IS THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A LEGITIMATE NEWS SOURCE?
In a story that attracted international attention, the Associated Press reported Nov. 24 that:
Shia militiamen grabbed six Sunnis as they left Friday worship services, doused them with kerosene and burned them alive near Iraqi soldiers who did not intervene, Iraqi Police Capt. Jamil Hussein said. The savage revenge attack for Thursday's slaying of 215 people in the Shiite Sadr City slum occurred as members of the Mahdi Army militia burned four mosques and several homes while killing an unknown number of Sunni residents in the once-mixed Hurriyah neighborhood of Baghdad.MSNBC's Contessa Brewer said this sensational story was a trigger for the network's decision to refer to the conflict in Iraq as a civil war. But two difficulties have emerged with the it: First, both the U.S. military and the Iraqi government say they can find no evidence the incident reported by Capt. Hussein ever occurred. Second, Jamil Hussein may not even exist. He may be an invention of the Associated Press. The Iraqi Ministry of the Interior says it has no police captain named Jamil Hussein.
DO WE HAVE A PRO-TERRORIST IMMIGRATION SERVICE?
Have you ever heard of a religious visa petitioner? Any recognized religious organization may file a R-1 visa request for a foreign national to come to the US and work for them. Since September 11, 2001, more than 5,000 petitioners have applied to sponsor foreign religious workers. The majority of them are Moslems. The majority were granted visas and immigration benefits without proper background checks. Is the US Citizenship and Immigration Service pro-terrorist, trying to get Moslem terrorists into our country? No - but it might as well be.
GLOBAL WARMING AND ORIGINAL SIN
It takes a brave politician to stand up alone against a tidal wave of religious hysteria. Such a man is Senator James Inhofe of Oklahoma. He has publicly denounced man-made global warming as a "hoax" and held a hearing in Congress yesterday (12/06) to expose it as such. Jim Inhofe is waging a valiant struggle, and it would have been helped had he someone to testify about how "global warming" is an issue of religious fanaticism, rather than just misguided science. "Global warming" (or more specifically man-made or "anthropogenic" global warming) is a secular religion believed in by people who have abandoned Christianity. The vast majority of global warming fanatics are from Western cultures. Not a lot of Chinese or Hindus or Moslems are in a tizzy about it. These fanatics are almost all ex-Christians, born and raised in a Christian culture which they grew up to reject.
JAMES BAKER AND PARIS HILTON
President Kennedy once hosted a dinner for Nobel Prize winners. At the dinner he reportedly said: "I think this is the most extraordinary collection of talent, of human knowledge, that has ever been gathered at the White House, with the possible exception of when Thomas Jefferson dined here alone." After reviewing the report of the Iraq Study Group, released Wednesday, New York Post editorial page editor John Podhoretz declared: "The nation's capital hasn't seen such concentrated wisdom in one place since Paris Hilton dined alone at the Hooters on Connecticut Avenue." T. F. Boggs, an Army sergeant recently returned from his second tour in Iraq, said the recommendations were a "joke" that "could only have come from a group of old people who have been stuck in Washington for too long."
A CONSERVATIVE HAT TRICK
[This is the text of a speech I just gave at the Leadership Institute in Washington DC. Founded in 1979 by Morton Blackwell, the LI has trained tens of thousands of conservatives for leadership in politics, media, and academia. I encourage you to consider participating in and supporting its efforts. ---JW] A CONSERVATIVE HAT TRICK: Achieving Limited Government, Energy Independence, and Victory Over Islamofascism Leadership Institute - December 6, 2006 I've been a conservative all my life - even in high school and college. I never went through some juvenile left-wing trip, I always thought Che Guevara was a commie thug, always admired Barry Goldwater and of course, Ronald Reagan. Yes, I'm an Ayn Rand Objectivist, Ludwig Von Mises laissez faire capitalist type of conservative, yet I've always thought that the conservative political movement held the best actual hope in reality for solving many of America's most basic problems. In truth, though, I don't care about problems. I care about solutions. Problems are not important. Only solutions to them are. So this morning, we are not going to talk about problems - however easy and tempting it would be to do so in our post-November 7, Speaker Pelosi world. Instead we are going to talk about solutions, solutions to three of the largest problems we face today. How do we achieve genuinely limited government, end our dependence on foreign oil that subsidizes our enemies, and defeat a threat to our liberties greater than even Soviet Communism, that of Islamofascism?
THE IRAQ SENILE, STUPIDITY, AND SURRENDER GROUP
One hundred and forty years ago, British philosopher John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) wrote:
War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks that nothing is worth a war, is much worse... A man who has nothing which he is willing to fight for, nothing which he cares more about than he does about his personal safety, is a miserable creature who has no chance of being free, unless made and kept so by the exertions of better men than himself. (Dissertations and Discussions 1867 Vol.1 p. 26.)A perfect description of the Democrat Party leadership and the editors of the New York Times today. Which is why they are hyping the Iraq Study Group Report to the moon. They hope to use the hype to force President Bush to surrender in Iraq. They will not succeed. Yesterday (12/06), I and a small group of conservatives met with a top White House aide (whose comments were not for attribution so I can't name him). In so many words, he told us that President Bush's response to the Iraq Study Group Report and the media hysteria around it is: "Thank you for sharing."
MACHIAVELLI IN TEARS
The liberal media got itself in such a tizzy this week over the "leaked" memo of National Security Advisor Steve Hadley to President Bush that disparaged Iraqi Prime Minister Maliki. It hasn't dawned on our genius reporters that the memo was written to be leaked. I can't believe that the president's national-security adviser would write something so long, so rambling, and so mediocre to George W. Bush. I mean, I'd die of embarrassment before I let any such thing go into the Oval Office with my name on it. You can see it's a group effort, because with one exception - the sensible suggestion that, at long last, we expand the program that embeds U.S. military personnel in Iraqi military and police units - there's hardly a serious thought in the whole document.
ANTI-ISLAMOFASCISM MOVEMENT UPDATE
For all those who wish to participate in The Creation of an Anti-Islamofascism Movement described last week, here is how to start doing so. An umbrella organization is being formed called The Coalition to Preserve Civilization, which will help enable all those involved in the emerging Anti-Islamofascism Movement and keep them informed of everyone else's activities. The way to get involved in this right now is to join The 910 Forum. You'll notice in the left side bar a long list of blogs providing all kinds of info on Anti-Islamofascism. To subscribe to the Forum - called "910" for the day before 9/11, since if we had been adequately prepared, 9/11 would have been prevented - email [email protected] -- and include something brief about yourself. This is not a discussion forum, so your inbox will not be flooded. But it will keep you informed regarding who is doing what on the Anti-Islamofascism front. And you can contribute your own suggestions and information as well. We welcome your support and participation. Working together, we will dig Islamofascism's grave and bury it in the ash heap of history.
ATTITUDE ADJUSTMENT IN THE SENATE
Over a beer earlier this week with a Republican Senator, I couldn't help but asking how he was doing. Had the GOP retained its majority, he would have been the chairman of one of the Senate's most powerful committees. Starting next month, he would be just another minority schmuck. "Sure, it's a disappointment," he said. "It's the dream of your life for a guy like me. So I have a choice. I can be bitter - or I can have fun. I choose fun." I frowned. "How are you going to have fun?" I asked skeptically. He smiled. "Come on, Jack, you know how the Senate works. It's not like the House, where the minority is lower than dirt, and treated like subhuman Moslem Dhimmis. Harry (Harry Reid, incoming Senate Majority Leader) has no majority at all. Hell, it's 51-49, with the 51st being Joe Lieberman and we've got Cheney as a tie-breaker. We can screw them any time we want and Harry knows it."
IS PUTIN THE FALL GUY?
The Alexander Litvinenko murder by radiation in London is mysterious -- and important. Has Russia entirely left the Western orbit, reverting to its old Soviet era, Stalinist practices? Is Vladimir Putin, approaching the end of his two terms in office and thinking of a new career, interested in being seen worldwide as having blood on his hands? Or something else is afoot? I have met Mr. Putin four times in the last three years. He is tough and smart and ruthless, but he is not stupid. Does he understand the murders may make him look bloodthirsty and make Russia appear barbaric? And if he did not order these killings, they still make Russia look out-of-control, while Mr. Putin looks like he lost control. Are his secret police taking people out on his orders, or is he being framed by his own people? And if so, why?