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In a huge development, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California - in the words of AP, "one of the Senate's most liberal members" - has rescinded an award to a CAIR official because of the official's connections to CAIR. (via LGF: )
Dec. 29, 2006 - In a highly unusual move, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California has rescinded an award to an Islamic activist in her home state because of the man's connections to a major American Muslim organization that recently has been courted by leading political figures and even the FBI.
Boxer's office confirmed to NEWSWEEK that she has withdrawn a "certificate of accomplishment" to Sacramento activist Basim Elkarra after learning that he serves as an official with the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). After directing her staff to look into CAIR, Boxer "expressed concern" about some past statements and actions by the group, as well as assertions by some law enforcement officials that it "gives aid to international terrorist groups," according to Natalie Ravitz, the senator's press spokeswoman.
This is enormously significant. For the Liberals to unite with the Conservatives in recognizing the danger of Radical Jihadists in this country, and in insisting that Muslims here learn to assimilate, would have tremendous impact in preserving this country from the suffering that is befalling France and England.
Muslims here will assimilate when they accept the Koran as a religion only, and reject the political ideology of Islam that constrains free speech and restricts the rights of women and non-Muslims.
Daniel Pipes has identified a line of thought, originated by a Muslim, which enables Muslims to do just that.
...note the original thinking of the Sudanese theologian Mahmud Muhammad Taha (1909-85). Taha built his interpretation on the conventional division of the Koran into two. The initial verses came down when Muhammad was a powerless prophet living in Mecca, and tend to be cosmological. Later verses came down when Muhammad was the ruler of Medina, and include many specific rulings. These commands eventually served as the basis for the Shari'a, or Islamic law.
Taha argued that specific Koranic rulings applied only to Medina, not to other times and places. He hoped modern-day Muslims would set these aside and live by the general principles delivered at Mecca. Were Taha's ideas accepted, most of the Shari'a would disappear, including outdated provisions concerning warfare, theft, and women. Muslims could then more readily modernize.
American Muslims can adopt such a view so as to be able to successfully assimilate. Muslims who follow the political ideology of Islam, which demands severely restricted freedoms for all, will never be able to assimilate successfully.
CAIR's response to Boxer showed that they view Islam as a political ideology, rather than as a religion:
...CAIR Executive Director Awad refuses to say whether he would also condemn Hamas-which has taken credit for similar attacks in Israel-as a group or even whether he considers it a terrorist organization like the U.S. State Department does. "We condemn these groups when they committed acts of terrorism," he says. "But I'm not going to play the game of the pro-Israel lobby just so they can put words in our mouth. Our position is very clear.
"The entire issue is going back to Israel," Awad adds. "If you love Israel, you're OK. If you question Israel, you're not. If that is the litmus test, no American Muslim and no freedom-loving person is going to pass that test."
"No American Muslim ... is going to pass that test," says Awad, and the test he's referring to is one of political ideology. In his view, Islam is nothing more than a political ideology.
Don't miss Roger L. Simon's description of what he learned from an otherwise reasonable man, a taxi-driver in Seattle:
...I phoned Gerard from the airport. What had the man said on the way to his place? Gerard - wisely - had let him continue. There was no point in fighting with a man like that. Better to learn how his mind worked. Gerard simply inquired why the Israelis would want to back Al Qaeda when Al Qaeda was sworn to destroy Israel. The man replied by talking about his childhood, his Islamic education. He had learned about the Jews from the Koran. That was the truth, of course.
It goes without saying, that the taxi driver is not being disabused of such notions at his local mosque.
There are still a few Glitches in Microsoft's new search engine:
iPods are Being Sold at Airports in Vending Machines:
Mark Mullins, executive vice-president of Zoom, the company behind the machines, tells the AJC, “We put in some iPods and found we couldn’t keep them in stock. We found no customer resistance to swiping a card and buying a $300 item from a machine. We’re selling thousands (of iPods), and the machines at the Atlanta airport are major contributors to that.”
A Google News search for "Hugo Chavez" turns up headlines that have an undeniably favorable ring. Here are all the headlines from the first page of the search, as of 9:27am this morning Pacific Time ... except for the most recent headline ... which may change things:
(Click here for a saved copy of the search.)
Can you believe how favorable all these headlines are? "Create unified party" ... "popular origin" ... "backs Ecuador" ... "demands apology from US ambassador" (those rotten US ambassadors! how dare they assert drug traffic is up in Venezuela!) ... "person of the year poll" ... "Archbishop" ... even, "Let's now make friends with Venezuela!"
But all that may change now. Because the latest headline is:
Now that they themselves are being threatened, MSM may start to notice what a danger to the Western world Chavez is.
Has Prime Minister Olmert, of Israel, lost his mind?
TEL AVIV - The Israeli army is "up in arms" regarding an order issued yesterday by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to remove a series of West Bank security checkpoints that regularly stop terrorists from infiltrating Jewish cities, according to military officials.
In accordance with promises made to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas during a summit this weekend, Olmert instructed the IDF to remove 49 West Bank roadblocks and checkpoints. Twenty-seven roadblocks are to be removed immediately, and the rest within about a week, subject to a final decision by government officials.
Olmert also instructed IDF soldiers to not thoroughly examine every vehicle at 16 of the West Bank's largest roadblocks. Vehicle examinations usually cause long delays at the checkpoints.
Olmert said the moves were aimed at bolstering Abbas at a time when his Fatah party is engaging in infighting with rival Hamas factions. Abbas last weekend called for new Palestinian elections in a move widely seen as attempting to dismantle the Hamas-led government.
Palestinians say the West Bank roadblocks and checkpoints are degrading. They complain of waiting in long lines to pass through West Bank cities.
But according to IDF statistics, upwards of 60 percent of all attempted suicide bombings are stopped at the checkpoints. Israeli soldiers routinely catch Palestinians at checkpoints en route to central Israel with explosives or suicide belts. Many of the terrorists are caught during vehicle inspections.
...Military officials told WND the removal of roadblocks in the past directly resulted in an increase in terrorism.
"The checkpoints work. It's that simple. It's how we stop most terrorism," a military official told WND.
Olmert is acting against the need of Israel's citizens for safety, and instead is responding to criticisms that Israel is an oppressor of Palestinians. As Olah Chadasha, of the Israeli blog Greetings from the French Hill, puts it:
Olmert's and Israel's constantly repeated and futile attempt to gain brownie points with the world by sacrificing its future and security is like repeatedly playing a CD you know you hate but hoping against hope that the next time it'll actually sound better to the point where you'll enjoy it.
Olmert is providing an extreme example of a Western disorder: if you tell him his country is an oppressor, he'll do whatever you want. It makes him predictable and pathetically easy to manipulate.
We in the West must recognize this absurd disorder and take steps to put an end to it.
Patriotic Liberals must have felt ill last week, when Al Qaeda "sent a message to leaders of the Democratic party that credit for the defeat of congressional Republicans belongs to the terrorists." The message accused America of "occupying the lands of Islam and stealing the treasures of the Muslims." The overlap between Liberals and Radical Jihadists is precisely this: that they both use this Western disorder as a means of pushing Western nations around. As posted here last May, author Shelby Steele has detailed this with regard to Liberals:
...[Steele] pointed out that accusations that Americans are racist, and that America as a nation is an oppressor, are inaccurate based on the facts, and are made only as an attempt to gain power.
America's Liberals can't be expected to help recognize and put an end to this disorder - because exploiting it, and exemplifying it, is pretty much their whole game.
That leaves it up to America's Conservatives to become very aware of this and to spread the word to the many Americans who vote according to the issues and the specific politicians, rather than rigidly on party lines.
Why is the same strategy used by both Liberals and Radical Jihadists? The answer is easy. There's nothing sinister about it. It's used by both, merely because it works.
And that has got to end.
In Iraq, the suicide bombers and IED bombs, are used by Sunnis; the death squads are Shia. This helps one to follow the news from Iraq. Via StrategyPage:
While 68 percent of the attacks are against American and other foreign troops, the most casualties are caused by attacks (19 percent of them) on Iraqi security forces, and Iraqi civilians (18 percent). The attacks on Iraqis result in 96 percent of the deaths. The larger number of attacks on foreign troops is largely driven by the Sunni Arab belief that all their problems are due to the presence of foreign troops. But the Sunni Arabs have long since discovered that attacks on foreign troops, particularly Americans, is suicidal. So most of those attacks are remote control ones, using roadside bombs. This satisfies "honor," so to speak, but is expensive (all those bomb builders and placers have to get paid). It's much easier to launch suicide bomb attacks against Iraqi civilians, and this is what accounts for the largest number of dead. But it also results in a lot of retaliation attacks on Sunni Arab civilians by Shia Arab death squads.
As noted here previously:
While everybody is fretting that Sunni-on-Shia violence means we aren't winning in Iraq, the contrary point of view is perfectly reasonable. The Shia are wiping out the Sunni leaders of sectarian violence. Per StategyPage (same link as above), it appears to be working:
A major source of loss for the Sunni Arabs is migration to foreign countries. About 100,000 are fleeing each month, joining nearly two million already in exile. Many Kurds and Shia Arabs make no secret of their desire to drive all Sunni Arabs from Iraq. They are well on their way to achieving this goal, with over a third of the Sunni Arabs gone already. At the current rate of migration, all Sunni Arabs will be gone from Iraq within four years.
The Sunni Arabs see no other viable alternative to their terror campaign. Negotiations with the Shia dominated government have not resulted in the degree of amnesty desired. Several hundred thousand Sunni Arabs were directly responsible for the killing and terrorizing of Kurds and Shia Arabs during the decades of Saddams rule. These men are at the core of the Sunni Arab terror campaign, and demand amnesty. If they can't get amnesty, and can't, or won't, flee the country, they will fight to the death.
The point is, it's not a "civil war", it's the wrap-up of the same war we initiated when we toppled Saddam and threw out his Sunni government. The Sunnis wouldn't go along with the new Democratic government. They decided to keep fighting via suicide bombing of civilians and IEDs used against U.S. troops. And now they're getting clobbered. And Iraqis who back the Shia-led government are doing most of the clobbering, which is what the U.S. wants - i.e. to turn control of the country and responsibility for security over to Iraqi forces.
The mantra of the MSM - that Iraq is involved in a "civil war," both sides of which are against a Democratic government - is nonsense.
I'll conclude with the sentence StrategyPage leads off with:
For all the reports of violence in Iraq, most Iraqis feel safe.
High-School-Age Video Game Teachers get $25/hour.
So much for the myth that illegal aliens do jobs Americans won't do.
The nerve of this guy, continually insulting and threatening Western nations with death. He just won't shut up. Yesterday he was saying:
Any power that is close to God will survive while the powers who are far from God will disappear like the pharaohs," he said Wednesday, according to Iranian news agencies.
"Today, it is the United States, Britain and the Zionist regime which are doomed to disappear as they have moved far away from the teachings of God," he said in a speech in the western town of Javanroud.
"It is a divine promise."
Ahmadinejad's comments were the latest salvo by the deeply religious president against the West and Israel. He has repeatedly predicted that Israel is doomed to disappear.
Notice the references to "God" and "a divine promise." Islam is not the same as all the other religions. No other religion has leaders that threaten nations with death in the name of their religion.
This illustrates again how Islam is not only a religion, but also a political ideology, that, according to Islamic leaders, requires its followers to attack those of other religions, and to destroy non-Islamic states.
But to continue.
Yesterday Ahmadinejad also said:
...the Iranian nation will continue in its nuclear path powerfully and will celebrate a nuclear victory soon.
Not exactly the language of peace, coming from a guy who threatens other nations with destruction.
And on top of all this, today Ahmadinejad added taunts to his threats:
"Some so-called superpowers have gathered together and they think that they can control the whole world. I'm telling them: Open your eyes, today, the world no longer thinks your decisions have any value.
"By God's grace, the enemies have not been able to do anything (against Iran) as yet and they will not be able to do anything in the future too," he said.
Is that Ahmadinejad's plan? To rely on it that we won't do anything to stop him from carrying out his own loud and dangerous threats?
The guy is cruising for a bruising.
From Reuters:
DUBAI (Reuters) - Al Qaeda's deputy Ayman al-Zawahri said in a video tape aired on Wednesday elections would not free Palestinian land from Israeli occupation and that any path other than holy war would lead to "loss and defeat".
"Those who are trying to free Islamic land through elections that are based on secular constitutions ... will not free a grain of Palestinian sand, but will choke jihad (holy war)," he said in the tape broadcast by Al Jazeera television.
"Any path other than jihad will only lead us to loss and defeat."
Zawahri lashed out at the Islamist Hamas movement for being "dragged" into taking part in elections, which he said would eventually lead to the recognition of the Jewish state.
"How did they (Hamas) not demand an Islamic constitution for Palestine before entering any elections, are they not an Islamic movement?", he asked.
Even terrorists see elections as leading to an end to terrorism. This documents why bringing Democracy to the mid-east, via the creation of a Democracy in Iraq, is so important to ending terrorism.
(Hat Tip to A.M Davis. )
Report: "The Pentagon is planning a major buildup of Naval forces in and around the Persian Gulf as a warning to Iran".
This is what is needed.
The buildup, which would included a ago second aircraft carrier to the one already there is being proposed as a response to what US officials view as increasingly provocative acts by Iran, David Martin reported on CBS EVENING NEWS.
Recent Iranian naval exercises in the Persian Gulf, support for Shiite militias in Iraq, and its nuclear enrichment program which US intelligence believes is designed to produce a bomb." CBS added, "Military officers say the buildup would take place after the first of the year, not to actually attack Iran but to discourage its leaders from spreading their Shiite revolution."
It would be great to see such action being taken to contain and control the madman, Ahmadinejad.
David Zucker has a new video that cautions against repeating the mistake of Neville Chamberlain, who made an agreement with another madman - an agreement which inadvertently set the stage for the 50,000,000 dead in World War II.
Last week I went to the alternative-fuel car expo in Santa Monica, California. There were a lot of fun cars there like this:
There were also cars that are already on the road, like this:
I got the chance to speak to Jon Van Bogart, a Director of Sales & Marketing for CleanFuel USA.
Jon Van Bogart of CleanFuel USA. CleanFuel USA is a Member of the CEVC, which is Working on Providing Alternative, Domestic Fuels for California.
Here's info about his company, from it's web site:
Originally named Clean Fueling Technologies, company president Curtis Donaldson founded CleanFUEL USA in 1993, with a mission to build a company that would supply and support the propane motor fuel industry with quality refueling infrastructure. Since then Georgetown, Texas based CleanFUEL USA has established itself as the leading global manufacturer of certified and approved alternative fuel dispensing equipment for both propane (LPG) and E85 and has expanded its role as an industry leader by providing comprehensive alternative motor fuel programs for fleet managers throughout the world.
Jon stated that there are already 300,000 ethanol-capable vehicles on the road in California, and 5 million such vehicles on the road in the U.S. These vehicles can use any combination of traditional gasoline and ethanol.
Because so many such vehicles are already on the road, ethanol-capable fuel stations are currently being built in California. The US government is supporting this move with financing. From printed material handed to me by Jon:
The federal Department of Energy (DOE) announced that it has selected a strong collaborative team comprised of CALSTART, General Motors, Pacific Ethanol, CleanFUEL USA, Community Environmental Council and others to receive grant funding to jump start a major new alternative fuel network in the state. The grant would provide partial funding to build 15 publicly accessible E85 ethanol stations in California.
E85 ethanol is largely a renewable and domestic fuel. It consists of 85 percent ethanol and only 15 percent gasoline. However, there is currently only one public station that sells E85 ethanol (85% ethanol and 15% gasoline) in California, despite the fact the state has more than 300,000 flex-fuel cars capable of running on the fuel. This project will create the fundamental building blocks of an E85 refueling network and provide new fueling choices for the owners of those cars.
The California proposal scored high in a national competition largely as a result of the strength of the team. Among those on the full team are CALSTART, General Motors, CleanFuel USA, Pacific Ethanol, United Oil Company, Community Environmental Council, City of Tulare, the California Energy Commission, the California State Automobile Association, the South Coast Air Quality Management District, the San Joaquin Valley Clean Cities Coalition, and the Southern California Regional Clean Cities Coalition.
"I'm very pleased that the DOE has made this award to this very strong and impressive team from California" said Jim Boyd, Vice Chairman of the California Energy Commission. "Working together, we can build upon this initial DOE grant and will construct a major E85 network in California," said Boyd.
With this initial round of funding, ten E85 will be constructed at existing gas stations owned by United Oil in the greater Los Angeles metropolitan area. With four pumps going to stations along the highway 10 1 route from Ventura to San Luis Obispo County, motorists will be able to conveniently refill in that region. A final E85 pump will be installed in the San Joaquin Valley alongside Highway 99 in Tulare.
...There are approximately 1,000 E85 ethanol stations throughout the country. Most of the stations are based in the Midwest.
Ethanol for this project will be produced in California and supplied by Pacific Ethanol, a company headquartered in Madera, California. There are three existing ethanol plants in California and efforts underway to build four more by the end of 2007. Within the next two years, California ethanol production should reach 400 million gallons per year, an amount that would be significant enough to cover the demand from the E85 ethanol stations.
CALSTART and its fellow team members will begin work immediately and plan to have the first station operational within five to six months.
Jon stated that this activity was made possible by GWB's support for alternative fuels, in his 2006 State of the Union speech. While to many of us it has seemed that there has been little follow-up on GWB's part to that initiative, per Jon, the inclusion of this in the President's speech made this initiative official US government policy, and enabled the car industry to invest in an ethanol-capable vehicle strategy.
The goal of the California coalition working on providing ethanol fuel stations, is to have 200-500 new stations in California in the next 3-5 years.
