Do-Nothing Congress... Unfit to legislate. Unfit to lead.

From this morning's press conference.

President Bush: Good morning. We're now more than halfway through October, and the new leaders in Congress have had more than nine months to get things done for the American people. Unfortunately, they haven't managed to pass many important bills. Now the clock is winding down and in some key areas Congress is just getting started.

Congress has work to do on health care...

Congress has work to do to keep our people safe...

Congress has work to do on the budget...

Congress has work to do on education...

Congress has work to do on housing...

Congress has work to do on trade...

Congress has work to do for our military veterans...

Congress also needs to complete the Veterans Affairs appropriations bill that funds veterans' benefits and other ongoing programs...

Congress has work to do for law enforcement and the judiciary…

With all these pressing responsibilities, one thing Congress should not be doing is sorting out the historical record of the Ottoman Empire.

Unfit to legislate. Unfit to lead.

House Democrats have been forced to pull their proposed legislation to change the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) because they couldn't round up enough support among Dems who need the votes of non-liberals to be re-elected. You probably recall that the Democratic leadership was embarrassed two months ago when these same non-leftist Dems joined with Republicans to pass a temporary FISA fix so that our intelligence agencies could monitor the overseas communications of terrorists without obtaining a warrant. Still unwilling to provide the administration with the FISA fix it needs to ensure the gathering of information vital to the national security, the Democratic leadership has been slapped down again by members of its own caucus.

More at the link.

Okay, remember how Dubai wanted to buy our ports and 20% of NASDAQ?

Gee, they just refused to issue visas to a Jewish trade delegation from International Forum.

And about Dubai Ports?

Dubai has, in the past, enforced an anti-Israel trade ban. Last year, The Jerusalem Post revealed that the Dubai Ports World, which is entirely owned by the government of Dubai via a holding company known as Ports, Customs and Free Zone Corporation (PCZC), joined the Arab boycott against Israel. Dubai Ports World actively enforced a trade embargo against Israel.

Yay Islam! 1327 killed in 282 terror attacks in 20 countries this Ramadan! Way to go!

Once again, Islam puts up big Ramadan numbers:

1,327 dead bodies in 282 terror attacks in 20 countries during its holiest month.

Congratulations to the Religion of Peace!

(h/t to TheReligionofPeace - and a big stack of dead bodies. You nailed this, guy!)

More on the return of Bhutto...

The return of Bhutto.

The issue of major concern confronting Pakistan today is the pitching of forces of moderation versus extremism. The resolution of this issue will affect the world, particularly South Asia, Central Asia and all the Muslim countries. Bhutto believes that extremism and obscurantism can flourish only in an environment where basic governmental social responsibility for the welfare of the people is neglected. Dictatorship that denies basic rights to the people creates social hopelessness and ignites desperation that fuels religious extremism.

Pakistan's 60-year history is a sprawling mosaic with huge dark patches of dictatorship punctuated with dotted hues of democracy. Never before in the Pakistani polity has religious fundamentalism ever been a significant part of nation's political awareness as it is now. Inherently a liberal, centrist and moderate nation, Pakistani people -- by and large -- have remained glued to the democratic ideals of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah who stoutly believed that Pakistan would not be a theocratic state and that religion would not have anything to do with the business of the state.

Historically, the religious parties have not received more than 11 per cent of the total votes in the national elections. It is interesting to note that in the general elections held in 1997, the leader of one of the main religious parties, Qazi Hussain Ahmad, preferred keeping back from the polls to losing his seat to his opponent. Likewise, the leader of the Jamiat Ulema Pakistan, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, got fewer votes than a female film star who also lost the poll. On the other hand, despite persistent state persecution since its inception, the Pakistan Peoples Party has remained the largest political party of Pakistan.

More at the link.

Benazir Bhutto's welcoming party.

Does not appear to be very welcoming.

Our party workers are being intimidated that they should not go to the airport to receive me. These threats are being made by Afghan militants, Arab militants, and Red Mosque militants,' she told media in Dubai, from where she is scheduled to leave for Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi on Thursday morning. Bhutto said her party workers were not intimidated by the threats and around a million of them would receive her at the airport. 'From the rouged mountains of Karakoram range in the northern areas of the country to the shore of the Arabian Ocean in the port city of Karachi, a sea of people will gather still with hope. They dream of democracy, of employment, of education, of energy, and most important of empowerment,' she said.

Security for the event is high.

Authorities in Karachi, a city of around 15 million people, were taking stringent security measures to ensure her safety. Police sealed several roads around the city airport and deployed a bomb disposal squad. A shipping container fortified with bullet-proof glass was prepared to carry Bhutto in a rally she would lead after her arrival in the city. More than 3,000 police and paramilitary troops will guard the route of her procession. Bhutto's party had also shipped in bullet-proof vehicles and electronic jamming equipment to help avert possible attacks.

More at the link.

And at this link. Two - three radical Muslim suicide groups active in Karachi with threats being made by Baitullah Mahsud. Seven bomb disposal units will be deployed. She will be guarded by 20, 000 policemen. Marksmen will be on buildings throughout the 18 hour procession which the government has requested she shorten.

The gov't has issued a Code of Conduct for Benazir's return. So I guess that's something.

Wondering about US aid to Pakistan?

From 2001 to 2007, the United States extended $10.09 billion in assistance to Pakistan, the highest single year figure being $1.77 billion, which was remitted in 2007. The projected figure for 2008 is $840 million only. According to figures tabulated by the Congressional Research Service, the breakdown is as under: Total economic support funds ($1.89 billion), other development aid ($453 million), foreign military financing ($1.27 billion), other security-related aid ($377 million), coalition support funds ($5.93 billion), total non-food aid plus coalition support funds ($9.9 billion) and food aid ($177 million). khalid hasan

(khalid sounds kinda miffed about that drop in US dollars...)

Chemical Ali - dead man walking.

Supposedly.

No date yet set for execution.

Ali Hassan al-Majid, the former Iraqi defence minister held responsible for Saddam Hussein's genocide against the Kurdish people, known as al-Anfal (the Spoils), seems certain to be executed.

Ali, also known as 'Chemical Ali', was found guilty of conducting an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Kurds - including chemical weapons and mass executions at the end of the first Persian Gulf war in 1991. Human rights groups estimate up to 100,000 people perished in the campaign.

Iraq's chief prosecutor, al-Anfal Munqidh Al Firaoun, told Adnkronos International (AKI) on Tuesday no-one in the country had the legal power to cancel or modify the death penalty issued against Ali.

Ali, a first cousin of Saddam's, received five death sentences for genocide and crimes against humanity when he was convicted on 24 June this year. According to the ruling, he was supposed to be executed within 30 days, but no date has yet been set for his execution.

In an exclusive interview with AKI, al-Firaoun said under the Iraqi constitution the president, on the advice of the prime minister, had the power to modify the death penalty for certain crimes but not for genocide. "The execution of the sentence was postponed during Ramadan and Eid, but we hope that it will happen quickly," he told AKI."

(I don't know about you but, I'll feel better about all this when we have a date certain.)

Why is Yahoo/AP pimping for al Qaeda? (Make that: Why is Yahoo/AP pimping for al Qaeda - Again.)

Afghan Suburban 1x1

This Yahoo slideshow starts innocently enough - even though it uses Karzai's most damaging quote as part of it's lede. It goes downhill from there, quickly degenerating into a trailer for al Qaeda. With a Blackwater image right smack dab in the middle of it all. I'm not sure I get their point. The pictures are getting recommendations too! Disgusting.


Tres gay! Progressive!

The best pic of the bunch: The Red Mosque, which is actually pepto-bismol pink-ish. (You will recall the govt painted it yellow after recently giving the radical element the old heave-ho.)

Putin visits Supreme Leader

Persian Pipsqueak, Pooty-poot and Poo-bah Supremo.

(Panties Be Upon Them)

Okay, first the Persian Pipsqueak is pigeon-toed. (either that or he REALLY has to pee.)

And I'm also thinking Pooty-poot wears his pants too tight and too short.

( I do think that says something about the man.)

Poobah Supremo - I bet his zipper's undone underneath those robes...

Dick Cheney and Barack Obama kissing cousins - for real!

That's according to Lynn Cheney. And you'd think she'd know.


(Ed. note: I'd pay cash money to see Lynn Cheney go up against Michelle Obama. Pay-per-View. I'm serious and my money's on the old broad.)

Passage of Armenian Genocide resolution in JEOPARDY

Dems withdraw support of Armenian Genocide Resolution.

A House vote to label the century-old deaths of Armenians as genocide was in jeopardy Tuesday after several Democrats withdrew their support and sounded alarms it could cripple U.S. relations with Turkey.

Wafflers include John Murtha(!)who had this to say for himself:
"From my discussions with our military commanders and foreign policy experts, I believe that this resolution could harm our relations with Turkey and therefore our strategic interests in the region," Murtha, D-Pa., said in an e-mailed statement on Tuesday.

Some of the other rats deserting the 'Rats sinking ship:
Also this week, at least six Democrats withdrew their sponsorship of the bill and two other Democrats, Reps. Alcee Hastings of Florida and John Tanner of Tennessee, asked Pelosi to forgo the vote. Hastings, who has voted against combat funding for Iraq, and Tanner, a member of a conservative Democratic coalition known as the Blue Dogs, said they feared backlash from Turkey would cut off U.S. access to a critical air base.

I have to say that the defeat of this resolution would be a very satisfying and righteous one. Moral imperative, my Aunt Fanny. Underhanded political ploy is more like it, Madam Speaker.
The loss of support is a major setback to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, who have fiercely defended the resolution to Republicans and the Bush administration as a moral imperative in condemning the World War I-era killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians by Ottoman Turks.

President Bush called Pelosi on Tuesday to ask her not to call for a House vote on the resolution. "The president and the speaker exchanged candid views on the subject and the speaker explained the strong bipartisan support in the House for the resolution," Pelosi spokesman Nadeam Elshami said, noting that Bush initiated the phone call.

House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., told reporters Tuesday that the plan remained to vote on the measure before Congress adjourns by the end of the year.

But, he added, "there are a number of people who are revisiting their own positions and we'll have to determine where everyone is," he said.

More at the linky.

Dancing in the Desert, as seen thru the thermal sight on a Bradley

And if I'm not mistaken, our soldier's jamming to Jamiroquai.

Guess who's coming to dinner? Uncle Sam!

(Ramadi Shahids issue invitation by way of small arms fire and mortar. Uncle Sam responds. Surprise! It looks like Adbul won't be down for breakfast in the morning. Neither will Abdullah, Mohammed, Najif, Sharif or any other of those insurgent suckers messing with us.)

The story of Bilal B.

Make sure your children do not have to live in such a crap...

Freeper Knighthawk has posted this open letter over at Free Republic. It recounts the recent shooting of Bilal B, after he walked into an Amsterdam police station and started stabbing people and the mayhem that has occurred as a result. He also tells you what the newspaper accounts linked at the end do not...

The story starts when the newschannel AT5 was told by sources the perpetrator is a Dutch (white) guy. But after a full day of silence they have to admit it's a Moroccan criminal. The government first claimed it took so long because the man could not be identified because they could not match his fingerprints, but that is a blatant lie.

He was not just a criminal, since the age of 12 he is known as a criminal, also stabbing some one in the head with a screwdriver. His criminal recored is very 'impressive' so to say. In 2003 he is convicted for a big robbey (sic)involving computers and has to serve a 15 month prison term.

There he is visited by a man named Mohammed Bouyeri, who later killed Dutch filmmaker Theo van Gogh as an act of terrorism, shooting and stabbing him leaving a warning-note to all enemies of islam.

In 2005 he is released and the CID, the Dutch crime intelligence service, warns that Bilal maintains close ties to the Hofstad group, an islamic terrorist group were Mohammed Bouyeri belongs to, and Samir Azzouz who serves a long prison term for planning terrorist attacks.

The CID warns that the Hofstad group is planning to shoot down an El Al plane at Schiphol. The CID names Bilal's brother Abdullah as the main planner of the attack, and they say Bilal is also involved.

The group gets arrested for planning an attack on politicians and the headquarters of the AIVD, the Dutch intelligence service. Bilal, his brother and Azzouz are arrested but released after 2 weeks. Bilal is only heared as a withness. The AIVD keeps monitoring the brothers for their ties to the Hofstad group.

Bilal was staying at a mental institution for schizophrenia were he was released but later readmitted on his own request. He escaped during an escorted trip and then decided to enter the police station to stab at everyone in range.

The government keeps claiming he is mentaly ill, however Bilal choose the date to do this very well: exactly 2 years after his brother was arrested...

The Dutch government choosed to lie about the background of the attacker, then they claimed they could not identify the man even though of his huge criminal record and his history with the CID and AIVD, then they did everything to stop the Moroccans from rioting, except telling them that if they did they would be arrested. Also the family of the perpetrator was visited and imams and others got mobilized to hug the Moroccan society, while the two stabbed police officers were not even mentioned!

So riots broke out, a police station was under seige and vandalized and private property was damaged. Also 2 reporters were attacked. And guess what? No one got arrested...

Yes, we surrendered to islamic terrorism and criminals. The multicultural society at it's best people. So are you also willing to have your country wrecked by islamic thugs like this? Who riot like in the Netherlands or France, while your government appeases them and at the same time disallows you any self-defence?

Make sure your children do not have to live in such a crap...

Related sources: Bilal B. attacked Dutch police officers.
Vandalism in Amsterdam October 16, 2007.

For additional information about Bilal B and the situation on the ground there in the Netherlands head over to Klein Verzet's Suicide Attack in Amsterdam. Excellent reportage to be found there, including the somewhat startling revelation that Bilal B's sister is a judge in the Netherlands! And he was hollering something in Arabic as he went on his killing spree. Allah Ackbar, perhaps?

Taliban savages Redux

More pictures and followup to the destruction of the Jehanabad Buddha in Pakistan's Swat Valley. Disgusting, ignorant savages. Dynamite failed so they returned with a generator, electric drills, ladders and ropes. I sure hope some bad ass karma is coming their way.

The Jehanabad Buddha is considered the second most important Gandhara monument after the Buddhas in Bamiyan, Afghanistan, which were destroyed by the Taliban in 2001.

Rednecks Rule

Turks get massively pwned by the Swedes

Update: Gateway Pundit has the screen shot and funny lines like: Pwned! Swedish Hackers Juice Turkey." "Turkey hackers get basted" and Turkey gets the sauce". Too funny.

Retaliation for Lars Vilks hack attack.

Swedish hackers have retaliated against their Turkish counterparts following an attack earlier this month on some 5,000 Swedish websites. On Saturday, a group of disgruntled hackers posted a comment to the Flashback web forum linking to a stolen database containing thousands of user names and passwords from Turkish forum Ayyildiz.

"We have chosen to leak these user details in response to the many recent attacks on Swedish web hosts and websites following the publication of a satirical drawing by Lars Vilks portraying the Muslim prophet Muhammad as a roundabout dog."

The group said that Ayyildiz was a forum used by Turkish hackers to brag about their destructive exploits on the internet. Having stolen the identities of the Turkish users, Swedish hackers proceeded to post messages on their forum informing them of the successful security breach. Ayyildiz was temporarily taken out of service as a result of the attack.

The Swedes also broke into the e-mail and MSN accounts of Turkish web users and sent messages using the stolen identities. Among the images in circulation was a pornographic illustration of Muhammad and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the modern Turkish state.

"This type of 'hacktivism' has been on the increase over the last five or six years," IT security expert Joakim von Braun told The Local. He added that the outbreak of a hacking war could prove devastating for businesses and government institutions, "Companies in particular stand to lose a lot of money if their websites are attacked and taken down by hackers," said von Braun.

Looks like they've caught Jawa Fever...

Say What? A Paki - AQ cease fire?????

Hudna already? (tribal leaders are crying uncle.)

The Pakistan military and militants have agreed a temporary ceasefire following some of the bloodiest clashes along the Afghan border for six years, a tribal elder said Tuesday.

Government to consider cease fire. (military are thinking about it.)

The political administration and local Taliban will hold detailed negotiations for cease-fire in North Waziristan.Director General ISPR Major General Waheed Arshad told PTV the militants and tribesmen requested for a ceasefire and the government will consider it but so far no decision has been taken.

Musharraf blinked.

Kimmy gets nervous after that deal in Syria

N Korea builds up guard at nuclear test site.
North Korea has increased security around a site where it conducted a nuclear test last year, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on Sunday.

Connecting the dots at the axis of evil. (Bwa-ha-ha)
Last month's airstrike by Israel on a Syrian installation left the rogue regime silent, the U.N. seeking more details and the media tongue-tied. Here's the fact that's missing:

Bush was right about the evil afoot...

Somebody woke up the IAEA.
A U.N. watchdog group is checking reports that Israel destroyed a partially built nuclear reactor in Syria. The International Atomic Energy Agency said Monday it was in contact with Damascus following a report in The New York Times that the target of Israel's Sept. 6 airstrike in northern Syria was a reactor under construction. The agency said it had no information about any undeclared nuclear facility going up in Syria, which has said Israel's air force attacked a disused military building.

But where are the A-rab states? What no outrage? No being offended? No high dudgeon?
Syria made only muted protests, and Arab leaders have remained silent.

What's that tell ya?

Poison Paki Hooch

Legalize it.

'Doctors say my eyesight is gone, totally, irreversibly gone. Allah has punished me because I did not respect the holy month of Ramadan,' Mohammad Jamil says from his hospital bed in Pakistani port city of Karachi after a drinking experience that has scarred him for life.

Jamil, 22, may consider himself lucky to have been only blinded. More than 40 people who partook from the same batch of home-made hard liquor died hours after they were admitted to hospital suffering from nausea, severe cramps, shaking and blurred eyesight.

Police on Saturday arrested six people for selling Kuppi or Tharra, a cheap methyl-based alcohol intended for industrial use but which is a standard ingredient in illegal moonshine that is easily obtained across the predominantly Muslim country.

With only three per cent of Pakistan's population of 160 million are entitled to buy and consume alcohol, quality-controlled liquor produced by the country's monopoly brewery is pricey and restricted to the black market.

'A Muslim has to pay 650 rupees (11 US dollars), almost double the price a Christian pays at a liquor shop, to buy a one litre vodka bottle from an illegal supplier,' said Chaudhry Tariq, head of Islamabad's Excise Department which issues alcohol permits to non- Muslims.

High prices on the black market drive millions of Muslim imbibers to...

More at the (hic) link.

Will we ultimately be sold down the river by the Financial types?

It is an issue of some concern to this informed observer.

Demand for Islamic mortgages skyrockets.

The demand for Islamic mortgages has “gone through the roof” according to one lender.
Lloyds TSB says that demand for the packages, which adhere to the principle of Sharia Law that says people must not make money from money i.e. charging interest, has increased significantly.

Emile Abu-Shakra, Lloyds TSB media relations manager, said: “We certainly had, during the course of my time here, people who were literally renting their whole lives. One customer was about mid fifties and had been renting from the start because he couldn’t see that there were any options.”

This is the part that worries me:

He also pointed out that although the deal is targeted at Muslims, home owners of any creed could take it up. “It’s obviously designed for the rules of Islamic law, but absolutely anyone could get one,” explained Abu-Shakra.

Figures released by Datamonitor suggest the Islamic mortgage market could be worth £1.8 billion by 2009.

That's a lot of clams and these financial guys? There are a lot of them that would sell their mothers. Just saying.

Let's make a halal deal.