Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.28
Contributed by Bill Faith
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Destitute Dog -- Please read this and help if you can.
Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.29
Thirty five Senators who don't give a beggar's damn about you or this country:
Senate OKs Detainee Interrogation Bill
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Senate on Thursday endorsed President Bush's plans to prosecute and interrogate terror suspects, all but sealing congressional approval for legislation that Republicans intend to use on the campaign trail to assert their toughness on terrorism.
The 65-34 vote means the bill could reach the president's desk by week's end. The House passed nearly identical legislation on Wednesday and was expected to approve the Senate bill on Friday, sending it on to the White House. ...
World to end shortly: Senate vote on detainee bill forthcoming
Allahpundit (H/T: MM)
I got caught behind the curve on this story, for which I truly and sincerely apologize. It’s obviously a big one, and the nutroots has gone berserk over it even by normal berserker nutroots standards. Blazing blue WaPo columnist Dan Froomkin calls it “a defining moment for this nation.” The even bluer Dahlia Lithwick at Slate says it’s a “watershed”: Now we are affirmatively asking to be left in the dark. Instead of torture we were unaware of, we are sanctioning torture we’ll never hear about. Instead of detainees we didn’t care about, we are authorizing detentions we’ll never know about. Instead of being misled by the president, we will be blind and powerless by our own choice. And that is a shame on us all.
Slate’s actually put together a clickable “taxonomy of torture” that graphically illustrates all the things the CIA will be able to do to Ayman al-Zawahiri once they have him in custody.
Meanwhile, Greg Tinti’s got video of Pat Leahy on the Senate floor comparing the bill to practices used by the Taliban, Saddam, or characters “in the fiction of Kafka.”
For sheer shrillness, though, one newspaper tops them all. Guess: ...
Ahmadinejad wanted to meet Michael Moore
Allahpundit
According to the man who served as his translator for the UN speech, Hooman Majd.
Recognize that name, by the way? You should.
And so the circle is complete.
Majd says he got the job in part because his “credentials” showed him to be “an apparently trustworthy Iranian.” No kidding.
When I say it’s worth reading this one in full, I mean it. The account of 500 filthy, bottom-feeding fundamentalists meeting in the most cosmopolitan city in the world is stomach-turning. But here’s the can’t-miss. Imagine the propaganda value we could have wrung from this: ...
HMH: Response to "December 7, 1941 And September 11, 2001"
Contributed by Bill Faith
The latest Henry Mark Holzer Memorandum. Click here to add your name to his mailing list. September 28, 2006
The following email was sent to me by a gentleman named Monty Warner, a 1978 West Point and Army War College graduate who retired as a Colonel after 25 years of service. As you can see, he wrote in response to my recent article [Click here -- BF] comparing America's response to December 7, 1941, to what we have not done after September 11, 2001....
Environmentalists for open borders
Michelle Malkin
No, I'm not making it up: U.S.-Mexico border fence may harm animal migration
A plan to fence off a third of the U.S. border to stop illegal immigration from Mexico may harm migration routes used by animals including rare birds and jaguars, environmentalists and U.S. authorities warn.
The House of Representatives passed a bill this month authorizing the construction of about 700 miles (1,120km) of double fencing along the 2,000-mile (3,200-km) border, which was crossed by more than one million illegal immigrants last year. ...
Liebs up 10 in Quinnipiac poll
Allahpundit
Don’t get too excited. They had him up 12 six weeks ago and no other pollster’s seen that margin in Connecticut. ARG had it 47-45 for Joementum nine days ago; I doubt he’s picked up eight points since then, especially with no good news from Iraq to bolster him. Still, I want to believe.
The likely margin is five points. Jim Geraghty explains why.
That’s the good news. More good news: Murtha is looking less likely to be the choice for House majority leader, in part — oh, sweet irony — because his social policies are too conservative for the supreme soviet.
The bad news? ...
Nancy Pelosi, theocrat?
Bryan Preston
What will Andrew Sullivan do now? The Democrat leader in the House is quoting the Bible to set national policy. The context is the debate on how to treat captured terrorists–do we aggressively interrogate them or not? Pelosi is in the “not” crowd, and the Bible is her guide: “This is a time when the Golden Rule really should be in affect. Do not do unto others, what you would not have them do unto your troops, your CIA agents, your people in the field.
Well, Pelosi is actually misquoting the Bible, but nevertheless doesn’t this make her a “Christianist?” Or at least a “theocrat?” ...
The Webb legacy
Paul Mirengoff
In 1994, Fred Thompson was locked in a Senate campaign against an increasingly desperate opponent, Jim Cooper. During a debate, in response to what Thompson thought was an unfair attack, the once-and-future actor said in his most authoritative voice, "Jim, it's one thing to lose an election; it's another thing to lose your honor." Cooper seemed to shrink, and I could tell then-and-there that Thompson would be the one going to Washington.
I'll leave it to others to debate whether, or to what extent, James Webb has lost his honor as a result of the smear campaign against his opponent Senator Allen. But I do think it would have been honorable for Webb to have distanced himself from his "netroots coordinator" when that blogger attacked Allen for alleged "deep-seated issues" regarding his Jewish heritage. More generally, it would have been honorable for Webb to have denounced making that Jewish heritage an issue in the campaign. ...
Webb is also the ex-SECNAV who promised some honorable people a couple of years back that he'd go public with the truth about John Kerry's Other-Than-Honorable discharge, which was upgraded to Honorable during the Carter administration, then backed out when he was promised a key position in a Kerry administration. Sleazeball then, sleazeball now. Nothing new.
How not to argue about Islam
Michelle Malkin
This post by Dean Esmay, "calling out Michelle Malkin," is what is known in the business as traffic bait.
So go ahead and click it and give Esmay more of the traffic he wants. I highly recommend you read his post as the classic blogospheric example of how not to argue about Islam.
Or anything else, for that matter.
Notice the absence of a single link or a specific quotation of anything I've ever written (at least as of this posting). Very Ralph Peters-esque. He "calls me out" by citing...something written by blogger Gary Metz. He relies on overwrought non sequiturs (Muslims are buried at Arlington National Cemetery!) and beats his chest: ...
Esmay: Do Facts Matter?
Bryan Preston
I wouldn’t even respond to this, except that a) it’s the second time in a week Dean Esmay has tried to mug Michelle Malkin and/or Hot Air, and b) it got linked over at InstaPundit so it’s probably gotten a little more visibility than Dean’s blog usually enjoys.
So Dean, since you’re in such a fightin’ mood, fight to find a few things. For instance, find one post on this blog or Michelle’s in which either she or I or anyone outside the comments suggests that the US should “declare war on the entire Muslim world.” Ok? Go back to JunkYardBlog if you want, too, since that’s where I used to write and from which you once accused me of making up a story out of thin air–remember that, Dean? I was proven right that time, and I don’t recall ever getting an apology from you.
Report: French UNIFIL troops in Lebanon confront … IDF;
Update: Second incident?
And to think the crazy wingnuts said UN peacekeepers would do more to protect Hezbollah from Israel than vice versa. U.N. peacekeeping forces in south Lebanon intervened for the first time Thursday with Israeli forces who arrested journalists in violation of Resolution 1701…
Members of UNIFIL’s French battalion almost clashed with Israeli troops who arrested a French journalist and a Lebanese photographer at an improvised checkpoint in the border area of Marwaheen in the western sector of south Lebanon. ...
Iraqi AQ leader releases new tape, calls for release
of “blind sheikh”; Update: Also calls for WMD attacks in Iraq
Two things. First, AQ in Iraq is obviously coordinating its propaganda releases with the home office. The last tape from al-Muhajer was put out on September 6; As-Sahab released video to Al-Jazeera of Osama meeting with some of the 9/11 planners the next day. Fast forward to yesterday, when As-Sahab announced that a new Zawahiri tape was coming; and now today we’ve got new audio from al-Muhajer. Can’t be a coincidence. Are they working off a preset schedule, I wonder (e.g., a new tape every three weeks), or are there actually lines of communication open between Iraq and Pakistan?
Second, the Counterterrorism Blog has heard the tape and describes it thusly: ...
Bowing to Terrorists Only Leads to More Terror
Contributed by Shane Briscoe
In yet another capitulation to Islamofascist terrorists, a Berlin opera house has pulled the plug on its production of Idomeneo because it features a scene with the severed heads of Jesus, Buddha, Poseidon and... you guessed it, Mohamed. The opera house censored itself to avoid the security risk that depicting Mohamed would entail.
It is a replay of the cowardly reaction to Muslim violence over the Mohamed cartoons by much of the Western Press establishment, coming on the heels of the Pope's apology for supposedly defaming Islam by linking it to violence.
But, remember, Islam is a religion of peace. If you don't believe it, they will teach you a lesson by calling for your assassination. ...
Vote early and vote often?
Contributed by Zero Ponsdorf
I suppose the title is a bit tongue in cheek, unless you live here in West Virginia.
It is time for a another 'Stating the Obvious' exercise. Due the subject matter and timing I expect to be revisiting this particular item several times.
There's page after page of fascinating material out there, topics ranging from falling gas prices to a 'General's Revolt' at the DOD, but has much fun as all that stuff is... it's time to focus. ...
The Perfect Evil
Contributed by Bill Faith The Perfect Evil
Part One of Three
Michael Yon “The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn’t exist.” Verbal Kint, in The Usual Suspects paraphrasing Baudelaire.
In Afghanistan, heroin has become the Devil’s cocktail. “Smack” is already one of the most addictive and destructive drugs on Earth, and now numerous academic studies show addiction levels on the rise particularly among younger children. In a place where 90% of the world’s heroin supply originates, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and others harvest profits from opium poppy cultivation to buy weapons and equipment used to attack soldiers and civilians engaged in a mostly stalled reconstruction mission. ...
"Eradicate the limb of the infidel"
The SITE Institute has details of the new al Qaeda audiotape: The speech, 20:31 in length, is titled: “Come to a Word that is Just Between Us and You,” which is taken from the Qur’an, Surah al-Imran, verse 64. On the occasion of the month of Ramadan, al-Muhajir calls upon every “free Mujahid” to come to Iraq and engage in jihad, which the emir hopes to increase in ferocity. He states: “It pleases me at the end of my speech to announce the beginning of a great militaristic campaign by the name of the clear conquest, by it we will eradicate the limb of the infidel and the apostate”.
In the middle of the speech, Abu Hamza al-Muhajir reminds of the “Blind Sheikh,” Omar Abdul Rahman, and encourages the Mujahideen to capture some of the “Roman dogs” so as to secure his release from the “darkness of his prison, gratitude, loyalty and love.” He then calls upon the sheikhs of the Sunni tribes in Iraq to not slacken in their support for the Mujahideen and thanks them for their public stance, finance and men.
AP brief on Fox News.com:
How do liberals sleep?
Very badly, according to this "study" about liberal vs. conservative dreams: A dream researcher from John F. Kennedy University in California has discovered fundamental differences between the dream worlds of people on the ideological left and the ideological right.
Among his findings, Kelly Bulkeley discovered that liberals are more restless sleepers and have a higher number of bizarre, surreal dreams -- including fantasy settings and a wide variety of sexual encounters. Conservatives' dreams were, on average, far more mundane and focused on realistic people, situations and settings...
Air America's ongoing charity scandal
Brian Maloney has the lowdown on flailing lib radio network Air America's legal and financial troubles at The Radio Equalizer. The New York State Attorney General's office has now transferred the Gloria Wise Boys and Girls Club case involving Air America to its criminal prosecutions bureau. You won't believe who finally covered the story. Yup, the "paper of record" that has ignored the story for more than a year: A Bronx charity will pay the city back $625,000 that had been intended for children and the elderly but was improperly lent to Air America Radio, a network known for its liberal programming and hosts like Al Franken.
The settlement, announced yesterday by the city’s Department of Investigation, is the latest but probably not the final chapter in an investigation that began last year.
The state attorney general’s office is continuing to look into the misuse of the funds, and the case has been transferred from its charities bureau to the criminal prosecutions bureau, two people close to the investigation said yesterday. ...
State commission to review AZ 9/11 Memorial inscriptions
Can you feel it? A state commission that authorized placement of the Arizona 9-11 Memorial in Wesley Bolin Plaza will review controversial laser-cut inscriptions “and see if some of them could be removed,” the panel’s chairman said Wednesday.
Former state Sen. Tom Smith, chairman of the Legislative Governmental Mall Commission, also said the commission hadn’t made it a practice to review the wording of any memorials. “We sure as heck will do it in the future,” he told The Associated Press in an interview…
“The Capital Mall Commission is responsible for the placement of the memorials that go into Wesley Bolin Plaza. Therefore I think we have not only the responsibility but we have the authority to make any changes if something’s happened that’s inappropriate.”…
Smith said Wednesday it never occurred to him during the February meeting to check on details of the inscriptions’ wording.
*** 08:13 Arizona 9/11 memorial to be reviewed
Michelle Malkin
AllahPundit (with signature Photoshop) sends the word via KVOA: [...]
The entire debacle could have been avoided if someone had bothered to check the wording on the 9/11 memorial inscriptions before it was built. For. Crying. Out. Loud.
***
The Arizona GOP has produced an ad taking Dem. Gov. Janet Napolitano to task for the memorial. It's here.
Laura W. points to what an appropriate 9/11 memorial looks like at Ace of Spades. ...
Bill's Bites -- 2006.09.27
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