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The Real Banana: Campaign '08 With Weekend Monkey 7/31/08

FF: Once again,it's time to creep through the rancid political jungle with JoshuaPundit's own political guru and former Democratic Presidential Candidate, my pal Weekend Monkey.

WM: Howdy FF. Whaddup, Primates!

FF:Hello Monkey. What's new with campaign `08?

WM: Well,it's starting to get interesting. As a political animal, my instincts tell me that both Obama Yo' Mama and the Grumpy Old Guy want to get a few early licks in before the Olympics starts hogging up the oxygen in the news room,so we're seeing McCain starting to go more negative and running ads about Obama's positions onIraq and his status as a certified poseur and Obama reminding everybody that HE'S Mistah Hope and Change,that McCain is actually George Bush in disguise and that anyone who votes against him is a racist.

FF:That pretty much covers it, Monkey.

WM: it would be nice if they were actually yakking about the issues, y'know? If I was the prospective nominee, I would be spreading it thick to the primates about all the benefits they would have under me as their leader.

FF:You certainly did that during the campaign Monkey, I'll give you that. I think a big part of the reason there's no dialog about the issues is because Obama seems to be unwilling to hold a debate with McCain in anything but the most controlled circumstances. Why do you think that is?

WM: Are you kidding,FF? We're dealing with a candidate who's running entirely on his image, not his record. It's simple...Obama Yo' Mama isn't going to risk anything happening in an environment he doesn't totally own that might screw up the image..not with the prize so close he can smell it. That's why he didn't go to see those wounded soldiers in Germany,FF. He's not real popular with a big chunk of the military because of his weaseling on Iraq, so why take a chance on going to a military hospital and risking some wounded GI trashing him? Even with no press there,that stuff has a way of getting out, especially nowadays.

FF: Yeah,that was pretty much my take on it.

WM: Yeah, I know...I read it.

FF: Aside from the shots by both sides, the main thing people are speculating on is running mates right now.You think we'll hear about that soon?

WM: Natural enough. There are a lot of the primates who are dissatisfied with both these baboons, and they're hoping whoever runs on the back end of the ticket will make one of them a little easier to swallow. Personally, I don't think we're going to hear about it until after the Olympics, especially not from Obama Yo' Mama.McCain, maybe,but I still wouldn't be surprised if the VP picks weren't announced until right before the conventions...and maybe not even until after the Presidential nominations.

FF:Your reasons, Monkey?

WM: Simple, FF. Both candidates want to see how the polls are going and where they're going to need the most help. Close election like this is gonna be, any little thing could make the difference.

FF: Who do you think it will be.

WM: For my Democrats, I'm leaning more towards the people you mentioned last time...Tim Kaine or Claire McCaskill.And I still think Evan Bayh and Karen Sebelius are in the running as well.

FF: At this point, I think it's either Kaine, because Virginia is so close, or Bayh, because that gives Obama a shot at maybe actually taking Indiana. I though at one time that Obama might go for a female to bring in those disgruntled Hillary voters, but on reflection I think you're right Monkey...just like the conservatives with McCain, it's not like they have anywhere else to go. Who do you think McCain will pick.

WM: With that logic, probably Kaine unless there's some weirdness in his past we don't know about. Speaking of weirdness, did you see what happened with Barbie and the Enquirer? Ah ha ha hah hah...priceless!

FF: Well, I saw it,but I don't usually cover that kind of stuff here, Monkey. And besides, I always figured John Edwards spent a lot of time in the men's room anyway.

WM: Hee hee..hey, why did Rielle Hunter cross the road?

FF: I dunno.

WM: To get to the Beamer Edwards bought her!

FF: Ba dum dum..very funny Monkey.

WM:Knock knock.

FF: Who’s there?

WM: Rielle.

FF:Rielle who?

WM: You must get all your news from TV and newspapers!

FF: Mmph!

WM: Hey, FF..what's the difference between Rielle Hunter and the wind? The wind only blows your husband when he's outside! Hee hee hee hee!

FF: I think a certain Monkey has too much time on his hands..or something. We could continue milking this cheap vein of shallow entertainment, but It .Would. Be. Wrong. So , to change the subject, who do you see as the Republican nominee?

WM: Aw, I didn't even get to tell my joke about the fire hydrant!

FF: Monkey...

WM: OK, OK...I think both of us are agreed it won't be Romney or Huckabuck.

FF: Uh huh..

WM: Hard to say..my guess would be Tim Pawlenty.

FF: I still think Tim Pawlenty or Tom Ridge are the front runners. I also think it won't be Giuliani, although I think he'd be great at the job.

WM: Tom Ridge?

FF: Very Popular in Pennsylvania Monkey. Definitely brings that state into play. Also, I'd love to see Heather Wilson or Sarah Palin from Alaska in the number 2 spot.

WM: Yeah..Palin's hot in kind of a naughty schoolteacher way.

FF: Aside from the charisma aspect, she's fearless, a good speaker and knows a lot about energy. And Wilson is awesome. I'm still chuckling over what she did to Chris Matthews and Robert Wexler on hardball. I mean, it was brutal.

WM: yeah, I saw the video...not the best moment for my Democrats. You really think McCain would run with a woman?

FF: Why not? He needs to do something.I mean, it's nice that he's taking off the gloves with Obama finally, but he needs an equalizer for all of Obama's money. Do you know that Obama actually has enough cash to run a summer camp to train his political operatives?

WM: I'm not surprised. Like I said before, it's going to be close unless Obama Yo' Mama shoots himself in the foot, which is still possible, maybe in the debates or something if they ever happen. Cash is an advantage and they'll use it, no question.

FF: oh indeed they will. This isn't a campaign in the usual sense..it's a movement and I think Obama is building a cult of personality all his own.As a matter of fact, that's the title of Dr. Jeropme Corsi's new book on Obama, The ObamaNation:Leftist Politics And The Cult Of Personality.It hits the stores tommorrow.

WM: Wha..? Isn't he the guy who co-wrote the book on Kerry, Unfit For Command?

FF: Yup. I heard an interview with him on Hannity and I think he's got another best seller here. And he's practically daring Obama to sue him.

WM: Whooo! Now this could get interesting. I mean, isn't Obama Yo' Mama the guy who said "Don't swift boat me?"

FF: Yes he did, Monkey. And I'm sure we'll see what develops.And with that,let's wrap it up.

WM: Yowzah! Hideyho, Primates...be good, and if you can't be good, be careful.

Mahmoud Abbas, The Master of StandUp Comedy

Arafat II Mahmoud Abbas has had a lot of funny bits but surpasses anything he's ever done.

Today, Abbas responded to Israeli PM Olmert's statement that Israel and the Palestinian are 'close to a deal except on Jerusalem' by saying that if Israel doesn't bend over for him on everything, including Jerusalem, he's going to call off negotiations.

I nearly fell over laughing.

Here's somebody who's authority barely extends past the door in his office in Ramallah not only representing himself as someone who can make a meaningful deal and trying to dictate conditions but threatening to pull out and drop everything if he doesn't get his way!

"We will negotiate until the end of the year, and then the president will review our options," [Abbas spokesmouth and top aide Rafik] Husseini said, adding that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's declaration this week that a peace deal on everything but Jerusalem could be reached by the end of the year was unacceptable.

"Without a deal on Jerusalem, there will not be a peace deal at all," he said.

Abbas's spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudaineh, said that as far as the Palestinians were concerned, Jerusalem was a "red line" that couldn't be crossed.

If I were the Israelis,I would tell Mr. Def Jam that we're taking him at his word, no deal means no deal and end this farce. After all, the Palestinians have not kept a single one of the basic commitments they've ever made since Oslo...yet they're still hanging on to the land they managed to squeeze out of Israel, the only country in the Middle East to ever give them any land of their own at all.

Even funnier is Abbas' assumption that any deal he might make with the Israelis is worth the paper it's printed on, given that Abbas has almost zero authority to make anything stick since Hamas isn't signing on to it.Of course the real joke is on Olmert, Livni and the current Israeli government.

Abbas may still draw an audience in the EU and the US State Department, but the Arabs are definitely getting sick and tired of the Palestinians' shabby act.

They've pretty much reneged on all those flowery pledges of cash to the Palestinians as a ba-ad investment, which actually makes them a lot smarter than I gave them credit for. Anyway,why should they shell out any of their oil billions when the stoopid infidels are so willing to do it for them? $1 billion in international aid had been disbursed to the PA in 6 months by us wacky Westerners, about 40% of it passed to Gaza by Abbas to fund Hamas in the Gaza Strip...who says terrorism doesn't pay? Yet the Palestinian Authority still complains that it is broke...what
a bunch of jokesters!

If the Israeli government was thinking straight, they'd call Abbas' bluff and end the comedy once and for all.

An E-Mail From Ireland.....

"An email from Ireland to all of their brethren in the States. . .a point to ponder whatever your political affiliation:

We, in Ireland, can't figure out why you people are even bothering to hold an election in the United States.

On one side, you had a pants wearing female lawyer, married to another lawyer who can't seem to keep his pants on, who just lost a long and heated primary against a lawyer, who goes to the wrong church, who is married to yet another lawyer, who doesn't even like the country her husband wants to run !

Now... On the other side, you have a nice old war hero whose name starts with the appropriate 'Mc' terminology, married to a good looking younger woman who owns a beer distributorship!!

What in God's name are ya lads thinkin over in the colonies!?!?"



Hat tip to No Oil For Pacifists

Sign Of The Times: US Jews Taking Paramilitary Training

Deep in the Catskill Mountains in upstate New York, Kitat Konenut is holding a paramilitary training class for American Jews, with IDF combat veterans as the instructors.

Kitat Konenut New York is modeled on the rapid response teams in the Yishuv (Judea and Samaria) that are often the first on the scene when Arab terrorists attack Israeli civilians. The group considers itself as religious-Zionist but nonpolitical.

The group was founded in the summer of 2006 in response to the shooting attack at the Jewish federation of Seattle premises by local Muslim Naveed Haq.

The training includes instruction in Krav Maga ( a martial art developed by the IDF), use of non-lethal weapons,basic counterterrorism, sharpshooter and assault rifle training, infantry exercises and endurance marches.

Yonatan Stern, the "Sgan Mefaked Hakita" (deputy squad commander) of Kitat Konenut says that the groups sole agenda is to protect Jews wherever and whenever necessary and by any means needed.

American Jews have "felt a false sense of security in the United States," Stern says, "because historically there has been less anti-Semitism than in other countries."

"The threat is not from the American people or government," he adds, but from "terrorist sleeper cells that want to target Jews. These people are very dangerous and the FBI issues warnings against them very often," he said.

"The average American is friendly to Jews, but we're worried about those individuals on the periphery of society," Stern says.

"We realized there is a need for this kind of organization, and as Israeli combat veterans living in the US, we have the skills and ability to respond to this..We believe all Jews in the US must be legally armed and trained and towards this goal we hold paramilitary training camps to train and equip Jewish American youth." Stern says.

Is this the start of a growing trend? I think so, and I expect to see similar groups popping up in various cities with sizeable Jewish communities.

Looking at the growing number of incidents that involve Muslims here in America attacking Jews, I wrote over three years ago that a change in Jewish life in America was coming and that it would creep up almost unnoticed...except it will eventually affect all Americans, not just Jews. My signpost then was a group of Muslims who planned carnage in Los Angeles targeting Jews and their institutions in the city and were only caught by the merest chance.

Nothing has happened since to give me any indication to revise that, particularly when our president makes a point of appearing at a Saudi-funded jihadist mosque, CAIR and the MPAC are welcomed in the White House and and our government is actually trying to forbid its officials and employees from even mentioning the ideology of our enemies.

It may start with attacks on America's Jews,but it will not end there. Trust me on that.

Olmert Says Buh-Bye

This is long overdue.

Israeli PM Ehud Olmert finally pulled the trigger and announced that he will that he will not run in the upcoming Kadima primary and will resign from office from office as soon as Kadima's primary is over, to allow the new party leader to attempt to form a coalition.

In typical form, Olmert lashed out as his political opponents, accusing them of 'mudslinging'. Of course his multiple indictments for corruption,the ridiculous concessions to the Palestinians and the enormous increase in Hamas and Hezbollah's threat to Israel on his watch would have nothing to do with it.

Don't think this is a sacrifice for the common good on the part of Olmert. Like everything else about him, it is self-serving and calculating to an extraordinary degree.

Here's how it works: the Kadima primary is September 17th. After a new party leader is chosen, they have the right to attempt to form a coalition government,even if it means bribing the Arab Knesset members,labor or the far Left parties.They then have to submit it by October 26th to Shimon Peres,the President.

If the new Kadima leader is unable to make enough sleazy deals to keep the status quo in power by then, Peres can grant them another 90 days to form a government; after the 90 days are through, if there's still no coalition formed, a general election is scheduled, thus potentially allowing Olmert to remain in power until March 2009.

As long as he still occupies the post of Prime Minister,even as a lame duck,he is capable of binding Israel to agreements detrimental to its national security, and even influencing the corruption cases against him.

True to type,Olmert cares nothing for the fact that Israel is facing an existential threat from Iran with an increasingly narrow window to do anything about it. He could care less about the military buildup by Hamas on Israel's south by Hamas,which Yuval Dishkin and every member of Israel's Security establishment are warning must be dealt with before it gets out of control.

Any leader who really cared about the people of Israel would have recognized that his mandate was over a long time ago,and resigned to let new leadership take over and deal with these matters..but not Olmert.

He's a special type of animal,a foul parasite that will keep inflicting his host until the last possible moment. And he's being aided and abetted by the current apparatchniks in Kadima and Labor who are conniving to keep their positions and stifle the voice of the Israeli people, no matter what damage it ultimately does to the country.

When the Israelis finally do have elections ( and I can't imagine why they haven't risen up and driven these cockroaches from office yet)I'll be extremely disappointed if they fail to take their revenge at the ballot box.

Selah.

Watcher's Council Nominations, 7/29/08

Once again,it's time for a tasty slice of some of the best of the blogosphere, the Watcher's Council.

Every week, the Watcher's Council members nominate two posts each, one of their own and one from outside the group for consideration by the whole Council. As you know, our infamous leader,the Watcher of Weasels retired and is now our leader emeritus. Last week, the Council was hosted by the one and only Soccer Dad . This week, the Council is being hosted by none other than my friend Ms. Bookworm at Bookworm Room and a full list of entries can be found there.

The winners will be announced Friday...along with a special announcement regarding the future of the Council.

So, let's see what we have this week:

Council:

1. Joshua Pundit: “Ich Bin Ein Beginner!” - Barack Obama,obviously looking to soak up some of John F. Kennedy's mojo made what was billed as a major speech in Germany during his world tour.

What I found most interesting about all this was one line in the speech where Obama referred to himself as 'a citizen of the world', the setting, and a little something that happened away from the cameras that was quite revealing....

2.The Razor: Here’s my response to Jack Markell’s commercial-Scott takes exception to Delaware's governor wanna-be and posts a video response.

3. Done With Mirrors: Us and Them - Callimachus makes a great point about the difference between America and the 7th century barbarians whom are our enemies. I would also have responded to the aptly named Good Democrat by reminding him that America more closely resembles the Roman Republic today than the Roman Empire. Although that may change if weasels like Good Democrat continue to abuse their freedoms to attempt to undermine our Republic.

4. Wolf Howling: Stop The Destruction of Our Environment — Drill Now - GW goes greenie on us..and makes a nice satirical point while doing it.

5. Soccer Dad: Hating israel more than loving palestinians - I hoped he'd nominate this one. This week, Soccer Dad takes on an abysmally stoo-pid column by the New York Time's favorite terrorist appeaser, Nicholas Kristof.

Kristof's prescription for Middle East peace is a simple one: the US should practice what he calls 'tough love' to force those stubborn Jews back to what Abba Eban famously called the Auschwitz lines ( AKA the pre-1967 borders) and re-divide Jerusalem to give the Palestinians a second Arab state with the premise that doing so will somehow create a dynamic for peace throughout the region.

Kristof and people like him are genuinely buying into the racist argument that Jews should be prohibited from living in certain places simply because they're Jews and supporting the ethnic cleansing of Jews from half of Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, something they would be screaming bloody murder about if the Jews decided to do the same to the Arabs in Israel.

Furthermore, the idea that forcing Israel back to strategically insecure borders while they're surrounded by genocidal enemies will not only fail to 'solve' the Arab-Israeli conflict,but will exacerbate it and endanger the survival of Israel itself as these enemies would be encouraged to move in for the great jihad against the Jews. And since the Israelis are unlikely to go peacefully to their own extermination ( this time, the Jews are actually armed) Israel would be forced to use extremely desperate measures to destroy their enemies. Which, of course, Kristof and his ilk will likewise scream bloody murder about .

6. Cheat-Seeking Missiles: An Awful Idea for Renaming a Perfectly Good Mountain - Laer chronicles the effrort to name a California mountain after radical 'environmentalist' David Brower. *Sigh*..ah, California!

7. The Colossus of Rhodey: And Phil Gramm got grief? How come? - Hube disagrees with the flak McCain campaign adviser Phil Gramm got for his 'nation of whiners' remarks,and provides a few lovely examples of what he's talking about.

What it comes down to, of course is that there is a certain portion of the American electorate that has utterly embraced a culture of dependency, and they will need to be weaned from it slowly if at all. Best not to highlight that in an election year though.

8. The Glittering Eye: Ooh-ooh-ooooh! - Our own Dave Schuler impersonates a schoolboy with a ready answer in the classroom to the question posed by USA Today:“Why can’t Obama admit the obvious? The surge worked.”

Dave provides his usual fine tooth analysis in answering that question,as well as what the answer entails.

9. Rhymes With Right: Obama Desecrates Holiest Site In Judaism - Greg has a fine post which I linked to earlier this week on the use of the Kotel ( Israel's Western Wall) as what amounted to a campaign rally site by Obama and his followers during his brief sojourn in Israel. Absolutely astounding.

10. Hillbilly White Trash: China - This week Lemuel examines what he regards as the challenge of China to US status as a world power.

11. Bookworm Room: Nobody here but us biased chickens - For her piece this week, Ms. bookworm focuses on the Los Angeles Times ( or as Larry Elder refers to it, 'the Democrat Times') biased coverage on Barack Obama and their lame attempt to defend themselves for their total lapse of journalistic ethics.

Non-Council:

1. Bjorn Lomborg: How to Get The Biggest Bang for 10 Billion Bucks

2. Daniel W. Drezner: America’s soft power military

3. Jammie Wearing Fool: A Real Democrat Party

4. Maryland Conservatarian: Visiting Poland : A Warning

5. Patrick Poole - Pajamas Media: Anti-Patriot Act Poster Boy Kidnaps Own Kids

6. The Atlantic Online: Electro-Shock Therapy

7. Gregory Scoblete - Real Clear Politics: Will Obama Really Withdraw from Iraq?

8. UrbanGrounds: Barry in Berlin — I Am Not a Presidential Candidate

9. Jay Cost - Real Clear Politics: On Obama’s Message

10. Investor’s Business Daily: Barack Obama’s Stealth Socialism

11. Jeff Jacoby: Missing from that Berlin speech

Jon Voight: My Concerns For America

Academy award winning actor Jon Voight is not some Hollywood airhead with an inflated sense of himself. He has a long history of involvement in humanitarian causes and patriotic endeavors.

He weighs in eloquently here on the distinct dangers an Obama presidency has for America:

"We, as parents, are well aware of the importance of our teachers who teach and program our children. We also know how important it is for our children to play with good-thinking children growing up.

Sen. Barack Obama has grown up with the teaching of very angry, militant white and black people: the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, William Ayers and Rev. Michael Pfleger. We cannot say we are not affected by teachers who are militant and angry. We know too well that we become like them, and Mr. Obama will run this country in their mindset.

The Democratic Party, in its quest for power, has managed a propaganda campaign with subliminal messages, creating a God-like figure in a man who falls short in every way. It seems to me that if Mr. Obama wins the presidential election, then Messrs. Farrakhan, Wright, Ayers and Pfleger will gain power for their need to demoralize this country and help create a socialist America."

A must read for the members of Joshua's Army, absolutely.

That Nasty Ol' Deficit

Figures lie and liars figure - My father of blessed memory.

One cute lil' news item flogged all over the dinosaur media yesterday was about the Evil Deficit BushHitler is going to be passing on to the next unfortunate who takes over his job in the Oval Office.

According to the story, the White House is projecting a record deficit for 2009 of between $480 and $490 billion,"a record" according to sources like the New York Times , NPR and the good people at ABC News.

It terms of a dollar amount, they're right. It's by far the largest in history. What they're not telling you is that a dollar figure in this regard is absolutely meaningless.

The real figure to look at, of course, is the deficit amount as a percentage of Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the total amount of what our economy produces. In those terms, even if the deficit dollar amount is correct, the projected 2009 deficit would be about equal to 3.3 percent of GDP. As a comparison, we ran a 6.0 percent deficit in 1983 and survived quite nicely, thank you.

To translate was utter bolshoi this is into everyday terms,let's say you earn a salary of $4,000 per month and your total spending is equal to $1,000...that gives you a debt ratio of 25%.

You get a raise to $6,000 per month and your spending goes up to $1,200 per month - a record, no? Except it isn't because in terms of your income your spending level actually went down to a mere $20%.

Another thing that the bare dollar amount doesn't tell you is how much of that deficit spending constitutes investment in scientific research, infrastructure or tax and fiscal policy actually intended to increase the GDP.

Like my father always told me, figures lie and liars figure.Especially in an election year.

The Jihad Against Justice

Gordon Kromberg is a lead Federal prosecutor who has led a series of successful investigations into Islamic militants and Muslim groups based in Virginia.

Unfortunately, he's been a little too successful...which is why defense attorneys shilling for Sami Al-Arian, Islamic Jihad's own man in America are playing the race card and trying to get a Federal judge to hold a hearing on whether 'anti-Muslim bias' led to Kromberg and the government's decision to go after a new indictment of Al-Arian in June for contempt for refusing to testify before grand juries pursuing other Virginia-based jihadi organizations:

While the motion claims Muslim terrorism suspects are generally treated unfairly by the Justice Department, Al-Arian's lawyers argue that Mr. Kromberg, 51, has a particularly egregious record of intemperate statements and actions in a series of terrorism-related cases and investigations.

"Defense attorneys have objected for years that Mr. Kromberg, the lead counsel in many of these cases, has been using the Eastern District of Virginia to mete out his own brand of justice for Muslim terrorism subjects, often openly displaying his personal animus," Al-Arian's lead counsel, Jonathan Turley, wrote. "This long and controversial record forms the backdrop for the allegation of selective and malicious prosecution in this case."

Al-Arian's lawyers claim that in 2006, when Mr. Kromberg moved to obtain new testimony from the former professor following his guilty plea in Florida, the prosecutor "became agitated" in response to a defense lawyer's request that the testimony be put off until after the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. "They can kill each other during Ramadan. They can appear before the grand jury; all they can't do is eat before sunset," Mr. Kromberg responded, according to a declaration written by one of Al-Arian's attorneys, Jack Fernandez. Mr. Fernandez said the prosecutor described the request for a postponement as "all part of the attempted Islamization of the American justice system." Mr. Fernandez wrote that he viewed the comments as exhibiting "apparent bias against Muslims."

A look at events during Ramadan in any given year underlines the truth of Kromberg's statement. Muslims do not avoid violence - even against other Muslims — during Ramadan. If you'll recall, Le Petit Jihad in Paris occurred during that time, and so have numerous other incidents. Some 'bias'!

Kromberg also makes the excellent point that there is absolutely no need for our justice system to go out of its way to accommodate Islamists and their beliefs. Therein lies a fairly slippery slope.

Al-Arian's lawyers are also highlighting another case Kromberg worked on the trial of Muslim preacher Ali al-Timimi, who was accused of exhorting others to wage jihad against America and join the Taliban. Kromberg in his arguments brought up the Muslim practice of taqiya, saying that the religious beliefs of the defendant and other witnesses made it acceptable to lie to kaffirs, or nonbelievers..which is in fact the simple truth to anyone who's read the Qu'ran or Hadiths.

"If you are a kaffir, Timimi believes in time of war, he's supposed to lie to you," Kromberg said to jurors. They convicted Al-Timimi of treason and sentenced him to a well deserved sentence of life imprisonment.

To Al -Arian's legal spokesmouths, acknowledging this simple truth was somehow evidence of 'anti-Muslim bias.'

Kromberg also figured prominently in the conviction of the so-called Paintball Eleven, a group of Muslims accused of training in Virginia to fight with a Pakistani terrorist group, Lashkar e-Taiba, in Kashmir. He had a good record there as well with nine out of eleven convictions.

Kromberg later called one of the acquitted men, Sabri Benkahla, before grand juries as a witness on his attendance at jihad training camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Based on his answers, which Kromberg was convinced were more taqiya, the prosecutor got an indictment against Benkahla for obstruction of justice and making false statements to the FBI and the grand juries.

In the case of Al Arian, Kromberg wanted his testimony on another Muslim 'charity', the International Institute of Islamic Thought ( IIIT) in Herndon, Virginia. Court papers said prosecutors haved evidence of financial transfers and money laundering involving the IIIT, various nonprofit groups, including some run by Al-Arian, and terrorist movements abroad, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

That investigation, which has been slowed up by various appeals and court challenges by the defendants has already led to the arrest and guilty plea of Abdurahman Alamoudi, a former Muslim-American political leader and founder of the American Muslim Council who worked for an IIIT connected group called the Saar Foundation on terrorism charges who was sentenced to 23 years in prison.

With a 57 month sentence (which Kromberg rightly referred to as 'a bonanza') to serve followed by deportation, Al-Arian has refused to testify in the IIIT case, which is why Kromberg is seeking to have him indicted for obstruction of justice and why Al-Arian's lawyers are now playing the `Islamophobia ' card in an effort to derail the indictment.

Kromberg strikes me as a dedicated public servant with a refreshingly common sense feel for what jihad and taqiya really mean. His future may be somewhat constrained in a government so concerned with the tender feeling of jihadis and Islamists that they can barely be convinced to utter the words, but the idea that he could be disciplined for bias if the motion by Al -Arian's legal shills is entertained by the court is a sobering one, and an indication of just how devious our enemies and their paid mouthpieces are.

Let'a hope this motion is recognized for the tactic it is and is summarily dismissed.




Hat tip to The Baron.

Short Takes: Worth Reading, 7/28/08

Short takes is my way of cramming a lot into a small space for you..kind of like the young gentleman above is doing! Here's a brief rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

4 female bombers strike in Iraq, killing 57 - The attacks were directed at Shi'ite religious centers and at a Kurdish political rally in Kirkuk. Using women as homicide bombers is a growing trend in Iraq, because of cultural norms and because the women are able to hide the explosives under their Islamic robes,(abayas) and can often get past checkpoints without a search.

To counter this latest tactic, the U.S. military has stepped up recruitment and training efforts for women in the police force and as members of U.S.-allied Sunni Awakening groups in Iraq.

In other Iraq news General David Petraeus is apparently not in agreement with Senator Barack Obama'a plan for a publicly mandated timetable for American troop withdrawal. He wants to make any troop withdrawals based on conditions on the ground at a given time. Interesting how that worked out..

A Third of UK Muslim Students: Okay to Kill for Islam That's according to a study produced by YouGov for the Centre for Social Cohesion. "Significant numbers appear to hold beliefs which contravene democratic values," said Hannah Stuart, one of the report’s authors. "These results are deeply embarrassing for those who have said there is no extremism in British universities."

The research also found that a third of Muslim students supported the creation of a world-wide caliphate or Islamic state and prefer sharia to British law.

I personally would guess that the numbers are skewed to the low side, given the Islamist advocacy of the Muslim practice of taqiya( dissemblement) to infidels.

Istanbul rocked by bomb attacks - as the Turkish Supreme Court ponders a case for outlawing the ruling Isalamist AKP party. 17 people were killed. This is being blamed on the Kurdish PKK, but I have a feeling that the attacks came from the Islamist factions in Turkey, as the battle between the secularists and Islamists heats up.

When all else fails, go with Ol' Reliable...The UN blames Israelfor Gaza's 'poverty'. Just imnagine what Hamas could do for its people if they recognized Israel, engaged in an economic relationship with the Jewish State and stopped spending all that money on armaments.
But of course That Would be Wrong.

Jay Cost on Obama's Mixed Messianic Messaging: Can He Be a "Man of the People" if He's Selling Himself as a Superheroic Son of God Himself? One of America's better political analysts examines a basic contradiction of the Obama campaign...and how it might effect things come November.

Where the Democrats Want To Drill

Hat tip to Michelle Malkin

Bush Adds Fuel To The Fire - $226M In Military Aid To Pakistan

As the Bush Administration enters its final months, even common sense seems to be in short supply.

The latest example is a proposal by the Bush Administration to shift $226.5 million of your tax dollars earmarked as 'counterterror' funds to Pakistan, with the rationale of upgrading Pakistan's F-16's 'for use in counterterrorism operations.'

"The F-16s that they have are used in counterterrorism operations," White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "We made them available to the Pakistanis and they need to be maintained."

Let's analyze this in a little detail, shall we?

Here we have a largely dysfunctional country rife with sectarian and religious violence and turmoil that has already signed deals and treaties with our enemies the Taliban and al-Qaeda. And they have already made it clear that any US attempts to root the Taliban and al-Qaeda out and stop them from killing our soldiers are an unwelcome infringement on their 'sovereignty.'

It's also a country implicated in the illegal proliferation of nuclear weapons to rogue states like Iran who just freed AQ Kahn from house arrest, the nuclear scientist who ran what amounted to clandestine supermarket for nuclear weapons technology.

Pakistan is a major source of Islamist terrorism aimed at the West and India, filled with Saudi funded madrassahs churning out fresh jihadis by the boatload where the majority of the population harbor anti-American and anti-Western sentiments. And it's ruled by a coalition of leftist leaning kleptocrats and Islamists.

And the Bush Administration's answer to this is throw money at the problem and increase the efficiency of their weaponry, supposedly to upgrade some F-16s?

For starters,the nonsense about the F-16s has to be a blatant and not very skillful lie.

The last time I checked,the Taliban and al-Qaeda didn't have an air force, so upgraded F-16s are hardly a necessity, and even if they were, the Pakistani government has made it clear that they've essentially ceded a large part of Waziristan and the North West Frontier Province to al-Qaeda and the Taliban and have no intention of going after them with any great degree of effectiveness. I'd love to know to what the degree Pakistan's existing F-16s have been used to attack the jihadis in their country..and of course, the answer is that they haven't been.

In any case, should the use of F-16s be necessary for 'counterterrorism operations', the Pakistanis could either use what they have now or do what an actual ally of the US would do...create a joint strategic liaison with our forces so that US planes could hit the necessary targets.

In fact, Pakistan has no intention of doing that and the rationale of giving them $226.5 million with the idea that they're going to suddenly do so is ridiculous.The volatile nature of the country's political situation alone would argue against giving them upgraded weapons.

No, this is some kind of clandestine, back door exercise in 'diplomacy' by the Bush Administration.

Or it might in fact be a simple bribe.

Right now,a major lifeline for NATO's forces in Afghanistan flows through the Pakistani port of Karachi. Afghanistan, along with its other attributes is a landlocked country and because of that, a difficult place to supply. The only other practical overland route would involve going through the Black Sea through Georgia and Azerbaijan and then crossing the Caspian Sea and shipping the stuff through Turkmenistan and then over rough, mountainous country into Afghanistan from the Northwest. It could be done, but it would be much more difficult.

This, in case you're wondering, is what Pervez Musharraf was talking about when he made that famous quote about how the US needs Pakistan and without Pakistan " there is no war on terror."

There's no telling how much money we've actually poured down that particular rathole.

In any case, if it is a bribe, it's a bad idea, and even a worse idea to upgrade their air force. If Pakistan goes over the edge, we may very well have to contend with those planes if the worst comes to pass and we need to secure or destroy Pakistan's nuclear arsenal.

Fortunately, Congress isn't entirely asleep on the matter. Nita Lowey, the New York Democrat who chairs the State and foreign operations subcommittee of the powerful House appropriations committee has been a roadblock on some of the Bush Administration's dubious proposals before and said in a written statement that the administration's request "raises serious concerns."

"Congress provided these funds specifically for counter-terrorism and law enforcement," she wrote. "It is incumbent on the State Department and Pakistan to demonstrate clearly how these F-16s would be used to fight al Qaeda and the Taliban in order to get congressional support."

Yes, I'd certainly like to see how the State Department finesses that one.

Absolutely amazing that they would even consider it. It makes no sense at all.

Gastrosexuals!??!

"..Love is very fond of wine, and partial to the kitchen..." - Pagliacci,third act.

I suppose this is the latest buzzword, as both the London Daily Mail and the Australian have feature articles that discover -gasp! - that single men are using their culinary skills in the kitchen to aid their love lives. Google `gastrosexuals' and you get over 2,000 hits.

Here's a little from the Daily Mail:

They say that the way to a man's heart is through his stomach but it seems the dining tables have turned as increasing numbers of men are taking up cooking in a bid to seduce women.

Dubbed 'Gastrosexuals' this new generation of men consider cooking more a hobby than a household chore and use their kitchen prowess to impress friends and prospective partners.

Men having the ability to cook is also now a key factor in attracting women along with salary, status, personality and appearance, according to new research.

The report 'Emergence of the Gastrosexual' cites the popularity of superstar chefs Gordon Ramsay and Jamie Oliver as a factor in making cooking a macho pursuit.

Goodness, would we ever have figured this out if they hadn't told us?

Far from being a new trend with a fancy name, men have been doing it for centuries...at least the smarter ones have. The literary references go back as far as the Bible.

So now this is supposed to be a new trend?

I grew up in a home with zero culinary traditions..we tended to defrost or unwrap rather than cook in my family.

I went out on my own at a fairly young age, and quickly learned to knock together a few basic things just to save time and money, but I still tended to eat out more than in, especially since my music biz career kept me on the road a lot. When I actually did anything like formal dating, the idea was to go out, hit the nightlife, spend a lot of money and ideally things would go my way that evening.

It worked okay, but eventually, a basic fact occurred to me - here I was spending borkoo money with the idea of getting a woman to come home with me or take me home with her. But if I cooked the meal, not only was it a lot cheaper, but we were already where I most wanted to be.

I'd already learned something about wines from the father of a former girlfriend who was in the wine business, so all that was necessary was to put everything else together. So I learned to cook, experimenting with some of the classic and not so classic recipes. I found it not only relatively easy but fun..especially once I started putting phase two of my plan into action, inviting women over to sample the goods.

The results achieved with a properly done coq a' vin, boeuf flammande, beef stroganoff or a well done kao pad gai with the right wine combined with whatever charm I might have possessed far exceeded my expectations when it came to my love life.Heck, even a properly grilled steak with a nice mushroom sauce and a decent Cabernet tended to be pretty useful.

And there's an enchanting side benefit...most women you invite over will feel bound to reciprocate, out of sheer competition, if nothing else. At their place, of course...tasty.

A few tips for men who read this,get a clue and are thinking about trying to run with this 'new trend'. Never order take out at a resturant, slap it on a plate and pretend you cooked it. I've seen it tried, and it's always bad news. Aside from being dishonest, ( not the way you want to start a love affair, believe me) it will end up blowing up in your face. It might work once, but sooner or later your girlfriend is going to whine at you to cook that fabulous dish again, at which point you'll have to confess and look like an absolute fool as well as a liar.

Always try out a new recipe on yourself first before you invite company over,unless it's somebody you know pretty well, and have a backup plan like ordering pizza or Chinese in case things don't go well. Practice makes perfect.

Remember how important preparation and planning is before you actually cook things. A lot of the classic Asian and European dishes involve a lot more time in prep work than in actual cooking, especially when you're just starting out. And besides,that's where the fun is.

Wine is part of the fun too.If it's not something you're familiar with, there are a number of easy to read good books that will give you the basics, and a little experimentation will teach you the rest. Again, that's part of where the fun is.

Bon chance and bon appetite!

No Drilling And No Voting - Pelosi Has Spoken

Accountability..it's for the little people.

My jaw dropped when I happened to see this in the WAPO, of all places, as an in-house editorial:

WHY NOT have a vote on offshore drilling? There's a serious debate to be had over whether Congress should lift the ban on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf that has been in place since 1981. Unfortunately, you won't be hearing it in the House of Representatives -- certainly, you won't find lawmakers voting on it -- anytime soon.

Instead of dealing with the issue on the merits, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), a staunch opponent of offshore drilling, has simply decreed that she will not allow a drilling vote to take place on the House floor. Why not? "What the president would like to do is to have validation for his failed policy," she said yesterday when asked that very question. "What we're saying is, 'Exhaust other remedies, Mr. President.' . . . It is the economic life of America's families, and to suggest that drilling offshore is going to make a difference to them paycheck to paycheck now is a frivolous contention. The president has even admitted that. So what we're saying is, 'What can we do that is constructive?' "

If there is an explanation buried in there about why that makes offshore drilling off-limits for a vote, we missed it. Ms. Pelosi is correct that drilling is no panacea for the nation's energy woes. The short-term effect of lifting the moratorium, if there were any, would be minimal. That doesn't mean the country shouldn't consider expanded drilling as one of many alternatives. There are legitimate concerns about the environmental impact of such drilling -- environmental concerns that, we would note, exist in other regions whose oil Americans are perfectly happy to consume. But have technological improvements made such drilling less risky? Why not have that debate?

When they took the majority, House Democrats proclaimed that "bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the Minority the right to offer its alternatives." Why not on drilling?

{...}

If drilling opponents really have the better of this argument, why are they so worried about letting it come to a vote?

The Washington post doesn't answer the question, so I will.

It's quite simple, really. It's an election year, and Barack Obama and the Democrats are trying to create as much economic chaos as they can because they feel it helps them in November...and the pain working families will feel at the pump and at the grocery store is just too damn bad.

The worse the economy gets, the more the Democrats will try to beast the class warfare drum and demonize Bush's 'failed energy policy' as Pelosi does above...especially since their major campaign tactic is to try and equate McCain with Bush.

It's despicable,but there it is.

These are the same people who for years have consistently stopped the United States from becoming energy independent by vetoing nuclear plants, going after shale oil, building refineries, exploiting the oil riches of a small part of ANWR and yes,offshore drilling.

Had even the ANWR proposal been passed when it was first proposed during Bush's first term, we would have that oil available today.

Remember that when you fill up at the pump or buy groceries...and especially when you vote in November.

Kudos to the editorial board of the Washington Post for even asking the question...which is more than most of the dinosaur media is willing to do.

A Must-See - Heather Wilson Eviscerates Chris Matthews And Obama Surrogate Wexler

The shot above pretty much says it all; Heather Wilson,GOP Congresswoman from New Mexico(Air force Academy grad,Rhodes scholar) with a big smile on her face and Obama surrogate Robert Wexler ( D-FL)with his mouth wide open and nothing to say.

She took on the tag team of Hardball Obama shill Chris Matthews and Obama campaign surrogate Robert Wexler and beat them both stoo-pid.

Here's a link to view the video (Windows Media Player) and here's the partial transcript:

HEATHER WILSON: Barack Obama has always had a great charismatic style, but the substance has never been there and his inexperience is one of the things that troubles a lot of people. Saying something like there's a wall between the United States and Europe? We've been allies with Western Germany and with Germany as a whole since the end of the Second World War. NATO is one of our strongest alliances. And so, what's he talking about? What's the substance behind that --

CHRIS MATTHEWS: He's talking about the fact that Europeans, Europeans hate George Bush.

WILSON: I think one of the things he tried to do in Israel was to reassure Americans that the mistakes he made with respect to Middle East policy because of his experience maybe they shouldn't be concerned about that. He went there because of his inexperience to try to give himself some kind of kind of patina of credibility.

MATTHEWS: Are you saying the United States has had a good relationship with Europe in the last seven years?

WILSON: Absolutely. Yes. The US relationship with NATO, with the UK, our relationship with the United Kingdom has never been closer, and that's been spurred by common, mutual interest. I used to serve at NATO when there were 16 NATO countries and we were facing the former Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. We have very close relationships with our western European allies and I think that continues with Angela Merkel or President Sarkozy or with the Brits. I think very close relationships.

In the next exchange, Wilson slapped Wexler down on Iraq and Afghanistan:

ROBERT WEXLER: The allegation is that Senator Obama has not been effective, yet it is his view in Iraq that is now the prevailing view that the Prime Minister of Iraq has endorsed. It is Senator Obama's view that has been endorsed by the Bush administration in concept in Iran by engaging in diplomacy. It is his view in terms of adding troops in Afghanistan that's winning the day. So it's Senator Obama, before he's even president, that's affecting policy in such a great way.

WILSON: It's amazing that you can skew things that far. Senator Obama has been dead wrong when it comes to the policy in Iraq. He opposed the surge and he is now in a situation where he's trying to deny that the surge was successful. I don't think that's particularly presidential.

{ . . .}

WILSON: To say that somehow there is a wall in NATO that's running somewhere down the Atlantic shows Senator Obama's inexperience when it comes to understanding where we are. You see that on a number of other things. I mean, look at his platform. He has these kind of message-tested, poll-tested things like, we should, Barack Obama will make sure we take -- he'll negotiate with the Russians to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert. It's a great idea: it was done 20 years ago. He seems to be unaware of American history. And that's inexperience which causes people some real concern about whether he's ready for the Oval Office.

Ouch! That's gonna leave some bruises. This slapdown might just put Congresswoman Wilson in the running for McCain's VP.

The definitive list of Obama's Flippity-Flops..So Far

Doug Ross follows the action...

Iran Officially Ends 'Cooperation' With IAEA

Iran announced today that it was ending it's 'cooperation' with the UN's atomic watchdpg agency, the IAEA after the agency actually accused Iran of hiding its efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Among other things, the IAEA formally asked Iran to explain drafts of plans to refit missiles with nuclear warheads, explosives tests that could be used to develop a nuclear detonator, links between the Iranian military and civilians in their nuclear program ( Iran's nuclear facilities are run by the Revolutionary Guard) and a blueprint showing how to mold uranium metal into the shape of warheads.

The response to this was announcement by Iranian Vice President Gholam Reza Aghazadeh that Iran would end its 'cooperation'. He's also the head of Iran's atomic energy agency.

Part of what's going on is the endgame to an investigation on whether Iran hid its efforts to manufacture nuclear weapons launched bythe IAEA over a year ago under an agreement between the IAEA and Iran.

Apparently the mullahs don't like the way the investigation is going:

Back then, IAEA chief Mohamed ElBaradei hailed it as "a significant step forward" that - if honored by Iran - would fill in the missing pieces of Iran's nuclear jigsaw puzzle; nearly two decades of atomic work, all of it clandestine until revealed by dissidents nearly six years ago. And he brushed aside suggestions that Iran was using the work plan as a smoke screen to deflect attention away from its continued defiance of a UN Security Council ban on enrichment.

But the plan ran into trouble just months after it was put into operation. Deadline after deadline was extended because of Iranian foot-dragging. The probe, originally to have been completed late last year, spilled into the first months of 2008, and then beyond.

Iran remains defiant, saying evidence from the US and other board members purportedly backing the allegations was fabricated, and on Thursday Aghazadeh appeared to signal that his country was no longer prepared even to discuss the issue with the Vienna-based IAEA.

Investigating such allegations "is outside the domain of the agency," he said. Any further queries on the issue "will be dealt with in another way," he added, without going into detail. The agency's last Iran report in May reflected ElBaradei's frustration. It said Iran may be withholding information on whether it tried to make nuclear arms, in language described by one senior UN official as unique in its direct criticism of Teheran.

Aghazadeh's comments appeared to jibe with those of diplomats familiar with the probe who have told The Associated Press that the IAEA has run into a dead end.

One senior diplomat on Thursday attributed Teheran's intransigence in part to anger about multimedia presentations by IAEA Deputy Director General Olli Heinonen to the agency's 35 board members based on US and other intelligence on the alleged secret weapons work. He - like the others - demanded anonymity because his information was confidential.

This latest tantrum by the mullahs illustrates the prime conundrum the UN finds itself in. It's obvious to anyone that Iran broke the nuclear proliferation treaty it signed, and that they're actively seeking nuclear weapons. They've also made no secret of the fact that nothing and no one is going to stop them from developing nuclear weapons and ICBMs - Ahmadinejad just made another statement to the effect that Iran woul dnot 'retreat one ioata'- and they've already made significant progress in this regard.

What, if anything is the West prepared to do about this?

Sanctions have largely been a joke, because the Russians and the Chinese either keep watering them down or ignoring them and the EU makes far too much money trading with Iran to get behind anything significant. Meanwhile, the US appears to be mainly concerned about the short term benefits of quiet in Iraq and elswhere during the rest of the Bush presidency and is willing to let the status quo go on, while the centrifuges spin merrily along and Iran bolsters its air missile defenses and conventional military.

Again, I've heard significant rumours that there is a semi-formal understanding between the Bush Administration and Iran: in exchange for quiet and a graceful exit in Iraq, a ceiling on oil prices and an end to Iran's agitation within OPEC to end oil trading in dollars, the US was willing to cede control of Lebanon to Iran, take the US military option of a strike on Iran's nuclear facility off the table and pledge not to aid or abet the Israelis from carrying one out.

Based on what's been going on so far, it seems like it might be a plausible deal for the Bush Administration to have made, and from Iran's standpoint, they would have gotten a lot more then they gave up...plus, they have the possibility of dealing with a President Obama in a few months, with all that entails.

Stay tuned...

Watcher's Council Results, 7/25/08

The Council has spoken!

And now(drum roll...) the winning entries in the Watcher's Council vote for this week are :

Among the Council members, Who Knew? by Done with Mirrors, a wicked piece contrasting the rhetoric of certain Democrats now who voted against the Iraq Authorization to use force with what they're saying now carried off the honors.

Tied for second were Wolf Howling - Deconstructing the Socialists War On Law & Order In Britain a great piece on how Labour has affected public safety in the UK and Bookworm Room - The moral of the story , a charming exposition on a chief ingredient in classic literature and
why modern remakes of novels like Pride and Prejudice who leave it out so often fall flat.

Also getting votes were Soccer Dad - Horribly Wrong Part II and The Razor - Speak truth to power - just not to educators.

In the Non-Council category, the winner was Stars and Stripes - Soldiers Recount Deadly Attack On Afghan Outpost, a story JoshuaPundit covered on these pages about the actual heroic story of a Taliban attack on a US base that the dinosaur media reported on very selectively.

In second place was Council alumnus Rick Moran at Right Wing Nuthouse with When it's Obama's War, a well written piece who's central premise I unfortunately disagree with...Iraq will always be the war of BushHitler and the Neocons because that's how the Left plays the game when one of their icons is involved.

A shout out to Soccer Dad for a superb job in hosting the Council this week. Next week's hostess of the council vote is scheduled to be Bookworm Room...and as always, congratulations not only to the winners, but to the participants.

Look for a major announcement regarding the Watcher's Council soon.

"Ich Bin Ein Beginner!"

Obama, applauding himself after his speech in Berlin.

The Barack Hussein Obama World Tour made its next stop today, in Germany where Obama,obviously looking to soak up some of John F. Kennedy's mojo made what was billed as a major speech.

What it was, in fact was a syrupy morass of the most basic platitudes.

As Ace pointed out, you could take lines from "We Are The World" and Obama's vapid nonsense and interchange them without anyone noticing.

What I found most interesting about all this was one line in the speech where Obama referred to himself as 'a citizen of the world', the setting, and a little something that happened away from the cameras that was quite revealing.

First of all, the setting.Originally, the Chosen One wanted to speak at Berlin's Brandenburg Gate, a conceit that would roughly be equivalent to a German politician giving a speech at the Washington Monument. The Germans politely persuaded Obama that the Gate might not work so well, so Team Obama steered the candidate to an even more questionable site, the Victory Column in Berlin.

Interesting place, that column. The 226-foot (69-meter) column was built to commemorate Prussia's victories over Denmark, Austria and France, with Kaiser Wilhelm I doing the honors at its inauguration in 1873.Originally,it stood in front of the Reichstag, Germany's parliament building until Hitler had it moved to its current location in the middle of Berlin's Tiergarten park, where Ol' Adolf and the Boys used it as a location to whip howling mobs of Good Germans into a bloodthirsty frenzy.

There was some talk about taking it down after World War Two,but apparently the Germans thought it might come in useful for festive occasions like this one, so it stayed up.

Either Barack Obama is ignorant of what a place like this symbolizes or he simply is too sucked up into the vortex of his own ego to care.

Of course, if Obama really wanted a shot at the impact of a Kennedy or a Reagan, he would have made a speech in Mecca, assuming they would allow him in as an apostate Muslim. But apparently Obama felt that the spectacle of him addressing a bunch of screaming Germans in Hitler's old stomping grounds would be less upsetting to Americans than the spectacle of him addressing a bunch of screaming Muslims..with no moving them out of camera range allowed this time.

Oddly enough, this is the second time on this tour that Obama has shown himself to be either ignorant or uncaring of anything but his own photo ops and aggrandizement....campaign posters by his small band of supporters in Israel at the Kotel in Jerusalem was a mark of sacrilege and disrespect, especially since Obama could have easily had his people move them out if he had any sense of what the place means..or cared. As it was, a number of Israelis who were present apparently let Obama know in no uncertain terms what they thought of this, although that little item didn't make the dinosaur media. Israelis are like that - it's a small country, people mostly know one another and they're still used to going up to politicians in public and letting them know what's on their minds...which is why Ehud Olmert hasn't been to Sderot lately.

The last item of interest that occurred away from the spotlight involved US troops stationed at Ramstein Air Base or Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, where a lot of our wounded from Iraq are treated. Obama apparently felt he was too busy to drop in and visit them, giving the lame excuse that his campaign was funding this part of his trip and he didn't feel it was proper, as opposed to his photo-ops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

You have to wonder about this.

Obviously, the excuse given by Obama's campaign is a lame one. Obama is, after all, a sitting Senator and one would think that an opportunity to visit with some of the guardians of our freedoms, particularly those wounded in the line of duty would be appealing any time regardless..unless, perhaps, Obama wasn't too sure of the kind of welcome he would receive from them.

His attempts to sabotage their mission are pretty well known, a few wounded vets getting in his face about it might not have looked good on the evening news, and the campaign probably figured there was no real reason to chance it.. At least, that's my guess.

Next stop for the World Tour, Britain. I'm sure they'll just love him there.

Obama - An 'Eccentric' Performance

Speaking of Obama, the big news today is his unsavory performance in the Middle East. There are number of items of interest.

First of all, several of the minions of the dinosaur media appear to be watching and listening to Obama and not all of them are staying with the script. First of all there's Obama's Fake World Tour by UPI's Maggie Gallagher, unmaking the staged nature of Obama's visit. And in Mr. Obama in Iraq - the Washington Post points out his errors and inconsistencies, dubbing his foreign policy views 'eccentric.' :

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, who has a history of tailoring his
public statements for political purposes, made headlines by saying he would
support a withdrawal of American forces by 2010. But an Iraqi government
statement made clear that Mr. Maliki's timetable would extend at least seven
months beyond Mr. Obama's. More significant, it would be "a timetable which
Iraqis set" -- not the Washington-imposed schedule that Mr. Obama has in mind.
It would also be conditioned on the readiness of Iraqi forces, the same linkage
that Gen. Petraeus seeks. {..}

Other Iraqi leaders were more directly critical. As Mr. Obama
acknowledged, Sunni leaders in Anbar province told him that American troops are
essential to maintaining the peace among Iraq's rival sects and said they were
worried about a rapid drawdown. {..}

Mr. Obama's response is that, as president, he would have to weigh Iraq's needs against those of Afghanistan and the U.S. economy. He says that because Iraq is "a distraction" from more important problems, U.S. resources devoted to it must be curtailed. Yet he also says his aim is to "succeed in leaving Iraq to a sovereign government that can take responsibility for its own future." What if Gen. Petraeus and Iraqi leaders are right that this goal is not consistent with a 16-month timetable? Will Iraq be written off because Mr. Obama does not consider it important enough -- or will the strategy be altered?

Arguably, Mr. Obama has given himself the flexibility to adopt either course. Yesterday he denied being "so rigid and stubborn that I ignore anything that happens during the course of the 16 months," though this would be more reassuring if Mr. Obama were not rigidly and stubbornly maintaining his opposition to the successful "surge" of the past 16 months.

Mr. Obama's account of his strategic vision remains eccentric. He insists that Afghanistan is "the central front" for the United States, along with the border areas of Pakistan. But there are no known al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan, and any additional U.S. forces sent there would not be able to operate in the Pakistani territories where Osama bin Laden is headquartered. While the United States has an interest in preventing the resurgence of the Afghan Taliban, the country's strategic importance pales beside that of Iraq, which lies at the geopolitical center of the Middle East and contains some of the world's largest oil reserves. If Mr. Obama's antiwar stance has blinded him to those realities, that could prove far more debilitating to him as president than any particular timetable

In other words, the WAPO is essentially saying that Obama doesn't have a clue about what he's talking about!

Obama seems to forget that the surge, which he opposed, the bravery of our warriors and the military genius of Generals Petreaus and Ordiano none of whom he supported in any fashion are responsible for his being able to sit in a place like Anbar without getting his head blown off.

John McCain had the right of it, reminding voters that he had said that he would rather lose a political campaign than a war...while Obama obviously would rather lose a war to win a campaign. Even the clueless Katie Couric appears to be a little embarrassed as she contrasts Obama's views with McCain's:



Even more troubling was Obama's reshaping of history to try snd dance on the cracks of his own inconsistency. Rather than credit our troops or our military leaders with the success they achieved in spite of all the efforts of Obama and those like him, Obama credits "the Sunni awakening and the political reconciliation' for the improvement in Iraq's security.

Someone should tell Barack Obama that without American boots on the ground,none of this would have happened. Period.

Yet Obama continues to prove just how clueless he is. He told an incredulous reporter (ABC's Terry Moran) this week that even with the evidence in front of his nose, even given what he knows now, he was right to oppose the surge.

There's a word for this, but I wouldn't call it leadership.

There's some evidence that the American people are taking a second look at Obama, and perhaps not a flattering one.

A FOX news poll shows no bump for Obama from his overseas trip, polls from key battleground states show McCain Making significant gains on Obama and the latest NBC/WSJ poll shows most Americans consider Obama a 'riskier choice for president.'

Short Takes: Worth Reading 7/23/08

Short takes is my way of cramming a lot into a small space for you..kind of like the young gentleman above is doing! Here's a brief rundown of some of today's items of interest for Joshua's Army:

*Behind Maliki's Games - Max Boot in the Washington Post does an important recap on Iraqi PM Maliki and his actions and provides some analysis for his recent statements that pretty much falls in line to some degree with my own..that Maliki is hedging his bets in case Obama wins in November and engaged in hardline bargaining between the US and Iran.

As Boot remarks, it's fascinating to see the same Democrats who derided him as a corrupt and inept tool of the Bush Administration and openly insulted him now treat his every word as sacrosanct .

*The Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of oil, more than all the known reserves of Nigeria, Kazakhstan and Mexico combined and enough to supply U.S. demand for 12 years, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. One third of it is located in Alaskan territory,and it's there just waiting for us.

*Hillaryitis Victor Hansen Davis cautions McCain about playing Obama's game on Iraq.

*MEMRI TV has a video of an amazing occurance...a birthday party and celebration by Al-Jazeera in honor of released murderer Samir Kuntar, a man who shot a father in front of his little girl and then dashed her brains out on a rock with his rifle butt.

Normally these scum are a bit more careful, but this time their bloodlust apparently got better of them..especially since it's for the home town jihad crowd, in Arabic
(with subtitles by MEMRI).

Yes, this is the value these people put on innocent life...this is how they really feel about us. Be forewarned.


*Putting Money Where Mouths Are: Media Donations Favor Dems 100-1 the Investor's Business Daily points out yet another indication of how in the tank the dinosaur media is for Obama.

*There's some good news from Washington DC today. The new intelligence bill passed in the House originally contained a provision banning the use of terms like''jihadi", "Islamist," "mujahadeen," "caliphate", "Islamic terrorist" etc. by government officials in referring to certain activities by members of the Religion Of Peace.

Rep. Peter Hoekstra, a stalwart in the War On Jihad and the ranking Republican Member of the House Intelligence Committee got an amendment tacked on that essentially eliminated that provision. Even more important, the House votes on this provision give us a clear picture of which Congressmen have their heads screwed on straight on this issue and whom does not.
It passed by the margin of 249-180 (with 10 abstentions).

I've seen commentary to the effect that this was a bad idea,because it `offends Muslims' and creates problems in the all important hearts-and-minds battle. I would respond by saying that bombings, beheading, targeting women and children for murder, teaching and preaching hatred and prosecution of non-Muslims and jihadi rhetoric making all this 'holy' offend me and ought to offend any decent Muslim as well. I'm perfectly willing to stop when they do, and jihad only manifests itself as intjihad , an inner spiritual struggle. Until then, I'm all for truth in labeling.

*Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh won a vote of confidence in the Indian Parliament today, which paves the way for the US -India nuclear deal to go through.President Bush plans to have it in Congress for ratification before the end of his term.