On The Third Hand

I think it’s about time to remind those on the right, once again, that not all domestic terrorists are Muslims. See Michael Yon’s Fight on the Home Front for details. I’d also like to point out to the left that if you restrict the ability to ’spy’ on terrorists in the US, you will be in more danger from these groups, as well as from Islamist terrorist groups.

P.S. This is old news - but there are a lot of details in there I never heard about (I knew about some arrests - but not much more than that.)

Fred Phelps is at it again. This time at the funeral of Cpl. Carrie French, killed in Iraq (it seems God hates the US military as much as he hates fags – at least according to this bunch of idots).

Via Instapundit, who quotes the same thing I’m about to quote:

I went over to take some pictures of the asshats, and get a closer look at them. I can report that they appeared to be mono-gastric, bi-pedal, and carbon-based; other than that, I really couldn’t see even a glint of humanity in their eyes.

I’m glad I wasn’t there. I’d probably be in jail for assault and battery (at least). I have a bit of a temper. (Note: I DO like what the firemen did… subtle but effective.)

Good News from Iraq, Reuters Despairs

That is LGF’s headline, by the way, the Reuters headline was: “Australian freed in Iraq; bombs kill nearly 40“.

That’s balanced reporting, Reuters-style.

The Great Ground Zero Heist

The World Trade Center Memorial Cultural Complex will be an imposing edifice wedged in the place where the Twin Towers once stood. It will serve as the primary “gateway” to the underground area where the names of the lost are chiseled into concrete. The organizers of its principal tenant, the International Freedom Center (IFC), have stated that they intend to take us on “a journey through the history of freedom"–but do not be fooled into thinking that their idea of freedom is the same as that of those Marines. To the IFC’s organizers, it is not only history’s triumphs that illuminate, but also its failures. The public will have come to see 9/11 but will be given a high-tech, multimedia tutorial about man’s inhumanity to man, from Native American genocide to the lynchings and cross-burnings of the Jim Crow South, from the Third Reich’s Final Solution to the Soviet gulags and beyond. This is a history all should know and learn, but dispensing it over the ashes of Ground Zero is like creating a Museum of Tolerance over the sunken graves of the USS Arizona.

This is appalling. I found the link to it at Vodka Pundit’s site. Needless to say, he also wants this stopped. I suggest we make sure this travesty is known to everyone in the US. If you are a blogger, please blog about this. If you aren’t, please e-mail that article to everyone you know. Thanks.

I don’t have the media credentials of the Laughing Wolf (or half the eloquence). So, I’ll wish I did, and just say that on the subject of newsweek, he speaks for me.

And, speaking only for myself: I was not shocked or surprised. Just disgusted — and very much saddened. It was only a matter of time. We’ve not got a fourth estate here, we’ve got a fifth column.

Al Jazeera has a good effect on the Arab street.

He has some good points here.

… For example, Al Jazzera focused, as part of its coverage for the “deteriorated situations in Iraq” on every single demonstration against the interim government or the American presence in Iraq even if it was 10 people that are demonstrating! But this coverage, that was missed in the official Arab media most of the times, showed the Arab street an unusual scene. ‘Arab’ citizens demonstrating freely against their government and the supposed brutal occupiers under the eyes of police!

As they say, ‘read the whole thing’.

Hat tip to Chrenkoff, who has a good roundup of blog posts today. Scoot on over and check them out.

US Citizen Charged with Plotting to Assassinate Bush.

A U.S. citizen who spent time in Saudi Arabia has been accused of conspiring with the al-Qaida terrorist network and taking part in a plot to assassinate President Bush. A six-count indictment against the man was unsealed in a federal court outside Washington.

The indictment contends that Ahmed Omar Abu Ali, 23, a one-time resident of Virginia, pursued religious studies in Saudi Arabia in 2000 and returned to the kingdom in 2002 to aid and join forces with the al-Qaida network.

The document says Mr. Abu Ali discussed plans to assassinate President Bush with several unidentified co-conspirators. The indictment said the accused man received a religious blessing to carry out the alleged plot that involved shooting the president or detonating an explosive.

I think this is a ‘wait and see what more comes out’ case.

Thanks to wits0, who is on a roll today, for the heads-up.

CNN executive resigns after controversial remarks

And CNN did report it. In the Entertainment section? Sigh. If CNN wishes to be taken seriously, they should take a long look at their reporting policies. I, for one, began ignoring their foreign news anytime they were reporting from a tyrannical state after Jordan admitted censoring reports from Baghdad to “protect” their reporters there. As for the rest of their foreign news, I take it with a grain of salt.

Billboard Raises Eyebrows On Hollywood Boulevard

Citizens United posted a billboard thanking Hollywood stars for contributing to the re-election of President George W. Bush.

The billboard includes the text “4 More Years … Thank You Hollywood!” It features pictures of Michael Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Ben Affleck, Chevy Chase, Martin Sheen, Barbra Streisand and Sean Penn.

They should buy another one outside the Guardian offices in the UK [update for clarity] to thank them for Bush taking Clark County.

Voting held in Iraq’s first free election in a half-century, attacks on polling stations kill 31

Iraqis danced and clapped with joy Sunday as they voted in their country’s first free election in a half-century, defying insurgents who launched eight deadly suicide bombings and mortar strikes at polling stations. The attacks killed at least 31 people.

After a slow start, men and women in flowing black abayas often holding babies formed long lines, although there were pockets of Iraq where the streets and polling stations were deserted. Iraqis prohibited from using private cars walked streets crowded in a few places nearly shoulder-to-shoulder with voters, hitched rides on military buses and trucks, and some even carried the elderly in their arms.

‘’This is democracy,'’ said Karfia Abbasi, holding up a thumb stained with purple ink to prove she had voted.

That figure of 31, btw, includes 8 suicide bombers. Something which isn’t mentioned until the bottom of the article.

Religious War: East and West at Belmont Club.

Iraq Pessimists’ Real Fear

So let’s talk turkey about the dark talk emanating from the media and opinion leaders this week.

Their pessimism isn’t really based in concern about Iraq’s elections. It’s really based in concern about the success of American policy in Iraq.

Anti-Bush partisans — both Democrats and Leftist ideologues — understand that if the elections are seen as a triumph, they will be seen as Bush’s triumph, and they cannot stomach it.

And for those who are still mired in the foreign-policy conservatism of the past, success on Sunday will place them permanently on the shoulder of the road to the future, thumbs outstretched.

Once they were the drivers. In a world with a free Iraq, they will be hitchhikers. Maybe what they’re really pessimistic about isn’t Iraq’s future but their own.

I agree.