Jihadism, Liberalism and Perversion By Stephen Rittenberg, MD

Our frequent exposure to the exhibitionistic snuff porn of Jihadis has prompted numerous attempts at psychological explanation. Clinicians know how comforting it is to have a diagnostic label. Correct diagnosis can be the first step to cure.

There are problems, however, with psychological diagnosis. In totalitarian states, dissidents are often locked up in ‘mental hospitals' for their ‘crazy' behavior. They are diagnosed as 'sociopaths' and 'narcissists', interested in individual freedom rather than behaving like 'normal' conformists to the system. Shrinkwrapped (Sophisticated Diagnosis) has commented on the various problems with psychiatric diagnosis in our own culture, including its tendency to relieve the ‘sick' person of responsibility for his actions.

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Is Real Threat Al-Qaida Or Congress? By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

After getting little done all year because it was too busy playing politics, Congress' year-end priority is to make fighting the global war on terror as difficult as possible. A jihadist couldn't ask for more.

President Bush promises to veto legislation not containing immunity from lawsuits for telecom firms who cooperate with the U.S. government in terrorist surveillance. Apparently spoiling for a fight, the House passed a bill without such immunity. It also legislated to prohibit the CIA from using waterboarding and other tough interrogation methods on suspected terrorists.

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"When the issue is Islam, debate – or disagreement – is hazardous" :: Jihad Watch

In "Keeping the faith for the sake of all our Aqsa Parvezes," Rosie DiManno in the Toronto Star (thanks to Jen) calls out all our spineless human rights advocates:

...It's all grist for debate. But when the issue is Islam, debate – or disagreement – is hazardous.

So even feminist warriors, decades after social emancipation rewrote human rights laws, are leery of giving offence. The Baal of multiculturalism – recast to incorporate radical interpretation of religious and cultural imperatives – has trumped gender equality.

In Afghanistan, before the pariah Taliban regime was ousted, women were stoned to death on the slimmest of accusations – but the world took more outrage at the destruction of Buddhist statues.

In Afghanistan, a girl once sobbed in my lap because she was taking the burqa the next day. Do not dare try to tell me she had a "choice.''

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The history of humanity is the history of man, not of woman By MICHAEL HANLON :: Daily Mail UK

Try to name history's top ten women artists, scientists, composers, dictators, heroines or explorers. You can probably trawl your mind and come up with a few examples - especially in those categories involving humane work.

I can think of Marie Curie, Rosamund "DNA" Franklin and the astronomer Jill Tarter (who runs an alien-detection institute and discovered dwarf stars). We've had Boudicca (vanquisher of the Romans) and Margaret Thatcher (who gave the Argentines an equally bloody nose). Also, arguably, our three greatest monarchs have been queens, not kings.

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Middle Eastern studies must be removed from departments of Middle Eastern Studies :: Dhimmi Watch

Middle Eastern studies must be removed from departments of Middle Eastern Studies. Those who obtain their degrees in such studies get them from such places as Columbia's MEALAC, and are thus presumably indoctrinated by such disinterested souls as Hamid Dabashi, Joseph Massad, Rashid Khalidi, the inimitable George Saliba, and Ms. Al-Haj. The latter is fresh from her incredible and intolerable achievement in obtaining tenure, despite her utter failure to meet minimal standards of scholarship, from a department that has lost its collective senses, and in a vote that can only be explained by a Namierian exercise in prosopography, examining each faculty member for prejudice or parti pris, or in the case of one particular voter, his wife or ex-wife, whatever she now is supposed for the outside world to be.

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Another “Just So” Story? by Andrew G. Bostom

Speaking at a December 10-11, 2007 Rome Conference entitled, “Fighting for Democracy in the Islamic World,” renowned historian Bernard Lewis intoned,

The authoritarianism present in the Middle East region is not part of the Arab and Muslim tradition, but it has been imported from Europe

Lewis, according to the account of his lecture in Adnkronos International, then offered as putatively convincing support for his thesis the non-sequitur observation that during the Ottoman Empire, the Sultan (presumably, in the course of making decisions) consulted all the dignitaries, and when he ascended the throne he would greet the crowds, uttering “Allah is greater than you are.”

This ahistorical contention, accompanied by an equally vacuous example of Ottoman era “proof,” seems like a desynchronized “Spy Versus Spy” Mad Magazine segment with Lewis playing the role of both “Department of Joke and Dagger” agents, simultaneously, when juxtaposed to Lewis’ own entry on hurriyya—Arabic for freedom—which appears in the venerable Encyclopedia of Islam.

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What You Should Know About CAIR, The Assault On Michael Savage And The Stealth Jihad :: PipeLineNews

The Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR] is a stealth jihad organization. It is a Saudi Wahhabist funded, Hamas friendly entity which is working to incrementally force acceptance of Sharia in the United States.

It does this through the courts, working with leftist groups such as the ACLU, through direct legal intimidation pursuing phony claims of Islamophobia and discrimination and through campaigns of common, garden variety thuggery, such as its attempt to destroy nationally syndicated talk show host Michael Savage.

In pursuing this strategy CAIR is following a carefully crafted plan set forth by the Muslim Brotherhood in 1991, designed to destroy America and the West from within.

This plan was developed by the Muslim Brotherhood. It was first revealed in document which was seized in a raid in Virginia 15 years ago at the residence of some of the Holy Land Foundation defendants, and which serves today as a key piece of evidence in that ongoing case.

This document refers to what the Brotherhood calls the "Civilization Jihadist Process."

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Church shootings on rise in U.S. By Bob Unruh

Church shootings, in the headlines because of the attacks by Matthew Murray, 24, of Englewood, Colo., on two Christian groups last weekend, are on the rise across the United States, even though they're not yet at epidemic proportions.

Murray killed two people at a Youth With A Mission missionary training center in Arvada, Colo., early last Sunday morning, then apparently posted some rantings on the Internet, and drove to the New Life Church in Colorado Springs where he killed two teen girls. He also wounded half a dozen others before he was confronted by a church member volunteering as a security guard, and was shot.

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Horror Under the Hijab By Stephen Brown

A Canadian Muslim teenager was murdered this week for trying to establish her own identity by moving out of her family home and for reportedly defying her father’s command to cover her head. Meanwhile, Canada’s largest daily newspaper, the Toronto Star, disgracefully hid its own head in the sand.

Pakistani-Canadian Aqsa Parvez, 16, was strangled by her father in an honor murder last Monday in the Toronto-area city of Mississauga. Refusing to wear the Islamic hijab, Parvez, who was herself born in Pakistan, wanted to live the normal lifestyle of a Canadian teenage girl, but ran into conflict with her strict, religious father. One friend and schoolmate said the Canadian teenager was afraid of her father and often came to school wearing bruises, the result of his violence.

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Joy to the World! or Christmasphobia?

Satire By John W. Lillpop

Christmas should be a time of great joy and good will. People everywhere should be caught up in the "Christmas Spirit!"

To some, however, Christmas is but a dreary reminder of the grim consequences of allowing the unwashed masses to express religious superstitions. To such people, an "over exuberance" of faith during the Christmas season is reckless and irresponsible!

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Environ-Mentalism: Nazi Inspired Fascist Ecology; Another "Final Solution" for a New Age :: The World Informer

Nazism was "applied biology" ( albeit survival of the fittest, Darwinian biology ) stated Hitler deputy Rudolf Hess, this "applied biology" pertained to racial purity, has transmorphed into "applied biology" of enviromental purity, along with  it's genocidal tendencies that accompanies this ideology.

Ernest Lehmann was a professor of botany in Nazi Germany, he characterized National Socialism as "politically applied biology" 1934 pgs 10-11. He wrote, "Only through a re-integration of humanity into the whole of nature ( holistic ) can our people be made stronger. That is the fundamental point of the biological tasks of our age. Humankind alone is no longer the focus of thought, but rather life as a whole... This striving towards connectedness with the totality of life, with nature itself, a nature into which we are born, this is the deepest meaning and the true essence of National socialist thought."

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The Nazis or US? by David Lagesse

The Nazis preformed euthanasia on the infirm, the insane, and other “defectives”. This killing was preformed on their OWN people as well as the peoples of the countries they had over-run. Their murderous ‘Final Solution’ also took the lives of 7 million people they considered as “Less than Human”.

They were fighting a war; it was partially a financial decision to exterminate the crippled and retarded and all the rest that they considered as: “useless eaters”.

But we, on the other hand will do all that is in our power to try to “educate” even the most severely retarded, the worst of which are, and will always be, no more aware of them selves than vegetables. We also do all that we can for those people who are severely physically handicapped. We will continue with these heroic efforts even when there is absolutely no hope of progress. It is a heavy financial burden to the taxpayers that is spent on the education, health care and feeding of these most unfortunate people.

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These Boots Are Gonna Walk All Over You :: The Brussels Journal

Today the European Union leaders signed the Lisbon Treaty. This treaty gives the EU the constitutional form of a state. These are the ten most important things the Lisbon Treaty does:

1. It establishes a legally new European Union in the constitutional form of a supranational European State.
2. It empowers this new European Union to act as a State vis-a-vis other States and its own citizens.
3. It makes us all citizens of this new European Union.
4. To hide the enormity of the change, the same name – European Union – will be kept while the Lisbon Treaty changes fundamentally the legal and constitutional nature of the Union.

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Deflating "Zeppelin" By Diana West

I've learned a lot about Led Zeppelin lately. For instance, it wasn't just any concert the rock band played in London this week for the first time since breaking up 27 years ago after the 1980 death of drummer John Bonham (a death Rolling Stone magazine notes was caused by his ingesting "forty measures of vodka"). In the words of the Financial Times, the concert was a "heritage rock event." This is another way to describe an onstage reunion of rockers who qualify for AARP membership.

But fear not. 59-year-old Robert Plant has "an impressively taut backside," the FT assures us, even if 61-year-old John Paul Jones wears his hair short and looks, according to The Spectator magazine, like a "bank manager," and 63-year-old Jimmy Page delayed the concert's -- sorry, the heritage rock event's -- play date for some weeks by breaking his finger, according to Timesonline.com, "falling over in his garden."

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Obama Versus Clinton Versus Plutocracy By Joel Hirschhorn

Here comes another inconvenient truth. Despite all the attention to Oprah for Obama and the pundit blabbering about the Democratic primary horse race the outcome has been predetermined. What people do not want to know is that power elites control what the Democratic ticket will be. When the primaries end the winner will be the reigning plutocracy.

Rich and powerful elites want Hillary Clinton in the White House if the Democrats get their turn in the rigged two-party system. Just one big problem: The establishment plutocracy wants her more than most Americans trust or like her. No matter how much she spends and no matter how many big name endorsements she gets, her phoniness and arrogance prevail. She would be America's irritating Panderer-in-Chief. What to do?

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The Pointless Negativity of Atheism By P. David Hornik

Thirteen years ago when my mother was dying of cancer, her rabbi was a major support figure. The phrase "her rabbi" may imply religiosity, but actually she wasn't very religious -- not interested in God as an idea, belonging loosely to the framework of her Conservative synagogue.

The rabbi, however, was different from the several other support figures she had in that he symbolized something: the hope of a connection to the divine, the hope of an afterlife, which for her meant mainly the hope of being reunited with my stepfather and other loved ones. She was a worldly person and those, even in her last weeks in the hospital, weren't her main concerns; still, his being a rabbi, invested with spiritual knowledge and authority, gave her a special kind of uplift.

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Fred Ain't Dead By Quin Hillyer

With his superb performance in Wednesday's debate in Iowa, Fred Thompson has made a monkey out of me. By early afternoon on Tuesday, the column that appears below, one which posits that Thompson's presidential campaign might still find a way to win, was ready in exactly the form it appears here. But I thought the column would still remain exactly on target throughout the week, so (for various reasons) I aimed for a Friday release. At the time, I thought that until Thompson began his Iowa bus tour on Monday the 17th, my contention that he "ain't dead" yet would seem noteworthy for its boldness.

Then Thompson ruined it all by so clearly running away with the laurels in Wednesday's debate -- and in particularly Reaganesque fashion. Just as Reagan did at the famous Nashua, N.H. debate in 1980, Thompson used the unfairness of the debate moderator as a foil in a way that justly earned the candidate plaudits as a no-nonsense kind of guy. Now everybody is taking a second look at Thompson's chances. Deservedly so.

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Democrats Legislate Against Pro-Choice By Lance Thompson

Democrats are very careful to line up on the pro-choice side of the abortion issue. But they are resolutely anti-choice when it comes to owning a gun, saying a prayer at school, or buying a car. They not only want Americans to drive more efficient cars, they want to make it impossible even to manufacture a full size SUV or sedan. House Democrats have sent an energy bill to the Senate that mandates 35 mile per gallon cars and light trucks by 2020.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi introduced the bill with this shotgun blast at every worthy touchstone within range:

"This is about national security, it’s about jobs and the economic security of our country, it’s about the environment, therefore it’s a health issue, and it’s a moral issue."

She also inexplicably characterized this legislation, whose requirements take effect in 2020, as "immediate."

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Hopelessly Clouded Issues: The "Clinton Effect" By Chris Adamo

It is disturbing to realize just how far the country has been dragged away from relevant campaign issues in recent weeks. Though on the run, militant Islamists have clearly not abandoned their plans for further attacks against our homeland. Ominous alliances are emerging among nations such as Russia and China, who share a common goal of achieving hegemony over the United States. As environmental extremists curtail domestic oil production, the increasing competition for foreign supplies drives U.S. energy costs through the roof.

Yet on what topics are the candidates flailing away at each other? In the cases of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton it is all about past relationships, and whose celebrity endorsement is more compelling than whose? America seems bewildered by the details of one sordid, albeit irrelevant presidential campaign “controversy” after another. Meanwhile, the real threats against our nation have not abated.

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DHIMMITUDE AND DISARMAMENT By David B. Kopel

Islamic law, shari’a, forbids non-Muslims, known as dhimmi, from possessing arms and defending themselves from attacks by Muslims.1 The disarmament is one aspect of the pervasive civil inferiority imposed on non-Muslims, a status known as dhimmitude.2 This Article examines the historical effects of the shari’a disarmament, based on three books by Bat Ye‟or, the world‟s leading scholar of dhimmitude.3 As Ye‟or details, the disarmament has had catastrophic consequences, extending far beyond the direct loss of the dhimmis’ ability to defend themselves against Muslim attack.
The study of the disarmament provides an interesting historical example of negative interfaith relations. Yet, the disarmament story and the second-class status imposed on Christians and Jews have implications for the modern United States, where there is no shari’a law, but some subgroups of the population have been condemned, in effect, to a disarmed and defenseless status of civil inferiority. Perhaps the ancient tragedy of dhimmitude has something to teach us about the April 2007 tragedy at Virginia Tech University.4

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Red Emma's Anarcho-Methodist Church By Mark D. Tooley

Red Emma's, an anarchist bookstore and café in Baltimore, has come to the rescue of struggling St. Paul's United Methodist Church, whose originally female pastor now claims to be a man.
The Baltimore Sun published an entertaining piece on November 27 about the new anarcho-Methodist partnership, though it omitted the transsexual angle. "Anarchists and Methodists may seem like unlikely business partners," the Sun reported understatedly. But this "quirky venture" has brought "new energy" to the small congregation, whose doors might otherwise shut without the infusion of anarchist funds.

"It's a crazy little project," anarchist Kate Khatib of Red Emma's explained to the Sun. "There are not many churches that would reach out to a bunch of crazy anarchists, and there are not many anarchists that would reach out to a bunch of crazy Methodists."

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The Communist Roots of Palestinian Terror By David Meir-Levi

Although many Nazis found new and ideologically welcoming homes in Egypt and Syria after World War II, the Grand Mufti’s Palestinian national movement itself, bereft of its Nazi patron, was an orphan. No sovereign state of any consequence supported it. On the contrary, most of the surrounding Arab states, all of them buoyed by postcolonial nationalism and looking for political stability, perceived the Palestinian cause, especially as embodied in the Muslim Brotherhood, as a threat. Egypt aggressively suppressed the Brotherhood. Saudi and Jordanian royalty watched the growth of radical Islam with suspicion. Syria and Lebanon, trying to move toward more open societies in the pre-Ba’athist era, feared the Brotherhood’s opposition to western-style civil rights and liberties and its fierce condemnation of westernized Arab societies.

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Minute Men Success By Daniel Muniz

Conservatives are still furious at George W. Bush and at a number of Republican lawmakers for their tacit support of illegal aliens although in all fairness this was not a problem that just appeared overnight. However, after years of inaction, many Republicans finally got fed up at the farce that represented the dismal efforts of the federal government’s half-hearted plan to stop the enormous flow of the illegal immigration into our country.

The issue of illegal aliens has been brought up before but nobody really took it seriously.

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Let The Debate End By INVESTOR'S BUSINESS DAILY

While Al Gore trashes the United States for the stalled climate-change talks at the U.N. conference in Bali, science that contradicts his global warming theory continues to roll out.

'My own country, the United States," Gore hissed as delegates wrestled in the Indonesia resort with a "road map" for cutting greenhouse gas emissions, "is principally responsible for obstructing progress here in Bali."

As usual, Gore has it backward. The obstruction of progress is the goal of the global warming alarmists. The mandatory cuts in carbon dioxide emissions they support would choke economic development worldwide and take prosperity back decades.

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Hamas-sympathizing juror behind terror mistrial :: Jihad Watch

"May have misled prosecutors during jury selection." More on the Holy Land Foundation jihad terror funding trial's jury bully from WorldNetDaily.com (thanks to all who sent this in):

A Hamas-sympathizing juror may have misled U.S. prosecutors about his neutrality during jury selection in the nation's largest terror-financing trial, investigators familiar with the case say.

The juror's "browbeating" of fellow jurors during deliberations in the Holy Land Foundation trial led to a mistrial, they say. The Dallas-based charity and its leaders are accused of funneling more than $12 million to Hamas suicide bombers and their families.

WND has learned that prosecutors, who are preparing to retry the case next year, considered investigating the juror for perjury after hearing complaints from other jurors about his pro-Hamas, anti-Israeli bias and obscenity-laced bullying in the jury room.

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The odor of liberal name-calling, Part Two :: Power Line

Whenever you see the word “nativist” in a discussion of illegal immigration, you can be fairly confident that the author has opted to substitute name-calling for analysis, and that his or her discussion is worthless. That’s certainly the case with today’s lead editorial in the Washington Post, which attacks the stridency of the Republican presidential candidate’s criticism of illegal immigration.

As I argued here, nativism is a preference for the interests of long-time inhabitants as opposed to foreigners and those who arrived recently. The Republican candidates are merely expressing a preference for the rights of those who are in the U.S. legally or are trying to get here that way.

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Philips' Communist Recommendation :: The Lighthouse

Christie's in London has the small, but fine art collection of the late Dr. Anton Philips (1874-1951) on auction.

Christie's "About" section on the relevant website yields an eulogy about the entrepreneur, containing a typical example of the double standards that are common in the false dichotomy in dealing with the two Counter-Enlightenment twin ideologies, National Socialism and Communism.
Whereas Soviet propaganda took care that Nazi collaboration eternally constitutes a stain on corporate history, soliciting and associating with Communists comes as a recommendation. Consider the following excerpt:

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Tacky and corrupt :: Power Line

Yesterday, I noted how, as governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee received tons of gifts (more than $100,000 worth in a single year) and stripped the governor's mansion of its drapes (one of the gifts) upon his exit. Lisa Schiffren at the Corner reminds us of another former Arkansas governor and his first lady with similarly tacky proclivities.

Her point -- "Do we need reruns of tacky Arkansas ethics in DC?" -- is well-taken. There is an important difference between Huckabee and Hillary, though. Huckabee's administration, in the words of a friend of mine from Arkansas, was tacky but not corrupt. Hillary Clinton is fundamentally corrupt.

Stuart Taylor provides the details in this "trip down memory lane -- the tawdriness of the 1992 presidential campaign through the mendacity of the ensuing years" -- and provides "a sampling of why so many of us came to think that Hillary's first instinct when in an embarrassing spot is to lie." Here are the highlights:

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Pipes and Spencer, the mad hackerzz, strike again :: Jihad Watch

Imam Musa, the Washington, D.C. imam who wants to establish an Islamic State of North America by 2050, still thinks, in defiance of truth (and common sense: I am essentially hopeless with a computer, as Charles has noted), that Daniel Pipes and I are behind his Internet woes, as he charged several months ago. He also seems to think that I have somehow "slandered" him here at Jihad Watch, apparently simply by quoting him. Apparently Imam Musa thinks that no matter how ludicrous the charge, it's worth making it so as to deflect attention from his own jihadist sympathies.

"DC Imam’s Website Defaced, Faces Slander on Jihad Watch," by Farkhunda Ali for Muslim Link (thanks to Marked Manner):

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GOP Field Full Of Immigration Cross-Dressers By MICHELLE MALKIN

Every Democrat running for president thinks anti-illegal immigration activists are all racists and xenophobes. Do we really need a Republican nominee for president who thinks the same way?

Breakout GOP candidate Mike Huckabee, the soft-on-border-control former governor of Arkansas, scored a jaw-dropping endorsement Tuesday from Jim Gilchrist, founder of the Minuteman Project.

Despite a long gubernatorial record opposing employer sanctions and pushing tax-subsidized illegal alien education benefits, Huckabee won Gilchrist's support by unveiling a last-minute, tough-sounding homeland security plan.

Trouble is, Huckabee has downright and longstanding contempt for his new bedfellows of convenience.

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The Breakdown of the American Polity: Part 1: Mrs. Hillary Clinton and the Neo-Marxist Democrats By Bob Cheeks

Neo-Marxist political constructs, formulations, and policy are distortions predicated on relativism, positivism, scientism, and the usual Gnostic deformations and portend the rise of collectivism and suppression of liberty.

Evidence of the resurgence of Marxism, or neo-Marxism, as a result of the failures of the neo-conservative Bush regime, is evident both in polling data and in the current debate among the participants in the Democrat primary contest. The leading contender, Mrs. Hillary Clinton, proffers a specific set of concepts designed to assert a “progressive” or positivistic policy whose intention is to “improve” the condition of the American people.

The question is, does the neo-Marxist/Democratic political philosophy, grounded as it is in positivism, scientism, and its rejection of the transcendent, seek the summum bonum, or the “highest good?”

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Window into the Midset of Jihadists By Douglas Farah

The Middle East Media Research Institute and the NEFA Foundation offer two interesting and enlightening views into the current mindset of Islamist jihadis, particularly as it relates to the Iraq conflict.

MEMRI transcribes an interview with a person claiming to be a former leader of al Qaeda in Iraq. Several things are striking. One is the rather striking disregard for human life, and the assumption in the discussion that one human being (if of the proper Muslim stripe) can and should kill everyone else. There is no wavering on this, as seen in the response to who the Islamists are targetting:

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Under liberalism, the utterly amazing is utterly predictable by Lawrence Auster

One of the paradoxes of liberal society is that the things about it that are beyond satire--indeed, the things about it that are almost beyond one's ability to comment on them at all--are also its most logical and consistent expressions. So it is in the present case. As I read the below article, from The Local: Sweden's News in English, I'm rendered speechless; no analysis, no quips, come to me. So I will simply quote the piece in its entirety:

Army castrates heraldic lion

Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms.

The armed forces agreed to emasculate the lion after a group of women from the rapid reaction force lodged a complaint to the European Court of Justice, Goteborgs-Posten reports.

But although the army was eventually happy to make the changes in the interests of gender equality, the artist who designed the insignia was less than pleased.

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The Self-Destructing Jihad :: Sultan Knish

The paradox of the Islamic Jihad being waged against the West, is that it is a Jihad that is itself parasitic on the West. It could not exist without Western money and Western support. Without these it would quickly shrivel up and die.

There are few better demonstrations than Abu Hamza or Captain Hook living on the dole in the UK while preaching terrorism. Abu Hamza is simply a microcosm of Islamic terrorism which feeds off the West, from the Saudi sponsored Jihad funded by Western oil money and protected by American tanks to Pakistan's ISI backing of the Mujahadeen which would not have been possible without American support to Fatah's terrorist infrastructure now being revitalized by the State Department-- Islamic terrorism is dependent on the West.

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Dear Dubya: America Don't Need No Stinkin' Reform!

                                                    

By John W. Lillpop

With all due respect to President George W. Bush and his Mexican underwriters, America does NOT need immigration reform, comprehensive or otherwise.

What this nation desperately needs is a President and Congress that will apply due diligence on behalf of America, rather than working solely for huge U.S. corporations, illegal aliens, and the Mexican government.

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Rick Warren's distortions of reality By Joseph Farah

Rick Warren loves to apologize for things he didn't do, for things other people did that weren't wrong, even for things that occurred hundreds of years before he was born.

For instance, he recently apologized to Muslims worldwide for atrocities committed against their ancestors during the Crusades.

He also recently apologized for American "excesses in the war on terrorism."

And he has apologized for the church because it hasn't done enough about the spread of AIDS and problems like global warming.

Yet, I must observe that despite his predilection for apologies, he has a great deal of trouble owning up to his own personal mistakes.

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The sad demise of romantic love by David Gelernter

A middle school in Portland, Maine, decided recently that it would hand out birth-control pills to girls as young as 11; no parental consent required. Strippers were invited to participate (fully clothed) in this year's "Haunted Halloween Carnival Benefit" at a New York City middle school. Complaints were received and the strippers were, reluctantly, disinvited. (For this year.) And the list goes on.

I don't have to spell out the nature of sexual conduct in the world of older children and young adults nowadays. School and college authorities who used to discourage casual sex have long since decided that they dare not seem prudish, reactionary, envious, antiquated--or (worst of all) religion-minded, an attitude that everyone knows is unconstitutional. Besides, they can't see anything wrong with the proposition. Any young person who doesn't like the instant sex world can stay on the sidelines (the thinking goes), and as for the rest--the uninhibited majority--casual sex is not expensive, not fattening, and apparently (relief!) not damaging to the young couple's carbon footprint. So what could be better? Instant Sex (if you "take precautions") is a gift of unmitigated pleasure.

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Don't Know Much... By Manon McKinnon

What's this? A conservative hero and a liberal icon are out stumping for the same issue? It's true. Conservative-Republican-Reagan-cabinet member-and-author Bill Bennett, and liberal-Democrat-Al Gore-advisor-and-author Naomi Wolf are both worried that Americans are not learning their own history or civics. Though Ms. Wolf draws her customary wrong conclusions (it's the evil Bush's fault!), the two have good cause to worry. Just look at these headlines: "College Students Fail Civics Test;" "College Students Knowledge of American Presidents is Poor;" "College Seniors Lack Basic Knowledge in American History." Not very good news, but what can account for the fact that young Americans don't know America?

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Conservatives Laugh at Media Bias By Quin Hillyer

If Vice President Richard Cheney died, more people would live. Bill Clinton sounds like Jesus in the Temple. And the Republican Party caused the near-deathly stroke of Democratic U.S. Sen. Tim Johnson of South Dakota.

Each year, the Media Research Center issues awards for the worst examples of bias in a nation full of outrageously leftist media. The awards, due out any day now, are a signal service to all who care about fairness in reporting. Among the entries this year are the claims recounted in the opening paragraph above. They give a sense of just how viciously conservatives are regularly attacked, and how fawningly liberals are lionized, in supposedly "mainstream" media outlets.

For about nine years now, the MRC has been kind enough to include me among the judges for its "DisHonor Awards." I can honestly say that this year's entries are the worst I've seen yet.

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The End of Globalization? By Gabor Steingart :: Der Spiegel

Great political change often begins with the smallest of doubts. Such a doubt is beginning to make itself heard in the US presidential campaign. Free trade, Hillary Clinton is saying, may not be so great after all. Could it signal the beginning of the end for globalization?

It was the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu who said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." The same can be said of political movements. In their embryonic state, they are often little more than doubts tugging at the corners of a political heart. The Cold War provides a ready example: Growing skepticism with the policy of confrontation eventually gave rise to détente.

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The Islamophobia Phobia of Islamoleftists By Lance Fairchok

In 2006, the FBI reported that hate crimes against Muslims numbered 156 or about one for every two million people, which is certainly unfortunate and tragic for the victims, but hardly an epidemic of hate against Muslims. After 9-11 and two ongoing and brutal wars against Islamic fanatics, Americans are remarkably tolerant, well-behaved and eminently multicultural. Yet, groups like the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) want you to believe Muslims in America are afraid to leave their homes for fear of violence, and their allies on the far left want you to believe that an Islamophobic epidemic is sweeping the nation, equal to the violent Jewish persecution of Nazi Germany.

However, in perspective, hate crimes against Jews numbered about 967 and for Christians, 135, though with the terrible attacks on churches and Christians this last week that number goes up to 137. Not one Muslim has been murdered by anti-Muslim fanatics, Christian or Jewish. If you tally all the reported hate crimes against all other religions (not Islam); the grand total is 1299 or one in every 231,000 people. Most of those are against property. Americans seem to take freedom of religion seriously and despite ample fuel for the ignorant, the reactionary or the deranged, we let Muslims live their lives and prosper in peace. This fact is not reciprocated in many Muslim nations, where Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and Baha'I suffer continual persecution, injustice and violence.

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Phill Kline v. Planned Parenthood by Brian Burch

Ask attorneys who have spent any meaningful time litigating against Planned Parenthood and they will tell you three things (i)  Planned Parenthood will claim in court that it respects the rule of law and the constitutional rights of pro-lifers; (ii) Planned Parenthood, through their actions, has no respect whatsoever for the rule of law or the constitutional rights of pro-lifers, and (iii)  Planned Parenthood will boldly make any argument, no matter how absurd or lawless, to win at any cost when their business of aborting unborn children and compliance with the law is under justifiable scrutiny.

Every one of these dynamics is playing out simultaneously right in America’s heartland. In Kansas last month, Johnson County District Attorney Phill Kline charged Comprehensive Health Of Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid Missouri with 107 criminal charges after a District Court judge reviewed the evidence and found probable cause that crimes have been committed.  The charges stem from just 29 files dating back to 2003. 

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The Suicide of Reason By Janet Levy

For most in Western societies, the behavior of Muslim fundamentalists is often incomprehensible and, at the same time, terrifying, as illustrated by incidents which make news headlines.

The most recent is that of Gillian Gibbons, a British teacher at a school for children of the Sudanese elite and foreign diplomats. Gibbons was charged by the Sudanese government with inciting religious hatred after honoring a 7-year-old student’s innocent request to eponymously name a classroom teddy bear “Mohammed.” Gibbons was found guilty under Sharia or Islamic law of blasphemy against the prophet Mohammed. She was jailed and informed that she could be punished by 40 lashes and six months in prison. After a “fair” sentence of 15 days was announced by the ruling clerics, frenzied rioters brandished swords and knives across Khartoum, screaming for her death.

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Islamic Extremist Convention 2007 By Joe Kaufman

Starting December 21st, Rosemont, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, will play host to two organizations tied to the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), the inspiration for so many of the world’s worst terror groups. The organizations, the Muslim American Society (MAS) and the Islamic Circle of North America (ICNA), have an extremist history of their own. Soon Chicago, December 2007, will become a part of that history, as the Hyatt Regency O’Hare packs in thousands of Muslims that refuse to speak out against those that use their religion as a means to commit violence.

Most people in America are unaware of the fact that the Muslim Brotherhood is not just an overseas group – that it’s here in America, as well. Indeed the group has had a presence in the United States starting in the 1950s. MAS was established in 1992, because MB leaders thought that previously created American MB groups were becoming too assimilated into Western society. ICNA was founded in 1971 as an embodiment of MB Pakistan or Jamaat-e-Islami (JI).

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Israel - A Disintegrating, Dysfunctional Society by Ruvy in Jerusalem

I’ve frequently pointed out that I believe the society around me in Israel to be dysfunctional, and to be collapsing, as my back stairs collapsed in St. Paul many years ago. In addition, I’ve pointed out that we are waiting for war in the shards of shattered illusions, as did Lily Galili in Ha’aretz. Most Israeli high school kids have been out of class for the last six weeks due to a teachers’ strike, a plan to replace gas masks that are now outdated from the 2003 American attack on Iraq continues in a very haphazard pace, with gas masks being collected slowly, and new ones hardly issued.

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Who Cares if the World Loves Us or Not? By Jack L. Key

Some writers and reporters have written glowing reports lately about the recent NIE Report and how it has enhanced our standing in the world’s eyes.

       They happily tell us that if a Democrat is elected president in 2008 the world will stop “hating” us and embrace us again.  They gloat over how the NIE Report has shown the world just how wrong the Bush administration was in its judgment of poor little ol’ Iran, and how perfect our recent intelligence “estimate” is.

         Do tell.  And when was the last time the world “loved” us?

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Shootings at 2 Christian institutions appear related :: NIN

A 24 year-old man from the suburban Denver, Colorado area is reportedly responsible for both shooting sprees that occurred at two Christian institutions yesterday. The man has been identified as Matthew MURRAY who was last known to reside with his parents and a younger brother in an upscale home at 10929 East Berry Place in Englewood, Colorado.

According to a law enforcement source, the man professed to "hate all Christians," and reportedly left a note or letter that he intended to murder as many Christians as possible. According to this law enforcement source, MURRAY "was also in possession of explosive or incendiary devices" during the attacks. The Northeast Intelligence Network is continuing our investigation of these related shootings.

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Britain's Lessons in Cultural Suicide Adrian Morgan

Imagine, if you will, that you had served your country in the U.S. military for 22 years, and viewed yourself as a patriot. To this end, you have tattooed on your arm a small image of the Stars and Stripes and the words "U.S. Army'. When preparing to retire from the army, you then decide to join the police. How would you feel if you found yourself turned down for the job, because you are told your tattoo of the national flag could be seen as "racist"?

Fortunately for Americans, such a scenario could never happen in the near future. Yet for British soldier Sgt. Ivan Ivanovic, his patriotic tattoo prevented him from joining a police force in the north of England. Because Ivanovic has a two-inch Union Jack flag tattooed on his arm with the words "British Army", he was not even considered for employment by Cumbria Constabulary. He said: "I can't see why anyone would think that the flag of the country might be seen as racist."

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GOP: Stop The Latino Pandering By Bob Parks

Whose idea was it that the Republican presidential candidates have a Spanish-spoken debate?
Obviously it was an attempt to woo Latino voters, at the same time, make an attempt to quell the perceived bashing "immigrants" are taking nowadays.

After Sunday night's debate, the media has taken many angles on this attempt. Some consider the olive branch a noble gesture, while some have taken the opportunity to lecture the GOP about our nation's strong Spanish-speaking heritage, while reminding us of the strides Latinos have made to master America's official tongue.

Colorado Congressman Tom Tancredo avoided the trap altogether by boycotting Sunday night's event hosted by Univision, the Spanish language television network and the University of Miami.
Univision anchors anchors Jorge Ramos and Maria Elena Salinas translated the questions and comments into English for the candidates.

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Hillary Rodham, The Making of a Social Radical By Carey Roberts

Most know that Hillary Rodham Clinton's politics veer to the outer fringes of the radical Left. But how many understand the reasons for her conversion from Goldwater conservative to cultural Marxist, and how this would play out during her controversial bid for the U.S. presidency?

Comfortably ensconced in suburban Park Ridge, Illinois, Hillary grew up under the tutelage of Hugh Rodham, a rock-ribbed conservative who was once described as "rougher than a corncob." He taught her to throw a baseball and expected her to excel at school. Hillary's brother Tony would later reveal, "She was Daddy's girl, no doubt about it."

During the 1964 presidential election, high school senior Rodham fashioned herself a Goldwater Girl, right down to the tasseled cowgirl outfit and hat with the AuH2O symbol. To the obvious delight of her father, she canvassed local neighborhoods in support of the Goldwater candidacy.

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That NIE Makes War against Iran More Likely by Daniel Pipes

With the Dec. 3 publication of a completely unexpected declassified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE), "Iran: Nuclear Intentions and Capabilities," a consensus has emerged that war with Iran "now appears to be off the agenda." Indeed, Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, claimed the report dealt a "fatal blow" to the country's enemies, while his foreign ministry spokesman called it a "great victory."

I disagree with that consensus, believing that military action against Iran is now more likely than before the NIE came out.

The NIE's main point, contained in its first line, famously holds: "We judge with high confidence that in fall 2003, Tehran halted its nuclear weapons program." Other analysts – John Bolton, Patrick Clawson, Valerie Lincy and Gary Milhollin, Caroline Glick, Claudia Rossett, Michael Rubin, and Gerald Steinberg – have skillfully dissected and refuted this shoddy, politicized, outrageous parody of a piece of propaganda, so I need not dwell on that here. Further, leading members of Congress are "not convinced" of the NIE's conclusions. French and German leaders snubbed it, as did the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and even the International Atomic Energy Agency expressed doubts. British intelligence believe its American counterparts were hoodwinked, while Israeli intelligence responded with shock and disappointment.

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Dems: Amen to Ramadan, but forget about Christmas

Only weeks after voting for a resolution that "recognizes the Islamic faith as one of the great religions of the world," nine Democrats in the U.S. House refused to vote for a Christmas resolution that condemns the worldwide persecution of Christians.

read more | digg story

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'Day of Reckoning': A Review of Pat Buchanan's Latest Book By Tony Blankley

Pat Buchanan's new book, "Day of Reckoning," is a tour de force, expanding on and combining the arguments and evidence he presented in three previous books ("The Great Betrayal," "A Republic, Not an Empire" and "State of Emergency") to make a powerful case that free trade, multiculturalism and imperial overreach threaten to put America on the dustheap of history.

As my friend always does in his books, brother Patrick combines shrewd analysis and his own crisp and passionate words with wonderful quotes from others. He quotes George Orwell's observation that "ideology animates 'the streamlined men who think in slogans and talk in bullets.'" That description remains as fresh as this evening's cable political talk shows and news reports.

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Ramadan Yea, Christmas Nay By Amanda Carpenter

Democrats who supported a House resolution to honor Ramadan voted against a similar resolution to honor Christmas and Christianity last night.

18 Democrats voted “nay” or “present” on a resolution to “recognize the importance of Christmas and the Christian faith.” An eagle-eyed Republican House staffer points out that those same members, with one exception, voted to “recognize the commencement of Ramadan,” a Muslim religious observance in October.

The Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center is pictured after the lights were lit by singer Tony Bennett in New York November 28, 2007. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson (UNITED STATES)

Nine Democrats voted against the Christmas resolution. They are: Rep. Gary Ackerman (N.Y.), Rep. Yvette Clarke (N.Y.), Rep. Diane DeGette (Colo.), Rep. Alcee Hastings (Fla.), Rep. Barbara Lee (Calif.), Rep. Jim McDermott (Wash.), Rep. Robert Scott (Va.), Rep. Pete Stark (Calif.) and Rep. Lynn Woolsey (Calif.).

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'Iran tested new missile during summit' By JPOST.COM STAFF

Iran tested a newly-developed ballistic missile on the day of the Annapolis conference, Channel 10 reported Wednesday.

The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel.

According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect.

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Open Season on Christians has Begun

by Erik Rush

“All I want to do is kill as many of you as I can, especially Christians.”

- Matthew Murray, Colorado mission school and church gunman.

I had already decided upon this subject matter for my column (the “imaginary” war on Christians eventually promoting violence against Christians, specifically the missionary group dormitory shooting an hour’s drive from my home in a Denver, Colorado suburb on Sunday, December 9), but as I was writing, I learned of yet a second shooting a few hours later at a church in Colorado Springs.

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Global warming and Christian discernment By Joseph Farah

If any one should be prepared by their faith, their worldview, their belief in Scripture and their gift of Holy Spirit discernment to see through the deception of the global warming alarmists, it is the Christian.

Sadly, however, many of those proclaiming themselves as believers have been seduced by the worldly spirit of deception on what has become one of the defining issues of our time.

One the macro level, we see Rick Warren and other evangelical leaders insisting global warming is a real crisis that should be a preoccupation of the church and a focus of government action.

Now, Warren tells WND his signing of the "Evangelical Climate Initiative" was misinterpreted.

On global warming, Warren said he didn't endorse the "Evangelical Climate Initiative," as others did, to assert humans are causing it.

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Saudis give big to U.S. colleges By Julia Duin

Two years ago this month, a Saudi prince caused a media splash — and raised eyebrows — when he donated $20 million each to Georgetown and Harvard universities to fund Islamic studies.

Although few details have been released about how the money has been spent, at Georgetown, the money helped pay for a recent symposium on Islamic-Western relations held in the university's Copley Formal Lounge. The event attracted about 120 persons: students, Catholic priests, men in business suits and several women in colorful head scarves who all came to hear religion experts from several American universities, as well as from Bosnia, Ireland and Malaysia.

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The Wages of Appeasement By Christopher Chantrill

For conservatives the story of the recent National Intelligence Estimate is unbelievable.  What would possess the analysts in the federal intelligence bureaucracy to issue a finding that Iran has abandoned its military nuclear weapons program? 

Given the secrecy that surrounds all government ventures into nuclear weaponry we wonder how anyone can presume to know with "high confidence" whether Iran or any other nation has or has not a nuclear weapons program.  And why would anyone so blatantly try to appease a revolutionary regime like the Islamic Republic of Iran?

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The Heart of Conservatism By Michael Gerson

For many conservatives, the birthday of the movement is Nov. 1, 1790 -- the publication date of Edmund Burke's "Reflections on the Revolution in France." Burke described how utopian idealism could lead to the guillotine, just as it later led to the Gulag. He rejected the democracy of the mob and argued that social reform, when necessary, should be gradual, cautious and rooted in the habits and traditions of the community.
Some of Burke's contemporaries took these arguments further. "I am one of those who think it very desirable to have no reform," declared the Duke of Wellington. "I told you years ago that the people are rotten to the core." And this affection was returned. Wellington took to carrying an umbrella tipped with a spike to protect himself from protesters.

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Status-Quo on Tuesday Is Good News for GOP By Stuart Rothenberg

Republicans got some good news Tuesday when they won special elections in Ohio and Virginia to retain two Congressional seats that became open upon the death of sitting GOP U.S. House members.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee didn't seriously contest Virginia's open 1st District, but the DCCC and the National Republican Congressional Committee ended up pouring considerable resources into Ohio's 5th C.D.

Republicans have reason to feel good about holding both seats, particularly given the nasty GOP primary in Ohio 5 and the party's continued problems in the Buckeye State.

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Romney for President :: NRO

Many conservatives are finding it difficult to pick a presidential candidate. Each of the men running for the Republican nomination has strengths, and none has everything — all the traits, all the positions — we are looking for. Equally conservative analysts can reach, and have reached, different judgments in this matter. There are fine conservatives supporting each of these Republicans.

Our guiding principle has always been to select the most conservative viable candidate. In our judgment, that candidate is Mitt Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts. Unlike some other candidates in the race, Romney is a full-spectrum conservative: a supporter of free-market economics and limited government, moral causes such as the right to life and the preservation of marriage, and a foreign policy based on the national interest. While he has not talked much about the importance of resisting ethnic balkanization — none of the major candidates has — he supports enforcing the immigration laws and opposes amnesty. Those are important steps in the right direction.

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Identifying the Real Terrorists Greg Lewis

Attacks on our troops in Iraq are down by more than three quarters in just the past three months. I'm speaking of attacks by Democrats, of course. Indeed, so good is the news out of Iraq regarding the success of General Petraeus's troop surge that the terrorists are beginning to turn tail and run. Again, I'm speaking of the Democrats.

Many knowledgeable commentators are reporting that the news is so good that the terrorist strategy has all but been negated. Our troops have succeeded against overwhelming Democrat terrorist tactics that had apparently produced a stalemate similar to the one Dems engineered 35 years ago in Vietnam.

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Iran 'hoodwinked' CIA over nuclear plans By Tim Shipman :: Telegraph UK

British spy chiefs have grave doubts that Iran has mothballed its nuclear weapons programme, as a US intelligence report claimed last week, and believe the CIA has been hoodwinked by Teheran.

The timing of the CIA report has also provoked fury in the British Government, where officials believe it has undermined efforts to impose tough new sanctions on Iran and made an Israeli attack on its nuclear facilities more likely.

The security services in London want concrete evidence to allay concerns that the Islamic state has fed disinformation to the CIA.

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Skeptical Scientists Urge World To ‘Have the Courage to Do Nothing' At UN Conference By Marc Morano

An international team of scientists skeptical of man-made climate fears promoted by the UN and former Vice President Al Gore, descended on Bali this week to urge the world to "have the courage to do nothing" in response to UN demands.  

Lord Christopher Monckton, a UK climate researcher, had a blunt message for UN climate conference participants on Monday.

"Climate change is a non-problem. The right answer to a non problem is to have the courage to do nothing," Monckton told participants. 

"The UN conference is a complete waste of our time and your money and we should no longer pay the slightest attention to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,)" Monckton added. (LINK)

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Bush Pardons 29 Convicts, but Not Libby :: AP/Fox

President Bush granted pardons Tuesday to carjackers, drug dealers, a moonshiner and a violator of election laws, but not to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, his vice president's former top aide who was convicted in the case of the leaked identity of a CIA operative.

In all, Bush pardoned 29 convicts and reduced the prison sentence of one more in the end-of-the-year presidential tradition.

Justice Department spokesman Erik Ablin said Bush has granted 142 pardons and commuted five sentences since taking office in 2001 — lagging far behind the pace set by most modern presidents.

The list was issued with little fanfare Tuesday afternoon by the Office of the Pardon Attorney at the Justice Department. Bush was not expected to issue any more pardons this year.

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Al Gore is criticised for lining his own pockets after $6,600-A-Minute Speech By NATHAN KAY

Al Gore has come under fire for making personal gain from his mission to save the planet – after charging £3,300 a minute to deliver a poorly received speech.

The former American Vice-President was also accused of being "precious" at the London event, demanding his own VIP room and ejecting journalists, despite hopes the star-studded gathering would generate publicity for the fight against global warming.

Many of the audience at last month's Fortune Forum summit were restless as Mr Gore, who has won both a Nobel Peace Prize and an Oscar for his campaigning work this year, delivered the half-hour speech that netted him £100,000.

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The Pope condemns the climate change prophets By SIMON CALDWELL :: Daily Mail UK

Pope Benedict XVI has launched a surprise attack on climate change prophets of doom, warning them that any solutions to global warming must be based on firm evidence and not on dubious ideology.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing a wave of unprecedented disasters were nothing more than scare-mongering.

The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns may be valid it was vital that the international community based its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

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Saving The World By Nancy Morgan

Over 15,000 bureaucrats, politicians, officials, and assorted do-gooders from 187 nations descended on the tropical island of Bali last week for the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change.Their goal? To make a last ditch effort to save the world from the ravages of global warming. The aim is to require industrial nations to limit their emission of C02 to 25-40 percent below 1990 levels by 2020. This is necessary, they proclaim, in order to head off rising oceans, drought, famine, dying species, and, well, just plain catastrophe.

These noble shepherds of the earth are willing to have others make any sacrifice necessary to achieve their laudable goal. They are even willing to make some sacrifices themselves. Starting with the 100,000 tons of CO2 emissions caused by all the private jets used to ferry them to the conference. Not to worry...

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Iran NIE: Bureaucratic Coup D'etat by Newt Gingrich

A handful of highly partisan State Department bureaucrats wrote a document that is so professionally unworthy, so intellectually indefensible and so fundamentally misleading that it is damaging to our national security. The NIE appears to be a deliberate attempt to undermine the policies of President Bush by members of his own government by suggesting that Iran no longer poses a serious threat to U.S. national security because we apparently have credible reports that Iran halted its nuclear weapons program in 2003. ...

read more | digg story

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Global Wallet Warming by Susan Easton

On his way to pick up his Nobel Prize, Algore stopped off in London to deliver an address to The Fortune Forum.  His back-up group of global warmies included The Prince of Brunei, Bob Geldorf, David Frost, Darryl Hannah and Jerry Hall (the ex Mrs. Mick Jagger).

In case the name of the host organization glanced too lightly off your intellectual windscreen, go back one sentence and read the name of Algore’s hosts. They are  “The Fortune Forum,” a self-proclaimed multi-issue global group devoted to the red-hot issues of the day. This includes fighting poverty.  

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Trust Me by Monica Crowley

That is the subtext of former President Bill Clinton’s pitch to Democratic voters as he campaigns for his wife. He’s seen her poll numbers, and they aren’t pretty. According to a USA Today/Gallup poll released last week, a full fifty percent of respondents view her negatively. That number has remained unmoved for years. Half the country doesn’t like her. Other polls show that even higher percentages of people don’t trust her, don’t think she’s honest, and wouldn’t vote for her under any circumstances.

This is why her Intimate Loved One preaches the Gospel of Bill wherever he goes. As the Associated Press reported recently, in one brief, ten-minute speech in Iowa -- ostensibly on her behalf -- he referred to himself 94 times. “Me,” “myself,” and “I” were the dead giveaways. He mentioned the candidate Herself seven times. You know, what’s-her-name. The incidental horse he’s forced to ride in order to move back in to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

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American Patriots Must Speak Up on Kosovo By Julia Gorin

“What’s your connection to…this…Serbian thing?”

I get that a lot. I usually answer: “Just being an American hyper-patriot.”

That was, after all, my original motivation for protesting a war for the first time in my life at the age of 25. When my country bombed a European nation on behalf of Muslims making the usual claim of oppression, my concerns were two-fold: America’s security, and America’s soul.

It’s hard to describe the dizzying disorientation I felt on March 24, 1999, the day I learned that the United States was going through with bombing an ally from two world wars. It was more surreal than September 11, 2001, for on the latter date I wasn’t alone in my disorientation. But the fog that engulfed me for several weeks starting March 24^th, 1999 as I observed people complacently sipping cappuccinos in outdoor cafes as if nothing was happening was overwhelming; I knew America had turned a dark corner and would pay a price.

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CAIR's Spin Guide By Robert Spencer

As part of its ongoing campaign to make sure you learn about Islam only what it wants you to learn, the notorious Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a new media guide – available only to "media professionals" – that purports to "educate the media and disabuse journalists of misinformation" about Islam. The notorious Islamic advocacy group, which has seen several of its officials convicted on various terrorism-related charges, and which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case, asserts that "common misperceptions in the media include the notion that Islam is not compatible with democracy or modern culture, that the Quran teaches violence, that Muslims around the world hate the US, that Islam does not respect women’s rights, and that all Muslims are Arab." The media guide itself claims to correct other "misperceptions" also, including the idea that Islam doesn’t value religious freedom (which will come as a surprise to Abdul Rahman, the Afghani who was arrested in 2005 for converting from Islam to Christianity) and that Islam was spread by the sword.

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Pimples, Perverts, and Politicians By Lee Culpepper

After sexually molesting her 13-year-old student, 25-year-old middle school teacher Kelsey Peterson deported the illegally immigrated kid to Mexico.  Peterson left the boy marooned south of the border when officials hauled her off to the local jail.

        Reports uncovered that Peterson’s victim is an alleged gang member and father of a two-year-old child.  One judge from the hoodlum’s past has described the boy as an “uncontrollable juvenile.” Peterson’s attorney, Jim Davis, also claims “the young man” is 16 years old, not 13.  Moreover, the attorney suggests the teen is not a victim, but instead the aggressor who groomed the relationship.

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Islamic lust for Hindu Women: Psychological Warfare by Jagmohan Singh Khurmi

India-Pakistan one-day cricket match is something more than just a match. It is clash of egos, ideas (and sometimes brickbats also). Now and then certain things happen to certain people which they will regret for a lifetime, even to those who have lots and lots of control over their emotions, i.e. professional actors like Shah Rukh Khan: in heat of the moment the thin mask of secularity slips off and for a spilt-second a keen observer is able to see the ugly face of Islamic supremacy. This happened when he tried to defend his co-religionist Shoaib Malik’s cliché of apologizing to the pan-Islamic world for failing to defeat the Indians. Instead of denouncing him, he went ahead to justify his co-religionist’s dumb remark. It was only after walking a few steps with him did he realize his mistake: he and Shoaib are not in same position ― while Shoaib is sitting far out from the reach of the secular India and is free to do his Islamic acrobatics, Shah Rukh depends upon the Indians and hence is limited to limits set by them. The same faux pas was committed by CM Ghulam Nabi Azad when he praised Mahatma Gandhi in public function, result: the top mullah of Kashmir went mad yelling that Mohammed the Prophet was only entity that is worth of being followed. Of course, the CM apologized (that’s why he is alive).

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Democrats' Hopes Foiled :: Power Line

There were two special Congressional elections today, in Ohio and Virginia. Both districts are generally Republican, but both states are also considered to be trending toward the Democrats. So the Dems were hopeful that they might increase their House majority by winning one or both of the open seats. Yesterday, MSNBC, which made a corporate decision to go in the tank for the Democrats a couple of years ago, was hoping that the Ohio election, in particular, would be a milestone:

If Democrats can win a special congressional election tomorrow in a GOP district in Ohio, doesn't that tell us that Ohio may not be as in play as the Republicans would like to believe for 2008?

So if the Democrat won today, Ohio could safely be tallied for Hillary in 2008!

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Al Qaeda, Taliban targeting Pakistani nuclear sites By Bill Roggio

Yesterday's suicide bombing at the Kamra Air Force Base in Punjab was not the first strike at a nuclear weapons storage facility. After a closer look at the bases struck inside Pakistan since August, at least two more strikes occurred either on or near nuclear weapons storage facilities, based on open source information on Pakistan's nuclear weapons programs. Since August 2007, there have been two suicide attacks at or near the Sargodha Air Force Base, a nuclear weapons and missile storage facility in central Punjab province. Other attacks in Punjab and the Northwest Frontier Province may be aimed at facilities providing regional security for Pakistan's nuclear program.

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Black faced his trial as an honest man By Father Raymond J. De Souza

Since the outset of what Lord Black refers to as "this cataract of horrors," I have believed that the American prosecutors were criminalizing what was essentially a management dispute. After following the trial closely, I was confirmed in that judgment. Now Lord Black has been sentenced to six-and-a-half years in jail. It is a sign of how excessive the baying for Black's blood had become that the sentence is considered to be a good result for him.

The judge put some limits to the prosecutors' excess, who were asking that he be sentenced as if he were a habitual violent criminal. Actually, the prosecutors were arguing that he should be sentenced as if he was guilty of all the original charges, even those of which he was acquitted. But Judge St. Eve modestly restrained herself to sentencing Lord Black for only those things of which he had been actually convicted.

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Did Edward Said Really Speak Truth to Power? by Efraim Karsh and Rory Miller

Edward Said's influence on academe looms even larger in death than during his life. On September 25, 2003, the day that he died, students and staff of Columbia University gathered in the garden outside Philosophy Hall, where the longtime professor of English and comparative literature had his office, for a candlelight vigil. It was the first of several memorials held in his honor on campuses across the United States, Asia, and Europe. Celebrity admirers, from novelist Salman Rushdie to actors Danny Glover and Vanessa Redgrave, joined a "huge crowd" at a March 2004 service in New York.[1] Almost four years later, Said's life is the subject of two documentaries—Charles Glass's Edward Said: The Last Interview and Sato Makoto's Out of Place. On May 25-26, 2007, Boğaziçi University in Istanbul held a major conference to provide revisionist luminaries including Israeli historian Ilan Pappé (now at the University of Exeter), British anti-Zionist academic Jacqueline Rose, and Said's former Columbia colleagues Joseph Massad and Rashid Khalidi an opportunity to "pay tribute, revisit, and engage with the richly variegated erudition and seminal scholarship" and "reflect critically on the location and significance of Said's intellectual legacy."[2] The conference not only examined Said's literary criticism—his professional field—and his writing on the Palestinians but also included a panel on "Said, the Public Intellectual Speaking Truth to Power." Lionizing Said as an intellectual warrior casting aside falsehood in a quest for truth regardless of consequence is a myth that may persist, but examination of his works suggests such popularity also reflects the triumph of politics over scholarship in the academy.

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The Truth Is No Defense by Baron Bodissey

Many people have noticed that the accusations hurled at Vlaams Belang over the last few weeks have been based almost entirely on sources from the left (and often the far left) side of the political spectrum. The European sources cited for much of the information are not impartial, to put it mildly.

It’s as if the prosecution’s case were argued, but none for the defense, while the prosecutor did double duty by sitting on the judge’s bench.

All of this comes as no surprise, since the success of Vlaams Belang and the prospect of an independent Flanders threatens the entire mission of the Left, not just in Belgium but across all of Europe.

As Richard Miniter noted a few weeks ago:

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What If the ACLU Had Existed Christmas Eve, 0000?

Satire By John W. Lillpop

As we Americans struggle to preserve our rich cultural traditions surrounding Christmas, there are times when the struggle seems too hard, the load too heavy.

For example, one wonders if it is worth it upon hearing that another whacked-out liberal judge has determined that the nativity scene is unconstitutional.

Not just insensitive to non-Christians, mind you, but unconstitutional for heaven's sake!

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On Sheep, Wolves, and Sheepdogs - Dave Grossman

Honor never grows old, and honor rejoices the heart of age. It does so because honor is, finally, about defending those noble and worthy things that deserve defending, even if it comes at a high cost. In our time, that may mean social disapproval, public scorn, hardship, persecution, or as always,even death itself. The question remains: What is worth defending? What is worth dying for? What is worth living for? - William J. Bennett - in a lecture to the United States Naval Academy November 24, 1997

One Vietnam veteran, an old retired colonel, once said this to me:

"Most of the people in our society are sheep. They are kind, gentle, productive creatures who can only hurt one another by accident." This is true. Remember, the murder rate is six per 100,000 per year, and the aggravated assault rate is four per 1,000 per year. What this means is that the vast majority of Americans are not inclined to hurt one another. Some estimates say that two million Americans are victims of violent crimes every year, a tragic, staggering number, perhaps an all-time record rate of violent crime. But there are almost 300 million Americans, which means that the odds of being a victim of violent crime is considerably less than one in a hundred on any given year. Furthermore, since many violent crimes are committed by repeat offenders, the actual number of violent citizens is considerably less than two million.

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The lying dogs of war By Matt Sanchez

After running a series of dispatches from the Baghdad Diarist series, the 90-year reputation of the once prestigious New Republic depended on finding and positively identifying a woman with a melted face, a heavily up-armored vehicle nimble enough to hunt down stray dogs and remnants of a baby's skull that could be worn comfortably under a helmet.

This was the silly and precarious wild-goose chase Editor-in-Chief Franklin Foer led his staff, readers and reputation through to get a "soldier's introspection."

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Fighting “Islamophobia:” Muslim Countries Impose Their Will on EU (and US) at UN By Thomas Landen

In September 2001, just a few days before 9/11, the United Nations held a conference in Durban, ostensibly to combat racism and xenophobia. ‘Durban’ became a vehicle for hatred of Israel and of Europeans who oppose the Islamization of their continent. Now, the UN are preparing a follow-up conference in early 2009. Though both the United States and the European Union criticize the biased aims of ‘Durban 2’ the West will probably vote in favour of the conference’s budget this week.

The UN Human Rights Council (the UN commission with the Allah logo) has scheduled a second “global anti-racism and anti-xenophobia” conference for the Spring of 2009. The conference is part of what UN diplomats call, the “Global efforts for the total elimination of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance and the comprehensive implementation of and follow up to the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action.” The venue of the conference has yet to be decided. The official title is the “Durban Review Conference,” but the conference is generally referred to as ‘Durban 2.’ The UN’s Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) Bureau for ‘Durban 2’ is chaired by Libya. Other human rights luminaries on the Preparatory Bureau are Iran, Pakistan and Cuba.

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The Wages of Appeasement By Christopher Chantrill

For conservatives the story of the recent National Intelligence Estimate is unbelievable.  What would possess the analysts in the federal intelligence bureaucracy to issue a finding that Iran has abandoned its military nuclear weapons program? 

Given the secrecy that surrounds all government ventures into nuclear weaponry we wonder how anyone can presume to know with "high confidence" whether Iran or any other nation has or has not a nuclear weapons program.  And why would anyone so blatantly try to appease a revolutionary regime like the Islamic Republic of Iran?

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The intelligence community failed to anticipate the Cuban Missile Crisis. BY BRET STEPHENS

"The USSR could derive considerable military advantage from the establishment of Soviet medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles in Cuba, or from the establishment of a submarine base there. . . . Either development, however, would be incompatible with Soviet practice to date and with Soviet policy as we presently estimate it."

--Special National Intelligence Estimate 85-3-62, Sept. 19, 1962

Twenty-five days after this NIE was published, a U-2 spy plane photographed a Soviet ballistic missile site in Cuba, and the Cuban Missile Crisis began. It's possible the latest NIE on Iran's nuclear weapons program will not prove as misjudged or as damaging as the 1962 estimate. But don't bet on it.

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Stinking Perfectly By A.J. DiCintio

Let’s be clear about “Democracy in America,” Roger Cohen’s New York Times piece about the recent referendum in Venezuela: It is a perfectly foul addition to the universe of stupid, dangerous idealism and hateful condemnations of “Ugly America” that flow continually from sick Liberal minds.

Being perfect, the essay doesn’t waste a bit of time in spraying its odor as its first five words sing, “I salute you, Hugo Chávez.”

Why this solemn gesture to a megalomaniac Castro clone? Well, Mr. Cohen never thought “it possible that a Latin American strongman” would “accept a marginal electoral defeat.” Moreover, he was swept off his feet (a metaphor for a cognitive disorder to which all Liberals are genetically disposed) by the Jeffersonian sincerity of Hugo’s announcement that “The people’s decision will be upheld in respect of the basic rule of democracy: the winning option is the one that gets most votes.”

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Climate Bill Will Devastate American Families and Jobs by Sen. James Inhofe

For the first time in history, a fatally flawed global-warming cap-and-trade bill passed out of the United States Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) Committee. Democrats, led by Chairman Barbara Boxer (D.-Calif.), approved the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security Act of 2007 (S 2191) by a vote of 11 to eight December 5.

Serious Flaws
While the outcome of the vote in committee was never in question -- since Democrats hold the majority -- it did provide Republicans the opportunity to expose many of the serious flaws of this bill. The fact is this bill is simply all economic pain for no climate gain: Numerous analyses have placed the costs at trillions of dollars. Even if one accepts the dire claims of man-made global warming, this bill will not have a measurable impact on the climate.  

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Do It Our Way by Robert Spencer

In its continuing effort to impede freedom of the press in the United States, the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) has issued a new media guide -- available only to “media professionals” -- that purports to “educate the media and disabuse journalists of misinformation” about Islam. The notorious Islamic advocacy group, which has seen several of its officials convicted on various terrorism-related charges, and which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation terror funding case, asserts that “common misperceptions in the media include the notion that Islam is not compatible with democracy or modern culture, that the Quran teaches violence, that Muslims around the world hate the US, that Islam does not respect women’s rights, and that all Muslims are Arab.”

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In Politics Values Matter, Not Theology By Dennis Prager

There are some Americans -- presumed usually to be evangelical Christians -- for whom voting for a Mormon for president of the United States is difficult, if not impossible. While I will try to show these voters why that decision is wrong on religious as well as moral grounds, it is important for the rest of us to understand their opposition.
Most traditional Christians regard Mormonism not merely as not Christian, but as a falsification of it. It does not matter to the vast majority of evangelicals if a candidate is a Christian. Most are quite prepared to vote for a non-Christian -- a Jew, for example. And they are certainly prepared to vote for Christians with whom they differ theologically -- whether non-evangelical Protestants or Roman Catholics.

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The Religious Left’s Meltdown on Global Warming By Mark D. Tooley

The bishops of Europe’s Protestant state churches mostly preside over beautiful, empty museums that commemorate where Christians once worshipped. Lacking flocks to shepherd, and subsidized by the state, these clerics inevitably mouth the pieties of Europe’s secular left, in a bid for relevance. Most Europeans probably respond with cynical yawns, but these clerics frequently are echoed by their Religious Left co-belligerents in America, where there are more Christians available for political mobilization.

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British Headline: ‘Gore Criticised for Lining His Own Pockets’ By Noel Sheppard

It appears America's closest ally is beginning to see through Al Gore's international global warming con game.

On November 30, the Nobel Laureate was the keynote speaker at the Fortune Forum's Summit 2007 in London, "An historic evening of spectacular entertainment, dining and inspiration to raise global awareness and to influence good policy."

Unfortunately, the former vice president badly disappointed attendees which included Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Sir David Frost, Sir Bob Geldorf, and former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

In fact, by all accounts, Gore was a miserable flop. Think American media will be sharing this revelation with their patrons any time soon?

While you ponder, England's Daily Mail reported Sunday (emphasis added throughout):

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The GOP’s Sell-Out Seven Have Their Own Univision Panderfest By Allan Wall

Several months back, the Democrats had a bilingual panderfest hosted by Spanish-language network Univision.

Not to be outdone, the Republican candidates (with the heroic exception of Tom Tancredo) attended another Panderfest with the same format last night (December 9th).

The fact that only Tancredo understood that pandering was a bad idea tells us more about the state of the GOP than it does about Tom Tancredo. As he explained the day before the forum:

"It is the law that to become a naturalized citizen of this country you must have knowledge and understanding of English, including a basic ability to read, write, and speak the language. So what may I ask are our presidential candidates doing participating in a Spanish speaking debate? Bilingualism is a great asset for any individual, but it has perilous consequences for a nation. As such, a Spanish debate has no place in a presidential campaign." [Tancredo: GOP Candidates ‘Pandering’ At Spanish-Language Debate The Denver Channel.Com Dec. 8th, 2007]

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