Dr. Ariel Cohen
THE KAZAKH TIGER IN CENTRAL ASIA
President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the leader of Kazakhstan since 1989, won the country's Dec. 4 presidential election hands down. The Central Election Commission reported he got 91 percent of the votes. Gallup and International Republican Institute exit polling says he got only 83.2 percent. Either way, no Orange Revolution there. To put the Kazakh elections in perspective, it is important to note there were no democratic procedures there during the Russian czarist or the Soviet times. Seen in this light, the Kazakh elections were among most open in Central Asia. What makes Kazakhstan unique are its real economic achievements, fueled by high oil prices. Kazakhstan today is as one of the more positive available examples of post-Soviet market development, including Western access to oil and gas resources, which Russia increasingly rejects.
THE PARANOIA ANTIDOTE
Given all the frantic efforts by so much of the media, and by so many folks with agendas, to freak you out with fear, I think you should look upon To The Point as The Paranoia Antidote. In addition to this week’s article on how Iran’s nuclear threat may be of benefit to Israel (Shouldn’t the Palestinians Be Terrified of Iran?), let’s take three examples. The first concerns the liberal paranoia of global warming, or more precisely man-made global warming, as in, it’s all our fault. It’s hilarious, of course, that COP-11, the assemblage of eco-goofballs attending the UN conference on “climate change” are freezing their tushes in Montreal this week in record cold while whining about the earth burning up. They would be enlightened by reading Solar Warming in To The Point in September. Our second example concerns conservative paranoia over the phony terrorist threat of “EMP.” The “threat” is a cry of nuclear wolf, as originally discussed in The EMP Annoyance last June. Our third example is the current paranoia over torture – specifically the torture of terrorists to extract information from them regarding planned terrorist acts. All of this can be avoided – all brutalizing torture can be avoided – with the techniques described in three To The Point articles: D3 Terrorists (July 2005). How To Get A Terrorist To Sing Like A Canary Without Torture (January 2005). Interrogating Osama (October 2001).
SHOULDN’T THE PALESTINIANS BE TERRIFIED OF IRAN?
Israeli military intelligence now states that Iran may have the capacity to build a nuclear bomb by March, 2006. That’s less than four months away. Thus the pressure for Israel to mount an attack on Iranian facilities is getting intense. Yet they are dispersed and dug in deep fortified subterranean tunnels. Sabotage, rather than a missile attack, seems the only option – but the frightening reality is that Mossad, the Israeli CIA, can’t pull it off. Some sort of military assault, covert or overt, may be attempted anyway, but let’s also watch out for Sharon to deal a card from the bottom of the deck as well. This sure is a good time he thinks, for some Psy-Ops – directed at the Palestinians, and all Sunni Moslems worldwide. It is a very good time to point out to them that there is no way to make a nuclear bomb that just kills Jews. There is no way to “wipe Israel off the map” in a Nuclear Armageddon without wiping out the Palestinians as well.
BENEDICT TO THE RESCUE
In a week where California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed a hyper-leftwing pro-abortion lesbian “married” to her “partner” as his chief of staff, and South Africa’s Constitutional Court ordered Parliament to legalize homosexual “marriage,” the moral sanity exhibited by the Catholic Church was a welcome relief. On Wednesday, November 29, the Vatican issued an Instruction entitled, Concerning the Criteria of Vocational Discernment Regarding Persons with Homosexual Tendencies in View of their Admission to Seminaries and Holy Orders, which now has the authority of canon law. Pope Benedict is taking a moral stand, standing firmly against the shrieking gales of limp-wristed liberalism. He is determined not only to rid his church of pederastic perverts, but is determined that his church is the moral rock of St. Peter that it is supposed to be.
FIFTH COLUMN DISTORTION
In his speech at the Naval Academy Wednesday outlining U.S. strategy in Iraq, President Bush paid tribute to Marine Corporal Jeffrey Starr, killed in a fire fight in Ar Ramadi April 30th. He was 22, on his third tour in Iraq. A letter to his girlfriend was found on Starr's laptop computer: "If you're reading this, then I've died in Iraq," Cpl. Starr wrote. "I don't regret going. Everybody dies but a few get to do it for something as important as freedom. It may seem confusing why we're in Iraq; it's not to me. I'm here helping these people so they can live the way we live, not to have to worry about tyrants or vicious dictators. Others have died for my freedom; now this is my mark." In a mammoth article in October taking note of the 2,000th U.S. death in Iraq, the New York Times mentioned Cpl. Starr and his letter, but didn't quote the passages above. All the Times quoted from his letter was: "'I kind of predicted this,' Corporal Starr wrote of his own death. 'A third time just seemed like I'm pushing my chances.'" The Times' omissions and distortions -- which are more the rule than the exception in news coverage of Iraq -- explain why so many Americans think we're losing a war we're plainly winning.
CASABLANCA ON THE POTOMAC
Here’s a difficult question: Would you spend $80 to make $1000? OK – would you spend $80 million to make $1 billion? If you did so, would you then claim you were ripped off? You would if you were Jack Abramoff’s Indian tribe clients. Everyone in America has now heard of the “infamous super-lobbyist” Jack Abramoff. You’ve heard all about him, but let me assure you that you know very, very little about him – because the Democrat media wants it that way. So let me tell you an illustrative story about him.
CROOKS IN CONGRESS AND CIA ROGUE WEASELS
One liberating silver lining to Republican Congressman Randy “Duke” Cunningham’s pleading guilty to bribery charges is that being a Vietnam war hero is no longer a lifetime exemption from moral criticism. When Jean Schmidt (R-OH) last Friday (Nov. 25) denounced John Murtha’s (D-PA) call for retreat from Iraq on the floor of Congress by reading a letter from a Marine asking her to “ ‘send Congressman Murtha a message: That cowards cut and run, Marines never do’,” she caused a riot that came close to being a fistfight between elephant and jackass Congresscritters. Murtha, you see, is somehow invulnerable to criticism because he served 37 years in the Marines and won a number of medals in Vietnam. Howard Dean wasted no time in announcing that a billboard would be erected by Democrats in Portsmouth, Ohio (her disctrict headquarters), declaring: “Shame on You, Jean Schmidt: Stop Attacking Veterans.” John Murtha is a legitimate war hero – unlike John Kerry. He won two real Purple Hearts and a Bronze Star in combat in Vietnam. He deserves our admiration and respect for his military service. Yet his being a war hero did not prevent him from becoming a moral coward – and a crook in Congress.
Chapter Sixteen: XICOTENCATL – YOUNG AND OLD
Chapter Sixteen: Xicotencatl – Young and Old
Malinali was stunned that Cortez was speaking this way to the Tlaxcalan elders. She knew how close the Spaniards were to giving up, how they feared another attack. But… but… the Tlaxcalans did not know this. They must have believed what she told the prisoners she had set free! Yet how did Cortez learn of this? She had not told him what she had done. It must be that Cortez was a genio with people as Bernal said. For Cortez’s words had the desired effect on the Tlaxcalan chiefs. They bowed deeply, swore that Young Xicotencatl would come, said that all Tlaxcala will rejoice when the Malinche and his men will be at their capital, and left looking relieved and satisfied. Even more relieved and satisfied were the Spaniards. With turkeys, maize cakes, cherries and other food in abundance, plus the promise of no more attacks, the camp was full of laughter – and no grumbling, not even from de Grado. Cortez was pleased, and made sure everyone saw he was – but he also made sure the patrols and scouts continued, day and night, to search for danger. He had no trust in this Young Xicotencatl.COOLING ON CONDI
For some time now, I’ve been telling you that Condi Rice may replace Dick Cheney (who would step down for “health reasons”) as Bush’s Vice-President, putting her in the catbird seat for the GOP presidential nomination in ’08. I expect this to take place by summer 2006. As I discussed last month in 44, her candidacy would be do more damage to the Democrat Party than Katrina did to the Gulf Coast. She is the only candidate the GOP can put up who could defeat Hillary. (Try this on as a barf alert: John McCain as Hillary’s running mate. Denied the GOP nomination, he’ll bolt his party and team with Hil who’s got the Dem nomination sewed up. Yep, that’s the latest hot DC buzz.) Now it’s time for the other shoe to drop.
THE DEMISE OF FRANCE
After two weeks of unrestrained violence across the country, France imposed curfews and a state-of-emergency rule on 24 of its provinces. The government certainly hopes that this wartime measure will quickly scale down the riots and it may well do that. Yet history is more likely to look back on this not as the end of an irrational burst of urban violence, but as the first act in a protracted time of troubles for France and Europe that could ultimately lead to the demise of European civilization as we know it. None of this is even remotely discernible in French political rhetoric or media coverage surrounding the violent events in the Moslem ghettoes. Yet, shying away from reality by France's ruling class does not change reality – and that stark reality is one of a civilized European nation sliding into barbarism.
MOONBAT COWARDS
Abu Musab al Zarqawi, the al Qaeda chieftain in Iraq, has had a bad week. If it turns out Zarqawi was among seven al Qaeda leaders killed in Mosul Saturday, it'll have been a really bad week. But even if Zarqawi got away again, it's been a rotten week for him. It's also been a bad week for antiwar Democrats, who had their bluff called in the House of Representatives.
CAN DEMOCRATS CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING?
The short answer is: No, they can’t – not this year. They can’t emotionally afford it. BDS – Bush Derangement Syndrome – requires them to overcook their turkey, serve it with sugarless cranberries to match their bitterness, and wash it down not with a good chardonnay but with bile. Their propaganda machine known collectively as the MSM – mainstream media – should be re-nicknamed the BNM: the Bad News Media. The Democrats must refuse to acknowledge and the BNM must refuse to report anything good about America whatsoever. Failure on their part to do so might cause dangerously blasphemous thoughts to occur to the American public, like we are not losing the War on Moslem Terrorism, we are not losing the War in Iraq, President Bush is an honest and decent man whose moral character infinitely exceeds theirs ( and most especially his Democrat predecessor and opponents in 2000 and 2004), the American economy is doing spectacularly well, the sky is not falling nor the oceans rising due to global warming, that America has so much to celebrate on this Thanksgiving Day. The Dems and Libs will on this day mouth pious platitudes about our “blessings,” making sure to riddle them with let’s-not-forget buts: “Thank you, O (substitute whatever they put in place of God) for America’s blessings but let’s not forget the victims of Katrina and the homeless and the starving Banglesdeshis and every ailment on the planet because they are all America’s and George Bush’s fault.” Democrats cannot truly celebrate Thanksgiving because they no longer have the capacity to celebrate being American. This is not hyperbolic. It is a tragic truth.
THE HANDWRITING ON THE WALL IS CHINESE
The famous story in Chapter 5 of the Book of Daniel in the Old Testament tells of a banquet held by the King of Babylon, Belshazzar, during which a magical finger writes mysterious words on the wall: mene, mene, tekel, upharsin. Today, the handwriting on our wall is in Chinese. And just like back in 559 BC, there is a huge debate over the correct translation – this time between two factions on the President’s National Security Council. But where is Daniel? His voice is only a whisper, but if you stand in the halls of the OEOB – the fabulously ornate Old Executive Office Building adjacent to the White House – you can hear it emanating from a handful of National Security Council offices. Let’s listen carefully, for these whispers are reaching the ears of the President, who is intrigued by the suggestion of a third alternative to the business squishes and the cold warriors regarding the conundrum of China. That alternative is Christianity.
FISH-EYED SACKS OF LOATHSOME BILE
Little good comes when Congress grabs control of American foreign policy and war-fighting strategies from the hands of a scandal-weakened White House. Of course, it is always possible that there are 51 forward-leaning, shrewd, patriotic, non-partisan senators assembled to make the tough, unpopular call to push on for victory, no matter how hard and long the struggle – LOL. But it is vastly more likely that ignoble instincts beat in the breasts of the several senators assembled. Monday, for the first time, the foul odor of the Vietnam War denouement wafted through the Senate chamber during the debate on Iraq. The Democrats called for “estimated dates for the phased redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq.” Phased redeployment was the maneuver the French executed in June 1940 in the days preceding the German occupation of Paris. Phased redeployment is what the Vietnamese boat people did as they swam for their lives away from their homeland.
WILL IRAN BREAK APART?
While Persian (Farsi) is the official language, half of all Iranians speak a different language at home.1 The languages and dialects spoken along the southern shore of the Caspian Sea continue to engross linguists and anthropologists. The minority population is huge. More Azeris live in Iran, for example, than in independent Azerbaijan.2 Both Iranian Azerbaijan and Kurdistan have a history of separatism, the latter sparked not only by ethnic discrimination, but also by anti-Sunni religious oppression. Azeris and Kurds are not alone in exerting regional identities and, on occasion, pursuing separatism. Separatist violence is exploding among Khuzistan Arabs. Violence and lawlessness in Baluchistan is increasingly uncontrollable. Local disdain for Tehran is consistent with the historic pattern in which the periphery slowly spins away from central government control during periods of weakness.
TEACHERS AND COACHES
The difference of commitment to sports versus academics by students and parents is striking, but don't believe for a minute that the same bias is not institutional as well. I have taught now at every level of American academia and I have yet to give a test or assign a project that was so important that it caused a game to be canceled or missed. However, from elementary school to college, I regularly have had class time canceled, projects excused and test times altered to cater to athletics. In fact, it seems any academic activity humbly bows before the holy incantation, “Uh, I'm going to be gone; we've got a game that day.” This explanation is not the bitter ranting of an egghead who was always picked last in gym class. Rather, I'm a former collegiate athlete and high school coach who is intrigued by what could be accomplished if we would bring our athletic commitment into the classroom. And, because attitude is not enough, we should also contrast coaching to teaching, so that we might re-learn some valuable lessons about instructional methods. To this end, I see three prime areas for consideration.
Chapter Fifteen: THE HILL OF TZOMPACHTEPETL
Chapter Fifteen: The Hill of Tzompachtepetl
Accompanied by twenty Xocotlan sub-chiefs sent by King Olintecle, the expedition made its way down the Apulco river valley to a town where Olintecle told them they could wait for the messengers’ return. The King had advised Cortez against going to Tlaxcala. “They are bad people,” he said, “traitors against the Great Montezuma. A more treacherous people you will never find.” But Cortez insisted, trusting the advice of Mamexi and the Totonacs. The town was called Izta Quimaxtitlan (itch’-ta qwee-mox-teet’-lan), and when they arrived, all of the elders and nobles had assembled to greet them, proclaiming they had received word from Tenochtitlan that the Great Montezuma commanded the Spaniards be welcomed in every way the town was able. As the expedition rested and ate, a group of town elders approached Cortez. “They wish to warn you against the people of Tlaxcala,” Malinali explained. “They say these people are very treacherous and cannot be trusted, that the Tlaxcalans know of you and do not care if you are allies of the Totonacs. The Tlaxcalans say many times have armies come to their country pretending to be friends and once inside, tried to destroy them. The Tlaxcalans do not believe the stories of the Totonacs not paying taxes to Montezuma because of you. The Tlaxcalans say this is not possible, that this is another trick, that their whole country is ready to fight you, to kill you and eat your flesh cooked with chilies.”ALLAH’S WAITING ROOM
In the Military Alphabet, AWR is Alpha Whiskey Romeo. In Iraq today, it’s a code term of American soldiers. Whenever they use “AWR” or “Alpha Whiskey Romeo” in their communications, everyone knows what it really stands for: Allah’s Waiting Room. That’s what our soldiers have turned Iraq into for the terrorists, and that’s why our soldiers know they are winning this war. That’s also why our soldiers have more contempt for MSM journalists and Democrat politicians than the Jihadi terrorists – for at least the terrorists are honest about being an enemy, instead of pretending they’re on your side while stabbing you in the back. As the evidence mounts that the Jihadis are losing in Iraq, the more desperate the Democrats’ and the media’s attempts to suppress and deny the evidence. So I thought I would provide you with some direct evidence of how things are really going in Mesopotamia. This is an unvarnished, personal SitRep – situation report – from a Marine who just spent seven months at “Camp Blue Diamond” near Ramadi, Iraq, deep in Apache country.
FALLUJAH IN FRANCE
When, seven months ago, I finished writing my book, The West's Last Chance, London had not been attacked by Islamist terrorists, the Tate Museum in London had not removed an art exhibit because it offended radical Moslem sensitivities, and France had not yet experienced the explosion of violence from elements of its Moslem population in its "no-go zone" communities. The fact that I predicted all those events in my book was not the result of clairvoyance. It was merely the result of a normally intelligent person looking at the facts, and their rather obvious implications, without the blinding effect of a politically correct mentality.
THE WAR FOR THE FREE WORLD
Not too long ago, the conventional wisdom was that Europe would emerge as a unified and mighty economic and political superpower. We were told it would engage in earnest, if friendly, competition with the United States, but that -- thanks to its substantially larger population and productive capacity -- the European Union (EU) would inevitably displace America on the world stage. It took less than a fortnight of rioting in France, and now in several other countries of what Donald Rumsfeld has called "Old Europe," to lay bare the preposterousness of this prospect. Even before Islamists took to the streets of Paris' suburbs, the EU was a house of cards waiting to be toppled or burned down. As usual, underlying conditions are clearer with hindsight. It is now unmistakable that Europe faces a "perfect storm" of socioeconomic, demographic, military and Islamist challenges.
ARE THE HEADHUNTERS RIGHT?
A multitude of events this past week provides convincing evidence that the world in general, including vast numbers of Americans, and the majority of voters in California, is going certifiably insane. That 53% of California voters made it illegal to require a pregnant teenage girl to tell her parents about her having an abortion is way beyond moral depravity. We’re into organisms perilously close to no longer being normally human. Then again, what sort of human bond can you feel towards rioting barbarians in France, savages who behead Christian girls in Indonesia, or suicide bombers in Iraq, Jordan, and Israel? I could multiply further examples of insanity – such as Harry Reid and his Democrats who hate George Bush more than Moslem terrorists – but instead let’s talk about a case that just appeared before the Supreme Court, Gonzales v. O Centro Espirita Beneficiente Uniao Do Vegetal, and the connection between religion and hallucinogenic drugs. Doesn’t that sound like more fun? So get set, for this is going to be a mind-blow.
A YOUNGER BODY
This is a companion piece to A Younger Brain from last March. That discussed how a nutrient called SAM-e (S-adenosyl-methionine) can actually youthen your brain. Now we’re going to talk about it can youthen your body. The older you get, the more creaks and aches and tightness and soreness you get, particularly in connective tissue like cartilage. Our bodies aren’t designed to last as long as we live today, and these tissues wear out. Unlike rheumatoid arthritis, which is an auto-immune disease, osteoarthritis is a mechanical wearing away of joints, cartilage, and connective tissue. I started taking the SAM-e regimen described in A Younger Brain for mental benefits. For some time, however, I was increasingly afflicted with sciatica and a variety of aching ailments. After about a month or so on the regimen, I noticed that the sciatica and ailments were gone. Gone as in completely vanished, gone as in I felt many years younger.
TO THE BIG HOUSE INSTEAD OF THE WHITE HOUSE?
That the Washington Post is traitorously on the side of the Jihadi terrorists and against America was further demonstrated on November 2nd when the paper ran the front page headline story, CIA Holds Terror Suspects in Secret Prisons. To disclose supremely classified information that the CIA operates a number of prisons for Jihadis in Eastern Europe is an unbelievable compromise of national security. The WaPo reporter who wrote the story, Dana Priest, should go to jail for treason, along with the WaPo editors who approved it. The CIA has requested a formal Justice Department inquiry into the source of the classified information to the press. The House Intelligence Committee has announced it will hold hearings to investigate the leak. This is infinitely more serious than the Plamegate farce. Note, however, that the Senate will not, as of yet, hold hearings. That’s because the leak to the WaPo has been traced to.....
DEMOCRAT LYING LIARS
The president went on television to announce: “Earlier today, I ordered America's armed forces to strike military and security targets in Iraq. Their mission is to attack Iraq's nuclear, chemical and biological weapons programs and its military capacity to threaten its neighbors.” “There is unmistakable evidence that Saddam Hussein is working aggressively to develop nuclear weapons and will likely have nuclear weapons within the next five years,” the vice chairman of the Intelligence committee told the Senate. The president was Bill Clinton (Dec. 16th, 1998). The senator was Jay Rockefeller (Oct. 10th, 2002). These statements should be kept in mind when assessing the hissy fit Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid threw Tuesday when he called the Senate into secret session to discuss whether Bush administration officials had exaggerated prewar intelligence about Iraq.
DEMOCRATIC FASCISM
Lying to a Grand Jury is a very serious crime. We know this because when Bill Clinton lied under oath to a Grand Jury, he was sentenced to 30 years in a federal penitentiary. His fellow Democrats, putting patriotism before party, all agreed that perjury and obstruction of justice were inexcusable violations of law, and that no one, not even the President of the United States, was “above the law.” What’s that? Bill Clinton willfully perjured himself and impeded the special prosecutor’s investigation but got off scot-free? And the Democrats celebrated, rather than condemned, his evasion of justice? Oh…. I guess, like Bogart in Casablanca, I was misinformed. With the farce of a goody-two-shoes prosecutor named Patrick Fitzgerald spending $20 million to indict a ham sandwich named Scooter Libby for a crimeless crime, it’s time we all stopped misinforming ourselves about what form of government America has today. That form is one of Democratic Fascism.
THE CERTAINTY OF CORRUPTION
Transparency International recently released their Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) for 2005. It may surprise some that China is seriously corrupt with a score of 3.2. It scored worse than Egypt, Laos and Syria. This brings to light a real dilemma. China is one of the most seriously corrupt countries in the world. To get our trade deficit under control we must quickly sell more American products to China. However, American exporters must deal each day with corrupt government agencies and practices. At the same time, American businessmen must contend with the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA). This makes it against U.S. law to give any sort of bribe, kick back or “facilitation fee” to a government official of a foreign country to obtain business or gain some advantage. With the extent of corruption in China, it is impossible to avoid this reality to win contracts or to run China-based subsidiaries that sell U.S. made products. To make significant progress for American exports to China, it will be impossible to stay within U.S. law. Meanwhile, more American jobs are lost each day while our manufacturing industry is being hollowed out by the unfair and corrupt practices of one of our most important trading partners
IS PARIS BURNING?
Hitler’s infamous question is being asked anew by Moslem immigrants, characterized by French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy as “thugs” and “scum,” now into their eighth day of violence in Parisian slum suburbs. French President Jacques Chirac promptly condemned Sarkozy rather than the Moslem rioters. Such talk by Sarkozy – Chirac’s main political rival – showed a “lack of respect” for the rioters, which “could lead to a dangerous situation.” Further confirmation that France is doomed.
MAKERS OF MANNERS
The Kabuki Dance now underway between Soon-To-Be Justice Alito and Senate Democrats makes me think of Shakespeare’s Henry V.
The Democrats (and pro-abortion Republicans like Arlen Specter) will be desperately trying to get Alito to forswear any overthrow of sacred SCOTUS “precedents” such as Roe v. Wade, while Alito will genuflect before the precedent shrine and mellifluously commit to nothing.
Both sides will assiduously avoid any discussion of how these precedents were established in the first place – by overthrowing previous ones – what justified their establishment, and what would justify replacing them with new ones today.
Instead, there will be monotonous droning on about the legal concept of stare decisis (Latin for “to stand by that which is decided”), and how it makes Roe v. Wade set in unquestionable stone.
But Alito knows his Shakespeare...Chapter Fourteen: HORROR AND HEAVEN IN ZAUTLA
Cortez finally broke the silence to turn and say to Padre Bartholomew de Olmedo behind him, “It seems that there remains nothing more to do but set up a cross.”
The Padre quietly objected. “Captain, I think it would be rash to do so this soon. These people know nothing of our religion, and will commit sacrilege against any cross we leave here, and we intend not to tarry here long. It would be best to wait until they have learned more of our holy faith.”
Cortez nodded. “I shall heed your wise advice, Padre. Let us retire, gentlemen.” He stood, together with the officers accompanying him, bowed to King Olintecle still sitting in a daze, and left for the quarters provided him. “It has been a long day – a long week,” he said to his officers. “It will be good to have a roof over our heads for the night.” They dispersed. Malinali stayed. Cortez’s eyes invited her to step inside his room.
* * * * *
For the very first time, Malinali was alone with Cortez. It was what she wasn’t feeling that surprised her. Instead of an emotional tumult of fear, anxiety, heart-thumping excitement, and all the rest she thought would overwhelm her when she dreamed of this moment, instead she felt as serene and calm as still water. They stood soundlessly looking at each other. Cortez, too, seemed filled with her serenity. Finally he spoke.44
I do not have the words to adequately express the extent to which I think “Plamegate” is unadulterated tripe. I will next week, but not yet, since I’m writing this before the indictments (most likely for some fascist “obstruction-of-justice” drivel) have been announced.
With the Miers debacle thankfully behind him – remember that the day after Bush announced her nomination you read in That Tears It that her nomination would be withdrawn – GW can now mount a DeLay-type offensive against any fascist indictments, rally the whole conservative movement behind him to cut spending, throw illegal aliens outta here (yes, I know, it’s about time, but he’s finally getting religion), go after the crazies who run Syria and Iran – and prepare the way for his successor.
This is now the opportunity for me to divulge a tightly-kept White House secret.IRAQIS AND AMERICANS ON ONE SIDE, TERRORISTS AND JOURNALISTS ON THE OTHER
Al Qaeda has claimed credit for a large, sophisticated attack Monday on the two hotels in Baghdad where most foreign journalists and many defense contractors stay. The attack failed, but it was a near run thing. The Palestine and Sheraton hotels are across a short street from each other, adjacent to Firdous Square, a traffic roundabout where the statue of Saddam Hussein was torn down on April 9th, 2003. The attack involved three suicide bombers and an unknown number of other fighters. The attack took place at dusk, over a span of four minutes. Several news organizations were tipped off in advance, and cameras were rolling. And we wonder which side the media is on?
TURNING FOGGY BOTTOM ORANGE
The release of UN investigator David Mehlis’ report last week on the assassination last February of Lebanese leader Rafik Hariri has all the Middle East FSOs (foreign service officers) at the State Department in a tizzy. The report gives Condi Rice a golden opportunity to overcome the entrenched left-wing bureaucracy at Foggy Bottom.
Finally. The Mehlis report was issued last Friday, October 21. The original version named Assef Shawkat as the organizer of Hariri’s killing. You learned that name two days after the assassination, instead of eight months. Hariri was hit on February 14. Two days later, in Can Porter Turn Syria Orange? published in To The Point on February 16, you read:
The hit was conducted by a Lebanese unit of Syria’s Shu'bat al-Mukhabarat al-'Askariyya, Military Intelligence Service, on the orders of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s brother-in-law, Assef Shawkat.
FEAR OF FLU
One more calamity to freak out about now, it seems, is an impending “pandemic” of the Asian Bird Flu virus known as H5N1. Every day we read about five billion more chickens or turkeys or geese in China or Romania or some other country being infected and killed.
A batch of folks in Vietnam have died of it, and the scare stories mount about how any day now, the virus will mutate, enabling not just bird-to-human infection but human-to-human. Then, the stories claim, the pandemic is on.
There are some protective measures you might consider to shield yourself from a H5N1 pandemic should it occur. I don’t want to be dispensing medical advice, so I’ll just say that this is what I am doing myself.
JAMES BOND IN AZERBAIJAN
Parliamentary elections in Azerbaijan, an oil-rich former Soviet republic on the western shores of the Caspian Sea, are scheduled for this coming November 6.
They have all the trappings of a James Bond movie. In fact, the Bond film, “The World is not Enough,” which centered on the struggle to control Caspian Sea oil, was shot in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, in 1999.
But now it is life's turn to imitate art. Today's intrigue in Azerbaijan includes power struggles, a clash between geopolitical giants – America, Russia and Iran – an ethnic conflict with neighboring Armenia, and almost one million refugees. Add corruption, lots of oil and gas, and serve hot. What a perfect recipe for a first-rate thriller.
A BAD WEEK FOR JIHADIS
Moslem terrorists – Jihadis – really took it in the shorts last week. We’ll begin with Iraq. Iraqi voters, including Sunnis, voting in huge numbers to pass a constitution was a major disaster for the terrorists. Lots of Sunnis voted no – but lots of Sunnis voted yes, which means Zarqawi no longer has any chance of igniting a Sunni-Shia civil war. Too many Sunnis have turned against him and towards democracy... ...Now let’s go to the main attraction – the single worst disaster Jihadism has possibly ever suffered.
EARTH TO MAUREEN
Due to time constraints, C-Span ended the broadcast of my speech last week, Why Liberals Are Incapable of Defending America , in the middle of my reply to a question about why most journalists are so liberal. I was about to use the New York Times liberal columnist Maureen Dowd as an example when C-Span switched to another event. This is because in February 2000 during the presidential campaign, I wrote a letter to the New York Times commenting on a column of Miss Dowd which was such a perfect instance of why liberals, and liberal journalists like her, really don’t care about individual people. So to complete the answer you couldn’t see on C-Span, here’s the letter:
SHEIKHS OF DEATH
Here’s a story that should be on the front page of the New York Times but isn’t, since it’s actual news of global importance instead of phony scandals like “Plamegate” or attempts to criminalize conservatives such as Tom DeLay. A group of prominent Arab intellectuals has sent a letter, co-signed by over 4,000 Moslem authors, scholars, poets, and journalists worldwide to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan requesting the establishment of an International Criminal Court for the prosecution of Islamic terrorists and the Moslem leaders who incite them. The letter calls such leaders "Sheikhs of Death." Funny how you haven’t heard about this in the liberal “mainstream” media, huh?
BLASPHEMOUS CARTOONS
In addition to Lafif Lakhdar in Tunis (see Sheikhs of Death ), there are folks in Denmark who also refuse to be intimidated by Moslem fanatics. The Copenhagen newspaper Jyllands-Posten, for example, which recently ran a story about a Danish author writing a book about Mohammed. In response to the author’s complaint in the story that nobody dared to illustrate the book – for fear of angering Moslems as it’s supposedly sacrilegious to depict their prophet – 12 illustrators sent in cartoons which the newspaper promptly published.
SUICIDE IN AND OF SYRIA
On the morning of Oct. 12th, Syria's Interior minister, Maj. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, was found dead in his office from a gunshot wound to the head. Kanaan's death was ruled a suicide, but there were doubters. "For those of you who don't know what 'committed suicide' means in Syria, it means someone committed it for him," said Anton Efendi, an American PhD candidate who lives in Lebanon. Kanaan's "suicide" may lead to the suicide of Syria as an intact country.
Chapter Thirteen: THE BROMAS
Chapter Thirteen: The Bromas
Upon reaching Villa Rica there was a welcome surprise: a ship had arrived from Cuba with a detachment of seventy soldiers, nine horses, and a goodly supply of arms, commanded by Cortez’s friend, Francisco “Pulido” de Saucedo. His nickname of Pulido – Dandy – came from his handsomeness and immaculate appearance. “I and my men have come to place ourselves at your command and seek our fortune with you!” he grandly declared to Cortez. All rejoiced at the reinforcements, but when Dandy sat down with Cortez in private, the news was not so good. “Governor Diego Velasquez’s procuradore – representative – in Spain, Friar Benito Martin, has persuaded the Court in Seville to grant him a license for exploring this territory, with the profits going to him,” was the message. “Only one-tenth of any gold found goes to the Crown, not the Royal Fifth. You, of course, and those loyal to you, will get nothing.” “My old enemy once again,” mused Cortez. He called in Alonzo Puertocarrero and his closest officers, had Dandy repeat the news, then said, “Gentlemen, the only solution is to petition the King directly. Here is what I suggest we do…”