Westboro Baptist Run Off By Patriot Riders At Fort Drum

Damn, I wish I had known about this before had. The patriot riders are my kind of guys. SeeJaneMom and I had a ball with them at Gathering Of Eagles 1.

(News Watch 50) A protest of a protest became a rally of support near Fort Drum Thursday afternoon.

When the Patriot Guard, an organization of bikers who support the military, learned of a plan by the anti-military hate group Westboro Baptist Church of Kansas to picket near Fort Drum today, the bikers quickly organized a ride to counter the protest.

Shortly after 3:00 p.m. a group of 8 to 12 Westboro picketers were at the intersection of Route 283 and Route 342 when 70 bikers arrived with US flags and surrounded the protesters, effectively blocking their anti-military message.

After a few tense minutes the Westboro protesters left the scene.

I would of loved to of seen that.

 

Technorati Tags: Westboro Baptist, Patriot Riders, godhatesfags.com, Fred Phelps, Non-Christian Christians

Haditha Marine Planning To Sue Traitor Murtha

[I have only one thing to say HURRAAYY!!!!
Okay two things: We should ship this moral and patriotic DEGENERATE to the al-Qaeda in Iraq.

How they treat this TURN-COAT I really don't care.
If they treat like a king, fine;
if they practice their torture methods on him, fine.
I really don't care.
Just so we get rid of this man and his POISONOUS ideas. He is a traitor and a detriment to this country.

Do you know he was caught in a bribery sting in the Carter Administration? He thought he was going to get a bribe from the Arabs. Unfortunately the news media ran the story right before he was to accept the bribe and blew the whole sting operation.

The Devil must have been looking out for him.

Al ---Grouchier than ever "Grumpy Ol' Man"]

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August 30th, 2007

• Posted By Pat Dollard.

Newsmax:

If Marine Col. Jeffrey Chessani is exonerated of the charges against him he may haul Pennsylvania Democratic Congressman John Murtha, into court, suing him for libel, one of his lawyers told NewsMax.com.

Brian Rooney, one of the attorneys at Michigan’s Thomas More Law Center representing Lt. Col. Jeffrey Chessani and a former Marine captain himself told NewsMax.com that his client, who is alleged to have failed to fully investigate the killing of 24 Iraqis in Haditha November, 2005 and not reporting an alleged Law of War violation, may follow the example of another Haditha Marine, SSgt. Frank Wuterich who is suing Murtha for libel.

Murtha set off a media firestorm last year when even before the matter had been fully investigated he charged members of Kilo Company, 3rd Bn, 1st Marine Regiment had gone on a rampage and slaughtered 24 Iraqi civilians in cold blood to avenge the killing of a member of their unit in an IED explosion. He also said that the incident occurred in the absence of any firefight, although it occurred as part of a day-long battle with insurgent ambushers that wounded 11 Marines.

Rooney told NewsMax.Com that his group that, if as they expect, Chessani is cleared just as one officer, Capt. Randy Stone and two enlisted men have either been exonerated of had a hearing officer recommend exoneration they will seek to hold Murtha accountable.

According to Brian Rooney , SSgt. Frank Wuterich – one of the other defendants in the investigation now awaiting a hearing on murder charges – is already suing Murtha for those libelous comments. He insists that Murtha should be held accountable for taking the word of Iraqi insurgents and calling the Marines “cold-blooded murderers.”

“Staff Sergeant Wuterich’s attorneys are suing Congressman Murtha for liable for saying that the Marines were cold-blooded murderers, and that suit’s still ongoing,” Rooney said.

“We’re not suing Murtha right now,” Rooney added. “I know that Frank Wuterich’s attorney are suing him for libel, and we will explore that option once our criminal case has been concluded. We hope to show that Murtha is guilty of libel against our client because when he accused the unit’s officers of covering up the incident he could only have been referring to Lt. Col. Chessani.

Rooney recalled that in June 2006, Murtha told ABC’s Charles Gibson, “I know there was a cover-up someplace. They knew about this a few days afterwards, and there’s no question the chain of command tried to stifle the story.”

“We think Congressman Murtha abandoned his legislative role in attacking the Marines, and so we are going to explore that. We’re going to take it one step at a time, but that’s definitely something we’re going to do once our client is exonerated.”

• Read and See More —

Used with Permission and Many Thanks to Pat Dollard

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Tags: Haditha, Marine, Traitor, Murtha

Virginia Tech Faulted Over Massacre

Well I suppose this is no surprise. Blame the school, instead of the idiot who shot people.

(BBC) Lives might have been saved if Virginia Tech officials had acted sooner after student Cho Seung-hui’s first killings, a state report into the shootings says.

“Warning students, faculty and staff might have made a difference,” it says.

The independent panel also concluded that though Cho had demonstrated signs of mental instability earlier, college staff had not intervened effectively.

Cho killed 32 people and himself at the US university in April in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern US history.

The eight-member panel, appointed by Virginia governor Tim Kaine, said officials should have issued an alert or cancelled classes after Cho shot his first two victims – Emily Hilscher and Ryan Clark – in a dormitory just after 0700 on 16 April.

The real fault lies with Virginia Tech, but over the inability of law abiding students and faculty to protect themselves from armed madmen like Cho.

Gun-free zones are nothing more than victim rich environments where those with guns can run rampant over the law abiding unarmed citizens.

Had Emily Hilscher or Ryan Clark been armed, (may they rest in peace) Cho may not have killed them, or anyone else. He may have been stopped, or given cause to pause before trying to kill his fellow students.

Every state should pass a castle doctrine law, and allow their law abiding citizens to carry a concealed hand-gun.

Technorati Tags: Cho, Virginia Tech, Castle Doctrine, Carry Concealed, CCW

Brilliant, Just Insanely Brilliant

Karl from Protein Wisdom has a post up that is Brilliant. And not just brilliant, but Awesomely brilliant. It is not a short post, but YOU NEED to read the whole thing.

In the midst of the still-lingering controversy over the truthiness of The New Republic’s “Baghdad Diarist,” more than a few people suggested that war supporters, unable to discredit the real bad news coming from Iraq, targeted the Scott Thomas Beauchamp stories as a weak link.  I cannot speak for everyone who supports the mission in Iraq, but I would submit that Beauchamp’s apparent fables and embellishments are not a “weak link” to be attacked, but simply an egregious example of the establishment media’s flawed coverage of the conflict.   Accordingly, what follows is an over view of the establishment media coverage of the conflict in Iraq.

Though public opinion polls consistently show that Americans consider Iraq to be the most important issue facing the country, establishment media has slashed the resources and time devoted to Iraq.  The number of embedded reporters plunged from somewhere between 570 and 750 when the invasion began in March 2003 to as few as nine by October 2006.  The result was the rise of what journalists themselves call “hotel journalism” and “journalism by remote control.”  Janet Reitman, reporting for Rolling Stone, described the state of the media in early 2004:

(More)

 

Technorati Tags: MSM, Evil, Lies, Traitors

15 Year Old Female Raped – MySpace Involved

I’ve been writing about the dangers of creeps on MySpace “Social Engineering” their way into young women’s pants for some time.

(Fox News) A 24-year-old Pennsylvania man was charged with drugging and repeatedly raping a 15-year-old girl after using his MySpace account to lure her to a local K-Mart, MyFoxPhilly reported Wednesday.

According to the report, prosecutors said Christopher Leasher of Bucks County used the name “chicksdigskinny” to send the victim messages asking for sex, took the girl to Philadelphia to buy cocaine, and gave her so much cocaine her life was at risk.

He then sexually assaulted her throughout the night, the station reported.

Leasher was released on $200,000 bail and is due back in court Sept. 7.

More information:

Gibbons said that while the girl said she agreed to have sex, no minor under 16 can legally consent to sex with an adult. Also, she said, Leasher gave the girl drugs, which impaired her judgment and endangered her life.

According to court papers, Leasher had been conversing with the girl online for about a month through her MySpace account and by using AOL Instant Messenger with the screen name “ChicksDigSkinny.”

This is vile. This guy should of been hauled out in front of the courthouse, tied to a telephone pole and publicly flogged. 

Parents, only you can prevent this from happening. Educate your kids to be very suspicious of online contacts. Never let them meet an online contact without you present.

 

Technorati Tags: Christopher Leasher, Chicksdigskinny, MySpace, Rape, Child rapist, Pedophile

Back To School

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Incitement by preaching victimization.

Here in Israel it’s “back to school” days at local stores, markets, and shopping malls. Naturally my mind turned to the question of the approaching start of the new school year for Palestinian kids.

* * *

An “incident” just took place in Jenin when an Israeli soldier took a wrong turn and drove into the West Bank Palestinian town:

“The Jenin incident took place Monday afternoon, when local Palestinian residents who noticed the officer driving into the city hurled rocks at his car, forced him out and began beating him. A Palestinian policeman spotted the angry mob and called for backup. The security officers struggled to reach the battered officer and several shots were apparently fired before they managed to extract him from the crowd moments before his vehicle was set aflame.”-more

The bloodthirsty mob was apparently led by crowds of crazed, hate-filled youngsters who had grown up in the school system of Palestinian “moderate” Mahmoud Abbas.

The West Bank.

Not Gaza!

* * *

Flash!! Update!! I just found a picture of the Jenin “incident” in which West Bank Palestinians failed in their attempt to lynch an Israeli driver. The news photo shows the torched car of the Israeli in flames. Is it me or does the kid in the blue shirt in the news photo look like the kid in the blue shirt in my cartoon?

West Bank… the moderate Palestinians fail in their attempt to lynch an Israeli driver.

• Read More —

Used with Permission and Many Thanks to Dry Bones

Tags: Incitement, Jenin, Palestinians, Terrorism, West Bank

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Katie Couric To Report From Iraq

Scooter’s Report

August 29, 2007

NEW YORK (AP) – Katie Couric plans to leave Wednesday for an ambitious reporting trip to Iraq -the CBS anchor’s first time in the war zone-in anticipation of a crucial military report on progress of the American effort.

Since Couric took over the anchor position at CBS Evening News, ratings have plummeted, leading to speculation she would be fired but for her long-term contract. “I’m not going anywhere, I don’t care what the ratings do,” the spunky Couric remarked when recently questioned about the newscast’s rocket-sled ride to ratings Hell.

Reportedly, CBS is sending Couric into Sadr City by herself to seek out stories and hopefully interview fiery cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, leader of the Mahdi Army. For her protection she will be fitted with U.S. Marine combat fatigues, an M-16 assault rifle, and carry press credentials identifying her as a non-combatant.

Commentary: This should make for dramatic reporting and can’t help but prop up the ratings. However, I can’t help but question whether this thing was really that well thought out. We’ll see.

Couric	Sadr

Read More Satire with Wild Comments —

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Former Security Guard & Atlanta Olympic Bombing Hero, Richard Jewell Dies

The Power of the Press! They can make lies seem like the truth. What a Shame!!

Richard Jewell, 44, the former security guard who was erroneously [By the Media] linked to the 1996 Olympic bombing, died Wed, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said.

He had kidney problems & was at home sick since the end of February.

The FBI said the Media accusations and intense publicity [to sell more newspapers, eh?] interfered with their investigation.

In addition I believe the FBI itself shares responsible because of the way they dealt with Mr. Jewell and the media.

For the two days he was praised as a hero.
Then the same media, that continually prints LIES about the war in Iraq and the real danger of the Muslim Terrorists, turned his life into a living HELL!

“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.”

I woulda sued the bast***s!
I’d sued all the newspapers that LIED and didn’t place an apology and a retraction in their papers voluntarily.
Al —Even Grumpier “Grumpy Ol’ Man”

Read More at BREITBART.com

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Sen. Craig – "I am not gay. I never have been gay."

It wasn’t me, it was the one armed man…

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Under fire from leaders of his own party, Idaho Sen. Larry Craig on Tuesday said the only thing he had done wrong was to plead guilty after a complaint of lewd conduct in a men’s room. He declared, “I am not gay. I never have been gay.”

“I did nothing wrong at the Minneapolis airport,” he said at a news conference with his wife, Suzanne, at his side.

Craig’s defiant news conference came as Senate Republican leaders in Washington called for an ethics committee review into his involvement in a police sting operation this summer in the airport men’s room.

…

Craig, who has voted against gay marriage, finds his political future in doubt in the wake of the charges, which have drawn national attention.

Craig, 62, has faced rumors about his sexuality since the 1980s, but allegations that he had engaged in gay sex have never been substantiated. Craig has denied the assertions, which he calls ridiculous.

So Senator, tell me… is it the pitcher or the catcher who is gay? After all, Liberatchi wasn’t gay… it was the guy behind him.

 

Technorati Tags: Senator Craig, Gay

Couric To Report From Iraq

Hmm… if she had waited a few more weeks she could of helped KBR with the Thanksgiving Turkey.

NEW YORK (AP) – Katie Couric plans to leave Wednesday for an ambitious reporting trip to Iraq and Syria—the CBS anchor’s first time in the war zone—in anticipation of a crucial military report on progress of the American effort.

Couric will anchor the “CBS Evening News” from Baghdad next Tuesday and Wednesday, then from Damascus on Thursday and Friday.

Couric will travel throughout Iraq to talk to military and civilian leaders, soldiers and average Iraqis, spending most of her time outside of Baghdad. CBS News would not reveal many specifics of her plans in advance because of competitive and safety concerns. The trip, in the works for six weeks, anticipates the surge progress report by Gen. David Petraeus that is expected the second week of September.

“You can’t help but get a very detached perspective when you’re not there and you’re not witnessing things firsthand,” Couric told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “I’m curious about very basic questions regarding living conditions, about how much fear there is in the street, about how the soldiers really are doing.”

Is it just me, or is this just a desperate move to try and get the American people to take her seriously?

 

Technorati Tags: Katie Couric, Iraq

Senator Pleads Guilty, Claims Innocence

Scooter’s Report

U.S. Senator Larry Craig (R-Idaho) pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct in Minnesota this month after being arrested by a plainclothes police officer investigating complaints of lewd conduct in a men’s restroom at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.

Craig denied the police account of what occurred and said he erred in pleading guilty. “At the time of this incident, I complained to the police that they were misconstruing my actions,” he said in a statement Monday afternoon. “I admit I was greased-up, naked, and dangling my genitals beneath the stall partition, but who hasn’t done that?”

Response to the story on Capitol Hill was cool, although Democrat Barney Frank warmly offered Craig encouragement as well as a personal invitation to join his party. Whether Frank was referring to ‘party’ in the political sense was unclear.

Read More with Wild Comments —

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Gonzales Quits

Scooter’s Report

While I didn’t have time to read this story on the Drudge Report, I am saddened that this popular character would be stepping down after all these years.

Long regarded as the “fastest mouse in Mexico,” Speedy Gonzales has been tirelessly pursued for over 50 years by a cat named Sylvester, and this fact no doubt contributed to his decision to retire.

Commentary: I will personally miss Gonzales, especially when he’s running really fast and yelling “ARRIBA ARRIBA ANDELE ANDELE!!” That was cool.

Read More — (Satire) [You'll find the comments interesting. ---Al]

See Speedy Gonzales Videos at Video Pundits

• Gonzales Tamales, Banned Cartoon 1957

• Mexican Boarders

• Tortilla Flaps

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Iraqi Weapons Are Focus Of Criminal Investigation

Unfortunately, as much as I would like to stick a finger in the eye of the “old gray lady”, I know for a fact that there are contracting companies that have abused the system and have made all kinds of money due to “less than honorable or even less than legal” business practices.

I know of at least one contractor who took his case (against the company he was working for) to the fraud watchdogs in the Pentagon.

BAGHDAD, Aug. 27 — Several federal agencies are investigating a widening network of criminal cases involving the purchase and delivery of billions of dollars of weapons, supplies and other matériel to Iraqi and American forces, according to American officials. The officials said it amounted to the largest ring of fraud and kickbacks uncovered in the conflict here.

The inquiry has already led to several indictments of Americans, with more expected, the officials said. One of the investigations involves a senior American officer who worked closely with Gen. David H. Petraeus in setting up the logistics operation to supply the Iraqi forces when General Petraeus was in charge of training and equipping those forces in 2004 and 2005, American officials said Monday.

There is no indication that investigators have uncovered any wrongdoing by General Petraeus, the top commander in Iraq, who through a spokesman declined comment on any legal proceedings.

Unfortunately you’re always going to run into people who are less than scrupulous. 

Take the gal who bilked taxpayers for $20.5 million.

Unfortunately, most of these characters end up being elected to Congress.

 

Technorati Tags: Iraqi Weapons, Defense contractors, Scandal, Illegal

Eurabia A Myth?

The Freedom Fighter’s Journal goes over some reasons why those who predict that the European continent can be overrun by the Muslims,  might want to think again about their pronouncements of Eurabia.

(The Freedom Fighter’s Journal) The year 1492 wasn’t just big for Columbus. It’s also when Spain expelled its culturally magnificent Jewish community en masse – to be followed shortly by the Moors, Muslims who had been on the Iberian Peninsula for more than 800 years.

Jews got the boot elsewhere in Europe, too – if they weren’t just killed on the spot. When Shakespeare wrote “The Merchant of Venice,” it’s a safe bet he’d never met a Jew. The Chosen People were long-gone from Jolly Olde England.
From the French expulsion of the Huguenots right down to the last century’s massive ethnic cleansing, Europeans have never been shy about showing “foreigners and subversives” the door.

And Europe’s Muslims don’t even have roots, by historical standards. For the Europeans, they’re just the detritus of colonial history. When Europeans feel sufficiently provoked and threatened – a few serious terrorist attacks could do it – Europe’s Muslims will be lucky just to be deported.

Sound impossible? Have the Europeans become too soft for that sort of thing? Has narcotic socialism destroyed their ability to hate? Is their atheism a prelude to total surrender to faith-intoxicated Muslim jihadis?

(more)

The whole thing is worth reading, go and see if for yourself.

 

Technorati Tags: Eurabia, Islam, Moors, Spain

Muddling The War On Terror

[Appeasing terrorists in order to avoid conflict is only delaying the inevitable; and is a giant step in the direction of self annihilation. Bold Highlights are mine. ---Al (Grumpy Old Man)]

Thanks to GAMLA for the following insightful article.

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Mainstream support in the US and Europe for the global war on terror is still fairly easy to come by when the enemy is a rogue, independent group like Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda. It becomes more of a challenge when dealing with groups like Lebanon’s Hizballah and the Palestinian movement Hamas.Both Hizballah and Hamas are recognized by most governments in the West as terrorist organizations. Nevertheless, many of those same Western governments today advocate engaging the groups in dialogue due to the fact that both are also involved in local government.

The two primary arguments for that position are:

Hizballah and Hamas (and other similar groups) are an inescapable reality and integral part of their respective societies that cannot be ignored;

Unlike Al Qaeda, Hizballah and Hamas are localized resistance movements, despite their frequent verbal identification with a global Islamic outlook.

The first argument is a cop-out by nations that either are wary of sparking a clash of civilizations they refuse to believe is already in full swing, or are too afraid of afraid of their own Muslim minorities to be seen siding with a non-Muslim entity against Muslim groups.

Hizballah and Hamas have become integral parts of their respective societies precisely because the dominant powers that be have refused to make it clear that support for such groups is unacceptable. And I don’t mean by merely placing these groups on lists of recognized terrorist organizations. I mean by making the populations that harbor and support them really feel that they are paying too high a price for doing so.

The second argument sets an extremely dangerous precedent that can only lead to the perpetuation of the Israeli-Arab conflict. Hizballah and Hamas are on Western lists of recognized terrorist organizations because they engage in tactics that are terrorist in nature in order to achieve their political goals. Granting them any degree of legitimacy will only encourage Hizballah, Hamas and other “resistance movements” around the world to continue committing atrocities so long as their underlying cause is acceptable to the international community.

Take as an example a recent report that the United Nations is favorably considering a Lebanese proposal to redraw the Israel-Lebanon border in accordance with Lebanese and Hizballah demands in order to avoid future conflict.

The international community is critical of Hizballah’s assault on northern Israel that led to last summer’s war, but is now signaling that it accepts Lebanon’s claim that a small piece of the Golan Heights controlled by Israel is in fact Lebanese territory, which was Hizballah’s justification for attacking in the first place.

When all is said and done, Hizballah is going to brush off the international community’s anger over its tactics and hold up as a prize the fact that its assault on Israel led to the UN reversing an earlier decision in order to meet its demands. And that is going to provide enormous encouragement to every terrorist organization everywhere that is employing terrorist violence to achieve political gains.

• Reprinted by permission of GAMLA

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Which Islam? Whose Islam?

[This is a must read for all of us non-Muslims who only hear or read what the MSM (Main Stream Media) feeds us. The MSM provides us slanted reports and interviews with ONLY Jihadist organizations like CAIR, MPAC and others.

We Americans have an ally within the Muslim community in our fight against Radical Islamic Terrorists.

Now do we fight this common enemy TOGETHER and WIN or do we declare ALL MUSLIMS are our enemies and FAIL?

This reminds me of an old saying “We must all hang together, or most assuredly we will all hang separately."

Benjamin Franklin spoke these words of wisdom about the need for cooperation when he signed the Declaration of Independence. These words are just as true today when we face a ruthless, unyielding, organization of Islamist terrorists bent on the destruction of the Free World.

The Bold is my doing in the following article.

---Al Grumpy Old Man]

The following column appears online today at the Family Security Matters website.

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Exclusive: Which Islam? Whose Islam?
All Muslims Own the Interpretation of the Koran (Part I of 3)
M. Zuhdi Jasser

Radical interpretation of the Koran is caused by 19^th century Wahhabi fundamentalist radicalism and 20^th century political Islam. In this series, FSM Contributing Editor M. Zuhdi Jasser urges modern, peaceful Muslims to interpret the Koran themselves in order to break away from this radicalism.

Which Islam? Whose Islam?

All Muslims Own the Interpretation of the Koran

(Part I of 3)

By M. Zuhdi Jasser

The world is just beginning to finally peel the onion of political Islam (Islamism). The central question is what lies at the core? Devotional anti-Islamist Muslims generally believe that at the core of Islamism, is neither a religion nor a faith. It is a global political movement and ideology falsely cloaked in a religion of the God of Abraham. How does a reform-minded Muslim go about proving such a supposition? Do we even need to? Whose interpretation of the Koran is more valid? Do we believe the peaceful Muslim interpretation or the Wahhabi-Jihadist one? More importantly, as we seek the preservation of our homeland security against radical Islamists, we finally realize a growing need for pious Muslims to articulate a clear alternative narrative to the intolerant anti-liberty Islamist political construct.

Only dedicated Muslims can answer these questions with credibility. Most Muslims just want to live and enjoy their daily lives, raise their children, go to work, and contribute to their local communities. The faith they actually practice in the belly of the liberty and freedom of America is most often quite reformed and liberalized in the daily constructs of their acceptance and internalization of pluralism. This has been generally by virtue of assimilation into the culture of Western enlightenment to which they have accommodated their own personal theological underpinnings. While a faith without a clergy lends itself to this accommodation of personal theological ideas, the established academic theology of Islamic jurisprudence is far behind and in desperate need of a renewed ijtihad (modern interpretation).

The Islamist leadership of the Islamic community, however, has generally not reflected the ideas of many, if not most, Western Muslims and has remained driven and radicalized by an overriding religious legal construct (Shari’a) still dated in the 15^th century and also driven by 19^th century Wahhabi fundamentalist radicalism and 20^th century political Islam. The counter movements to any of this have been stifled by many factors. However most suffocating have been the despots, dictators, and ruthless monarchs of the Muslim world which killed individual inquiry and created a corruption brought to the West with many Muslim immigrants. The three-headed global snake of secular dictatorships, political Islam, and oil-funded Wahhabism in the 20^th century has quashed any real opportunities for a second Muslim enlightenment – one that brings in a post-modern era. For those Muslims living in freedom in the West, our counter movements have been stifled by apathy, ignorance, moral weakness, and control of most major Islamic organizations by Islamists. To this, these organizations would respond with denial. But I challenge them to produce any anti-Wahhabi, anti-Islamist texts, interpretations, or sermons of any impact or persistence from their Islamist teachers and enablers. From the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) to the Assembly of Muslim Jurists of America, they have remained driven and often funded by Wahhabi and Islamist interests who live and breathe political Islam.

There is no getting past the fact that every people and nation ultimately get the “government they deserve” by virtue of their own action or inaction. It is the same principle for our religious leadership, academia, mosques, and activist organizations within the Muslim community. As Muslims, unless we intellectually take on the fundamentalists, the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, and the Islamists for the intellectual reigns of our faith, we ultimately abrogate our ideology to their imams, clerics, and so-called ulemaa (scholars). The fact that I have a difficult time finding non-Islamist (or better yet, anti-Islamist Muslim) theological texts with which to teach my children is a serious problem to which few Muslims will own up.

The anti-Islamist Muslim narrative will only be credible if it includes a counter-Jihad which provides alternative Koranic interpretations to passages exploited by militant Islamists to divide their world into “Muslim and non-Muslim” or “Islam and War.” The answer from anti-Islamist Muslims must be founded in Koranic interpretations which comfortably articulate an Islam that can theologically defend Western secular democracies based upon universal principles of liberty.

This debate is usually roundly ignored by the mainstream media, which unfairly allows American Islamist organizations like CAIR (Council on American Islamic Relations), MPAC (Muslim Public Affairs Council), ISNA (Islamic Society of North America), ICNA (Islamic Circle of North America) and the MAS (Muslim American Society) to speak for all American Muslims. Their Islamist response to the release of last week’s NYPD Terror Report on “Radicalization in the West: the Homegrown Threat” is a classic example of the unwillingness of the likes of CAIR and MPAC to publicly counter the radical ideologies of political Islam, which are the root cause of terrorism. The NYPD Report begins the long overdue discussion of beginning to understand the theological transformation of an individual (a militant Islamist) from peace-loving nationalist to global Jihadist.

5 Things You Can Not Do To Piss Of Al Gore

From CNN via Oprah.com

1. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs

These energy-efficient bulbs cost less than $4 and are produced by major corporations like GE. If every household in America switched five regular light bulbs for five fluorescent bulbs, it would be the equivalent of taking 1 million cars off the highways for a full year.

2. Outdoor solar lighting

These yard or patio lights cost less than $20, and they don’t burn any electricity or produce any CO2.

3. Programmable thermostats

Though these thermostats cost from $50 to $100, they can actually cut your heating and cooling costs. Set the setting so it’s a little bit cooler in the winter and warmer in the summer when you’re not in the house. A difference of 2 degrees can reduce a home’s CO2 emissions by up to 9 percent over the course of a year.

4. Air filters

Changing the air filters in your heating and cooling systems regularly can knock 2 percent off of your CO2 output each year.

5. Electric water heater blanket

Water heaters use a lot of energy and generate a lot of CO2. A blanket costs less than $18 and can cut your home’s CO2 emissions by almost 4½ percent.

Keep green in mind!

Actually, I don’t see anything here that I’m not already doing, but not because I am going green, but because of other reasons.

I don’t have outdoor lighting, so I don’t have to worry about that… I don’t have air conditioning, and the heat is still turned off,  so at the moment I don’t have to worry about needing a programmable thermostat.

I don’t have to worry about air filters, when the heat isn’t on.

And for whatever reason, I like the full spectrum compact fluorescent bulbs.

So I guess all I should think about doing is getting a water heater blanket. Or maybe just replace it all together with a Rinnai tankless water heater.

I suppose the only question left is, how much of this stuff does Al do?

 

Technorati Tags: Green, Al Gore

Satire: Hillary to Qaeda: Help Me Beat GOP, Halt Terror ‘Till 2009

For those of you who are satire impaired, I bring you this entry from Dictionary.com.

1. the use of irony, sarcasm, ridicule, or the like, in exposing, denouncing, or deriding vice, folly, etc.

2. a literary composition, in verse or prose, in which human folly and vice are held up to scorn, derision, or ridicule.

3. a literary genre comprising such compositions.

And now, for the article from ScrappleFace…

(2007-08-24) — Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-NY, convinced that a U.S. terror strike before the 2008 elections would help Republicans to hold the White House and recapture Congress, today called on al Qaeda to delay planned U.S. martyrdom operations until early 2009.

“I’m respectfully asking al Qaeda for a brief hiatus,” said Sen. Clinton, “until we can accomplish our shared goal of removing Republicans from power.”

While Mrs. Clinton said that she’s “the best of the Democrats” to deal with the terror threat against the U.S., she added “it would be wiser for Usama bin Laden to wait and to deal with President Hillary Clinton and an army of attorneys, than to rush into action and be forced to deal with Bush and an army of soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines.”

It’s too bad it’s ready trademarked, but damn… “News So Fake, You’d Wear It Came From The MSM“…

 

Technorati Tags: Hillary Clinton, Osama Bin Laden, Satire, 2008 Elections

The Army’s New Sniper Rifle

As I’m pretty sure everyone has figured out I’m a shooting enthusiast, and I’m fond of the 7.62 x 51 (.308 Winchester).

Of course, the only kind of sniping I do here, is the kind of sniping involving biting at your heels with snarky comments.

However, the Army has announced it’s new sniper rifle (7.62), the SR-M110 SASS, from Knight Arms.

(Military.com) While I was not able to examine the reports of other submissions, I do have a copy of the report furnished to the winner, KAC. Among a long list of other impressive performances, the KAC SASS submission averaged 0.65-inch minute of angle (MOA) accuracy. While the rifles submitted by other manufacturers may be billed by names containing the acronym “SASS,” only the KAC rifle was given the US Military designation XM110.

After first seeing the KAC XM110 at the 2006 SHOT Show, I got a closer look at it several months later during the National Defense Industries Association (NDIA) meeting in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where I also saw it fired by Colonel David Lutz, USMC (ret.). Soon after, I traveled to KAC’s facility in Titusville, Florida, where the XM110 is produced, for an in-depth glimpse of why the rifle won the XM110 contract.

Like the original Stoner-designed Armalite AR-10 rifle built by Armalite during the early 1950’s and the AR- 15/M16, SR-25 and Mk 11 rifles that followed, the XM110 operates by direct gas instead of using a gas piston system. In all of these rifles and their many clones, high-pressure gas is directed from a port in the barrel back through a tube and into the rifle’s bolt carrier, which in this case acts as the rifle’s gas cylinder. As the hot gas expands inside the carrier, it drives the carrier rearward against the back of the rifle’s bolt, which here acts as the gas piston. As this occurs, equal gas pressure pushes forward against the bolt, thereby taking some of the rearward load away from this part and reducing the wear on its bolt lugs.

Since both the bolt and carrier travel back and forth the full-length of the operation, using the late Colonel George Chinn’s description of weapon operating systems, the above rifles could be classed as long-stroke gas cylinder and piston via direct gas.

I have an Armalite AR-10, but it’s not nearly as outfitted as the weapon in the picture. I am feeling the urge to upgrade.

 

Technorati Tags: XM110, Knight Arms, Sniper Rifle, 7.62, Army

Judgement Week for Judge Joyce

Democracy Rising Pennsylvania

In this Edition:

• Pass It On – and Donate!
• Reality Check
• Judgement Week for Judge Joyce

Pass It On – and Donate!

As we head into election season, DR News will work to provide useful information, such as Justice on Trial , about this year’s judicial elections. We hope our reporting helps you prepare to vote and that you will forward DR News to friends and neighbors.

And, of course, we hope you will donate online to support DR News and all our work toward helping you create the best state government in America.

Reality Check

• 777 – Days since the Pay Raise of 2005. See the ticker on our home page.
• 1 – Law enacted to improve government integrity. See the cartoon .
• 0 – “Best-in-America” laws enacted. See the campaign .

See also our much-expanded August edition of “ Reality Check ” on the web.

Judgment Week for Judge Joyce

It wasn’t Judgment Day that ended the judicial career of PA Superior Court Judge Michael Joyce. It was judgment week.

It began on August 15 when federal prosecutors indicted Joyce on charges of mail fraud and money laundering in a scheme that allegedly bilked two insurance companies out of $440,000. It ended on Monday the 22nd when Joyce announced he will resign effective January 1 and will withdraw from November’s election in which he was seeking another 10-year term on the bench. As PA Clean Sweep’s Russ Diamond put it, “There will be no re-Joycing in November.”

Between the beginning of the end of Joyce’s judicial career and the end of the beginning of his legal troubles, the PA Supreme Court decided to suspend Joyce with pay. This means that he cannot perform any of the official duties voters elected him to perform. The Court since has appointed retired Judge Fred P. Anthony to replace Joyce on Superior Court for an indefinite period, effective August 27. Anthony will receive $466 per day, or $2,330 per week, in addition to the pension and health care benefits he currently receives as a retired judge.

Joyce also was under pressure from the state Republican Party to withdraw from November’s election. Party leaders feared that his presence on the ballot would spell trouble for other Republicans seeking retention on state and local courts, most notably PA Supreme Court Justice Thomas Saylor, another Republican.

Finally, the Pennsylvania Bar Association faced the question of whether to revise its rating of Joyce as “Recommended for Retention.” Joyce’s decision spares the PBA, which has amended its web site to say only, “Judge Joyce announced on Aug. 20 that he will not seek retention.” Click here .

Questions:

• If Joyce cannot perform any official duties and taxpayers must pay another judge to do his work, why should taxpayers pay Joyce $55,000 of his $165,000 annual salary, plus benefits, for the next four months?
• Will the Supreme Court change its suspension to withhold pay and benefits?
• Will Joyce resign immediately in order to spare taxpayers having to pay him for providing no public service?

Official Misconduct

While some have said that Joyce’s alleged misconduct has nothing to do with his official duties, Associated Press reporter Ramesh Santanam’s article noted that Joyce had submitted his claim to one insurance company on his official judicial letterhead. Click here for the report in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

It’s an important detail because Pennsylvania’s Court of Judicial Discipline can strip Joyce of his pension if he is convicted of a felony, of misconduct in office or for bringing the court into disrepute.

Question: What are the Judicial Conduct Board, the Court of Judicial Discipline and the Administrative Office of Pennsylvania Courts doing right now to deal with the Joyce case?

Political Fallout
Joyce’s withdrawal means that the state Republican and Democratic parties must choose candidates to replace Joyce on November’s ballot. Both parties will meet on September 8 to make their selections.

The 12 percent of Pennsylvania citizens who are neither Republicans nor Democrats (as of May 2007) do not have a voice in choosing candidates to replace Joyce on the Superior Court.

Joyce’s withdrawal means that voters will choose three new judges for Superior Court. If Democrats win all three judgeships, it would give Democrats the majority on the 15-member court.

Questions:

• Why does it matter to the administration of justice how many Democrats and Republicans are on our state courts? Should it matter?
• Will the political parties choose candidates who will talk with citizens and inspire confidence by their integrity and their understanding of the law?
• Why are independent and third-party voters routinely disenfranchised in Pennsylvania, unlike many other states?

Democracy Rising Pennsylvania P.O. Box 618, Carlisle, PA 17013

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