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Free speech and Islam

Fri, 05 Sep 2008 02:09:15 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Eurotrashing Free Speech

In Europe, free speech may end with neither a bang nor a whimper — but with a lawyerly assist.

It was three years ago this month that the Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, published twelve editorial cartoons satirizing Islamist terrorism. Some Muslim organizations objected. Protests were organized. Danish embassies in Syria, Lebanon, and Iran were set ablaze. Dozens of people were killed. The cartoonists and their editors received death threats from such characters as Mahmoud al-Zahar, a senior Hamas leader in Gaza.

Bitar enthused: “The idea of European lawyers joining us in the campaign and supporting our efforts is tremendous. We are defending Islam in a civilized way and are trying to hold those responsible for the caricatures accountable according to the law.”

Obama Tells O'Reilly Surge Succeeded

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:49:22 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: Before the interview was arranged, Obama and his staff held a closed door meeting with Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes to discuss his network's media coverage of the presidential election. According to Ailes, Obama wanted to know if he would get a "fair shake" from Fox. Ailes told the Washington Post he replied, "Senator, you're the one who boycotted us. We're not the ones who boycotted you. Nor did we retaliate for your boycott."

Clip Source: townhall.com

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is finally breaking his boycott with Fox News and will appear on Bill O'Reilly's "The Factor" for an interview that will air during the GOP convention Thursday night.

In the interview, Obama backtracks on previous criticism of President Bush's decision to send a "surge" of 21,000 troops to Iraq. “I think that the surge has succeeded in ways that nobody anticipated,” Obama said, according to early excerpts of the interview “I’ve already said it’s succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”

Welcome Back, Dad

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:45:19 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: townhall.com

I've been trying to convince my fellow conservatives that they have been wasting their time in a fruitless quest for a new Ronald Reagan to emerge and lead our party and our nation. I insisted that we'd never see his like again because he was one of a kind.

I was wrong!

Wednesday night I watched the Republican National Convention on television and there, before my very eyes, I saw my Dad reborn; only this time he's a she.

In one blockbuster of a speech, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin resurrected my Dad's indomitable spirit and sent it soaring above the convention center, shooting shock waves through the cynical media's assigned spaces and electrifying the huge audience with the kind of inspiring rhetoric we haven't heard since my Dad left the scene.

Megyn Kelly destroys Us Weekly bottom-feeder over Palin story

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 23:26:14 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: Slime

Clip Source: hotair.com

[Video]

What they have to offer

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:14:20 GMT

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Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

We are in a war against terrorists, and the other side has nominated a man who has been a friend and business partner of an unrepentant, America-hating terrorist. The press lauds Obama as post-partisan when even a cursory glance at his record shows he is as partisan as it gets. The press lauds him as post-racial, but he sat comfortably for years in Trinity Church, drinking in the racist ravings of Jeremiah Wright, and he sat comfortably for years in rough-and-tumble Chicago, playing by-the-numbers race-based politics.

Obama blathers about “change” but then chooses as his running-mate a Washington relic

In an era of complex, vicious, asymmetrical threats, Democrats give us a “community organizer” without a shred of executive experience wh

In a nation repulsed by partial birth abortion, Obama decided to make his stand enabling the practitioners of infanticide.

The Happy Warrior

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:12:38 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

I couldn’t disagree more. Palin is a natural. What we got is what she is: poised, sharp, charming, feisty, funny, and unapologetically patriotic. As she might have put it, the speech she gave in St. Paul is the same one she’d give in Scranton or San Francisco.

But Sarah Palin didn’t court this anger with more anger. That would be a turn-off. What most frustrates Americans is that we are a happy, optimistic, can-do people ceaselessly harangued by media solons, delusional academics, post-sovereign Eurocrats, and the Democrats who love them. While we free and feed the world, they can’t tell us enough that we’re racist, imperialist, torturing louts. We know it’s a libel, an endless stream of slander. But we also know it’s an absurd libel. We’re tired of hearing it, but taking it too seriously would give it power it doesn’t deserve.

So Sarah Palin was sarcastic and biting. That’s how a happy warrior deals with absurdity. That’s how a happy warrior rallies the troops.

The Right Choice

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 21:49:08 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

And, yes, when she spoke of her son, Trig, and about special-needs children, I cried. She said:

And in April, my husband Todd and I welcomed our littlest one into the world, a perfectly beautiful baby boy named Trig. From the inside, no family ever seems typical.

That’s how it is with us.

Our family has the same ups and downs as any other . . . the same challenges and the same joys.

Sometimes even the greatest joys bring challenge.

And children with special needs inspire a special love.

When you look at that beautiful boy and realize that in America, some 90 percent of parents would not have let him live, how can you not be both terrified for us and filled with joy for the love this little boy has? How can you help but be excited by the prospect that Americans might become more aware of the silent elimination of such blessings?

MSM Not Happy After Palin Speech

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:06:39 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

It wasn’t just MSNBC’s anchors who were struggling to respond. On the floor of the convention center, a visibly depressed Andrea Mitchell interviewed a beaming Rudy Giuliani about Palin’s speech. Some context: Last week, reporting from among the Democratic delegates at Invesco Field, Mitchell relayed the reaction of the delegates to some of Obama’s best lines, literally shouting, “Whooee! Whooee!” into the camera.

But there would be no sharing in the Republican delegates’ joy over Palin’s speech for Mitchell. Instead, after her interview with Rudy was over (sample question: “And you don’t think she’s vulnerable on the size and scale of her executive experience and the brevity of her political experience?”), she stared dead-eyed into the camera and said, “The war has begun.”

Maybe someday, the media’s campaign to bury Sarah Palin will yield something more substantial than the smears and innuendo we’ve seen so far

A Sad Day at MSNBC

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 19:03:36 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

The Tears of Clowns

St. Paul — If you watched MSNBC on mute Wednesday night after Sarah Palin’s speech, it looked like the top story was that a hurricane swept through the North Pole and killed Santa Claus, so crestfallen were the network’s stars. It was the same with the sound up. Keith Olbermann’s first words after the applause in the Xcel Center finally died down were, “That appears to be the end of it.” He sounded relieved.

The same man who literally couldn’t find anything wrong with Barack Obama’s speech in Denver last week — calling it “spellbinding,” “fully realized” and “tough” — found that the best he could say of Palin’s speech was, “People who like this sort of thing will find this… the sort of thing they like.”

Chris Matthews, who gets thrills up his leg when Obama speaks, sounded shell-shocked. “Well, I have to say that I was completely surprised by what I saw,” he said, without an ounce of enthusiasm

They do know they are running against McCain, right?

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 09:12:47 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: www.guardian.co.uk

Obama might pursue criminal charges against Bush

Democratic vice-presidential nominee Joe Biden said yesterday that he and running mate Barack Obama could pursue criminal charges against the Bush administration if they are elected in November.

Who's watching Nora's kid?

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:49:48 GMT

clipped by: sillysam

Clip Source: townhall.com

MSNBC's Norah O'Donell has given voice to the idea that Sarah Palin would be neglecting her child if she accepts the Republican vice presidential nomination. Of course, she does this by cloaking the question in the imaginary third person "some people are saying" ... Watch the video:

[Video]

This is interesting, inasmuch as Norah O'Donnell has 1 1/2 year-old twins -- and a 1-month old. Meanwhile, her husband owns three restaurants -- and she is in Minnesota covering a political convention for a week!

Who's watching her kids during this presidential race this year?

... Okay, let's be fair. I honestly don't believe there is anything wrong with Norah covering this race. But her questions to guests do raise serious questions about the way she's covering this race.

Palin in 2007 (Newsweek)

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 22:38:03 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: What a difference a year makes. Last year they loved Palin.

Clip Source: www.newsweek.com

In Alaska, Palin is challenging the dominant, sometimes corrupting, role of oil companies in the state's political culture. "The public has put a lot of faith in us," says Palin during a meeting with lawmakers in her downtown Anchorage office, where—as if to drive the point home—the giant letters on the side of the ConocoPhillips skyscraper fill an entire wall of windows. "They're saying, 'Here's your shot, clean it up'." For Palin, that has meant tackling the cozy relationship between the state's political elite and the energy industry that provides 85 percent of Alaska's tax revenues—and distancing herself from fellow Republicans, including the state's senior U.S. senator, Ted Stevens,

In an interview with NEWSWEEK, Palin said it's time for Alaska to "grow up" and end its reliance on pork-barrel spending. Shortly after taking office, Palin canceled funding for the "Bridge to Nowhere," a $330 million project

Abstinence or a condom in every pot

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:27:58 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: Over the past two decades, as more and more school systems have implemented abstinence programs, the rate of teen pregnancy has declined. The number of high-school students who say they are virgins has increased, and the abortion rate has dropped. Is all of this good news due to abstinence-only programs? It’s a complex subject, and the evidence remains inconclusive. And clearly any school abstinence message is practically drowned out by the vulgar and licentious culture all around us. Still, we may be slowly climbing out of the hole we’ve dug for ourselves. The last thing we should be doing is declaring abstinence education a failure.

Clip Source: article.nationalreview.com

“Bristol Palin: Proof That Abstinence Only Education Doesn’t Work.”

Rubbish. The experience of one individual tells us exactly nothing about the wisdom of any public policy. For what it’s worth, it seems Ms. Palin may indeed have received traditional (i.e. contraceptive instruction) sex ed in her public school. But in any case, we do not know (and speaking for myself, do not wish to know) anything about the particulars of her pregnancy. It may be that she and her boyfriend used contraceptives diligently and the contraceptives failed. Certainly, this much is undeniable: more girls get pregnant by thoroughly following the recommendations of birth control advocates than do girls who strictly adhere to an abstinence program.

Teenagers are terrible contraceptors. Though 98 percent of sexually active teens report using at least one method of birth control, 8.4 percent got pregnant in 2000. Fully 25 percent of sexually active teens contracts an STD each year.

Anyone surprised

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:16:21 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: I will admit it took longer than I thought for them to back out of the deal, but once again they show their true colors.

Clip Source: www.foxnews.com

U.S. Officials: North Korea Reassembling Nuclear Facility

WASHINGTON — North Korea, after halting the disassembly of a key nuclear center, is now putting the facility back together in violation of the United States' conditions for improved diplomatic relations between the countries, U.S. officials told FOX News on Tuesday.

The motive isn't clear but sources say North Koreans likely are reassembling nuclear facilities at Yongbyon partly to protest the United States' delay in taking the country off its list of terror-sponsoring nations.

"They've been threatening this move for some time," one U.S. official told FOX News, adding that until now the threats were seen as merely a way for North Korean officials "to express their anger."

Iran, Venezuela say no to cheaper oil

Wed, 03 Sep 2008 18:11:36 GMT

clipped by: sillysam
clipper's remarks: This is why we must have our own sources of oil. The bad guys are willing to cut production just to keep prices high.

Clip Source: business.timesonline.co.uk

Iran calls for production cuts as oil price plummets

The price of crude oil tumbled yesterday in the futures markets as the destructive force of Hurricane Gustav dwindled.

Traders are focused again on the weakening global economy and panicky behaviour is being detected within Opec, suggesting that some cartel members fear that the oil price could crash. The gloom in the commodities markets pushed the price of US light crude as low as $105.46 per barrel yesterday, a $10 fall. Iran, the most hawkish member of the oil cartel, called for agreement next week on a cut of 1.5 million barrels per day in output.

Opec's more aggressive members are already speaking of production cuts. Venezuela and Iran have said that $100 per barrel is a benchmark they will defend and an Iranian official said yesterday that as a first step the cartel's members must stop exceeding production quotas, which would imply an immediate cut of about half a million barrels per day.