:: PROLEGOMENA ::

:: Wednesday, July 28 ::

NO WONDER HE DOESN'T FALL DOWN

CONTROVERSY SURROUNDS KERRY CONVENTION FILM: WAR SCENES REENACTED

From the would-be First Lady's speech:

John is a fighter. He earned his medals the old-fashioned way, by putting his life on the line for his country. No one will defend this nation more vigorously than he will-and he will always be first in the line of fire.

But he also knows the importance of getting it right.

Hence, the re-enactments.


:: michael parker Wednesday, July 28, 2004 [+] ::
...

MIDDLE EAST NUMBERS

Dennis Prager lays them out. If you have a strand of moral fiber, the big picture of the idiocy of the world is in these numbers. He finishes his list with this:

Number of Muslims in the world: more than 1 billion
Number of Muslim demonstrations against Islamic terror: approximately 2

Daniel Pipes covered one of those two demonstrations, which took place in Phoenix back in April:

Estimates vary. The Arizona Republic counted 250 in attendance, the police 400.  The number of Muslims, I heard, was between 30 and 100 persons. Most participants were not Muslim but (the Arizona Republic recounts) “people like Michael Fischer, 18, of Glendale, who wanted to denounce the stereotyping of Muslims; and Grace Clark of Apache Junction, who wanted to promote peace.” One correspondent of mine judged the event “a total disaster.”

But that is too severe. It was a humble beginning that can grow into something large and strong. Jasser points out to me that “The beginnings of every great movement in our great nation’s history of freedom began in a small way.” He notes also that American Muslims, being predominantly first-generation immigrants, are still getting grounded. With time, he expects, “the vast majority of American Muslims will listen to the message of our rally and find complete agreement with its statement of faith.”

Until then, however, there is the stark reality that very few Muslims did show up. And those who did held up “peace” and “anti-war” signs, not anti-terror or anti-Islamist signs. Two factors help explain this disappointing result.

First, the message of the event did not fit the thinking of most Muslims. Unfortunately, the mood in this community is a radical one, and not inclined to stand up and condemn terrorism.

Second, Zuhdi did not pander to the Islamist establishment – such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations – in planning the event. These extremists no doubt could have brought out a larger crowd – but to rail against Israel or U.S. policy.

The Phoenix rally points to the current reality of American Muslim opinion. This problem needs to be dealt with. If not, I can imagine the United States will hear the same overt calls for jihad and Islamic rule that Western Europe is now experiencing.

Speaking of Western Europe, Norweigians have something interesting in the suggestion box:

Central members of Kristiansand Progress party claims Hitler’s Mein Kampf and the Koran are one of the same, and they want Islam banned in Norway.

Hitler's top men would barely argue, seeing Christianity as for the weak, they were clear in their opinion that Islam was very compatible with the way of the Reich. Why else would Egypt's Nasser have welcomed Hitler's Wermacht to train the Egypt's army better Jew-killing methods?

The idea to ban Islam is not new. Consider The Calcutta Quran Petition.

** UPDATE **

BOTW links to the Official Web Site of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, currently represented by a sleeveless female in Copley Square who also neglected to cover her head. That site announces what may have been another Phoenix-style Muslim protest against terror:

Muslim Gather to Pray for Peace; Say No to Terror, No to War

Two hundred Muslims gathered on Saturday, May 22 to pray for peace and comfort for the victims of torture in Iraq, and to condemn acts of terrorism committed by people claiming to act in the name of Islam. Many carried signs saying "No to torture, no to brutality." Others carried signs that said, "Terrorism has no faith," with a picture of slain American citizen Nicholas Berg.

The photo links to a copy of a news article, which links to photos which make one wonder - if it were not for Abu Ghraib and the O-word, how many would have still attended this rally? The answer is sadly easy to guess. How about that tee-shirt that reads, "We are all Palestinians"? In the words of Dominick Dunne, "Oh shit. Here we go again."


:: michael parker Wednesday, July 28, 2004 [+] ::
...

I THOUGHT IT WAS THE 97,488 NADER VOTERS WHO COST THEM THAT ELECTION

Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., is worried. "Absolutely," he said, speaking outside the convention floor at the FleetCenter. "Ralph Nader could cost us the election. He cost us the election last time and his ego may cost us the election this time."

Memo to Dems: pander to these 97,488 voters.

It could be argued that this ego will cost them the election. He doesn't fall down, you know.

:: michael parker Wednesday, July 28, 2004 [+] ::
...

DID ANYBODY BRIEF KERRY - OR HAS HE HAD THE TIME?
 
AP: Berger Steps Down As Kerry Adviser


:: michael parker Tuesday, July 20, 2004 [+] ::
...

TOUGH TALK

"If they don't have the guts to come up here in front of you and say, 'I don't want to represent you, I want to represent those special interests, the unions, the trial lawyers' ... if they don't have the guts, I call them girlie men."

Predictably, and in doing so legitimizing the above quote, Democrats protested the remark as sexist and homophobic. Are they ever going to abandon the victim vocabulary? 
  
 
BLUNT TALK

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has urged all French Jews to move to Israel immediately to escape anti-Semitism.

Predictably, and in doing so legitimizing the above quote, the French protested the remark as unacceptable and demanded an explanation.  Are they ever going to bother to look at their own numbers?

The latest French government figures show 510 anti-Jewish acts or threats in the first six months of 2004 - compared to 593 for all of last year. In recent years there have been bomb attacks against a number of synagogues and Jewish schools in France. Jewish tombs have also been desecrated.

 
GIRLIE TALK

"These comments do not bring calm, peace and serenity that we all need," said Patrick Gaubert, of the International League Against Racism and Anti-Semitism (Licra). "I think Mr Sharon would have done better tonight to have kept quiet."

Kept quiet? - where ever did he get that? Sounds like...
 
 
FRENCH TALK

...Jacques Chirac’s comment that Poland and others who backed the war had “lost a good opportunity to keep quiet,” implying that they could still be refused access to the European Union...

NONsense

Elton John has said stars are scared to speak out against war in Iraq because of "bullying tactics" used by the US government to hinder free speech. "There's an atmosphere of fear in America right now that is deadly. Everyone is too career-conscious," he told New York magazine, Interview. Sir Elton said performers could be "frightened by the current administration's bullying tactics". The singer likened the current "fear factor" to McCarthyism in the 1950s.

 

TOUGH GIRL TALK

In the words of Laura Ingraham, not a part of the current administration, "Shut up and sing."

:: michael parker Monday, July 19, 2004 [+] ::
...

WHY BOTHER BUILDING?

I was genuinely excited at the news of the new WTC design, but have since gotten over it. The fact that America could not get it together enough to simply rebuild was something to accept before that. Then we get memorial mania and an endless supply of freak-show ideas. After that, the oh-so-clever 1,776 foot-high spire maudlinly named the "Freedom Tower." Ho-hum. Now we get a lawsuit:

WTC site architect sues developer

If you need another reason to be over this, the Arabs, ironically, have us beat, and beat real bad. In fact, they wouldn't even had to have knocked any others down:

Click here for the soon-to-be tallest, under construction. Note the completion date ahead of the WTC, and the number of floors more than double that of Libeskind's academic folly.

Click here for the current tallest, including the absurd second-place Malaysian towers.



:: michael parker Thursday, July 15, 2004 [+] ::
...

BUILD THAT DAM CANAL!

I missed this news, one month old, amid all the talk about the West Bank barrier:

The moat was meant to prevent the construction of tunnels by Palestinians that connect the southern Gaza town of Rafah with the Sinai Peninsula. These tunnels have been used for the smuggling of weapons, insurgents and illegal drugs. So far, Israel has found and destroyed 90 tunnels, 15 of them in 2004.

To clarify, these are the tunnels defended by Evergreen College alumnus and now-martyred Rachel Corrie, while she stood in front of the Israeli bulldozer which wrecked the house covering a tunnel access, and wrecked her because she didn't get out of the way.

Sadly, in more ways than one:

They said the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon concluded that this would result in the destruction of thousands of homes in Rafah and incur international condemnation.

Egypt could help here, the smuggling does begin in their territory, after all. To clarify, that is the territory returned to Egypt during the Carter Administration, territory won by Israel in a war Israel didn't start. That is the same territory where Egypt would have had to dig a grave for its Third Army had Israel not decided to spare it.

My money is not on Egypt any more than the rest of the Arab world. From Reuters (link no longer good), it will be up to these Palestinians:

But the tunnel issue has become the talk of the town, with many residents privately urging tunnel builders to cease, and threatening them and their families if they do not. The backlash has grown since a six-day Israeli siege of Rafah in May that killed 42 people, militants and civilians alike, and displaced hundreds after a spate of demolitions. Some tunnels have been blocked off by irate residents concerned their adjacent homes might be bulldozed or blown up during the next Israeli army sweep.

It interests me how in this modern age we are returning to walls and moats. I suppose it depends on the advancements of your enemy.

:: michael parker Thursday, July 15, 2004 [+] ::
...

HEADLINE:
Israeli contingency plan for Arafat's death includes preventing his burial in Jerusalem

I wasn't aware he wasn't already buried, in his rubble pile in Ramallah. He seems to like it there. Will his wife, Suha, in Paris on $100,000 per month allowance, still receive something once widowed? Once dead, where will they bury her?

:: michael parker Wednesday, July 14, 2004 [+] ::
...

BUILD THAT HAGUE-DAMNED WALL!



:: michael parker Tuesday, July 13, 2004 [+] ::
...

QUOTES OF THE WEEK

In the week following the unsurprising and non-binding "World Court" decision condemning Israel's West Bank barrier, three quotes surfaced amid reports of another terrorist bombing in Tel Aviv.

One from the Hague, the others from a target of the Hague:

"I ... find unpersuasive the Court’s contention that, as the uses of force emanate from occupied territory, it is not an armed attack 'by one State against another'. I fail to understand the Court’s view that an occupying Power loses the right to defend its own civilian citizens at home if the attacks emanate from the occupied territory..."

Still, unpersuaded, she sided with the majority. I think they enjoy the contradictions. Maybe it's some sort of artistic expression to them.

"The terrorist did not intend to just hurt Jews, rather he went out to kill as many people as possible. The Palestinians are stupid for what they’re doing, they’re not achieving anything and in the end they will only turn us Israeli Arabs against them," Mr Mcarah, who also survived the 1995 No. 5 bus bombing on Rehov Dizengoff in Tel Aviv...

This matches my impression of the IRA when I lived in London eleven years ago: that they only cared about blowing things up. Depending on this bomber's particular level of fanaticism, these Arab Israeli citizens were either "Jews by association" in his vision, or were "martyrs" as the trampled in Mecca.

Prime Minister Sharon was candid in his outrage over the attack, saying: "The murderous act this morning is the first that occurred with the endorsement of the decision of the world court at The Hague. The decision sends a destructive message to encourage the terror and denounces countries that are defending themselves against it."

An interesting reminder of how the Left in America always lectures the rest of us to look to Europe for some wise example of how to run things, blind to the significance of the fact that those who dance at the news of dead Jews and Americans find solidarity with the Left as it marches.

It just occured to me, the similarity in "Hague" and "Hagia". Does this court see its wisdom as divine? Does the Left recognize the faith it wears on its sleeve?

:: michael parker Tuesday, July 13, 2004 [+] ::
...

ON EDWARDS' SLEEVE

One month ago, Ron Reagan made this oh-so-intellectual remark:

"Dad was also a deeply, unabashedly religious man. But he never made the fatal mistake of so many politicians wearing his faith on his sleeve to gain political advantage."

And today's headlines announce the not-so-surprising:

Ron Reagan to address Democratic convention

He may need to amend what he'll say there, in the wheelchair tracks of James Brady and Christopher Reeve. Evidently a lot of Democrat voters like a little faith on the sleeve:

Crowd Turns Out To See Senator Go To Church...

:: michael parker Monday, July 12, 2004 [+] ::
...

FILE THIS ONE WITH PAT TILLMAN

Wow - I'm feeling a little emotional after reading this story:

WILDOMAR, Calif. (AP) - When Justin Hunt initially tried to join the U.S. marines, the recruiters didn't have a scale that could weigh him.

Instead, they estimated the hulking athlete just two years out of high school was more than 150 pounds too heavy to join the service. Hunt didn't let that stop him. He worked out, changed his diet and shed the pounds so he could enlist.

Now his family holds on to memories of that year as they mourn the 22-year-old lance corporal, who was killed in an explosion Tuesday in western Iraq.

Bob Herbert of the NYT pays some respect, then launches from there into:

For what?

Even as these brave troops were dying in the cruel and bloody environs of Iraq, the Senate Intelligence Committee in Washington was unfurling its damning unanimous report about the incredibly incompetent intelligence that the Bush administration used to justify this awful war.

The bipartisan committee, headed by Republican Senator Pat Roberts, declared that the key intelligence assessments trumpeted by President Bush as the main reasons for invading Iraq were unfounded.

Nearly 900 G.I.'s and more than 10,000 Iraqi civilians have already perished, and there is no end to the war in sight.

No end in sight? Memo to Herbert: Iraq got its sovereignty ahead of schedule, and if you are vying to be Kerry's running-mate, he picked another pessimist last week.

Here Herbert demonstrates amazing amnesia:

A government with even a nodding acquaintance with competence and good sense would have launched an all-out war against Al Qaeda, not Iraq, in the immediate aftermath of Sept. 11. After all, it was Al Qaeda, not Iraq, that carried out the sneak attack on American soil that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon and killed 3,000 people. You might think that would have been enough to provoke an all-out response from the U.S. Instead we saved our best shot for the demented and already checkmated dictator of Iraq, Saddam Hussein.

Memo #2 to Herbert: Afghanistan - where Pat Tillman was recently killed in action continuing to fight Al-Quaeda after Bush's all-out response destroyed the Taliban, resulting in the 4000+ polling stations where even women are registering to vote. Justin Hunt died in the country which used to pay $25,000 to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Saddam checkmated? - he would have ended up with more palaces than a chessboard has playing pieces if Bush hadn't taken the lead that resulted in Saddam facing trial instead in one of those palaces.





:: michael parker Monday, July 12, 2004 [+] ::
...

QUOTE OF THE DAY

"Dick Cheney can be president."

In Raleigh, N.C., President Bush dismissed Edwards' credentials to be vice president, curtly telling reporters, "Dick Cheney can be president."

:: michael parker Wednesday, July 07, 2004 [+] ::
...

IF YOU WANT IT DONE RIGHT...

U.S., Israel will guard their own athletes at Olympics

This from the article is interesting:

"Competitors from high risk countries, presumably including the United States, Britain, Spain, and Israel, will have Greek security escorts," the report said. "Some, including the U.S. and Israeli teams, also will have their own security forces. The U.S. State Department Bureau of Diplomatic Security will provide the U.S. Olympic team with a security force of 100-110 agents, analysts, and administrators."

Funny, I though giving the terrorists what they want would reduce the risk, but Spain is still high-risk?

:: michael parker Tuesday, July 06, 2004 [+] ::
...

HUNKA HUNKA

So it's the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards.

If there is any good news in this for me, it's the revival of my Taranto-esque prefix for the former personal injury lawyer from North Carolina, Senator John Edwards.

Even better, the Allah Pundit will return to his Edwards poster-posting. And even better, I look more forward to the Vice-Presidential debates than the Kerry-Bush ones. All that smart Edwards talking is still going to pale against the seriousness of Cheney.

Yes, I am nervous about this pick because as we saw in the last election, more than half the popular vote went to a priss like Gore. Hoards will vote for the handsome one, who with his only elected office ever spent that time running for President or selecting his Georgetown mansion.

This is going to be a fun year to blog.

:: michael parker Tuesday, July 06, 2004 [+] ::
...

The Allah Pundit (link at left) links to a hilarious accidental photo of John Kerry. A Yahoo News Photos search brought forth more photos. Thinking of Democrats and guns and their many lectures on gun safety, I looked especially for that would-be Presidential trigger finger:

and I recalled with a smug feeling Madame Feinstein, her rare California conceal-carry permit, and her eternal image of gun safety:

This is not entirely fair to Kerry, as his photo seems to have been taken within two seconds of his missed shot. But still, here he is again, with another show to add to the wetsuit shot, the snowboarding shot, "I never fall", "The son-of-bitch knocked me down", and so on.

Still very happy I decided to cancel cable TV...

:: michael parker Monday, July 05, 2004 [+] ::
...

SCOTT RETURNS FROM PORTUGAL AND...

After some time taking in the soccer scene over there, he reports the English soccer fans were "total cocksuckers."

This reminds me of an amusing headline a couple of weeks ago:

It's OK to smoke dope, England fans told

Today's headlines suggest England will continue to specialize in "total cocksuckers":

Hitting Is Wrong, Says Smacking Ban Peer

:: michael parker Monday, July 05, 2004 [+] ::
...

Karol at Spot On, with keen eye and good mind, makes a great point about gun ownership.

Any thoughts, Michael Moore?

Hello?

:: michael parker Monday, July 05, 2004 [+] ::
...

I KNEW I HAD SEEN THIS FACE SOMEWHERE BEFORE...

When I flew to Alaska:

He was our first Eskimo President, too!

:: michael parker Thursday, July 01, 2004 [+] ::
...

THE IRAQI BUZZ

"Mr President, Iraq is sovereign. Letter passed from (US civilian overseer Paul) Bremer at 10:26 AM Iraq time - Condi."

When I woke up yesterday morning expecting to hear NPR make "Abu Ghraib" my first two words of the day, I heard instead of the surprise early handover. "Brilliant!" was my first word of the day, and NPR wasn't the one saying it.

My second word yesterday was the same as the first:

Blair, Bush, and NATO leaders with troops in the US-led coalition in Iraq knew that the handover had been accelerated, but other leaders in the same meeting who did not support the war were in the dark, US officials said.

French President Jacques Chirac, who led international opposition to the March 2003 invasion to topple Saddam Hussein, only learned about it when Bush announced it at the meeting, said a spokeswoman, Catherine Colonna.

Bush then speaks in Turkey, praising their secular democracy and their place as Europe's bridge to the world beyond. Predictably, Arab autocrats, asses itching in their dish-dash-ahs and oil money in their accounts, criticize the US failure to handle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. I guess it's time to broker another deal for the Palestinians to break.

Let's go back a little to the March comments by best-ex-president Jimmy Carter:

Jimmy Carter, the former US president, has strongly criticised George Bush and Tony Blair for waging an unnecessary war to oust Saddam Hussein based on "lies or misinterpretations". The 2002 Nobel peace prize winner said Mr Blair had allowed his better judgement to be swayed by Mr Bush's desire to finish a war that his father had started.

We now have a sovereign Iraq, free of one of the most evil regimes in world history. Does Carter now view this as "installed democracy based on lies"?

AND - Chirac shows it hurts:

Mr Chirac is known for his sharp tongue but, even during the most bitter disputes last year over his opposition to war in Iraq, he never hurled personal abuse at Mr Bush.

However, yesterday the French president lost any such reserve when he told Mr Bush that EU affairs were none of his business.

Stung by Mr Bush's call for the EU to give Turkey a firm date for accession, Mr Chirac responded: "He not only went too far but he has gone into a domain which is not his own.

"He has nothing to say on this subject. It is as if I were to tell the United States how it should conduct its relations with Mexico."

Memo to Chirac: if you can keep your fellow countrymen from spray-painting the graves in Normandy, perhaps we will come back for a third time to help you with whoever is invading you, even if it isn't our domain.

:: michael parker Tuesday, June 29, 2004 [+] ::
...

SLAMMED - ABSOLUTELY NO TIME TO BLOG

but

Copied and pasted directly from the Drudge Report, this list of headlines was a delightful read... and think of the time I saved!

Clinton's Book Signings Draw Adoring Throngs in NYC...

CNN: 'My Life' sets records...

BUT... Sales slow in Florida...

Stacks Left Untouched on Maryland Shore...

Clinton book sales quiet in Arizona...

Memoirs not on Houston's best seller list...

Tome slow out of gate in Cincinnati...

Not flying off shelves in Hudson Valley...

Mixed reaction in Manitowoc...

Mixed book sales in N.E. Georgia...

Creates little hoopla in San Antonio...

Not Selling in Shenandoah Valley...

Book not so magical in Wichita Falls...

Hoosiers react quietly to memoir...

Just hype? asks Gainesville...

Sales can't measure up to Harry or Hillary in suburban Chicago...

Memoirs don't stir Saginaw...

Memoir is no 1st-day best-seller in Ft. Wayne...

Not selling in VA Beach...

No best seller in Billings...

Slow in Sacramento...

:: michael parker Wednesday, June 23, 2004 [+] ::
...

PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN SAID...

Putin: Russia Gave Bush Iraq Intelligence

ASTANA, Kazakhstan (AP) - Russia gave the Bush administration intelligence after the September 11 attacks that suggested Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was preparing attacks in the United States, President Vladimir Putin said Friday.

Putin said he couldn't comment on how critical the Russians' information was in the U.S. decision to invade Iraq. He said Russia didn't have any information that Saddam's regime had actually been behind any terrorist acts.

"After Sept. 11, 2001, and before the start of the military operation in Iraq, the Russian special services, the intelligence service, received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against the U.S. military and other interests," Putin said.

This from the Russia that opposed our action in Iraq.
and Bush acted...

:: michael parker Friday, June 18, 2004 [+] ::
...

IT'S PRONOUNCED "HOOTS'-PUH"

"G-8 demonstrators ask for handout"

Savannah city leaders gave G-8 Sea Island Summit demonstrators just about everything they asked for.

Now organizer Kellie Gasink is asking for a little bit more.

In a letter sent to the mayor and aldermen this week, Gasink requested $2,000 to cover shortfalls stemming from last week's International Festival for Peace and Civil Liberties in Forsyth Park.

Gasink had projected more than 5,000 participants during the June 8-10 events, and was hoping to cover costs by selling T-shirts and posters she and her husband, William Pleasant, had created.

T-shirts and posters for sale? Thousands of leftovers? how about sending them back to the third world where they came from?

via Sam Johnson via Spot On


:: michael parker Thursday, June 17, 2004 [+] ::
...

IF THIS JUST IN FROM DRUDGE IS TRUE:

Clinton tells Rather he is proud that he fought the impeachment battle that failed to drive him from office. "I didn't quit, I never thought of resigning and I stood up to it and beat it back," he tells Rather. "The whole battle was a badge of honor. I don't see it as a stain, because it was illegitimate," says Clinton of the impeachment process that he calls "an abuse of power."

No one remembers this was about a President lying under oath before a federal grand jury, or that the feminists' choice was lying about actions that violated federal workplace sexual harassment rules. Then again, the feminists really didn't want Afghan women freed from their burkhas, either. And isn't "stain" an interesting choice of word?

Clinton views his economic plan as the greatest accomplishment of his presidency. "I kept score, how many people's lives were better off," he tells Rather. "I think the fact that we were able to have 22 million jobs and record home ownership and lower interest rates...people actually had the ability to do more things than ever before," says Clinton.

Dan Rather and MSNBC have apparently done such an effective job blaming errors and downturns on the then-governor of Texas that even Clinton believes he wasn't President then, either.

He had many days as president that he counts among his best, including his efforts to help the residents of Kosovo and rid the world of a dictator. "The day that Kosovar war ended and I knew Milosevic's days were numbered was a great day. I had a lot of great days," he says.

Can we get Dan Rather and MSNBC to credit Clinton for the overthrow of the Ba'athist regime so we can all agree it's very good that Saddam is gone?

:: michael parker Thursday, June 17, 2004 [+] ::
...

Well, JUMP BACK, MUHAMMED! This must scare the shit out of the mullahs:

"Europe to Rebuke Iran Over Nuclear Program"

Delegates at a meeting of the IAEA's 35-nation board of governors described the draft, written by France, Britain and Germany, as strongly worded. Slight modifications were meant to appease nonaligned nations traditionally allied with Iran, said the delegates, speaking on condition of anonymity.

``The substance remains the same,'' one delegate said. ``The heat is still on.''

HA! The heat is on from the French, who can't survive a summer heat wave.

Oh - I suppose the Iranians will take France seriously since they were so allied with Saddam's Iraq.


:: michael parker Wednesday, June 16, 2004 [+] ::
...

WATCH OUT - HE MAY DO SOMETHING CRAZY

Mall Bomb Suspect Ordered Psychiatric Help

Can we ever get to the point when we can do these evaluations when they are entering the country? Michelle Malkin writes on this subject with some examples worth remembering in "America's insane asylum for terrorists"

:: michael parker Wednesday, June 16, 2004 [+] ::
...

MOURNING AND MANNERS

I choked when I saw Mrs. Reagan touching the casket in the Rotunda this morning. Then, this very interesting article:

"Nancy Reagan showed how to touch casket"

"If she had not touched the casket, I assure you no one else would have. She in a way gave people permission," said David Kessler, director of palliative care at three Los Angeles hospitals and author of "The Needs of the Dying."

:: michael parker Friday, June 11, 2004 [+] ::
...

A FUNERAL BILL CLINTON CAN SPEAK AT

Ray Charles Dies at 73

:: michael parker Friday, June 11, 2004 [+] ::
...

BOO F*****G HOO, PART 3

Lawyer says Saddam tortured

:: michael parker Friday, June 11, 2004 [+] ::
...

WAS IT VENUS AGAIN?

It is a rare week that I put down a Hitchens column with disgust. Until, maybe, the last two paragraphs, which I read three times and still do not know what Hitchens is saying here. He anti-eulogized Bob Hope as well, to the disgust of many conservative bloggers, but that didn't bother me. In fact, I agreed with Hitchens' critique of Hope's humor.

It has never happened before that I actually like what Maureen Dowd writes. I still bet she returns to what I expect to read with her next column.

UPDATE: Dowd is back... but with a Brobdingnagian word...

:: michael parker Thursday, June 10, 2004 [+] ::
...

ABU-REAGAN, or BOO F*****G HOO, PART 2

Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather lament excessive media coverage, yet they never followed-up with Gary Condit and Chandra Levy.

Rather offers this rather truthful statement about the state of the media:

"Once the herd starts moving in one direction, it's very hard to turn it, even slightly," Rather said. "Nationally, the herd has grown tremendously."

No worries, boys, you can get back to Abu-Ghraib as soon as Saturday.



:: michael parker Wednesday, June 09, 2004 [+] ::
...

VENUS AND MOSES

I get this via e-mail from an astrology-reding friend, wriiten by Astrologer/"Alchemist"
Moses Siregar III. Venus' love struggles to conquer all:

The heart (Venus) set her controls to come directly between the Earth and the Sun, so that as we looked up at the Sun from Earth, Venus appeared to sit near the Sun’s heart, and again it’s been over 121 years since this last happened. Adding to the interest, the Venus-Sun occultation takes place in front of the backdrop of the sidereal constellation of Taurus, a peaceful sign which Venus herself rules and is generally more auspicious within. It’s hard to imagine a better stellar motion picture about the power of love for an earthly drive-in movie. Taurus is the screen, the Sun is the projector, and Venus is the star. This Venus-Sun-in-Taurus movie could be called, “The Power of Peace.” Perhaps unfortunately, this movie also has some competition. Just ask anyone in Iraq.

Yes, Moses, feel free to ask anyone in Iraq yourself, and thank you for not mentioning Abu-Ghraib. Better yet, Herr Astrologer, why don't you just go to Astronomy Picture of the Day and shut the hell up.

:: michael parker Wednesday, June 09, 2004 [+] ::
...

BOO F*****G HOO

If Drudge is right about this:

Former President Bill Clinton has privately expressed anger he has apparently been left off the speakers list of Friday's Reagan State Funeral, the DRUDGE REPORT has learned.

"President Clinton really held out all hope the funeral would be a nonpartisan event, like Nixon's was," a top Clinton source said on Tuesday morning. "He's angry and disappointed neither he nor President Carter have been asked to speak, as of yet."

The top source says Clinton has been critical that both Bush presidents will address the crowd gathered at National Cathedral.

Was this predictable? Hell, I hoped all through the two-term Clinton Presidency that Reagan would hang on so we could avoid this very thing. Does anyone else think it makes sense for the current President to speak? So what if Gerald Ford did not speak at Nixon's funeral?

The low-class behavior of Clinton while in office has been echoed by Carter out of office. While Clinton allowed China to advance its nuclear evolution by 20+ years, Carter helped the Stalinist North Korean regime in its own nuclear goals. While Clinton made a mockery of oath-taking and played with the definition of the word "is", Carter continues to outright lie by his use of the word "unilateral". Both have bashed the current administration, and both are completely incompatable with Reagan's attitude toward the Presidency.

:: michael parker Tuesday, June 08, 2004 [+] ::
...

TODAY IN HISTORY - THE DEATH OF MUHAMMED

At historychannel.com, the opening paragraph does the good thing of not calling him a prophet: "In Medina, located in present-day Saudi Arabia, Muhammad, one of the most influential religious and political leaders in history, dies in the arms of Aishah, his third and favorite wife."

As many continue to post their low-class scribblings at Democratic Underground, celebrating the death of Reagan, I will post my own regret that Muhammed ever lived. I have always been bothered by the hyper-use "infidel" in Islamic preaching, "O" this and "O" that... the drama of it all making it sound so fake. Then today we are left with a religion, said to be abused and slandered, that seems to only encourage human nature. Why else would 57 Islamic nations give a standing ovation to Mahathir Mohamad's speech blaming the ills of the Muslim world on the Jews?

Then, Lo!, a prophet arrives six centuries after Jesus Christ to bring forth a holy Qu'ran that reads like a rip-off of the Old Testament, and modern-day apologists who claim that Christianity flourished and spread thanks to the Islamic tradition of tolerance, which somehow existed six centuries before Islam existed.

The Qur'an/Koran is online at a University of Southern California website. See if you can find the word "Jerusalem" in it anywhere.



:: michael parker Tuesday, June 08, 2004 [+] ::
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BLAME WHERE IT GOES

We need to see more of this in America's hyper-sensitive areas as well:

But communal support for the smugglers has cooled as Israeli forces have razed more and more parts of Rafah said to be hiding tunnels. With 13,000 people now homeless, many of whom say they concealed nothing, residents are turning on the tunnel men.

Harder to believe is that this report comes from a Reuters site:

RAFAH, Gaza Strip, June 6 (Reuters) - Mustafa used to fear little but a periodic Israeli army raid as he dug arms smuggling tunnels into the Gaza Strip for the Palestinian revolt. Now he has to worry about the neighbours too.

Running guns and contraband through tunnels into Rafah refugee camp from nearby Egypt was once both profitable and patriotic in Palestinian eyes. It put rare cash into a poor economy and fuelled "resistance" to Israeli occupation in Gaza.

I would pay money to see the look on Rachel Corrie's face.

:: michael parker Monday, June 07, 2004 [+] ::
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D-DAY

The 60th anniversary of course saw anti-American protests in France. A pro-American crashed the protest in song and sign:



and got escorted away for "disturbing the peace" - no kidding..

Allah Pundit points to a photo that begs for a funny caption contest.
Here.
and
at Allah's site with funny comments posted.

:: michael parker Monday, June 07, 2004 [+] ::
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The news of Reagan's death I got from the TV in a biker bar in Lake Lure, NC. Nobody discussed it, really. I was also in a biker bar on September 11, 2001. There wasn't any discussion really going on then either. It's nice to be in an all-American environment when something significant takes place and everyone around you seems to be already in agreement.

The state funeral of this President is enormously fitting. I don't remember as much the politics of much of that administration as its image. The Reagan White House was sophisticated, ergo, stately. I remember worrying that Reagan would die with Clinton still in office.

This Friday's state funeral, and the current President's respect for the formalities of his office, will be something for a world inundated with weeks of Abu Ghraib photos to see instead.

Allah Pundit points to a good eulogy, a third of it here:

Today resembles the darkest days of the 1970s, when the Soviet Union was advancing with impunity and given a free pass by what were not yet known as the forces of political correctness. To tell the truth about jihad today is the same as telling the truth about Communism then: unpopular, even ridiculous. Few grasped the urgency of the moral imperative to rescue the oppressed and defend the threatened, and few do now. Ronald Reagan did.

:: michael parker Monday, June 07, 2004 [+] ::
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HEADLINE:
Judaism growing among black Americans

How does this interesting growth compare to blacks embracing Islam?

Do black American Jews have an interesting take on Israel? They may. The article refers to Ethiopian Jews, thousands of which were taken into Israel years ago.

:: michael parker Friday, June 04, 2004 [+] ::
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SO THERE WAS THIS CONTEST

to see who could hand Osama over to America first.

Taliban told US it would give up Osama - middleman

BERLIN, June 4 (Reuters) - U.S. and Taliban officials met secretly in Frankfurt almost a year before the September 11 attacks to discuss terms for the Afghans to hand over Osama bin Laden, according to a German television documentary.

If this turns out to be true, will Dan Rather or MSNBC be the first to blame this Sept, 2000 failure on the then-governor of Texas?


:: michael parker Friday, June 04, 2004 [+] ::
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JUST BE-COS

My local paper ran a report that some NAACP members are upset at Bill Cosby:

"I can't even talk the way these people talk: Why you ain't? Where you is? And I blamed the kid until I heard the mother talk. And then I heard the father talk. Everybody knows it's important to speak English -- except these knuckleheads. You can't be a doctor with that kind of crap coming out of your mouth."

(Black) columnist Walter Williams is predictably supportive:

Don't give me any of that legacy-of-slavery nonsense unless you can explain why all of these problems were not worse during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, at a time when blacks were much closer to slavery, were much poorer, faced more discrimination and had fewer opportunities.

The New York Times says "Black Flight to Private Schools Is Growing"

For a parent like Elisa Helligar-Lewis, the emphasis on achievement meshed with an overall sense of safety. She had worried that her two bookish sons would be "used like mops" by bullies in her neighborhood public school. At Trey Whitfield, nobody mocks them for doing their homework, participating in class or speaking in standard English rather than street slang. "The whole environment," she said, "is conducive to study."

:: michael parker Thursday, June 03, 2004 [+] ::
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A KERRY WITH A CLUE

Kerry: Nuclear Terrorism Is Gravest Threat to U.S.

Wow - where do you think he got that idea? Not from a faded bumper sticker like he did his "regime change" call. Well, lucky for us he evidently started listening to President Bush before he saw the "Arms are for hugging" bumper sticker on his family's SUV.

Does this now mean our "unilateral" action with our allies was right? Might it even mean that Israel's truly unilateral destruction of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981 was right? (and, Kerry, is that why none of the 39 Iraqi scuds fired at Israel during the Gulf War carried a nuclear warhead, or why we could move right in and kick Iraq out of Kuwait?)

Written five days before the World Trade Center was destroyed, a writer for both Instapundit and National Review made the point that Israel's action at Osirak was "only really successful nuclear nonproliferation effort to date." (There was South Africa's own denuclearization, but if Kerry is to be the Second Black President he has to say they did that to keep blacks from getting the bomb.)

Still, is neo-nuclear-aware Kerry going to offer policy in agreement with National Review's writers? For the next five months, maybe, but the truth is people like Kerry, who as they speak are motivating the terrorists to bomb before the election a la Madrid, are the gravest threat America now faces.

:: michael parker Tuesday, June 01, 2004 [+] ::
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Al Gore uses 'Day After' to slam pres.

Former Vice President Al Gore has used the new Fox film The Day After Tomorrow about a global warming catastrophe to blast President Bush.

Gore used a telephone news conference Tuesday to criticize the Bush administration's stance on global warming, comparing the film to the president's policies, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Climate flick favors fantasy over fact

Disaster film has scientists laughing

'Tomorrow's' forecast: bad science on the big screen


Plot in 'Day After Tomorrow' is the movie's real disaster

I thought I would watch it on a Monday or Tuesday night when in the mood for a brainless Sci-fi movie, but reading the above Chicago Sun-Times review makes it clear it's something I could admit to no one. I will rent something from Anna Bunny's Bad Movie Shrine instead.

:: michael parker Friday, May 28, 2004 [+] ::
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BRUCE ALMIGHTY! THAT'S A BIG SENTENCE!

Buffalo spammer faces seven years in jail

:: michael parker Friday, May 28, 2004 [+] ::
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NOW THAT'S A VERY GOOD QUESTION

"It is also worth asking", said Yoo, "whether the strict limitations of Geneva make sense in a war against terrorists."

"Interrogation of ultras not regulated under Geneva"

Ultras. Now that's a word for non-military terrorist enemy, a word most associated with a cigarette or an unnecessary version of Michelob. Ultras - I like it.

:: michael parker Thursday, May 27, 2004 [+] ::
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ABU SUNBURN

The headline angered me:
Dad Charged For Not Using Enough Sunblock On 12-Year-Old

but:

Walter McKelvie Jr., 43, of Vineland, was indicted Tuesday and charged with one count of child abuse and neglect in the July 20 incident, in which he took his mentally disabled son to the beach in Wildwood.

The son, identified only as R.M., suffered large, bleeding blisters on his back and face. Authorities were alerted by the boy's mother, who has custody of him but was not with him at the beach, according to Assistant Cape May County Prosecutor Meghan Hoerner.

This story is a throwback to my very first blog, about Eve Hibbits in Brilliant, Ohio. She took her kids to the fair, and ended up in jail because they got sunburned. Sheriff Abdallah, in my opinion, grossly exaggerated the burn description with "dipped in red paint." The medics called it sunburn, and there was no mention of bleeding blisters.

My rant was about the dangers of drama and exaggeration, and subsequent overreaction. Ms. Hibbits, poor in Brilliant, Ohio, claimed to not know about sunscreen, and I believe her still.

There is a difference, and that difference illustrates why zero tolerance policies do not work and encourage intellectual laziness.

:: michael parker Thursday, May 27, 2004 [+] ::
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HISTORY, ONE DAY AT A TIME

Today's Ann Coulter column pokes fun at liberals for beginning history anew each morning. Yesterday's news covered the growing debate in Europe over mentioning God in the EU Constitution.

Nearly two millennia of Christian church activity in Europe and the consequential rise of western civilization and free society as a result hold no value for an alarming number of European leaders. Europe, liberated twice from German aggression by a very Christian America, and then protected for decades from the atheist totalitarian Soviet threat, might want to add it all up soon for they are counting the pillars of their faith.

:: michael parker Thursday, May 27, 2004 [+] ::
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THE PHONE RINGS

It's Mark. He's a Kucinich campaigner and a passionate anti-war activist who likes to read Chomsky and Unger.

"What is the correct spelling of 'emperor'?" he asked. I told him and we hung up.

It's funny how a word's correct spelling can be with you for decades until someone asks you, and then suddenly you don't know how to spell it anymore. While on the phone with Mark I actually typed it into a Word document to make sure with Spell-check, which suggests "juiciness" as a correct spelling for Kucinich.

Wait a minute! I called him back. "You're making a protest sign, aren't you?"

"Yes, and thanks for the help," he answered. I advised him if the protest was a silent one, to not leave until he was heard.

Lesson learned: if a liberal friend calls for the correct spelling of emperor, imperial, president, constitutional, or any word you may possibly see on a sign on a stick, for goodness' sake, give him the wrong spelling.


:: michael parker Wednesday, May 26, 2004 [+] ::
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MEMO TO REUTERS: WAS IT 10 OR 22?

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) - Israeli forces have opened fire on a protest march in a besieged Gaza refugee camp, killing at least 10 Palestinians and raising the death toll to 33 in Israel's bloodiest raid in Gaza in years.

Israeli media said at least 22 bodies, most of them school children, had been counted after the strike in the Rafah camp, which some witnesses said was carried out by helicopter gunships and others blamed on firing by tanks.

The same locals who teach their children the virtues of exploding at checkpoints, who name their streets after suicide bombers, who danced and handed out candy on September 11, 2001 - oh! and who were offered 100% of the Gaza, over 95% of the West Bank, and a capital in East Jerusalem in 2000 but started a war instead, are alarmed at the carnage:

People fled screaming, some dragging bloodied comrades and others carrying wounded children in their arms.

"It was horrifying," said Mahmoud Abu Hashem, 35. "There was one person with his intestines coming out. Another had blood covering his face and you couldn't even make out his features."

To clarify, this is the same PA which has been trading suicide bombers for weapons from Hamas. How about calling on the oil-rich Arab nations to absorb the refugees they say they so care about?

The Palestinian Authority branded the attack on Wednesday a "war crime" and demanded international protection for the Palestinian people.

Where is Rachel Corrie when you need her? Fresh troops from Evergreen, please! Would the Israelis go to this kind of trouble if there weren't weapons-supply tunnels being dug from the land that Israel returned to Egypt in exchange for peace? -the land Israel won in the war it didn't start? -the land where Israeli civility spared Nasser's Third Army from annihilation?

The bloodshed seemed certain to bring fresh international pressure on Israel to end its assault, which began on Tuesday with the stated goal of rooting out militants and uncovering tunnels used to smuggle weapons across the border from Egypt.

The raid has raised an international outcry because of Israeli threats to flatten hundreds of Rafah homes to widen an army-controlled security corridor along the border with Egypt.

Not all males. Not all the males? or should it be not only males? - Palestinian females have been exploding inside Israel as well.

Palestinian witnesses said Israeli forces were summoning all male residents over 16 to come out and assemble in a local school. The army said it was after militants, not all males.

Damned Israeli compromise and withdrawal prompts violence!

Violence has worsened in Gaza since Sharon proposed evacuating troops and Jewish settlers in a plan backed by most Israelis and the United States, but rejected by his right-wing Likud party in a referendum earlier this month.

Ahh, the all-powerful Jew lobby. Mahathir was right!

U.S. President George W. Bush called the Gaza bloodshed "troubling" but, addressing Jewish-Americans in a tight election campaign, told the powerful pro-Israel lobby group AIPAC that Israel "has every right to defend itself from terror".

:: michael parker Wednesday, May 19, 2004 [+] ::
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AGREED... BUT FOR A DIFFERENT REASON

ABU GHRAIB, Iraq — On the eve of the first court-martial in the Iraq prisoner abuse scandal, relatives of those still held at Abu Ghraib prison (search) said Tuesday the only suitable punishment would be death — illustrating the potential gap in expectations in the case.

"If they actually committed such offenses, they should be executed," said Odai Ibrahim, 55, as he waited in a line with hundreds of other Iraqis to visit relatives at the prison on the western outskirts of Baghdad — notorious as the site of executions and torture during Saddam Hussein's (search) regime.

While I think the beheading of Nick Berg would have happened anyway, soldiers are still in greater danger and will increasingly have to shoot first and ask later in order to avoid Abu-torture. Christopher Hitchens echoed my immediate reaction that these errant American MP's betrayed their fellow Americans and should face a firing squad. But:

But the first defendant, Spc. Jeremy C. Sivits (search), faces only a year in prison, a fine, reduction in pay and a bad conduct discharge. He has cooperated with authorities and is expected to testify against the others, who face more serious charges.

Will he get to do the time in Abu-Ghraib?

:: michael parker Wednesday, May 19, 2004 [+] ::
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SOCIALIZED MEDICINE NOW!

Fidel Castro can live to 140, doctor says

:: michael parker Wednesday, May 19, 2004 [+] ::
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"NEWS" FROM FRANCE
From the nation determined to help Saddam become nuclear capable, and where L'Effroyable Imposture was a #1 bestseller:

20 mins standing ovation for FAHRENHEIT 9-11, yelling, screaming, cheering... 'This is the longest standing ovation in the history of the festival! Unbelievable!' declared Cannes stalwart Thierry Fremaux. Moore, raising fist, unable to speak over crowd, vows to fight...

To fight what, exactly? This hysteric slob, interviewed on the morning news less than two miles from the WTC site, declared we are facing no terrorist threat, and that September 11 was an isolated incident. Will he make a movie out of L'Effroyable Imposture? Will it be in French? Would we understand it any less than if it were in English?

THIS ALSO IN THE NEWS:

Sarin Nerve Gas Round Found, Partly Detonated in Iraq

CONFIRMED: BLIX IS A FRENCH NAME:

Two former weapons inspectors — Hans Blix and David Kay — said the shell was likely a stray weapon that had been scavenged by militants and did not signify that Iraq had large stockpiles of such weapons.

Oh, I feel much better:

While Saturday's explosion does demonstrate that Saddam hadn't complied fully with U.N. resolutions, Kay also said, "It doesn't strike me as a big deal."

Or should someone forward this article to Kay:

Developed in the mid-1930s by Nazi scientists, a single drop of sarin can cause quick, agonizing choking death.

:: michael parker Monday, May 17, 2004 [+] ::
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AN ASSAD IS AN ASSAD IS AN ASSAD

Having a Bekaa Valley full of Iraqi weapons can make you feel cocky:
US Sanctions Not Enough to Deter Syria, Israeli Analyst Says

Assad confirms he learned nothing from the source of his arsenal:
Assad Says U.S. Policy in Iraq Encourages Terrorism

Lebanon, too?
Syria, Lebanon slam US sanctions decision
Oh, that's right. Lebanon is OCCUPIED TERRITORY! But that's OK because it's Syria doing the occupying.

:: michael parker Wednesday, May 12, 2004 [+] ::
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PAST TENSE, PLEASE

No need to rant about the media's frenzied behavior with this Iraqi prison thing. It couldn't be more obvious. OJ... El Nino... Levy and Condit... from encouraging Americans to think about only one thing at a time, to that plus weakening military morale. Well, at least the media is multitasking for a change.

But this is a truly pornographic interest in seeing all the photos. While I have insisted that people should assume the responsibility to look at evil and acknowledge it, this is different to me because of the mismanagement of the images.

Also, I am snorting at all the self-righteousness from the left, these same people will go right back to making Martha Stewart-in-prison jokes as soon as that story returns to the news.

Christopher Hitchens, an atheist and socialist who once wrote for The Nation, throws in his typically interesting point of view. The final thought, on execution, is something I wondered about as well when I viewed the first few photos. I hate show trials, but when there is this kind of damage done by this kind of proof:

This is only the rehearsal for one's revulsion. One of two things must necessarily be true. Either these goons were acting on someone's authority, in which case there is a layer of mid- to high-level people who think that they are not bound by the laws and codes and standing orders. Or they were acting on their own authority, in which case they are the equivalent of mutineers, deserters, or traitors in the field. This is why one asks wistfully if there is no provision in the procedures of military justice for them to be taken out and shot.

Andrew Sullivan also remarks on the stupidity of terrorists who have demonstrated their usual greater barbarism in the beheading of Nick Berg:

But there is no such thing as a smart al Qaeda. Evil can sometimes be stupid, and often is. Hitler, remember, invaded the Soviet Union. For our part, we must not take the deeper bait, which is to polarize this still further and associate these fanatics with Arabs or Islam as a whole. This is not a war against Islam. It is a war to defend Islam. And a democratic Iraq - not run by mullahs - is indispensable to that end.

I actually do not agree this war is about defending Islam. It is about saving civilization from a frightening number of people who want to see it destroyed. Plus, I have read enough Qu'ran to know that Islam needs to die. But while we are stuck with it, we are also stuck with the responsibility to appeal to the innate sense of decency, however scant, and to recognize the worth that my Christianity teaches me is there in all people. Hard work still lies ahead...

:: michael parker Wednesday, May 12, 2004 [+] ::
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POT CALLS KETTLE THE POKER

The LA Times editor bashes his competition most predictably:

Carroll cited a study released last year that showed Americans had three main misconceptions about Iraq: That weapons of mass destruction had been found, a connection between al-Qaeda and Iraq had been demonstrated and that the world approved of U.S intervention in Iraq. He said 80 percent of people who primarily got their news from Fox believed at least one of the misconceptions. He said the figure was more than 57 percentage points higher than people who get their news from public news broadcasting.

Let's see, the WMD were already used against Saddam's own people and the Iranians, Uday Hussein threatened a biological attack a week before the Antraax got mailed, and what about that centrifuge?

Al-Qaeda's threats of retaliation for action in Iraq, plus the LA Times like-minded media allies' consistent editorial stand that action in Iraq would invite terrorism, strongly suggest that Fox was not the only news source linking Al-Qaeda to Iraq.

Everyone who paid attention to Fox knew well that much of Europe disapproved, and that President Bush made it clear that the course of our nation would not be determined by others. They also remember that the UN Security Council approved, and they remember Rumsfeld calling France, Germany and their like-minded the "Old Europe," while referring to the ("gang of")eight nations who sided with us the "New Europe." People who listened to the President's SOTU, not just broadcast on Fox, heard also the long list of nations who were supportive.

Many thanks to the LA Times editor for pointing out that I have been tuning in to the correct news sources all along.



:: michael parker Monday, May 10, 2004 [+] ::
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EL THINKO DE MAYO

No one I know could remember "why the fifth of May?"

This is interesting:

The 5th of May is not Mexican Independence Day, but it should be! And Cinco de Mayo is not an American holiday, but it should be. Mexico declared its independence from mother Spain on midnight, the 15th of September, 1810. And it took 11 years before the first Spanish soldiers were told and forced to leave Mexico.

So, why Cinco de Mayo? And why should Americans savor this day as well? Because 4,000 Mexican soldiers smashed the French and traitor Mexican army of 8,000 at Puebla, Mexico, 100 miles east of Mexico City on the morning of May 5, 1862.

The French had landed in Mexico (along with Spanish and English troops) five months earlier on the pretext of collecting Mexican debts from the newly elected government of democratic President (and Indian) Benito Juarez. The English and Spanish quickly made deals and left. The French, however, had different ideas.

Under Emperor Napoleon III, who detested the United States, the French came to stay. They brought a Hapsburg prince with them to rule the new Mexican empire. His name was Maximilian; his wife, Carolota. Napoleon's French Army had not been defeated in 50 years, and it invaded Mexico with the finest modern equipment and with a newly reconstituted Foreign Legion. The French were not afraid of anyone, especially since the United States was embroiled in its own Civil War.

...

When the battle was over, many French were killed or wounded and their cavalry was being chased by Diaz' superb horsemen miles away. The Mexicans had won a great victory that kept Napoleon III from supplying the confederate rebels for another year, allowing the United States to build the greatest army the world had ever seen. This grand army smashed the Confederates at Gettysburg just 14 months after the battle of Puebla, essentially ending the Civil War.

Well, at least we Southerners don't have to say we won thanks to the French.

:: michael parker Wednesday, May 05, 2004 [+] ::
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MUSLIM LEADERS LEADING

via Israpundit
This is great news. Hopefully this very ballsy act of leadership will inspire more from other groups.

The Italian Muslim Association Board of Governors blesses Israeli President
Moshe Katsav, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Israel's Government, the
Israel Defense Forces and People of Israel for the noble act of justice which cleansed our earth of the unrepentant criminal Ahmed Yasin.

We bless the Israeli Government for ending the mischief of one who sent scores of suicide slaughterers to murder hundreds of innocent civilians --
babies, women and men -- and to cripple and permanently maim hundreds more.

We bless the United States President, Congress and American People for
standing with Israel in this heroic act of self-defense.

We condemn the shameless declarations by European Union and United Kingdom Foreign Ministers Solana and Straw "deploring" the execution of mass
murderer Ahmed Yasin.

:: michael parker Sunday, May 02, 2004 [+] ::
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ABOUT THOSE ABUSIVE PHOTOS

I wondered if some of those pictures were faked. That is a part of the world (Jenin) were the mass graves can be filled with dead animals and the exumed.

However, it is obvious we have bad seeds in the army, who, as most of the civilized will agree, do not represent the army as a whole. There is an ever growing list of opinion recorded at BBC News. Among the pile of the predictable, something sensible:

We don't know the full story behind these pictures but lets not forget what the Iraqis did to those they captured in Kuwait during the Gulf War.

and:

To be honest, I am not surprised. I always think it such a joke when some Eton-educated frontman is interviewed as an army representative. We train these men to go out and kill for God's sake! What kind of mentality do you think that requires? Soldiers are the people who do the ugly inhuman stuff that enables the rest of us to live civilised lives.

and

I'm surprised at some of the naivety here. Historically, armed conflict brings out the best and worst in people. Incidents like this, though regrettable, are inevitable. To those that claim this mirrors the worst brutal excesses of the Baa'thist regime, get real.

President Bush has made it clear that court-martials will follow, and a general is in trouble - a woman general! Imagine the hesitation of a President Gore to call for the punishment of a woman general.



:: michael parker Saturday, May 01, 2004 [+] ::
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LOVE THAT FREE SPEECH
:: michael parker Friday, April 30, 2004 [+] ::
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LIBERALS STRENGTHENING THE MISSILE DEFENSE ARGUMENT

The wish is nice, but it does not look the enemy in the eye any more than it acknowledges the enemy's existence:

Russia and the U.S. are now self- described allies in their fight against global terrorism. Their first duty in this effort should be immediate and rapid bilateral nuclear disarmament, accompanied by the other six nuclear nations (France, Britain, China, India, Pakistan and Israel), along with U.N. Security Council action to ensure that no other nations — particularly Iran and North Korea — acquire nuclear weapons.

This won’t happen entirely without the intervention of God Himself.
However:
• American activity in Asia has motivated India and Pakistan to talk about Kashmir instead of waving nukes in the air.
• South Africa was the first nation to do away with theirs (although this was cynically dismissed as an effort to keep blacks from getting the bomb).
• Qadafi's Libya is becoming swiftly open.
• The change in Iraq should bring on needed change in Iran by strengthening Iran’s significant student democracy movement. Iran will open.

Still,
• Communist China eyes the natural gas of the Spratleys, wants the national pride in taking back democratic Taiwan, will not give up Tibet, seizes territory from northeast India, and specifically threatened the incineration of Los Angeles in 1995. China’s population may require eastern Russia.
• North Korea, besides specifically threatening the US, has already launched a missile over Japan, which may also belong on that has-nukes list, and which seeks missile defense capability.
• Back to that list, compare the number of China’s nuclear-capable neighbors compared to ours.

Tell me about the stabilizing effect of Chinese foreign policy.

Ironically, McNamara and Caldicott give strength to the argument for missile defense.

The earliest idea of atomic weaponry I am aware of is the Nazi aspiration to develop the bomb. Naturally, the Allied west would have to beat them to it to deter.

Soviet Russia, with openly stated aspirations for world domination and subsequent atomic espionage, had to be deterred.

China would not be on the above list for another 20+ years were it not for the deliberately relaxed security during the Clinton administration. (Energy Secretary Hazel O’Leary actually disallowed the forced display of clearance-level badges at Los Alamos because she deemed them “discriminatory.” Too bad if she had to enforce non-discrimination she didn’t do it instead in hospital operating rooms – ultimately less people would die.)

Pakistan would not be on the above list were it not for Chinese help. North Korea should be on the above list thanks to Pakistan’s help.

India, the world’s largest democracy, faces aggression from China and from a Muslim world that detests its varied religions. If the Muslim world’s dream for an annihilated Israel came to be, India would get on its Great Satan list as much as America at that time.

If it were not for the United States, Israel would not possess some 400 warheads. If it were not for those warheads, would the 57 nations who gave standing ovation last year to Mahathir Mohamad’s “arm-against-the Jews” speech by now have accomplished their dream?

France will do whatever the hell it wants to do. Britain may as well be us. But combined, and combined with the rest of Europe, the continent is still militarily significantly weaker, but while combined is industrially more productive than the US, which will lead to increased jealousy and hatred from the unfree and backwards nations. Europe will depend on the deterrent power of the French, and especially British, arsenal, and, of course, ours.

:: michael parker Wednesday, April 28, 2004 [+] ::
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WHERE'S THE SLOGAN?

Tony Blankley bluntly asks where the message is in Kerry's campaign:

Losers, also, usually have a campaign theme. George McGovern wanted to end the war in Vietnam (a perennial favorite). Walter Mondale wanted to raise taxes (Yes, it was only 20 years ago that liberal tax raisers openly and honestly ran on their convictions.) Al Gore was going to be for the people and against the powerful. (Bad call; the meek may inherit the Earth, but they rarely win elections. But at least Mr. Gore had a theme.)

Certainly, Howard Dean had a mission: End the war in Iraq, and crush Washington politicians like they were cockroaches. He would have been the sentimental favorite on the second point, and might yet have won on the first one.

Quickly, think of the phrase that catches John Kerry's theme. ... I can't either. Only two phrases come to mind at all: Bring It On, and Work With Our Allies in Europe and the U.N. Who amongst us will put down our beers (or cognacs) and remote controls on Nov. 2 to go to the polls and vote for either of those phrases?

He also does a fine job defining a key difference in Americans:

The rhetoric of American politics is binary, not gradational: Give me liberty or give me death; our nation cannot exist half slave and half free; are you pro life or pro choice; are you for or against capital punishment; pro or anti-war; for or against tax cuts.

Some cultures admire subtlety of thought and expression in their politicians. No, not just the French. The Chinese, the Hindus, the old Persian culture all admire such traits in their leaders. But the Anglo-Saxon cultures, and preeminently we Americans, admire decisiveness and clarity. We instinctively suspect deceit or indecision where we hear subtlety. We are often right to do so.

:: michael parker Wednesday, April 28, 2004 [+] ::
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LOCAL THOUGHTS LEAD TO THE BIG PICTURE

Topekans descended on Asheville yesterday, and our churches delivered a pre-emptive rebuke in yesterday's paper:

Today, members of Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kan., will be in Asheville to protest at six of our city churches. This group, coming of its own volition with no provocation from any of us, brings with it a message of hate masked as religious values, and seeks to confuse and publicly criticize church communities who do not follow the dictates of the gospel as they understand it.

They are known for their intolerant attitudes toward churches and individuals who differ with them on matters of theology and politics. They are not interested in civil conversation about how the church may share the grace and love of Jesus Christ and the gift of Christian community with all people. Instead they view the recognition of diversity and complexity as "compromise" of the gospel message and they condemn any individual or group, which seeks to understand and minister to people of diverse attitudes and lifestyles.

We, the pastors of the six churches targeted for protest here in Asheville, have come together to show our solidarity in the faith we share in Jesus Christ and to make clear to the people we serve, as well as the broader community, that we believe:

* "Hate" can never be used as a means to describe the action(s) of God in relation to people or circumstances in our world.

* The gospel compels all believers to embrace and share the love of God we find in Christ Jesus the Lord in our attitudes, our ideals, our openness and our hospitality to others.

* Our Christian faith admonishes us to see the presence of God in every heart and lifetime and to proclaim the good news that God's gift of salvation is never exclusive or mediated by human judgment.

We invite all people of faith and good will to pray with us especially on April 25 as we gather peacefully in prayer and song, as every Sunday, with our congregations. Pray that hatred will be turned to love, emptiness to forgiveness, and all that confuses and deadens will be turned to Life.

In the same opinion section a local got her thoughts printed as well:

I've lived in Asheville for 25 years. I would like to ask you how these books and magazines come up with rating Asheville as one of the best places to live and that Asheville is gay friendly.

I know I wasn't asked my opinion and neither were any of the natives that I know. Everyone I've spoken to does not like what's happening to this town. We are not gay friendly. We would like for most of the transplants to go somewhere else. We don't appreciate the crazy arts that don't make sense to us. (We do have wonderful, native artists and musicians).

I do not like to take my family into town because I never know what I am going to have to explain to my children. There are rude, half-clothed, weird looking people, some aggressively wanting a handout. These people have not been born and bred here.

I'll bet that if whoever was doing those surveys would have asked the common folks who have lived here forever their opinion of their town they would have said, "It's going downhill." Please understand: We are not gay friendly or weirdo friendly. We want Asheville the way it was.

The local smartass responds on impulse, but will they print the unedited version?:

“A better label for Asheville”

On April 25, an AC-T letter argued “Magazines don’t represent native’s opinion of Asheville”. The writer decried the “best place” and “gay friendly” labels in a surprising claim best paraphrased as “We don’t want them here.”

Ironically, “gay unfriendly” people from Topeka that very day came to Asheville to protest allegedly “gay friendly” churches. A lovely guest column by 6 pastors rebuked their intolerance on the next page.

I agree that magazines need to drop the trite “gay friendly” label, but for a different reason: it is incomplete. Asheville is in fact “all-walks-of-life friendly." That is how a conservative activist (yours truly) can always have a drink and great talks with a Kucinich activist, a quirky artist, or a Rastafarian.

The writer claims to shelter her family from downtown’s “rude, half-clothed, weird-looking people” and “crazy arts.” Additionally, she wants Asheville “the way it was.”

That’s a depressing vision: the majority of downtown spaces vacant; almost all independent restaurants gone; the transplants and the entrepreneurs investing and creating jobs elsewhere.

Be encouraged, timid writer, your family has a better chance of staying in its home town because “all walks of life” are here.

An outrageous alternative magazine at Rutgers called The Medium posts a terrific picture of "the way it was." Scroll to the bottom of the page to the photo of blacks and a billboard.

:: michael parker Monday, April 26, 2004 [+] ::
...

PRIVILEGED TO BE SERVED

Peggy Noonan again demonstrates tact:
"Privileged to Serve -In this war, not only the sons of the poor are enlisting. "

The Ranger website provides even more great fact:

Often forgotten is that Tillman's younger brother, Kevin, who played baseball at ASU and was in the Cleveland Indians organization, enlisted with him. When people approach their father, attorney Pat Tillman Sr., and praise the sacrifice his celebrated son has made, he holds up two fingers.

"He and his brother are doing well and have risen to every challenge presented to them," said Elsi Jackson, a civilian public affairs officer at Fort Benning, Ga.

Just yesterday was some kind of news about more (foolish) draft talk. Today we read that enlistment and re-enlistment are higher than expected.

...So, Secretary Shalala, are we sending "our best and brightest" this time?



:: michael parker Friday, April 23, 2004 [+] ::
...

US lawmakers pass 'doomsday bill'

Wow, serious work on the Hill. The best sentence in the whole report is the quote by Brian Baird about the great work of Todd Beamer and company aboard Flight 93.

The final statement in this report surprised the hell out of me:

The US House of Representatives has approved a "doomsday bill" allowing for special elections to be held speedily in case terrorists target Congress.
The elections would have to be held within 45 days, in the event that 100 or more members were killed.

It is suspected that the Congress building may have been the intended target of one of the four airliners hijacked on 11 September 2001.

The plane crashed in Pennsylvania after some passengers challenged the captors.

"Those passengers gave their lives to give us a second chance," said Brian Baird, a Washington state Democrat.

Rival bid

The bill was supported by a majority of 306 representatives in the 435-seat body.

Some members argued it was inadequate, leaving the House of Representatives with too many empty seats for a long time in the event that an attack causes mass fatalities.

They advocated a rival bill allowing temporary appointments, but this would require an amendment to the US Constitution.

Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner criticised the proposal, saying "democratic principles must be preserved at all costs".

Constitutional amendments in the US require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of the Congress and ratification by three-fourths of state legislatures.

The Congress has discussed, but never acted on, the continuity question during the Cold War in the 1950s and 1960s.

:: michael parker Friday, April 23, 2004 [+] ::
...

QUICK - SEND IN JIMMY!

The train exploded Thursday afternoon, hitting Ryongchon, a manufacturing center, with the force of a small nuclear bomb, raining debris over a 10-mile radius and sending acrid smoke over the nearby border with China.

:: michael parker Friday, April 23, 2004 [+] ::
...

IF A MAN CANNOT CONTROL HIS FAMILY ....

(isn't that what they said about the Bush twins?)

Kerry Says His 'Family' Owns SUV, Not He

:: michael parker Friday, April 23, 2004 [+] ::
...

WHERE DID FRIEDMAN LEARN CHESS?

Thomas Friedman rants in the NYT in "Kicking over the Chessboard":

I'm fed up with the Middle East, or more accurately, I'm fed up with the stalemate in the Middle East.

Good, now maybe he can shut up about it.

His chessboard is interesting, too: the Palestinian pawns come to mind first. The teens and pre-teens strapped in dynamite, and the civilians amongst whom the terrorists hide.

The Israeli pawns, well, aren't pawns by comparison, although the Palestinians seem to think all 16 pawns are theirs.

The rules of movement are clearly different. Thinking back to Oslo, Israel moves back, Arafat moves forward. Israel complies, Arafat doesn't and gets a pass. Where is Maddie Albright when you need her?

And while I was at it, I also thought I'd write that it is an abomination for Mr. Bush to say that Palestinians had to recognize "the new realities on the ground" in the West Bank — the massive Israeli settlement blocks — without even mentioning the fact that those "new realities" were built in defiance of stated U.S. policy and they have been just devastating to Palestinian civilians, who've seen their lands confiscated, olive groves uprooted and community fragmented.

Fragmented is an interesting choice of word, and accurately describes not just the teenagers and women bearing explosive vests, but the Israeli citizens, Arab and Jew, in cafes, on buses, and celebrating the Passover meal wherever you find equally fragmented Palestinian hate agents after their so-called martyrdom is accomplished.

Fragmented describes the Palestinian family whose mother decided her two sons having a mother was less important than her "knocking on the door of heaven with the skull of a Jew." Fragmented describes the Palestinian family who lost their son to Palestinian gunfire because - oops - they thought he was a Jew.

Perhaps the fragmented Palestinians build unity by naming streets after their suicide bombers and letting their children trade "martyr cards" since thbaseballll bats are in the Palestinian arsenal.


:: michael parker Thursday, April 22, 2004 [+] ::
...

TALKING POINTS, O - RAMA

Diana West paraphrases Victor Davis Hanson on the accomplishments of George W Bush:

Thanks to George W. Bush, the Taliban are gone.
So is Saddam Hussein.
Yasser Arafat is isolated, restricted to the wretched confines of his Ramallah compound.
American troops no longer stake their lives guarding the terror kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and
Europeans finally feel a righteous American heat over their cold accountings of anti-Semitism and their largesse to Islamic terror organizations.

Thanks also to Bush, Islamofascist "charities" have been shuttered in this country.
Al Qaeda is in splinters around the world, desperately seeking a new state-haven.
In one of the great diplomatic coups of our time, Pakistan has been turned, as Hanson put it, from "a de facto foe to a scrutinized neutral."
Just this week, India's prime minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee, publicly credited the U.S.-led war in Iraq with pushing nuclear rivals India and Pakistan to set about resolving their dispute over Kashmir.
Bush has further pressured Libya, Iran and Pakistan to come clean on nuclear cheating; and
where the Middle East once feared Iraq's military, the president has had reason lately to lament its ineffectualness.
Then there's always the fact that he has "so far avoided another September 11 -- and promises that he is not nearly done yet."

Victor Davis Hanson, back in February, dressed the kettle in black so the pot could pretend to have something to say. "just imagine the following:"

That Pakistan, Iran, and Libya, either in fear or out of admiration, bowed to pressure from the EU and the UN to release information about their WMD programs.

That Saudi Arabia is now hunting down al Qaedists due to belated sympathy and concern about 9/11.

That Syria and Iran believe that the United States is in a "quagmire" in Iraq, and that because of such failure there they are now more bold and aggressive in their relationships with America.

That in accordance with the angry themes of the Arab state-run media, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia will shortly announce that they can no longer allow their citizens to visit such a satanic place as the United States.

That had Mr. Carter been allowed to employ his patented Nobel-Prize winning Korean model of curbing nuclear proliferation with Muammar Khaddafi, Libya would now be free of nukes.

and...

That because Mr. Kerry voted against the 1991 war, he opposed sending troops under U.N. auspices to the Middle East; that because he voted for the 2003 deployment, he advocated sending American troops without the U.N. to the Middle East; and that because he later voted in 2003 to deny funds to troops in the field, he opposed U.S. deployment unless it was under the auspices of the U.N.

and...

That the newly created intelligence commission finds that Mr. Bush is too gullible and ignores inferences from raw intelligence and thus is culpable for September 11 ? and that Mr. Bush is too hair-triggered and over interprets inferences from raw intelligence and thus is culpable for invading Iraq.

Sheikh 'Atiyyah Saqr, who in the past issued a Fatwa declaring Jews "apes and pigs," was asked the following question in March in an online chat room: "What, according to the Qur'an, are the Jews' main characteristics and qualities?":

2) "They love to listen to lies. Concerning this Allah says: 'And of the Jews: listeners for the sake of falsehood, listeners on behalf of other folk.' (Al-Ma'idah: 41)
3) "Disobeying Almighty Allah and never observing His commands. Allah says: 'And because they broke their covenant, We have cursed them and hardened their hearts.' (Al-Ma'idah: 13)
14) "It is easy for them to slay people and kill innocents. Nothing in the world is dearer to their hearts than shedding blood and murdering human beings. They never give up this trait even with the Messengers and the Prophets. Allah says: '? And [they] slew the prophets wrongfully.' (Al-Baqarah: 61)
17) "They rush hurriedly to sin and compete in transgression. Allah says: 'They restrained not one another from the wickedness they did. Verily, evil was what they used to do!' (Al-Ma'idah: 79)

Jeff Jacoby writes about the willingness of Jews to cling to their faith in the Ghettos amid Nazi murder:

What is stunning is that men and women in the throes of such hideous suffering and brutality were still concerned about adhering to Jewish law. In the lowest depths of the Nazi hell, in a place of terror and savagery that most of us cannot fathom, here were human beings who refused to relinquish their faith -- who refused even to violate a religious precept without first asking if it was allowed.

Violence, humiliation, and hunger will reduce some people to animals willing to do anything to survive. The Jews who sought out Rabbi Oshry -- like Jews in so many other corners of Nazi Europe -- were not reduced but elevated, reinforced in their belief, determined against crushing odds to walk in the ways of their fathers.

:: michael parker Tuesday, April 20, 2004 [+] ::
...

OUR IMMINENT ELECTION DANGER

Spain Set to Pull Iraq Troops; Marines Killed Near Syria

Perhaps the post-election bombs on the Spanish train tracks were needed after all. There was the declaration of troop removal after the bomb-influenced election, but it took, I suppose, just a couple more to bring home the soldados.

We are in danger here. Our enemy will strike, and, worshiping death, will not fear our response. Add to that the American mobs that take busloads of people to the private homes of conservative leaders, beat on the windows, and terrify the occupants. The mentality is in place, and the time is soon.

In the meantime:

Spain's prime minister says he does not believe the United Nations will be able to take over the occupation of Iraq.

So, Senator Kerry, if Spain did the right thing by electing the terrorists' choice, are they right about the UN you say should be more involved? What is the message from the Left today anyway? or will it finally be that 20+ million ordinary Iraqis really aren't worth the effort?

The terrorists certainly agree about the worthlessness of people. That message, buried inside the bigger message from the Left, is what the bombers are counting on.

:: michael parker Monday, April 19, 2004 [+] ::
...

HELLO, POT... MEET KETTLE

North Korea slams Cheney as 'mentally deranged'

:: michael parker Monday, April 19, 2004 [+] ::
...

TRANSLATION: CLINTON WOULD ACCEPT VP NOMINATION

Clinton says she would not accept VP slot


TO BRING DOWN THE COURT-APPOINTED PRESIDENT

Air America Radio To Be Back On In Chicago Today Thanks To Judge

:: michael parker Friday, April 16, 2004 [+] ::
...

WAY TO GO, HUNGARY

More good work from one of the Gang of Eight.

Hungary Thwarts Plot to Kill Israeli President

An Arab bomb plot for the opening of the Holocaust museum. Imagine that. "If only you had done it, Brother..."

:: michael parker Tuesday, April 13, 2004 [+] ::
...

AMERICA PRESERVED, FOR A LITTLE LONGER

Dogs Maintain Pickup Rights in Tennessee

"After much howling in the Legislature, senators decided that dogs can continue riding free in the backs of pickup trucks."

It amazes how something like this, legal as long as there have been pickups, suddenly for some people needs to become illegal. I wonder what Al Gore's position would have been. Would his ability to hypnotize chickens have any influence on his position?

:: michael parker Tuesday, April 13, 2004 [+] ::
...

APPROPRIATE

Convention seen yielding a net loss
Study says business productivity will take a $23.8 million hit

...so reports the Boston Globe about the upcoming Democratic Party convention, which of course will be followed by the Globe's endorsement of the party's nominee.

:: michael parker Tuesday, April 13, 2004 [+] ::
...

RICE TESTIMONY MANIPULATION AND THE VALUE OF THE BLOGGERS

via Spot On, via Instapundit, via Protein Wisdom (the guy who posted the X-ray, who's finally back):

Road Kill Diaries puts the transcripts side-by-side to prove manipulation by the mainstream media.

and...

Fuck you, Bob Kerry:

"Let me say at the beginning I'm very impressed, indeed, I'd go so far as to say moved by your story, the story of your life and what you've accomplished. It's quite extraordinary."

Is this really the kind of attention that ordinary black Americans want? At least Kerry's pander didn't tell the country that blacks are stupid, which was the Al Gore's message after some 3000 people in south Florida screwed up their punch-ballots in the 2000 election. Still, when is this going to end?

Let's parse Bob Kerry's statement:

"L I B, Dr. Clarke - ah - Ms. Rice, the Democrats of Jim Crow Alabama just couldn't keep some smart brown sugar like you down. And my fellow Democrat Lee Hamilton is right, you sure are articulate, you think you can get your boss to talk as good as you do?

If only you didn't act so white and betray your race into thinking they don't have to vote as a herd. If you were the right kind of black, we should have seen you here thirteen years ago."

:: michael parker Friday, April 09, 2004 [+] ::
...

THE BA'ATHIST WEAPON OF MASS DESTRUCTION

The US Agency for International Development posts its report on Iraqi mass graves.

The photos published with the report are bearable. They are not the images of the incinerated, hacked with shovels and hung from the bridge in Fallujah. They do not feature the reveling of the wicked, but instead they show evidently civilized Iraqi people going through the bones.

I have read elsewhere about the women excavated still clutching their water jugs - clearly not expecting death when they were simply off to fetch a pail of water. That image would have added to this report, but there is an image of one victim's skull with his blindfold still intact. Then there the stories of the survivors, Ali, Muhaned, and Hamid.

This report and its images will not sway the Bush-haters. They do not care about the mass-murdered any more than they cared about the women in Afghanistan or the homosexuals who are desperate to flee Palestine. To them, Bush is the wrong person to earn credit for their liberation - and even that gives them too much credit. In what could be almost irreffutably argued as leftist racism, their protests make their case clearly that these mass murdered and their survivors are not worth the effort. In the meantime, they bemoan the alleged theocracy of a dreadfully Christian President who had the nerve to make a moral case for this war.

:: michael parker Thursday, April 08, 2004 [+] ::
...

OBSESSION WITH IRAQ AND THE LOOK ON CONDI'S FACE

Although this National Security Presidential Directive was originally a highly classified document, we arranged for portions to be declassified to help the Commission in its work, and I will describe some of those today. The strategy set as its goal the elimination of the al-Qaida network. It ordered the leadership of relevant U.S. departments and agencies to make the elimination of al-Qaida a high priority and to use all aspects of our national power - - intelligence, financial, diplomatic, and military - - to meet this goal. And it gave Cabinet Secretaries and department heads specific responsibilities. For instance:

* It directed the Secretary of State to work with other countries to end all sanctuaries given to al-Qaida.

* It directed the Secretaries of the Treasury and State to work with foreign governments to seize or freeze assets and holdings of al-Qaida and its benefactors.

* It directed the Director of Central Intelligence to prepare an aggressive program of covert activities to disrupt al-Qaida and provide assistance to anti-Taliban groups operating against al-Qaida in Afghanistan.

* It tasked the Director of OMB with ensuring that sufficient funds were available in the budgets over the next five years to meet the goals laid out in the strategy.

* And it directed the Secretary of Defense to - - and I quote - - "ensure that the contingency planning process include plans: against al-Qaida and associated terrorist facilities in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control-communications, training, and logistics facilities; against Taliban targets in Afghanistan, including leadership, command-control, air and air defense, ground forces, and logistics; to eliminate weapons of mass destruction which al-Qaida and associated terrorist groups may acquire or manufacture, including those stored in underground bunkers." This was a change from the prior strategy -- Presidential Decision Directive 62, signed in 1998 - - which ordered the Secretary of Defense to provide transportation to bring individual terrorists to the U.S. for trial, to protect DOD forces overseas, and to be prepared to respond to terrorist and weapons of mass destruction incidents.

I love this part:

Within a month of taking office, President Bush sent a strong, private message to President Musharraf urging him to use his influence with the Taliban to bring Bin Laden to justice and to close down al-Qaida training camps. Secretary Powell actively urged the Pakistanis, including Musharraf himself, to abandon support for the Taliban. I met with Pakistan's Foreign Minister in my office in June of 2001. I delivered a very tough message, which was met with a rote, expressionless response.

"Within a month." - We already knew that Clarke was a liar, not because of the release of his book, but because of giving contradictory testimonies before the Congress. There was no doubt which testimony was a lie. The only damning thing I find is Condoleezza Rice taking, in her own words, the "unusual step" of keeping Clarke at his post. We all know now that the look Clarke described on Rice's face could only have been one of contempt for him, and the rote, expressionless response was actually on the face of an Islamist sympathizer who certainly preferred Clarke over Rice.


LET'S GO BACK TO 1998

From inside Rice's above statement: "Presidential Decision Directive 62, signed in 1998 - - which ordered the Secretary of Defense to provide transportation to bring individual terrorists to the U.S. for trial, to protect DOD forces overseas, and to be prepared to respond to terrorist and weapons of mass destruction incidents. "

To be prepared to respond to incidents - here is the root of the pre-emptive strike argument. Clintonian leadership, with this take, went far enough to decide that we RESPOND to weapons of mass destruction incidents. In other words, not prevent. (Is it any damn wonder the Chinese got our mass weapons technologies?)

So that's it. Do nothing to prevent because terrorists will strike anyway. Do not fight because terrorists will strike anyway. Welcome to Spain.

:: michael parker Thursday, April 08, 2004 [+] ::
...

DICTIONARY BADLY NEEDED

In the last two hours of sleep I had truly surreal dreams. The highway I was on began to warp and tilt up like the deck of the Titanic. Then it morphed into something like an aircraft carrier combined with Battlestar Galactica. I could detatch body parts and hold them in my hands. My age changed.

And I woke up hearing John Kerry speaking the word "unilateral" on NPR. It was the Bob Edwards interview.

Just as the professional radio and TV speakers have been pointing out, his campaign is almost entirely a Bush-bash and almost completely without the details of Kerry's own plans. And that word "unilateral". The British should be expressing insult at Kerry and Carter's dismissal of their contributions. Further, Kerry lies when he calls it unilateral, but the country, even knowing better, shows an absurd faith in the nuances.

:: michael parker Wednesday, April 07, 2004 [+] ::
...

BUSH - IT'S A WAR ON TERROR

US General Vows to 'Destroy' Sadr's Militia

Iraq Coalition Aims to `Destroy' Rebel Mahdi Army, Kimmitt Says

KERRY - IT SHOULD BE A LAW ENFORCEMENT MISSION

Convicted Sept. 11 suspect leaves prison

:: michael parker Wednesday, April 07, 2004 [+] ::
...

DRILL !

Alaska's governor has expressed the "will of Alaska" by declaring an OK to drilling for oil in the Beaufort Sea, outside of the ANWR, where drilling does not require an act of Congress.

Environmentalists are balking, because, with good reason, they do not believe would actually take place there for being too expensive. Native Alaskans, who support drilling into the land, fear an offshore operation with good reason: they are whalers. You don't have to travel there, as I have, to figure out that growing crops is impossible. Of course they do not want, and should not have, a vital food source put at risk.

Still, again, native Alaskans favor drilling the land. For all the fuss, the environmentalists whose global-warming models we are supposed to accept without question, demonstrate in Alaska their extremely poor math skills in two key ways:

proposed drilling area: 2000 acres
ANWR's area: the size of South Carolina
ANWR's part of Alaska: a mere fraction

change in population of caribou over last 20 years: + 800% (that's an increase)

Again, we are not to question their eco-enviro-science claims, even in the face of them proving their own mathematic disability.

:: michael parker Friday, April 02, 2004 [+] ::
...

TAKE THE MARK, AND THE BEAST WILL STILL KILL YOU

Spain 2004: perhaps the Spaniards should march for a re-vote:

Bomb Found on Rail Line in Spain

And so soon after the election.
What is the Spanish word for Limburg? Maybe the same as the French word for "sucker."

:: michael parker Friday, April 02, 2004 [+] ::
...

"We've had similar discussions throughout the war" in how to handle such raw footage, said Steve Capus, executive producer of "NBC Nightly News."

In this case, it is "very disturbing, it's awful. Quite honestly, it doesn't need to be seen in full in order to convey the horrors of this despicable act," Capus said.

The photos of the crime in Fallujah were more complete at Yahoo News Photos yesterday. The charred bodies strung from the overhead beams of the bridge, and the bodies that were being hacked to pieces with shovels, are images that actually do need to be seen. I was disturbed all day yesterday after viewing them via a Drudge link, but, like the video of the beheading of Richard Pearl, I think I had a responsibility to view them.

They are the images of the enemy that must be viewed, and studied, because of the vast number of people who are still in denial about the complete evil of the Ba'athist regime and why it had to be stopped. Radio news has done a so-so job with descriptions, but there is no mention of the shovels. Some refer to dragging and leave out the stringing-up, I haven't heard the radio describe the involvement of the young boys.

Still, the images were tempting me to decide that all those people over there are animals and do not deserve our help. Pull out and let them die.

But that thought gets it totally backwards. The enemy in yesterday's photos is different from the millions of innocents in the rest of Iraq. We, the world's richest country, have sacrificed to help those innocents because that is right to do.

Annihilation is called for, however, of the enemy in Fallujah. Like the people of the West Bank and of Gaza, who I repeated see dancing at the news of dead Americans and Jews, whose children trade suicide bomber cards when not themselves are being sent to explode, who parade in bomb belts and vests, and who name their streets after suicide bombers, these people in Fallujah, rotten with hate, young and old, may simply need to be wiped out.

Genocide? - Is that what we call the bombing of Nazi Germany's cites? Japan's? Or was it the necessity in war to smash the enemy?
Is it possible to take these indoctrinated minds by the hundreds of thousands, sing Kum-ba-ya, and convert them? When Christ comes and does it Himself...

:: michael parker Thursday, April 01, 2004 [+] ::
...

THE MOB AT ROVE HOUSE

I was taken back to the opening scene of the movie The Pelican Brief, to the screaming crowds in front of the Supreme Court, and not really surprised by the illegal mob-scene behavior of illegal immigrants (and especially their advocates) in the front yard at Karl Rove's house.

This is different, by the way, from the protest by Republicans at the Vice Presidential mansion in 2000. They were not on the grounds. They were not beating the windows.

Nor is it like the Republicans who shouted "Let us in!" at the punch-ballot counters who were illegally shutting them out in south Florida in 2000.

The pushing and shoving of dissenters at anti-Israel rallies, the shouting-out of conservative speakers on campus, the destruction of public and private property over globalization, all encourage more of the same, or even more-but-intensified, when no one gets arrested for breaking the law by choosing mob-rule tactics over the legislative process.

Junk Yard Blog puts it in the best words:

The left is becoming more and more thuggish and totalitarian right before our eyes, with the left-wing Bush-hating America-bashing Democrats or their sympathizers undoubtedly pulling the strings from afar. We are going to see political violence this year, probably similar in scale and intent to 1968, and like that awful year it will come from the left. But unlike that year, it will not be confined to Democrat infighting--it will be directed at Republicans and anyone supporting the war. Watch for it: Al Qaeda may not have to attack us, because leftist radicals are already worked into a lather thanks to irresponsible Democrat and leftist lies and are all but ready to strike at us from within.

:: michael parker Monday, March 29, 2004 [+] ::
...

SO HOW IS THIS GOOD NEWS?

State Prosecutor to recommend indicting Sharon on charges of bribery

Wow - a head of state in the Middle East is being investigated for possible criminal behavior. He may have to do the honorable thing and step down, then a peaceful transfer of power would take place.

Elected leaders subject to scrutiny and held accountable if necessary - in facist Israel!

Not in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, not in the hereditary autocracies of Jordan or Syria, or in Egypt where an election has not occurred since...
So Israel may get to serve as a good example for Iraq.

In the meantime, like the NY Times blasting the Washington Post over reporters who lie, won't it be funny to read the hoots and judgments of the state-controlled media of the Muslim world?

:: michael parker Monday, March 29, 2004 [+] ::
...

UP ONE NOTCH

M'god - for a second, Kerry shows some grit, even if he thinks he's pulling Bush into a "politically-motivated-prosecution" trap:

"Kerry challenges Bush to prosecute Clarke if former anti-terrorism advisor lied"

Unless the Dissident Voice is correct:

"Kerry is a Sheep in Wolves' Clothing"

(Since when do liberals think liberals should be scrutinized over perjury?)

:: michael parker Saturday, March 27, 2004 [+] ::
...

Our Lower Class



Two ex-Presidents in one photo, both of whom undermined our national security, and both low-class enough to break with tradition by openly criticizing and even publicly lying about a sitting President. One which allowed the communist Chinese to have our WMD technology, another who enabled Stalinist North Korea to be nuclear as well. Both there to support a would-be President who, as an anti-war activist, suspiciously mingled with the North Vietnamese, and who would work to give a UN of hostile nations a say in American policies.

The most amazing thing in this image is the presence of (I thought) politically dead Al Gore. Life after death? - not really. What is that look on Al's face... is he about to give it to Kerry like he gave it to Tipper? (Would that secure the gay vote... or make gay men go straight?)

Meanwhile at the new DNC HQ:
Entering McAuliffe's new corner office, which is equipped as a TV studio, visitors walk over a doormat bearing a likeness of President Bush and the words, "Give Bush the Boot."

:: michael parker Friday, March 26, 2004 [+] ::
...

LOOK WHO'S RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT

By the time Bryan Preston at Junk Yard Blog is done with John Kerry, he makes Pinch Sulzberger look patriotic:

Why did he meet with representatives of the Communist North Vietnamese government, and what was discussed? Did he meet with other left-wing groups while in Europe, and what was discussed?

You really should read this.

:: michael parker Friday, March 26, 2004 [+] ::
...

THINK BEFORE YOU SLAP

"Mr. Simmons took offense and said he had to 'bitch slap' him."

The victim, whose name was not immediately available, was described by police as a burly man known to compete in the spectator sport of cage fighting, otherwise known as mixed martial arts. He told authorities that he wanted to press charges against Simmons.

Fitness Guru Simmons Cited for Slapping Fighter

:: michael parker Friday, March 26, 2004 [+] ::
...

The Council on American-Islamic Relations has launched an ad campaign to reach out to Christians, banking, perhaps, on the alleged anti-semitism in Mel Gibson's movie, which to date has resulted in no anti-Semite activity. To clarify, this is the same CAIR which condemns, along with the UN Human Rights Committee, Israel's assassination of the spiritual leader of Hamas.

Under the "spiritual leadership" of the now-late Yassin, Hamas understood itself, and still does:

"Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it."

"The Islamic Resistance Movement believes that the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf consecrated for future Moslem generations until Judgement Day. It, or any part of it, should not be squandered: it, or any part of it, should not be given up. "

"There is no solution for the Palestinian question except through Jihad. Initiatives, proposals and international conferences are all a waste of time and vain endeavors."

"After Palestine, the Zionists aspire to expand from the Nile to the Euphrates. When they will have digested the region they overtook, they will aspire to further expansion, and so on. Their plan is embodied in the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", and their present conduct is the best proof of what we are saying."

In the meantime, the persecution of Christians in Muslim countries continues, and Swissair, with its cross on its tail, is still not allowed to fly over Mecca.

Amid discussions of our differences and the trite remarks about Islam being a religion of peace, you may recall what happens when the "prophet" is insulted. A newspaper in Nigeria suggested that Mohammed might have selected a wife from the beauties at the Miss World pageant. Subsequently, churches burned in Africa and Hindus were slaughtered in India. Salmon Rushdie publishes his book, and we learn the word fatwa.

Brazilian cartoonist Osmani Simanca today could be mistaken for a CAIR spokesperson. The Christian and Jewish response to this Brazilian cartoon will be, predictably, one of words:



If the Muslims could get their hands on the Dissident Frogman for insulting the "spiritual leader", their response would be one of two words, Allahu Akhbar!, before the rest of their response.

:: michael parker Thursday, March 25, 2004 [+] ::
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BROCK... RITTER... CLARK...?

So what do the Democrats have on this Clark guy... has he been doctor shopping, too?

or is it simply book sales?

Former Illinois Gov. Jim Thompson, a Republican, took up the president's cause inside the commission hearing. "We have your book and we have your press briefing of August 2002. Which is true?" he challenged the witness.

The radio news continues to call White House efforts to refute Clark's claims as ""attacks". We are in for a long, long, very whiney campaign season.

:: michael parker Thursday, March 25, 2004 [+] ::
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NORTH KOREA ENDORSES KERRY

Venezuela denounces murder of Yassin .


HOWEVER, VENEZUELA DOES NOT ENDORSE KERRY
--- or, it will endorse Kerry, before it doesn't

Venezuela will not take Kerry's criticism seriously: official

:: michael parker Wednesday, March 24, 2004 [+] ::
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