Fausta's blog

Today's WSJ editorial, Uribe Calls Pelosi's Bluff (emphasis added):

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's main excuse for trying to kill the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement is that Colombian President Álvaro Uribe winks at atrocities by his country's illegal paramilitary groups. The charge has always been false, and yesterday Mr. Uribe proved it by extraditing 14 "para" leaders to the U.S.

Regardsless of Pelosi's idiocy,

Mr. Uribe has done more to reduce violence, from both right and left, than any president in modern Colombian history.

The message that Nancy's squabbling gives the world is that in America, the only superpower in the world, political squabbles take precedence over security interests.

UPDATE
Colombia Ups Ante on Free Trade Agreement

Mr. Uribe's Send-Off
The Colombian president confounds his American critics by doing exactly what they asked for.

In the meantime, Human Rights Watch and its congressional partners are running out of excuses for their campaign against the U.S. free-trade agreement with Colombia. The murders of "trade unionists" they decried have drastically decreased; the paramilitary leaders they claimed would go free are in U.S. custody. If their agenda is genuinely human rights -- and not opposition to free trade -- it's time for them to change course.

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Labels: Alvaro Uribe, Colombia, Nancy Pelosi

UPDATED
Wednesday night I wrote an article for Pajamas Media explaining the consequences if Nancy Pelosi delayed a vote on the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

Yesterday Pelosi, who I now consider an enemy of America, changed the voting timeline rule on trade pacts from 90 days to whenever.

This is the first time in history that Congress failed to approve a major trade pact.

Monica Showalter of Investor's Business Daily yesterday afternoon describes why this is an evil move (yes, I am choosing my words carefully - it is an evil thing Pelosi has done). I post the editorial in its entirety (emphasis added):

Pelosi's War
Congress: The cowardly start more wars than the courageous. Nancy Pelosi's craven altering of House rules to kill off Colombia's trade pact brings that danger to the Andes. If war breaks out, her name will be on it.

April 10 may end up as a date which will live in infamy. The Speaker of the House not only refused to step forward and be counted on approving the vital Colombia free-trade agreement, she ran away from letting anyone else vote on it.

After President Bush submitted the pact to a vote under fast-track rules, she changed them to ensure it wouldn't go anywhere anytime soon. By a 224-195 House vote, the voting timeline rule on trade pacts was changed from 90 days to whenever. Pelosi now can hold up Colombia's treaty however long her caprice dictates.

"The message Democrats sent today," a bitter Bush warned after Thursday's vote, "is that no matter how steadfastly you stand with us, we will turn our backs on you when it is politically convenient."

Pelosi's move leaves Colombia, an ally, in limbo and uncertainty. She may think her clever maneuver was done in a vacuum, but it wasn't. In Venezuela's capital of Caracas, where Hugo Chavez holds forth, and in the jungles of Colombia, where drug terrorists hide out, Pelosi's move was watched closely.

Indeed, within hours of the vote, Latin American media already were calling Pelosi's maneuver the "Chavez Rule."

The Venezuelan dictator is no doubt fascinated at how Pelosi could do this to America's best ally in Latin America, punishing a vibrant democracy by isolating it from all the other nations that have sought and won free trade.

Unlike, say, military aid, this deal costs the U.S. nothing, is too small to have much impact on the U.S. economy and is mainly about ending tariffs on U.S. goods sold in Colombia, matching the no-tariff trade that Colombian firms already get here.

Free trade was what Chavez's enemy, Colombian President Alvaro Uribe, considered his best weapon. And Pelosi knocked it right out of his hand, just to placate her party's union supporters.

Only a month ago, Chavez sent 10 tank divisions to the Colombian border after Colombia's army blew away a FARC terrorist kingpin. He warned he would bring war inside Colombia.

Encircled by tanks not only in the East by Venezuela but also in the South by Chavez's cat's paw, Ecuador, Colombia asked the U.S. for just one thing: to pass the free-trade agreement. No tanks. No jets. Just free trade.

Now without it, Chavez might be emboldened to strike. After all, he'll hear from congressional sources that Pelosi probably won't bring up a vote on the trade pact for at least several months. He'll use that time to pick fights with its now-forsaken neighbor. The fact that Colombia can't get even a trade pact tells him all he needs to know about American commitment.

So even though the pact was not rejected outright, its absence will be inherently destabilizing. There's nothing Chavez or his FARC allies dread more than Colombia armed with trade rights that will boost its economy beyond the allure of Chavista populist promises.

At Argentina's 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata, Chavez made his enmity toward free trade known by hurling insults at the president of Mexico and vowing to "bury" free trade.

Now, thanks to Pelosi's bid to shunt Colombia off to trade limbo, the potential for war in a tinderbox Andean region — over any border incident or FARC terrorist attack — has been heightened.

The world and its dictators don't sleep. The cowardly number that Pelosi did on Colombia likely will prevent the soft power of free trade from working, instead opening the gates to the hard power of war — and pulling in the U.S. whether Pelosi likes it or not. If so, we'll have the her to thank.

Nancy Pelosi has covered herself in a cloak of shame and infamy. Unfortunately for us, everybody in the hemisphere will have to pay the consequences.

The message Pelosi has sent the world is that in America, the only superpower in the world, political squabbles take precedence over security interests.

I expect she'll be paying Hugo a visit soon.

UPDATE
Drop Dead, Colombia
Democratic Speaker Nancy Pelosi blocks a trade deal with America's closest South American ally

That political turf-staking, and the Democrats' decreasingly credible claims of a death-squad campaign against Colombia's trade unionists, constitutes all that's left of the case against the agreement. Economically, it should be a no-brainer -- especially at a time of rising U.S. joblessness. At the moment, Colombian exports to the United States already enjoy preferences. The trade agreement would make those permanent, but it would also give U.S. firms free access to Colombia for the first time, thus creating U.S. jobs. Politically, too, the agreement is in the American interest, as a reward to a friendly, democratic government that has made tremendous strides on human rights, despite harassment from Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.

Read the rest, at that arm of the vast right-wing conspiracy, the Washington Post.

At that other arm of the VRWC, the Boston Globe, Edward Schumacher-Matos adresses the "killing union organizers" meme:

While the murder of even one union organizer is deplorable, the numbers being used are so misleading that they should not be cited in opposing the agreement.

All sides agree that the killings are dramatically down, and no one accuses the government of orchestrating them. By the unions' own count, the killings dropped from a high of 275 in 1996 to 39 last year. The government says 26.

The assumption by the Democrats is that all were killed for union organizing. It is an assumption implied in reports they cite from groups such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. Those groups, however, rely on Colombian unions for their numbers, instead of collecting their own. The number of convictions now being won in the union's own cases reveals that perhaps one-fifth, and almost certainly less than half, of the killings had to do with unionism.

Of convictions won in 87 cases since the first one in 2001, almost all for murder, the ruling judges found that union activity was the motive in only 17, according to the attorney general's office. The judges found 15 of the cases had to do with common crime, 10 with passion, and 13 with being guerrilla members. No motive was established in 16 of the cases.

The unions don't dispute the judicial findings, and deep in their reports say that they, in fact, have no idea of suspect or motive in 79 percent of their cases going back to 1986. The killings, in other words, are isolated and not part of a campaign against unionizing. The unions further benefit from the reduced paramilitary and guerrilla violence. The convictions have cut impunity. The government provides protection, from free mobile phones to bodyguards, for nearly 2,000 union leaders.

But hey, Nancy can't be bothered with the truth.

More at SwordsCrossed and Red State

Not satisfied with cement, Chavez has now set his sights on nationalizing steel, and his armed forces are now occupying 32 sugar plantations. Apparently, Chavez is so afraid of getting whacked with a sugar cane that he's decided to make a preemptive strike. We have a golden opportunity to strengthen a relationship with an improving Democratic nation that unfortunately is next door to a president who is a socialist kook. Too bad our Democratic "leaders" would rather let that opportunity pass.

But fear not, the Dems are not too proud to scalp Colombia off some bucks, Is Hillary Running on Colombian Cash? Does the bear poop in the woods?

Via Maggie
The WSJ reports Nancy's doublespeak:

Mrs. Pelosi herself spoke with the Colombian ambassador to the U.S. to offer assurances that the House action wasn't meant as a show of disrespect and could ultimately lead to passage, according to an aide to the congresswoman. Mrs. Pelosi said the deal could still come before the House this year, if Colombia takes steps to stem violence against labor organizers and if the White House moves to accept Democratic demands for action on competing priorities, such as expanded food assistance to the poor.

Ridiculous little woman. The Colombians aren't buying her line: Colombia is struggling for its life while Nancy gets off playing House: Colombia's Plata Says Rejecting Trade Accord Same as Sanctions

"Not having a trade agreement is almost like having trade sanctions imposed in the sense that you've been downgraded, or are at least now one level below the other comparable economies in the continent" that do have trade deals, such as Mexico, Chile, Peru and Central America, Trade Minister Luis Guillermo Plata said in an interview.

Additionally,

The delay "is a calamity for the world trading system," said Fred Bergsten, the director of the Peterson Institute for International Economics in Washington. "This undermines the whole basis of international confidence in the U.S. as a trading partner."

National Review has more.

Via Judith, Pelosi's bad faith

Via Larwyn, Obama: Trade with Cuba- Good... Trade with Colombia- Bad




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Labels: business, Colombia, Democrats, economics, Nancy Pelosi

I'll be in NYC for most of today, but Pajamas Media will be posting my latest on Nancy Pelosi and the Colombia Free Trade Agreement.

More posting after I get back from New York.

UPDATE
Here's my article at Pajamas Media" Peosi Plays Politics with Colombia Trade Deal

By eliminating the deadline for ratification, Nancy Pelosi proves she is willing to endanger the security of the continent just to show that Democrats are the ones in charge

Go read the rest.

Labels: Colombia, Nancy Pelosi, Pajamas Media

Via Greta, at Bloomberg, Botox May Move From Face to Brain, Study in Rats Says

Botulinum neurotoxin type A, sold as Allergan Inc.'s Botox remedy for wrinkles, can move from its injection site to the brain, a study shows.

Scientists injected rats' whisker muscles with botulism toxin. Tests of the rodents' brain tissue found that botulism had been transported to the brain stems, the researchers said in the Journal of Neuroscience published April 2.

You can read the Journal of Neuroscience article abstract here:

Botulinum toxins (BoNTs) are used increasingly to treat maladies from spasms and migraines to obesity and wrinkles. It has been assumed that the toxin remains localized at the injection site, where it cleaves proteins involved in vesicle fusion, thereby blocking neurotransmitter release. But now Antonucci et al. demonstrate that BoNT/A is retrogradely transported along microtubules, transcytosed, and taken up by afferent terminals. When BoNT/A was injected into one hippocampus in rats, it cleaved its target — synaptosomal-associated protein of 25 kDa (SNAP-25)—in the contralateral hippocampus, resulting in reduced neuronal activity. Similarly, when BoNT/A was injected into the superior colliculus or whisker pads, SNAP-25 was cleaved in the retina and facial nucleus, respectively. In the retina, BoNT/A remained active for at least 25 d after injection. Although cleaved SNAP-25 was detected only in afferents that projected directly to the injection site, it is not clear whether further transcytosis would occur over time.

The Bloomberg article says,

Scientists injected botulism toxin into one side of the hippocampus in each rodent brain, and into their superior colliculus, a visual center. From one side of the hippocampus, the toxin migrated to the opposite. From the visual center, the drug went to the animals' eyes.

The effects of the injection into the hippocampus were still present six months later, the scientists wrote.

The FDA is evaluating reports of breathing difficulties and death after use of Botox and Myobloc, according to a posting in February on the agency's Web site. Many of the most serious cases involved children who received the injections to treat arm and leg spasms associated with cerebral palsy, a use not approved by the FDA.

Prescribing literature for Botox and Myobloc now carries warnings about the risk of breathing and swallowing difficulties in patients with neuromuscular disorders. The FDA said the new data suggest that life-threatening side effects may occur in patients with other conditions, including children with cerebral palsy.

On a lighter mode, considering some of the statements regular Botox users make, these new findings are not really surprising.



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Labels: Botox, Nancy Pelosi, news

Almost exactly a year ago I told you she was going to clean the house and take care of the children; now it's her turn to treat everyone like children:

In case you had any doubt about where Nancy Pelosi's priorities lie, here's your answer: Pelosi pushes gourmet menu

Meatloaf has moved over for mahi mahi and buns have been shunted aside in favor of baguettes.

It's not enough to rearrange the flowers, she has to redo the menu, too. She really is a woman in the House!

I'll be making some meatloaf for dinner with buns on the side.

In the meantime, here's the other Meatloaf



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Labels: Democrats, food, Nancy Pelosi

"No hand shows"

As MacQ said,

hand raising has no place in a presidential debate. People are there to hear the candidates on issues, not watch them wave their hands around.

Dean Barnett liked Fred at the debate, too.
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"A new Gallup Poll, conducted Dec. 6-9, finds 37% of Americans approving of the job George W. Bush is doing as president, an improvement from his recent scores in the low 30s. Meanwhile, 22% of Americans approve of Congress, essentially unchanged from last month."

Someone send Nancy Pelosi flowers, and bring back her make-up artist.

Sing, it, Barbra!

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Via Karen and Jay, Democrats Vote Yes to Ramadan, But No To Christmas
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Doug Ross lists the Democratic-approved interrogation methods but forgets to mention Kenny G. and Barry Manilow.
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Blue Crab Boulevard posts on Cynical manipulation on food being diverted to ethanol production. (h/t Larwyn)

Samuelson points out that the embrace by politicians of this cynical subsidization to benefit a few special interests has, at best, dubious impact on anything the increased use of ethanol is supposed to address. If 100% of American corn production were diverted to ethanol production, it would replace only 12% of petroleum fuels used in the US. In other parts of the world Rainforests are being burned to the ground to make way for palm oil plantations. The net effect of all this is actually worse for the global environment.

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I had neglected to mention that my friend Pieter Dorsman has launched PoliGazette. Pieter tells us that PoliGazette

a new moderate right-of-center news and blogsite developed by Michael van der Galien (Van Der Galien Gazette) Pieter Dorsman (Peaktalk) and Jason Steck (Militant Moderate). You will find it here:



http://poligazette.com/



The founders of PoliGazette want to encourage debate and discussion without descending into shrill partisan rhetoric which has increasingly become the norm on both the left and right blogosphere. PoliGazette will be a place where moderate liberals, centrists and conservatives feel at home. We want this site to be a place for civilized debate. We want, in short, to offer readers a wide range of opinions and perspectives so that they can make their minds up more easily - or at least more informed. We therefore will not be reluctant to invite bloggers and writers from both sides to participate in PoliGazette by writing and commenting on our site.

PoliGazette already has the benefit of having contributors and writers in different geographical areas and that is something we wish to expand over time. And while the focus will be on news and recent developments, there will over time be more analysis and culture, such as book and film reviews.

I added PoliGazette to my blogroll and it has become one of my daily reads.



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Labels: Democrats, elections, food, Fred Thompson, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans

says the NYT

"Turkey obviously feels they are getting poked in the eye over something that happened a century ago, and maybe this isn't a good time to be doing that," said Representative Allen Boyd, a Florida Democrat who dropped his sponsorship of the resolution Monday night.

Mind you, Congress has waited decades for this gesture over the Armenian Genocide; the Ottoman Empire committed genocide nearly a century ago, for decades the Turkish government has spent millions of dollars trying to obscure that fact, and Nancy Pelosi and the Dems in Congress wait until now to bring up a resolution.

Where was Nancy when Bill Clinton also worked to block an Armenian genocide resolution from passing the House? (h/t Sister Toldjah) She's been in Congress since 1987. Why wait 20 years?

Where's Nancy when her friend Assad wreaks havoc in Lebanon - now, not a hundred years ago?

But back to the genocide resolution:

Blackfive:

I will grant that the killings of many Armenians was particularly heinous and worthy of all kinds of condemnation, but calling it genocide in the US Congress is a foolish attempt to make Nancy and some others feel good. She claims we must do this now before the last survivors die, but the damage done to our operations in the entire region will be huge. The loss of Turkey as a transport hub alone would force us to use more dangerous paths to get 70% of our supplies to Iraq, and that would certainly cause more US deaths.

Captain's Quarters

Second, the business of Congress isn't to make sweeping historical indictments, regardless of whether they have their information correct or not. This Congress hasn't even produced its first funding bill for FY2008, even though we are now at Day 17 of the calendar. Instead of issuing resolutions about the real or imagined crimes of a government from 90 years ago, it should be focusing on meeting its Constitutional obligations now. It's not the timing of the bill that's objectionable as much as it is the waste of time it represents for a Congress that has much more pressing business on its agenda.

The WSJ

If Nancy Pelosi and Tom Lantos want to take down U.S. policy in Iraq to tag George Bush with the failure, they should have the courage to walk through the front door to do it. Bringing the genocide resolution to the House floor this week would put a terrible event of Armenia's past in the service of America's bitter partisanship today. It is mischievous at best, catastrophic at worst, and should be tabled.

Yet another example of Madame as a 'Brilliant Political Tactician'.

In the real world, however, the present-day Turks are doing some muscle-flexing of their own.

Update
Ed Morrissey calls it The Nancy Pelosi Invasion:

It goes without saying that we would have had more influence on the situation in Turkey had Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats in Congress made themselves the arbiter of the Armenian genocide of 1915. If the troops cross the border, we can thank Pelosi and her colleagues for reducing our ability to avoid a shooting war that could cost thousands of lives here and now.

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Labels: Democrats, Iraq, Nancy Pelosi, Turkey

Boo frickin' hoo.
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Let's see if this item on Wounded Warrior care gets anywhere the mileage the Walter Reed horror stories got last year.
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Unintended consequences.
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[Video] If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, and Petition for A Unified Jerusalem
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A White Christmas in Mecca? Somehow I Doubt It
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"Your Wish Is My Command!"

Labels: Democrats, Iraq, Israel, Nancy Pelosi

Ed likes Fred:

The first debate with Fred Thompson was expected to reveal whether the lanky actor had what it takes to make a national run for the office. Instead, it revealed Chris Matthews as a hack of the first order, one who tried his best to torpedo Thompson -- and failed utterly. He got so desparate that he demanded to know whether Thompson knew who the Canadian Prime Minister was -- and he did. Matthews grew so frustrated that he openly critiqued one of Thompson's answer for being too detailed, which prompted a scolding from Thompson.

That was the game behind the debate, and Thompson stomped Matthews into a laughingstock.

Fred also had the very desireable center spot, where he dominated the stage.

Here's the transcript of the debate.
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Pelosi swamped
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Lefties are all afflutter that a former Jerry Falwell associate was kinky. If you go to Memeorandum and read the links (some of those links are NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK) you'll see that Lefties consider anyone else's sexual proclivities
a. Appropriate for public derision and condemnation
b. a case study of the hypocrisy of the right
c. evidence that all Republicans are pervs... because they don't exclusively pratice the kind of sex the Left believes appropriate for Republicans - even when we don't know if the dead guy was a Democrat, Republican or independent. Or whether he was even a registered voter.

So much for the Left's inclusivity, open-mindedness and non-judgemental attitude towards a hapless dead man.
--------------------------------------------------------------
And now for the soap:
"Like infidels through an hourglass, so are the sands of passion."


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Labels: Fred Thompson, humor, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans

Robert Mayer of Publius Pundit has just launched Sorry Colombia!

Why Are We Sorry?
On July 2, 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel, and Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee Chairman Sander Levin issued a statement on Democrat trade policy rejecting a free trade agreement with our closest ally in Latin America, Colombia. According to them, it cannot be approved until "concrete evidence of sustained results on the ground in Colombia" regarding issues such as violence and corruption have been shown.

This is an apology to Colombians for the lies and incompetence of America's Congressional leaders, as well as a resource for the truth on Colombia's remarkable fight for normality.

In the spirit of Pelosi's Hoyer's and Rangel's Congressional idiocy, here's my picture:


Robert and I discussed Colombia and the FTA agreement in last Friday's podcast.

Previous post here.

Labels: Colombia, Democrats, economics, FTA, Latin America, Nancy Pelosi, trade

UPDATED
Welcome to Hamastan

Hamas captures Fatah security HQ

Hamas militants have seized the headquarters of their rival Fatah's Preventive Security force, tightening their control over the Gaza Strip.
...
Hamas also seized control of the town of Rafah as it targeted security and political command centres across Gaza.

Meanwhile, the top Palestinian umbrella group, the PLO, has recommended that the unity government be dissolved and a state of emergency declared.

The road to Hamastan

Hamas may pull back from a final showdown in Gaza, forcing Fatah to sit down and negotiate. But some predict a total split between a “Hamastan” in Gaza and a West Bank ruled by Fatah. No Israeli leader—including Ehud Barak, the former prime minister, who this week won the Labour party’s primary election and could return to power next year—will feel any pressure to talk peace with a Palestinian leadership that is so definitively divided

Sigmund, Carl and Alfred:

If Hamas wins the civil war, their ideologies and beliefs will no longer be camouflaged. we will know how to deal with these same ideologues that supported Saddam Hussein. If the PA wins the civil war, they will have to make some serious choices, or the cycle of internal violence will repeat itself. The only thing that is certain is that neither the western democracies or Israel will allow for another 40 years of Arafat type obfuscation, double talk and hypocrisy from the Palestinians.

Betsy poses a few questions:

"We want them to vote and vote and vote again" on Iraq, said a senior Democratic senator, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss party strategy. "They are going to have to vote on Iraq until they are sick of it."

The tougher-talking Reid is taking a decidedly harder line on Iraq at a time when anti-war activists are stepping up their criticism of Democratic leaders for not forcing a quick end to the conflict in Iraq.
...
Remember that these are the same sorts who kept pushing for "peace in the Middle East" by forcing Israel to pull out of the Gaza and the West Bank. Well, Israel unilaterally did just what was advised and pulled out of Gaza. And it descended into chaos with Hamas and Fatah conducting their own civil war. Hamas has now won in Gaza giving Iran their little terrorist puppet state there on the borders of Israel and Egypt.

Do Harry Reid, the Democrats, and his blogger pals think that there would be any different fate if we just pulled out of Iraq now? Do they want to see Iraq becoming like Gaza except with more territory, more possible victims, and all that oil that can be used to fuel more terrorism abroad?

Oh, and by the way, how does Nancy Pelosi, diplomat at large, think about her pals in Syria now that they've assassinated another democracy leader in Lebanon? With the assassination of members of the anti-Syria majority in the Lebanese parliament, Hezbollah is trying to literally exterminate that majority. Does she still think that the path to peace travels through Syria?

That is, does she willingly continue to be a pawn?

Update: Hamas Takes Gaza- Executes Fatah Members In the Streets

Update 2, Via LGF, Video: Murderous Hamas Rampage in Gaza

Victor Davis Hanson: Gaza — It’s All Our Fault: Blaming America on CNN is all the rage



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Labels: Democrats, Hamas, Harry Reid, Israel, Nancy Pelosi, Palestinians, PLO

Via Jihad Watch, Islamic militants, security forces battle in Lebanon. The AP calls them Islamic militants, the NYT calls them Islamists, and people are dying:

Eight civilians were killed by shelling today, according to Reuters, adding to the 22 Lebanese soldiers and 17 militants killed in the fierce fighting on Sunday.

Witnesses said that militants belonging to Fatah al-Islam fired rocket-propelled grenades as well as machine guns today at army posts on the camp perimeter, according to Reuters.

The continuing violence is one of the most significant challenges to the Lebanese army since the end of Lebanon's bloody civil war.
...
Many of the complex crosscurrents of Lebanon's politics have been visible in the crisis. The camp in Tripoli has been off limits to the Lebanese army under an agreement with the Palestinian leadership and Arab countries. On Sunday, Lebanese citizens, who hold the Palestinians responsible for sparking the civil war in 1975, cheered the army on the streets of Tripoli and outside the camp.

Syria, which Lebanon accuses of backing Fatah al-Islam, closed several border crossings in the area. And the fighting broke out as the United Nations Security Council took up a resolution to try suspects tied to the February 2005 assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Syria has been accused in previous investigations of ordering the killing, but vigorously denies any connection.
...
Fatah al-Islam has been a growing concern for security authorities in Lebanon and much of the region. Intelligence officials say that the group counts between 150 and 200 fighters in its ranks and that it subscribes to the fundamentalist precepts of Al Qaeda.

The group's leader, Shakir al-Abssi, is a fugitive Palestinian and former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of Al Qaeda in Mesopotamia who was killed last year in Iraq. Both men were sentenced to death in absentia for the 2002 murder of an American diplomat, Lawrence Foley, in Jordan.

Christians are targeted

I haven't figured out why the BBC's using scare quotes, Lebanon clashes 'kill civilians' but the death toll is significantly higher than the AP report shows. Update: The WaPo states that 50 combatants were killed in the first day of fighting Sunday

Here are some Facts and figures on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon

Gateway Pundit posts that

One of the men killed in Sunday's fighting, Saddam El-Hajdib, was a suspect in a failed German train bombing a sign that Nahr al-Bared refugee camp had become a refuge for militants planning attacks outside of Lebanon.

A spokesman for the Lebanese government was interviewed by the BBCA newscast and blamed Syria for the bombing. Certainly the Lebanese media's clear about it: Lebanon media see Syria behind violence.

Michael Totten links to Why Syria, why now?

The Lebanese citizen says, "justice is a principle above all. Security on the other hand has its own logic; you kill this guy, you spare that guy..."

Yeah, but you don't understand, as Assad's court scribe Patrick Seale put it, "Syria cannot tolerate a hostile government in Lebanon"! So it must kill all politicians that it doesn't like! But hey, "it doesn't mean the end!"

Will Nancy don her scarf again and go ask her buddy to stop?

Via Pajamas Media, From Beirut to the Beltway, explains that even if the Lebanese army wins this one, the battle will not be over and that,

In other words, Hizbullah is siding against the Lebanese government and army by not even acknowledging Fatah al-Islam, or its sponsor, and blaming it on a US-Israeli conspiracy.

I'm sure Nancy can't wait to sink her teeth on that, too.

Meanwhile, you wouldn't know that Israel is under attack by reading the headlines.

Update Captain Ed asks,

And where is the UN in all of this? It's their refugee camp which has fostered these groups and allowed them to operate openly. Shouldn't the UN be disarming people in refugee camps? Or have they abandoned that mandate, as they have abandoned others?

Update 2: Welcome, EU Referendum readers. Please visit often, and if you have a chance, listen to my Blog Talk Radio podcasts, including my most recent ones on on Tony Blair, and on Israel

Labels: APDD, Lebanon, Middle East, Nancy Pelosi, Palestinians, Syria

Drudge: PELOSI LOWERS THE BOOM

Wed May 16 2007 14:43:59 ET

After losing a string of embarrassing votes on the House floor because of procedural maneuvering, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has decided to change the current House Rules to completely shut down the floor to the minority.

The Democratic Leadership is threatening to change the current House Rules regarding the Republican right to the Motion to Recommit or the test of germaneness on the motion to recommit. This would be the first change to the germaneness rule since 1822.

In protest, the House Republicans are going to call procedural motions every half hour.

Brad just emailed me his post, Democrats, Tired of Losing, Change the Rules to Disadvantage Minority

The rule providing consideration for the FY 2008 budget conference report (on the floor tomorrow) is expected to modify current House rules to prevent PAYGO offsets from expanding the scope of germaneness to further what Republicans may offer in their Motions to Recommit (MTR). In English, that means that Speaker Pelosi and the Democrat leadership are proposing a massive change to the current House rules regarding the Republican right to the motion-to-recommit bills to Committees for improvement.

This rules change is a historic infringement on the rights of the Minority-it is the first change in this House rule since 1822. The RSC Floor Action Team, under the leadership of Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, have requested a series of procedural votes every 30 minutes in response to this power grab by the Majority. More details are likely to follow as the situation unfolds.

Nancy's idea of democracy matches her choice of friends, doesn't it?


More here.
Loser Democrats Latest Skullduggery

Update: House Republicans Stop Rules Change
Update, Thursday 17 May Powerline:

the House Republicans seem to be well led and to be using effective tactics.

Technorati tag Nancy Pelosi

Labels: Democrats, Nancy Pelosi, news, politics, Republicans

Special thanks to Patrick Ruffini

Labels: Democrats, Iraq, Nancy Pelosi, terrorism

After veiling herself with an Hermes scarf (which I immediately recognized), Nancy's probably selecting some nice red shirts and berets: she's going to visit Hugo, the self-declared Communist in charge of Venezuela.

American Spectator says that Nancy would not meet with Colombian President Alvaro Uribe,

"She has third parties who have encouraged her not to take the meeting,"

including MoveOn.org. Apparently their excuse is human rights.

To make matters worse,

Nancy Pelosi is not only having her staff make plans for a trip to Venezuela to meet there with dictator Hugo Chavez, she has also asked staff to apply for a visa to travel to Tehran.

Yes, Tehran, that paragon of human rights.

But then, we all know how fond Hugo is of his little friend:

I'm sure Nancy wants to keep them both happy.

Here's some fashion advice with a bilingual, multi-culti slant, Nancy: When in Tehran, tapate las lolas.

Update A scream in broad daylight

Update, Wednesday 2 May: The Red Hat Society
President Uribe's Popularity Soars After Snub By Gore

Labels: Colombia, Democrats, fashion, Hugo Chavez, Iran, Latin America, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Nancy Pelosi, Venezuela, women

Today Tony Blankley asks, Is There Writing on the Wall? (emphasis added)

It would appear that the great divide in both public opinion and between politicians is not Republican-Democrat, liberal-conservative, pro or anti-Bush, or even pro or anti-war (or, in Europe: pro-or anti-American). Rather, the great divide is between those, such as me, who believe that the rise of radical Islam poses an existential threat to Western Civilization; and those who believe it is a nuisance, if, episodically, a very dangerous nuisance.

Blankley concludes,

Thus, while others and I will continue to make our case in public, it seems probably inevitable that the correctness or incorrectness of our views will only become persuasive to the multitude when history teaches its cruel, unavoidable lessons. It was ever thus, which is why history is strewed with broken nations and civilizations that couldn't read the writing on the wall. Of course, it is also strewed with sad hulks of false predictors of doom.

Dr. Sanity has been exploring these issues at her blog. In today's post, Symptom or adaptation? she asks

Now ask yourself, is the ubiquitous, almost casual, antisemitism of the Islamic world a healthy, adaptive response to some injustices perpetrated by Jews that muslims have to deal with in the real world; or is it a projection that is symptomatic of some serious psychopathology within the muslim culture?

ShrinkWrapped:

In the Muslim mind, where there is no cause and effect, everything occurs at the whim of Allah. Such a world risks becoming a frightening place filled with seemingly unpredictable events and when bad things happen it is because Allah wanted them to happen. A tsunami is then evidence that Allah is displeased with his people...unless, you can find a suitable entity, an almost God, who caused the grief. After the Indonesian tsunami, rumors and conspiracy theories were rampant int he Muslim world that the Israelis (and sometimes the Americans) had caused the tsunami. No longer was Allah angry at his people; now there was an explanation that allowed the Muslim world to avoid looking int he mirror and asking the obvious question: When the Arab world is awash with oil money, how is it that they could not spare a tiny amount for their co-religionists and build a tsunami warning system? (Actually, they would have had to buy a tsunami waring system, a related issue.) If Israel and/or America had caused the tsunami, such a warning system was not only unnecessary but foolhardy. Instead of looking inward, fro one's own shortcomings that have facilitated or caused disasters, one can look outward, focus one's wrath on the feared and hated demi-God, and please Allah at the same time. No longer is a disaster a sign of Allah's displeasure, but an opportunity to gain even more of his approval by attacking his enemies.

In a similar vein, the home grow[n] despair of failed societies, which in other nations has been redirected and used to build modern societies around the world, has no internal outlet; it must be directed outward so that the societies of the Muslim world can pretend to stay unchanged and unquestioned.

This week Sigmund, Carl and Alfred has a series of most interesting posts on the subject which you must read in their entirety since abridging will do them no justice. But one particular sentence stood out in yesterday's post,

In any event, in the Arab world, any expression of western ideas, ideologies or beliefs are deemed 'satanic.' The choice of imagery and words are no accident.

Last week SC&A posted on Crime and terror, which brought to mind the Dem's former policy of treating "terrorism as a nuisance", as if it were a criminal matter. One of Siggy's commenters linked to The Myth of the Invincible Terrorist (emphasis added)

Relativists do not understand the depths of their error when they pronounce that "terrorism is just a word for violence we don't like," or "terrorism is a Westerners' epithet." Terrorists are living, breathing men and women using vile but calculated means to make political gains, and it is vital that politicians and academics and police chiefs continue pointing that out. Terror is ugly, making terrorists morally ugly; this ugliness is weakness in the struggle for public opinion. More must be made of that, in the service of truth and of counterterrorism. Another lesson flows from the facts above: Groups and their leaders may well be vulnerable to psychological operations. As circumstances allow, counterterrorism can play up rivals around the leaders, or create fissures between working partners, or throw doubt over loyalties of old comrades.

So, as Tony Blankley stated, there are those who see an existential threat from a group of terrorists who have demonized all that is good in our lives and culture and are willing to drag us all to hell. And there are those who just want to ignore that threat and believe it's such a simple nuisance that, in their grab for power, they are taking ownership of a defeat in Iraq.

They are, indeed fighting on the wrong side of the psychological war. Each of their words, each of their actions, is and will continue to be repeated by our enemies, and will embolden them and motivate them to do more evil.

Note to Harry: "Your words are killing us" now, and will continue to kill us.

And those are no "sad hulks of false predictors of doom".
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(Note: The writing on the wall refers to Daniel 5 in the Old Testament.)

Labels: Afghanistan, Democrats, DrSanity, Iraq, Nancy Pelosi, Neo-Neocon, Sanity Squad, ShrinkWrapped, Sigmund Carl and Alfred, terrorism

Thursday last week I said

The Dem's grab for power at any price includes having Nancy playing pretend at being Secretary of State, making new friends with our enemies, lying about our friends, and veiling herself with an Hermes scarf,

Well, the great Manolo confirmed it today:
The Scarf of the Style, She Covers Much

And, for the proof, if you look at the scarf on her head, you will notice that it is of the the very-French Hermes, the very best sort of scarf to wear if you are hobnobbing with the tyrants, as it is one of the luxury brands they will certainly recognize, and perhaps desire.

Classy guy, The Manolo!

Labels: Democrats, fashion, Nancy Pelosi

Yesterday around noon I was meeting a friend while trying to navigate the very noisy lobby of the Museum of Modern Art, which was packed to the gills with a very wet crowd of loud people on Easter Break who had ventured in the cold rain. The place felt like an airport the day before Thanksgiving, only with no departures, just arrivals.

My friend and I finally found each other and since the MoMA was mobbed with the crowd we decided to have lunch across the street at Gattopardo. We rushed out of the noisy MoMA across the noisy and rainy cold street, walked into the restaurant and were warmly greeted into a sanctuary of elegant quiet and excellent food.

I had a most excellent plate of prawns that must have come from Paradise. They were that good.

To make a long story short, I had a wonderful afternoon and was totally unaware of anything in the news until evening, when I was reading this post from Siggy (who's as fond of Bond as I am of Bryn). Siggy said,

Mahmoud Ahmadenijad's 'pardon' and release of those 15 British sailors and marines is no more a gesture of Iran's inherent 'goodness' than were Adolph Hitler's displays of affection for his dog - and it is important that we understand that.

Until then I had not heard that Mahmoud Ahmadenijad had been saying that he had pardoned the hostages.

Shortly after, the BBC newscast showed Tony Blair talking about "how much he respects the Iranians".

I couldn't believe my ears.

Yes, the hostages were not yet out of Iran, but for Blair to stoop down to praising a culture of shame with his respect was beyond belief. The same culture of shame who for two weeks publically paraded and humiliated IN COMPLETE DISREGARD OF GENEVA CONVENTIONS PROTOCOL fifteen members of the British forces.

Make no mistake, the hostages were political prisoners and as such were humiliated. For an explanation of this point, listen to the Sanity Squad, and listen to what Siggy had to say about the videos of the hostages.

By expressing his respect, Tony Blair, who apparently got gelded along the way, became a pawn.

Margaret Thatcher would have "pardoned" Ahmadenijad's grubby little butt into the ground from the get-go.

But we live in different times.

While we stand on the shoulders of giants like Thatcher and Reagan and are able to feast on prawns while we still can, undoubtedly because of the sacrifice of people like the hostages, the Democrats have ended the war on terror by banishing the term, because the

Democratic leadership doesn't like the phrase.

(h/t Alcibiades).

Mind you, I don't like the term either, and would definitely prefer to call it the war on Caliphate Islam. But that won't suit the Democrat mindset, whose delicate sensibilites has them doing anti-terror drills against Christians (during Lent, no less), just a few miles away from here. Because of course we don't want to upset Muslims

The real story is that it has become acceptable to discriminate against Christians with bigoted characterizations that portray them as gun wielding psycho killers. Such bigotry is a common occurrence in film, on TV and the internet, in schools and in city halls across America. Newspapers cover such stories with zest and a certain sense of shoulder shrugging normalcy.

Instead of the war on terror, we now have 'The War That Must Not Be Named'.

That way we can digest our prawns with ease. While my friend and I found temporary shelter from the daily grind at a lovely restaurant, the Dems are seeking permanent shelter from reality through a linguistic trick. This has become part and parcel of their grab for power.

The Dem's grab for power at any price includes having Nancy playing pretend at being Secretary of State, making new friends with our enemies, lying about our friends, and veiling herself with an Hermes scarf,

The Reform Party of Syria, which is not playing pretend because it can not afford to, explains what's really behind the veil:

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi was seen roaming the streets of Damascus flaunting a Hijab. The Hijab worn by women across the Muslim world has come to symbolize either one of three things: 1) a symbol that men control women by forcing piety, or 2) a return to religiosity because of oppressive rulers, or 3) a fashion statement. If you ask any expert on the Middle East, you would get any one of three answers. The ones who usually claim it is a fashion statement are the political rulers who usually oppress people in general. A Hijab is NOT a confirmation of the rights of women in the Middle East but rather a symbol of their suppression.

At least Siggy was able to look at the bright side,

she could have been photograped wearing a Palestinian keffiyah.

Because a pawn is a pawn is a pawn no matter how expensive a scarf she wears.

Special thanks to Maria and Larwyn.
Update: Pratfall in Damascus
(Note To those who asked, my friend's a vegetarian - she had the spinach)

Technorati tags Nancy Pelosi

Labels: 9/11. terrorism, Christianity, Democrats, England, Iraq, Islam, Israel, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Middle East, Nancy Pelosi, NJ, political prisoners, politics, Sanity Squad, Sigmund Carl and Alfred

Nancy Pelosi is Playing With Fire

All that Pelosi's trip can accomplish is to advertise American disunity to a terrorist-sponsoring nation in the Middle East while we are in a war there. That in turn can only embolden the Syrians to exploit the lack of unified resolve in Washington by stepping up their efforts to destabilize Iraq and the Middle East in general.

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My Blog Talk Radio guest Michael Fumento writes about Defeating Malaria with both High- and Low-Tech

Tren calls for a holistic approach in fighting the disease. That includes full rehabilitation of the use of the insecticide DDT.

I've been posting about why I favor the use of DDT for malaria for years now.
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Video: U.S. troops rescue kidnapped Iraqi man
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UCLA "Covering Lebanon" Conference: Media Criticism or Israel Bashing?
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86 RSC Members Sign Letter to President Bush Pledging to Sustain Veto on Pork-Corrupted War Spending Bill. Cassandra found one instance of Real Democrat Support For The Troops

Transparency takes a hit: With Democrats at the helm of Congress, the Congressional Reseach Service has decided it no longer needs to track the pork in spending bills.
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Maria sent me a link saying that Web MD's symptom checker just got better. I don't know what its symptoms were, but I tried that site once and ended up with symptoms for defective organs I wasn't born with.
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Jeremayakovka first blogbirthday's today. He's been discussing Cuba.

Here's my old post on Ricardo Arenas, originally posted on Oct. 11, 2004 (you might have to go to October archive and scroll down):

Saturday I wrote about The Motorcycle Diaries and its obsecene lyricism in idolizing a mass murderer. A commenter wrote,

Don't forget all the Gays he had killed

Carlos Eire's book deals with the subject (page 256),

He thinks about that cruel ritual he has witnessed so many times, when the guards strip all the prisoners naked and parade the most handsome in front of the newly arrived inmates to find out who among them is gay. He thinks about how anyone who gets aroused is taken away for a special mandatory "rehabilitation" program that includes the application of electrical currents to the genitals.

Reinaldo Arenas was one among many gay men who were sent to Cuban concentration camps. Arenas's work portrays Cuba as one big prison, "where sodomite hedonism is a clear protest against the cruel Castro regime". A Gay News review of Arenas's autobiography, Before Night Falls explains,

Gay men have indeed been persecuted in Cuba, but luckily things are a bit better these days. Authors add excusingly that Fidel Castro has done a lot of good for the Cubans as far as education and health-care are concerned. An important question is where the homophobia of Castro`s regime comes from. With nuances all authors point at traditional Latin-American machismo, though they also have to admit that socialism didn`t do much for the breaking down of male megalomania and hatred against gays.

The cowardice and half-heartedness of left wing, sometimes even homosexual Cuba adepts we`d better forget. Meanwhile it's beyond a doubt gays have been imprisoned en masse in the so called UMAP camps: the military units supporting the production. Jan Lumsden cautiously objects these camps weren`t for gays in the first place, but has to admit gays were its main population. All boys and men unfit for military service, arrested for homosexuality or considered unsocial in any other way, ended up in the UMAP camps where they carried on forced labour in for instance the sugar cane crop. The camps were in existence from 1965 till 1970. Since then queers who were dangerous to the state landed in jail again or in a regular work camp. The mass escape of maricones" during the Mariel exodus to the paradise of capitalism and decadence, North America, in 1980 was not accidental

For Arenas's prison experiences in his own words, go to Amazon click on the book icon with "Search Inside", and do a "Search inside this book" for keyword "prison".

Arenas, as many hundreds of other gay men and lesbians, suffered from Che's and Castro's revolution. Arenas's work, angry and hard-hitting, will endure, and he will be remembered. The names of those who died in the concentration camps are written on sand, washed by the tides.

Meanwhile, in Spain, it is business as usual when it comes to Cuba

Labels: books, Cuba, Democrats, Iraq, Lebanon, Michael Fumento, Nancy Pelosi, Republicans, science, Spain

The Anchoress posts about Hillary's demand that Obama return the money he's raised,

Well, slap my ass and call me Sally, but it seems to me that a strong and confident campaign does not demand that other candidates denounce their supporters and return contribution checks to them, but this is what Hillary Clinton's campaign does all the time! Particularly if an opponent's donor has dared to say something mean about poor old Hillary, who is just a girl and should be treated nice, because politics is about niceness and sweetness, and she would never, never indulge in a scorched earth, slash-and-burn sort of politics, herself.

Yet another reason not to vote for Hillary.

Falling on Geffen's ears, and Daschle to Endorse Obama

As Hillary said, "You don't have to fall in love, you just have to fall in line".

Meanwhile, "It was from the heart. It was unbelievable."

Thanks to Larwyn and Maria.
Update, another one from Maria, CLUELESS LIB STICKS HIS LEADING MAN WITH A STINKER

One night in Hollywood and it's all blasted to hell.

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Gerard, another one of my four favorite bloggers, An Ash Wednesday Confession with Eliot's Ash Wednesday

BEING ONLY A MAN, I often tire of the endless things of man; of his vanity and his violence which, as all the things of men must, resides in me as well as in you.

A wonderful post.
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The love-for-oil-fest continues. This time is Venezuela-Argentina, again.
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Town Commons looks at Nancy's sense of outrage.
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(PDF file) Entrepeneurs are the heroes of the world
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I really want to see this movie,
Amazing Grace

Amazing Grace
Words by John Newton 1779

Amazing Grace! How sweet the sound
That saved a wretch like me!
I once was lost, but now am found
Was blind, but now I see.

'Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear,
And Grace my fears relieved.
How precious did that Grace appear
The hour I first believed.

Through many dangers, toils, and snares
I have already come.
'Tis Grace hath brought me safe thus far
And Grace will lead me home.

The Lord has promised good to me.
His Word my hope secures.
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.

When we've been there ten thousand years
Bright shining as the sun,
We've no less days to sing God's praise
Than when we'd first begun.
Slavery continues in our day.

Labels: Amazing Grace, Argentina, Barak Obama, Democrats, Hillary Clinton, Latin America, movies, Nancy Pelosi, politics, religion, Republicans, slavery, Venezuela