Don Singleton: 2006-03-12

Saturday, March 18, 2006

'South Park' feeling some celeb heat?

Variety reported The battle between "South Park""South Park" creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone and Scientology is escalating. The dust-up gained steam last week when Isaac Hayes, a practicing Scientologist who has long been the voice of the character Chef, quit after objecting to a "South Park" episode called "Trapped in the Closet," which lampooned both the religion and Tom CruiseTom Cruise.

He did not mind when they lampoon Christianity, Judism, or Islam, but he can't stand it when they blast his "religion"

The skirmish continued this week, when Comedy CentralComedy Central abruptly pulled a repeat of that episode that was scheduled to air Wednesday evening.

Maybe the next time they take a shot at Christianity we should complain.

Showing instead was another memorable segseg which featured Hayes's character, called "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls."

Blog reports pegged the mysterious episode switch to objections raised by Cruise, who, the reports stated, threatened to not promote "Mission: Impossible 3," the summer tentpole for ViacomViacom-owned Paramount.

We we certainly dont want to tick Tom off, do we? <tongue in cheek>

Betsy's Page is back

Yesterday we asked "Where's Betsy's Page". It had disappeared a few days earlier, and I emailed her at that time, and when it did not reappear I offerred to set up a WordPress blog for her on my server (I may move over there myself sometime).

Well Blogger finally restored her page. As she said I seem to exist again. It's been a long, strange trip. On Tuesday, my blog disappeared completely and my dashboard page on Blogger showed that my blog did not exist. It was Kafkaesque. I didn't feel any different, but, apparently, my four years of blogging had vanished with just a few traces left in Google Cache.... Then, today, I got a message from Blogger saying that they had recovered my blog and that somehow I had gotten caught up in some massive “automated spam prevention system" action that had thought that my blog was spam. Huh?!

Sister Toldjah blogged After reading the experience Betsy Newmark went through after her blog went down for four days, and after reading that something similar happened to Jason at Generation Why? (who has his own domain now), I encourage anyone with a blog at Blogger/Blogspot to do a backup of their site and get a domain with hosting services.

CQ blogged Apparently the folks at Blogger have done a pretty horrible job of supporting their customers. Betsy Newmark had her entire site wiped out mysteriously by their system, and then experienced a boatload of frustration when she tried to correct the situation. Her URL also appeared to have been hijacked as well, but now seems like it's back on line.

OTB blogged I see that several sites on Blogspot, notably Betsy Newmark’s and Eric Lindholm’s, have suddenly disappeared owing to a glitch at Blogger. Some jerk even snagged Betsy’s old URL and is squatting on it. Michelle Malkin gives more insights into Newmark’s situation.

I had this happen to me several months ago, with my original OTB/OTB Backup Site disappearing and numerous niche blogs I had established just going away. Google, which owns Blogspot, never even bothered to respond to my queries. Indeed, my experience was almost identical to Newmark’s.

If you’re going to spend the time to blog, please get yourself a domain and rent your own server space. Unless you’re posting videos or getting big time traffic, you can do it for less than $20 a month–often much less. Frankly, this pathetic level of service is overpriced even at “free.”

Friday, March 17, 2006

Where's Betsy's Page?

Michelle Malkin Betsy Newmark, one of my favorite bloggers who I've been honored to have guest-blog here, is down. I asked her what happened. She e-mails about her nightmare:

Evil Blogger has lost the page - server problems. They are the most unhelpful organization. You can't reach any human being and all I get are form letters saying that all the problems have been resolved. I'm just hoping that they fix their problem and I get back on. I don't have time to hassle with setting up a new page.

She adds:
All I get are their automated messages that are of no help whatsoever. Then they put up lies on their status page saying that it really was just a tiny problem and it's all fixed now. Maybe if they get some notoriety out there, they'll take more action. Here is their lame help message. Thanks so much. Maybe one of your readers has a suggestion of what I can do to get my blog back other than starting over from scratch.
Even worse, someone else has now poached her URL.

Can someone help?

I offerred to set up and host a Word Press blog for her.

Prosecute the lawyers

Michelle Malkin blogged You've probably heard that a judge tossed out the most of the prosecution's case for the death penalty against al Qaeda terrorist Zacarias Moussaoui, thanks to a Transportation Security Agency lawyer who provided trial transcripts to and briefed potential witnesses.

Now comes a credible-sounding allegation that the entire incident was orchestrated by lawyers for federal bailout recipients United Airlines and American Airlines, who wanted to undermine the prosecutors' case against Moussaoui in order to bolster their legal defense in a separate civil suit.

Big Lizards explains the whole thing here.

Carla Martin should definitely be prosecuted, and she should be encouraged to testify against the American Airlines' lawyer and the United Airlines lawyer who initiated the conspiracy. If you can't get a conviction, then ask Dick Cheney to invite them on a hunting trip.

Can Democrats Play This Game?

E. J. Dionne Jr. wrote in WaPo Russ Feingold tossed a political grenade at President Bush this week, but it fell into the middle of the Senate Democratic Caucus. Many Democratic senators ran away.

They were not stupid enough to take Feingold up on his motion, but with the Loony Left in the Blogosphere cheering him on, they may develop the necessary stupidity.

The grenade was the Wisconsin senator's proposal to censure the president for violating the law by ordering electronic surveillance on Americans without explicit congressional or court authorization.

Even though he didn't need it.

While the episode says more about Bush's political frailty than the first-blush accounts have suggested, it also underscored the frictions and tensions between passionate Democratic activists and their cautious leaders. The president has lost so much support and credibility that Republicans were simply grateful Feingold briefly changed the political subject from the Dubai ports controversy, the mess in Iraq and Bush's anemic poll ratings.

No, they just hoped that the Dems would be stupid enough to vote to censure the President for doing something a majority of the public knows needs to be done. That vote would be very useful in the 2006 and 2008 elections.

Bill Would Allow Warrantless Spying

WaPo The Bush administration could continue its policy of spying on targeted Americans without obtaining warrants, but only if it justifies the action to a small group of lawmakers, under legislation introduced yesterday by key Republican senators.

This is a good solution, but if one of that small group of legislators leeks anything, they need to be held accountable for their actions.

The four senators hope to settle the debate over National Security Agency eavesdropping on international communications involving Americans when one of the parties is suspected of terrorist ties. President Bush prompted a months-long uproar when he said that constitutional powers absolve him of the need to seek warrants in such cases, even though the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act requires warrants for domestic wiretaps.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

Pelosi Hints at Democrats' 'Unified' Agenda

CNS News reported The Republican Party has wondered what's taking Democrats so long to unveil their election-year agenda. Amid press reports that it will happen any day now, House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday offered what amounts to a draft version.

They hate George Bush.

Americans who find it hard to make ends meet may like the promises they hear from the Democrats. But the companies that employ such Americans may not like the plan.

There is nothing new there. Dems have always hated business.

In any case, the Republican Party says the Democrats' real agenda involves the censure and possible impeachment of President George W. Bush.

In a speech to the Communications Workers of America on Tuesday, Pelosi mentioned Democrats' opposition to outsourcing. She said Democrats will end tax subsidies for companies that send jobs overseas.

Can they name a single bill that provides tax subsidies for companies to send jobs overseas?

She also said Democrats support the "right of all Americans to organize," a sentiment that goes over well with labor unions such as the CWA.

Unions are rapidly shrinking, because there is little need for them, so they may like that.

To protect workers who want to join unions, Pelosi said Democrats are "fighting" to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, sponsored by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) in the House and Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) in the Senate. "The bill will guarantee that when a majority of workers in a company want a union, they will get a union," Pelosi said.

What about protecting rights of employees that don't want to join a union, or don't want one in their company.

Democrats also support an increase in the minimum wage. Pelosi, describing the income of corporate American CEOs as "immoral," used Wal-Mart to make her point:

A lot of liberals take pot shots at WalMart, yet they don't seem to have trouble finding people to work for them.

"I was told that an entry level person at Wal-Mart, who works his or her entire career at Wal-Mart, would make as much as the CEO makes in two weeks. A lifetime of work versus two weeks in the executive suite -- this is not America, this is not fairness, this is not the basis of a strong middle class that is essential for our democracy. We must change that in our country," she said.

Robin Hood Democrats will rob from the rich to give to the poor (except most of it they will keep for themselves).

Pelosi also mentioned the Democrats' "Innovation Agenda" to maintain America's leadership role in the global economy.

They want to support the global economy; just don't send any jobs overseas.

America lags behind other countries that have universal broadband deployment, Pelosi said; but the Democrats' agenda "guarantees" that every American will have affordable access to broadband within five years.

I thought Gore invented the internet; why did he invent it with slow access?

"We also believe that the nationwide deployment of high speed, always-on broadband and Internet and mobile communications will fuel the development of millions of new jobs in the United States," Pelosi said.

Unless she is planning on having the government subsidize the broadband, she should be able to get Republicans to join with her in developing technology.

Democrats support "energy independence" within ten years; health care for all American within five years; and "dignified retirement" (no privatization of Social Security) through an "AmeriSave" plan.

Tell us how we can afford to do it.

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Online Freedom of Speech Act Vote Tomorrow

Outside The Beltway blogged The House will vote tomorrow on HR 1606 - The Online Freedom of Speech Act, a measure uniting Left and Right in the blogosphere. It got majority support last go-round but was thwarted by procedural tricks.

Extreme Left Wing Markos Moulitsas Zuniga notes that the NYT calls it “Internet Campaign Loophole” even though “this loophole has existed for several years and still hasn’t been exploited.”

Mike Krempasky says, “Seriously folks - it’s gameday. Get on the horn.”.... Here are the relevant points:

HR 1606 is a simple bill that simply puts into law the existing status quo. It preserves the system under which we operated for the 2004 elections - WHEN THERE WAS NO CORRUPTION OR SCANDAL. It's supported by bloggers left and right.
HR 4900 (also known as the CDT proposal) is NOT an acceptable alternative to HR 1606. It's attractive, and while complicated it has a lot to like - and we can look at it after we pass 1606 - but this is the bottom line: if HR 1606 is not passed TOMORROW, the FEC will issue regulations for politics on the internet.
The ~~reformers~~ regulators merely want to delay the process while the Commission will be forced to issue regulations.
This is a TINY, TINY law. It does NOT open up a gaping loophole - and you can support BCRA and still believe that this little tiny section of American politics ought to be free. (don't trust me - ask FEC Chairman Michael Toner)

I hope it passes

George Clooney - Blogger???

LA Times reported Oscar winner George Clooney may make politically provocative films like "Syriana." But he doesn't write politically provocative blogs. So imagine his ire when Arianna Huffington used some of his recent answers to political questions in a way that makes it look as if he wrote one for her Huffington Post blog site. "He doesn't object to the quotes," says Stan Rosenfield, Clooney's rep. "He said those things and those are his views. Arianna asked for permission to use the quotes and he gave it to her. What he didn't give permission for was the use of his quotes without source attributions to make it appear that he wrote a blog for her site. Which he did not. When he saw the posting Monday, we called and asked her to make the change, to simply attribute the quotes and make it clear that he did not write a blog. But she refused. And it's now Wednesday." Rather than keep waiting, Clooney got proactive and issued this statement: "Miss Huffington's blog is purposefully misleading and I have asked her to clarify the facts. I stand by my statements but I did not write this blog

Arianna Huffington blogged The George Clooney blog that was posted on the Huffington Post Sunday was published only after we received written approval from his representative to do so. Here's the story:

When I first invited George Clooney to blog after a screening of Good Night, and Good Luck in New York a few months ago, he said he wasn't sure how a blog worked.

Why didn't you teach him.

So we put together a sample blog from answers he had given on Larry King Live and an interview with the Guardian in London, and sent it to him to rework in any way he wanted.

If you wanted to send it to him as a suggested post, that would have been ok, but to then post it and pretend he had done it was dishonest. Is that the way all of the "bloggers" on The Huffington Post work? Are they all posted by you, pretending to be the celebrities?

A publicist who was working on the promotion of Good Night, and Good Luck, emailed back saying, "I will get it to him and get back to you as soon as I hear anything." Three days later, she emailed again, approving, without any changes, what we had sent: "Of course this is fine, Arianna!" And once we had the approval, that's what we ran: George Clooney's words put into blog form.

Then why did you call it George Clooney's Blog. Why did you not say you were pretending to be him?

New Blog Tool

I really like the Performancing blogging addition to the Firefox browser, which I use to post to multiple blogs. Well they have now come up with Performancing Metric, a professional grade blog statistics service aimed at professional bloggers, available to all, for FREE, in public beta.

Google News Credibility Foiled By 15-Year Old

The SEO Blog: reported Sometimes the most well thought out practical jokes trigger an uneven brand of justice that falls under the laws of unintended consequences. While not formally codified and ill defined, the law of unintended consequences is very real, as a Google-focused prank pulled by 15-year old Tom Vandetta amply illustrates.

Reading through SEO focused blog entries, Vandetta found an article that explained how to fool Google's news system by writing fake press releases. Sensing an opportunity to experiment and play a joke on his friends, the self-described "Google fanboy" decided to see what would happen if he submitted a fake Google press release claiming the 15-year old New Jersey student was Google's youngest employee. The prank has made Vandetta temporarily famous. His Gmail account received almost 400 emails in the first few hours. Vandetta has since had to open new Gmail and MySpace accounts. His parents are changing their phone number and he is working to re-establish a workable online identity.

I bet his parents were not amused.

On the brighter side, he has received a few emails from Google employees assuring him he has not dashed his dreams of one day working for Google, as he thought he might have.

Myths of Iraq

RealClearPolitics reported During a recent visit to Baghdad, I saw an enormous failure. On the part of our media. The reality in the streets, day after day, bore little resemblance to the sensational claims of civil war and disaster in the headlines.

The MSM would rather lie to the American Public than to do their job as journalism because they hate Bush so much.

No one with first-hand experience of Iraq would claim the country's in rosy condition, but the situation on the ground is considerably more promising than the American public has been led to believe. Lurid exaggerations and instant myths obscure real, if difficult, progress.

I left Baghdad more optimistic than I was before this visit. While cynicism, political bias and the pressure of a 24/7 news cycle accelerate a race to the bottom in reporting, there are good reasons to be soberly hopeful about Iraq's future.

Much could still go wrong. The Arab genius for failure could still spoil everything. We've made grave mistakes. Still, it's difficult to understand how any first-hand observer could declare that Iraq's been irrevocably "lost."

Consider just a few of the inaccuracies served up by the media

This is a very good article, and I urge everyone to read it.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

2008 GOP Primary Straw Poll

GOP Bloggers is running a 2008 Straw Poll. This is a unique 2008 primary straw poll, you get to pick all the candidates you like and don't like, and it'll tally who has the largest net positive or net negative support. Feel free to vote for as many or as few candidates as you'd like. If you have no strong feelings towards a candidate, you don't need to vote either way.

Democrats Beat Quick Retreat on Call to Censure President

NYT reported Senate Democrats on Monday blocked an immediate vote on a call by one of their own to censure President Bush for his eavesdropping program. They acted after Republicans said they were eager to pass judgment on a proposal that they portrayed as baseless and disruptive to the antiterror effort.

At least they were halfway intelligent. A roll call vote would have been very useful for the 2006 and 2008 elections.

.... Though polls on surveillance are mixed, Republicans say the public generally backs the idea of eavesdropping on people suspected of being in contact with terror suspects.... Mr. Feingold said he viewed his censure resolution as a reasonable way to hold the president accountable.... "This is certainly more serious than anything President Clinton was accused of doing,"

Well having oral sex with an intern in the Oval Office might be legal, rapeing another woman is not, nor is telling lies while under oath.

said Mr. Feingold, who added that the grass-roots response to his proposal was strong after he announced his intention on Sunday.

Certainly the rabid left side of the blogosphere was happy, but they are the ones that are pressing all of the Dems to stay so far on the left that they dont stand a chance of taking over the House, the Senate, or the White House.

"It is reminiscent of what President Nixon was not only accused of doing,

Not exactly. Nixon participated in the coverup of a breakin to the Democratic Headquarters Office in the Watergate Hotel; that is not the same as listening to international phone calls involving a group of Islamofascists that killed 3,000 people on 9/11

but was basically removed from office for doing."

Dangerously Incompetent

Kathryn Jean Lopez wrote on The Corner on National Review Online Senator Stabenow is on the Senate floor right now speaking next to a sign that says “dangerously incompetent.” Will make for a cheap commerical later this election year.

ROF, LMAO. And notice the color of the sign matches her outfit

Chinese Bloggers Cry Wolf

WSJ. reported Some well-known bloggers in China used an unlikely tool last week to make a point that Western news media and politicians misunderstand Chinese censorship. They shut themselves down.

Notices posted on the Chinese-language blogs Massage Milk and Milk Pig announced that "Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed."

Their hoax got everyone's attention, but I hope they don't try it too often, or they will be considered like the boy that cried wolf. Finally people did not believe him when he cried wolf, and when a wolf really came .....

Within hours, English-language bloggers and Western news media spread the word that the Chinese government had closed the sites. The BBC news service reported that Massage Milk was "closed down by the authorities," adding that the act had coincided with the annual session of the Chinese legislature. Picking up on that report and others from news services, French free-press group Reporters Without Borders issued a statement condemning the closure of the blogs..... But in this case, it appears the Chinese government wasn't involved. By Thursday, a day after the shut-downs, the blogs were back up and running.

In an interview, Beijing-based journalist Wang Xiaofeng of Massage Milk says he shut his blog down to make a point about freedom of speech -- just one directed at the West instead of at Beijing. He calls the Western press "irresponsible" and says that the hoax was designed "to give foreign media a lesson that Chinese affairs are not always the way you think."

We now realize that. And when the Chinese government really does shut you down, I hope you remember this.

"They are not just supposed to report based on their own perceptions, without understanding the circumstances in China," he says, noting that the BBC's report was exactly what he expected. The BBC didn't call him to discuss the issue before publishing its stories, he says.

Check to see whether the story is true or not before publishing? What a strange journalistic practice (at least these days)

Celebrity gossip

Memeorandum is a very useful tool for bloggers both its political and technical versions.

Today they released a third version WeSmirch: Automatic Dirt Digger for Celebrity Gossip

Censure???

Tim Chapman wrote in Townhall Democratic Senator Russ Feingold has introduced a resolution that would censure the President of the United States for "eavesdropping" in the wake of 9/11.

Feingold just asserts that the President broke the law, ignoring all of the legal opinions which hold that what was done was legal for at least two different reasons, and since he knows he will not be able to prove that, he wants to just assert that it is true, and then censure the president for doing it. Like Alice learned in Wonderland: "sentence first, trial later"

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, moments ago, made a unanimous consent motion that the Senate vote on the resolution tonight.

That makes a lot of sense. There is no way it would pass, but Democrats would have to decide whether to vote for censure, which would endear them to the Loony Left Bloggers (like the KosKids), but which would be very bad for them in the 2006 and 2008 elections, when they had to face voters who like the idea of listening to Al Qaeda talking to their cells in the US.

Maryland Democrat Paul Sarbanes rose to object to the motion. Frist then motioned to vote on the resolution again tomorrow. Sarbanes objected, saying no vote should take place on the resolution until Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid had cleared the timing. In other words, Democrats know this is a political stunt, without a chance of passage, but want to time it politically for maximum impact.

Dems dont know how to run a country, but they know how to play politics.

Later, Harry Reid took the floor to say he was offended that Frist would go to the floor and motion for unanimous consent on such an "important issue" without talking to him first.

Did he talk to Frist first last year when he pulled his own political stunt?

Reid's two-facedness knows no bounds. Does he not remember last year taking the Senate floor and invoking Senate Rule XXI, thereby shutting down the Senate? When he made that parliamentary move to score political points over pre-war intelligence, he broke all Senate precedent by invoking the draconian measure without first seeking the compliance of the Senate Majority Leader as has always been done in the past.

Mark Noonan has the right idea: Censure Senator Feingold

Monday, March 13, 2006

Anti-Semitism seen rising among France's Muslims

Boston Globe reported Anti-Semitism seen rising among France's Muslims

Semites are peoples whose ancestry can be traced back to Shem, Noah's eldest son. This includes Arabs, Aramaeans, Jews, and many Ethiopians. So if an Arab is anti-semetic, he must hate his own people.

In the bleak housing project where a young Jew named Ilan Halimi was held captive and tortured before being dumped in a vacant lot to die, there's scant sympathy for the victim. 'It's too bad this happened, because we immigrants are always blamed," said Ibrahim Ag Ahmalou,

Maybe the fact that they blame immigrants is because they are the ones filled with hatred.

a lanky man of West African heritage who shares his girlfriend's apartment in the project. ''But Jews have all the money and power.

Or at least that is what the people that taught you to hate told you to think.

Everyone knows this and resents them. That's why they have these problems."

Anchoress said We keep hearing that the majority of Muslims in France do not consider themselves to be French.

They are willing to share the French's dislike of Jews, but they certainly don't want to be French. And if the French area stupid enough to let them stay in their country, they will deserve what happens

And besides, how can Muslims be Anti-Semitic when they are themselves Semitic peoples?

The point I made above. However I think they are merely anti Zionist (or anti Jew), and they are just not smart enough to realize they can't be Anti Semetic because they are Semites.

Unless….they’re self-loathing….

You have a good point there. The Islamofascists have done some pretty despicable things, and any sane person would loath them. Perhaps there are some sane French Muslims. (And I wish there were more).

Arghgh…it’s all too much. Let’s go have chocolate milk!

Krekar claims Islam will win

Aftenposten.no reported Norway's most controversial refugee, Mullah Krekar, told an Oslo newspaper on Monday that there's a war going on between "the West" and Islam. He said he's sure that Islam will win, and he also had praise for suspected terrorist leader Osama bin Laden. "We're the ones who will change you," Krekar told Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet in his first interview since an uproar broke out over cartoons deemed offensive to Muslims. "Just look at the development within Europe, where the number of Muslims is expanding like mosquitoes,"

And apt description.

Krekar said. "Every western woman in the EU is producing an average of 1.4 children. Every Muslim woman in the same countries are producing 3.5 children. "By 2050, 30 percent of the population in Europe will be Muslim."

Which is why Europe needs to start deporting all radical Muslims.

He claimed that "our way of thinking... will prove more powerful than yours."

I don't think so.

He loosely defined "western thinking" as formed by the values held by leaders of western or non-islamic nations. Its "materialism, egoism and wildness" has altered Christianity, he claimed.

Secular Humanism has certainly cut back on people practicing Christianity, but I would not say it was altered.

Krekar, who's been supported by the Norwegian government since arriving as a refugee from northern Iraq in the early 1990s, now faces deportation after violating the terms of his refugee status and being deemed a threat to national security.

Hope they don't back down, and go ahead and deport him.

Bin Laden 'a good man'
Krekar told Dagbladet that he favours Islamic rule where political and religious leaders are one and the same.

Then he should move to such a country.

One such leader he respects, he said, is Osama bin Laden.

I wonder if Norway will be stupid enough to let this guy stay in its country.

"Osama bin Laden is a good person," Krekar said. He claimed Osama bin Laden is considered a terrorist simply because he lacks his own state.

No. He is considered a terrorist because of what he did. And the Taliban lost their state because they were too stupid not to turn him over.

"Those who say Osama bin Laden is a terrorist are themselves killing our women and children," Krekar said.

Islamofascists kill a lot more Muslim women and children than American forces ever did.

Attempts to "spread democracy," he claimed, are merely a ruse to wage war against Islam, adding that "the West destroyed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan" because "it feared the Islamic state."

No, it was because the Taliban regime was stupid, and would not turn over Osama, who had attacked us on 9/11

Rakan Ben Williams

MEMRI reports Rakan Ben Williams warns that, unlike after the 9/11, Madrid, and London attacks, which are still being investigated, "[after] the coming attack there will be no one to analyze and investigate, because the mind and the heart will be unable to comprehend it

I've got news for you. If there is another attack, regardless of how big it will be, we will be able to comprehend it, and we will retaliate.

… This will not be a single operation", the report added, "but two; one bigger than the other, but we will begin with the big one and postpone the bigger one,

That does not make a lot of sense, but then nothing you nutcases say makes any sense.

in order to see [how] diligent the American people is [in preserving] its life. If it chooses life, [it must] carry out the demands of the Muslims,

Which is not going to happen.

and if it chooses death, then we are its best perpetrators

And the best recipients

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Media shockingly ignorant of Muslims among us

Mark Steyn wrote in SunTimes "The man charged with nine counts of attempted murder for driving a Jeep through a crowd at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill last Friday told the police that he deliberately rented a four-wheel-drive vehicle so he could 'run over things and keep going.' " The driver in question was Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar.

Whoa, don't jump to conclusions. The Times certainly didn't. As the report continued: "According to statements taken by the police, Mr. Taheri-azar, 22, an Iranian-born graduate of the university, felt that the United States government had been 'killing his people across the sea' and that his actions reflected 'an eye for an eye.'"

"His people"? And who exactly would that be? Taheri-azar is admirably upfront about his actions. As he told police, he wanted to "avenge the deaths or murders of Muslims around the world."

And yet the M-word appears nowhere in the Times report.

The MSM is reluctant to report on Muslims unless they can twist it to blaim George Bush

Whether intentionally or not, they seem to be channeling the great Sufi theologian and jurist al-Ghazali, who died a millennium ago but whose first rule on the conduct of dhimmis -- non-Muslims in Muslim society -- seem to have been taken on board by the Western media: The dhimmi is obliged not to mention Allah or His Apostle. . . . Are they teaching that at Columbia Journalism School yet?

Are they even teaching Journalism at the Columbia Journalism School?

McCain Tests New Road to Nomination

WaPo reported No one stole the show at the Southern Republican Leadership Conference here this weekend, but Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) demonstrated why every other prospective 2008 presidential candidate must figure out how to get around him.

More than any of his potential rivals, McCain found a way to balance embracing a weakened President Bush

McCain was brilliant by telling all of his supporters to vote for GWB instead of him. Bill Frist was guaranteed to be the top vote getter, since it was in his state, and McCain was definitely not going to be one of the top vote getters, but this way he had an excuse for his 5th place level, and he should have guaranteed that Bush will campaign for him anytime he asks during the 2008 election race (I suspect Bush will not endorse anyone in the Primary)

-- at a time when many Republicans are running away from the president -- while appealing to those in and out of his party who believe Bush and other Washington Republicans have lost their way. No other candidate could claim to offer continuity and change almost simultaneously. The Arizona senator was full-throated in his support for Bush on Iraq, Iran and even the now-defunct Dubai seaports deal.

All of which I agree on.

In doing so, he continued to establish his bona fides as the Republican most likely to defend and extend the president's controversial foreign policy record. At the same time, McCain delivered a stern condemnation of fiscal profligacy and corruption in Washington that was rooted in his reputation as an advocate of change and an antagonist of pork-barrel spending.

I agree with him on that as well

Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)