Wednesday, August 29, 2007

More on the Seattle Ferry Story

More on the Seattle Ferry Story
Captain's Quarters Blog ^ | 8-29-07 | Ed Morrissey

As more news outlets look into the story of the pair wanted for questioning by the FBI after a series of incidents on Seattle ferries, the more details start sneaking out about their odd behavior. CNN reports on the story today, and unlike the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the pictures of the two men accompany the story:

Members of the public and ferry workers reported the men to authorities after the two were seen pacing in areas of the boat, including a cargo hold, as if trying to measure distances, FBI Special Agent Larry Carr said Tuesday. The men were also seen about two months ago taking photographs of the ferries -- including restricted areas -- and studying an emergency evacuation poster.

The men were spotted on multiple ferries and ferry routes, Carr said.

Initially, in the Seattle P-I's report, the men were asking unusual questions on the one ferry. ABC's follow-up informed us that the FBI had confirmed the same two men had asked a lot of unusual questions on other ferry routes, which had prompted ferry workers to tip the FBI about the situation. Now we find out that the pair had measured distances in the cargo hold and taken pictures of restricted areas.

The two could still just be tourists with a bad sense of propriety. However, it's worth noting, as CNN does, that many photographs and plenty of video have been captured in terrorist hideouts, whose subject matter focused on major American targets. Terrorist scouts have put a lot of effort into reconnaissance over the last few years, and the pair certainly give the appearance of carrying out a similar mission in Seattle.

The Seattle P-I insisted that they felt a duty to protect the privacy of these two men. The FBI wanted to make the pictures public because "the result of not doing anything at that point in time is a ferry blowing up and thousands of people losing their lives." Which organization has their priorities more in order?

Here's the picture again:

If you have any information regarding these men, please call the FBI office near you.


WTF is it with the media?! Good grief!

Welcome to AnnCoulter.com

Welcome to AnnCoulter.com
Wednesday!

RENO 911
August 29, 2007


This week, congressional Democrats vowed to investigate Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' firing of himself. Gonzales has said he was not involved in the discussions about his firing and that it was "performance-based," but he couldn't recall the specifics.

Right-wingers like me never trusted Gonzales. But watching Hillary Rodham Clinton literally applaud the announcement of Gonzales' resignation on Monday was more than any human being should have to bear. Liberals' hysteria about Gonzales was surpassed only by their hysteria about his predecessor, John Ashcroft. (Also their hysteria about Bush, Rove, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Libby, Rice, Barney and so on. They're very excitable, these Democrats.)

Liberals want to return the office to the glory years of Attorney General Janet Reno!

There is reason to believe Reno is precisely the sort of attorney general that Hillary would nominate, since Reno was widely assumed to be Hillary's pick at the time. As ABC News' Chris Bury reported the day Reno was confirmed: "The search for an attorney general exemplifies Hillary Clinton's circle of influence and its clout. ... The attorney general-designate, Janet Reno, came to the president's attention through Hillary Clinton's brother, Hugh Rodham."

Let's compare attorneys general:

-- Civilians killed by Ashcroft: 0
-- Civilians killed by Gonzales: 0
-- Civilians killed by Reno: 80

Reno's military attack on a religious sect in Waco, Texas, led to the greatest number of citizens ever killed by the government in the history of the United States. More Americans were killed at Waco than were killed at any of the various markers on the left's via dolorosa -- more than Kent State (4 killed), more than the Haymarket Square rebellion (4 killed), more than Three Mile Island (0 killed).

-- Innocent people put in prison by Ashcroft: 0
-- Innocent people put in prison by Gonzales: 0
-- Innocent people put in prison by Reno: at least 1 that I know of

As Dade County (Fla.) state attorney, Janet Reno made a name for herself as one of the leading witch-hunters in the notorious "child molestation" cases from the '80s, when convictions of innocent Americans were won on the basis of heavily coached testimony from small children.

Charged by Reno's office in 1984 with child molestation, Grant Snowden was convicted on the manufactured testimony of one such child, who was 4 years old when the abuse allegedly occurred.

Snowden, the most decorated police officer in the history of the South Miami Police Department, was sentenced to five life terms -- and was imprisoned with people he had put there. Snowden served 11 years before his conviction was finally overturned by a federal court in an opinion that ridiculed the evidence against him and called his trial "fundamentally unfair."

In a massive criminal justice system, mistakes will be made from time to time. But Janet Reno put people like Snowden in prison not only for crimes that they didn't commit -- but also for crimes that never happened. Such was the soccer-mom-induced hysteria of the '80s, when innocent people were prosecuted for fantastical crimes concocted in therapists' offices.

-- Number of obvious civil rights violations ignored by Ashcroft: 0
-- Number of obvious civil rights violations ignored by Gonzales: 0
-- Number of obvious civil rights violations ignored by Reno: at least 1

On Aug. 19, 1991, rabbinical student Yankel Rosenbaum was stabbed to death in Crown Heights by a black racist mob shouting "Kill the Jew!" as retaliation for another Hasidic man killing a black child in a car accident hours earlier.

In a far clearer case of jury nullification than the first Rodney King verdict, a jury composed of nine blacks and three Puerto Ricans acquitted Lemrick Nelson Jr. of the murder -- despite the fact that the police found the bloody murder weapon in his pocket and Rosenbaum's blood on his clothes, and that Rosenbaum, as he lay dying, had identified Nelson as his assailant.

The Hasidic community immediately appealed to the attorney general for a federal civil rights prosecution of Nelson. Reno responded with utter mystification at the idea that anyone's civil rights had been violated.

Civil rights? Where do you get that?

Because they were chanting "Kill the Jew," Rosenbaum is a Jew, and they killed him.

Huh. That's a weird interpretation of "civil rights." It sounds a little harebrained to me, but I guess I could have someone look into it.

It took two years from Nelson's acquittal to get Reno to bring a civil rights case against him.

-- Number of innocent civilians accused of committing heinous crimes by Ashcroft: 0
-- Number of innocent civilians accused of committing heinous crimes by Gonzales: 0
-- Number of innocent civilians accused of committing heinous crimes by Reno: at least 1

Janet Reno presided over the leak of Richard Jewell's name to the media, implicating him in the Atlanta Olympic park bombing in 1996, for which she later apologized. I believe Reno also falsely accused the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez of violating the law, which I am not including in her record of false accusations, but reminds me of another comparison.

Number of 6-year-old boys deported to totalitarian dictatorships by Ashcroft: 0
Number of 6-year-old boys deported to totalitarian dictatorships by Gonzales: 0
Number of 6-year-old boys deported to totalitarian dictatorships by Reno: 1

Not until Bush became president was the media interested in discussing the shortcomings of the attorney general. Whatever flaws Alberto Gonzales has (John Ashcroft has none), we don't have to go back to the Harding administration to find a worse attorney general.

From the phony child abuse cases of the '80s to the military assault on Americans at Waco, Janet Reno presided over the most egregious attacks on Americans' basic liberties since the Salem witch trials. These outrageous deprivations of life and liberty were not the work of fanatical right-wing prosecutors, but liberals like Janet Reno.

Reno is the sort of wild-eyed zealot trampling on real civil rights that Hillary views as an ideal attorney general, unlike that brute Alberto Gonzales. At least Reno didn't fire any U.S. attorneys!

Oh wait --

Number of U.S. attorneys fired by Ashcroft: 0
Number of U.S. attorneys fired by Gonzales: 8
Number of U.S. attorneys fired by Reno: 93

COPYRIGHT 2007 ANN COULTER
BTW, RIP, Richard Jewell. He died today.


Richard Jewell, Wrongly Accused in Atlanta Olympics Bombing, Dead at 44

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

FC1

ATLANTA —

Richard Jewell, the former security guard who was erroneously linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wednesday, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

Jewell, 44, was found dead in his west Georgia home, GBI spokesman John Bankhead said.

"There's no suspicion whatsoever of any type of foul play. He had been at home sick since the end of February with kidney problems," said Meriwether County Coroner Johnny Worley.

The GBI planned to do an autopsy Thursday, Bankhead said.

Lin Wood, Jewell's longtime attorney, said in an e-mail to The Associated Press that he was "devastated" by the news. He declined to comment further, saying he was in New York trying to get back to Atlanta.

Jewell was initially hailed as a hero for spotting a suspicious backpack in a park and moving people out of harm's way just before a bomb exploded during a concert at the Atlanta Summer Olympics.

The blast killed one and injured 111 others.

Three days after the bombing, an unattributed report in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution described him as "the focus" of the investigation.

Other media, to varying degrees, also linked Jewell to the investigation. He was never arrested or charged, although he was questioned and was a subject of search warrants.

The media circus that followed the FBI investigation obscured the fact that Jewell saved the lives of many members of the technical staff working on live TV coverage of the Olympics.

“Richard ran all the way up and down the four stories of the tower and evacuated everybody, it must have been between 40 and 50 people. Seconds later the thing exploded,” said Bruce Rodgers, president of Tribe Inc and designer of the AT&T Global Village, where the explosion happened.

The next day, when Rodgers went back up the tower, “My whole corner was completely obliterated," he said. "steel shrapnel, pipe material lodged into the decking of the structure and embedded inches into the ceiling. The chairs that we usually sat in were completely sheared and ripped apart.

"Had he not gotten those people out, I know that at least 20 people on the first two floors of the tower would be dead.”

As recently as last year, Jewell was working as a sheriff's deputy.

Eighty-eight days after the initial news report, U.S. Attorney Kent Alexander issued a statement saying Jewell "is not a target" of the bombing investigation and that the "unusual and intense publicity" surrounding him was "neither designed nor desired by the FBI, and in fact interfered with the investigation."

In 1997, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno expressed regret over the leak regarding Jewell. "I'm very sorry it happened," she told reporters. "I think we owe him an apology."

The Atlanta newspaper never settled a lawsuit Jewell filed against it. The case was still pending as of last year. A lawyer for the newspaper did not immediately return calls seeking comment.

Eventually, the bomber turned out to be anti-government extremist Eric Rudolph, who also planted three other bombs in the Atlanta area and in Birmingham, Ala. Those explosives killed a police officer, maimed a nurse and injured several other people.

Rudolph was captured after spending five years hiding out in the mountains of western North Carolina. He pleaded guilty to all four bombings last year and is serving life in prison.

Jewell told the AP last year that Rudolph's conviction helped, but he believed some people still remember him as a suspect rather than for the two days in which he was praised as a hero.

"For that two days, my mother had a great deal of pride in me -- that I had done something good and that she was my mother, and that was taken away from her," Jewell said around the time of the 10th anniversary of the bombing. "She'll never get that back, and there's no way I can give that back to her."

A year ago, Gov. Sonny Perdue commended Jewell at a bombing anniversary event. "This is what I think is the right thing to do," Perdue declared as he handed a certificate to Jewell.

Jewell said: "I never expected this day to ever happen. I'm just glad that it did."

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

CASTRO: HILLARY WILL WIN

CASTRO: HILLARY WILL WIN
Endorsed by a dead man. Yee-haw.

Hillary Rodham Clinton got a boost yesterday from an unwanted source - Fidel Castro.

A column purportedly written by the badly ailing Cuban dictator said that Clinton would likely win the presidency in 2008, with Barack Obama as her running mate.

"The word today is that an apparently unbeatable ticket could be Hillary for president and Obama as her running mate," Castro wrote in a piece about U.S. presidents published by the Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Meanwhile, Castro offered a favorable assessment of only one of the 10 men who have been president during his regime - Jimmy Carter.

"I only knew one who, for ethical-religious reasons, was not complicit to the brutal terrorism against Cuba: James Carter," the essay read.

-SNIP-

(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

Denmark: Islamic group incites war on West

Denmark: Islamic group incites war on West
Oh, those goofy Danes.

Sunday’s national meeting for the radical Hizb ut-Tahrir included incitement to destroy Israel and a re-establishment of the Caliphate Islamic empire

Controversial Islamic organisation Hizb ut-Tahrir celebrated its annual congress in Copenhagen on Sunday with words of anger against Jews and the West, reported daily free newspaper Nyhedsavisen.

Nearly 600 Muslims attended the meeting at KB Hallen in the city’s enclave of Frederiksberg, where religious leaders spoke of the rise of an new Islamic Caliphate and the fall of Western powers.

‘The Caliphate can arrive in an hour, two months or two years from now,’ said Fadi Abdullatif, Hizb ut-Tahrir’s president, who owns a previous conviction for publicly urging his members to kill Jews. ‘We are working for a Caliphate from Morocco to Indonesia and from Khazakhstan to Saudi Arabia.’

The union of nations under a common Islamic law could be created by force if necessary, according to another of Hizb ut Tahrir’s leaders, Atta bin Khalil. Khalil also told those in attendance to ‘continue their state of war against the Jewish nation’.

A third speaker at the congress, Emir Shamil, said that ‘heads may roll’ in the recreation of the Caliphate.

Many politicians have unsuccessfully attempted to dissolve the organisation in the past, but Sunday’s congress may have been the straw that breaks its back. Nearly all political parties are in agreement that some type of action must be taken against the organisation.

‘The sooner the organisation is broken up the better,’ said Tom Behnke, the Conservative judicial spokesperson.

The Social Liberals cultural spokesperson, Simon Emil Ammitzbøll, is now requesting the Justice Ministry to conduct surveillance on Hizb ut-Tahrir, saying the congress proved that it is not merely individual members inciting racial and religious violence but the organisation as a whole.

Hizb ut-Tahrir has more than one million members worldwide and an estimated 200 full-time members within Denmark.

I'm With Fred - Friends of Fred Thompson

I'm With Fred - Friends of Fred Thompson

Star Parker: Fred Thompson's rope-a-dope

Dallas Morning News

It's said that in life, timing is everything. And it could be that former Tennessee Sen. Fred Thompson's entry into the 2008 presidential race, expected in early September, will prove to be timed perfectly.

According to a just released poll from the Pew Research Center, 52 percent of Americans have a negative reaction to the presidential campaign thus far and only 19 percent have anything positive to say. And the main complaint of the disgruntled 52 percent is that the campaign simply started too early.

This could be Thompson's "rope-a-dope." Recall this maneuver of Muhammad Ali's in his famous "rumble in the jungle" in Zaire with then heavyweight champion George Foreman. Ali leaned back on the ropes in the early rounds, his forearms up covering his face, and let Foreman pound himself to exhaustion. Ali then stepped up, fresh and strong, and knocked Foreman out.

Thompson has been sitting on the sidelines while the large field of announced candidates on both sides have been traipsing from debate to debate in a campaign begun earlier than ever.

When Thompson announces next month and formally enters the race, his timing alone might be appreciated by a public wondering why they have been forced to start listening to candidates more than a year and half before they'll go to the polls to vote.

In a Washington Post poll done last week, only one in five Republicans say they are "very satisfied" with their candidates. And although the Democratic field is more settled (almost half of Democrats say they are "very satisfied" with their candidates), the negative ratings for their front runner and likely nominee, Sen. Hillary Clinton, remain at almost 50 percent.

So, Fred Thompson, a seasoned actor, may really know how to respond on cue. With Act One, Scene One played out, he may enter the stage in Scene Two and wake up the audience.

And, from what the Washington Post's David Broder reports, it may be more than just timing that wakes up this audience.

According to Broder, who reports on a two hour interview he just did with Thompson, the ex-senator and actor is going to be bold. He's got a nice life as a star in the popular "Law and Order" TV series, a beautiful young wife and young children, and is not running for president out of some ego-driven need.

He is stepping up to the plate out of a sense that there are things that need to be said that aren't being said, and that, if elected, he'll have a shot at getting these things done.

Anyone who has been reading what I have written these last few months knows my incredulity that the massive entitlements crisis facing this nation has not been part of the campaign discussion. It's been like hearing the social director of the Titanic announce shuffleboard times as the ship is going down.

It sounds like Thompson is ready to put the facts on the table before the American public and, yes, fasten your seatbelts, tell the truth.

He's going to talk about Medicare and Social Security and what we need to do to tighten our belts and get our lives back under control. And he's going to talk about national security and weigh in as a traditional values candidate.

This kind of honesty and candor is only possible with a candidate for whom the truth is more important than the job. And it sounds like Fred is ready.

Monday, August 27, 2007

Like a suppository, only a bit stronger � Comme un suppositoire, mais juste un peu plus fort | the dissident frogman
Absolute hysterical brilliance.


I definitely lost my ability to be bothered, shocked or amazed by the depth at which some of the greatest Western news agencies and media outlets are prepared to sink in their support to the enemies of their own civilization, last year almost to the day, when Reuters and its stringers cast smoke on Lebanon, and produced some of Hezbollywood's greatest blockbusters.

Now, this:
Tuesday August 14, 2007: An elderly Iraqi woman shows two bullets which she says hit her house following an early coalition forces raid in the predominantly Shiite Baghdad suburb of Sadr City.

This latest disinformation hack from the French news agency AFP (yeah, emphasis added) didn't come as a surprise, and didn't raise my blood pressure either — in fact, it sparked quite a stroke of frank amusement, as you can see in the good-natured and videotaped farce I've performed for the occasion, and edited for your viewing pleasure(1).


[snip]

Click the headline above for more. But since the vid didn't work for me on his site, I've embedded the youtube below.

Enjoy!




Sunday, August 26, 2007

Zippo Lighters Under Fire

Zippo Lighters Under Fire

I’m generally not one to place much stock in conspiracy theories, but when an American institution comes under senseless attack from within, it gives me pause to reconsider my cherished beliefs. Events I’ve encountered over the past several weeks have left me no choice but to conclude there’s a conspiracy of hydra-like proportions slithering unnoticed through our country. It’s so far-reaching, it’s almost impossible to unearth its roots. And so insidious, it goes largely unnoticed.

One of the last testaments to American ingenuity, the venerable Zippo lighter, is systematically being dismantled by agents working under the auspices of homogenization. The network is vast, and so sublime that even its agents are unaware of its power. The average Joe — citizens like you and me — never sees the effects of homogenization — until it strikes us on an immediate level.

At first, I had no reason to suspect there were forces working in concert to undermine the proud tradition of the Zippo lighter. Thinking that the corner convenience store might stock flints or lighter fluid was a shot in the dark at best, even though this particular location carried every brand of cigarette known to man. Not surprisingly, I fared no better at the liquor store across the street. But I couldn’t help but note both locations offered a variety of refillable butane lighters alongside the obligatory disposable Bics and Scriptos. Undaunted, I went to a nearby drug store where I had purchased flints before, only to be met with a vacant stare from the post-pubescent clerk. Finally, I visited the tobacco bar at my newly remodeled neighborhood grocery store. In the course of the store’s makeover, photo processing and DVD rentals had been eliminated, but the floral section had been expanded as a freestanding kiosk within the store. The tobacco bar had been redone, too. Flints and lighter fluid had fallen victim to the consolidation process, but the selection of butane lighters and disposable lighters had been expanded.

Clearly, this was no mere coincidence. Only weeks before, I was able to purchase Zippo flints and lighter fluid with ease. Now, wherever I went, clerks extolled the virtues of disposables and butane. As tempting as it was to surrender to the inevitable, something I couldn’t explain — something innate, something American — spurred me to not forsake the Zippo. Bic lighters, and their imitators, lure unsuspecting consumers with promises of convenience. They neglect to mention how they’re actually little explosive devices. Only a few days ago here in Dallas, a disposable lighter was responsible for the decimation of an SUV. It had been left in the vehicle for hours in the Texas heat, and when the owner tried to use it, it exploded in his hand. Of course, he dropped the lighter immediately, but the little Chinese-assembled IED completely torched his vehicle.

I would never suggest that French companies like Bic, or American-based novelty companies dealing in throwaways, are undermining our way of life by outsourcing the manufacturing of their little flamethrowers to China. However, it’s blatantly apparent that 79 cent lighters don’t really represent convenience, and actually are potential environmental hazards. They don’t last very long, and when they do work, it’s only haphazardly, particularly in the outdoors. As a result, they’re routinely tossed aside by frustrated users, presenting fire hazards — and if they don’t combust, their plastic casings languish forever by the roadside.

Zippos, on the other hand, are an American engineering marvel, elegant in design, legendary for their reliability. This year marks the 75th anniversary of Zippo, and they’ve remained relatively unchanged since they first appeared. It’s impossible to improve on perfection, and for what it does, nothing has ever beat a Zippo. Assuming they’re fueled and the flint isn’t worn away, they will, as promised, light under the windiest conditions without fail. And if anything should ever go wrong with it, the company will replace it at absolutely no cost. After my father died, I came across one he owned, with the lid missing. I sent it to Zippo, and it came back from Zippo’s manufacturing plant in Bradford, Pennsylvania, good as new.

Zippos have been lauded by presidents, generals and soldiers for decades, and not without good reason. During WWII, Zippo suspended commercial sales, and only made the lighter available to the military. Eisenhower and MacArthur, as well as countless grunts, lauded it as the only flame upon which they could depend. There are stories of its metal case stopping bullets during battle. And of course, as per the unconditional guarantee, such damaged lighters were replaced with no questions asked.

A Zippo isn’t just a lighter — it’s an accoutrement that you selfishly guard. You might own several, with each one having its own backstory, but you never throw one away. Each one reminds the owner of a particular point in his or her life — a bittersweet romance, an affair with a fast car, a little social victory — all sealed with that distinctive click as the Zippo is closed. There’s a little piece of American history in every Zippo.

You don’t get that with a Bic lighter, and you don’t get it with a novelty butane lighter emblazoned with skull-and-crossbones or crude feminine silhouettes. All those give you are frustrations and bad memories of misplaced adolescence. In our throwaway culture, that’s how we mark time. We paste over our past with fiberboard facades and call it progress. It’s not evolution, though — it’s surrender to homogenization.

Trust me — the Homogenization Conspiracy is not a figment of my fevered imagination. It’s not relegated to the Zippo, either. The perfect little lighter is just a pawn in this. If the dark forces that dictate our tastes can covertly take out an American icon like the Zippo by denying us its fuel source, what’s next? Rise up, America! If you don’t do it now, future generations will be consigned to a world ruled by overlords whose only allegiance is to disposability. And the world will end with the telltale click of a Zippo slamming shut...

(TN) Judge Tells Illegal Alien He is "Unwelcome Undesirable"

(TN) Judge Tells Illegal Alien He is "Unwelcome Undesirable"

General Sessions Court Judge Bob Moon said the man charged with setting a fire in a downtown hotel is "an unwelcome undesirable" illegal alien.

Judge Moon told Bario Gomez, "Undesirables like you are not welcome in this country. You are a Latino terrorist who entered this country illegally and soon plotted significant personal injury and damage to the people and businesses in our community."

Authorities said Gomez is an illegal alien with no proof of identification. Officials also said he gave police a false name.

The INS placed a hold on Gomez, 20, after charges of aggravated arson and aggravated vandalism were filed against him.

Judge Moon told him, "It is undesirables like you who create many unjustifiable problems and prejudices upon the good people who enter this country legally in chasing a dream for a better life for themselves and their families.

"Mr. Gomez, you nor any other citizen from a foreign land has a right to enter this country; you simply have a privilege to enter this country through the proper legal channels.

"You are a domestic terrorist who is an imminent threat to the safety of our people and their property. You are also a supreme flight risk from justice. It is with duty, comfort and ease that I increase your bond significantly in an appropriate amount to insure your appearance in further proceedings and to insure the safety of this community."

The bond was raised from $30,000 to $1 million. The previous bond was set by Magistrate James Purple, which Judge Moon described as "another ludicrously low bond."

According to Arson Investigator James Whitmire, Gomez checked into the hotel with his girlfriend. Testimony by Whitmire and management officials indicated that Gomez placed a toaster filled with matches in a microwave oven in his room intending a massive "delayed burn."

Proof also showed that multiple towels were stuffed into the toilet in order to retard the water supply. The hotel manager testified that the towels were stuffed so deeply that the pipes had to be disassembled to remove them. She also stated that the room was severely damaged and vandalized.

Capt. Whitmire testified that "hundreds of people were evacuated, including children."

He said, "If the fire had established itself many families and children would have most likely lost their lives or been severely injured. Being on the fourth floor, the fire would have been difficult to contain."


Bario Gomez

Putin brings back mental ward torment

Putin brings back mental ward torment
This makes my blood run cold.

THE elderly couple did not hesitate to open the door when they saw Dimitry Mukhin through their spy-hole. Mukhin, a psychiatrist who lived in the neighbouring building, had recently paid a friendly visit to ask if they needed anything. But this was no courtesy call.

As Emilia Tomareva and Albert Uzikov let him into the Moscow flat where they had lived for decades, Mukhin rushed in with two men in white coats and a policeman.

The shocked couple were bundled into an ambulance with their hands tied behind their backs and locked up in separate psychiatric hospital wards, even though neither was mentally ill.

Both were injected with drugs against their will and without a court order that is normally required under Russian law. By the time they were released 10 days later after a judge ruled that they should never have been incarcerated in the first place, both were ill and terrified.

Uzikov, a leukaemia sufferer, was so weakened by the drugs that he had to be carried home. A few months later he died.

“I don’t know what they did to my husband but he could barely stand when he was released,” Tomareva said. “We found out that while he was being held he had several minor heart attacks but was not given any medical attention. That, coupled with the drugs they gave him, killed him.

“We lived peacefully and never bothered anyone. What they did to us was criminal. I live in fear now.”

Tomareva and Uzikov were victims of what human rights activists are warning is a return to the Soviet-era abuse of psychiatry as a tool of repression.

The Soviet Union routinely silenced dissidents by putting them in asylums. The practice attracted worldwide condemnation, in part because of the protests of Andrei Sakharov, the nuclear physicist confined to the city of Gorky for years.

Among the most notorious cases was that of Alexander Yes-enin-Volpin, a mathematician who became one of the Soviet Union’s first dissidents. He was interned in mental hospitals eight times and was once held for two years before he left in 1972 for the United States.

But whereas under communism people were subjected to debilitating drugs because of their opposition to the state, a bribe often suffices now to have a rational person with no interest in politics condemned to the nightmarish world of Russian mental hospitals.

The activists say that rampant corruption, coupled with a lack of controls on Russian psychiatry, have resulted in people being locked up illegally, sometimes simply because someone wants to take over their flat.

Tomareva suspects that some neighbours were behind her detention. She told investigators they wanted to buy the flat in which she and her husband lived but the couple had refused to part with it.

She suspects the neighbours paid a bribe to have them detained with the intention of arranging for their flat to be put up for sale, under Russian law, a person found to be mentally ill loses most of their rights.

In the end a court found Mukhin guilty of having sent the couple to a psychiatric ward illegally and gave him a four-year suspended sentence. He denied any wrongdoing.

“Having a perfectly sane person locked up in a psychiatric institution has become shockingly easy,” said Tatyana Mal-chikova of the Citizens’ Commission for Human Rights, which believes there are hundreds of cases like that of Tomareva.

“All it takes is a bribe. The system is being abused all the time. But whereas in Soviet times the victims were mainly dissidents, now it could happen to anyone over a simple dispute. Once someone sane is locked up and being injected daily with powerful drugs, it doesn’t take long to turn them into vegetables.”

Last week authorities in the Arctic city of Murmansk released Larissa Arap, an opposition journalist whose five-week detention in two psychiatric hospitals caused a storm of protest.

Arap, who is a supporter of Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion turned fierce Kremlin critic, was confined after publishing an exposé in which she described how staff at a mental hospital were abusing young patients, often with electric shocks. During a routine medical test to renew her driving licence, she was asked by a doctor if she had written the article. Arap defended her story. The doctor called the police and had her forcibly detained. In hospital she was regularly given drugs and last week she was so feeble that she could barely speak.

“I feel very sick,” said Arap, who has never suffered from anything more than mild depression. “I have no idea what they gave me but I have memory loss. I lost all sense of time and can’t remember much of what they did to me. They tied and beat me. It was torture. I saw other perfectly sane people inside.”

Similar treatment was used against Sergei Ablamsky, a lawyer in Bryansk, 250 miles southwest of Moscow, when he came into conflict with a prosecutor he accused of corruption. Ablamsky was taken in handcuffs to a psychiatric institute where he was held for four weeks.

“It was a terrifying experience,” he said. “Once you’re inside you are no one. You have no rights and are treated worse than an animal. I saw people being beaten up all the time. I was kept drugged and had little understanding of who I was and where I was being held. I could barely move. Once you are trapped inside that world, they will do everything to break you and make you insane.” “The Soviet practice of doing away with people by declaring them mentally ill is making a comeback in today’s Russia,” said Vladimir Bukovsky, a Soviet-era dissident now living in London who was twice locked up in mental institutions.

“Abuse of psychiatry had ceased after the collapse of communism. But now, under Vladimir Putin, a president who has brought back many Soviet-era practices and has described the collapse of the Soviet Union as a catastrophe, it’s becoming common again.”

Saturday, August 25, 2007

Iraqi sacrifices life to save U.S. soldiers

Iraqi sacrifices life to save U.S. soldiers
There's a special spot in heaven for this man.

An Iraqi man heroically sacrificed his life to save four U.S. soldiers and eight Iraqi neighbors when he tackled a suicide bomber on Aug. 18, the U.S. military reported.

Soldiers from 3rd Squadron, 1st Cavalry Regiment, were talking with the al-Arafia Concerned Citizens, a volunteer community group, at a member’s house.

“I was about 12 feet away when the bomber came around the corner,” said Staff Sgt. Sean Kane, according to a military press release. “I was about to engage when he jumped in front of us and intercepted the bomber as he ran toward us. As he pushed him away, the bomb went off.”

Kane felt the loss personally because he had met and dealt with his rescuer several times.

“He was high-spirited and really believed (in) what the group was doing,” Kane said. “I have no doubt the bomber was trying to kill American soldiers . . . If he hadn’t intercepted him, there is no telling how bad it could have been. ... (He) made the decision to sacrifice himself to protect everyone.”

Capt. Brian Gilbert said, “I spoke with the father. He said he has no remorse in his son’s death because he died saving American soldiers.”

The military reported that the citizens group later gave Iraqi police the location of the al-Qaeda cell believed to be behind the attack. A raid netted four arrests.

Friday, August 24, 2007

White Man Awarded $150,000 in Racism Lawsuit [names like "cracker," "polack" and "stupid white boy."

White Man Awarded $150,000 in Racism Lawsuit

BUFFALO, N.Y. — A federal jury awarded a white man $150,000 in a racial discrimination lawsuit Wednesday.

Mark Pasternak, who is white, said he was dismissed from his state job helping troubled youths because he could not tolerate being called names like "cracker," "polack" and "stupid white boy."

A seven-member all-white jury found that Tommy Baines, who is black, discriminated against Pasternak and created a hostile work environment.

"I'm elated and overwhelmed," Pasternak told The Buffalo News Wednesday. "I feel like I've been to hell and back ... After all these years, the best feeling is, the jury heard his story and mine, and they believed me."

Pasternak's attorney, David Seeger, said his client took abuse from Baines for three years while the two men worked with an agency formerly known as the state Division for Youth. The facility is no longer in operation.

Baines subjected Pasternak to race-based slurs, job sabotage and crude insults in front of co-workers, according to court papers and testimony.

EDITORIAL: Get a life (Fred Alert!)

EDITORIAL: Get a life (Fred Alert!)

Lane Hudson, an Internet gadfly, filed a complaint with the FEC on Monday, accusing Sen. Thompson of illegally raising more money than he needs to decide whether to run for president.

Federal law allows potential candidates to raise money to travel, conduct polls and pay for other expenses related to "testing the waters" for a political campaign, without any requirement that the prospective candidate file financial reports with the Federal Elections Commission during that exploratory period.

But the law prohibits anyone who is "testing the waters" from hoarding the money thus raised for use during his actual campaign. "We're following the law," Thompson spokesman Jim Mills said in response to the complaint...

The most sensible goal of the campaign finance laws is to allow voters to figure out who's financing these candidates. Huge contributions from teacher unions or mining companies are far better indicators of where a candidate will come down on issues related to those parties than any carefully massaged campaign sound bites.

But to do that, the law has to choose a "start date." And the official announcement of candidacy seems an obvious date to choose...

If Sen. Thompson is as politically savvy as he appears, he will reveal the sources of all the money he has raised to date, whether he is technically required to do so or not.

Under federal guidelines, the FEC will now give Sen. Thompson 15 days to respond to the complaint. At that point, it's highly likely he will be an announced candidate, and this complaint will be dismissed under the "get a life" rule.

As it should be.

COUEY GETS DEATH PENALTY

COUEY GETS DEATH PENALTY
The closest he can get to justice on this earth.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

Chandler (AZ) boy suspended for sketching gun

Chandler (AZ) boy suspended for sketching gun

Family members provided an image as an example of the sketch drawn by the boy. PROVIDED

An East Valley eighth-grader was suspended this week after he turned in homework with a sketch that school officials said resembled a gun and posed a threat to his classmates.

But parents of the 13-year-old, who attends Payne Junior High School in the Chandler Unified School District, said the drawing was a harmless doodle of a fake laser, and school officials overreacted.

“I just can’t believe that there wasn’t another way to resolve this,” said Paula Mosteller, the boy’s mother. “He’s so upset. The school made him feel like he committed a crime. They are doing more damage than good.”

Payne Junior High officials did not allow the Tribune to view the drawing. The Mostellers said the drawing did not depict blood, injuries, bullets or any human targets. They said it was just a drawing that resembled a gun.

But Payne Junior High administrators determined that was enough to constitute a gun threat and gave the boy a five-day suspension that was later reduced to three days.

The Tribune isn’t publishing the boy’s first name at the request of his parents.

The suspension follows an unrelated incident earlier this month in which Gilbert police were called to Payne Junior High School to investigate a rumor of a girl bringing a gun on campus. No gun was found and a letter was sent home to parents.

In the letter, school officials told parents about the incident and indicated there would be a zero-tolerance policy toward gun threats.

Chandler district spokesman Terry Locke said the school is not allowed to discuss students’ discipline records. However, he said the sketch was “absolutely considered a threat,” and threatening words or pictures are punished.

The school did not contact police about the threat and did not provide counseling or an evaluation to the boy to determine if he intended the drawing as a threat.

The Mostellers said their son has no discipline record at the school because they just moved from Colorado this year.

The sketch was one of several drawings scratched in the margins of a science assignment that was turned in on Friday. The boy said he never meant for the picture to be seen as a threat. He said he was just drawing because he finished an assignment early.

School officials issued the suspension on Monday afternoon and notified the student’s father, Ben. He met with school officials and persuaded them to shorten the suspension from five days to three.

A second student was also suspended Monday for a sketch on his homework. However, that student and his parents could not be reached for comment about the nature of that drawing.

Ben Mosteller was allowed to see his son’s drawing at the school but was not permitted to make a copy to bring home to his wife.

Paula Mosteller said she has been unable to reach the school’s principal, Karen Martin, or the vice principal, Dave Constance, since Monday to talk about the suspension. Martin and Constance did not return several phone calls to the school for comment.

When Ben Mosteller came to the school to discuss his son’s punishment, he said school officials mentioned the seriousness of the issue and talked about the massacre at Columbine High School — the site where two teenagers shot and killed 12 students and injured 24 others in 1999 at Littleton, Colo.

The Mostellers said the Columbine reference was extreme and offensive. They have contacted the district’s governing board about the incident.

“We understand that there was zero tolerance and the sketch could look like a gun, but the way this was handled was so horribly wrong,” Paula Mosteller said. “Hopefully, when my son goes back to school on Friday this will all be behind him. But a school accusing a child like this can have a huge effect on a child for the rest of his life.”


I can't believe the parents would send him back to a school clearly run by the intellectually-challenged.

Democrats Strategize on How to Cast the U.S. Troop Surge in Iraq as Failure (Rats spinning)

Democrats Strategize on How to Cast the U.S. Troop Surge in Iraq as Failure (Rats spinning)
These people are disgusting. To put it kindly.

WASHINGTON — Congressional Democratic leaders are aggressively strategizing a new offensive against the Bush administration's management of the Iraq war as more and more anti-war lawmakers publicly acknowledge successes ahead of a key White House progress report.

Aware of the trouble Iraqi progress could mean for Democrats at home — House Whip James Clyburn recently said if the surge were successful, it would be "a real problem for us" — a revised set of talking points is being worked up by Democrats that declares the escalation of troops in Iraq has not been successful despite White House claims otherwise.

That point is expected to be sharpened on Thursday after lawmakers receive the latest National Intelligence Estimate ahead of the report due next month. Democrats are likely to emphasize the potential threats listed in the NIE as demonstrative of the Iraqi government's failure to achieve political reconciliation.

One leadership aide previewed the new argument — laid out in an hour-long conference call Tuesday — by saying that limited military success does not mean the surge has fulfilled its goals. The contention is that the surge was implemented to give an opportunity for the political process to get moving and "obviously" that hasn't happened.

American Thinker Blog: Shocka of the Day: Did Clinton Lie about Targeting Bin Laden?

American Thinker Blog: Shocka of the Day: Did Clinton Lie about Targeting Bin Laden?
Rick Moran
If there is one thing that the Inspector General's report on CIA accountability regarding 9/11 has highlighted, it is the utter failure of the Clinton Administration to come up with a strategic plan to deal with Osama Bin Laden and al-Qaeda.

Despite all the testimony from Richard Clarke and others - including the President himself - that they agressively went after Bin Laden and the terrorists, it turns out that the IG at the CIA didn't think very much of their efforts. In fact, the report seems to make a liar out of President Clinton, who said in the notorious interview with Chris Wallace of Fox News that:

“I worked hard to try to kill him. I authorized a finding for the CIA to kill him. We contracted with people to kill him. I got closer to killing him than anybody has gotten since.”
This statement is contradicted by the IG who saw it differently:

But the inspector general’s report made it clear that the agency never viewed the order as a license to “kill” bin Laden—one reason it never mounted more effective operations against him. “The restrictions in the authorities given the CIA with respect to bin Laden, while arguably, although ambiguously, relaxed for a period of time in late 1998 and early 1999, limited the range of permissible operations,” the report stated. (Scheuer agreed with the inspector general’s findings on this issue, but said if anything the report was overly diplomatic. “There was never any ambiguity,” he said. “None of those authorities ever allowed us to kill anyone."
Clinton's elevated opinion of his own efforts to get Bin Laden and deal with al-Qaeda don't stand up to the facts.

What are the chances that the press will pick up on that fact - or any of the implied criticisms of Clinton in the IG report - and run them?

Hat Tip: Ed Lasky and Ed Morrissey

RUDI RIP AT FRED: TOP ALLY FIRES AWAY (Feeling the Heat a Little Bit, Giuliani?)

RUDI RIP AT FRED: TOP ALLY FIRES AWAY (Feeling the Heat a Little Bit, Giuliani?)

August 23, 2007 -- A top ally to Republican front-runner Rudy Giuliani yesterday blasted Fred Thompson for attacking the former mayor - and New York City - before even declaring his candidacy for president.

"Run or keep your mouth shut!" snarled Guy Molinari, New York co-chairman for the Giuliani presidential campaign.

"If you want to bash people, jump into the pool. We're waiting for you," Molinari added.

Giuliani's adviser called Thompson out of bounds for penning a column on his blog blasting New York City's gun-control laws under Giuliani and his successor, Mayor Bloomberg.

"He's not just attacking Rudy. He's attacking every resident of New York City," Molinari charged.

"I have a serious problem with this guy. Is he running? Is he not running? Now he's going into attack mode even though he's not an announced candidate," said Molinari, a former congressman and Staten Island borough president.

Thompson - who had criticized Giuliani, Bloomberg and Brooklyn federal Judge Jack Weinstein for going after out-of-state gun dealers - laughed off Molinari's tirade.

"I am tempted to say that was a good 'shot across our bow,' " a Thompson spokesman said yesterday, "but I'm afraid that same federal judge might go after those of us who manufacture out-of-state gun metaphors."

On his blog, Thompson wrote, "There are a lot of things about the place I like, but New York gun laws don't fall in that category We need federalism to protect states from a big bully in New York City."

Giuliani rival Mitt Romney also has ratcheted up his bashing of New York as a "sanctuary city" in recent weeks for providing services to illegal immigrants.

Hispanics Moving Out Of Oklahoma Before New Law Takes Effect

Hispanics Moving Out Of Oklahoma Before New Law Takes Effect

Tens of thousands of Hispanics have left the Tulsa area. And, a law designed to crack down on illegal immigration hasn't even taken effect yet. But, there's a catch.

East Tulsa is where the majority of Hispanics ended up settling. They came by the thousands and now they're leaving that way, too. And, it's all because of one word -- deportation.

Business owner Simon Navarro came to America for a better life. And, he found one on Tulsa's east side.

But, a tough new state law has much of Tulsa's immigrant population fleeing for fear of deportation.

"Two months ago I heard 25-thousand Hispanics have left Oklahoma," Navarro says.

That is about 30-percent of Oklahoma's Hispanic population.

"They are leaving. A lot have already left."

Francisco Trevino runs Tulsa's Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. He says the exodus hurts a lot of people working in a lot of fields.

"I think restaurants, construction, lawn care they do everything we don't want to do," he says.

It's making it hard for local companies to find workers. But, officials are standing firm. If they are here illegally, it's a one way trip home.

And, the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office is doing its part to move things along. This week, they're training deputies to handle the deportation process. And word is spreading quickly. Simon has already said a lot of goodbyes.

"People are leaving," he says. "They're scared of the sheriff."

Convicted murdered (sic) becomes Texas' 400 execution since 1976

Convicted murdered (sic) becomes Texas' 400 execution since 1976
Yahoo News ^ | August 22, 2007 | Staff

HUNTSVILLE, United States (AFP) - A convicted murderer on Wednesday was put to death by lethal injection, in Texas' 400 execution since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976.

Johnny Conner was pronounced dead at 1820 pm (2320 GMT), eight minutes after he was injected with the lethal concoction.

"What is happening to me now is unjust and the system is broken," said the 32-year-old African American in his final statement.

"At the same time, I bear witness there is no God but Allah and the Prophet Muhammed. Unto Allah, I belong, unto Allah I return. I love you," were his last words.

Since the 1976 reinstatement, Texas has accounted for more than one-third of the total 1091 executions carried out country-wide. This year, with other states now reticent, it will account for nearly two-thirds.

Ahead of Conner's execution, the southern state had carried out 20 of the 34 US judicial killings in 2007.

By comparison, 12 of the 50 states refused to restore capital punishment in 1976; four did but have not since executed anyone; and 14 have had five or fewer executions.

Conner was sentenced to die for the May 17, 1998 shooting death a gasoline pump grocery store owner during a holdup.

In 2005, a federal judge annulled Conner's death sentence because his defense lawyers' shoddy work -- they failed to summon any witnesses in his favor, but the ruling was overturned by a federal appeals court in January.

Earlier this month, the European Union had urged Texas Governor Rick Perry to consider a moratorium for all executions scheduled by his state.

Perru (sic) rejected the appeal, suggesting it was out of place since the United States asserted its independence from Britain in the 18th century.

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Family Security Matters

Family Security Matters

Exclusive: CAIR Thugs on Islamophobia Patrol: Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood?
Patrick Poole


Author: Patrick Poole
Source: The Family Security Foundation, Inc.
Date: August 20, 2007

FSM Contributing Editor Patrick Poole characterizes CAIR’s harassment of a private citizen in his home, which CAIR describes as an “invitation to dialogue”, as nothing more than a masquerade for their alarming scare tactics. Jackboot thuggery or inter-faith engagement? You decide.

CAIR Thugs on Islamophobia Patrol:

Coming Soon to Your Neighborhood?

By Patrick Poole

Three officials of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in Ohio admit to going unannounced to a man’s home to confront him over a bumper sticker on his car – a testament, they claim, of their tolerance and moderation. The incident occurred last year, but the CAIR trio involved – Ahmad Al-Akhras, CAIR national vice chairman, Asma Mobin-Uddin, CAIR-Ohio president, and Abukar Arman, CAIR-OH board member – have recently recounted this incident to the local establishment media as an example of how they “invite dialogue”.

Others, however, believe the incident is additional proof that CAIR regularly resorts to threats, intimidation and demonization to silence its critics. Earlier this month, attorneys for CAIR sent a letter threatening legal action against the Young Americans Foundation if they allowed NY Times bestselling author and JihadWatch director, Robert Spencer, to speak at their conference on “The Truth of the Council on American-Islamic Relations”. This thuggery is reminiscent of CAIR’s 2004 lawsuit against independent journalist Andrew Whitehead of Anti-CAIR, a suit which was dropped by CAIR in order to avoid responding to required interrogatories about its historic ties to HAMAS and role in terror financing.

The CAIR-OH incident is without known precedent, harassing a private citizen at his home because CAIR officials did not like one of his bumper stickers. One of the trio, Abukar Arman, has described how they set upon their unwitting victim:

Several months ago, a non-Muslim fellow in the inter-faith community brought to the attention of CAIR-Ohio a picture of his neighbor’s truck with a bumper sticker that read “Jesus loves you, and Allah wants you dead”.

Some of us thought that the appropriate thing to do was to get media involved and use this truck owner as a poster-child of the prevalent assertive ignorance that is widening the post 9/11 political divide between Muslims and non-Muslims. Others, on the other hand, saw this as an opportunity for human contact, discourse, and to build bridges of understanding.

The latter opinion prevailed.

Therefore, I had the privilege of being one of three Muslims (2 male and a female with Islamic veil) who paid a neighborly visit to the truck owner.

What ensued was an interesting discourse that I found to be very educational (its final outcome notwithstanding).

The truck owner was a former Marine officer who served in Somalia and Iraq. Initially, as he opened the door, he was visibly apprehensive (and rightfully so).

We greeted him and introduced ourselves. We reassured him that we were only interested to get to know him, address any questions or perhaps grievance that he may have, and to give him a chance to meet and dialogue with ordinary Muslims.

Long story short: in a conversation that took place right outside his door and lasted for over an hour, the former Marine talked about how he was very suspicious of Muslims and how, both in Somalia and in Iraq, he and other Americans who “came to help these two countries had their hands bitten…” He talked about how he did not believe there were any moderate Muslims and how organizations such as CAIR were deliberately silent about condemning terrorism. He also talked about being alarmed by the growing Muslim population in Central Ohio and how they may be hiding a terrorist who has in his possession a “briefcase nuke”. He said, “I don’t want to see a giant mushroom in Columbus” [I will come back to this point].

Lastly, he talked about his career in the private sector…how he worked as a “corporate anti-terrorism expert” and a “consultant to a numerous multinational corporations”...

Arman admits that the original intention was to make this two-war veteran a “poster-child” of Islamophobia and publicly to vilify the man by enlisting the help of the local media – all because they didn’t agree with the sentiments the man expressed via a bumper sticker. He also admits that the man was visibly leery of his late-night visitors showing up on his doorstep, what they probably would argue is proof of his Islamophobia.

What makes this situation and Abukar Arman’s comments even more appalling is that the former Marine had served in the UN-backed peacekeeping mission in Somalia, Arman’s native country, to protect the people there from the warlords that had taken over the country and who were starving the people by the tens of thousands. Additionally, the former Marine had been reported to CAIR by one of his neighbors who was a friend to the CAIR officials in the “inter-faith community”.

But imagine if the roles in this case were reversed: imagine if Robert Spencer, Andrew Whitehead and myself showed up on the doorstep of any of these CAIR officials - unwelcome and unannounced - to confront them about their repeated statements of support for extremism, bigotry and terrorism: Ahmad Al-Akhras for his public defense of convicted terrorists, including his “long-time friend”, convicted and deported Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative Fawaz Damra; Asma Mobin-Uddin for promoting several hate sites with rabidly anti-Jewish content on her own personal website; or Abukar Arman, for his vocal public support of HAMAS, Hezbollah and the al-Qaeda-backed Islamic Courts Union. Would they see such action as “inviting dialogue”, or would they instead denounce such an “invitation to dialogue” in a flurry of CAIR press releases as a “hate crime” that would merit restraining orders and warrant federal criminal charges?

With their opponents on the working end of this tactic of cultural terrorism, however, they enthusiastically recount this act of intimidation, attempting to paint their “neighborly visit” as a peaceful effort to “engage” non-Muslims. The establishment media has been quick to pick up this twisted narrative. Earlier this month, in a front page Columbus Dispatch article on Mr. Arman, Mobin-Uddin cites this incident of confronting a man at his home as evidence of Mr. Arman’s “kindness”:

"Mr. Arman is a man of the greatest integrity, kindness and responsibility," Mobin-Uddin said.

She recalled a visit with Arman a few years ago to the home of an ex-Marine who displayed an anti-Muslim bumper sticker.

"We stood and talked with the man on his doorstep for an hour and a half. Mr. Arman never raised his voice. He told the man, 'You know, sir, I have four children. I've lived in this country for decades. If I knew someone who was going to put a bomb somewhere, I would be the first one to jump on them.' "

This isn’t the first time, however, that the Columbus Dispatch has pulled out this story as an example of the tolerance and moderation of the CAIR trio and their cohorts.

In an Orwellian-titled article this past April, “Changing Hearts, Minds”, Ahmad Al-Akhras gave his analysis of his and his comrades’ late-night “invitation to dialogue” to an attentive Dispatch reporter:

Changing minds isn’t always as pleasant as sharing some snacks and laughs.

Last year, Ahmad Al-Akhras and two other community leaders knocked on the door of a man whose car bore a bumper sticker that read: "Jesus loves you. Allah wants you dead."

Al-Akhras is president of the Islamic Foundation of Central Ohio and is the vice chairman of the national Council on American-Islamic Relations.

They spoke to the ex-Marine for more than an hour at his doorstep, telling him they had 11 children between them and cared strongly about America’s safety, Al-Akhras said.

"More than 95 percent of the time, we agree on things," Al-Akhras said of Muslims and non-Muslims.

He isn’t sure that visit did any good.

It should be evident that going to a man’s home, particularly someone entirely unknown to you, to confront them about the content of their bumper stickers is not an invitation to dialogue, but jackboot thuggery reminiscent of the Nazi SA Storm troopers. One of them admits that rather than painting a symbol on the man’s house or business to show their disapproval for his religious statements (much as the SA would mark Jewish homes or businesses with a Star of David and the word “Juden”), they considered calling in the media to condemn this two-war Marine veteran and expose him to public scorn all because they didn’t like his bumper sticker.

CAIR has repeatedly demonstrated that their methodology and discourse must rely on increasingly shrill rhetoric to get public attention and publicly attacking anyone who questions their troubling ideology. Nor has CAIR ever hesitated to inflame a situation to further its own agenda to the detriment of the rest of the community, Muslim and non-Muslim alike. As their own supposed constituency continues to abandon CAIR, such now that their membership is less than two thousand nationwide, CAIR will need to resort to more confrontational and escalating tactics to keep the establishment media’s attention in order to disseminate their message of hate, alienation and conflict.

CAIR’s Islamophobia patrols: coming soon to a neighborhood near you.

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Texas rejects EU executions plea

BBC NEWS | World | Americas | Texas rejects EU executions plea
Texas rejects EU executions plea



Johnny Ray Conner (AP Photo/Texas Department of Criminal Justice)
More than 1,000 people have been executed in the US since 1976
Texas has told the European Union to mind its own business after the bloc called on the state's governor to get rid of the death penalty.

The EU expressed "great regret" at Texas' preparations to carry out its 400th death penalty and renewed its call to the US to halt executions.

Johnny Ray Conner, 32, will be executed on Wednesday for the 1998 fatal shooting of a grocery store clerk.

But Governor Rick Perry insisted it was a "just and appropriate" punishment.

He was responding robustly to the EU's denunciation of judicial killings as "cruel and inhumane".

The statement from the Portuguese presidency of the 27-nation bloc said: "The European Union strongly urges Governor Rick Perry to exercise all powers vested in his office to halt all upcoming executions and to consider the introduction of a moratorium in the state of Texas."

Texas Governor Rick Perry on 9 July 2007
Texans long ago decided the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens
Governor's spokesman

It continued: "There is no evidence to suggest that the use of the death penalty serves as a deterrent against violent crime and the irreversibility of the punishment means that miscarriages of justice, which are inevitable in all legal systems, cannot be redressed."

But Robert Black, a spokesman for the Texas governor, told the BBC News website: "Two hundred and thirty years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination.

"Texans long ago decided the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens.

"While we respect our friends in Europe ... Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."

According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, 1,090 executions have taken place in the US since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment in 1976.

Texas has carried out more than a third of those.


Welcome to AnnCoulter.com

Welcome to AnnCoulter.com
There are some great lines in this one. I love Wednesdays!

1 DOWN, 11,999,999 TO GO

August 22, 2007


Mickey Kaus has raised the intriguing possibility that, since Bush's amnesty plan went down to humiliating defeat once Americans got wind of what the elites had planned for us, the Bush administration might respond by intentionally targeting highly sympathetic illegal aliens for deportation "in as clumsy, heartless and lawsuit-inspiring a fashion as possible, in order to create the maximum number of negative headlines."

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff described anti-amnesty Americans as being satisfied with nothing less than "the death penalty" for illegal aliens and recently warned of "some unhappy consequences" unless illegal aliens were granted amnesty. Yes, that Michael Chertoff -- the guy in charge of keeping us safe from foreign invasions.

So it was curious when we were treated this week to a weeping Mexican woman on TV, claiming the U.S. government was tearing her from her infant son and saying she knew the American people would be outraged if she were deported. (I note that her message might have been more effective in English.)

Admittedly, I'd just as soon have Homeland Security focusing on illegal immigrants like the one who shot four promising college kids execution style in Newark, killing three of them, possibly after sexually molesting two of them. Heck, I wouldn't have minded if they had deported Jose Carranza even before his girlfriend accused him of raping her 5-year-old daughter.

Or Ruben Hernandez-Juarez, an illegal alien charged with sexually molesting a 6-year-old boy in Martin County, Fla.

Or Alejandro Bautista, an illegal alien in Cook County, Ill., who was convicted for sexually molesting two teenaged boys.

Or Alejandro Xuya-Sian, the illegal alien who hit a pedestrian with his car in New York and dragged him for nearly a mile before dislodging the victim from his car, throwing him aside and driving off again. (Even more disturbing: Xuya-Sian may not have been wearing his seat belt at the time.)

Or illegal alien Alberto Barajas-Enriquez, who is charged with beating his Michigan neighbor to death with a golf club because the neighbor complained about the constant barking of Enriquez's dog. Asked by police how many times he struck his victim with the golf club, Enriquez said, "Let's see ... five, six ... uh, put me down for a seven."

Or Lucio Sanchez-Martinez, the illegal alien in Ohio charged with sexually molesting a sleeping 8-year-old girl.

For simplicity, I have limited my enumeration of illegal aliens I would like deported to those who were charged or convicted of heinous crimes last week. For illegal aliens charged with child molestation, I had to limit it to two days last week.

Still, if Elvira Arellano is the best they've got to change public opinion on deporting illegal aliens, don't expect public opinion to change anytime soon.

Arellano has already snuck into the country illegally twice (that we know of). After being deported in 1999 -- under an administration that, astonishingly, was more serious about enforcing immigration law than the current one -- she illegally ran across the border again a few days later.

Only after 9/11 was she arrested again and convicted for using a stolen Social Security number to get a job as a cleaning woman at an airport. In lieu of jail time, Arellano was to be deported. Instead she took refuge in a left-wing "church" and began to bellyache about being thrown out again.

Despite living in this country illegally for a decade, Arellano hasn't mastered the most rudimentary English. She doesn't want to assimilate and become a "Mexican-American." She wants to be a Mexican-Mexican living in and off America.

So far, the only thing Arellano has contributed to America is one illegitimate child.

Arellano is part of the advance wave of left-wing, Third World colonization of America. Democrats claim there are "two Americas." If they have their way, there will be two Latin Americas.

Liberals know they're losing the demographic war. Christians have lots of children and adopt lots of children; liberals abort children and encourage the gay lifestyle in anyone with a flair for color.

They can't keep up.

Population expert Nick Eberstadt recently speculated in The Washington Post that a principal reason for America's high fertility rate compared to Europe's is its religiosity. Well, that leaves liberals out.

The Democratic Party is in the fight of its life against a conservative demographic trend. Its only hope is to gerrymander America to make the poorest half of Mexico a state. Only a massive influx of criminals, wards of the state and rioters can save them.

This is why Democrats are obsessed with giving two groups the right to vote: illegal aliens and felons. With Arellano, they get two for the price of one. To liberals, building a wall across the Mexican border is a violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Democrats are counting on illegal immigrants to be the future of their party, their border guards for the new socialist state. At least liberals have a clear mission and know what they're fighting for. Their plan is to destroy America.

Karl Rove's only response is: "I don't want my 17-year-old son to have to pick tomatoes or make beds in Las Vegas."

Arellano can go, and take her kid with her.

COPYRIGHT 2007 ANN COULTER

Muslims want ban on Easter eggs

Muslims want ban on Easter eggs

ANTWERP – "If headscarves are banned for employees who work at the desk at city services in order to guarantee neutrality of services, then we demand that no Christmas trees be set up in city buildings and that no Easter eggs be given out." Antwerp trade union representative Badia Miri said this on Wednesday in the Gazet van Antwerpen.

Miri is one of the seven Muslim women who were forced to remove their headscarves if they wanted to continue working at the desk. Three of the seven staff members of the city of Antwerp who wore headscarves agreed to stop wearing one. Different positions - not involving contact with the public - were found for the others. No one was dismissed. There is still opposition to the dress code however, which came into effect in March. The seven Muslim women are now urging that "neutrality of service provision be actually enforced."

"The Antwerp city government says that neutrality is endangered if staff wear a cross or headscarf," says Miri. "But in our experience action has only been taken against the Muslim women. If the city government is really concerned about neutrality, then Christmas trees and Easter eggs should no longer be allowed at work. We are asking that a contact point be set up to report all violations of the dress code."

How Miss Slackistan and the Burka Beauties fell foul of the racism zealots [Pictures to Caption!!!]

How Miss Slackistan and the Burka Beauties fell foul of the racism zealots

It probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Stuck for inspiration about what to wear at their village carnival, one group made a last-minute decision to dress up in mock Muslim burkas.

Calling themselves the "Page Three Beauties from the Ramalama Ding-Dong Times", the 17 men and women carried placards with made-up names such as "Miss Hairyarmpitsbad", "Miss Slackistan", "Miss Notbadinbedabad" and "Miss Reallyamanistan".

As they walked the one-mile parade route, the group knelt down in mock prayer and used fake compasses to try to find Mecca.

Their routine impressed carnival judges - a mayor, two district councillors and a parish councillor - and they were shortlisted for the "best entry" prize.

But before any awards were handed out, police told the group to leave after complaints about racism.

Yesterday, as one member of the team apologised, the organisers of the annual carnival through the winding streets of St Columb Major, near Newquay, Cornwall, insisted their inclusion was not offensive.

Nina Brenton said: "We were approached by about six students from out of the area and they thought it was disgusting and offensive to Muslims.

"They asked how we could allow it in our carnival, but it's not up to us to dictate what's offensive. We did advise the group in question what had happened and gave them the choice of whether to carry on in the procession, and they did.

"Everybody was having fun, but in the end the police got involved and moved them on. It was a fun day and no one was offended."

Pat Harvey, mayor of the borough of Restormel and one of the judges, said: "I felt that the community enjoyed their act. The group was excellent."

But she added: "We were made aware their act could have been taken as offensive in certain parts of the community and therefore, given my responsibility, I felt the cup should be given to another group."

Local religious representatives criticised the carnival entry. Fareed Ahmad, president of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Association for Devon and Cornwall, said: "With carnivals it's quite difficult to judge between humour and causing offence, and on this occasion it looks like they have that balance wrong."

The Reverend Chris McQuillen-Wright, of St Columb Minor parish church, added: "One can see the intended humour and the play on words but, in light of the current international climate, it was insensitive and in bad taste.

"I cannot believe they thought people were going to laugh. No one would want to curtail freedom of speech, but it's hard to differentiate this from downright bullying."

Last night one member of the group, Dave Holloway, of St Columb Major, apologised but said they had intended to make fun of themselves.

"The idea of the carnival is to dress up and have fun," he added. "We were not laughing at anybody, more at ourselves than anything else, and we certainly didn't want to cause any offence.

"I'd like to say on behalf of everyone in the group how sorry we are if some individuals found it in bad taste. We were never set out to upset anyone."

Despite officers moving the group on, Devon and Cornwall police said no action will be taken because no official complaint was made.

The carnival was held 20 miles from Padstow, where the annual Darkie Day - which involved locals blacking up their faces - regularly attracted accusations of racism. It is now known as Mummers Day.

Adios, Muchacha!

Adios, Muchacha!

Elvira Arellano is back in Mexico, where she belongs. Her 8-year old son, Saul, a U.S. citizen by birth, is with her for now. In September Saul will return to the U.S. to go to school, living under the care of Rev. Walter Coleman, who had given him and his mother "sanctuary" for the past year in the Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago.

Arellano's arrest draws "renewed attention to the plight of hundreds of thousands of families who are in the same situation," the Rev. Alexia Salvatierra, national coordinator of the Los Angeles-based New Sanctuary Movement, tells The Washington Post. She adds that Arellano represents "families with U.S.-citizen children, with a long work record in this country, no criminal history, and who are part of the fabric of our country, who face the prospect of having parents ripped away from their kids."

"Actually, Arellano is a convicted felon," writes San Francisco Chronicle columnist Debra J. Saunders:

When Arellano snuck across the border in August 1997, she was caught and deported. Arellano then chose to break American law again. She re-entered the country - a felony that, if prosecuted, is punishable by up to 20 years in prison. …

According to ICE, Arellano was "working illegally for a janitorial services business whose employees had access to security sensitive areas." Subsequently, Arellano was convicted for using someone else's Social Security number - a felony.

Saunders has little patience for the "plight" of parents "ripped away" from their kids":

Arellano and her defenders argue that because Saul is a U.S. citizen, Elvira should not be forced to return to Mexico and that the U.S. government should not split up families.

Of course, if family unification were important to Elvira Arellano, she should have stayed in Mexico with her family.

Now, she is free to bring her son to Mexico to live with her.

ICE spokeswoman Gail Montenegro noted that it is sad that the son will pay for his mother's choices. And: "ICE is not in the business of separating families. Ultimately parents must take the responsibility for the outcome of their illegal actions or decisions."

Clearly, Arellano does not want Saul to live with her in Mexico. Rather, she wants to live in the U.S. with Saul. Arellano has been using that child as a human shield, says Ira Mehlman, of the Federation for American Immigration Reform.

An editorial in the Chicago Tribune goes further, suggesting that Arellano was using Saul as a publicity magnet:

He often has been pushed under the klieg lights to recite lines about the injustice of his mother's treatment and his fear of losing her to deportation.

While his mother holed up at Chicago's Adalberto United Methodist Church for the last year defying authorities, Saul has been trotted out to march at the head of the Puerto Rican People's Parade, speak at rallies, visit lawmakers in the Mexican parliament and go on TV. Instead of trying to make his childhood as normal as possible under the circumstances, Arellano has assigned him the role of public advocate - a heavy burden for a child.

At his age, Saul wants his mother more than he wants to exercise his citizenship. Forcing him to return to the U.S. proves that Arellano is an unfit mother. What she is doing is tantamount to child abandonment. Why shouldn’t authorities in IL initiate proceedings to terminate Arellano's parental rights?

There are about 3.1 million American-born children of illegal immigrants, according to estimates by the Urban Institute and the Pew Hispanic Center. When word gets out to the unknowable numbers of immigrants planning to cross illegally into the U.S. days before their due dates that they risk being deported and losing their "anchor," there will be a dramatic decrease in the numbers of "blended families" being created. And Rev. Salvatierra can find something else to worry about.

Editorial Note: The Arellano story is one of the first The Stiletto has come across that Google News has accompanied with a comment.


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