The Kerry campaign uses the ultra-elitist, non-American Rolls-Royce as a symbol of his understanding of Detroit factory workers. Nice going.

Sen. John Kerry spoke about the plight of the American worker when he traveled to Detroit earlier this week, a safe message for the blue-collar workers who build cars there.

So it was a little strange that the campaign picked as its press-pass logo for its Motor City tour the gleaming showcase car of a foreign auto company — Rolls-Royce — that makes cars priced far outside the financial reach of any middle-class voter.

One of Kerry's spokesmen also gave a muddled, unoriginal response:

"I could say that the Rolls-Royce is the perfect symbol of who got the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy, but sometimes objects in the rearview mirror are closer than they appear," he said.

Huh?

He's also borrowing a line from one of John Edward's primary campaign speeches, which I posted several months ago.

Just to prove that our domestic political situation is as well-known overseas as is our foreign policy, I present the following "talking photo" from La Nacion of Buenos Aires, Argentina. (Translation provided below).



BUSH: And...they criticize me, they criticize me, but thanks to my term, the economy has grown enormously...
REPORTER: What economy, Mr. Bush?
BUSH:  The economy of Michael Moore.....

I post this even though I wrote to the author, who is the principal political cartoonist in Argentina, after he drew Bush as a monkey. I suggested that whatever he thought, those kind of drawings don't advance his argument. He basically wrote back that Bush was evil and detailed the history of how he is tied to Hitler.

I actually agree with the San Francisco proposal to register non-citizens to vote.

It gave me a great idea. Republicans can buy properties in Califonia and set up thousands of people with temporary addresses and help bring those 55 electoral votes to their side.

Sweet.

Sorry for the lack of posts in the last few days, but I've been on a business trip and things have been kind of hectic.

I don't think I can add any more to the Sandy Burglar story than what's already been written ad nauseum.

In today's NY Times, Barabara Ehrenreich, who I've begun to dislike even more than Maureen Dowd and Paul Krugman, tells us that it's morally right to kill fetuses if you're following yor dream to entertain others for a living.

Owning Up to Abortion

First off, she tells us, "I had two abortions during my all-too-fertile years". Tens of millions of women in this country manage not to have abortions when they are "all too fertile". How unlucky for her to be able to have children so easily!

"I was a dollar-a-word freelancer and my husband a warehouse worker, so it was all we could do to support the existing children at a grubby lower-middle-class level."

Suggestion to Ms. Ehrenreich - maybe having your tubes tied would have been a better alternative than relying on abortion as a contraceptive measure.

She also has the gall to state that women who terminate their pregnancies because of known genetic defects with the fetus are no better than those like herself who claim potential economic hardship.

Finally, she opens her piece with the statement that "abortion is legal" as if that is the determining factor as to whether it's morally correct. Slavery and segregation were legal at one time, so I wouldn't be so fast to use that as my principal support for the morality of abortion, much less abortions of convenience.

It's perfectly legal for me to pass by a dying person in the street and not help them. That doesn't make it morally correct.

------------------------------------------------

From Maureen Dowd, also in today's Times, we find that she would have been behind President Bush all the way if 900 Americans died in Iran instead of Iraq. I mean, that is her point, isn't it?

Right Axis. Wrong Evil.

And if you think that 900 American fatalities is too much, having attakced an already weakened Iraq, I wonder how many more dead Ms. Dowd would have allowed for in a war against Iran.

I like how she subtly makes the "they died for nothing" argument without actually using the words. At least Bob Herbert a week or so ago had the balls to come out and say that's what he thought. I guess it has something to do with that "Men are from Mars" thing about men being direct and women indirect.

And by the way, how much does she get paid to quote whole sections of someone else's comedy act.

Also, just as I argued above that legality does not equal morality, being able to make fun of soemthing doesn't make that something wrong. A good comedian can make fun of both sides of political issues - which is why Jay Leno and David Letterman are so popular.

I can't help but wonder why the tempest in a teapot about Sharon's telling the Jews of France that they should all move to Israel. That's what being the leader of the Zionist Entity is all about! I mean, it's not like he can order the French Jews out and they can certainly make up their own minds based on what they are seeing in their daily lives.

So Sharon is unwlecome in Paris. Have you ever seen a world leader so declare his love for the Jewish people that he wants them all to stay! With about 1500 North American Jews planning to make aliyah, why doesn't George Bush cry out to stop them! I guess he doesn't love us quite as much as Chirac.

Chirac tells Sharon he is not welcome in France: TV

French President Jacques Chirac informed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon he is not welcome in Paris after he urged all French Jews to leave the country immediately, Israeli television reported.

Chirac had written that "after some weeks of contacts concerning such a visit it turns out that it is impossible ... and you are not welcome following your comments," according to Channel 2 television.

I know my wife the vet would love this, but to me it reeks of copying a Catholic tradition because it seems like a nice thing to do. Can anyone explain the halacha behind pet blessings? And can non-kosher animals be blessed?

Have your pet blessed by Rabbi Solomon B. Acrish of Temple Beth Elohim



Moishe, a 14-year-old tabby cat from Pawling, tries to escape from his owner, Ian Tsukroff, after being blessed at the nondenominational Pet Blessing of the Animals held on the Green Chimneys campus in Patterson, N.Y., on July 18, 2004. Moishe was the only cat attending. Temple Beth Elohim in Brewster, N.Y., sponsored the event, and Rabbi Solomon B. Acrish blessed the animals. Temple soloist Robin Sills played the guitar and sang before the service led by the rabbi.

From New Zeland, let's cross the sea to Australia.
 
 


Synagogue-goers in Perth, Australia, found anti-Semitic signs and graffiti all over the city's largest congregation when they arrived for services on Saturday morning; the culprits are believed to be members of a right-wing, nationalist group.
 
Several other buildings, including a police station and a medical center, were also hit in Perth, the capital of Western Australia, according to a local police spokesman.

At least, I guess, Jews were not alone...

The graffiti was "anti-Jewish, anti-African, anti-everything and everywhere that was hit was attacked with a similar nature," the spokesman said.

When I first read Jesus and Jihad by Nicholas Kristof I thought, "Wow, he's right".  Then I woke up this morning and thought, no - there's a huge difference between Jesus and Jihad.
 
In jihad, Islamic fundamentalists are told to kill the infidels right now.  Humans killing humans with the hope of getting to heaven.  It's even better if you commit suicide while killing infidels!
 
The evangelical "End of Days" has non-believers dying of super-natural causes in an event that can only happen if they turned out to be 100% correct in their prophecies.  Not only that, evangelicals don't want everyone to die, they want everyone to have everlasting life by believing in Jesus.   Bigots may shun those of other religions instead of trying to convince them to convert, but I honestly believe this is a minority.  And, having my choice, I'd rather be pestered to death than have my head lopped off.
 
And if evangelical prophecies are correct, and the End Times come, I will have been wrong as a Jew and if Jesus thinks I should get death, that's His decision to make. 
 
Luckily for me, others who are more thoughtful than I have summed it up quite nicely:
 
This kind of theological equivalence is the idiot stepchild of the moral equivalence that the learned pundits used to preach regarding the U.S. and the Soviet Union. And just as moral equivalence played into the bloody hands of the Communists, so theological equivalence plays into the hands of the jihadists, attempting as it does to blunt the force of the moral argument against them.
 

  
 

Martha Stewart might be able to set a badass Thanksgiving table, but she has got to get a better PR manager.  Here's some nuggets of wisdom from here first post-sentencing interview:
 
"I didn't go and cheat the little people. I just didn't do that. We're all little people." 
 
What's more offensive - the first sentence, or the last?
 
When asked how she would handle prison food, fellow inmates and strip searches, she said, "I could do it … I'm a really good camper. I can sleep on the ground.… If it is looming ahead of me, I'm going to have to face it, and take it and do it and get it over with. And there's many other people that have gone to prison. Look at Nelson Mandela." 
 
If this doesn't go directly into Esquire's annual Dubious Achievement awards issue in January, they shouldn't bother publishing it this year.

The liberal side of me (it's hidden , but there is one) tells me that this might be a horrible travesty of justice.
 
The conservative side of me, says not only that those killed deserved no better, but that the Iraqi Prime Minister is the ultimate example of taking personal responsibility if there's going to be a death penalty.
 
Iraqi PM executed six insurgents: witnesses
 
MAXINE MCKEW: Let's go straight to the allegations that Iyad Allawi executed as many as six suspected insurgents at a Baghdad police station at the end of June.The explosive claims in tomorrow's Sydney Morning Herald and Age newspapers allege that the prisoners were handcuffed and blindfolded, lined up against a courtyard wall and shot by the Iraqi Prime Minister.Dr Allawi is alleged to have told those around him that he wanted to send a clear message to the police on how to deal with insurgents.Two people allege they witnessed the killings and there are also claims the Iraqi Interior Minister was present as well as four American security men in civilian dress.

At least part of our government is growing some balls.
 
House Votes to Block Aid for Saudi Arabia
 
The House voted 217-191 to remove $25,000 in the $19.4 billion 2005 foreign aid bill earmarked for Saudi Arabia.

The funds were designated for military training but approval would have triggered millions of dollars in discounts on hardware and other military training, lawmakers said.

If you were wondering what type of insightful op-ed pieces Al-Jazeerah provides for it's readers, here's a good example.
 
Israeli People's Most common Mistakes
 
1. To fail to realize that there is no essential difference between Tel Aviv and a Jewish settlement in the West Bank.
2. To believe that the creation of the state of Israel was an outcome of the Holocaust.
3. To regard themselves as innocent people and thus as victims of the Israeli­Palestinian conflict.
4. To believe that they live in a democracy and therefore that their atrocities are legitimate.
5. To be convinced that they live in an open society which enjoys political and ideological diversity.
6. To believe that the ghetto is behind them.
7. To be convinced that the 'Jewish state' is a legitimate concept.
8. To think that Israel is a shelter for the entire Jewish people and the best answer to anti-Semitism.
9. To regard themselves as humanists.
10. To be sure that Israel is immortal.
 
Read it all if you can stand it.

To which corner of the Earth could a Jew travel and be assured that there would be no anti-Semitism?  Strike New Zealand from the list.
 
Graves defaced amid Israeli spy row
 
 

I swear I almost had an anxiety attack just reading this article.  Can't wait for my next flight to NY.
 
Terror in the Skies, Again?

Funny, but sad, stuff from Backspin.

From French President Jacques Chirac's speech for Bastille Day yesterday:

"We are going through a period of displays of racism in which our compatriots, Jews, Muslim or even others, sometimes even simply French people, are the object of aggression with the only motive that they don't belong or are not from such and such a community."

This is the equivalent of George W. Bush saying, "9/11 was a terrible event for Jews, Blacks, and also normal Americans." The New York Times picked up on it:

The suggestion that Jews or Muslims are separate from French people was apparently a slip of the tongue. But it was reminiscent of the words of Raymond Barre, then prime minister, after a bomb attack on a Paris synagogue in 1980, when he deplored the fact that "Jews and innocent French were wounded."

There's one thing that President Bush has got going for him when his legacy is determined. In 5 or 10 years, when we can take a long-term view of the recent changes taking place in the Middle East - Afghanistan, Iraq, the decline of the intifada - everyone on the left will have to admit that things are better because of George W. Bush. This is not like Reagan, whose victory over Communism is pooh-poohed as part of an inevitable trend. This is the real thing and the Democrats were against it all. Remember that as you read these poll numbers from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Poll: Afghans Optimistic About Recovery

Iraqis Back New Leaders, Poll Says - From page A19 of the Washington Post

If I read this in the press often enough, I may actually come to believe it. Thank you Barbara Ehrenreich and Maureen Dowd, respectively, for providing us with the kind of thoughtful, investigative analysis that helps clarify the issues.

"One thousand coalition soldiers have died because the C.I.A. was so eager to go along with the emperor's delusion that he was actually wearing clothes."

"...the White House keeps passing the blame to the same C.I.A. that Dick Cheney and his Pentagon henchmen leaned on to supply the rationale they needed for the war they were determined to launch."

I'm not going to bother linking to what must be hundreds, or thousands, of articles which state the facts that Ms. Ehrenreich and Ms. Dowd ignore so that they can appear witty:

- President Bush believed the same thing that Bill Clinton, John Kerry, John Edwards, Tony Blair and a lot of others had been saying for years about Iraq's WMDs.

- Both recent U.S. Senate and British parliamentary reports clearly state that no coercion was used in preparing intelligence estimates for their respective heads of government.

It seems that of late, the NY Times Op-Ed page is best known for mocking the President (see also Paul Krugman and Maureen Dowd) and not for any kind of serious anaylsis of the issues.

I guess they save their serious analyses for the front page now:

Hear the Rumor on Cheney? Capital Buzzes, Denials Aside

Remember how the Democrats were fuming over Bush's use of 9/11 imagery in his campaign ads? I wonder if anyone will speak up about Michael Moore's use of footage of soldiers' funerals in Fahrenheit 9-11? I know the family of the dead soldier is not happy.

Moore's prop

The family of U.S. Air Force Maj. Gregory Stone was shocked to learn that video footage of the major's Arlington National Cemetery burial was included by Michael Moore in his movie "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Stone was killed in March 2003 by a grenade that officials said was thrown into his tent by Sgt. Hasan K. Akbar, who is on trial for murder.

It's been a big shock, and we are not very happy about it, to say the least," Kandi Gallagher, Stone's aunt and family spokeswoman, tells Washington Times reporter Audrey Hudson.

We are furious that Greg was in that casket and cannot defend himself, and my sister, Greg's mother, is just beside herself," Gallagher said. "She is furious. She called him a 'maggot that eats off the dead.'"

Let's see how the chairman of the Democratic National Committee feels about this issue.

DNC Chairman McAuliffe on Bush's use of 9/11 images: "The way the Bush administration has tried to use the tragedy for partisan gain is disgusting."

DNC Chairman McAuliffe after seeing Fahrenheit 9/11: "I think anyone who goes to see this movie will come out en masse and vote for John Kerry. Clearly the movie makes it clear that George Bush is not fit to be president of this country." No problems here.

I would love it if someone could tell me how exactly Major Stone's funeral was used in the movie.

I have to say this is pretty good stuff. Memos from the head of Fox News directing news coverage for the channel. I'm not going to say I disagree with much, but after reading them it's hard to imagine anyone claiming that Fox doesn't push a point of view. It's almost like you have to make fun of the French to move ahead.

Fox News Memos: The Whole Batch

To me, it's creepy how hypocritical Kerry is. Here's the latest from this potential "leader".

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Democratic candidate John Kerry (news - web sites), whose campaign demanded to know on Wednesday whether President Bush (news - web sites) read a key Iraq (news - web sites) intelligence assessment, did not read the document himself before voting to give Bush the authority to go to war, aides acknowledged.

Since the left believes that Bush had a plan to go to war with Iraq since he was inauguarated, there would be no reason for him to have read the whole report (in theory). Kerry didn't bother and sent our troops off to war anyway. Maybe he had also already decided that going to war was a valid option.

By the way, is there any issue that Kerry has taken a firm, consistent stand on that has been shown to improve anyone's life? After 20 years, you would think there was something. Please someone, enlighten me. I don't want to know what he supposedly stands for, I want to know what he's accomplished.

As an article on his website explains:

His thoughts on policies flow like a stream, with wonkish tributaries going every which way.

I have to say this is pretty good stuff. Memos from the head of Fox News directing news coverage for the channel. I'm not going to say I disagree with much, but after reading them it's hard to imagine anyone claiming that Fox doesn't push a point of view. It's almost like you have to make fun of the French to move ahead.

Fox News Memos: The Whole Batch

I have to say this is pretty good stuff. Memos from the head of Fox News directing news coverage for the channel. I'm not going to say I disagree with much, but after reading them it's hard to imagine anyone claiming that Fox doesn't push a point of view. It's almost like you have to make fun of the French to move ahead.

Fox News Memos: The Whole Batch

Today's suicide bombing in Iraq is proof positive that things have gotten a lot better there since our handoff of power a few weeks ago. Why? Look at how independent news sources are describing the last two weeks in Baghdad.

New York Times - Calm in Baghdad Is Shattered as Car Bomb Kills at Least 10

From the LA Times - A massive car bombing at an entrance to the multinational Green Zone killed at least seven people and injured 23 this morning, shaking much of the capital and shattering the relative calm it had experienced since the transfer of sovereignty to an interim Iraqi government.

BBC - The attack may simply have been an attempt to shatter the relative calm of recent weeks.

"Relative calm" was a term that the press started using in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as the intifada started winding down and the rate of suicide bombings started to decrease noticeably. I have hope for Iraq yet.

This is just another example of how Bush and his administration have consistently lied to the American people. They warned us of an increase in attacks around the time of the handover and they never materialized.

If we get one of these guys for every 100 innocent citizens that are temporarily detained by mistake, to me it's worth it.

Man arrested with suicide note on flight to Minneapolis-St. Paul International

Federal sources told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS the man was arrested last Wednesday at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. Sources in the Twin Cities and in Washington D.C. said the man arrived on a flight and was taken into federal custody. Along the way, customs agents found disturbing items in his possession.

The U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement confirmed to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS that Ali Mohamed Almosaleh is in federal custody in the Twin Cities. He was being detained on an immigration law violation, but federal sources confirmed there is much more than that to this investigation.

Sources confirm Almosaleh was carrying a suicide (sic) when he was arrested. They say that note indicated a specific time and date for carrying out some sort of public suicide. He was also carrying CDs and DVDs, which federal sources say contained anti-American material. A source also confirms Almosaleh had something with him indicating a connection with at least one known terrorist.

I'm starting to truly dislike MSNBC. Thanks to Backspin, I found this headline on MSNBC's website:

Israeli army fires on U.N. convoy - Trucks were delivering humanitarian supplies to Gaza Strip town

That sounds like pure evil to me - no wonder the Israelis are so disliked. Needless to say though, this report (from the Associated Press) only mentions unnamed "witnesses" who saw this happen, while the Israeli army who actually helped co-ordinate the convoy says that it did not happen at all. Doesn't seem to be any doubt in the headline though.

By the way, the humanitarian supplies made it in OK.

Separately, I was flipping channels a few nights ago to see Tom Brokaw reporting from Iraq on an MSNBC news special. He recounts the departure of Paul Bremer from Iraq with the false claim that he snuck out of the country in the middle of night without giving a farewell speech. This same falsehood was reported by the L.A. Times and Washington Post. Is this a coincidence that two major newspapers and a major news network made the same mistake? Both papers have since corrected this erroneous reporting.

Folks, these problems are not "differences of opinion". This is not about whether Israel's security fence is right or wrong, or whether Bush lied or not about WMDs. This is making sh*t up becuase it fits the reporters' views of what they think must be happening in places where they aren't physically present.

Won't it be nice when Israel doesn't have to be a world leader in missile defense technology? Until then, let's thank them for helping to make everyone safer.

Flight Guard passes missile test

Flight Guard, the airborne system designed to protect civilian aircraft from surface-to-air missiles, was successfully tested Monday and Tuesday over Palmachim Air Force base, Israel Aircraft Industries said Tuesday.

Its developers at IAI, Elta, and TAAS-Israel Industries are now hoping US officials will license the platform, allowing not only Israel's airliners to carry the system, but enabling Elta and its partners to market it worldwide.

Using an IAI Boeing 737-200 as the test aircraft, air force personnel launched a "virtual" SA-7 Strela (shoulder-fired) missile at the plane, which was immediately tracked and destroyed by the Flight Guard system.

Will the world wake up? This is not news in the sense that it is not new at all. LGF has been posting on this stuff for ages.

GAZA'S KILLING SCHOOL

Children as young as 10 are being recruited to fight for the Palestinian cause.

Sky News has gained access to a young people's camp in Gaza, where the only lesson taught is how to kill Israelis.



In one training session a militant dressed as a Jewish settler complete with yarmulke skull cap was ambushed in his car.



The boys "graduate" at the end of their training, receiving a special certificate.

Rosie gets a little hysterical.

Rosie Takes Shot At Bush During Gay-Friendly Cruise

"It will be the first time, except for prohibition, that bigotry has been added to the Constitution"

Rosie seems to have been the last in line in a game of "post office". What she is trying to say is either this:

It proposes to use one of our nation's most revered documents as a tool of exclusion, amending the Constitution to restrict the rights of a group of Americans for the first time in history

or this:

Other than the alcohol prohibition amendment,which was later repealed, this would be the first time in history that the Constitution was amended so as to take away rights.

Like I said, I don't agree with amending the Constitution, but if people can't even spout the party line properly, they are probably better off keeping silent and letting others speak for them.

Actually, I am embarrassed to admit that I just read the amendment for the first time. I never bothered before becuase I was against it and I knew it wasn't going to pass anyway. Here it is:

"Marriage in the United States shall consist only of the union of a man and a woman."

"Neither this Constitution or the constitution of any state, nor state or federal law, shall be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents thereof be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups."

I know that all the fanfare over how evil Bill O'Reilly is died down awhile ago, but I stumbled across something interesting. I remember that one of the main "lies" he supposedly told was that he grew up middle-class in Levittown. No, it was upscale Westbury, cried the critics - especially Al Franken.

Here's a link to the deed to O'Reilly's parents house - in Levittown - which O'Reilley recently made public. I don't know what took him so long, but I heard him talking about it on his radio show today.

Reuters continues it's in-depth coverage of Iraq as it transitions from dictatorship to democracy:

In the 15 months since the U.S.-led war that toppled Saddam Hussein, there has been widespread lawlessness in Baghdad and throughout the country.

The former Iraqi president released all common criminals as part of an amnesty in October 2002, a move that many say has contributed to a surge in crime.

Read another way, letting all the criminals go in October 2002 was not an obvious factor in the crime wave, but the appearance of coalition forces 6 months later created lawlessness. Haven't we put countless innocent Iraqis in jail and tortured them? I guess we should have taken harsher measures.

I'm curious, who doesn't say that letting all the criminals go created a sense of lawlessness?

Oh, and I guess the "insurgent" car bombings of Iraqi police stations and recruiting lines had nothing to do with the ability to fight crime. After all, it's not part of Reuters official recent history of Iraq.

An Immigrant, a Terrorist List and a Day Trip Gone Wrong

This has obviously been a miserable experience for Mr. Ahmed. However, I think that before the critics of our terrorism-related security measures come out of the woodworks, we should put these types of stories in perspective. Our immigration services have caused countless problems like these well before 2001 based on lists of criminals and others we didn't want in the country.

My personal belief is that the bureaucracy is the story here, not the terrorist list.

I hope Mr. Ahmed is allowed to return to Queens as soon as possible.

A happy update from Normblog regarding a horrible story of racism I linked to on July 8th.

Anti-racist Teesside

What is clear is that the vast majority of Teessiders were shocked at what a few bigots appeared to have done - both to a woman in need, and to the reputation of a town that they all love.

I would love to say "needless to say", but unfortunately, there is a need.

Why Israel Needs a Fence by Benjamin Netanyahu

"First, Israel is not building the fence on territory that under international law can be properly called "Palestinian land." The fence is being built in disputed territories that Israel won in a defensive war in 1967 from a Jordanian occupation that was never recognized by the international community. Israel and the Palestinians both claim ownership of this land."

"Second, the fence is not a permanent political border but a temporary security barrier. A fence can always be moved. Recently, Israel removed 12 miles of the fence to ease Palestinian daily life."

"...saving lives is more important than preserving the quality of life. Quality of life is always amenable to improvement. Death is permanent."

People in North Cariolina just ain't voting for Kerry/Edwards.

If the presidential election were being held today, and it included John Kerry and John Edwards as the Democratic candidates and George W. Bush and Dick Cheney as the Republican candidates. Who would you vote for?

Bush/Cheney - 56%
Kerry/Edwards - 41%

Does having John Edwards as his running mate make you more likely to vote for John Kerry in November, less likely, or will it not have much effect on your vote?

More likely - 30%
Less likely - 12%
No effect - 57%

Edwards gave Kerry a boost and he's still down 15%. Bush won the state by 13% in 2000, so guess it should come as no surprise.

To me, this kind of "analysis" is disgusting.

In an op-ed piece in today's NY Times, Bob Herbert mentions the latest American casualties in Iraq and then asks the Vietnam-style question. They died "for what?" He then explains his disagreement regarding our choice of targets in the War on Terrorism - and conveniently fails to mention Afghanistan and that we've killed or captured 2/3 of Al-Qaeda's senior leaders.

It is certainly debatable as to whether or not we needed to go to war with Iraq or not. The decision was certainly made based on human error (see the CIA) brought about by the decision not to disclose the truth (see Saddam Hussein). But the question "for what?" requires that the questioner see no benefit for anyone to our invasion and that our young men and women are dying for no good reason at all.

Let's assume that a person was completely ignorant of Saddam Hussein's evils, and you killed thousands of innocent people in a futile hunt for WMD's. Then you found out about the torture, gassings, mass graves, rape rooms, invasions of Iran and Kuwait, billions of stolen dollars, terrible starvation, etc. Let's say by accident we just so happened to allow the Iraqi people to form a democracy where none of the above will ever happen again. Never mind the geo-political improvements to the region. All of a sudden I think you'd feel that on balance some good had been done and that many more people would wind up alive than dead. And an infinitely better quality of alive at that, too.

Just because a lot of people die in a war doesn't mean that the enterprise does not make that place, and mankind in general, better off in the long run. That is the real "what for" to answer "for what?".

Some in the U.S. might "poo-poo" the anti-Semitic attacks occurring in France and other places. I think people here have forgotten what it's like to suffer the true effects of anti-Semitism. Over here, we don't see much more than some teenagers spray-painting swastikas or some unfortunate comments made by politicians.

In Europe, buildings are being burned and Jews are being physically attacked. Even non-Jews can be attacked, as happened to this mother and infant, who were mistaken for Jews.

VERSAILLES, France - A young woman and her baby were attacked in a suburban train near Paris on Saturday by unidentified men who drew swastikas on her stomach with a pen in what police said was an anti-Semitic assault.

The six attackers who were armed with knives clipped the 23-year-old woman's hair, and cut her t-shirt and pants before drawing three swastikas on her body.

The men of North African origin also overturned the pram with her baby of 13 months.

In the attack they robbed her backpack which contained her identity papers, a bank card and 200 euros ($250).

Police said the attackers erroneously assumed the woman was Jewish because she was living in Paris' posh 16th district.

"Only Jews live in the 16th district," one of the men was quoted as having said.

I'm sure that these brave attackers felt aggrieved against the Jews becuase of their "North African" origin, and not becuase they were Muslim. Everyone knows how much the Jews have been persecuting the "North African" community. (Sarcasm off).

UPDATE: Could this attack have been faked? Police doubt story of Paris attack

If President Bush and the Republicans are being asked to come down off their moral high horse, the same should be asked by the Democrats of their own presidential candidate.

"We have not stood up and attacked our opponents in personal ways," Kerry said.

This week alone, Kerry has criticized Bush personally in speeches for lying, professional laziness, waiting until right before the election to indict Enron Corp.'s former chief executive, Kenneth L. Lay, lacking values and even having worse hair than the two Democrats. Some advisers are privately counseling Kerry to tone down his attacks on Bush.

This is soooooo me, it's ridiculous. If you haven't go take this test now!

You are an SRDF--Sober Rational Destructive Follower. This makes you a font of knowledge. You are cool, analytical, intelligent and completely unfunny. Sometimes you slice through conversation with a cutting observation that causes silence and sidelong glances. You make a strong and lasting impression on everyone you meet, the quality of which depends more on their personality than yours.

You may feel persecuted, as you can become a target for fun. Still, you are focused enough on your work and secure enough in your abilities not to worry overly.

You are productive and invaluable to those you work for. You are loyal, steadfast, and conscientious. Your grooming is impeccable. You are in good shape.

You are kind of a tool, but you get things done. You are probably a week away from snapping.

I see nothing wrong with a heartfelt thank you to the Catholic Church on this one. And to think the statement came out of my wife's home country which is known as having been a post-war haven for Nazis.

Catholic Church equates anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism

The Catholic Church condemned anti-Zionism as a cover for anti-Semitism by means of a joint statement issued by a forum of Catholic-Jewish intellectuals this week.

The announcement was made at a gathering of religious, academic and other leading Jewish and Catholic figures in Buenos Aires.

"We oppose anti-Semitism in any way and form, including anti-Zionism that has become of late a manifestation of anti-Semitism," the statement said.

This is the first time that anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism have been equated by the Catholic Church.

Sure I only link to comments from non-partisan sites that back the conservative party line. That's what floats my boat. Besides you can always go to the sponsor site and read everything they have.

Kerry Lied! Again.

Economy Producing Mostly Bad Jobs? Not so fast.

Now that the economy is growing and creating new jobs, John Kerry has been saying that the quality of those jobs is "much lower" than the quality of jobs that have been lost. A recent ad by some Kerry allies even shows a middle-aged man reporting for his new job wearing a paper hat at a seedy-looking burger joint.

Well, hold on -- there's strong new evidence to the contrary.

As I like to do of late, I'll use Paul Krugman's line and say that it doesn't matter to liberals if John Kerry didn't have the facts - he was speaking an "essential truth" that Republican job growth comes from the creation of burger-flipping jobs.

After reading the latest round of celebrity Bush-bashing today, I decided to see how quickly I could find links to celebrities publicly insulting the President. Criticism of policy doesn't count - just personal comments like stupid, liar, imbecile, etc.

Here's what I found:

Chevy Chase - "This guy is as bright as an egg-timer."
Robert Altman - "the idea that George Bush could run a baseball team successfully -- he can't even speak! I just find him an embarrassment."
Jessica Lange - "I hate George W. Bush"
Danny Glover - ”Yes, he's racist [Bush]. We all knew that, but the world is only finding it out now,"
Morrissey - "Bush should have died, not Reagan"
Rob Reiner - "he has no intellectual curiosity"
Martin Sheen - "George W Bush is like a bad comic working the crowd, a moron, if you'll pardon the expression,"
Julia Roberts - "The man's embarrassing. He's not my president and never will be, either. Republicans come in the dictionary just after reptile, and just above repugnant."
Al Franken - "He's the president of all of us ... you know, so support him even though he's kind of stupid"
Woody Allen - "he has no idea about anything"

I challenge my friends and family to quote similar personal attacks against John Kerry, by the famous or not-so-famous. I'll even count "unpatriotic" which Kerry supporters claim has been said by various people on the right. I won't count "flip-flopper" or "hypocrite" either because it relates to his positions, and has been acknowledged in a way by his supporters who say that he "takes nuanced positions" or "doesn't see things in black and white".

UPDATE: Here's some more from last night's Kerry-Edwards Bush-bashing party:

In a tune from the stage of Radio City Music Hall, musician John Mellencamp referred to Bush as a ``cheap thug.'' Actor Chevy Chase called Bush ``a liar,'' and actor Paul Newman referred to the president's tax cuts as ``borderline criminal.''

I would like to present, in her own words - Vanessa Redgrave:

No mother could possibly be accustomed to the fact that her little girl will go to school ''and will sit with her classmates and an Israeli sniper will shoot at a classroom full of Palestinian children who are in their uniforms with their little scarves,'' she said....

''Any Palestinian mother or schoolchild knows that a schoolchild who is dressed in the uniform can be and is frequently shot in the head -- not in the chest, not in the legs, in the head.''

Read it all here - On Mideast, Redgrave isn't a straight shooter

Thank you to Backspin.

Via Normblog - I had to post this horrific story.

Every moment for me is fear

On buses people refuse to sit next to me and shout out "monkey" and "asylum seeker". In the street a big, strong man struck me on my back with his fists and said: "You are illegal, you should go back to your country." Boys spit at me and throw stones when I walk down the street. If I go to a public toilet, whoever is behind me in the queue won't use it after me.

One friend had fireworks thrown through her letter box. Several mothers I know left their babies in the creche at a local family centre for a couple of hours. They returned to find their babies sitting in dirty nappies. They felt this was because the staff didn't want to touch their babies. Middlesbrough reminds me of South Africa during apartheid.

Middlesbrough at least claims to tolerate diversity..

In Shades of the Old Iraq, the NY Times is already comparing Iraqi Prime Minister Allawi to other Arab dictators in the Middle East. Why? Because he dares to threaten armed insurgents, acting to bring down his government, with martial law.

Multiple violent insurgencies are now raging in Iraq, but the fledging Iraqi forces Dr. Allawi controls are currently too weak and unreliable to bring them under control.

So then martial law shouldn't be a problem, right? It would be ineffective anyway.

Restoring law and order should not require wholesale suspensions of legal rights.

Somehow, I don't think the U.S. gave a lot of legal rights to the hundreds of insurgents it has killed in the last few months. When you're in a war for the survival of the country, legal niceties are a luxury. Iraq is not under some imagined threat like the "red scare" of the 1950's in the U.S. There are real people (not all from Iraq) with real guns and bombs assassinating Iraqi officials and hundreds of innocent Iraqis alike.

After falling violently afoul of Saddam Hussein in the late 1970's, Dr. Allawi severed his Baathist Party ties and later began working with disgruntled Baathist generals to organize a military coup in Iraq. He has never made a secret of any of this.

This is the best part. The Times has the balls to suggest that Allawi was the "violent" troublemaker when it was Saddam who supposedly attempted to assassinate Allawi in 1978 while he was exiled in the U.K. The "later" they refer to was almost 15 years later after the first Gulf War in 1991 when the U.S. was looking for ways to overthrow Saddam itself.

The Times acts like Allawi should be embarrassed that he wanted to force Saddam Hussein from power - and as if there would have been any other way but through violence!
Part of the problem is that the Times treats the insurgents as potential partners in an Iraqi democracy instead of the religious/anarchist fanatics that they are.

Five local Palestinian-Americans(?) are convicted of conspiring to use Infocom to make illegal shipments of high-tech goods to Libya and Syria.

Elashi brothers convicted in export case

A spokesman for the team of prominent defense attorneys told reporters after the verdicts that he continued to believe the Elashis had been singled out because they were Palestinian Muslims. An appeal of the convictions is likely, he said. "I think this is still our position that the government overreached," Mike Gibson said. "If they were not of their nationality and religion, they would have been prosecuted administratively and not been prosecuted criminally."

In other words, they're definitely guilty, but got a bad break because they were doing business in the wrong country at the wrong time. Nice try.

All I know is this woman must be incredibly hot if her boyfriend couldn't pay enough attention to catch not one, but TWO foul balls.

Cardinals Fan Gets Hit Twice By Foul Ball In One Game

The next time Sara Denoyer attends a St. Louis Cardinals game, she might want to sit way, way out in the bleachers.

Denoyer and her boyfriend sat down the first-base line at Busch Stadium, watching a game the Cards eventually won against the Seattle Mariners 2-1 on Sunday.

Early in the game, a foul ball struck Denoyer in the neck. Then in the ninth inning, Seattle's Scott Spiezio hit a foul that also struck Denoyer -- this time in the head.

As an aside, I'm reading the bestseller Eats, Shoots & Leaves about the proper use of punctuation. Although not related to punctuation, I'm sure the author would have a field day with the above headline as it seems pretty near impossible that one foul ball could have hit the same woman twice - and in fact didn't.

When you get tired of the media overkill on what has gone wrong in Iraq, take a good amount of time and read about the torrent of things that are going right.

Good news from Iraq, Part 5

Oh and by the way, US causalties for June were half what they were in May which 40% less than what they were in April. Here's where I get my stats - Iraq Coalition Casualty Count

And...your welcome.

Creepy. I've shopped there.

(Jewish) Graves may lie under shopping center

I know this has nothing to do with finding WMDs, but I'm not exactly sure what these radioactive materials represent. Does this mean that Saddam was still trying to obtain nuclear weapon technology or not?

U.S. Removed Radioactive Materials From Iraq Facility

Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced yesterday that almost two tons of low-enriched uranium and about 1,000 radioactive samples used for research had been removed from Iraq's Tuwaitha Nuclear Center and brought to the United States for security reasons.

This is what happened to the really dangerous stuff after the first Gulf War:

The U.N. inspectors removed highly enriched uranium that could be used for weapons and shipped it for storage in Russia.

This is what happened to the not-dangerous-at-all stuff:

Less sensitive radiological materials -- used for medical, agricultural or industrial purposes -- were left in Iraq, according to a Department of Energy statement.

So what was Iraq using the two tons of other radioactive material for that were neither "highly enriched" nor "less sensitive"?

I'm confused.

UPDATE: This AP story calls the transferred uranium, "radioactive material that could be used in so-called "dirty bombs".

So...if Iraq already had TONS of uranium which could be used for dirty bombs, why was such a big fuss made over Bush's claim that Iraq was buying trying to buy more uranium from, which his opponents claim was based on falsified documents? Well, that may be proven to be the truth still.

Niger Inquiry will back intelligence that Iraq sought uranium

A UK government inquiry into the intelligence used to justify the war in Iraq is expected to conclude that Britain's spies were correct to say that Saddam Hussein's regime sought to buy uranium from Niger.

The inquiry by Lord Butler, which was delivered to the printers on Wednesday and is expected to be released on July 14, has examined the intelligence that underpinned the UK government's claims about the threat from Iraq.

It's the Economy Stupid - Part Infinity



"We are moving into a sweet spot for the economy with interest rates not too high, jobs coming back and business investment providing strength," said Diane Swonk, chief economist at Bank One in Chicago, who is predicting GDP growth of 4.8 percent this year.

What is the truth behind "foreign fighters" in Iraq?

Video Shows Foreign Fighters in Major Iraq Attacks

Foreign Muslim militants from across the Arab world have appeared in a chilling video tape which claimed they carried out some of the bloodiest bombings in Iraq since the war ended.......

The video shows several young Muslim militants uttering their final words before carrying out major operations such as last year's massive truck bomb attack on United Nations headquarters in Baghdad that killed 22 people.

It was the worst attack on a U.N. civilian complex in the organization's history....

The video showed Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi with his face sunk in his hands after last year's car bombing killed 19 Italians and nine Iraqis in the city of Nassiriya.

It said an Egyptian identified as Abu Fareed who had lived in Italy carried out the bombing after killing Christians in Egypt first.

Yesterday's USA Today is convinced they're practically non-existent.

Suspected foreign fighters account for less than 2% of the 5,700 captives being held as security threats in Iraq, a strong indication that Iraqis are largely responsible for the stubborn insurgency.....

The figures also suggest that Iraq isn't as big a magnet for foreign terrorists as some administration critics have asserted.

I would think that if foreign fighters are the ones blowing up the most people and the locals are responsible for some small arms fire, I would concentrate on the foreign fighters.

Let the Edwards bashing begin:

Who Is John Edwards?

Personally, I think it's a good political choice. Would Edwards be good for the country - I have no opinion yet. The experience issue isn't that important to me and Kerry's anti-Edwards statements are pretty normal for primary season. I wouldn't count them as part of his normal flip-flopping.

The NY Post has it's Dewey vs. Truman moment:

John Kerry says that he believes that abortion is not for him personally becuase he believes that life begins at conception. This is the same position that Mario Cuomo famously took about 20 years ago.

This means that:

a) Kerry is pandering to conservative swing voters
b) Kerry has consistently supported the legalization of murder/infanticide
c) Kerry is trying to be on both sides of yet another politically touchy issue (I'm against it, except when I vote for it)
d) All of the above

Remind me not to waer my Jewish bling-bling when I'm in Antwerp.

New attacks on Antwerp Jews

BRUSSELS - Two more Jewish men have been attacked in the Belgian city of Antwerp, it has been confirmed.

The men were attacked in seperate incidents on Thursday evening, police have confirmed.

The first attack occurred at around 8 pm when police in the Brialmontlei district found a young Jewish man bleeding in the street.

The victim was taken to the Sint-Vincentius hospital with serious but not life-threatening injuries.

His attacker, who is still on the run, was described as a man of Eastern European origin and the circumstances of the incident are unknown.

The second assault took place as a Jewish man, aged around forty, cycled in the streets of Berchem.

A group of around fifteen individuals began to attack the man with stones and bottles but failed to injure him.

I don't care if the Yankees are a better team than the Mets. All I can say is SWEEP! SWEEP! SWEEP!

The surprising Mets took four of six from their crosstown rivals this year after going 0-6 in 2003. It’s the first time they’ve won the season series since interleague play began in 1997.

As Braden Looper got the last three outs in the ninth, Mets fans among the sellout crowd of 55,437 chanted “Sweep! Sweep!” That surely wasn’t the present Yankees owner George Steinbrenner was hoping for on his 74th birthday.

Perfectly succinct. The cornerstone is laid at Ground Zero for the 1,776 foot tall Freedom Tower.

To honor and remember those who lost their lives on September 11, 2001 and as a tribute to the ENDURING SPIRIT OF FREEDOM. — July Fourth, 2004

If you didn't know who the current crop of Jewish baseball players were, now you know.

David Newhan of Baltimore, Gabe Kapler and Kevin Youkilis of Boston, Scott Schoeneweis of the Chicago White Sox, Al Levine of Detroit, Brad Ausmus of Houston, Shawn Green of Los Angeles, Mike Lieberthal of Philadelphia, John Grabow of Pittsburgh and Jason Marquis of St. Louis.

Thanks to the NY Times: Finding Baseball's Jewish Roots

Who are the fearmongers now? The left has accused the Bush administration on numerous occassions of using the fear of terror attacks as a tactic to further his personal agenda, whatever that is.

After reading this letter to the editor in the NY Times, I wonder if the left has truly eschewed fear as a political tactic:

In ordinary times, I would completely agree with Nicholas D. Kristof's argument for civility between the two parties ("Calling Bush a Liar," column, June 30). But we are no longer in the ordinary times we were in when the conservatives took out after Bill Clinton. We are in a time now that is as fearful as the period after Munich. Those of us who are demonizing George W. Bush are doing so not because of his morals but because we are scared of what another four years of his administration will do to this country and to the world.

Anyone want to place a bet on which American city will become our version of Auschwitz?

Please. At least this person seems to believe that Bush won't declare himself a dictator and will only have four more years in office.

The rhetoric from the left seems to be toning down a bit. Now, George Bush is only compared to a minor tyrant who was mentally unstable - King George III of England, as opposed to Hitler.

Their George and Ours

This is the most ridiculous part of the analogy:

Then there is the declaration's boldest and most sweeping indictment of all, condemning George III for "transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation." Translate "mercenaries" into contract workers and proxy armies (remember the bloodthirsty, misogynist Northern Alliance?), and translate that last long phrase into Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib.

So equipping an existing local army (the Northern Alliance) against a man who eventually killed 3,000 Americans is comparable to England having sent the Hessians (a third party) to the colonies to kill future Americans.

And aside from that, the Northern Alliance weren't misogynistic according to this 2001 article from Slate.com:

They aren't fanatics. While many of the Northern Alliance are devout and even orthodox Muslims, they have a very different reputation from the Taliban. When the Northern Alliance leader Ishmael Khan was in charge of Herat, girls went to school. When the Taliban took over, the girls were sent home. Generally speaking, the alliance culture is the culture of pre-Soviet invasion Afghanistan: easygoing, relatively liberal. They've never had any ambitions to export Islam at all.

Also, I may be wrong, but I believe that the majority of private contract workers are in Iraq to help rebuild and provide additional security to the civilian population. I don't think the Hessians came over here in the late 1700's looking to build new schools or roads for the locals.

As difficult as it is to get through her columns, sometimes it's fun to read them just to try and interpret them.
In Not Feeling Groovy, she writes:

The president did end up changing America's image in the world. Just not for the better.

(First of all - shouldn't "president" begin with an upper case "P"? Just curious.)

I can't really tell if the point of her editorial is that Republicans are immoral because they are no better than the Democrats, or because the Republicans take advantage of the liberties granted by the 60's while claiming to oppose them.

In any case, one of the general right-wing complaints about the 60's culture is the "if it feels good now, do it" culture. Part of the problem with Dowd and the other anti-war folks is that they can't see the future through the current pain. Iraq feels bad now, so it must be wrong. Well, the United States had a lot of painful times during the Cold War, but I'd find it hard to argue against its eventual success.

There is no way to judge the war on terror now based on no WMDS and Abu Ghraib. We have to see what turns out at least 5-10 years from now. I think one would be hard pressed to deny that tens of millions are better off now without communism, despite how we felt upon hearing of the Bay of Pigs, My Lai and the Iran-Contra affair in their respective times.

I can't believe that Reuters is actually distributing this photo:

On occasion, I like to respond to Letters to the Editor printed in newspapers since it is often the papers' policy not to print rebuttals to readers' opinions. Take this from the NY Times:

To the Editor:

We pre-emptively invaded Iraq because, presumably, it had weapons of mass destruction that were poised to attack other countries. Why, then, is Saddam Hussein not being tried on those charges in an international court?

It is likely that he will be found guilty of those acts for which he is now accused.

But these were not the stated reasons for our invasion, capture and arrest of him. What happened to our original case against him for which our men and women are giving their lives and limbs?

THOMAS M. STEPHENS
Columbus, Ohio, July 2, 2004

Saddam is not being tried on the weapons of mass destruction becuase the Iraqis don't give a damn. What's more important to them is some form of justice and accounting for the millions sent off to war to die or summarily executed during his reign in the name of Saddam's ego. To me this just proves that the trial is being run by the Iraqis, not the Americans.

In order to create the impression of a stagnant ordeclining economy, the anti-Bush forces try to come up with one or two obscure economic statistics that supposedly prove their point. While Republicans run off the list of positive standard indicators (interest rates, inflation, unemployment rate, home ownership, etc.), we get stuff like this from the NY Times (The Sluggish Wage Recovery):

Indeed, take-home pay, as a share of the economy, is at its lowest level since the government started keeping track in 1929.

What does that mean, exactly? How are "take-home pay" and "share of the economy" defined? To me it sounds as if the government is spending too much money - I'm assuming that it has been taking up a growing share of the economy as defined here. Whatever it is, this is obviously some ridiculous stretch of the imagination to get people to think that we are worse of now than during the Depression.

As long as my company will pay for taxis, I think I'll stay off the NY City subways for awhile until the figure out why people keep getting shot in the face for no reason. This is the fourth similar attack in the last few weeks.

QUEENS SUBWAY SHOOT

A man standing on a Queens subway platform was shot in the face last night as he waited to ride to work, cops said — the fourth seemingly random incident involving gunplay in the city transit system in a month.

The 23-year-old man — whose name was withheld — was shot on the right side of the face by another man as they stood on the Manhattan-bound elevated Queensboro Plaza station platform at 9:45 p.m., cops said.

The bullet ripped through the man's face and came out the back of his head, police sources said. He was rushed to New York Hospital in critical condition.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with Bill Cosby's recent statements. I would hope they are inspiring to some. Jewish mothers have been known to apply similar verbal pressure on their children..."they didn't kill enough of us, you have to date a shiksa....what would your zaide think..etc."

Cosby Has Harsh Words for Black Community

Someone, somewhere needs to get their math straight.

1 in 8 returning soldiers suffers from PTSD - from MSNBC

1 in 6 Iraq Veterans Is Found to Suffer Stress-Related Disorder - from the NY Times

The Financial Times of London then ups the ante - One in five US soldiers returning from Iraq suffers serious mental health problems associated with post-traumatic stress disorder, according to research by the US Army.

I'm on vacation, so I'm too lazy to read through the details or link to the source document. By the way, what are the other 80% plus doing so that they're not stressed after being in a war zone? I want to know their secrets.

This Madonna-Kaballah thing is getting out of hand. Will someone please make this stop?

Madonna performs on blessed stage

Another man back from Iraq questions the media's coverage of the war.

The Untouchable Chief of Baghdad

Why, if it weren't for the British keeping the U.S. cowboys under control, who knows how many people would die needlessly?

Attack Iran, US chief ordered British

This reminds me of the fantasy in the movie "Love, Actually" where Hugh Grant's Prime Minister character stands up to the obnoxious, lecherous U.S. president (who was a smarmy mix of Clinton sleaziness with Bush Texan-ness).

First of all, I don't think coalition leaders can "order" British troops to do anything. Secondly, the article only claims that plans were ordered, which doesn't necessarily translate into a go ahead to attack. Thirdly, a pessimist would say that the recent incident with the sailors was due to Britain's appeasement of the Iranian government.

Expect more of this once the Israelis finally pull out of the West Bank and Gaza.

Rocket Attack at Israeli Kindergarten Kills Boy and Man

Got this one from the brother-in-law. Apparently the Israeli separation fence has proved to be impenetrable.

Israel: Fence in north has cut terror penetrations to zero

One of the more interesting comments in the article is regarding where a fence is put, versus a cement wall. Of course the media tends to show the wall all the time since it is more dramatic even if it is only 10% or so of the total. I never heard this argument FOR the wall parts based on humanitarian reasons.

Boim conceded that the fence "does weigh on some of the population. We are not ignoring this." But he said that walls had been built in some areas in order to avoid demolishing houses, because a fence would require a large area to be cleared on the West Bank side.

A note about a non-Jewish celebrity who took the religion seriously and converted.

Journey to Judaism

"I want to be the first Jewish country singer," Mare Winningham says. "Actually, Kinky Friedman was the first. But I want to be the next."

It’s the kind of easy banter the actress-singer proffers between nightclub sets of her country-tinged folk music. But the setting on this Thursday afternoon is the chapel at the University of Judaism (UJ), where Winningham sits at an upright piano after completing her three-hour Hebrew class. In her pure, open voice, she launches into her "Convert Jig," a country-ish ditty she wrote to honor her "Introduction to Judaism"teacher before her conversion last year.

Will Jewtopia be the next big hit on "off" Broadway?

Jewtopia follows the story of two single guys — a Jew and a Gentile — on the verge of turning 30 who are obsessed with dating women of the other's religion. The two devise a plan to help both their causes by teaching one another their cultures.

The show, which has run over a year in Los Angeles, previously announced that Jewtopia was "in final negotiations to open Off-Broadway this summer in New York," according to a release. Fogel told The New York Times the Off-Broadway producing team is waiting on availability for several venues.

Let's see, if I was a Muslim and wanted to randomly kill someone of the religion most responsible for the deaths of millions of my fellow Muslims, I might kill....a Muslim. But instead, some of the world's 1 billion or so Muslims think that their troubles will end if they attack or kill one of the 15 million or so Jewish people...thousands of miles from any existing conflict.

Boy stabbed in anti-Semitic attack in Belgium

BRUSSELS - Jewish organizations and the mayor of the Belgian port city of Antwerp held an emergency meeting on Friday after four students from a Jewish school in an Antwerp suburb were attacked.

A spokesman for the Forum of Jewish Organizations said one 16-year old boy was stabbed in the back during an attack late on Thursday by about 15 youngsters of Arab origin which the Forum believed was motivated by anti-Semitism.

"He was stabbed in the back, one of his lungs was punctured and he lost a lot of blood," the spokesman said, adding that the boy's life was no longer in danger.

One other thing I was thinking about as more Jewish religious school students are attacked in Europe. Do you ever wonder why it is that Jewish religious school students are stereotyped as being physically weak and nebbishy, while Muslim religious school students are stereotyped as Jihadists? Fair or unfair?

I imagine that yeshivas graduate their fair share of anti-Arab and anti-"goyim" types, but I never hear about them going around attacking and killing people for fun.

Then there's the run off the mill anti-Semistism when live Jews aren't around for bait.

Jewish cemetery vandalized in Germany

This is scary on so many levels, I'm not sure what to say.

Man Trying to Board Flight With Loaded Gun Arrested at Southern California Airport

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - A man arrested at an Orange County airport after he allegedly tried to board a flight with a knife and a loaded gun said he forgot the weapons were in his carry-on bag, authorities said Friday. A federal transportation inspector noticed the weapons during a routine X-ray check. A joint terrorism task force was investigating.

Ali Reza Khatami had a .38-caliber handgun and a six-inch knife with him Thursday when he attempted to catch a Chicago-bound plane from John Wayne Airport, sheriff's spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Khatami, 65, has a criminal record but authorities declined to provide details. The suspect was being held without bail.

And my quote of the day...

"He's not on any terrorist watch list or a person of interest - not until now."

Posts may be few and far between as the family and I go off for 10 days in search of the American heartland (which now includes the country's largest kosher meat processing plant).

But then again, what the heck else am I going to do at night in Iowa?

If I can figure it out how, I'll put up some pics.

There are a number of things I actually find offensive about today's lead editorial in the NY Times.

Movement on North Korea, Finally

The first is that it measures White House inaction on North Korea from the beginning of the Bush presidency, as if North Korea wasn't threatening to devolop nuclear weapons and develop it's missile program during the entire Clinton administration.

Secondly, it actually uses the word "action" as a synonym with the words "putting a proposal on the table". Waging war is an action. Enforcing sanctions is an action. Making a proposal is not an action, it's a declaration of a desire for action.

Now read this drivel:

But Kim Jong Il, the country's unpredictable dictator, has not yet decided how to respond to the American proposal. Rejecting it would be a mistake. North Korea can ensure a safer and more prosperous future for itself by coming to terms with Washington than it can by barricading itself behind a nuclear firewall while its economy disintegrates.

"Unpredictable"?!? Were Hitler or Saddam or Idi Amin "unpredictable"? Call him what he is - EVIL! Or MEGALOMANIAC if you prefer humanistic over religious terms. This guy is responsible for the starvation of hundreds of thousands if not millions of his own people and the Times describes him as "unpredictable". Madonna and Dennis Rodman are unpredictable.

Also, does the Times really think Kim gives a rat's a** about how his economy is doing? And even using the term "disintegrates" suggests that it is only recently that North Koreans have been doing badly and that maybe it's not so bad now.

Finally, I don't see the Times suggesting that North Korea do anything more than promise to abandon it's nuclear weapons.

But the new American proposal envisions a sensible two-stage process, which would start with the North acknowledging all its nuclear weapons programs and agreeing to give them up within three months. South Korea and other countries could start delivering badly needed fuel oil, and North Korea's security would be guaranteed during the disarmament period.

No inspection regime, no proof. This is the same thing that Clinton did and we're in the same boat, if not in a leakier boat. How can the Times trust a man like Kim Jong Il?

The Bush administration officials are geniuses because they know all they have to convince liberals that they're taking "action" is to put some words on a piece of paper and hold a press conference.

If you're ever in my neck of the woods, the Times has found plenty to do...

In Fort Worth

Democrats are sending convicted sex offenders door to door to collect your personal data.

(It's an offensive, overblown headline, but it's not false).

Felons Paid in Voter Registration Drive

There are so many things wrong with this that it's hard to quote just the jaw-dropping pieces. Read the whole article.

There is definitely a difference between the arguments of the "Bush lied" crowd and the "Clinton lied" crowd. Bush's "lies" need to be surmised based on other people's actions supposedly contradicting Bush's words, or facts that seem not to justify Bush's declarations, many of which are still in dispute.

Clinton on the other hand (like his potential succesor John Kerry) seems to contradict himself so many times that it's almost impossible to know where the truth begins and ends.

I'd almost rather deal with someone I know who's lying than with someone who I just can't figure out at all.

Case in point, a discovery made by the Washington Post regarding Clinton's new autobiography.

Clinton's own legal battle with independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr accounts for one of the book's more peculiar revelations. In his August 1998 grand jury testimony, Clinton said he began an inappropriate sexual relationship with Monica S. Lewinsky in "early 1996." His testimony, as was widely noted at the time, was in conflict with Lewinsky's story: She testified the relationship began on Nov. 15, 1995, in the midst of a government shutdown.

Starr's prosecutors, in their report to Congress, accused Clinton of lying about the date of their relationship in order to avoid admitting that he had sexual relations with an intern, as Lewinsky still was in the fall of 1995 before being hired for a paying job in the winter.

Without explanation, in his memoir Clinton departs from his grand jury testimony and corroborates her version: "During the government shutdown in late 1995, when very few people were allowed to come to work in the White House, and those who were there were working late, I'd had an inappropriate encounter with Monica Lewinsky and would do so again on other occasions between November and April, when she left the White House for the Pentagon."

Clinton aides yesterday said they could not explain the discrepancy, and his attorney, David Kendall, was traveling and did not return a call.

I am waiting for the one "big lie" to be attached to George Bush directly. Something like:

"I am not a crook"
"Read my lips, no new taxes"
"I did not have sexual relations with that woman...Ms. Lewinsky"

From Instapundit - I just had to cut and paste. No comment necessary.

INTERESTING 1999 CNN ARTICLE on Saddam and Osama:

"Iraqi President Saddam Hussein has offered asylum to bin Laden, who openly supports Iraq against the Western powers."

Then there's this 1999 article from The Guardian:

"The key meeting took place in the Afghan mountains near Kandahar in late December. The Iraqi delegation was led by Farouk Hijazi, Baghdad's ambassador in Turkey and one of Saddam's most powerful secret policemen, who is thought to have offered Bin Laden asylum in Iraq. . . .

Analysts believe that Mr Hijazi offered Mr bin Laden asylum in Iraq, most likely in return for co-operation in launching attacks on US and Saudi targets. Iraqi agents are believed to have made a similar offer to the Saudi maverick leader in the early 1990s when he was based in Sudan."

No doubt this was a preemptive fiction on the part of the not-yet-nominated Bush Administration.

The Drudge Report proudly links to a study on the media which shows that Drudge is the most centrist of all the major media outlets.

What's unique about the study is that it defines liberal/conservative based on how many times liberal or conservative "think tanks" are sourced. Then, instead of defining the think tanks by how they are perceived, they calculate how often think tanks are quoted by Democratic and Republican congressmen. The more a think tank is quoted by a Republican, the more conservative it is, for example.

What I found most interesting is one of the data charts comparing the sourcing of think tanks in a number of major media outlets such as Fox News, USA Today, the NY Times, LA Times, CBS, ABC, NBC, etc.

Fox News is reported as sourcing almost a perfect 50/50 split between conservative and liberal think tanks. Truly "fair and balanced". No one else in the study had a lower than 65%, or at least 2-to-1 record of liberal sourcing.

The debate on media bias continues.....

Survey: Most Jewish Israelis support transfer of Arabs

Most of the Jewish public in Israel supports expelling Arabs, according to a survey of the public's views on political extremism conducted by Haifa University's Center for the Study of National Security.

The survey indicates that 63.7 percent of the Jewish respondents said the government should encourage Israeli Arabs to emigrate. Almost half of the Jewish respondents - 48.6 percent - said the treatment that Arabs in Israel receive from the government is too sympathetic.

More than half - 55.3 percent - think Israeli Arabs endanger the state's security and 45.3 percent support depriving Israeli Arabs of the right to vote and to be elected. About one-quarter of the Jewish respondents said they would consider voting for a party like the outlawed Kach, if such a party were contending in the next elections.

I never would have imagined this - I am taking this with a grain of salt. That being said, I would not feel particualrly sorry for any Arab family that recieved a just compensation for their homes/land. After all, that's in theory what the Zionists were doing pre-1948. There's also no reason why Arab lands should be allowed to be Judenrein either.

The survey indicates a worrying increase in the extremism of the respondents' attitudes.

Can an attitude still be labeled "extremist" if it is displayed by the majority?

Since I previously posted about a decline in terrorism based on a State Department report issued earlier this year (and praising Bush policy at the same time) I am obliged to post the correction showing a rise in terrorism.

U.S. Corrects Report to Show Rise in Terrorism

That being said, the key figures are that the number of incidents only rose from 198 to 208 and the number killed (which is what I really care about) actually declined from 725 to 625. The statistic that gets much worse is the number of people injured which jumped from 2,013 to 3,646.

I guess a lot also depends how you define rise in terrorism. Is it attempted attacks or successful attacks? Does magnitude come into play? I would argue that one nuclear bomb would be more damaging than 100 suicide bombers. Et cetera.

The NY Times can't be serious about their policy suggestions for preventing Iran from joining the nuclear club.

The Iranian Nuclear Challenge

If international treaties to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons have any power, now is the time to flex it on Iran. Last week the United States, Europe, Russia and China jointly condemned Iran's refusal to explain how it got blueprints and equipment usable for making nuclear bomb fuel. That criticism must be followed up with concerted pressure to keep Iran from joining the growing list of states armed with nuclear weapons.

Flex a treaty? Concerted "pressure"? Is this a serious plan? How can they discuss Iran's nuclear capabilities without once mentioning the threat from a country that supports terrorism even more clearly than did Iraq?

China should order its companies not to cooperate with Iranian enrichment or bomb-making efforts, and should urge North Korea and Pakistan to impose similar bans.

And how should China "urge" these totally unstable countries with a history of trading in nuclear secrets from not doing business with one of their clients? And what if the Chinese are unsuccessful? No "Plan B" is offered from the Times.

The unhappy experience of Iraq showed that unilateral military action is not a very useful antiproliferation tool.

Since when does "unhappy" have anything to do with success? Due to our action in Iraq we KNOW that their country is WMD-free where it was uncertain before and we KNOW that their current leadership will not invade other countries or export nuclear technology and we EXPECT that the flourishing of democratic institutions will deprive them of the need for such technology.

Furthermore due to our action in Iraq, we KNOW that Libya has given up it's WMD plans and we KNOW that Dr. Khan of Pakistan has come clean about his dealings in nuclear technology and enlightened us on much of what was happening in that area in the recent past.

I'm sorry the Times is not happy about that, but I'm not sure how they can claim that Iraq is not a success on the antiproliferation front.

Fiddish has a link to a story about a treasure trove of pre-WWII Judaica buried by the Jews of Auschwitz of all places underneath their Great Synagogue. i wonder if there are any more hidden treasures like this throughout Europe?

Unearthed in Auschwitz

OSWIECIM, POLAND — A crew of Polish archeologists searching for a buried treasure at the former site of the Great Synagogue here struck gold Monday when they discovered a trove of artifacts, including three synagogue menorahs, a Chanukah menorah, the eternal light and several synagogue chandeliers.

The diggers were acting on evidence — unearthed in an incredible tale of luck and suspense — that in 1939, the local Jewish community had buried Torahs and other holy books and various artifacts in metal cases below the synagogue floor, just before the building was blown up by the Nazis. The archeological excavation started at the beginning of June in the once-vibrant Jewish town of Oswiecim, known popularly by its German name, Auschwitz. The town is adjacent to the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp complex.

I know it goes without saying that the UN is anti-Semitic, but it never hurts to go through the reasons why every once in a while.

One Small Step - Is the U.N. finally ready to get serious about anti-Semitism?


This paragraph to me was the most poignant.

As Israelis are demonized at the U.N., so Palestinians and their cause are deified. Every year the U.N. marks Nov. 29 as the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People--the day the U.N. partitioned the British Palestine mandate and which Arabs often style as the onset of al nakba or the "catastrophe" of the creation of the state of Israel. In 2002, the anniversary of the vote that survivors of the concentration camps celebrated, was described by Secretary-General Annan as "a day of mourning and a day of grief."

Christopher Hitchens in Slate writes the longest and strongest piece that has ever, or will ever, be written against Michael Moore. I think we can now officially put this one to bed.

Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore.

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.

Christopher Hitchens in Slate writes the longest and strongest piece that has ever, or will ever, be written against Michael Moore. I think we can now officially put this one to bed.

Unfairenheit 9/11 - The lies of Michael Moore.

To describe this film as dishonest and demagogic would almost be to promote those terms to the level of respectability. To describe this film as a piece of crap would be to run the risk of a discourse that would never again rise above the excremental. To describe it as an exercise in facile crowd-pleasing would be too obvious. Fahrenheit 9/11 is a sinister exercise in moral frivolity, crudely disguised as an exercise in seriousness. It is also a spectacle of abject political cowardice masking itself as a demonstration of "dissenting" bravery.

I agree whole-heartedly. Although I don't really think it would affect many votes. What I like is the forward-looking nature of the argument.

Cheney needs to step aside for good of Bush, party

I'm getting most of my stuff from Drudge today. I must be getting lazy.

The liberal left is acting like a police officer would at the scene of an accident - "nothing to look at here people, just keep moving...."

9/11 panel: New evidence on Iraq-Al-Qaida

The commission investigating the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks has received new information indicating that a senior officer in an elite unit of the security services of deposed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein may have been a member of al-Qaida involved in the planning of the suicide hijackings, panel members said Sunday.

John F. Lehman, a Reagan-era GOP defense official told NBC's "Meet the Press" that documents captured in Iraq "indicate that there is at least one officer of Saddam's Fedayeen, a lieutenant colonel, who was a very prominent member of al Qaida."

The Fedayeen were a special unit of volunteers given basic training in irregular warfare. The lieutenant colonel, Ahmed Hikmat Shakir, has the same name as an Iraqi thought to have attended a planning meeting for the Sept. 11 attacks in January 2000, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The meeting was also attended by two of the hijackers, Khalid al Midhar and Nawaf al Hamzi and senior al-Qaida leaders.

Considering the play that the "Bush lied" argument got on Page One the other day based on preliminary 9/11 Commission drafts, I'm surprised to see that neither the NY Times, Washington Post or CNN have this up on their websites.

Well, not really.

Actually, William Safire takes the Commission to task more succinctly and accurately than I ever could:

The Zelikow Report