Radical Islam’s “End-Game”

-By Frank Salvato

A friend of mine said recently, “We shouldn’t even be there. Let them kill each other. I mean, that would solve the problem. Right?” I thought about that statement as I read the news coming out of the Gaza Strip. As Hamas and al-Fatah literally battle to the death for supremacy in their region, it is crucial that we take the time – right now – to understand what it is they’re fighting about. The truth is our lives depend on it.

To look at the situations in Iraq and Gaza as separate conflicts is to view them in a naïve and overly simplistic way. True, the battles taking place in Gaza are more akin to a civil war, if in fact a civil war can take place without a recognized country to govern. And the battles taking place in Iraq are almost completely instigated at the hands of al Qaeda terrorists hell-bent on creating chaos with violence while destroying any chance of democracy in that nation. But what the less visionary among us are deficient in understanding and neglectful or deceitful in not addressing is the reason they are fighting, their goal, their end-game.

Many anti-war activists and members of the American Fifth Column insist that the reason radical Islamist terrorists – insurgents or militants as they like to call them – have taken to jihad against the United States and the West is because of the encroachment of our culture into the 7th Century Middle Eastern culture in which they exist. They point to Osama bin Laden’s 1996 fatwa against the US and the West citing the presence of Western military personnel and installations as the catalyst for al Qaeda’s Islamofascist aggression.
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Failure Is Not An Option

-By Jeffrey M. Epstein

Our current state of affairs certainly begs the question as to whether we can really afford to ignore costly lessons from history. One would think that we learned something from the murderous attack launched against us during the predawn hours of December 7th, 1941.

The first wave of 181 warplanes departed from six Japanese carriers to strike our fleet at Pearl Harbor and surrounding military airfields. At 7:00AM, the incoming squadrons appeared on the screens of the Army radar station at Opana. News of the steady-bearing “contacts” was immediately relayed up through the chain of command. However, senior officers falsely attributed those sightings to the anticipated echoes of returning American planes and never sounded the appropriate alarms – a costly assumption that contributed to the death toll of some 2400 servicemen.

Six decades later, three commercial airliners were commandeered by militant Islamist deviants and flown into their intended targets resulting in the deaths of 3000 innocent Americans. Once again, our nation was caught off-guard and paid a hefty price for underestimating an adversary’s resolve and capacity to do us grievous harm.

One could reasonably argue that we haven’t learned much from past mistakes and intelligence failures.
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Special Mortgage Rules for Muslims – Good or Bad?

-By Warner Todd Huston

I was in Canada last week and saw an article in the May 23rd edition of the National Post that struck my interest about interest… where it concerns American and Canadian Muslims taking out mortgages.

The story by Carrie Tait, “Faith Based Mortgages Court Muslims”, relayed the fact that Muslim Sharia law prohibits a Muslim from taking out a loan and paying interest on that loan in repayment — a fact I was already aware of. What had not occurred to me, of course, is that one cannot get a house without that interest-bearing mortgage, unless you pay cash for the thing, of course.

As it happens, Tait goes on to describe that there are new mortgage products being devised to comply with Sharia rules because it appears that up to one third of the Muslims in the US and Canada will refuse a conventional mortgage.

These products are different because, “A shariah-approved mortgage could be structured as a co-ownership between the buyer and the lender in which the buyer leases to own — so as to avoid interest payments.”

Tait goes on:
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Damn American Culture, It’s All About The ‘Latino’ Vote

-By Warner Todd Huston

Michael Gerson of the Council on Foreign Relations, and the one time “conscience of the White House”, presents the perfect it’s-all-about-winning stance that some Republicans of the Karl Rove wing of the GOP adheres to in this current amnesty for illegals conflict. The idea is that if the GOP is seen as responsible for letting illegals become automatic citizens with little impediment to their attaining that status this will make these immigrants grateful enough to vote Republican and secure a GOP electoral victory for the foreseeable future.

Gerson’s rationale can be seen in his Washington Post article of May 25th, but, unfortunately, Gerson’s is both a cynical and unsafe stance to take. Cynical because it reduces the whole episode to be about nothing but getting votes and unsafe because it is a self-destructive, society destroying move to make the argument into a mere vote mongering scheme.

Gerson’s column starts off with a lament about “anti-immigrant sentiments” in 1882 and goes on to finger point at a current “certain kind of conservative” that we have today who he imagines must be just as racist as our hundred twenty-five year-old kin ostensibly were.

Interestingly, Gerson is all ready to cite a one hundred twenty-five year-old history where it concerns his perception of lurking racism but ignores the only 21 year-old history that figures far more prominently in this debate born of Reagan’s great 1986 amnesty mistake. Few of the requirements and restrictions asked of illegals during the ’86 Reagan mistake were ever realized, yet we are expected now to assume that new requirements will be honored with today’s efforts?

Fool me once…
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Understanding the Worth of Our Nation

-By Frank Salvato

It is difficult to value something when its worth is unknown. The adage of one child being given a toy only to leave it out in the rain to rust, never understanding the toys worth, while another child made to earn the same toy is found to take care of it, valuing its worth, is a fitting analogy. This basic truth applies to our American heritage and the continued welfare of our nation.

Most of us have never had to take up arms to protect our freedoms, our liberties, our rights as guaranteed under The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution and The Bill of Rights, our Charters of Freedom. In most cases these gifts have been bequeathed to us from those of generations past who did have to serve, to protect and defend our nation and by those who valiantly volunteer to serve today. What is asked of us in return for this legacy of freedom is loyalty to the covenant between citizen and government, loyalty to our nation.

Today, our country faces both a threat from abroad and a threat, in the form of ideological conflict, from within. Some among us choose to accentuate the imperfections of our nation. Some condemn our culture. And still others literally champion our nation’s defeat and demise. Those who choose to diminish the significance of the United States’ contributions to the world, do so in ignorance of the intent of the documents that charted the course for this great nation and the ideologies and principles that provided the foundation for the creation of our governmental covenant.
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Denver Post Columnist: Christians Could Be Suspect Over McVeigh’s OK City Bombing

-By Warner Todd Huston

Dick Kreck of the Denver Post seems to think there is a good “point” to a suggestion that Christians should be suspected bombers because Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh was supposedly a Christian. In a column about local radio talk show host “Gunny Bob” of KOA, Kreck comments that a radio station detractor has “got a point” when he satirically said that, since McVeigh and Nichols were Christians, all Christians should be placed under surveillance because of the actions of the two bombers. The detractor was responding to talker “Gunny Bob’s” idea that all Muslims in the USA should be forced to wear GPS tracking bracelets so the government could keep track of them all.

Apparently talker Bob is a fiery one against Muslims in this era of the war on terror and his loose talk has stirred Colorado Media Matters, a local branch of the leftist Media Matters organization, to begin targeting the Clear Channel radio host for his opinions.

The reply that Kreck is talking about was posted on the CMM website.
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Father of One of Fort Dix Six Losing Business

-By Warner Todd Huston

Should we feel sorry for this? The father of one of the six would be Jihadi murderers in New Jersey is losing his pizza business because people who live in and near Fort Dix will no longer patronize his restaurant.

Muslim Tatar, who has owned Super Mario’s Pizza for five years, says that his lunchtime crowd from nearby McGuire Air Force Base and Fort Dix has largely disappeared, replaced by empty tables and nasty words from passing motorists.

“Now I am a target,” the 52-year-old Tatar told The New York Times for Saturday newspapers, adding that his business is “99 percent dead.”

I have to say, I cannot get too worked up over the supposed “injustice” of this guy finding that no one will spend their money in his pizza shop anymore. Especially when his solution to the failing business is to lie to his customers…

After receiving death threats, Tatar decided he had to take some sort of action to protect his business. Outside the restaurant, he hung a sign reading: “Under New Management.”

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Wisconsin Columnist: We Just Need to ‘Understand’, ‘Educate’ These ‘So-Called Terrorists’

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is no wonder that jihadists everywhere imagine we can so easily be beaten when western MSM outlets are often filled with capitulators and defeatists. The Wisconsin State Journal has just such a foolish, western dupe in it’s May 10th issue in a column by Kevin J. Mack who is scolding us all that these “so-called terrorists” just need a little understanding… as if they are merely errant teenagers who need a stern talking to and a little parental lovin’. And, Mack’s sentiment that it is really all our fault is all too common in the media today.

In a column titled “Let’s try educating ‘terrorists’ [We’re not all like Bush/Gingrich so leave us alone!]”, Mack claims that Newt Gingrich helped lead him to his conclusion that we just don’t “understand” those poor Islamofascists.

I heard Newt Gingrich say, on “Face the Nation” Sunday morning, that “…we’re up against a savagery and a ferocity that we don’t understand…” and I wanted to say, stop right there. Don’t speak for me. Don’t think you speak for all of us. We don’t understand? You don’t understand.

After scolding Newt (and those of us who support him by extension), Mack proves it is he, rather, who doesn’t understand…
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Rumi Islam: A TRULY Moderate Form of Islam

-By Warner Todd Huston

I finally found a moderate Islamic culture in that inspired by Maulana Jalaluddin Balkhi Rumi. It is a form of Sufism that is practiced heavily in Bosnia and is so far from the traditionally oppressive Islam that it is hard to believe that it even IS an Islamic tradition.

I’ve been reading a bit about it and I find it worthy of interest. I have to say, I was beginning to despair that there WAS such a thing as a moderate Islamic tradition. But, I have found one at last. Though, unfortunately for Islam, it seems nearly tangential to Islam as it drifts so far from the rest of even traditional Islam that it almost seems disqualified as an Islamic tradition.

Still, I am gratified that there is at least one Islamic tradition of some tenure (an 800 years’ tradition) that we can safely say this is a truly moderate one.

Do read up a bit on this man of faith and love for an inspiring story.

It also helps explain why so many Bosnians have sided with the USA and why Wahhabism has been thus far minimized there. Unfortunately, that minimization is threatened as the evil of Wahhabism is being heavily financed by rich Saudi hatemongers and is increasingly invading the area.

In any case, I am as vigilant against Islam as anyone, but I wanted to be sure and set the record straight that there is a real moderate Islam out there.
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ABC: From ‘Bush Lied’ To Tenet Was Right – President Given no Credit for Truth

-By Warner Todd Huston

It always amazes when the MSM congeals an entire presidential administration into a form that posits that every member of that administration is the president. Like when they claim that “Bush Lied” about the faulty intelligence that led to the presentation to the UN to garner support for the action in Iraq given by then Secretary of State Colin Powell. Yet, when the MSM wants to exonerate a single member of any particular administration, suddenly the President is forgotten as a part of the discussion and the individual administration official the press is currently in love with is held as a man responsible for his own decisions and exonerated on that basis.

This week’s new media darling is former CIA chief George Tenet, one of the worst directors of the CIA we’ve seen in decades. The MSM have suddenly found him to be an honorable and serious man because of his newly published Bush bashing tell-all.

Remember the calls that “Bush lied” about WMDs and that he “embarrassed” Powell by forcing him to present “lies” to the UN? It was all Bush’s fault, of course and the entire administration knew ahead of time that there were no WMDs, according to this line of thinking. Granted, the buck does stop with the president and if any claims were incorrect he bears the ultimate responsibility for that error. But, shouldn’t he ALSO get the credit if it were proven that he was right by all known information at the time?

Not according to ABC, apparently. Only Tenet gets credit for not presenting lies in a recent interview with Charles Gibson. The President is mysteriously not part of the discussion.
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Self Immolation (Dhimmicrats Don’t Get it)

By R. A. Hawkins

As I watch this nation reap the rewards of another Democrat victory I wonder: What did everyone expect? Who are these people that vote for self destruction? Certainly the liberals represent some strange and demented fraction of our society. I haven’t heard anyone talking about secession lately so maybe my idea of throwing certain states out of the Union might just be catching on. Who knows?

Now that the liberals are on the path that I knew they would pursue I think it’s time to say some of what I’ve wanted to say. Idiots shouldn’t be allowed to vote. There I said it. I feel so much better. But it is interesting in a way to watch events unfold, interesting in a manner that reminds me of Thursday at 4:50 AM three weeks ago. It was foggy and I had gone a whole one mile on the Interstate. I had just gotten on to the highway and looked in my rear view mirror. There was some idiot overtaking me and my Honda Civic at about 85 to 90 miles per hour. I went into evasive action mode and minimized the damage but not enough to save my car, only my life. The driver was drunk and as the incident unfolded I watched in slow motion as my mirror went spinning away and my fender disengaged from the underside of her car. That is how I feel as I watch events unfolding here right now.
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Democrats Play Politics With Troops’ Safety

-By Warner Todd Huston

In another case of who-should-be-surprised, the Democrat Party is playing political games with the lives of our troops by tying the military budget to their political goals of forcing the president to agree to a timetable for removing the troops from Iraq.

In recent months a new type of armored vehicle has been introduced to Iraq that has been saving the lives of our troops there.

As the AP reports:Deadlocked Bill May Halt Troop Carriers

The armored carrier has a grim black slash across its side, burn marks on the door and a web of cracks along the window.

Like most of the Mine Resistant, Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicles in Anbar province, this one has been hit as many as three times by enemy fire and bomb blasts. Yet, to date, no American troops have died while riding in one.

Yet the troops might find fewer of these MRAPs delivered to them because the Democrat Party has tied the funds allocated to build them to a bill that Bush will veto because there are withdrawal time tables included.
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What Do They Know and Why Don’t They Know It

-By Frank Salvato

Recent actions and statements by those who exist on the left side of the aisle have served as proof for any reasonable American that congressional Democrats, especially their leadership, are invested in – and in fact insist upon – placing politics before government. Their blatant disregard for the well-being of our nation leads me to ask, how well do the Progressive-Left and the Democrats who appease them understand the duties associated with being an elected member of the United States government?

One of the last true statesmen to have graced the halls of Congress, Henry Hyde (R-IL), was often heard to say that those elected to office are the stewards to the US Constitution. By this he meant that they were beholden to the principles, ideals, tenets and procedural boundaries held within the document itself. My belief goes a bit further to include the idea that all Americans are vested with this commitment and that in addition to the principles, ideals and tenets of our founding documents each and every one of us is obligated to at least understanding the philosophy that influenced our Founders and Framers to compose such a revolutionary form of self-governance.

That said, and current events taken into consideration, I am led to believe that many in Congress from both sides of the aisle – and perhaps most people elected to office – are sadly devoid of a proper understanding of the Constitution and just exactly what it is they are required to do for their constituencies.

Two instances, appalling in nature to those of us who embrace the idea of good government, took place this week at the hands of Democrat leadership.
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MSM & Dem Prez Candidates Attack Giuliani For Something He Didn’t Say

-By Warner Todd Huston

To show the feeding frenzy that is the MSM — as well as the constant inaccuracy — reports abounded yesterday with rebukes to Rudy Giuliani from Democratic candidates for the 2008 Presidential elections over something they all merely assumed he said at a campaign appearance.

Every single paper out there quoted the stern rebukes of each of the front running Dem. candidates and nearly every source of MSM news, from TV to the internet, repeated what it was that Rudy “said” to force the rebukes.

Unfortunately for all concerned, it appears that Rudy never said the phrase attributed to him.
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Democrats Skipping Military Briefings — Where’s the Media Outrage?

-By Warner Todd Huston

A few sources, not the least of which is Michael Barone, are reporting that the Democrats are ignoring important Iraq briefings conducted by General David Petraeus in an apparent effort to stymie efforts in Iraq. It is well known that they are not supportive of the troops in Iraq and the president’s “surge” plan they are currently conducting, but whether they like the plan or not, to skip these briefings is an act of blatant negligence that borders on the criminal. So where is the MSM’s outrage? Why are we not being told of this Democrat negligence?

Barone, one of the best political pundits out there today, closed his recent Real Clear Politics Report with the following:

What’s curious is that congressional Democrats don’t seem much interested in what’s actually happening in Iraq. The commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, returns to Washington this week, but last week Pelosi’s office said “scheduling conflicts” prevented him from briefing House members. Two days later, the members-only meeting was scheduled, but the episode brings to mind the fact that Pelosi and other top House Democrats skipped a Pentagon videoconference with Petraeus on March 8.

It has also been reported that one recent meeting with Gen. Petraeus on the Hill only saw one Democrat in attendance, that being Senator Carl Levin of Michigan.

It might be too early to say directly that it is some concerted effort or plan of the Democrat leadership to steer clear of Iraq briefings, but at the very least it certainly reveals their collective feeling that the war is already lost and that it’s time to move on past it all.

But here is the thing; they simply cannot claim to “support the troops” if they won’t even attend briefings held by the General in command of those troops. If the Democrats don’t attend these briefings they simply cannot claim to have the knowledge they need to make decisions necessary for policy direction. Unless, that is, they have fully decided, regardless of what is actually going on on the ground where our troops are facing the enemy, that all is lost.
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Suicide Bombers and Abortion

-By Thomas E. Brewton

Training Islamic children to become suicide bombers has much in common with abortion.

For an excellent analysis of the Supreme Court’s recent Carhart decision on partial-birth abortion, see The Supreme Court and Reasonable Hope by Richard John Neuhaus on the First Things website.

Reactions to Carhart raise the question whether our hedonistic, pro-choice liberals have any better claim to rectitude than Islamic jihadists.

Even liberals who blame the United States for Islamic aggression profess distress at the horrific phenomenon of Islamic families proudly urging their children to blow themselves up in order to kill infidels.

Those same liberals strenuously uphold the “right” of any woman, without the slightest recourse to due process of law, to murder her unborn infant. No tears are shed for the innocent life butchered in the abortion process.
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Virginia Tech Slaughter Raises Many Questions

-By Frank Salvato

I like to think of myself as someone who gathers all of the facts, along with some educated opinions, before I formulate my stance on things. It is for that reason that I read publications from both sides of the aisle on a daily basis when it comes to politics and from publications around the world when examining world events. The barbaric slaughter at Virginia Tech did not – and does not – escape this approach. In the end, the examination of the facts surrounding the senseless deaths of 32 and the suicide of the shooter have left me with more questions than answers and dredged up still unanswered questions about past events.

Admittedly, my examination of the events that took place on Virginia Tech’s campus may be influenced by terrorism. I spend a good portion of my work day researching terrorism for two non-profit groups, Basics Project and America’s Truth Forum, whose missions are to, among other things, focus on the threat posed by radical Islam. Through researching first-source, fact-based information from credible think tanks, organizations and advocacy groups on both sides of the issue I am now keenly aware of the subtleties presented in news items.
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A Muslim Student ‘Hero’ of VT Shootings?

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is possible — though I hope I am wrong — that we will soon be seeing all across the MSM the claim that one of the victims of the VT shooting was a “hero” who’s actions saved the life of at least one other student and the focus on this one “hero” student will probably be because of his religion. Unfortunately, the story you might soon be hearing doesn’t pass the test of logic, though, at least not enough to bestow “hero” status upon this victim. If we see this story ballyhooed, it will be just another sad and substance-less paean to Political Correctness, just an effort to find a Muslim that the MSM can turn into a hero in an absurd effort at “equal opportunity” which might cast into disrepute the true accomplishments of the life of a VT victim.

The story of Waleed Shaalan is like that of most of the other victims of the VT murderer. Just a fellow doing his best to succeed at his studies, get a degree, and make a better life for him and his family. That is a good enough deed in and of itself and needs no other embellishment to earn respect and admiration from anyone. But, an “anonymous” emailer is attempting to create for Waleed a higher status, that of “hero”, for something that this emailer is claiming he did in his last seconds of life.

Mr. Shaalan was badly wounded and lay beside the other student, who was not shot but played dead, as the gunman returned two times searching for signs of life. Just as the gunman noticed the student, Mr. Shaalan made a move to distract him, at which point he was shot a second time and died. The student believed that Mr. Shaalan purposefully distracted the shooter to save him, Mr. Dymond said.

Apparently this “anonymous survivor” is saying he believes that Mr. Shaalan moved to distract the killer on purpose to save the lives of those left alive in the classrom. Along with this “anonymous student” the Muslim Student Association of Virginia Tech is doing its level best to make Waleed into a “hero”.
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Marines Die in Dangerous Humvees in Iraq!

OK, I have to admit that my headline is sensational. Additionally, this story is not about Marines now being killed in Humvees, no Marine, as it occurs, died to make this story. In fact, quite the opposite is true in this case as this story is about a new generation of vehicles being introduced into the turmoil in Iraq that is saving the lives of our Marines.

Called a MRAP (Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles), these new vehicles are designed to deflect IED bombings and protect soldiers from the full force of such ambush attacks.

So why the headline? Because it is sure that we will NOT see this story ballyhooed too much in the MSM, that’s why. No US soldiers are dieing, and lives are being saved through innovation and American ingenuity.
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PBS Drops Documentary Against Radical Islam for ‘Political Reasons’

-By Warner Todd Huston

An American tax-funded documentary, titled Islam vs. Islamists, a film on how moderate Muslims feel about the corruption of their religion by Wahhabi extremists and their experiences in facing those extremists, was axed by PBS for the very reason that it puts some Muslims in a bad light, says the film’s producer in Tuesday’s edition of the Arizona Republic. Rampant PCism is the charge, and it is hard to deny the claim once the whole story is put out there.

The producer of a tax-financed documentary on Islamic extremism claims his film has been dropped for political reasons from a television series that airs next week on more than 300 PBS stations nationwide.

Producer Martyn Burke claims that PBS, in order to be allowed to continue with the project, tried to make him fire some of his associates on the film because they belong to a Conservative Think Tank and that they still axed his film anyway when all was said and done.

So, what is all the fuss over with this film?

Burke wrote that his documentary depicts the plight of moderate Muslims who are silenced by Islamic extremists, adding, “Now it appears to be PBS and CPB who are silencing them.”

Apparently PBS, is so afraid of even appearing to say that some Muslims’ actions are problematic that they would rather suppress the whole show then deal with the truth.
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Coloradans Protest Statue of Fallen Soldier

-By Warner Todd Huston

When reading about the story of protests in Colorado over the raising of a memorial statue to a fallen U.S. Soldier, one is tempted to feel that Americans have lost every vestige of manhood that it ever possessed. Just the very fact that someone would be so free of patriotism and testosterone that they’d protest this statue should be enough to affirm that there are no men left in the nation… or at least in the state of Colorado. Fortunately, the final analysis of the case tends to affirm the opposite, but the very fact that someone was ignorant enough to protest this memorial to an American hero is enough to rankle the American spirit.

Danny Dietz was a Navy SEAL from Littleton, Colorado who was killed in action in Afghanistan on June 28th, 2005. Dietz’ family and the City of Littleton combined efforts to have a statue to his memory erected near Goddard Middle School, Centennial Elementary and Community School for the Gifted.

The statue is a representation of the young Dietz in a kneeling position, in full battle dress, matching one of the last pictures taken of him in the field in Afghanistan. He wears his battle harness with clips and pockets about his chest and cradled in his arms is, of course, his service weapon.

Naturally, it is the presence of the weapon that caused the love of community and patriotism to drain right out of the hearts of some of Littleton’s weakest citizens. Why, we can’t have a statue to a fallen soldier carrying a weapon, right? That would be so gauche, wouldn’t it? And this monstrous statue is to be put near a school, yet! What, they must think, will become of us all if our children could catch a glimpse of an evil, evil gun in the hands of an imperialist oppressor as they toddled off to school each day? Shouldn’t this statue be shoved far off into a corner where no one will have the misfortune to be forced to view it, they probably wonder?
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A man named Fred

-By Melanie Morgan

I’ve seen him in real life; just outside the ABC broadcast facilities in Washington, D.C., where he exited after taping a broadcast for Paul Harvey’s “News and Comment.”

I nearly sprained my neck looking up and trying to take in his 6-foot 6-inch frame.

He didn’t look well that day. At dinner the previous evening, Thompson had contracted food poisoning. The D.C. bureau chief told me that despite his obvious discomfort, he had nonetheless posted his segment. In my business, that counts for a lot. Deadlines are everything.

So, what do we know about Fred Thompson and his possible candidacy for the highest office in the land?
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Are We Experiencing a Constitutional Crisis?

-By Frank Salvato

I have been disappointed to hear that some of the radio personalities and editorialists who usually present a modicum of reason to the American public are having a hard time finding anything wrong with Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s recent attempt at promoting rogue foreign policy in the Middle East. To be sure, our Constitution does not vest any member of Congress – speaker or otherwise – with the power to usurp the authority of the Executive Branch where conducting foreign policy is concerned.

This isn’t to say that Congress doesn’t have any authority over the formulation of US foreign policy, it certainly does. Article 2, Section 8 clearly states that Congress shall have the power:

“…To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes; To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water;…”

Further, in Article 3, Section 2 it clearly states that by their “advice and consent” they authorize the President of the United States:

“…To make Treaties, provided two thirds of the Senators present concur; and he shall nominate, and by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Ambassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the Supreme Court, and all other Officers of the United States, whose Appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall be established by Law;…”

In other words, Congress has the authority to regulate business between the United States and foreign nations, to declare war and regulate the spoils of war and to validate and make official any treaties negotiated through the Executive Branch. Article 3, not Congress, empowers the Executive Branch with the ability to appoint ambassadors, ministers, counsels, Supreme Court Justices and all other officers including official representatives of the United States. In essence, Congress has the limited power to legislate the general character and policies comprising American foreign policy.
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Legislating a Terrorist Victory in Iraq

-By Frank Salvato

If anyone was under the impression that congressional Democrats actually considered their actions, with regard to the “troop withdrawal bills,” beyond achieving victory over the Bush Administration, they would be playing the part of the uninformed, Kool-Aid drinking fool. While Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of their anti-war, pro-genocide, hate-Bush contingent revel in the fact that they have succeeded in passing a bill that opposes the president, al Qaeda operatives in Iraq are preparing to set their alarm clocks for “half-past redeployment” so the slaughter of those who braved Iraq’s polling places can begin.

Upon a logical, thoughtful examination, all congressional Democrats really achieved was a guaranteed veto at the hand of the president, a veto that in all likelihood, in light of the slim margin by which the bills’ passed, will be sustained. President Bush plainly promised to veto any bill that included a timetable or withdrawal measure and he made it perfectly clear to even the most feeble-minded in Congress that would be the case. So their actions – the bloviating, the grandstanding and the headline grabbing, in reality, were a pre-determined waste of time and taxpayer dollars.

Even more disconcerting is the fact that congressional Democrats, cheered on by the mind-numbing inanity of the anti-war Left, used tactics such as bribing Blue Dog Democrats with taxpayer funded pork projects placed in an emergency supplemental bill simply to achieve a political victory over the president. Let me say that again – they bribed many who wouldn’t have normally voted for defeatist policies with taxpayer dollars for pet pork projects; remember that the next time anyone tries to say that moderate Democrats are different from Progressive-Left Democrats.
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Wash.Post: Evangelicals Turning Against the War — Offers NO Proof

-By Warner Todd Huston

It is always interesting to me how a story can be published as if it is serious work, a story that almost seems plausible until you step back from it to realize that not a shred of proof to support the supposition was ever offered. After you’re done reading it you realize that all you ended up with were empty phrases like “some say” or “many are” instead of any statistics, studies or other proof.

Such is the case with the Washington Post’s story titled, “War Causing Split Among Evangelicals”. In fact, writer Julie Sullivan flat out admits that there is no proof for her supposition that “many” evangelical Christians are turning away from the war… but she postulates the premise any way.

No polling data show conclusively that opinion has shifted among conservative evangelicals.

This is only the fourth paragraph (the previous three being one sentence affairs) so you’d think she could just retire the piece right there. But, no we have to start right up with the “some say” routine.

But some national evangelical leaders say debate about — and, in some cases, opposition to — the war is breaking out among Christian conservatives whose support was key to President Bush’s election victories.

Yes and SOME Christians say that the earth is only 6,000 years old and that the end times are here right now. But that doesn’t mean either of those ideas are prevailing sentiments among Christians.

Next Sullivan gives what she imagines are the “reasons” all these evangelicals are suddenly turning against the GOP.
Continue reading “Wash.Post: Evangelicals Turning Against the War — Offers NO Proof”

U.S. Military Has Lost the PR Battle – But they Can Turn That Around

-By Warner Todd Huston

If this war is another Vietnam fiasco in the end, it will be just as much the fault of the Public Relations arm of the US Military as it is that of the enemy or the Mainstream Media. (Called PAOs for Public Affairs Officers from here on)

It is assured that the large preponderance of the MSM is antithetical to the armed forces of the US Military and Army authorities are right to be mindful that most reporters are not out there only to cover the war but are out there with the agenda to embarrass thee military, destroy the president, and alter US policies.

But, just as one must be wary of enemies, one should cultivate allies. And for the US Military to treat all reporters as if they are no better than the enemy, well that is a horrible mistake. And that is what appears to be happening.

Either that, or the PAOs are so utterly incompetent that it is nearly criminal.
Continue reading “U.S. Military Has Lost the PR Battle – But they Can Turn That Around”

Congressman’s ‘Explanation’ of Support for Cut and Run Strategy- Same Old Liberal Stuff

-By Warner Todd Huston

Representative Hank Johnson of Georgia’s 4th Congressional District has decided to “explain” whey he supports the cut and run act proposed by the House last week on a New Blog he has set up.

Johnson’s blog is being hosted by the “Moderate Blog Network” and some may feel that the first term Georgia Representative fits that title well. Johnson, for those who may not know, is the candidate that beat the unstable Cynthia McKinney in the last election in the 4h District and next to her ANYONE would seem “moderate”. Johnson is nothing, though, if not a typical, far left Liberal so a political moderate he is not..

His first (and so far only) entry in this Blog is an explanation of why he voted to support the “Iraq Accountability Act”.

I am passionately opposed to the war in Iraq. I am committed to bringing our brave troops home and sickened by the prospect of prolonging this tragic and unnecessary conflict.

While Johnson claims to stand on compassion here, his support of an immediate withdraw will do nothing to further the concept of saving lives.
Continue reading “Congressman’s ‘Explanation’ of Support for Cut and Run Strategy- Same Old Liberal Stuff”

AP: Mahdi Army Disintegration… BAD News??

-By Warner Todd Huston

Leave it to the AP to turn the disintegration of the organization of one of our enemies in Iraq into a bad thing!

That’s what we get with Wednesday’s analysis of the trouble that seems to be befalling the organization of Muqtada al-Sadr’s militia, a group that has resisted US led coalition government since day one.

Shiite Militia May Be Disintegrating

BAGHDAD (AP) – The violent Shiite militia known as the Mahdi Army is breaking into splinter groups, with up to 3,000 gunmen now financed directly by Iran and no longer loyal to the firebrand cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, adding a potentially even more deadly element to Iraq’s violent mix.

What is with this “potentially even more deadly element” business? One of our enemies falls and that is bad?

Still, despite this somewhat silly premise that an enemy failing is worse news, this report DOES go on to detail ever more interference by Iran who is meddling in Iraq.

Two senior militia commanders told The Associated Press that hundreds of these fighters have crossed into Iran for training by the elite Quds force, a branch of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard thought to have trained Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon and Muslim fighters in Bosnia and Afghanistan.

I urge each of you interested in what is going on in the Middle East to take a look at this report. It is sobering news.

Iran is itching to get attacked by the US and with their capturing of 15 British Sailors today, they just might get what is coming to them.
Continue reading “AP: Mahdi Army Disintegration… BAD News??”

Policy makers look to the stars

-By Michael M. Bates

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin is one left-leaning gent, even by Democratic standards. The non-partisan National Journal earlier this month ranked him the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate. In the company of such stalwarts as Teddy Kennedy, Hillary the pantsuit and Barack the empty suit, that’s a noteworthy, if dubious, achievement.

Comparing American soldiers to Nazis, Communists, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot burnished Dick’s credentials. When this inanity was extensively reported, he fell back on what liberals typically do. He didn’t apologize; he simply expressed regret that others may have misunderstood him. The Arab satellite TV network al-Jazeera reported this on its Web site as “US Senator stands by Nazi remark.”
Continue reading “Policy makers look to the stars”