PUTIN IN IRAN
If you were Vladimir Putin, what would you think of Iran? You'd worry a lot about it, that's what. Your own Russia is losing Russians, due to the usual grim demography that characterizes most of Europe. And, like the others, you've got a Moslem problem, with surging birthrates both within Russia and all along its borders, from Chechnya to the ‘Stans. Lots of those Moslems are under Iranian sway. The Iranians want to build on that foundation to extend their power deeper into your domain. You therefore want to see this regime destroyed. The last thing in the world that you want is a gigantic Chechnya, armed with nuclear weapons, launching waves of fanatical terrorists against infidels like you. But you don't have much of an army any more, and anyway you don't want a war with the mullahs. Direct attack is not your way; you prefer cunning. You'd rather have someone else do your dirty work for you. Someone like Israel, or better yet, the United States. And best of all would be to get the Americans to do it in such a way that the whole world condemns them for it. So what you'd do is...
A COUNTERJIHAD IN SWITZERLAND?
Last Thursday (10/18), a group of 80 people from 15 European countries, plus Israel, Canada and the United States, convened in a conference room on the seventh floor of the European Parliament building in Brussels for a "Counterjihad" meeting. They listened to speakers such as the Egyptian-born scholar Bat Ye'or, author of the book Eurabia, who explained how the European Union (EU) has become a vehicle for the Islamization of Europe: "The EU has promoted massive Moslem immigration... hoping that the Euro-Arab symbiosis through economic development, soft diplomacy and multiculturalism would guarantee [Europe] peace, markets and oil." Fortunately, there is some good news as well. With the elections of October 21, a political Counterjihad may have begun in Switzerland.
PELOSI AND THE PKK
House Speaker Pelosi Galore has suffered a bombardment of criticism for pushing a vote for the Armenian Genocide Resolution, H. Res. 106. Note its date of introduction to the relevant committee with a registered bill number: January 30, 2007. Over eight months later, she starts flogging this dead historical horse. Why now? The criticism has all been for Pelosi's "ignorance" of Turkish sensitivities in the matter and her "incompetence" for her embroiling the House in a pointless debacle. As Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-CO) said in the Orlando GOP presidential candidate debate (10/22): "Nancy Pelosi is not a very good Speaker and is a lousy Secretary of State." But what if she's much worse than that? What if she is pushing the Armenian resolution for the conscious purpose of damaging America's increasingly successful war in Iraq? And there is an even more frightening question.
HOPE IN TORONTO
One of the more depressing aspects of our current cultural morass is the overwhelming dominance of the Marxist Moonbat Left on our college campuses. The massive support and sympathy for Islamofascism and what I call Fabian Sharia-ism (constant demands for special consideration for Moslems in accordance with their phony "Sharia" Islamic "law") is seen at universities everywhere. That's why what's happening at the University of Toronto is interesting. Canada for the most apart is even more wimp-out appeasing to Moslem demands than the US. So it's not surprising that the popular campus restaurant, Bluff's, caved to the Moslem Student Association (MSA) and changed its menu for all chicken and beef dishes to be certified "halal," the Moslem equivalent of kosher. That of course wasn't good enough for the Moslems, who see, just like the Communists, any offer of accommodation as weakness, thus an invitation to make further demands. They claimed Bluff's changing its menu according to their wishes was actually "offensive" to them, for Bluff's continued to serve them food in an "unsuitable" environment. That is, Bluff's continues to serve beer and play dance music.
THE REAL FAILURE IN IRAQ IS MEDIA COVERAGE
It's getting harder to write negative stories about the situation in Iraq, but Jay Price and Qasim Zein of the McClatchy Newspapers did their best: "A drop in violence around Iraq has cut burials in the huge Wadi al Salam cemetery (in Najaf) by at least one third in the past six months, and that's cut the pay of thousands of workers who make their living digging graves, washing corpses or selling burial shrouds," they wrote Oct. 16. Nostalgia for the bad old days was also evident in the decision of the Washington Post to publish Tuesday (10/16) an op-ed signed by 12 former U.S. Army captains deploring the situation in Iraq. The Post neglected to mention that none of them have been in Iraq since Gen. Petraeus took command and we started winning this war. Perhaps the Post chose veterans whose information is old and stale because those serving in Iraq now might not say what the editors of the Washington Post would like to have you hear.
THE RE-SOVIETIZATION OF RUSSIA
Every move the Putin administration makes today is dictated by the desire to shape Russia's future internal power structure and to set the course for the country's foreign and security affairs in general, and its relationship with the United States in particular for years to come. Keeping the relationship with Washington on the verge of a crisis and inventing an imaginary "American enemy" is creating much needed legitimacy for the current Russian leadership, which now has only Mr. Putin's personal popularity as its political base. The image of Russia surrounded by enemies is absolutely necessary for today's Russian ruling class of senior secret police officers, as it positions them in the eyes of the people as the saviors and defenders of Mother Russia. Russia is being Re-Sovietized.
HANDICAPPING THE SENATE
One of the nicest and sharpest guys in the Senate is John Ensign of Nevada. As the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, he's in a good position to handicap the Senate races for 2008. He did just that at a small briefing on Capitol Hill this week, promising to do so without any Pollyannic varnish. Judge for yourself. Currently, of 100 Senate seats, 51 are Democrat (counting Bernie Sanders and Joe Lieberman), 49 are Republican. The odds seem slim that the GOP could gain the majority, but less slim that the Dems will expand theirs. Thirteen months is an eternity on an election clock. There will be surprises on both sides, count on it. There are 22 Republican seats up, including five retirements, while the Dems have only 12. Many GOP seats are vulnerable, but the Dems' main targets are:
DO YOU WANT TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION?
A fellow I know, Dave Marlett, answered yes to this question and has come up with a real way to do so. A real way any individual American can. It happened when he wanted to get his house painted last spring. He couldn't find, out of all the house painting businesses that he called, one that could guarantee it didn't employ illegal alien workers. There have to be companies who follow the law and refuse to hire illegals, he told himself. But how would he or anyone find them? What if there was a way to find them, a sort of clearinghouse enabling customers all over the country to locate companies that have pledged to hire only legal workers? That's how Dave conceived of ProAmericaCompanies. http://rebelholiday.biz/ rebel holiday
A ROMAN HOLIDAY FOR ETHANOL
The Germans have a word for it: schadenfreude (shay-din-froy-deh). It means someone being happy over someone else being unhappy. The only English equivalent is the term "Roman holiday," referring to the happy excitement Romans got over gladiators' suffering in the Colosseum. It says a lot about us that we don't even have a word for this terrible and all too-common emotion. Yet all of us have probably experienced it at one time or another, and right now it's hard to resist it regarding folks who are biting the financial dust with ethanol. As this recent story, Ethanol Boom Is Running Out of Gas, in the Wall Street Journal details, the glut of ethanol plants has caused a collapse of ethanol prices while the price of the corn from which it is made is rising. Thus many ethanol companies are now "under deathwatch." So of course, the corn farmer lobby and ethanol producers are screaming for more subsidies from Congress. They won't get them because a Nobel Prize winner has just pounded in the final nail in ethanol's coffin. No - not the phony you just thought of, a real Nobel Laureate.
THE SALVATION OF 2008
Americans are by and large in a sour mood. The only hope for Republicans in 2008, it seems, is that voters will be more soured on Democrats than Republicans for House and Senate seats, and be more turned off by Hillary than whomever the GOP offers up. It's a slender reed of hope on which to bet the future of America. For if the Dems sweep the White House and Congress, every Republican Bush-hater will soon long for the yesterday of GW. A Socialist-Fascist America run by a criminal political mafia and enforced by hundreds of hyper-liberal judges. Yet fear of this, fear of Hillary - FOH - will not be sufficient to prevent this. What the voters have to be offered is something so exciting, so electrifying, so positive yet well-grounded, well-thought-out and researched so it is actually achievable, that it sweeps away the sourness. This is what happened in 1994. The electorate was in this same crummy mood, and the GOP came up with the Contract With America. The CWA was an exciting positive vision that was real and achievable. Voters responded by ending the Democrat Party's monopoly control of 64 years (with two irrelevant interruptions) over the House. What Republicans need is the CWA's equivalent for 2008. There is such a thing, and what's more, a growing number of key Republican Party leaders are beginning to embrace it. It may turn out to be the Salvation of 2008.