able to blog in a while; mostly a combination of forgetfulness and time constraints. But I wanted to make a quick mention on this topic:

In the past days, North Korea has declared itself free of the moratorium it agreed to on launching ballistic missiles and has readied a missile for a test flight. It is not clear what the flight path would be, but as expected, this move has drawn international outrage here, here, and here, most notably from the US, Japan, China, and Australia.

The Captain speaks:

The Taepodong-2 missile has Alaska in easy reach for a direct targeting profile. Depending on the configuration used, however, the Taepodong-2 can hit targets in the continental US using a ballistic polar route for its flight. The pending launch has the US and Japan on high alert. Without a doubt, if the rocket fires, the US will have no choice but to respond in some forceful manner -- and if we're lucky, it will only be a successful demonstration of the missile defense system.

So North Korea hasn't been in the spotlight in a while, and suddenly they decide to fuel their missile for a test launch. What do they want? Well, soon after the US decided to activate their missile defense system, Kim Jong-Il decides he wants to talk.

I'll just throw out a guess here. Kim Jong-Il thinks he can blackmail the US into giving him more stuff(aid, money, whatever), using his Taepodong missile as leverage. What we should do is bomb this guy to the Stone Age, except he would then destroy South Korea. But something's definitely got to be done about this, and it should be sooner rather than later.

tipping point...

2006-06-15T16:35:00.000-04:00

Israel has had enough. The Palestinians, most notably Hamas, have so far been a thorn in their side, but Israel has finally had enough. Hamas has quite suddenly and inexplicably called for a ceasefire.
ThreatsWatch has analysis:

"This is a clear and sudden change in tone from Hamas. It is a tone that is largely a response to Israel directly speaking their language: The language of force and threat. The ‘new tone’ also includes an agreement with Fatah to pull its militias from the streets of Gaza, though Hamas has agreed to this in the past. In return, Abbas’ Fatah has agreed to blend them into the PA Security Forces structure. Perhaps this time Hamas will honor the agreement under the additional direct pressure from Israel and the international community."

Israel has finally had enough. Hamas knows Israel could decapitate their leadership in an instant if provoked enough, and it appears that tipping point was reached. And like the bully in the schoolyard who is finally confronted, Hamas suddenly backs off with the hands up, saying "We definitely want quiet everywhere. We are interested in a ceasefire everywhere."
This should happen more often. It shows how cowardly the terrorists really are, as if we didn't have enough evidence from the men, women, and children they send to die in their place.

Tide is turning...

2006-06-15T14:34:00.000-04:00

Yet another step in the right direction.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060615/ap_on_re_mi_ea/iraq_terror_blueprint;_ylt=AnB7v0GhsQj7mCCd1lrVx5hvaA8F;_ylu=X3oDMTA2Z2szazkxBHNlYwN0bQ--

Iraq's government is in place, Zarqawi is dead, and now his own personal correspondence reveals how much his own movement is losing. That is, before we dropped a few bombs on him.

In general, the Iraq mission is proving to be a success. There is, however, one factor that will not go away until confronted.

Iran has been supplying the terrorists with the IED's improvised-explosive-devices that are killing our fellow Americans, as well as other arms.

There is no way you can eliminate the insurgency when they continue to be propped up by a neighboring country intent on fomenting strife there. It is like filling a leaky bucket. You can never fill it up; you first have to plug up the hole. Iraq is the bucket, democracy is the water, and Iran is the leak. Plugging up the leak in this case means dealing with their meddling in another country's sovereign affairs.

So, eventually I believe either Bush or Iraq's government itself will have to address this.

But it is exciting to see the formation of a democracy where there has never been one before.

on the beat...

2006-06-15T13:08:00.000-04:00

As if we weren't fully aware of the latest death toll from Democratic talking heads and their brothers in arms, the mainstream media, the AP decides to celebrate the benchmark of 2500 with a cheery little article :

The Pentagon confirmed Thursday that 2,500 U.S. troops have died in the Iraq war since it began more than three years ago, marking a grim milestone even as President Bush hopes a recent spate of good news will reverse the war's widespread unpopularity at home.

The latest death was announced as Congress was launching into a symbolic election-year debate over the war, with Republicans rallying against calls by some Democrats to set a timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

While there were no details on who it was or where the 2,500th death occurred, it underscored the continuing violence in Iraq just after an upbeat Bush returned from a surprise visit to Baghdad determined that the tide was beginning to turn.

Seems like a big number, huh? 2,500? Maybe we just need to put it in context.

So I decided to do a little research, and see what casualties from other wars have been like:

US Military Deaths (listed by most number of casualties):
Source : Wikipedia

American Civil War : 620,000 Deaths

WWII : 407,300 Deaths

WWI : 126,000 Deaths

Vietnam War : 58,200 Deaths

Korean War : 33,000 Deaths

Iraq War : 2,500 Deaths

Kinda puts it in perspective, huh?

gotta rid me of, get rid of me....

2006-06-15T01:37:00.000-04:00

I just grabbed Ann Coulter's appearance on Jay Leno and it was surprisingly blase.
Not really any flareups. George Carlin, another guest, is apparently a liberal, but he stayed pretty quiet throughout the whole segment. I'd never really watched Leno before, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but I thought he was pretty civil. His arguments were very liberal-like in nature, the whole "But wasn't this passage too nasty", or "I'm a little confused about this part", basically the whole I'm-usually-very-openminded-but-you're-an-extremist-you-freak, but Ann didn't give an inch throughout. He'd set up his arguments pretty easily, such as "Politics used to be civil. Now they're not. Your book is one of the reasons why they're not." But Ann didn't even get caught up believing his establishing-the-pillar-of-the-argument assertion and try and defend it, and say her book was civil, but immediately targeted the beginning assertion required for the whole argument and deconstructed it, thereby negating his whole statement. She just said politics were civil in the Soviet Union too, when there was only one opinion, and credited the lack of civility today to there being TWO perspectives as opposed to the previous ONE perspective dominating the media.

So, overall, very good. It's good to see conservatives appearing on more-and-more mainstream media shows, it means they're breaking the glass ceiling. Ann made some excellent conservative points, talked about liberal tactics, and perhaps most surprisingly of all, received quite loud applause from the audience. I'm not sure if Leno's audience is partially conservative, or if conservatives bought tickets specially because of Coulter's appearance, but that was the most surprising and gratifying aspect of it all.

A voice rises up...

2006-06-13T00:33:00.000-04:00

The NYT has an article about Ann Coulter's comments regarding the 9/11 widows.
This is the second level of attack regarding the liberals attack on Ann Coulter. The first attack was very similar to Matt Lauer's reaction, simple rude confrontation, no real point, and basic slander. But they discovered this was simply making her point, that simply saying "How dare you criticize their "loss"" was not sufficient anymore as Ann had pulled the wool from the eyes of the people, and now they had realized yet another of the liberals dirty tactics. "Human shields", or the process of using another's loss or grief publicly to score political points has now been revealed, and this is why it is a good thing Ann is getting this publicity. Now that it is shown how this attack works, it is negated. It is hard to use this tactic anymore with any great efficiency. Now, liberals realized they were simply making her point when they responded to her argument with hypocritical chest-puffing and indignant "how dare you's" to the potent point she was making, and have concocted a second attack on Ann Coulter, hopeful that it will prove more effective now that their initial mode of attack has been neutralized. This new attack is evident in the NYT article, and I predict you will be hearing it more and more from Democratic talking heads, and as part of the talking point when confronted with questions regarding it. The smarter ones will use this second mode of attack, as the public is not yet aware of it, and the first mode is rather hysterical.

SECOND MODE : Negate Ann's point by portraying her as a "controversialist" looking to say "controversial" things to "sell" books. Draw any attention away from the actual things she is saying by talking about her drive to sell books, have handy quotes ready, misquote them without providing any real context with the only objective to momentarily shock, and then slide the proverbial knife home by framing her as money-hungry and ready to say anything to make a quick buck.

Unfortunately the NYT article is no longer available free to read, but here are a few excerpts:

"All manner of televised talkfests, including 'Today,' welcome Ms. Coulter's pirate sensibilities back aboard whenever she has something to peddle, in part because seeing hate-speech pop out of a blonde who knows her way around a black cocktail dress makes for compelling viewing.

"Without the total package, Ms. Coulter would be just one more nut living in Mom's basement. You can accuse her of cynicism all you want, but the fact that she is one of the leading political writers of our age says something about the rest of us."

The first part is pretty obviously blatant in calling Ms. Coulter's words "hate speech", and then making a (sexist?) comment about a blonde in a cocktail dress making for compelling viewing, as ironic as that is.

The second paragraph labels her a "nut", then laments how far political literature has fallen for Ms. Coulter to be a leading political writer. All in all, a rather petulant tone throughout. Not that it's surprising. Ann Coulter decimates the NYT on a regular basis, this pitiful response is more than expected.

But expect this to be the second mode of attack while she is still in the limelight. She will be appearing on Jay Leno on Wednesday, so it will be interesting to see how any liberals on that show attack her. There is certainly no question they will attack her, the only question is how, and whether or not they can muster a fairly intelligent volley. Time will tell, as for me, I will try to watch it and comment.

pants on fire...

2006-06-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

Mahmoud Abbas has been a naughty boy. He's been going around "Palestine", trumpeting his referendum on the so-called "two-state solution", drawn up by terrorists in prison. The only problem, according to the "prisoners document", is that apparently it makes no reference to two states at all. But listening to Tony Snow, you wonder if the White House has even read it yet.

Well, once again, Prime Minister Abbas has demonstrated that he's somebody who wants to work toward a two-state solution. And that was one of the things, as you know, that came up in the conversation with Prime Minister Olmert earlier with the president. Prime Minister Olmert said that he was going to be holding talks at some point with the prime minister, and we're just going to have to wait and see what happens -- whether he's able to have a referendum and what happens. But I think it's important for Palestinians to wrestle with the issue of whether they want to have a two state solution.

Either the media has read the prisoners document, and are purposefully misrepresenting the issue, or they are hopelessly ignorant on an issue they're reporting on. Neither options strikes me as particularly attractive, although I can say with confidence they are certainly no strangers to either of them.

First Hurricane?

2006-06-10T19:29:00.000-04:00

Ten days into the hurricane season, and it looks like we've got our first tropical depression. Here we go.

Introduction

2006-06-06T23:36:00.000-04:00

This blog has been created to advance the idea of a much-needed third party in Congress.

I feel disillusioned with our leaders. Although I have long leaned to the Republican side in Congress, as of late, I feel they too have begun to take our votes for granted, if for no other reason, because there is no other choice. They are the lesser of two evils.

Countless times I have both read and heard this argument. This blog means to inspire in others the idea that yes, a Third Party can be created, it's core values, ideas and ideals articulated, and its creation is both a plausible and possible thing.

- Citizen K