Kennedy, Reid launch tirade on Senate floor

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[oops, apologies - back to news]

In the Company of Heroes

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"The foundation of all mental illness is the unwillingness to experience legitimate suffering."

- Carl Jung

Last weekend, I was profoundly privileged to be in the VFW Post in Nashville, Tennessee with a roomful of the some of the most intelligent, reasonable and sane human beings I have ever encountered. These men seemed to shun the term "hero." Yet, what other word could possibly suffice?

From Hollywood's anti-war movies to the New York Times' pitiful anti-vet screeds, to the major networks' portrayals of whacked-out homeless vets to the Winter Soldiers , the American public is bombarded on a daily basis with the notion that suffering for a just cause is not only a needless expenditure of treasure, but a disgraceful evil that should never be borne by good people.

But anyone with a decent upbringing and a grain of common sense, who listens to representatives from Vets for Freedom and Vets for Victory, as I did last weekend, clearly knows that Carl Jung had it right. These hero vets of VFF and V4V know intimately and soundly, the difference between legitimate and illegitimate suffering.

These men, these genuine heroes, are the personification of sanity walking tall.

[Highly Recommended > ]

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"People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf." -- George Orwell

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Haditha: The Collapse of a Liberal Fiction

You'd hardly know it if you relied on the mainstream media, but the government's case against the Haditha Marines took another body blow last Friday that may be the beginning of the end for this whole sorry attempt to severely punish eight heroic United States Marines for doing what they are trained to do. //

Months later, however, Time magazine published a story reporting that the Marines had gone on a rampage, wantonly killing innocent civilians to avenge the death of their fellow Marine killed in the IED explosion.

Using Time magazine's fallacious account of the civilian deaths, Pennsylvania's Democratic Rep. John Murtha went on a rampage of his own, telling every media outlet in the world that the Marines had committed "cold-blooded murder." He first claimed that his information came from a briefing from the Marine Corps Commandant, but when that claim was disproved he admitted that his source was Time magazine.

Murtha's charges were broadcast far and wide, and before any investigation of the incident could get underway, the media joined Murtha in finding the Marines guilty of a massacre.

[fast forward to last Friday] = The day Lance Cpl. Stephen Tatum's court martial was scheduled to begin, all charges against him were dropped - without explanation.

[and so it goes, the predictable pattern of our 'professional' media]

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Pelosi warns Petraeus on Iraq testimony

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) warned Army Gen. David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker on Thursday not to "put a shine on recent events” in Iraq when they testify before Congress next week. “I hope we don’t hear any glorification of what happened in Basra,” said Pelosi, referring to a recent military offensive against Shiite militants in the city led by the Iraqi government and supported by U.S. forces.

[good to know he won't be facing a biased or hostile environment or anything. why don't we all save time & money and just skip to the part where they 'find' that the effort is doomed, Bush lied, out now etc. etc. {despicable - not their opinion, were it honest, but that it's so blatantly dishonest, and inflicted upon a man like Patraeus}]

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[now that I think about it, why don't we skip to the 'finding' part at let her know what we think of her now >>>

Pelosi: (202) 225-0100 http://speaker.house.gov/contact/

The Muslim Brotherhood's Infiltration of the West

The Muslim Brotherhood, today widely regarded as the largest Islamic movement in the world, was founded by Hassan al-Banna in 1928. Its member groups are dedicated to the motto: "Allah is our objective. The Prophet is our leader. The Qur'an is our law. Jihad is our way. Dying in the way of Allah is our highest hope."

Research analyst Lorenzo Vidino writes about The Muslim Brotherhood's Conquest of Europe: Since the early 1960s, Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have moved to Europe and slowly but steadily established a wide and well-organized network of mosques, charities, and Islamic organizations." With moderate rhetoric and well-spoken German, Dutch, and French, they have gained acceptance among European governments and media alike. Politicians across the political spectrum rush to engage them whenever an issue involving Muslims arises or, more parochially, when they seek the vote of the burgeoning Muslim community. But, speaking Arabic or Turkish before their fellows Muslims, they drop their facade and embrace radicalism.

"While the Muslim Brotherhood and their Saudi financiers have worked to cement Islamist influence over Germany's Muslim community, they have not limited their infiltration to Germany. Thanks to generous foreign funding, meticulous organization, and the naïveté of European elites, Muslim Brotherhood-linked organizations have gained prominent positions throughout Europe. In France, the extremist Union des Organisations Islamiques de France has become the predominant organization in the government's Islamic Council. In Italy, the extremist Unione delle Comunita' ed Organizzazioni Islamiche in Italia is the government's prime partner in dialogue regarding Italian Islamic issues."

The irony, according to Vidino, is that Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna dreamed of spreading Islamism throughout Egypt and the Muslim world. He would never have dreamed that his vision might also become a reality in Europe.

http://www.globalpolitician.com/24345-islamism-multiculturalism-european-immigration

Twofer:

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Stoned to death for committing adultery
[there...]
A man and a woman have reportedly been stoned to death by the Taliban after being found guilty of adultery by a tribal court in Pakistan's border region. The stoning was carried out in a tribal area on the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan where the Taliban has a strong presence (Snip) The pair had been captured by the Taliban after eloping about two weeks ago from a border area known as the Mohmand Agency. A complaint was made that the woman, married to another man, had been kidnapped...

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Tortured and murdered ... by her father ... in UK
[{near} here...]
Two British police forces failed a young Kurdish woman who was tortured, raped and murdered in an honour killing plotted by her family, the police watchdog concluded. Investigations by the police in England's West Midlands and Scotland Yard in London let down Banaz Mahmod after not taking seriously death threats against her, the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) said. The 20-year-old was raped and garrotted during an ordeal lasting more than two-and-a-half hours at her family home in south London last year...

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China discloses protest in Muslim region

Shanghai - Chinese officials said Wednesday they were grappling with ethnic unrest on a second front, in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where Uighur Muslims protested Chinese rule late last month even as Tibetans rioted in the southwest. (Snip) Officials said the protest had been staged by Islamic separatist groups seeking to foment a broader uprising in Xinjiang. China often blames any ethnic disturbances on what it calls splittists and terrorists.

[bumperstickers in China]

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Twofer:

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In rebuff to Bush, NATO keeps Georgia, Ukraine in the cold

European leaders kept Georgia and Ukraine waiting at NATO's doorstep Thursday, dealing George W. Bush a rebuff at the last summit of the transatlantic alliance he will attend as US president. NATO leaders did, however, endorse Bush's quest for a missile defense shield across Europe, and leaned towards sending more troops to Afghanistan to join the 47,000 already there to wrangle with a resurgent Taliban.

[typical. This was a truly remarkable accomplishment for the US: Bush has taken BMD from constant disparagement since he withdrew us from the flawed SALT treaty in 2001 to today' unanimous backing of it in NATO - 'closing the question' of if there is to be one. France announced its intention to rejoin the body after a 40 year absence (in left in in 1966), and is sending additional troops to Afghanistan - as are 12 other nations - and Afghanistan the first NATO action outside its stated 'theater'. AND all this right in the face of a threatening Russia, on the eve of a US-Russian summit. Cumulatively this was quite huge - particularly as both Georgia and Ukraine never stood a chance at this time, they're both too unstable (regrettably, Russia, again). And the press? 'Rebuffed'. they just can't help themselves]

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[UPDATE: and on this side of the pond?

"Putin Scores Big Win in Bucharest"

brought to you by naturally.]

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Canada foils UN water plan

Canada emerged as the pivotal nation behind recent manoeuvres to block the United Nations Human Rights Council from recognizing water as a basic human right, according to international observers. The Geneva-based body wrapped up an intense three-week session late Friday without passing a German-Spanish resolution intended to enshrine its importance in a world where more than 2 billion people live in water-stressed regions. It would have also set up an international watchdog to monitor the actions of individual countries.

[I'm really starting to like our northern neighbors]

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Top Russian scientist: global cooling coming

For the remainder of this century, it will be global cooling we'll have to worry about, according to highly credentialed Russian scientist, Dr. Oleg Sorokhtin.

Dr. Sorokhtin, Merited Scientist of Russia and fellow of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences, is staff researcher of the Oceanology Institute. He explains the recent warming as a natural trend.

"Earth is now at the peak of one of its passing warm spells. It started in the 17th century when there was no industrial influence on the climate to speak of and no such thing as the hothouse effect. The current warming is evidently a natural process and utterly independent of hothouse gases."

So what will happen in the future?

"The latest data, obtained by Habibullah Abdusamatov, head of the Pulkovo Observatory space research laboratory, say that Earth has passed the peak of its warmer period, and a fairly cold spell will set in quite soon, by 2012. Real cold will come when solar activity reaches its minimum, by 2041, and will last for 50-60 years or even longer."

The high standing of Dr. Sorkhtin and the inherent plausibility of his argument that climate will continue to follow the same basic causal factor, solar activity, make this another heavy blow to the global warming alarmists, who insist there is no argument at all.

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HURTING US FOR NOTHING

Congress should pause before doing real economic damage in the name of saving us from Al Gore's hallucinations, says Steve Forbes, editor of Forbes Magazine. One of the most damaging proposals to combat "global warming" is a cap-and-trade system to limit greenhouse gas emissions:

• The idea is that each year the government will mandate an overall amount of permissible emissions.
• This cap will gradually [or not-gradually] be reduced, which, in turn, will pressure businesses to reduce their output of greenhouse gases.
• A company, such as a utility plant, that cuts back its emissions could sell its credits to an outfit that wants to build a facility that would emit the gases. [or pay the government fines - no monetary incentive there...]

Apart from the fact there's no proof carbon dioxide has any impact on global temperatures, a cap-and-trade system will create an economic disaster. The government -- i.e., politics -- will decide how quotas are allocated. The artificial scarcity cap-and-trade creates will increase the cost of energy and electricity [i.e., everything], making U.S. companies less competitive at a time of intensifying global competition. Consider:

• The European Union (EU) has had a cap-and-trade system since 2005, and it has already boosted power prices 10 percent.
• Fraud will become a fact of life; plants in developing countries that claim they've reduced emissions are selling credits, but in many cases the reductions are fictions.
• In 2006 emissions in EU countries participating in the cap-and-trade program went up while U.S. emissions went down.

Cap-and-trade is one European import we should do without, says Forbes.

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"Each year, the Rainforest is responsible for over three thousand deaths from accidents, attacks or illnesses. There are over seven hundred things in the Rainforest that cause cancer. Join the fight now and help stop the Rainforest before it's too late."
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