Faces of the Enemy...We Must Never Forget

We are coming up quickly on the 6th anniversary of the most horrific attack 4 pilots ever made against the USA. It is sad, and it is mind-boggling how so many Americans have forgotten how they felt on September 11, 2001. Today so many opinions seem to assert that America is to blame. They think what happened is just a reaction to how wrong America has been in what America is doing in the world. These opinions could not be more wrong-headed and more misguided. Our enemy is not just reacting to what a country or a political party is doing. They are acting on their own agenda. They want to destroy the West, and conquer the world. They want to establish a global caliphate. We cannot simply ignore them. We cannot let them win power in a country, any country. The investment that the Democratic Party has made in defeat for the US in Iraq is just so wrong. First they have tried to make the case that the US military surge is not working. Facts have not been on their side. Now they are trying to make the case that the government of Iraq is no good, and must be replaced. I don't know what will happen with the government of Iraq, but I know the politicians in Washington D.C. have no business replacing this government. It is up to the people of Iraq. It bothers me when Sen. Levin stirs this pot, because if America will not be their friend an ally, then Iraq might turn to Iran and Syria to be their friend. I think this would be a poor choice for them, but I resent Sen. Levin threatening to withdraw all US support from them.
We need to remember who the enemy is. We must never forget.

THE 50 MOST POWERFUL PEOPLE IN D.C. …HUH!?

I ran across this article on the internet.

In Washington, you are either a person with power or a person who acts like he has power. How do you tell the contenders from the pretenders? We canvassed the city’s top think tankers, congressional aides, and political journalists to find out. Herewith, the 50 men and women who make it all happen (but not anyone named Bush or Cheney)
By Raha Naddaf and Greg Veis

So I have listed 15 of the 50 most powerful people in D.C. who I have never heard of. Is it just me? Without cheating and using Google or reading the article, do you know who these people are, and why they are considered so powerful? I try to keep up by visiting RedState and NRO, but this list makes me feel like I am not worthy.

Oh by the way, in case you don’t read the article, they had 2 people listed who I have heard of, and would never consider for a list like this: Andrew Sullivan and Tom Toles.


6. HOWARD KOHR & BILL NOVELLI
15. MARK PENN
24. DAVID RUBENSTEIN
29. ALEX CASTELLANOS
31. DANIEL SNYDER
33. STEVE ELMENDORF
37. SIMON ROSENBERG
38. TOMMY JACOMO
40. MICHAEL HAUSFELD
42. MASON LECKY
43. JAMES A. JOHNSON
45. ISABELLE GOETZ
47. SUSAN MCCUE
49. NANCY JACOBSON

Champagne for Everyone!

Contrary to the title, this is really a rather depressing story about the fear and loathing currently taking over in Europe. Paul Belien of the Brussels Journal blog wrote this article
about a decision by the mayor of Brussels to deny a permit to demonstrate.

Freddy Thielemans, the Mayor of Brussels, prohibited a demonstration against the Islamization of Europe, planned to be held next September 11 in front of the European Parliament buildings. Mayor Thielemans is worried that the demonstration will upset the large immigrant population of Brussels. Over half the inhabitants of the Brussels region are of foreign origin, many of them from Morocco. According to the mayor there is a real danger of violence between demonstrators and Muslims living in the neighbourhood. The latter might not tolerate native Europeans protesting against their continent becoming Eurabia.

Thielemans is a member of the Parti Socialiste (PS), a Belgian party which caters for the Muslim population. The PS is the largest party in Brussels, holding 17 of the 47 seats in the city council. 10 of the 17 PS-councillors are Muslims. The PS governs Brussels in a coalition with the Christian-Democrats, who have 11 councillors, of whom 2 are Muslims and 3 are immigrants from Sub-Saharan Africa. Only 13 of the 28 councillors in the governing coalition of the city are native Belgians. Thielemans is the most conspicuous of these. He is an atheist who is fond of Muslims, not because he respects religious people, but because he hates Christians. On 2 April 2005 the Brussels mayor was attending an official cocktail party with the mayor of Angoulême (France), when the news of the death of Pope John Paul II reached him. On hearing the news he ordered “Champagne for everyone!” His French colleague walked out in disgust.

Last Spring, the Danish group Stop Islamiseringen af Danmark (SIAD), the British group Stop the Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) and the German group Pax Europa, whose logo includes the flag of the multiculturalist EU, decided to organize a protest march against the introduction of Sharia laws in Europe. The organizers want the march to take place on 9/11 in the streets of Brussels and to end in front of the EU Parliament. There, the victims of Sept. 11, 2001, will be commemorated with one minute of silence.

Up until last week the Belgian press had made no mention of the march. Last Thursday, however, Mayor Thielemans banned the demonstration. A local joke has it that the mayor cannot allow a demonstration on his 63rd birthday (Thielemans was born on Sept. 11, 1944) because he fears that if the pope dies on his birthday it will cost him a fortune to offer “champagne for everyone.” That would be no big deal in a city where the many Muslims do not drink alcohol, but with 20,000 non-Islamic visitors in town the mayor might bankrupt himself on champagne.

The Danish-British-German organizers can lodge an appeal against the mayor’s prohibition with the Belgian Council of State. The CoS may rule that the demonstration must be allowed to take place. Meanwhile an online petition, which everyone is invited to sign, asks the mayor to reconsider his decision. Thielemans’ ban has turned the anti-Sharia demonstration into a huge publicity stunt, even if only a few people show up. Meanwhile, Thielemans’ decision has showed the world that Brussels, a city which does not allow peaceful Europeans to demonstrate and make their wishes known to the European authorities in town, is unworthy of being Europe’s capital.

It saddens and disgusts me how sick and twisted the atheist/socialist movement in Europe have become. There no longer is any connection between liberals, in an 18th century classical liberal meaning of the term, and these lefties. Mark Steyn and others have been saying for quite a while that Europe is lost. Something has got to change, or, I fear, they are correct.

Changing of the Guard...7 Open Seats

Right now there are 7 open seats up for grabs in House 2008 elections. Maybe there will be more open seats between now and then. I do not think this is such a bad thing. If the House had term limits similar to POTUS, only make it 12 instead of 8, I would be happy. I hope the GOP will hold the seats in CA, IL, MS, and OH. I really hope the GOP can pick up seats in CO and ME.

From the left side of the blogosphere I read the top 20 list targeted Dem seats:
Nick Lampson, Texas
Tim Mahoney, Florida
Jerry McNerney, California
Zack Space, Ohio
Baron Hill, Indiana
Chris Carney, Pennsylvania
Patrick Murphy, Pennsylvania
Nancy Boyda, Kansas
Joe Sestak, Pennsylvania
Brad Ellsworth, Indiana
Heath Shuler, North Carolina
Ciro Rodriguez, Texas
Steve Kagen, Wisconsin
Jim Marshall, Georgia
Joe Donnelly, Indiana
John Barrow, Georgia
Jason Altmire, Pennsylvania
John Hall, New York
Kirsten Gillibrand, New York
Stephanie Herseth, South Dakota

Three of these 20 are in my home state, IN. I think it will be more difficult to unseat Hill and Donnelly than Ellsworth. If some good fiscal conservative Club for Growth type candidates can be recruited they can win those seats back. I don't know enough about the other 17 on the list except they are mostly newly elected in 2006.
The Club for Growth is supporting an opponent, Andrew Harris, to Wayne Gilchrist in MD. Hopefully they can repeat their success of last year when they helped elect Tim Wahlberg.

GOP Rockers... a future POTUS?

OK, the late Lee Atwater, political adviser to George H. W. Bush, and Karl Rove, political advisor to George W. Bush are not going to be POTUS. But why should political advisers have all the fun? Mike Huckabee is a rocker, and he is running for POTUS. He has his own rock n roll band, Capitol Offense.

Maybe there is a new bloc of voters for GOP candidates to court. Then if this is a consideration, let's get a famous rocker. Let's go with Ted Nugent! Think about how Ted would have a lock on the voters who are hunters, outdoorsmen, and 2nd amendment proponents. The men and women serving in the armed services and their families would strongly support Ted. Talk about "new tone". Can you imagine Ted Nugent making nice with all of his political enemies? I don't think so. Somebody, please, explain to me how Mike Huckabee has any more of a shot at being POTUS than rocker Ted Nugent.

Red States' House members LOVE PORK TOO!

State Grade
Nebraska 71
Utah 59
Idaho 49
Georgia 47
South Carolina 46
Tennessee 44
Colorado 41
Delaware 40
Arizona 38
Nevada 37
Wisconsin 37
Minnesota 36
Texas 36
Indiana 33
Florida 31
New Mexico 31
Oklahoma 27
Missouri 25
North Carolina 25
Ohio 22
Michigan 21
Iowa 20
Illinois 19
Virginia 19
California 18
Louisiana 15
Pennsylvania 13
Wyoming 10
New Jersey 9
Oregon 8
Alaska 6
Washington 5
Kentucky 4
Maryland 4
New York 4
Arkansas 3
Massachusetts 3
Mississippi 3
Alabama 2
Connecticut 2
Kansas 2
North Dakota 2
South Dakota 2
Maine 1
New Hampshire 1
Rhode Island 1
West Virginia 1
Hawaii 0
Montana 0
Vermont 0

When I used the CFG 2007 RePORK Card to get a state by state tally on the spending I thought all of the states on the bottom would be blue states. Boy, was I mistaken. I thought New York and California would be way down. I did not expect to find Alabama, Kansas, and Montana beneath them. I thought wrong. There are still a lot of big spenders in the House, and they are from red states as well as blue states.

House GOP-Porkbusters&Porkers

The Club for Growth has released a "2007 Repork Card"

The Club for Growth has compiled a RePORK Card of all members' votes on all 50 anti-pork amendments (see below). "Taxpayers have a right to know which congressmen stand up for them and which stand up for the special interests," said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. "Unfortunately, the Club for Growth RePORK Card shows that most congressmen care more about lining their buddies' pockets than they care about protecting American taxpayers."

It is a good read at their website. I decided to make a picture based on their report that shows the 7 states with Reps who scored 100%, and the 14 states with Reps who scored 0%. Three states, Arizona, California, and New Jersey, have a mix of both 100% and 0% Reps. So look with pride or look with shame. It all depends where you live, and whether you see CongressCritters™ 'bringing home the bacon' or 'lining their buddies' pockets'.

"Calling things by their name." - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

After watching this video the thought came to me that maybe Ayaan Hirsi Ali has been lurking here at Redsate. When she spoke about the former jihadist she knew who told her how much they laughed and loved when people said the terrorists were simply the response to the terrible government foreign policy. This reminded me of a recent post by my frieend gamecock. It sometimes does seem like there are so many people doing for free what America's enemies would gladly pay for.

From this website http://www.yehhumnaheen.org/english/index.html is the following statement

Yeh Hum Naheen has become a truly unprecedented musical movement. Featuring the vocal talents of some of Pakistans biggest music artists, including Haroon, Ali Haider, Ali Zafar, Shufqat, Strings, Shuja Haider and Hadiqa Kiani, uniting to sing out the message the world needs to hear.

Written by Ali Moeen, Pakistans foremost lyricist, with music composed by Shuja Haider, its the central message of the song that has compelled so many people to become involved. It is a message of reconciliation, a message of peace and a message of truth. Capturing the imagination of people across the board, Yeh Hum Naheen has given a voice to the silent majority, those in the Muslim world who have for too long been mis-represented. These are the people who although not appearing on our television screens are saddened and shocked at the high-jacking of Islam by terrorists, and want to stand up and shout “This is Not Us”. The song is the brainchild of Waseem Mahmood, author and media consultant, who took inspiration for the project from his children. They were tired at the way a minority of misguided young people were vehemently putting forward a message of radicalization and terrorism which was at odds with what the majority of Muslims believe. It is time to re-address the imbalance, and from the smallest child to the oldest person, Yeh Hum Naheen seeks to give a voice to the voiceless.

It does have that 1980's 'we are the world' feel to it. I and many other people have not been happy about never seeing anything like this. Silence has existed among many Muslims for so long. I just hope that this is for real.

Sharia Chic! NYC Stop This Madness!

There is a new PUBLIC school that will be opening its doors for the first time ever this September. The name of this school is Khalil Gibran International Academy. There was an article in the NY Post

Activists with ties to the principal of the city's controversial new Arabic-themed school are hawking T- shirts that glorify Palestinian terror, The Post has learned.

Way back in May 1 of this year Alicia Colon wrote her opinion of this new public school.

When I met him a while ago in The New York Sun's offices, Chancellor Joel Klein seemed to be in command of his senses. And Mayor Bloomberg did not become a successful billionaire without having some smarts. So whose insane idea was it to have an Arabic public school in Brooklyn open this September? Are they out of their minds? Have they learned nothing from the Netherlands about the danger of pandering to multiculturalism?

When I first heard of this proposed school, I thought it was a joke. But then I read Daniel Pipes's column about this disguised "madrassa" and discovered who the major principals were. Now I can't dispel this feeling of disbelief and outrage. This proposal is utter madness, considering that five years after September 11, ground zero is still a hole in the ground and we're bending over backwards to appease those sympathetic to individuals who would destroy us again. Smart, really smart.

How delighted Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda must have been to hear the news — that New York City, the site of the worst terrorist attack in our history, is bowing down in homage to accommodate and perhaps groom future radicals. The principal designate, Dhabah Almontaser, is virulently anti-Bush — a typical academic — but she is now undergoing a public relations makeover to soften her radical image. I suggest that New Yorkers research her hostile speeches and then do everything possible to put an end to this disastrously ill-conceived school.

Daniel Pipes was too conservative in asking his readers to send e-mails to the Chancellor at JKlein@schools.nyc.gov. I say break out the torches and surround City Hall to stop this monstrosity.

I can't say it any better than Alicia Colon did. It pains me that a NYC mayor would even want to be remotely associated with an "Intifada NYC' tee shirt marketing plan. I can not even imagine Mayor Rudy supporting this. The citizens of NYC, many of whom had friends and family members murdered on 9-11, must stand up and put this madness down.

The Senate did the right thing

Early Saturday morning Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) said,

“In a time of a heightened threat, the Senate did the right thing and acted to give our law enforcement the tools they need to combat terrorism. It is now up to the House to act. It is critical to our national security – to keep our country safe – that we update this 30-year old law before we leave for August recess.”

I posted this earlier where I expressed my doubts about Congress getting this done. I really am glad that I was wrong. In an article from CQ Today,

A House Democratic aide said the House was expected to clear the Senate Republican legislation, with most Republicans and some Democrats expected to vote for it.

The bill is intended to eliminate hitches in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA (PL 95-51) that have contributed to the gap and address limitations on surveillance created by a recent court ruling.

I hope the House Democratic aide is correct. The bill passed with bi-partisan support in the US Senate. Diane Feinstein joined 15 Democrats in voting YES with all of the Republicans voting YES. The Senate Roll Call is here.

It's Time To Get Out Now!

Now is the time to soberly and reflectively consider the situation. This experiment with a democratic republic has failed. Enemy combatants stream across the nation's borders. The lawmakers are taking an August vacation while soldiers fight and die every day. The country is terribly split, and the lawmakers in the nation's capitol are unable to make laws on improving the economy. The nation's infrastructure needs repairs. Many in the country do not trust the police to be honest and trustworthy especially national law enforcement. Most liberal and progressive thinking people should realize how hopeless it is. Really they should just leave the USA NOW!

The Really Scary Part of Obama's Speech

Senator Obama gave a speech August 1st on the GWOT. There has been much discussion about his remarks that as POTUS he would invade Pakistan and withdraw financial aid to Pakistan if it feels Pakistan is failing to stop terrorists. I really wish, which is why I am posting this blog, that attention could be paid to the really scary part of his speech IMO.

Here is the part that had my alarm bells going off:

"No more ignoring the law when it is inconvenient. That is not who we are. And it is not what is necessary to defeat the terrorists. The FISA court works. The separation of powers works. Our Constitution works. We will again set an example for the world that the law is not subject to the whims of stubborn rulers, and that justice is not arbitrary.

This Administration acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our security. It is not. There are no short-cuts to protecting America, and that is why the fifth part of my strategy is doing the hard and patient work to secure a more resilient homeland.

Too often this Administration's approach to homeland security has been to scatter money around and avoid hard choices, or to scare Americans without telling them what to be scared of, or what to do. A Department set up to make Americans feel safer didn't even show up when bodies drifted through the streets in New Orleans. That's not acceptable.

My Administration will take an approach to homeland security guided by risk."

To me that sounds like Senator Obama truly believes the US Constitution IS a suicide pact. FISA works? No violating the civil liberties of terrorists? WTF? To me this 5th part of his strategy is indeed the most scary part of all.

Bernard Lewis Explains Terrorists' History

Bernard Lewis was honored at AEI as the recipient of the Irving Krystol award for 2007.
On March 20th he gave a lecture upon accepting the award. The lecture was about history from the perspective of Osama Bin Laden, and how he sees historical events much differently than we in the West see them.

He divides the history into periods in relation to events of the Muslims. The first period is when Islam began to spread in the beginning.

Bernard Lewis:

The declaration of war begins at the very beginning of Islam. There are certain letters purported to have been written by the Prophet Muhammad to the Christian Byzantine emperor, the emperor of Persia, and various other rulers, saying, "I have now brought God's final message. Your time has passed. Your beliefs are superseded. Accept my mission and my faith or resign or submit--you are finished." The authenticity of these prophetic letters is doubted, but the message is clear and authentic in the sense that it does represent the long dominant view of the Islamic world.

The second period is the second attempt to conquer the world by Mongol tartars who had been converted to Islams and Turks.

Bernard Lewis:

That was not the end of the matter. In the meantime the Islamic world, having failed the first time, was bracing for the second attack, this time conducted not by Arabs and Moors but by Turks and Tartars. In the mid-thirteenth century the Mongol conquerors of Russia were converted to Islam. The Turks, who had already conquered Anatolia, advanced into Europe and in 1453 they captured the ancient Christian citadel of Constantinople. They conquered a large part of the Balkans, and for a while ruled half of Hungary. Twice they reached as far as Vienna, to which they laid siege in 1529 and again in 1683. Barbary corsairs from North Africa--well-known to historians of the United States--were raiding Western Europe. They went to Iceland--the uttermost limit--and to several places in Western Europe, including notably a raid on Baltimore (the original one, in Ireland) in 1631. In a contemporary document, we have a list of 107 captives who were taken from Baltimore to Algiers, including a man called Cheney.

Osama Bin Laden credits himself as the leader of the third attempt to conquer the world.

Bernard Lewis:

Osama bin Laden, in some very interesting proclamations and declarations, has this to say about the war in Afghanistan which, you will remember, led to the defeat and retreat of the Red Army and the collapse of the Soviet Union. We tend to see that as a Western victory, more specifically an American victory, in the Cold War against the Soviets. For Osama bin Laden, it was nothing of the kind. It is a Muslim victory in a jihad. If one looks at what happened in Afghanistan and what followed, this is, I think one must say, a not implausible interpretation.

As Osama bin Laden saw it, Islam had reached the ultimate humiliation in this long struggle after World War I, when the last of the great Muslim empires--the Ottoman Empire--was broken up and most of its territories divided between the victorious allies; when the caliphate was suppressed and abolished, and the last caliph driven into exile. This seemed to be the lowest point in Muslim history. From there they went upwards.

In his perception, the millennial struggle between the true believers and the unbelievers had gone through successive phases, in which the latter were led by the various imperial European powers that had succeeded the Romans in the leadership of the world of the infidels--the Christian Byzantine Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the British and French and Russian empires. In this final phase, he says, the world of the infidels was divided and disputed between two rival superpowers, the United States and the Soviet Union. In his perception, the Muslims have met, defeated, and destroyed the more dangerous and the more deadly of the two infidel superpowers. Dealing with the soft, pampered and effeminate Americans would be an easy matter.

This belief was confirmed in the 1990s when we saw one attack after another on American bases and installations with virtually no effective response of any kind--only angry words and expensive missiles dispatched to remote and uninhabited places. The lessons of Vietnam and Beirut were confirmed by Mogadishu. "Hit them, and they'll run." This was the perceived sequence leading up to 9/11. That attack was clearly intended to be the completion of the first sequence and the beginning of the new one, taking the war into the heart of the enemy camp.

He concludes this lecture with question "Is third time charm for Islam? He also appraises like a couple of prize fighters the advantages of Islam vs West. The advantages for the terrorists are strengths in conviction, fervor, and demographics.
The advantages for the West are the appeal of modern knowledge and freedom in its Western interpretation of freedom. I have always appreciated history, and I like the way Bernard Lewis presented. Lessons can be learned from history to keep from making the same mistakes over and over again.