Islamist bombers target Olympics

A MILITANT Islamic group has threatened to attack the Beijing Olympics with suicide bombers and biological weapons and has claimed responsibility for a string of fatal bombings and explosions in China over recent weeks.

In a video released by IntelCenter, a terrorism monitoring group, a bearded man identified as “Commander Seyfullah” is seen reading a declaration of jihad against the Olympics and warns athletes and spectators, “especially Muslims”, to stay away.

It was issued by a group calling itself the Turkestan Islamic party.

[GWOT]

READ MORE

Taliban winning propaganda battle in Afghanistan

Canada, the United States and other countries with military forces in Afghanistan are losing a propaganda battle to a resurgent Taliban movement, a respected international think tank says.

The Afghan insurgency's military capabilities are often overestimated, but a sophisticated multi-media propaganda campaign is projecting a Taliban movement that is increasingly confident of its ability to exploit opponents' weaknesses.

The insurgency is also gaining support among Afghan people who once rejected it... [snip]

"Using the full range of media, [the Taliban] is successfully tapping into strains of Afghan nationalism and exploiting policy failures by the Kabul government and its international backers, ..."

[Q: how in the world do Taliban tribesmen beat the West at modern-media campaigns? A: political correctness.]

READ MORE

NYT Reporter Hammers Bush's 'Rigid,' 'With-Us-Or-Against-Us Presidency'

[HT:DS]
New York Times reporter Patrick Healy's lead story in the Week in Review, "An Exclusive Club Gets Included," posed the question: Why, after a long spell of senators trying and failing to win high office, are two senators now in line for the presidency? Healy's short answer: It's all Bush's fault, for his "go-it-alone strategy in Iraq" and his "with-us-or-against-us presidency."

The Times is quite fond of the "go-it-alone" myth, having cited it several times. For the record, the United States actually led a 30-nation coalition in Iraq (35 countries joined the fight in Afghanistan).

READ MORE

The Myth of U.S. Isolation: Why America Is Not Alone in the War on Terror > HERE

Essay: It’s the Media, Stupid

The networks suggest Obama is driving the narrative, but it's the liberal press themselves doing the driving for Obama

The Big Three networks just foisted a week long Obamathon upon the American people, a political, "journalistic" perversion of Jerry Lewis's annual televised good deed. Mr. Lewis raises money for a very worthy cause. CBS' Katie Couric, NBC's Brian Williams and ABC's Charlie Gibson attempted to raise the Presidential credibility of an inexperienced candidate by dutifully following Illinois Senator Barack Obama to the Middle East and Europe for six days and five nights of wall-to-wall slavish and adoring reporting.

This was an unprecedented media extravaganza. Never before have all three evening news anchors been drawn out of their chairs and all over the world together and on behalf of a candidate. Their coverage of Sen. Obama was as glitteringly positive as it was all-encompassing: the primary season without the Clinton distraction.

By week's end, the voters back here Stateside could well have forgotten that Senator Obama has an opponent.

READ MORE

Networks Tilted 10-to-1 In Favor of Obama World Tour

The Big Three broadcast networks lavished an incredible amount of attention on Barack Obama's tour of the Middle East and Europe last week. Compared to a very similar trip by John McCain last March, the ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts gave Obama more than ten times the coverage — 92 minutes for the Democrat's eight-day trip, compared to just eight and a half minutes for the Republican's seven-day tour.


A Fox News/Opinion Dynamics poll conducted during the trip found 67% of voters think the media want Obama to win. Are the other 33% blind?

READ MORE

'Nightly News' Anchor: Pro-Obama Bias is 'In the Eye of the Beholder'

[HT:BN]
Is there a pro-Obama bias in the media? Only if you at it from a certain point-of-view according to "NBC Nightly News" anchor Brian Williams.

Despite allegations of just the opposite, the wall-to-wall coverage of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama's trip to the Middle East then to Europe wasn't a sign of bias - it was just the media attempting to "educate" according to Williams.

READ MORE

China Overtakes U.S. In Worldwide Web Population

China has overtaken the United States in online presence as more Chinese citizens use the worldwide web. The largest country in terms of population is now also world's largest Internet population.

The China Internet Network Information Centre reported Friday that the country had 253 million netizens as of end of June, up by 56 percent from last year.

In comparison, research company Nielsen Online reported 223.1 million Internet users in the U.S. in June.

[with the help of US companies {because European ones wouldn't hesitate}, China has managed to turn the most liberating development of our {and possibly any} time into a massive propaganda tool]

READ MORE

IOC agrees to Internet blocking at the Games

BEIJING: The Chinese government confirmed Wednesday what journalists arriving at the lavishly outfitted media center here had suspected: Contrary to previous assurances by Olympic and government officials, the Internet would be censored during the upcoming games.

On Wednesday - two weeks after its most recent proclamation of an uncensored Internet during the Summer Games - the International Olympic Committee quietly agreed to the limitations, according to Kevan Gosper, chairman of the IOC press commission,

[all that is required for evil to succeed is for good to 'acquiesce'. why are we there again? A: moral equivalence: who are we to say a totalitarian oligarchy is 'bad' ]

READ MORE

Never forget

Nearly two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of communism in Eastern and Central Europe, five nations remain "captive" to communism -- China, Cuba, North Korea, Vietnam and Laos.

Amid all the hoopla about the Beijing Olympics and the "ohs" and "ahs" over the dozens of skyscrapers soaring above the Chinese capital, we must keep in mind that China is also a land of forced labor camps...

READ MORE

U.N. 'Good Governance' Official May Escape

A top "good governance" official at the United Nations accused of dishonest practices may escape penalties despite a scathing internal report that faulted his "gross negligence" and mishandling of a $2.8 million trust fund donated by the Greek government.

The United Nations' own report, issued by its Office of Internal Oversight Services following an 18-month investigation, recommended that the Department of Economic and Social Affairs, or DESA, which controls Bertucci’s office, repay $34,000 in wrongly awarded contracts.

The report lies in limbo in the hands of Sha Zukang, the undersecretary-general for DESA and Bertucci’s boss.

"That is where it now sits," said Inga-Britt Ahlenius, undersecretary-general in charge of OIOS, in an e-mail to FOXNews.com. So long as Sha does not rule on the findings of the OIOS, investigation of the report may go unconsidered until Bertucci’s retirement.

The United Nations does not customarily pursue actions against employees who have left its service. With a little stalling, neither the requests of the Greek government nor the recommendations of the United Nations' own investigators will likely be considered.

READ MORE

World Citizen

World citizens embrace the idea that the United Nations and other multinational organizations are imbued with a moral authority not found in nation-states like ours. When he was the Democratic Party standard-bearer, Senator John Kerry famously described American foreign and defense policy as only being legitimate when it passed a “global test” – in other words, approval by the international community. [snip]

To further such a subordination of American power, the transnationalists have enmesh the United States in a web of treaties: the World Trade Organization (which now routinely rules against U.S. companies and economic interests while giving a pass to Communist China’s); the International Criminal Court (which has just established an ominous precedent for U.S. officials by indicting the sitting president of Sudan); and the Law of the Sea Treaty (which assigns unprecedented responsibilities for control of the oceans to international organs). [snip]

A riveting insight into this reality was provided a few months back when the National Rifle Association’s Wayne LaPierre addressed a meeting in New Orleans, the scene following Hurricane Katrina of the forceful disarmament of law-abiding U.S. citizens. Mr. LaPierre showed a video which included a chilling statement from a senior UN official to the effect that, while she understood Americans were reluctant to part with their firearms, they had better get used to being citizens of the world just like everybody else...

[this is another creeping vine issue: it's their day-job, week in, week out, to work on suborning national sovereignties - the {short term} holey grail? LOST: Law Of the Sea Treaty, which, if we're foolish enough to sign, will allow the UN to tax US companies directly, removing {in time} any need to worry about being given member dues...]

READ MORE

When green was easy

... now that the Soviet Union has collapsed and socialism in general has miserably failed, the left has been reenergized by New Age environmentalism, like Marxism a quasi-religion that provides an even more comprehensive justification for restricting individual freedom and its economic expression in the form of market capitalism.

The leftist project of replacing socialism with environmentalism as an ideological organizing principle has culminated with global warming theory, an apocalyptic scenario that has proved much more salable than anything Karl Marx could come up with.

Global warming was the perfect expression of environmentalism as ideology and religion because it went farther than Marxism to discredit not just capitalism but industrialism and consumerism as well. Communism appealed to people’s hopes, environmentalism more generally and global warming more specifically to their darkest fears...

[short, Highly Recommended > ]

READ MORE

Pelosi's Planet

"I'm trying to save the planet; I'm trying to save the planet,"

declares House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which is a lot for one person. Maybe she should just try to save herself from the embarrassment that comes with spouting such inanities.

When challenged in an interview with Politico.com about her bullheaded refusal to let Republicans submit energy policies for a vote, Pelosi resorted to risible hyperbole to justify her iron-fisted rule of the House parliamentary process.

"I will not have this debate trivialized by their
excuse for their failed policy."

If the San Francisco Democrat's magisterial narcissism isn't off-putting enough, her intent should be. She's saying that her personal importance to the survival of Earth transcends our system of open government, elections and power-sharing. Because she's trying to save the world, she can't be challenged and dissent will not be tolerated...

[three heartbeats from the big job. marvelous]

READ MORE

.

“Every other country in the world looks at its natural resources and sees them as an economic asset. Too many people in Washington for too long looked at our natural resources and saw them as a potential environmental hazard. Nobody else does that.

It’s a foolish position to take and it’s done a lot to get us into the position of dependency we have now on people who don’t like us. We have to change that. One of the big elements of changing that is looking for our own American energy resources in a significant way. “

— Congressman Roy Blunt (R- MO)

.

HEADLINES FROM THE YEAR: 2059
[HT:DT]

Ozone created by electric cars now killing millions in the seventh largest country in the world, Mexifornia, formerly known as California.

White minorities still trying to have English recognized as Mexifornia's third language.

Spotted Owl plague threatens northwestern United States crops and livestock.

Baby conceived naturally. Scientists stumped.

Couple petitions court to reinstate heterosexual marriage.

Last remaining Fundamentalist Muslim dies in the American Territory of the Middle East (formerly known as Iraq , Afghanistan , Syria and Lebanon ).

Iran still closed off; physicists estimate it will take at least 10 more years before radioactivity decreases to safe levels.

France pleads for global help after being taken over by Jamaica

Postal Service raises price of first class stamp to $17.89 and reduces mail delivery to Wednesdays only.

85-year $75.8 billion study: Diet and Exercise is the key to weight loss.

Massachusetts executes last remaining conservative.

Supreme Court rules punishment of criminals violates their civil rights.

New federal law requires that all nail clippers, screwdrivers, fly swatters and rolled-up newspapers must be registered by January 2060.

Congress authorizes direct deposit of formerly illegal political contributions to campaign accounts.

IRS sets lowest tax rate at 75 percent.

Florida voters still having trouble with voting machines.
.