Saturday, January 9, 2010
Senator Harry Reid Apologizes For Saying Obama Has "No Negro Dialect"
Why does Senator Harry Reid not have to resign from his position as leader as did Republican Senator Trent Lott? Double standard, anyone?
This is what Obama himself had to say back in 2002 about Trent Lott: “The Republican Party itself has to drive out Trent Lott. If they have to stand for something, they have to stand up and say this is not the person we want representing our party.” This is clearly another example of Democrat hypocrisy and media bias willing to give the liberal politicians a pass.
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Friday, January 8, 2010
GOP Slams Dems For Jobs Losses
To read "After Attacking Bush During Periods Of Job Growth, And Pledging Their Stimulus Would Create Millions Of Jobs, Where’s The Dems’ Outrage?", visit http://www.gop.com/index.php/briefing/comments/the_democrats_job_standard/. Tweet
Anti-Semitic Rant From Caller Goes Unchallenged On C-Span And Guest Responds By Bashing Israel
WND reports that a "C-SPAN host has let a caller and a guest both launch anti-Semitic rants without objection or censure, and then declined to explain why the harsh criticism of Israel – described as of 'no worth' – was allowed... Blogger Jeffrey Goldberg at the Atlantic said he called Scanlan," the host of the program. "I asked him why he allowed a caller to launch into a grotesque anti-Semitic rant on Monday, and why he didn't challenge the caller or cut him off. Scanlan said he was not authorized to speak for the company. I told him I didn't want him to speak for the company, but that I wanted him to speak for himself. But he refused to comment and referred my call to Michelle Remillard, his producer. I called her and am awaiting her call back."
To see the video visit http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2010/01/anti-semitic-c-span-video-clip-with.html.
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Thursday, January 7, 2010
US Prepares For Possibility Of Military Confrontation With Iran
The Jerusalem Post reports that "US does not want to see confrontation with Iran but is still preparing its military for that possibility, America's top uniformed officer said Thursday."
"We've looked to do all we can to ensure that conflict doesn't break out there, while at the same time preparing forces, as we do for many contingencies that we understand might occur," Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an appearance at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
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Supreme Court Saves Most Newsworthy Cases For Second Term
The Kansas City Star reports the "Supreme Court entered its holiday intermission with the starkest drama put off until the second act. When justices return on Jan. 11 for their next oral arguments, they will barely have scratched the surface of the 2009 term. They have issued only four decisions so far, none dealing with the cases for which the term is likely to be remembered. With more than 50 scheduled cases yet to be heard or decided, and other cases still to be added, some of these pending questions are pretty fundamental. Does the government violate the First Amendment when it bans corporations from spending their own money on political campaigns? Do cities and states violate the Second Amendment when they ban gun possession? 'The people's right to arms is inextricably tied to the equally fundamental right to defend oneself - to fight to save one's own life," argued Elizabeth Egan, the district attorney in Fresno, Calif., in one legal brief joined by dozens of other California and Nevada prosecutors. Other pending questions are intriguing because of the facts. Can Congress prohibit videos that purportedly depict animal cruelty, such as one that shows pit bulls attacking a domestic pig? Does the National Football League's tightly controlled licensing of hats and apparel violate antitrust laws? In addition to specific cases, the coming months will shed light on the future of the nation's highest court itself. Many court watchers expect Justice John Paul Stevens to announce his retirement, as the 89-year-old jurist hasn't hired his full complement of law clerks for next year. At the other end of the career spectrum, the new year will further illuminate the evolving role of the court's newest member, Justice Sonia Sotomayor. Some things already are clear. Since she heard her first oral argument on Sept. 9, Sotomayor has proved to be an active participant. She's asked questions or made comments from the bench about 480 times, a McClatchy Newspapers review of oral argument transcripts found. Justice Clarence Thomas, by contrast, has kept his customary silence. Thomas hasn't spoken, either to make a point or to ask a question, during any of the 36 hourlong oral arguments conducted since October." Tweet
Washington State Leaders Say Prisoner And Felon Voting To Head To The U.S. Supreme Court
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports that two Washington state "leaders say they'll ask that the U.S. Supreme Court review a federal court decision clearing the way for inmate voting in Washington. Following Tuesday's decision by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel revoking the state prohibition on felon voting, Attorney General Rob McKenna and Secretary of State Sam Reed now say they'll ask the nation's highest court to review the decision. The decision, hailed as a landmark win for prisoner-rights advocates, effectively removed the state's restrictions on felon voting on civil-rights grounds. Under the Washington law at issue, citizens convicted of a felony lose the right to vote until they are released from custody and off of Department of Corrections supervision. The 2-1 ruling by a Circuit Court of Appeals panel put those restrictions in doubt, with the majority finding that the state restrictions unfairly penalize minorities. In an announcement Wednesday afternoon, McKenna and Reed said they believe the issue is ripe for review by the Supreme Court, and that their agencies -- defendants in the lawsuit alongside the governor's office -- will ask for such a hearing. Objecting to the appeals court decision, both noted circuit courts elsewhere in the nation have come to the opposite conclusion while reviewing similar cases. 'This case began back in 1996, it's been to the 9th Circuit twice already and now it's time for the U.S. Supreme Court to step in to resolve the split between the federal courts of appeals that the 9th Circuit has created,' McKenna said in a statement. 'The felon disenfranchisement laws of Washington and 47 other states hang in the balance.' McKenna added that, should the Supreme Court accept the case, he intends to argue it himself." Tweet
Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia's Address To The Federalist Society
To view the address of Justice Antonin Scalia from 2008 discussing, defending, and explaining originalism in Constitutional interpretation visit http://www.fed-soc.org/publications/PubID.1193/pub_detail.asp. Tweet
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
Abdulmutallab Indicted In Christmas Day Terror Attempt
The Christian Science Monitor reports that "a federal grand jury in Michigan returned a six-count indictment on Wednesday charging alleged Christmas Day airline bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab with attempting to use a 'weapon of mass destruction' in a terror attack. The weapon of mass destruction was Northwest Airlines Flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit with 290 passengers and crew on board. If convicted Mr. Abdulmutallab faces up to life in prison. The indictment also charges him with attempted murder, attempting to destroy an aircraft, willfully placing a bomb on an aircraft, use of a bomb during a violent crime, and possession of a bomb during a violent crime. Those counts carry maximum sentences ranging from 20 to 30 years in prison."
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Delayed Broadcast To Be Allowed For California Gay Marriage Trial
The AP reports that the "federal judge presiding over next week's trial on California's gay marriage ban says he'll allow videotaping of court proceedings. Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker says a court employee will record the proceedings, then upload the video to YouTube later the same day. The governing body for federal courts in Western states recently approved a pilot program that would for the first time allow cameras in civil trials being decided by judges. The trial will consider a constitutional challenge to California's voter-approved gay marriage ban, known as Proposition 8. Walker has said the case is an important one for the public to watch for itself. Lawyers representing Prop. 8 sponsors have opposed broadcasting the trial, which begins Monday." Tweet
Gay Marriage Battle In DC Moves To Court
NBC Washington reports that the "battle over same-sex marriage in D.C. took another turn. A group that is opposed to gay marriage in Washington filed paperwork with the Board of Elections and Ethics Wednesday to try to put a referendum on the ballot. Previous attempts have been unsuccessful. The group Stand4MarriageDC Coalition is asking the D.C. Superior Court to order the Board of Elections and Ethics to allow their "Marriage Initiative of 2009" on the ballot. The group wants to begin gathering signatures of voters to force the issue. The D.C. City Council passed a bill in December that would let gay couples marry. Mayor Adrian Fenty signed the bill into law, but because the city is a federal district, the law is currently pending a review period by Congress. Congress is not expected to change the bill, which could mean gay couples would be able to wed in the District by March. New Hampshire, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts and Vermont are the only states that currently allow same-sex marriage." Tweet
Orrin Hatch, Kenneth Blackwell, Kenneth Klukowski: "Why the Health-Care Bills Are Unconstitutional"
To read this important article, focusing on three of the health care bill's "more glaring constitutional defects," visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703278604574624021919432770.html. Tweet
Appeals Court Upholds Right To Hold Guantanamo Prisoners
The Los Angeles Times reports that with "a wide war on terrorism still being fought, an appellate court said Tuesday that Guantanamo Bay prison detainees had few legal rights, so long as the government could show they fought for or actively supported the Taliban or Al Qaeda. A three-judge panel of the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the government's broad power to hold indefinitely suspected former Taliban fighters and their supporters who were captured abroad and sent to the U.S. military prison in Cuba. The decision was the first by the appeals court to interpret what legal rights and rules apply to the Guantanamo detainees who are seeking their freedom through the courts. Two years ago, the Supreme Court ruled that these long-term prisoners had the right to appeal their detention before a judge, but the justices did not spell out the law that would apply in such hearings. The appellate judges rejected the claim of Ghaleb Nassar Bihani, a Yemeni native who served as a cook for a Taliban brigade in the fall of 2001, that he deserved to go free because the U.S. war against the Taliban ended when the Islamist forces surrendered in 2002. Judge Janice Rogers Brown said nothing in the law required the release of military prisoners just because the fighting ended in one sector. The law permits 'what common sense tells us must be true: release is only required when the fighting stops," she wrote. Otherwise, "each successful campaign of a long war...would trigger an obligation to release Taliban fighters captured in earlier clashes' who could then return to battle. The judges also rejected the notion that these military prisoners were entitled to the full protections of the criminal law. For example, Bihani asserted that when he admitted to U.S. military investigators in Afghanistan that he fought alongside the Taliban, his statement should be deemed as 'hearsay' and not used against him in a federal court hearing in Washington. But Judge Brown said the habeas corpus hearing was not the same as a criminal trial. Otherwise, the military investigators from Afghanistan would be required to appear in a court to be cross-examined by the defense lawyers, she said. 'In a detainee case, the judge acts as a neutral decision maker charged with seizing the actual truth of a simple, binary question: Is detention lawful?' she wrote. 'This is why the one constant in the history of habeas has never been a certain set of procedures, but rather the independent power of a judge to assess the actions of the executive.' In this case, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon had decided there was ample evidence to conclude that Bihani had fought with the Taliban. That was reason enough to uphold his detention, Brown concluded. Appellate judges Brett Kavanaugh and Stephen Williams joined her in the ruling on Bihani, though Williams said he thought Brown's opinion had gone too far on the legal issues."
To read the opinion visit http://pacer.cadc.uscourts.gov/common/opinions/201001/09-5051-1223587.pdf.
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Tuesday, January 5, 2010
Obama Falsely Says That Gitmo Was A "Rationale" For The Creation Of Al Qaeda In Yemen
The President's comment is both absurd and shameful. That the President of the United States would declare that there is a "rationale" for a new branch of Al Qaeda, our county's sworn enemy, is inexcusable. Firstly, there is not a shred of evidence that Gitmo was the impetus for the group’s formation in 2003. The first leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) was killed in June of that year. Not only is such an assertion based on no evidence, but it is completely backwards for the leader of the free world to claim that the actions of the United States in defending itself against Islamofascist terror is the "rationale" for the enemy to continue to plot against us. In what other conflict in our nation's history has the commander-in-chief announced to the American people and the world that the enemy, responsible for the deaths of thousands of Americans civilians and soldiers, had a "rationale" for its actions? Former presidents, including Democrats, would never have imagined such reckless stupidity.
Perhaps the more disturbing fact is that Obama's comments demonstrate a complete ignorance of the nature of the enemy we face and the ideology of jihad that drives it. Obama needs to come to grips with the fact that the Islamoterrorists attacked us long before there ever was a single enemy combatant in Guantanamo Bay, before there was a war in Iraq or Afghanistan, and even before there was a George W. Bush in the White House. Guantanamo Bay was and is a response to Islamist terror, not the cause of it. It remains a vital part of military operations waged against the Islamist enemy, necessary to detaining and interrogating this enemy during this struggle. Yet Obama does not seem to understand this, as is most evident by the fact that the most important Islamoterrorists captured during this war are to get the trappings of a full civilian trial in New York City. Without the war declared against America by Osama Bin Laden and the rest of his jihadist ilk there would not be a Gitmo.
Obama is, but certainly should not be, providing talking points for the enemy to the Western and Islamic world. Yet that is exactly what he continues to do.
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U.S. Terrorism Suspects In Pakistan Defend Actions As Justified Under Islam: "We Are Jihadists, And Jihad Is Not Terrorism"
The New York Times reports that one "of the five young Americans detained in Pakistan in early December said Monday that they had intended to go to Afghanistan to wage jihad against Western forces. But while defending their effort as justified under Islam, the young suspect also denied any links to Al Qaeda or plans to carry out terrorist attacks in Pakistan, as the Pakistani authorities have contended. The young Muslims from the Washington suburbs addressed a court for the first time since their arrest in the city of Sargodha. The case has spurred fears that Westerners are traveling to Pakistan to join militant groups. The Pakistani police have said they plan to seek life sentences under the country’s anti-terrorism law."
“We are not terrorists,” the suspect, Ramy Zamzam, said as he entered the courtroom. “We are jihadists, and jihad is not terrorism.”
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Federal Court Says That Washington Prison Inmates Have The Right To Vote, Throwing Out State Restriction On Felon Voting
The Seattle Post Intelligencer reports on the ruling of an activist federal court in Washington. The Intelligencer reports on "a move that could see Washington inmates voting from prison, a federal appeals court has thrown out the state's restrictions on felon voting. Under state law, residents convicted of a felony currently lose the right to vote until they are released from custody and off of Department of Corrections supervision. Tuesday's split ruling by a 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel puts those restrictions in doubt, as two of three judges reviewing the voting rights lawsuit found that the state restrictions unfairly penalize minorities. Attorneys for six Washington state prisoners, Circuit Court Judge A. Wallace Tashima wrote, 'have demonstrated that police practices, searches, arrests, detention practices, and plea bargaining practices lead to a greater burden on minorities that cannot be explained in race-neutral ways.' Joined by Judge Stephen Reinhardt in the majority opinion, Tashima found that black and Latino Washingtonians faced arrest and prosecution at rates far higher than could be explained simply by increased criminal activity. Finding no 'race neutral' explanation for the higher incarceration rates, the majority reversed a U.S. District Court decision and ruled in favor of the inmates. 'Although (the state) criticized the experts' studies and the conclusions, the (plaintiffs') reports, when objectively viewed, support a finding of racial discrimination in Washington's criminal justice system,' Tashima said in the ruling. 'Given that uncontroverted showing,' he added, 'in the words of the district court, there can be 'no doubt that members of racial minorities have experienced discrimination in Washington's criminal justice system.' Speaking on the ruling, Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed said the court's decision came as a surprise, in part because three circuit court panels elsewhere in the country came to opposite conclusions while reviewing similar cases. Reed said he believes the state prohibition against prisoner voting remains appropriate."
"That's part of the penalty," Reed said. "A person loses their rights when they violate the rights of others by perpetrating a felony. … As long as when they get out they get a chance to rejoin society, that's the important part."
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Scalia Defends Gay, Abortion, Gun Rulings At First Baptist Church Of Jackson, Mississippi
The Jackson Free Press reports that the "United States should not look to other countries when interpreting its own Constitution, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia said yesterday in a speech at First Baptist Church of Jackson sponsored by Mississippi College School of Law."
"If there was any thought absolutely foreign to the founders of our country, surely it was the notion that we Americans should be governed the way Europeans are," Scalia told the audience, which included Governor Haley Barbour. "I dare say that few of us here would want our life or liberty subject to the disposition of French or Italian criminal justice—not because those systems are unjust, but because we think ours is better."
The Jackson Free Press reports that if "the Supreme Court takes cues from foreign law, it cannot do so selectively, Scalia argued. He pointed to the Court's 2003 decision in Lawrence v. Texas, which found state laws banning sodomy to be unconstitutional and in which he dissented. Justice Anthony Kennedy's majority opinion in that case cited a 1981 decision of the European Court of Human Rights to argue that Western civilization did not uniformly condemn homosexuality. Among non-European countries, laws prohibiting homosexuality are more common, Scalia pointed out, meaning that the Court had arbitrarily selected European precedent to justify its decision. On the other hand, the Court has not relied on foreign law in abortion cases, Scalia noted, despite the fact that the United States places fewer restrictions on abortion than many other developed Western nations... Scalia is one of the leading proponents of originalism, a doctrine holding that courts should interpret the U.S. Constitution as people living at the time of its writing would have. Answering questions from students, he said that the Supreme Court decision he was most proud of was his majority opinion in District of Columbia v. Heller, the 2008 case that struck down a firearms ban in Washington, D.C."
"What was good about the case was that not only did my majority opinion proceed upon that road, but even the dissent was an originalist dissent," Scalia said. "It got it wrong, but it was trying, using the right approach."
It was reported by the Jackson Free Press that "Scalia also said that he was worried by a mounting trend of appointing career judges to the judiciary. Scalia, 73, is a former appeals court judge, but he had also worked in private practice, as a law professor and in the administration of President Gerald Ford before Ronald Reagan nominated him to the Supreme Court in 1982. 'Every aspect of your career broadens your outlook and the insights that you would have. It's good for the Court to have people with varied backgrounds. One of the things I'm concerned about is that in recent years, nobody who has been appointed has come from another bench,' Scalia said. 'It's probably not good,' he continued. 'It's leading us toward the European system. The big differences between our system and the European system are not what I am talking about here. ... The big difference is the nature of the judges.' Calling European judges 'the most blinkered bureaucrats,' Scalia said that career judges in European systems can develop a sympathy for the government's side of a case, having worked for the government their entire professional lives. 'You contrast that with the Anglo-Saxon system, where in the most important courts the judges not only have not been spending their whole life with their snout in the public trough, they've been suing the government,' Scalia said. 'They've been defending their clients against the government. (It's) a different mind, a different mindset.'"
"I worry about our not having people of a lot of different experiences, especially with substantial legal practice," Scalia added. "More and more people practice for a couple years, then they become a minor state court judge and they stay in the judiciary the rest of their career. You can have some people like that, but if our whole judiciary becomes like that, we're going to become European. I may as well move to France."
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Rhode Island Legislature Overrides Governor's Veto And Approves Funeral Planning Rights For Gay And Unmarried Couples
The AP reports that "Rhode Island lawmakers voted Tuesday to allow same-sex and unmarried couples the right to plan the funerals of their late partners, overriding a veto by the governor, who warned it eroded traditional marriage. The bill passed 67-3 in the House and 31-3 in the Senate, and enjoyed support from several Republican lawmakers in the same party as Gov. Don Carcieri, an adamant opponent of same-sex marriage in a state that does not recognize gay unions. The new funeral planning rights also apply to unmarried heterosexual couples." Tweet
New Jersey Senate To Hold Vote On Gay Marriage Thursday
The AP reports that "New Jersey's state Senate is set to vote on whether to legalize gay marriage. Sen. President Richard Codey has scheduled the vote for Thursday. Codey said Tuesday that the people of New Jersey 'deserve the right to a formal debate on the Senate floor.' Five states now recognize gay marriage. Gay rights advocates have been pushing for New Jersey to join them quickly. Gov. Jon Corzine supports the measure. But Chris Christie, who will replace him in two weeks, says he would veto it. A Senate vote was canceled last month because it appeared the measure was going to fail. If it passes the Senate, it would still need the approval of the state Assembly to be sent to the governor's desk." Tweet
Democrat Afraid of 2010? North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan Announces Retirement
To read the Senator's retirement statement visit http://dorgan.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=321298.
Could this have something to do with the fact that Rasmussen Reports poll from two weeks ago said that "voters in North Dakota finds the popular Republican governor leading Dorgan by 22 points – 58% to 36%"?
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Chris Matthews Says that Every Single "Teabagger" Is White
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
How white is this man, who created the "tea party anthem" and has appeared on Fox News?
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Pelosi's "Laughable" Lie : Health Bill "Subjected To Unprecedented Level Of Public Scrutiny"
Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), assistant to the Speaker, said the healthcare bill had been "subjected to unprecedented level of public scrutiny":
Here is the Republican response from Michael Steele:
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C-Span CEO Challenges Congress To Televise Health Care Talks
ABC's Jake Tapper reports that "C-SPAN CEO Brian Lamb last week wrote to Congressional leaders asking that they 'open all important negotiations, including any conference committee meetings, to electronic media coverage' as the House and Senate work to reconcile the differences between the House and Senate health care reform bills."
"The C-SPAN networks will commit the necessary resources to covering all of these sessions LIVE and in their entirety," Lamb wrote. "We will also, as we willingly do each day, provide C-SPAN’s multi-camera coverage to any interested member of the Capitol Hill broadcast pool."
Lamb reminded the leaders that "President Obama, Senate and House leaders, many of your rank-and-file members, and the nation’s editorial pages have all talked about the value of transparent discussions on reforming the nation’s health care system. Now that the process moves to the critical stage of reconciliation between the Chambers, we respectfully request that you allow the public full access, through television, to legislation that will affect the lives of every single American."
Senator Obama said promised on the campaign trail that "we'll have the negotiations televised on C-SPAN, so the people can see who is making arguments on behalf of their constituents and who is making arguments on behalf of the drug companies or the insurance companies." Another promise he has no doubt failed to fulfill.
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Monday, January 4, 2010
Holocaust Survivors' Suit Against Vatican Bank Dismissed By 9th Circuit
In Alperin v. Vatican Bank, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed on sovereign immunity grounds a lawsuit by Holocaust survivors against the Vatican Bank. ABC News reports that the "9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco upheld a lower court ruling that said the Vatican bank was immune from such a lawsuit under the 1976 Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally protects foreign countries from being sued in U.S. courts. Holocaust survivors from Croatia, Ukraine and Yugoslavia had filed suit against the Vatican bank in 1999, alleging that it stored and laundered the looted assets of thousands of Jews, Serbs and Gypsies who were killed or captured by the Nazi-backed Ustasha regime that controlled Croatia. They sought an accounting from the Vatican, as well as restitution and damages. The court didn't rule on the allegations. In its decision, the court said the Vatican bank, formally known as the Institute for the Works of Religion, or IOR, was a sovereign entity entitled to the protections of the foreign sovereign immunities act, and that therefore U.S. courts had no jurisdiction. The pope himself has been granted such protections in U.S. courts hearing clerical sex abuse cases... Jonathan Levy, who represents the survivors, said he thought he had sufficiently shown that the Vatican bank engaged in commercial activities in the United States, which can serve as an exemption to the protections granted by the immunities act." Tweet
Proposed Constitution Monument Sponsored By Citizens for a Secular Government Causes Controversy
A Maryland news source, the Cumberland Times-News, reports that the "president of a local historical group has asked the Allegany County Board of Commissioners to reverse its decision to allow a monument to the U.S. Constitution on public property. Edward W. Taylor Jr., of the Cumberland Historic Cemetery Organization, said Wednesday during a public meeting that the monument’s 'editorialized' inscription and engraving that will recognize the donor, Citizens for a Secular Government, is 'very inappropriate.' In September, the commissioners approved an inscription for the monument and its location on the lawn of the Allegany County Circuit Courthouse on Washington Street. The monument would join a statue of George Washington and a monument of the Ten Commandments. Taylor said his group originally was supportive of the effort but backpedaled when Dr. Jeffrey Davis, the catalyst behind the Constitution monument, modified the inscription. 'Some of the editorialized paragraphing I do agree with,' Taylor said, 'but that’s what it is — it’s an editorialized monument. We see no reason why his editorialized version of the Constitution needs to be on public property.'" Tweet
Justice Antonin Scalia "Concerned" With Trend To Nominate Only Those With Judicial Background
The AP reports that "U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia says he's concerned there aren't more people with varying professional backgrounds being nominated to the nation's highest court. Scalia was a federal judge before President Reagan nominated him to the court. He said there were three justices with no prior judicial experience back then and today there are none. Scalia said he's concerned about the practice because 'every aspect of your career broadens your outlook' so 'it's good for the court to have people of varying backgrounds.'" Tweet
Debate On Origins Of Life Featuring Stephen Meyer, Richard Sternberg, Michael Shermer, And Donald Prothero
To listen to audio of advocates for intelligent design and Darwinian evolution square off in a recent debate on the origins of life, the challenges to Darwin’s theory of evolution and the alternative theory of intelligent design, visit http://www.discovery.org/v/1711. Tweet
Iran Set To Reject Visit By John Kerry
The Jerusalem Post reports that a "subcommittee of the Iranian Parliament is set to reject a request by US Senator John Kerry to visit Teheran, a parliamentarian has told Iranian state media. Hossein Ebrahimi, a member of the Majlis, Iran's parliament, told the Fars News Agency that Iran's Foreign Relations Committee, a subcommittee of the Majlis National Security and Foreign Policy Committee, had 'voiced opposition to the request after studying the issue' and was unlikely to approve a Kerry visit. A final decision on a visit by Kerry is set to be made by the full committee on Tuesday afternoon." Tweet
Warren Kozak: "The Real Rules Of War"
To read the very interesting Wall Street Journal opinion article by the author of the recent book "LeMay: The Life and Wars of General Curtis LeMay," visit http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704304504574610660008372886.html. Tweet
Sunday, January 3, 2010
Danish Cartoonist Attacker Suspected Of Al Qaeda Ties
Rueters reports that a 28 year-old "Somali man armed with an axe and suspected of links with al Qaeda broke into the home of a Danish cartoonist whose drawings of the Prophet Mohammad caused global Muslim outrage and was shot and wounded by police... Danish police intelligence said they believed the 'attempted assassination ... is terror related' and accused the man, who was not named, of having links with Somalia's al-Shabaab militant group as well as al Qaeda militants. The cartoonist, 74, pushed a panic button, fled to a safe room and was unhurt when police arrived. His grand-daughter was in the house during the attack. Police could not confirm reports he had tried to break down the safe room door with the axe. Westergaard, who in 2005 depicted Prophet Mohammad with a bomb in his turban, has been under police protection since his caricatures of the Prophet led to death threats." Tweet
Mark Steyn: "The Pantybomber Wasn’t The Big Joke. We Are"
Mark Steyn writes that "the Pantybomber wasn’t the big joke. The real laugh was the United States government. The global hyperpower spent the next week making itself a laughingstock to the entire planet." To read more visit http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=N2M4ZjFlMDUzZDAxZGNlYjdiMzc3NjNjZDhjNjJlN2Y. Tweet
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