~ elderflower ~

Keep looking Up!

2005-03-24T01:04:00.000-08:00

We keep seeing all sorts of things, when we keep looking up...
Stars and such, f'instance.
Oh. well. I sorta guessed you knew that.
Anyway, I like you and do hope you will join me over where the action is, sometimes, over on Best When Fresh.
See ya.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Evolution: ~ elderflower ~ to Best When Fresh

2005-02-13T21:07:00.000-08:00

What you see is the real "evolution" - change from one form to another - never from one type to another. That is, giraffe necks may get longer or shorter, but giraffes never become birds. See you on Best When Fresh

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

It's "Scrap it Altogether or Change it Some", so, Change, it is...

2005-01-30T14:37:00.000-08:00

Thought to trim things down just a bit, since salvaging the work done here - the writing, that is - would be too time consuming and otherwise costly beyond its worth, surely. So, here we are, with a new, slimmer, somewhat, look on this, the very first blog of yours, truly.

From here, from time to time, will I post to one topic or another as seems pleasing at the time. I hope you will enjoy what you find when you look in. Meanwhile, Cheers - and a very Happy New Year to you, in deed!

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

It Ain't Over Till the Obese Lady Singeth...

2004-12-28T17:42:00.000-08:00

Howdy... May not give up this blog, just yet, after all... Meanwhile, there now exists a couple others, which may end up stillborn, as they are rather encompassed by this here one... Ordinary American is one and the other is, of all things, Constellation Weeds - What ever was I thinking about?

Oh, well. Not to matter. In the mean time, come Christmas, I did find myself launching a new blog which just might make it in to childhood... one Best When Fresh, here on blogspot.com. Just made the first posting, which you may view by going to www.bestwhenfresh.blogspot.com - have fun. I hope to.

Check back, now and then, will you? I will, LORD willing, with a post or two, of course.

Just in case, Happy New Year to one and all!

Till then, what do you say to the question asked immediately below, eh?

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Ya Gotta Wonder... Where the ~ elderflower ~ went...

2004-12-13T18:01:00.000-08:00

Been out and out down and gone, awhile... Sorry, folks... Sure, all y'all missed me something terrible, I know...

Been considering wrapping up this blog and launching another... more up to date as to appearance and such.

Would love your suggestions as to a name and format; all kindness personified, of course.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Giving Thanks at Thanksgiving, Year of Our Lord 2004

2004-11-25T01:01:00.000-08:00

- Hospitality -

I should like a great lake of finest ale
For the King of Kings.
I should like a table of the choicest food
For the family of heaven.
Let the ale be made from the fruits of faith,
And the food be forgiving love.

I should welcome the poor to my feast,
For they are God's children.
I should welcome the sick to my feast,
For they are God's joy.
Let the poor sit with Jesus at the highest place,
And the sick dance with angels.

God bless the poor,
God bless the sick,
And bless our human race.
God bless our food,
God bless our drink,
All homes, O God, embrace.

- Table Grace, associated with Brigid, Abbess of Kildare; convert of Patrick, circa Fourth Century, Ireland; where it was once said,
To go to Rome
Is little profit, endless pain;
The Master that you seek in Rome,
You find at home, or seek in vain.

- How the Irish Saved Civilization, The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe, by Thomas Cahill; Nan A. Talese/Doubleday, 1995

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

"Thanks," - From America & The Free World - To His Angels with Skin on 'em! - Thanksgiving 2004

2004-11-23T17:11:00.000-08:00

We Americans - and all who stand to turn back the present rising of the Islamic hordes, who last were driven back in the Late Medieval Age - wish to thank our forces at home and afield at this time of giving thanks to our God for His Providence and Mercy and Goodness to usward. Thank you, O LORD.

Thank you, his angels with skin on!

For one, Thanks,
Marine Lance Cpl. James Blake Miller, 20, Charlie Co., 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment

Happy Thanks Giving, Free World

To the Hate America First Crowd: In the immortal words of Theresa Heinz-Kerry, "Shove it!"

2004-11-22T13:31:00.000-08:00

Look to our coinage to learn something of what America is about. On every coin one will find these three assertions:

In God We Trust
E Pluribus Unum - of many, one
Liberty

These are the three marks of America - what we are about. Like it or leave it.

One's view of America is much governed by one's World View: If on the "Right", then it is a matter of "Good and Evil" and to one on the "Left" it is a matter of "The Haves and the Haves Not". One is always true and one is only partly, sometimes true and only to a certain extent. That second one reveals Marxist ideology to be "vibrant" today; with all its freedom-loving hatred carefully hidden under its rhetoric, "Power to the People", "Class Warfare", 'Hate Big Business' and such, keep it in your pants, kids. The sweet inducement is the enslaving mentality drug pushers know so well: Gimme, Gimme, Gimme. Entitlement Mentality inculcates weakness, just what usurpers want in a people they seek to overthrow. The hammer is the Totalitarian Political Ideology beating a people into "shape" on the anvil of hate, ignorance, intolerance, prejudice and bondage to poverty; while the new haves, the overthrowers, roll about in their ill-gotten riches the 'stupid masses have not right to, having let them go so easily...'

How easily? By playing to the self interest, especially, but not exclusively, to the economic self interest of short sighted, selfish, greedy of gain "Suckers", looking get something for nothing. "There is a sucker born every minute". Pretending to understand the world through Power, through economic class warfare, the Left seeks to lure the free into servitude, drugged by greed and self indulgence. Such as are so deceived - or are the deceivers, themselves - hate, honestly hate the Right, simply because the Right, by its very point of view, reveals the Left for what it is. As cockroaches flee the light, so Evil scuttles. This is at the heart of any perceived division in America, today. And that it is so spoken of and so much so and, in particular so much exclusively so by the Left, one is sure to understand their complaint is really not about division among 'just us chickens', but about how much is thus left for them to do to overthrow us all.

The Left moans that, now the Right has won, it must rush to 'moderate' itself to accomodate the Left in 'compassion'... the Dialectical Materialistic battle continues unabated. One N.E.V.E.R. hears the Left calling upon itself to moderate itself towards the Right when the Left win an eclection, do we? No, we do not. The Left has an agenda inimical to freedom, the Right seeks only what is right or good, versus evil. Such an agenda of the left is with us by nature, and that of the Right is by witness of the revelation of the Truth made real in our hearts. It is such a struggle as this, as it ever was and ever shall be to the end of time.

It is this struggle between right and wrong, good and evil - yes, between the made righteous and the rest, left - we see played out today in American politics so baldly this last time, for the cause was as nearly lost, to the bystander's eyes, as ever it could so closely be. Notice the enraged, bewildered, and for some few, honestly confused - confounded - commentary of the Left, how that so surprisingly, the people actually did find their voice and, when they did speak, it was "without regard for their own economic self interest!" One would think the Left was beginning to believe their own propaganda! How so thoroughly ready to cheat they were they expected massive deception from the Right, too, only to find that truth which did prevail, 'If it ain't close, they can't cheat.' And so, the Left lost this round, soundly.

To the question of Values, then. For this election did just that: Put values back into play on the national stage...

Values in action on the personal and public stage means, for the uninitiated, that there be compassion between you and me and our families and, in the public arena, we must do justice, that we must rule by that which is right and good.

The canards of the Left have no place, here. Moral equivalence has no play, here. Equality and Freedom have their place. Appeals to egalitarianism, etc, while insidiously undermining the freedoms - and even so boldly as to attack the foundations of those freedoms - are discovered for what they are: Treachery against God and Man.

What are you about?

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Meditation - Now, and Again - 11/21/04

2004-11-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

The Bestiary
4/4
______________

The Whale's Nature

The great whale is a fish,
The greatest that in the water is;
Thou wouldest say, indeed,
If thou were to see it when it floated,
That it was an island
Stationed on the sea-sand.

This fish, which is enormous,
When he is hungry, gapeth wide;
Out of his throat there rusheth a breath,
The sweetest thing that is on land;
For this, other fishes draw to him;
When they smell it, they are delighted;
They come and hover in his mouth;
Of his trap they are unwary.
The whale his jaws then locketh,
All these fishes in he sucketh;
The small he will thus entrap; ⁸
The great he may in no wise catch.

This fish dwelleth on the sea bottom,
And liveth ever hale and sound,
Till there cometh the time
When the storm stirreth all the sea,
When summer and winter contend.
He cannot dwell therein,
So troubled is the sea's bottom
That he cannot remain there that time,
But he cometh up and floateth still,
Whilst that weather is so ill.

The ships that are storm-driven on the sea, -
Death is loath to them, to live is dear, -
They look about them, and see this fish;
An island they suppose it is.
For that they are deeply grateful,
And with all their might thereto they draw
The ships to anchor,
And they all go ashore.
From stone and steel in the tinder
They kindle a fire on this monster;
They warm them well and eat and drink.
The fire he feeleth and maketh them sink; ⁹
At once he diveth to the ground,
And destroyeth them all without a wound.

Signification *

The devil is great in will and might,
As witches are in their craft;
He causeth men hunger and thirst,
And many another sinful lust;
He draweth men to him with his savour;
Who followeth him, findeth shame.
Those are the little ones in the faith's law,
The great to him he cannot draw;
By the great I mean the steadfast,
In true belief, in flesh and spirit.
Who listeneth to the devil's lore,
At length he shall rue it sore;
Whoso fasteneth hope on him
Shall follow him to hell so dim.

- Medieval English Verse and Prose, Early Thirteenth Century, Roger Sherman Loomis and Rudolph Willard; Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc, 1948

* Cf. The Protestant Reformation
⁸ Cf. All's Well That Ends Well, IV, iii: "Who is a whale to virginity and devours up all the fry it finds."
⁹ CF. Paradise Lost, I, 200-8

Native: The Necessary Status of Any Presidential Candidate - Welcome Immigrants' Offspring Born American Most Welcome: Simple, Sensible & Wise

2004-11-20T11:51:00.000-08:00

What with all the to do about Democrats' globalist Liberals and intrusive foreign influence and European Socialism all encroaching upon our American ways wafting so upleasantly throughout the just concluded Presidential Election, while at the same time that bloodthirsty horde is rising up again from amongst Islam, one wonders at the wisdom of giving up - no, handing over without a fight - uncontested ground to those very influences. Irregardless of any other consideration, and that such a guardian provision is not in and of itself any guaranteed defense against the depravity of man, but, only a necessary precaution, let us briefly review what the Constitution of the United States of America does have to say in this regard as one's attention is drawn to Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution:

No person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; neither shall any Person be eligible to that Office who shall not have attained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident within the United States.

It would seem clear the purpose of such a provision has to do with basic issues of loyalty, with no disrespect to that of any immigrant's. Further, inasmuch as natural citizenship only arises from nativity in one of the several States of the Union, it also seems plain that proper representation to the Executive Branch - and hence the faithful discharge of the duties of the Executive - is connected.

The primary duty of the Executive being that of Commander in Chief, even to personally leading forces in the field of battle and that, in this connection, too, this duty extends naturally to representing the Nation before the World means a native born [please pardon the redundancy] only may properly fulfill this good and necessary qualification.

To change this qualification is therefore to lower the drawbridge at midnight, to permit the enemy to crawl in under the wall to the city within via the run-dry riverbed and worse, really, to actively open the back gate from within to the assault of our enemies - not to put too fine a point on it.

A word in regards the Immigrant: It is said that there is an inherent paradox between Equality and Freedom... That one may have the one or the other and not both at the same time. In that vein, it could be said the Immigrant, striving for Freedom not found elsewhere, arrives in America, Free. Free to make his home and life and future, here. Free to hold representative local and State office, even to State Governor and even to representing his adoptive State to Congress. That is, to establish himself - a pioneer, of sorts. It is his children, then, who are native born and, by a graciousness unique to our Land, are then Equals among equals and hence, eligible to the highest office of President of the United States of America.

What must be guarded against, amongst other things, is the unfortunate tendancy of Liberals to usurp worthy causes and terms to their agenda: For example, turning de-segregation into "Integration", the forceful destruction of one culture in the cause of the destruction of another culture under the banner of the rightful redress of old wrongs - old inequities - worked upon the people of the first. Another instance of the distortion of Equality into Egalitarianism is where, for example, equal opportunity becomes equal outcome - an obvious perversion of reality and utterly destructive to all concerned - for it is patently untrue and, as such, misleads and misguides and weakens - leading to inevitable unfortunate consequences. Such is the purpose of Dialectical Materialism: the rotting of the fruits of Freedom until that fruit falls into the the outstretched graspings of the usurpers of the rights, liberties and powers of the free until the free are free no more.

The Immigrant is such a case of this tension between Equality and Freedom. Seeking freedom, he comes here, and, arriving, is free. He is welcome to Freedom and, Resident of his new nation he may in turn, apply to formaly adopt - and be adopted by - his new Nation; "naturalized", he may then even vote, along with all the other eligible voters - even for that office to which he himself is ineligible by birth to attain - but his children may, being native born.

For your fruitful perusal and enjoyment:

The Declaration of Independence

The Federalist Papers

The Constitution of the United States of America

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Civilization: 1 - Democratic Party: 0

2004-11-15T17:28:00.000-08:00

Just how does the "Democratic Party" lose? May this illuminate:

"At certain epochs, man has felt conscious of something about himself - body and spirit - which was outside the day-to-day struggle for existence and the night-to-night struggle with fear; and he has felt the need to develop these qualities of thought and feeling so that they might approach as nearly as possible to an ideal of perfection - reason, justice, physical beauty, all of them in equilibrium. He has managed to satisfy this need in various ways - through myths, through dance and song, through systems of philosophy and through the order that he has imposed upon the visible world...

"Civilisation requires a modicum of material prosperity - enough to provide a little leisure. But, far more, it requires confidence - confidence in the society in which one lives, belief in its philosophy, belief in its laws, and confidence in one's own mental powers... Vigour, energy, vitality: all the great civilisations - or civilising epochs - have had a weight of energy behind them. People sometimes think that civilisation consists in fine sensibilities and good conversation and all that. These can be among the agreeable results of civilisation, but they are not what make a civilisation, and a society can have these amenities and yet be dead and rigid." - Kenneth Clark in Civilisation

'What is really lost when a civilisation wearies and grows small is confidence, a confidence built on the order and balance that leisure makes possible...' Now, I ask you, what of leisure have you seen where the Taliban or the erstwhile Soviet Union have held sway? What confidence have you seen there expressed, where elitist man-made, man-centered Totalitarian Political Ideology seeks the overthrow of the existing establishment by any means and especially by sowing anarchy and then, by the sword, 'restoring order'?

What confidence in one's society, philosophy and laws is there where one is in a constant rant about class warfare and revolution, screaming "Power to the People!"; while corrupting, pointing in condemnation to others, charging them with the very corruption of which one oneself is guilty? Thus so does the Left, and the Talibanisationists; the Islamists and the Communists.

While pretending and promoting the patently false notion that Man, once freed from oppression, will naturally rise to ever greater heights, the Dialectical Materialism of the Marxist-Leninists - those in control of the Left - in fact do seek by such corruption to ruin that society into which it slinks, seeking to catch the rotten fruit for itself as it drops from the tree. While urging you to suppose, as do others, that as Man is, God once was and, as God is, so Man shall become, the Totalitarian Political Idealogue maneuvers to enslave you. From such foolish misleading rubbish reasonable men turn away as noisome, reeking of the foul stink of death. No wonder such movements drain away life, kill civilization, and men. Oh, and lose elections.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Meditation - Now, and Again - 11/13/04

2004-11-14T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Bestiary
3/4
______________

The Serpent's Nature

There is a worm⁶ in the world, well man knoweth him;
Adder is its name, and thus he reneweth him.
When he is crippled and twisted, and weakened with age,
He fasteth until his skin slacketh, ten days fully,
So that he is lean and feeble, and with difficulty moveth;
He creepeth forth like a cripple, his craft thus revealing,
Seeketh out a stone that hath a hole in it,
Narrow, but he forceth him with great hardship through it;
For his fell⁷ here he leaveth, his flesh forth creepeth.
He walketh towards the water where he will drink deep;
But he speweth out first all of the venom
That in his breast is bred since his birth-time;
He drinketh afterwards deeply, and thus he reneweth him.

Signification *

Know, Christian man, what thou Christ didst promise,
At the kirk door, where thou wert christened.
Thou didst promise to believe on Him and to love His laws,
To hold in thine heart the commands of Holy Church.
If thou hast broken this, then hast thou harmed all;
Thou perishest and witherest in attaining life eternal.
Made aged art thou, out of all bliss, like the snake in this world.
Renew thyself, therefore, as doth the adder;
It is thy need.
Confirm thee in fasting, and fill thee with virtues,
And help those poor men that are living about thee.
Deem not thyself worthy to look upon the door
That leadeth heavenwards, but walk upon earth,
Merciful among men. No pride feel thou,
Pride nor men's vices, but cease thou from sinning.
Pray grace for thee ever, both by night and by day,
That thou mayest find mercy for thy misdeeds.
This life betokeneth the path that the adder passeth over,
And this is the hole in the stone that thou must go through;
Leave thy foulness behind thee, as the adder doth his skin;
Go thou then to God's house, the gospel to hear there,
Which is the soul's drink for the quenching of sins.
But first say thou in shrift thy sins to the priest,
Free thyself of thy breast-filth, and confirm thy covenant,
Make fast in thy heart what thou first didst promise.
Thus art thou young and new; henceforth be thou true.
The devil need not compel thee, for he may not harm thee,
But he fleeth from thee, as the adder from the naked.
Against the clothed is the adder courageous, and the devil clever in sins;
Ever the sinful man he will beset,
And against all mankind he holdeth war and strife.
What if he have leave from the Lord of heaven
To harm us, as once he did our elders now dead?
Let our body be afflicted, but shelter we the soul,
Which is like to our head; let us protect it worthily.

- Medieval English Verse and Prose, Early Thirteenth Century, Roger Sherman Loomis and Rudolph Willard; Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc, 1948

* Cf. The Protestant Reformation

⁶ Serpent
⁷ Skin

Of Marriage - "Civil" - Union - "Gay" - The Future at Stake

2004-11-12T17:15:00.000-08:00

An indulgence
Society most gracious
Grants them who prefer
Their chosen life together to pursue
At their option is the appropriate choice,
"Civil Union"
. . .

And a dead end society
An unproductive civilization without a future
Does become
When,
Malheureusement, mes amis, quand vous demande s'il
appropriate?
Il faut repondre,
Mais, non, mes amis,
C'est seulement et tout à fait
Oxymoronic,
Le
Marriage Gay

Meditation - Now, and Again - 11/06/04

2004-11-07T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Bestiary
2/4
______________

The Eagle's Nature

I will explain the eagle's nature,
As I in books have read it:
How he reneweth his youth,¹
How he cometh out of old age.
When his limbs are unwieldy,
When his beak is quite awry,
When his flight is very feeble,
And his eye-sight dim,
Hear how he reneweth him.
A well he seeketh, that springeth ever,
Both by night and by day;
Over that he flieth and upwards soareth,
Until the heaven he seeth,
Through the skies, six and seven,
Until he cometh to heaven.²
And as straight as ever he may,
Into the sun he maketh his way;
The sun strengtheneth his whole flight;
Likewise it maketh his eyes be bright;³
His feathers fall off from the heat,
And straight down, into the wet,
He falleth to the well's ground,⁴
Where he becometh hale and sound.⁵
Out he cometh, wholly new,
Except his bill is still untrue;
His upper bill is somewhat wrong,
Though his limbs are strong.
He cannot get him any food
That will do him any good.
Then he goeth to a stone,
And rubbeth his bill thereon,
Whetteth till his upper beak
All its crookedness hath lost;
After, with his straightened bill,
He eatheth such food as he will.

Signification *

Like as a man, so is the eagle,
If ye would but listen;
Old in those his secret sins,
Before the priest him christen.
And thus reneweth him this man,
When he is brought to kirk;
Ere he could take thought of it,
His eyes were dark with murk.
He therefore forsaketh Satanas
And each sinful deed;
He taketh him to Jesu Christ,
For He shall help his need,
Believeth on Lord Jesu Christ,
And learneth the priest's teaching;
Removeth from his eyes the mist,
As he tarrieth there beseeching.
All his hope is placed in God,
And he on His love intendeth,
That is the sun, assuredly,
Which thus his eye-sight mendeth.
Naked he falleth in baptismal font,
And cometh out quite new,
All but a little: what is that?
His mouth is still untrue.
His mouth is yet somewhat unskilled,
In paternoster and creed;
Fare he north; or fare he south,
Learn he must his need,
Beg his boon of his God,
And thus his mouth make right,
Take to him thus the soul's food,
Through our Lord's own might.

- Medieval English Verse and Prose, Early Thirteenth Century, Roger Sherman Loomis and Rudolph Willard; Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc, 1948

¹ Psalm 103.5 ... Compare Milton's passage in the Areopagitica on the eagle's newing (often misprinted "mewing") her mighty youth.
² A reference to the Ptolemaic astronomy, which taught that the earth is at the centre of nine spheres, eight of them occupied by the planets and the stars. The author has erred in placing the sun in the eighth, instead of the fourth, sphere.
³ Cf. 3 Henry VI, II, i: "Nay, if thou be that princely eagle's bird, Show thy descent by gazing 'gainst the sun."
⁴ Bottom.
⁵ Cf. 1 Henry IV, IV, i: "Bated like eagles having lately bathed."
* Cf. The Protestant Reformation

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Mainstream...

2004-11-04T18:57:00.000-08:00

We are the Mainstream, the mighty, mighty Mainstream... Everywhere we go-o, the people want to know-o, who we are-r, soo we tell them: We are the Mainstream, the mighty mighty Mainstream!

Thanks be to God

Moral Values 1 v Activist Judges' Tyranny Usurping the Will of the People 0

2004-11-04T17:24:00.000-08:00

The Ship of State of the United States of America is in peril of shipwreck on a lee shore, a rocky coast, a Left Coast.

Fortunately, or, more correctly, Providentially, the Presidential Elections of 2004, just concluded in a majority victory accurately attributed to the preference of the American People for high moral character in her leaders, has seen our Ship of State drop anchor, set the hook and only just bring American politics - and God-given American Freedom - up short of the craggy shore of the Peoples Republic of Amerika.

The election results being President Bush 51%, Senator Kerry 48%, with Mr Bush ahead with 3.7 million more popular votes and with 279 Electoral Votes, show that the Left is now discovered as not Mainstream, and more as what one might find under a rock; it is not time to 'be conciliatory' by 'generously moving towards the Center' - which is the same old Dialectical Materialism of the Left - claiming to be the center - Mainstream - and pointing to anything to their right as 'radical'. Now is the time to govern according to the will of the people, that is, Constitutionally, as strictly understood, and expressed in the several States and in Congress assembled in beating off this Red lee shore to the open Sea of Freedom beyond, thus halting the onset of disaster and beginning to haul our ship of state, Liberals in tow, Center-ward and beyond once more, towards the Constitution as strictly understood, towards Freedom.

It is conceivable, as has been said, that were President John F Kennedy alive today, with the policies he demonstrated then into the early 1960's and up to his assassination, he would no longer be of the Democrat Party at all, but a rather Conservative Republican; so far has America been drawn along on the loud, clamoring subversive currents of the Left, who, being much in the minority, have long ago determined that to move the masses Left-ward Liberals had to be mobilized to agitate, to become 'activists' and become the duped tools of the Left, who will not suffer the will of the people, knowing the will of the people to be inimical to the designs of the Left on America, presuming as they do to know what is best for us whom they deem less than they, the so-called Intellectual Elite. Since Franklin D Roosevelt pole-vaulted the Democrat Party Leftwards over the Republican Party, the Left has increasingly usurped control of the Democrat Party from the people in a sort of in slow motion reenactment of the treacherous Bolshevik overthrow of the freedom-minded Russian revolutionaries in the very act of striking for freedom, to result instead in the bloody, genocidal birth of the Communist slave state called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

This blessed land of America is itself properly a "republic", a representative form of government, to keep "democracy" to a minimum, to keep at bay the so easily corrupted immoral mob-rule the French Revolution demonstrated democracy to be. Most discussion of "Democracy" today leaves unsaid that such "Democracy" is an erroneous Socialist idea in the employ of the Communist; once more demonstrating Dialectical Materialism in dangling before ordinary people the deceptive and false promise of "Power to the People" and the pretended redress of a false "class warfare" while really ever moving towards establishment of Communist Totalitarian Political Ideology: 'The real problem - the heart of the problem - being truly the problem of the heart.'*

By this election, God be thanked, indeed, America really has spoken.

* Hat Tip: Jim West

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Open Letter to Senator John F Kerry

2004-11-03T21:18:00.000-08:00

Senator:

Any brief perusal of this blog will suffice to appraise you of its political orientation. That being said, let us proceed:

Your Speech of Concession, today, has been generally well received. Your care to point out the fruitlessness of taking the campaign to the court room reflects a certain graciousness and, after all, integrity. Thank you.

If there were nothing further that one might respect you for, certainly, your call, now, for unity and for common cause, without hardness of feelings, and labeling that unity as "vital", does indeed deserve respect. Thank you. Let us now look forward to the fruition of that call, together.

Your colleague's, Mr Edwards remarks, calling for continuing the fight to change America until success is achieved is, frankly, ominous. You echoed that call in your remarks. In so doing, you and Mr Edwards do further identify yourselves with the hard core Left lately in control of the Democrat Party. Let us be clear about this: This comes as no surprise at all. And, that that "Left" is the 'enemy domestic' so oft referred to, and very Red. That "Left" is a Totalitarian Political Ideology rising up from within to strike at the heart of America while she is turned to face the 'enemy foreign'. That Left is an 'enemy domestic and foreign' whose grasp exceeds its reach, thanks be to God. Pity, you missed your last chance to come clean.

However, Senator, and this is important: By your campaign and your Speech of Concession you did accomplish something magnificent, intended or deliberate or not is not for this writer to say, which has done America a great service, indeed. Your campaign has been "spirited" and cetainly partisan approaching an extreme such that by the outcome you have managed to enable America to send a message to our friends and foreign enemies of such American solidarity, perhaps unprecedented, before or since December 7th, 1941. And, in so doing, so encouraged all Americans and our many allies in the long and laborious, sometimes tedious and always dangerous time ahead until this present uprising of Islamic Totalitarian Political Ideology is utterly crushed by our hand, LORD willing. By so doing, you have 'changed America' for the better. Thank you.

It has been a long night and day. Wishing you all the best, good night, John F Kerry.

Sincerely,

An American blogger

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Humble Confidence in Providence: President George W Bush Re-Elected President of the United States

2004-11-03T07:22:00.000-08:00

- Praise the LORD -

The lot is cast into the lap;
but the whole disposing thereof
is of the LORD...

Righteousness exalteth a nation:
but sin is a reproach to any people.

It is joy to the just to do judgment:
but destruction shall be to the workers of iniquity.

Rejoice not when thy enemy falleth,
and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth:
Lest the LORD see it, and it desplease him,
and he turn away his wrath from him.

He that saith unto the wicked,
Thou art righteous;
him shall the people curse,
nations shall abhor him:
But to them that rebuke him shall be delight,
and a good blessing shall come upon them.

Where there is no vision,
the people perish:
but he that keepeth the law,
happy is he.

When it goeth well with the righteous,
the city rejoiceth:
and when the wicked perish, there is shouting.

By the blessing of the upright the city is exalted:
but it is overthrown by the mouth of the wicked.

The lot causeth contentions to cease,
and parteth between the mighty.

The evil bow before the good;
and the wicked at the gates of the righteous.

An unjust man is an abomination to the just:
and he that is upright in the way is abomination to the wicked.

When the wicked rise,
men hide themselves:
but when they perish,
the righteous increase.

- Selected from Proverbs

Of the Office of President of the United States of America

2004-11-02T01:02:00.000-08:00

From the
Constitution of the United States of America
in re, the President of the United States

Art.II; Section 1

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the following Oath or Affirmation: - "I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Art. II; Section 2

The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called, into the actual Service of the United States; etc. ...

In the consideration of the many important duties of the President of the United States, one looms large in importance far and above the rest, that of the National Defense. This is so, that there is no impediment found in the Constitution to the President in fact leading troops in the field.

Therefore, consider for a moment the qualities requisite to faithfully discharge such duties, especially in view of the Presidential Election Campaign Season of 2004 now in the throes of its climax, today.

To distill the matter to its most essential, let us state these three:

A Public Record of High Achievement
Evident Decisiveness and Leadership
A Vision for the Future

A fairminded, objective and discerning study of the two major candidates, not to mention the rest, leads one inevitably to one conclusion, alone: There is but one man - one candidate - who fully meets these three criteria.

That is, unless one is dictated to by one's Totalitarian Political Ideology - at the expense of one's own country. Unless one is blinded by Hate, or lust for Power, or great Vanity, there is but one candidate to rely upon to so faithfully execute the Office of the President in the National Defense in a time of War as to have a certain confidence in the successful outcome, come when it may.

America is about Liberty - about Freedom - for all; here, there, everywhere. Freedom may be instilled, but never imposed, as can and does tyranny. When the choice is whether to fight them over there or, to fight them over here, there is but one vote: Fight them over there. And, inasmuch as we are here dealing with, "Enemies, foreign and domestic" - guard your back, the meanwhile.

Freedom must be guarded and defended from those who would steal it, wherever they are. Lovers of Oppression hate Freedom and those that fly the flag of Liberty, for no tyrant can flourish where Freedom rings and Vigilance is sharp. Beware, America!

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Of Comfort is the Sovereignty of God... Therefore, Take Courage: Even This Election is of God

2004-11-02T01:01:00.000-08:00

Know This Surely:

Even a child is known by his doings,
whether his work be pure,
and whether it be right.

The hearing ear, and the seeing eye,
the LORD hath made even both of them.

Bread of deceit is sweet to a man;
but afterwards his mouth
shall be filled with gravel.

The spirit of man is
the candle of the LORD,
searching all
the inward parts of the belly.

Mercy and Truth preserve the king:
and his throne is upholden by mercy.

The king's heart is in the hand
of the LORD,
as the rivers of water:
He turneth it whitersoever He will.

The getting of treasures by a
lying tongue is a vanity
tossed to and fro of them
that seek death.

A wicked man
hardeneth his face:
but as for the upright,
He directeth his way.

He that soweth iniquity
shall reap vanity:
and the rod of his anger
shall fail.

Remove not the ancient landmark,
which thy fathers have set.

- Selected, of Proverbs 20, 21 and 23

Meditation - Now, and Again - 10/31/04

2004-10-31T13:09:00.000-08:00

The Bestiary
1/4
______________

The Lion's Nature

The lion standeth on a hill; if he hear a man hunting,
Or through his sense of smell scent that he draweth nigh,
By whatever way that he will, to the dale he descendeth;
All of his footsteps he after him filleth,
He draweth dust with his tail, where he walketh down,
Either dust or dew, that man may not find him;
He hasteneth down to his den where he may shelter him.
Another trait he hath: when he is just born,
The lion lieth still, he stirreth not from his sleep,
Until the sun hath shone three times about him;
Then his father arouseth him with the roar that he maketh.
The third law hath the lion: when he lieth down to sleep,
He must never lock the lids of his eyes.

Signification

Most high is that hill, which is heaven's kingdom.
Our Lord is that Lion, who liveth there above;
When it did please Him to alight here on earth,
The devil might never find out, though he hunted with cunning,
How He came down, nor how He took His dwelling,
In that gentle maiden, Mary by name,

Who bore Him for man's salvation.
When our Lord was dead, and buried, as His will was,

In a stone He lay still, till it came the third day;
His Father so strengthened Him that He rose from the dead then,
To bring us to life.
He watcheth, as His will is, like a shepherd over his fold;
He is the Shepherd, we are the sheep; shield us He will,
If we harken to His word, that we go nowhere astray.

- Medieval English Verse and Prose, Early Thirteenth Century, Roger Sherman Loomis and Rudolph Willard; Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc, 1948

The Return

2004-10-27T10:48:00.000-07:00

They turned him loose; he bowed his head,
A felon, bent and grey.
His face was even as the Dead,
He had no word to say.

He sought the home of his old love,
To look on her once more;
And where her roses breathed above,
He cowered beside the door.

She sat there in the shining room;
Her hair was silver grey.
He stared and stared from out of the gloom;
He turned to go away.

Her roses rustled overhead.
She saw, with sudden start.
"I knew that you would come," she said,
And held him to her heart.

Her face was rapt and angel-sweet;
She touched his hair of grey;

. . . .

But he, sob-shaken, at her feet,
Could only pray and pray.

- Robert Service

John F Kerry Skates - While the Rest Pay

2004-10-25T07:23:00.000-07:00

JFK Skates While the Rest Are Left to Do Their Duty, Alone

'Unlike McCain, Bush, and Gore... Kerry has adamantly refused to authorize the release of his military records. Most think it's because of his phony battle medals. I think the real reason is below.

'Kerry was not granted an Honorable Discharge until March 2001, almost 30 years after his ostensible service term had ended! This is very much out of the ordinary, and highly suspect. There are five classes of Discharge: Honorable, General, Other Than Honorable, Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable.

'My guess is that Kerry was Discharged in the '70s, but not Honorably. He appealed this sometime while Clinton was doing trouser-tricks in the Oval Office. Political pressure was applied, and the Honorable Discharge was then granted. His file is probably rife with reports of this, submissions and hearings on the appeal, reports of his "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy, along with protests that were filed with respect to his alleged valor under fire. Hopefully, this will blow up in his face.' ============================================================================

'On 18 Feb. 1966 John Kerry signed a 6 year enlistment contract with the Navy (plus a 6-month extension during wartime).

'On 18 Feb. 1966 John Kerry also signed an Officer Candidate contract for 6 years -- 5 years of ACTIVE duty & ACTIVE Naval Reserves, and 1 year of inactive standby reserves (See items #4 & #5).

'Because John Kerry was discharged from TOTAL ACTIVE DUTY of only 3 years and 18 days on 3 Jan. 1970, he was then required to attend 48 drills per year, and not more than 17 days active duty for training. Kerry was also subject to the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Additionally, Kerry, as a commissioned officer, was prohibited from making adverse statements against his chain of command or statements against his country, especially during time of war. It is also interesting to note that Kerry did not obtain an honorable discharge until Mar. 12, 2001 even though his service obligation should have ended July 1, 1972.

'Lt. John Kerry's letter of 21 Nov. 1969 asking for an early release from active US Navy duty falsely states "My current regular period of obligated service would be completed in December of this year."

'On Jan. 3, 1970 Lt. John Kerry was transferred to the Naval Reserve Manpower Center in Bainridge, Maryland.

'Where are Kerry's Performance Records for 2 years of obligated Ready Reserve, the 48 drills per year required and his 17 days of active duty per year training while Kerry was in the Ready Reserves? Have these records been released?

'Has anyone ever talked to Kerry's Commanding Officer at the Naval Reserve Center where Kerry drilled?

'On 1 July 1972 Lt. J ohn Kerry was transferred to Standby Reserve - Inactive. On 16 February 1978, Lt. John Kerry was discharged from US Naval Reserve.

'Below are some of the crimes Lt. Kerry USNR committed as a Ready Reservist, while he was acting as a leader of Vietnam Veterans Against the War:

'1. Lt. Kerry attended many rallies where the Vietcong flag was displayed while our flag was desecrated, defiled, and mocked, thereby giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

'2. Lt. Kerry was involved in a meeting that voted on assassinating members of the US Senate.

'3. Lt. Kerry lied under oath against fellow soldiers before the US Senate about crimes committed in Vietnam.

'4. Lt. Kerry professed to being a war criminal on national television, and condemned the military and the USA.

'5. Lt. Kerry met with NVA and Vietcong communist leaders in Paris, in direct violation of the UCMJ and the U.S. Constitution.

'Lt. Kerry by his own words & actions violated the UCMJ and the U.S. Code while serving as a Navy officer. Lt. Kerry stands in violation of Article 3, Section 3 of the U.S. Constitution. Lt. Kerry's 1970 meeting with NVA Communists in Paris is in direct violation of the UCMJ's Article 104 part 904, and U.S. Code 18 U.S.C. 953. That meeting, and Kerry's subsequent support of the communists while leading mass protests against our military in the year that followed, also place him in direct violation of our Constitution's Article 3, Section 3, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare.

'The Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President ... having previously taken an oath to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

Stolen Honor
'Kerry was not granted an Honorable Discharge until March 2001, almost 30 years after his ostensible service term had ended! This is very much out of the ordinary, and highly suspect. There are five classes of Discharge: Honorable, General, Other Than Honorable, Bad Conduct, and Dishonorable.'

Contributor: A. L. "Steve" Nash, MAC Ret, UDT/SEAL SEAL Authentication Team - Director AuthentiSEAL Phone 707 438 0120 "The only service where all investigators are US Navy SEALs" http://www.authentiseal.org/

Hat Tip: J.P. Stroup, Senior

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Keep Thy Heart With All Diligence - for out of it are the issues of life...

2004-10-24T15:33:00.000-07:00

Enter not into the path of the wicked, and go not in the way of evil men.
Avoid it, pass not by it, turn from it, and pass away.
For they sleep not, except they have done mischief; and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.
For they eat the bread of wickedness, and drink the wine of violence.
But the path of the just is as the shining light, that shineth more and more unto the perfect day.
The way of the wicked is as darkness: they know not at what they stumble. - Proverbs 4. 14-19
Scripture Resources
Bible Gateway
Bible Search

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

New Soldier, indeed ...

2004-10-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

See http://kerry-04.com
See http://www.wintersoldier.com

Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam. Photo is displayed in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon.

"Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Vietnam. Photo displayed in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon. The June 2, 2004, edition of "Viet Nam News" is held beside the Kerry photograph to confirm the date the photo was taken. English-language placard below photograph reads: "Mr. Do Muoi, Secretary General of the Vietnam Communist Party met with Congressmen and Veterans Delegation in Vietnam (July 15-18, 1993)."

"The existence of photographs showing Senator Kerry meeting with General Secretary Do Muoi is not in question. In the course of pursuing the POW and MIA issue, it is reasonable that Senator Kerry would seek to meet with the communist leaders of Vietnam.

"The critical issue is that the Vietnamese communists have chosen to honor Senator Kerry in their War Crimes Museum for his assistance in helping them achieve victory over the United States. The sign outside the entrance to the room where Kerry's photo is displayed reads: "The World Supports Vietnam in its Resistance." Also exhibited inside the room are protest banners and emblems from various nations and photographs of international leaders who supported North Vietnam's cause.

"Photograph of Nguyen Thi Dinh and Jane Fonda displayed in the Women's Museum, Saigon, May 28, 2004."

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Stolen Honor - Raison D'etre - Update and Programme Schedule Access

2004-10-14T18:21:00.000-07:00
Happy to relate, Sinclair Broadcasting and its sixty-two affiliates will be airing "Stolen Honor" during 21 - 24 October.

Specifically, in the Sacramento, California market, at 1900 PDT Saturday, 23 October, on KOVR, Channel 13, will Stolen Honor be aired.

The issue is simply this:

"A thousand enemies cannot inflict the injury upon our arms which can be done by one concealed enemy in our midst..." - MG John Pope, 23 July 1862

A good witness is General Vo Nguyen Giap - the most celebrated military hero of Communist North Vietnam, which Senator, then Lieutenant John Kerry, served - in fact, John Kerry was recognized for such "aid and comfort" in 1983, when he received an award for his special contributions to the Communist victory in Vietnam from the incoming general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Do Moi. See a photo of John Kerry, in recognition of his contributions to the 'great victory in VIETNAM' by the North Vietnamese Communists, in a place of honor in the War Remnants Museum. Photo courtesy wintersoldier.com

Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Vietnam, July 15-18, 1993. This photo is part of a tribute to John Kerry in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon.

John Kerry authored a book called The New Soldier - but since military heroes are back in vogue, he now sues anyone who reproduces the cover of this book on any website, especially a website like http://kerry 04.com.

The cover picture is a mockery of the American flag raising on Iwo Jima in WW II - you can see it here, until John Kerry's lawyers forces ~ elderflower ~ to take it down.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

"Saint Patrick's Breastplate" - "The Deer's Cry"

2004-10-12T11:33:00.000-07:00
I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness
Of the Creator of Creation.

I arise today
Through the strength of Christ's birth with his baptism,
Through the strength of his crucifixion with his burial,
Through the strength of his resurrection with his ascension,
Through the strength of his descent for the judgment of Doom.

I arise today
Through the strength of the love of Cherubim,
In obedience of angels,
In the service of archangels,
In hope of resurrection to meet with reward,
In prayers of patriarchs,
In predictions of prophets,
In preaching of apostles,
In faith of confessors,
In innocence of holy virgins,
In deeds of righteous men.

I arise today
Through the strength of heaven:
Light of sun,
Radiance of moon,
Splendor of fire,
Speed of lightning,
Swiftness of wind,
Depth of sea,
Stability of earth,
Firmness of rock.

I arise today
Through God's strength to pilot me:
God's might to uphold me,
God's wisdom to guide me,
God's eye to look before me,
God's ear to hear me,
God's word to speak for me,
God's hand to guard me,
God's way to lie before me,
God's shield to protect me,
God's host to save me
From snares of devils,
From temptations of vices,
From everyone who shall wish me ill,
Afar and anear,
Alone and in multitude.

I summon today all these powers between me and those evils,
Against every cruel merciless power that may oppose my body and soul,
Against incantations of false prophets,
Against black laws of pagandom,
Against false laws of heretics,
Against craft of idolatry,
Against spells of witches and smiths and wizards,
Against every knowledge that corrupts man's body and soul.

Christ to shield me today
Against poison, against burning,
Against drowning, against wounding,
So that there may come to me abundance of reward.
Christ with me, Christ before me, Christ behind me,
Christ in me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me,
Christ on my right, Christ on my left,
Christ when I lie down, Christ when I sit down, Christ when I arise,
Christ in the heart of every man who thinks of me,
Christ in the mouth of everyone who speaks of me,
Christ in every eye that sees me,
Christ in every ear that hears me.

I arise today
Through a mighty strength, the invocation of the Trinity,
Through belief in the threeness,
Through confession of the oneness,
Of the Creator of Creation.

- How the Irish Saved Civilization The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe - Thomas Cahill, Anchor Books, Doubleday - Library of Congress Catalogue of the Nan A. Talese/Doubleday hardcover edition DA930.5.C34 1995, ISBN 0-385-41849-3, ppg. 116-119

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Stolen Honor - U.S. and U.S. Servicemen Communist N Vietnam POWs Pay for Kerry's Lies

2004-10-12T07:16:00.000-07:00
"A thousand enemies cannot inflict the injury upon our arms which can be done by one concealed enemy in our midst..." - MG John Pope, 23 July 1862

View Stolen Honor this weekend on the sixty-two stations of Sinclair Broadcasting. Well Done, Sinclair

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

First, Sputnik Frightens, Then Thrills - Now, SpaceShip One Just Thrills!

2004-10-04T20:44:00.000-07:00
Forty-seven years ago today the world changed forever when Sputnik took to the skies overhead - from the U.S.S.R.! Today, Sputnik is celebrated for the scientific achievement it surely was and remains with the successful winning of the X-Prize by Burt Rutan's SpaceShip One going in to space a second time, well within the fortnight's deadline set changes the world, again - while Gordon Cooper, one of the original "Right Stuff" astronauts and one of the original Mercury 'class', passed away.

The future, in earthen terms, is bright for us to reach the 'stars' - our local space within our grasp, LORD willing, anyway. Thanks to private enterprise.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

John F Kerry - Cryptocommie?

2004-09-29T19:07:00.000-07:00
'A good, impartial reference in my defense is General Vo Nguyen Giap - the most celebrated military hero of Communist North Vietnam, which I served - in fact, I was recognized for such "aid and comfort" in 1983, when I received an award for my special contributions to the Communist victory from the incoming general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Do Moi. See, here is a photo of me in recognition of my contributions to the 'great victory in VIETNAM' by the North Vietnamese Communists in a place of honor in that War Remnants Museum.' Photo courtesy wintersoldier.com

Photograph of John Kerry meeting with Comrade Do Muoi, General Secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, in Vietnam, July 15-18, 1993. This photo is part of a tribute to John Kerry in the War Remnants Museum (formerly the "War Crimes Museum") in Saigon.

'I topped off my coddling of Commies by authoring a book called The New Soldier - but since military heroes are back in vogue, I now sue anyone who reproduces the cover of that book on any website, especially a website like http://kerry 04.com.

'The cover picture is a mockery of the Iwo Jima flag raising in WW II - you can see it here, until my lawyers get them to take it down.

'I testified - actually, as a false witness - against my fellow members of the Armed Forces of the United States in 1971, referring to them and to myself [that part was right, at least] as "War Criminals", which testimony was not only constantly replayed to demoralize, but the assertion was also used to justify horrific tortures of U.S. Servicemen in the hands of the North Vietnamese Communists in places such as "Hanoi Hilton".

'I also organized and executed hostile public disturbances to influence the American public - to manipulate them to the ends dictated by Hanoi and, ultimately, world-wide international communism. We won, America lost.

'For a brief review of my nearly twenty year career of voting against the American people and their national defense and for their ever increasing burden of taxation, see here.'

Mr Kerry has stated he sees two Americas - to which Vice President Dick Cheney has simply replied, 'That is fair, for we see two John Kerrys'.

Could he also have meant, 'Yellow and Red' in reference to our Tan in a Can hero, our very own Agent Orange, John F Kerry?

The suggestion has been made that, if ever, perhaps this may not be exactly the best time for subversion* by one International Political Ideology in the form of Communism while the Free World faces the destruction of Western Civilization, and of Israel and America in particular, in war by another International Political Ideology comprised of International Islamic Terrorism. Of course, they just might not quite see it that way. In addition, with the United States National Elections in the offing, it would not do at all to find one such enemy masquerading as the other in the commission of acts of terrorism so as to attempt to affect the outcome of the elections or to embarrass the government. Ultimately, one would subject man to secular humanistic dictatorship while the other would subject man to "Shariah", Islamic law, in all areas of life, for, 'there is no law but that of Allah'. In the end, the object of both is to destroy freedom.

*Subvert

The Declaration of Independence
Foundational Documents of the United States And, a Line by Line Commentary on the Constitution of the United States

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship." - Patrick Henry

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison, "The Father of Our Constitution", and the fourth President of the United States of America

"I have long believed that the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, they are the universal right of all God's children." - Ronald Reagan (1991)

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Plain Spoken, with an ear to the ground.

2004-09-27T18:08:00.000-07:00
The United States of America. There is no other country on the face of the earth ever to have done so much good - and against such resistance - over such a period of time in the history of man. Full Stop.

Get used to it.

Sanctifying "Dissent" while abusing that right and hiding behind it to undermine the very basis of this and all the other freedoms made plain in the creation of this country is, in the final analysis, treachery most foul.

Did you hear? Hear it in the news? Only maybe. Nevertheless: We are at war. International Islamic Terrorism versus Freedom. Full Stop. They seek Totalitarian Political Ideological dominion over all peoples of all kinds, everywhere. This is not a criminal gang to police but barbaric war against a peaceful people, just like old times.

But wait! There is another enemy lurking in the shadows, finding every opportunity to weaken and corrupt Freedom and her fountains, the free nations of the earth, especially the United States. Seeking its opportunity to generate such anarchy and chaos that the populace will cry out for law and order - at any price. Then, lo and behold, or, Voilá!, in goes the knife - and there we are, Totalitarian Political Ideology installed on the necks, saddled on the backs of a once free people - perhaps never to be dismounted, again, no, not for a very long time.

Appeasement, Toleration, Accommodation, Diplomacy, Negotiations - these are the words of defeat, terror and chaos - and they are only spoken by one party in the United States: The Democrat Party and its friend, the U.S. Communist Party. Full Stop.

Let us share a word of plain speech: When one hears hoofbeats in America, think horses, not zebras.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Inasmuch as the News Mediæ Is Likely to Disappoint, here find the Address given by President George W Bush 21 September 2004 at UN General Assembly

2004-09-21T17:45:00.000-07:00
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
September 21, 2004

President Speaks to the United Nations General Assembly
United Nations Headquarters
New York, New York

11:00 A.M. EDT

PRESIDENT BUSH: Mr. Secretary General, Mr. President, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen: Thank you for the honor of addressing this General Assembly. The American people respect the idealism that gave life to this organization. And we respect the men and women of the U.N., who stand for peace and human rights in every part of the world. Welcome to New York City, and welcome to the United States of America.

During the past three years, I've addressed this General Assembly in a time of tragedy for my country, and in times of decision for all of us. Now we gather at a time of tremendous opportunity for the U.N. and for all peaceful nations. For decades, the circle of liberty and security and development has been expanding in our world. This progress has brought unity to Europe, self-government to Latin America and Asia, and new hope to Africa. Now we have the historic chance to widen the circle even further, to fight radicalism and terror with justice and dignity, to achieve a true peace, founded on human freedom.

The United Nations and my country share the deepest commitments. Both the American Declaration of Independence and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaim the equal value and dignity of every human life. That dignity is honored by the rule of law, limits on the power of the state, respect for women, protection of private property, free speech, equal justice, and religious tolerance. That dignity is dishonored by oppression, corruption, tyranny, bigotry, terrorism and all violence against the innocent. And both of our founding documents affirm that this bright line between justice and injustice - between right and wrong - is the same in every age, and every culture, and every nation.

Wise governments also stand for these principles for very practical and realistic reasons. We know that dictators are quick to choose aggression, while free nations strive to resolve differences in peace. We know that oppressive governments support terror, while free governments fight the terrorists in their midst. We know that free peoples embrace progress and life, instead of becoming the recruits for murderous ideologies.

Every nation that wants peace will share the benefits of a freer world. And every nation that seeks peace has an obligation to help build that world. Eventually, there is no safe isolation from terror networks, or failed states that shelter them, or outlaw regimes, or weapons of mass destruction. Eventually, there is no safety in looking away, seeking the quiet life by ignoring the struggles and oppression of others.

In this young century, our world needs a new definition of security. Our security is not merely found in spheres of influence, or some balance of power. The security of our world is found in the advancing rights of mankind.

These rights are advancing across the world - and across the world, the enemies of human rights are responding with violence. Terrorists and their allies believe the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the American Bill of Rights, and every charter of liberty ever written, are lies, to be burned and destroyed and forgotten. They believe that dictators should control every mind and tongue in the Middle East and beyond. They believe that suicide and torture and murder are fully justified to serve any goal they declare. And they act on their beliefs.

In the last year alone, terrorists have attacked police stations, and banks, and commuter trains, and synagogues - and a school filled with children. This month in Beslan we saw, once again, how the terrorists measure their success - in the death of the innocent, and in the pain of grieving families. Svetlana Dzebisov was held hostage, along with her son and her nephew - her nephew did not survive. She recently visited the cemetery, and saw what she called the "little graves." She said, "I understand that there is evil in the world. But what have these little creatures done?"

Members of the United Nations, the Russian children did nothing to deserve such awful suffering, and fright, and death. The people of Madrid and Jerusalem and Istanbul and Baghdad have done nothing to deserve sudden and random murder. These acts violate the standards of justice in all cultures, and the principles of all religions. All civilized nations are in this struggle together, and all must fight the murderers.

We're determined to destroy terror networks wherever they operate, and the United States is grateful to every nation that is helping to seize terrorist assets, track down their operatives, and disrupt their plans. We're determined to end the state sponsorship of terror - and my nation is grateful to all that participated in the liberation of Afghanistan. We're determined to prevent proliferation, and to enforce the demands of the world - and my nation is grateful to the soldiers of many nations who have helped to deliver the Iraqi people from an outlaw dictator.

The dictator agreed in 1991, as a condition of a cease-fire, to fully comply with all Security Council resolutions - then ignored more than a decade of those resolutions. Finally, the Security Council promised serious consequences for his defiance. And the commitments we make must have meaning. When we say "serious consequences," for the sake of peace, there must be serious consequences. And so a coalition of nations enforced the just demands of the world.

Defending our ideals is vital, but it is not enough. Our broader mission as U.N. members is to apply these ideals to the great issues of our time. Our wider goal is to promote hope and progress as the alternatives to hatred and violence. Our great purpose is to build a better world beyond the war on terror.

Because we believe in human dignity, America and many nations have established a global fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis, and malaria. In three years the contributing countries have funded projects in more than 90 countries, and pledged a total of $5.6 billion to these efforts. America has undertaken a $15 billion effort to provide prevention and treatment and humane care in nations afflicted by AIDS, placing a special focus on 15 countries where the need is most urgent. AIDS is the greatest health crisis of our time, and our unprecedented commitment will bring new hope to those who have walked too long in the shadow of death.

Because we believe in human dignity, America and many nations have joined together to confront the evil of trafficking in human beings. We're supporting organizations that rescue the victims, passing stronger anti-trafficking laws, and warning travelers that they will be held to account for supporting this modern form of slavery. Women and children should never be exploited for pleasure or greed, anywhere on Earth.

Because we believe in human dignity, we should take seriously the protection of life from exploitation under any pretext. In this session, the U.N. will consider a resolution sponsored by Costa Rica calling for a comprehensive ban on human cloning. I support that resolution and urge all governments to affirm a basic ethical principle: No human life should ever be produced or destroyed for the benefit of another.

Because we believe in human dignity, America and many nations have changed the way we fight poverty, curb corruption, and provide aid. In 2002 we created the Monterrey Consensus, a bold approach that links new aid from developed nations to real reform in developing ones. And through the Millennium Challenge Account, my nation is increasing our aid to developing nations that expand economic freedom and invest in the education and health of their own people.

Because we believe in human dignity, America and many nations have acted to lift the crushing burden of debt that limits the growth of developing economies, and holds millions of people in poverty. Since these efforts began in 1996, poor countries with the heaviest debt burdens have received more than $30 billion of relief. And to prevent the build-up of future debt, my country and other nations have agreed that international financial institutions should increasingly provide new aid in the form of grants, rather than loans.

Because we believe in human dignity, the world must have more effective means to stabilize regions in turmoil, and to halt religious violence and ethnic cleansing. We must create permanent capabilities to respond to future crises. The United States and Italy have proposed a Global Peace Operations Initiative. G-8 countries will train 75,000 peacekeepers, initially from Africa, so they can conduct operations on that continent and elsewhere. The countries of the G-8 will help this peacekeeping force with deployment and logistical needs.

At this hour, the world is witnessing terrible suffering and horrible crimes in the Darfur region of Sudan, crimes my government has concluded are genocide. The United States played a key role in efforts to broker a cease-fire, and we're providing humanitarian assistance to the Sudanese people. Rwanda and Nigeria have deployed forces in Sudan to help improve security so aid can be delivered. The Security Council adopted a new resolution that supports an expanded African Union force to help prevent further bloodshed, and urges the government of Sudan to stop flights by military aircraft in Darfur. We congratulate the members of the Council on this timely and necessary action. I call on the government of Sudan to honor the cease-fire it signed, and to stop the killing in Darfur.

Because we believe in human dignity, peaceful nations must stand for the advance of democracy. No other system of government has done more to protect minorities, to secure the rights of labor, to raise the status of women, or to channel human energy to the pursuits of peace. We've witnessed the rise of democratic governments in predominantly Hindu and Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish and Christian cultures. Democratic institutions have taken root in modern societies, and in traditional societies. When it comes to the desire for liberty and justice, there is no clash of civilizations. People everywhere are capable of freedom, and worthy of freedom.

Finding the full promise of representative government takes time, as America has found in two centuries of debate and struggle. Nor is there any - only one form of representative government - because democracies, by definition, take on the unique character of the peoples that create them. Yet this much we know with certainty: The desire for freedom resides in every human heart. And that desire cannot be contained forever by prison walls, or martial laws, or secret police. Over time, and across the Earth, freedom will find a way.

Freedom is finding a way in Iraq and Afghanistan - and we must continue to show our commitment to democracies in those nations. The liberty that many have won at a cost must be secured. As members of the United Nations, we all have a stake in the success of the world's newest democracies.

Not long ago, outlaw regimes in Baghdad and Kabul threatened the peace and sponsored terrorists. These regimes destabilized one of the world's most vital - and most volatile - regions. They brutalized their peoples, in defiance of all civilized norms. Today, the Iraqi and Afghan people are on the path to democracy and freedom. The governments that are rising will pose no threat to others. Instead of harboring terrorists, they're fighting terrorist groups. And this progress is good for the long-term security of us all.

The Afghan people are showing extraordinary courage under difficult conditions. They're fighting to defend their nation from Taliban holdouts, and helping to strike against the terrorists killers. They're reviving their economy. They've adopted a constitution that protects the rights of all, while honoring their nation's most cherished traditions. More than 10 million Afghan citizens - over 4 million of them women - are now registered to vote in next month's presidential election. To any who still would question whether Muslim societies can be democratic societies, the Afghan people are giving their answer.

Since the last meeting of this General Assembly, the people of Iraq have regained sovereignty. Today, in this hall, the Prime Minister of Iraq and his delegation represent a country that has rejoined the community of nations. The government of Prime Minister Allawi has earned the support of every nation that believes in self-determination and desires peace. And under Security Council resolutions 1511 and 1546, the world is providing that support. The U.N., and its member nations, must respond to Prime Minister Allawi's request, and do more to help build an Iraq that is secure, democratic, federal, and free.

A democratic Iraq has ruthless enemies, because terrorists know the stakes in that country. They know that a free Iraq in the heart of the Middle East will be a decisive blow against their ambitions for that region. So a terrorists group associated with al Qaeda is now one of the main groups killing the innocent in Iraq today - conducting a campaign of bombings against civilians, and the beheadings of bound men. Coalition forces now serving in Iraq are confronting the terrorists and foreign fighters, so peaceful nations around the world will never have to face them within our own borders.

Our coalition is standing beside a growing Iraqi security force. The NATO Alliance is providing vital training to that force. More than 35 nations have contributed money and expertise to help rebuild Iraq's infrastructure. And as the Iraqi interim government moves toward national elections, officials from the United Nations are helping Iraqis build the infrastructure of democracy. These selfless people are doing heroic work, and are carrying on the great legacy of Sergio de Mello.

As we have seen in other countries, one of the main terrorist goals is to undermine, disrupt, and influence election outcomes. We can expect terrorist attacks to escalate as Afghanistan and Iraq approach national elections. The work ahead is demanding. But these difficulties will not shake our conviction that the future of Afghanistan and Iraq is a future of liberty. The proper response to difficulty is not to retreat, it is to prevail.

The advance of freedom always carries a cost, paid by the bravest among us. America mourns the losses to our nation, and to many others. And today, I assure every friend of Afghanistan and Iraq, and every enemy of liberty: We will stand with the people of Afghanistan and Iraq until their hopes of freedom and security are fulfilled.

These two nations will be a model for the broader Middle East, a region where millions have been denied basic human rights and simple justice. For too long, many nations, including my own, tolerated, even excused, oppression in the Middle East in the name of stability. Oppression became common, but stability never arrived. We must take a different approach. We must help the reformers of the Middle East as they work for freedom, and strive to build a community of peaceful, democratic nations.

This commitment to democratic reform is essential to resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict. Peace will not be achieved by Palestinian rulers who intimidate opposition, tolerate corruption, and maintain ties to terrorist groups. The longsuffering Palestinian people deserve better. They deserve true leaders capable of creating and governing a free and peaceful Palestinian state.

Even after the setbacks and frustrations of recent months, goodwill and hard effort can achieve the promise of the road map to peace. Those who would lead a new Palestinian state should adopt peaceful means to achieve the rights of their people, and create the reformed institutions of a stable democracy. Arab states should end incitement in their own media, cut off public and private funding for terrorism, and establish normal relations with Israel. Israel should impose a settlement freeze, dismantle unauthorized outposts, end the daily humiliation of the Palestinian people, and avoid any actions that prejudice final negotiations. And world leaders should withdraw all favor and support from any Palestinian ruler who fails his people and betrays their cause.

The democratic hopes we see growing in the Middle East are growing everywhere. In the words of the Burmese democracy advocate, Aung San Suu Kyi: "We do not accept the notion that democracy is a Western value. To the contrary; democracy simply means good government rooted in responsibility, transparency, and accountability." Here at the United Nations, you know this to be true. In recent years, this organization has helped create a new democracy in East Timor, and the U.N. has aided other nations in making the transition to self-rule.

Because I believe the advance of liberty is the path to both a safer and better world, today I propose establishing a Democracy Fund within the United Nations. This is a great calling for this great organization. The fund would help countries lay the foundations of democracy by instituting the rule of law and independent courts, a free press, political parties and trade unions. Money from the fund would also help set up voter precincts and polling places, and support the work of election monitors. To show our commitment to the new Democracy Fund, the United States will make an initial contribution. I urge other nations to contribute, as well.

Today, I've outlined a broad agenda to advance human dignity, and enhance the security of all of us. The defeat of terror, the protection of human rights, the spread of prosperity, the advance of democracy - these causes, these ideals, call us to great work in the world. Each of us alone can only do so much. Together, we can accomplish so much more.

History will honor the high ideals of this organization. The charter states them with clarity: "to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war," "to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights," "to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom."

Let history also record that our generation of leaders followed through on these ideals, even in adversity. Let history show that in a decisive decade, members of the United Nations did not grow weary in our duties, or waver in meeting them. I'm confident that this young century will be liberty's century. I believe we will rise to this moment, because I know the character of so many nations and leaders represented here today. And I have faith in the transforming power of freedom.

May God bless you. (Applause.)

END 11:21 A.M. EDT

- President of the United States, George W Bush http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2004/09/20040921-3.html

"I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." - Senator Zel Miller Democrat, Georgia Wednesday 1 September 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

'It's the National Security, stupid'

2004-09-20T07:11:00.000-07:00

God Bless America

"While the storm clouds gather far across the sea,
Let us swear allegiance to a land that's free,
Let us all be grateful for a land so fair,
As we raise our voices in a solemn prayer. "

God Bless America,
Land that I love.
Stand beside her, and guide her
Thru the night with a light from above.
From the mountains, to the prairies,
To the oceans, white with foam
God bless America, My home sweet home.

Hear The Music & View the Lyrics by Irving Berlin at this Internet Location: http://www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/godblessamerica.html
© Copyright 1938, 1939 by Irving Berlin
© Copyright Renewed 1965, 1966 by Irving Berlin
© Copyright Assigned to the Trustees of the God Bless America Fund
International Copyright Secured. All Rights Reserved.
Used by Permission

The Disarming Senator

Military Service - The Real Story

Stolen Honor - Wounds That Never Heal

"George Bush is a man I trust to protect my grandchildren" - General Tommy Franks, USA, Ret.

"It is up to us to safeguard and enrich America for our families. We are going to fight them over there or, we are going to fight them over here - and I will continue to vote to fight them over there." - General Tommy Franks

"We will not tire, we will not falter and we will not fail." - President U.S. George W Bush 20 September 2001

"I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." - Senator Zel Miller Democrat, Georgia Wednesday 1 September 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Teflon America - "We Will Be Relentless" - President George W Bush

2004-09-15T07:47:00.000-07:00
International Islamic Terror World-Wide ... only Criminal Action, or is International Islamic Terror Warfare?

Prophet of Doom - Islam’s Terrorist Dogma, In Muhammad’s Own Words

WASHINGTON TIMES reporter Bill Gertz reveals top-secret and secret documents on illicit weapons transfers to Iran and other rogue states
Do all our "Allies" in Europe, especially those who have withheld their support in the War on Terrorism, play fair?

Overdue Exposé of Liberal Treachery Against America - from the Cold War to the War on Terrorism - by Ann Coulter

Wonder Who Will Suffer Should Israel Go Down?

Terror Breeds in Hate

Fake Documents, to Stage a Scandal That Ain't? Whodunit? What Did CBS Know, And When Did CBS - and Dan Rather - Know It?To win at all costs - What will they do, how far will they go? Well ...

"George Bush is a man I trust to protect my grandchildren" - General Tommy Franks, today, on Belly of The Beast - Hogue in The Morning, KTKZ.com 1380 AM, Sacramento

Colleagues, Shipmates and Superior Officers Do Speak Out and Tell the Truth About

The Author: Senator John F Kerry, Democrat Candidate for President, 2004 Campaign, seen seated below, with Jane Fonda in foreground.

"It is up to us to safeguard and enrich America for our families. We are going to fight them over there or, we are going to fight them over here - and I will continue to vote to fight them over there." - General Tommy Franks

"I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." - Senator Zel Miller Democrat, Georgia Wednesday 1 September 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City

To Those Who are Turning the Other Cheek for Us in Combat, No Cold Shoulder From the Home Front, Please

"It is up to us to safeguard and enrich America for our families. We are going to fight them over there or, we are going to fight them over here - and I will continue to vote to fight them over there." - General Tommy Franks

Please Support Our Coalition Troops - Many get no mail or contact from home at all ... and it can get lonely, out there - The War will be long and hard. To Help.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Which has the Vision, the Willpower & the Backbone to Best Protect My Family?

2004-09-11T06:10:00.000-07:00
Deuteronomy 19:15
One witness is not enough to convict a man accused of any crime or offense he may have committed. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.

Matthew 18:16
But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses'.

Witness the First

Witness the Second

To review the record of Democrat Candidate for President, 2004, John F Kerry, on his own terms.

The testimony of one who knows both candidates well: "I ask which leader is it today that has the vision, the willpower and, yes, the backbone to best protect my family?

The clear answer to that question has placed me in this hall with you tonight. For my family is more important than my party.

There is but one man to whom I am willing to entrust their future and that man's name is George Bush." - Senator Zel Miller Democrat, Georgia Wednesday 1 September 2004 Republican National Convention, New York City

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

1.3 Billion Muslims - Terrorist Sympathizers est. 20% - "Splinter Fraction" Terrorists est. 1% = 1.3 Million

2004-09-10T08:03:00.000-07:00
Muslims are many. Were the many Muslims to say, "No" to the terrorists in its ranks, the terror would stop. Until now, none such has occurred. Since the birth of modern terrorism by Yasser Arafat was coddled, terror has smoldered, flickered, grown - and now flames of death jump from place to place about the globe; having been fanned by the fetid breath of hate, intensified with ignorance, envy and lies, Islamic Terror consumes any and all standing in the way of killing Jews and Americans, who are emblematic of modernity, capitalism, power and freedom.

Some have said that not all muslims are terrorists, while all terrorists are muslims. No one has contested this, anywhere. Now, Islam begins to answer. Let us observe with wariness born of understanding the Koranic tenet of deception while "moderates" among Islam begin, perhaps, to bestir themselves after the atrocity of Islamic Terror visited upon the children, staff, faculty and families of Middle School One, Beslan, Russia, last week.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Prevent Defense - Disaster for America, No Less Than for Republicans

2004-09-09T17:19:00.000-07:00
Polls, as much as they are regarded today, much to the disgust of days gone by, as it were, strongly suggest candidate John Kerry falling both in popularity and position in the 2004 presidential race for election. Now is not the time to ease off and turn to a 'prevent defense', seeking only to keep them from winning, instead of going forward to as great a lead and as thorough a victory as can be accomplished.

Remember what Mr Hugh Hewitt has said, If It Ain't Close, They Can't Cheat

Loathe to provide any support to the strong national security stance of the the President of these united States in a time of war, the Media in this country has avoided coverage of the Baslan Middle School Massacre in Russia carried out by Islamist terrorists; where grudging reportage does occur, the perpetrators are universally referred to by *any* descriptive term, but that of 'terrorist'. Mr. Putin, Leader of Russia, has no such scruples in his announcement that, henceforth, Russia reserves the right of preemptive attack on anyone - any terrorists - anywhere in the world after confessing Russia had been weak, inviting the attacks by her anti-Israeli stance and appeasement and compromise in the face of terrorist saber rattling. Mr. Putin let it be known that Russia has requested the aid of the original terrorist fighters, the Israelis, in revamping Russia's anti-terror measures.

The Media, in the form of CBS and Dan Rather, in particular, in their haste to have any thing negative to report about the President of these united States in a time of war, and thus to undermine the national security of America, have either themselves or allowed themselves to be used to attempt to foist a fraud - a hoax upon the people of the United States in presenting as authentic documents which appear upon competent examination to be forged. Haste makes waste.

'The only man I know with the vision, the will power and the backbone to protect my family is the President, George W Bush.' - Senator Zel Miller, Georgia Democrat 1 September 2004 Republican National Convention Keynote Speaker

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Media Compromises National Security for Ideological Agenda

2004-09-06T20:13:00.000-07:00
We are fast approaching the eleventh of September 2004 - It is now called Patriot Day.

So, what is our media doing, lately? Bashing George W Bush, the President of these united States of America, finding nothing good about America, Americans nor the American government, about anywhere one looks. Whatever seems to support or reinforce the present Administration is some how left unreported or relegated to the back page and whatever that could in any way be construed as some way, some how in any way good for the Democrat candidate for President is highlighted and much trumpeted about; while daring to raise any question of that candidate's highly questionable record in matters of fact are viciously attacked as lies; and honest men are maligned for speaking out, at last. Our faithful - to whom? - 'fourth estate' focuses upon the weather and makes rather transparent observations and arch looks as if to implicate the President as being some how at fault for the sad loss in the course of duty today of seven or, by now, perhaps more of our troops, together with a lesser number of Iraqi National Guard at the Iragi Front on the war on terrorism. Our media refuses to report the war on terrorism as world wide and Iraq as but one front in that war.

Little was said a couple weeks ago by our media but to lament the poor Palestinian Hamas which, once again, have blown numbers of themselves up in order to just kill a few more Jews. But that media sure does continue to attack Israel for putting up a barrier to prevent such attacks - and the deaths on both sides and that media fails to identify the Hamas and PLO, and so on for what they in fact are and have always been: Terrorists. Moral relativism makes crazy. It is not a real world, our Left world view, is. Our media says little or nothing about the series of terror attacks in Russia the past week or so; is slow to so identify them as the Islamist terror attacks they are and parsimonious in their coverage, lest such news garner momentum for the strong national defense stance of our present government's Administration. It would seem this media, peering through its peculiar world view, fails to acknowledge the very existence, let alone the enormity, of the danger Civilization faces in this latest uprising of Islamist Jihad and its demand for the establishment of Shariah world wide. It is some elephant in the room. In the last two weeks in Russia, alone, there have been two airliners downed by pairs of female suicide bombers in each aircraft and a car bomb went off at a Moscow Underground or Metro station, killing and maiming many and then, those bestial horrors of the Baslan School Massacre, where, by the latest reports, upwards of eleven hundred children, teachers and staff were crowded into a stifling small space for more than three days during very hot and humid weather without water or food - and when begging, out of the need to use the facilities, at least one child was bayoneted to death and another was summarily shot in the head before all the rest, and left to stink. When some found a way out and ran, children as little as six, seven and eight years of age were shot in the back. Hundreds have died, miserably and by Premier Putin's own words, because Russia was weak before the posturing of the Islamists. The Islamist terrorists had cached the explosives and weapons and ammunition in the previous summers, under the cover of summer school break construction and maintenance. How much coverage did these receive from American media and which honestly reported these actions as of an implacable enemy against any and all who stand in their way - and will dispose of the rest once finished using them for their own purposes?

Thank God for the Internet 'blogs' and Fox News and the Washington Times and the editorial pages of the Wall Street Journal; else our view of the world, as our mass media would have it, would have us have the terrorists to dinner rather than credit the Republican Administration, America or Americans in general with any thing, but fault. From the rhetoric daily, even hourly, gushing forth from our internationalist, nay, say it like a man, globalist Left Liberal media, is such recriminatory venom spewed that one wonders how we managed not to provoke the poor Jihadii into - of course, justifiably - attacking us all the sooner! This is all so tiresome. It amounts to giving aid and comfort to the enemy - which is not we true blue Americans, fellow Americans, but the forces of Totalitarian Political Ideology - be they of the Left no less than of strictly constructed Islam. Can America but hold at bay the ravening wolves in sheep's clothing of the Left long enough to kill the worst and face down the rest of the Jihadii, you will one day thank the LORD and our allied armed forces for protecting you from sooner or later having to face the sword of Islam at once or, later, once they have done with you. Then, we shall have to deal with the Left, once and for all, if not before.

Just for the record: The problem is not that of religion, per se. The problem lies in the condition of the heart of man.

Just think about the world of tomorrow. Should it come, what would you have it look like? It is simple. So simple, the severity of it eludes many. It is just this: Will you and your family remain free or not? Will your family ask, Where were you, then? What will you have to say? Jihadii desire nothing more than to whet their insatiable appetites for death on your blood. It is their heart's desire. What is yours?

Many heard Senator Zel Miller present the case simply, clearly and with passion Wednesday, 1 September 2004 - at the Republican National Convention - a Democrat invited as key note speaker among those, those Republicans! He put it simply thus, 'Consider your family in this election - for the future of America - and theirs - is at stake. Who has shown he has the proven actual, recent, truthful and effective record to support the contention he will stand up to the Jihad and defend this nation?'.

What sort of future would you have for you and yours?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

'Hope is No Strategy' - Do What is Right 'Cuz It Is The Right Thing To Do

2004-09-01T02:18:00.000-07:00
Our present predicament has arisen from the same sort of error which fed the rise of Hitler. The moral relativism of the Liberal in the hands of the Left is manipulated, producing by accommodation, appeasement and retreat not what the Liberal intended, so-called peace, but what the Left intends - anarchy. But anarchy to a purpose. That purpose being to bring about such a state of affairs, such unruly mobs, such violence, that the populace cry out for law and order - at any price. And lo and behold, another state falls into the hands of one sort or another totalitarian political ideology, perhaps never to stand free, again.

The 'terrorists' - mobs of thieves, cutthroats and pirates like the Prophet they aver they strictly follow kill anyone in the way of their killing 'infidels', particularly Americans and especially, Jews. They will kill their own in any numbers, so long as Americans and Jews die. And die for a purpose. And that purpose is to install Shariah - Islamic religious law - throughout the world. This is the Jihad, the holy war begun centuries ago and brewing since. The goal, totalitarian political ideology.

So, we have at least two enemies, not one. One, is world-wide Communism; and yes, they do yet call themselves so. Their method, to inculcate a social climate undermining the established culture of a society and gradually replace it with a society which views itself at the individual and state level as 'agents of change'; with the understanding that to change society, one must become radical, which will 'inevitabley' move the masses in your direction, just a little. Then the process is begun all over, again, and again. Meanwhile, such 'agents of change' claim to be "mainstream" and point to any thing to their right as "radical". Then, repeat that lie and many others until believed by dint of constant repetition. When asked to provide evidence of fact to back up their often highly emotional and distorted claims, they instead attack the person, character and dignity of any one who questions them, change the subject or otherwise obfuscate. Until today, we see that as soon as President George W Bush came into office, the Democrat Party leadership announced that they were 'off to the Left'. The current results of which we see and hear about, daily.

And, Two, the second enemy, are the Jihadii, those who will die killing for rich decadence in their so-called 'heaven' - in the name of Allah, the Greater god, or, Allah Akbar. Operating largely autonomously from any central command, so far, small groups devise, carefully research and execute acts of evil and gore and death to kill, and to intimidate, thus extending their influence.

To treat with, to appease or accommodate - or to retreat from such as these, is to open the way to a darkness this world has never seen since the creation of light. To 'toss them a bone' and "hope" they will be satisfied, as was hoped of Hitler in the late nineteen thirties is criminal madness on the part of the Liberal - and calculating evil on the part of the Left. Hitler laughed, and pointed to the nothing done by the powers of the day when the Armenians were massacred - to the point of genocide - only a few years prior. In regards his plans, he said, "They will do nothing". He was right for so long a time that millions were to die to stop him - and came very, very close to not.

The only way to put a stop to the Jihad is to kill so many of them so fiercely and so far away from our lands and with such careful, unyielding, unbending, clearly discerned resolve that the back of the uprising is broken - in part by the resulting prudent withdrawal of the hand of support of the 'moderate' Islamists - and as these more 'moderate' of Islam congratulate themselves on their moderation and gain or grow in access to Western affluence and even, exposure to what is called 'democracy' these days. In any case, it is thus, by the ready and adroit use of force and by the spirit of freedom and free markets which sow seeds of prosperity and puts stoppers on the passions of the bloodthirsty.

But what of that other enemy? The Left. He has an ally... You and me. That Liberal spirit, that moral equivalence, that loathing of such things as, 'absolutes' - of good and evil, of right and wrong - of God and His Sovereignty that is the woof and weave of our natures makes us prone to fall into bondage at the sight of the first passing tyrant. "Take us back to Egypt!" whined the Israelites at every turn, just as we do, today. Anything but the God of the Bible, surely! And there the matter stands, but for the grace of God in Christ. Sorry, folks, 'thems the facts'.

So, we really have three enemies. Ourselves being the third one. To successfully combat the other two requires we cut them no slack - and of ourselves, demand discipline. Instead of appeasement and accommodation, to the one, offer certain death to persist or freedom to live and let live; and to the other, offer such upstanding character and rectitude, grow our own children ourselves rather than suffer them to pass through the hands of Moloch, the state school system and the treachery of careless 'mothers' in choosing their convenience over the life of their own young ones and, rather than run to the 'Center', develop such a solid core on the "Right", that the Left is anchored in freedom long enough to get to like it, or die, first. There is not much time left. To chase after the Left and its tuggings Leftward only means the so-called Center moves Left, faster. This simply must not be allowed to continue - or we will die, either under the persecution of the Left, or of the Jihadii and Shariah. Both are Totalitarian Political Ideologies which seek death and power for its own sake at the expense of all but the elites of both groups and their immediately necessary slaves. As Fox News is fond of saying, We report, you decide.

English is such a beautiful language... How do you suppose the Conservative, and the Christian came to be of the called, of the Right, while the rest get, in the end, Left?

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

No Cold Shoulder From the Home Front, Please - To Those Who are Turning the Other Cheek for Us in Combat

2004-08-25T19:00:00.000-07:00
Please Support Our Coalition Troops - The War will be long - We hear many get no mail or contact from home at all.

Victor Mordecai can give you an idea how come supporting our troops is so important.

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Taxes in 2004

2004-08-19T09:54:00.000-07:00
Taxes in 2004

Shades of Gray...

2004-08-17T09:04:00.001-07:00
Candidate for U.S. Senate from California Bill Jones, visiting with Eric Hogue in the "Belly of the Beast", said today that we should learn from our experience in recent California history: How that a Vietnam veteran with an undistinguished twenty year career in the California Legislature was elected to the Office of Governor - and cost the taxpayers six billion dollars before that history making recall election booted the man from office into well deserved obscurity. Democrat Party Presidential Candidate John F Kerry's self proclaimed emphasis upon his ever so brief and now questionable tour in Vietnam and his nearly twenty year career of voting no on everything military and otherwise distinguished by nothing more than a very high absentee rate and the highest rating as about as Liberal a Senator as ever attained in the U.S. Senate - and the specific choice of the U.S. Communist Party and a welcome alternative to sitting President George W Bush according to Osama Bin Laden makes him outstanding as only a "Shades of Gray" candidate.

By the same token, due for an end is the twenty year career of Barbara Boxer - who, Liberal as they come, is too, well qualified for the sobriquet, "Shades of Gray" - and well deserving to be sent into retirement, too, for a new generation rises, ready to meet the demands of the emerging clash of civilizations now upon us.

Coiled in the yet so-called war on terror rises the hooded head of world wide Jihad; headed by that faction of Islam strictly understanding the Koran to teach submission to the sword of Islam by all 'infidels': Death to all Jews summarily and of all the rest who will not submit and convert to Islam and change over their society and culture to Islamic religious law - Shariah, of which we have had a rather good look at lately in Afghanistan under the Taliban. "... Totalitarian Political Ideology" - President George W Bush

We see the self interest at the expense of the people so typical of today's Democrat Party in the shabby avoidance of responsibility by the New Jersey Governor James E. McGreevey in shielding his corruption and dishonorable conduct - 'gay' irregardless - by 'coming out' gay while his 'lover' - actually 'straight', files sexual harrassment charges against the said Governor. And then, this 'Governor' attempts to maneuver his resignation such that even his own Democratic Party members, in truly rare form, council him to resign effective now and clear out, rather than so shamefully attempt to preserve Democratic Party control of New Jersey by delaying his resignation effective date to 15 November - after the general elections!

In the coming election, consider carefully what future you bring into being for you and yours by your vote.

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Al Qaeda's U.S. network - Wake Up, America!

2004-08-14T10:29:00.000-07:00
Hat Tip: Wayne Johnson, who so kindly and with blessed forethought appended this important Note:

'The numbers cited in today's story by Arnaud de Borchgrave are sobering, and they can also lead to a fatalism, a surrender to the appearance of inevitability. Full scale confrontation with Islam is no more inevitable than war with the old USSR was inevitable. The USSR fell when it pleased God to bless U.S. resolve.' [emphasis added]

The Washington Times
www.washingtontimes.com

Al Qaeda's U.S. network
By Arnaud de Borchgrave
Published August 13, 2004

Before we convince ourselves al Qaeda is down for the count, check the stats.

   Islamist extremists in the world as estimated by moderate Muslim leaders: about 12 million. Fundamentalist sympathizers: 120 million. Those numbers represent 1 percent and 10 percent of the world's Muslim population of 1.2 billion. The CIA puts the extremists much higher - 40 million.

    Then there's the number who trust Osama bin Laden more than President Bush: a majority in Muslim countries whose populations total 450 million.

    European intelligence services know an alarming number of mosques are privileged sanctuaries used by extremists. Self-proclaimed imams can choose any place, from a basement to a garage, and declare it a mosque, an Islamic place of worship.

    Germany has 8,000 mosques, according to German intelligence officials, to minister to a Turkish minority of 2.4 million and some 500,000 North African Muslims. France has some 10,000 mosques for 6 million North Africans; the U.S. about 2,000.

    Beyond normal Friday prayers in Western mosques, there is a common anti-American political message, virulent in Europe, more subtle and discreet in the United States. Intelligence chiefs on both sides of the Atlantic agree the Western world in general and the U.S. in particular now face a global ideological foe convinced the U.S. is the fount of all evil.

    France is summarily deporting imams who preach hatred and jihad, including one recently who had been a legal Turkish resident for 28 years.

    Nasir Ahmad al Bahri, known as Abu Jandal, a former Osama bin Laden bodyguard, interviewed by Al Quds Al Arabi, a London-based, anti-U.S. Arab daily, said last week: "Al Qaeda is no longer an entity but an ideology against America. ... The plan is now to draw the U.S. into a confrontation with all the Islamic peoples. ... Bin Laden and al Qaeda have succeeded in drawing the U.S. into an unequal confrontation, not from a military technology standpoint but from the ideological aspect. Muslims [are now] fed up with the U.S., which lives in prosperity off our nation's resources. I believe the U.S. is heading for its demise. Now that it has found what it wanted, al Qaeda can melt into a new caldron, and a new giant would be reborn. ... Many Islamic world leaders would join it, and the confrontation with the U.S. would be inevitable. Al Qaeda would then [be] a vanguard army." A veteran of Somalia and Bosnia, Yemeni-born Abu Jandal joined al Qaeda in 1996, the year bin Laden moved from Sudan to Afghanistan.

    The FBI's recent arrests of two imams in Albany following a yearlong sting disclosed their interest in manpads (shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles. Few of the younger U.S. counterintelligence agents realize manpads literally brought down the Soviet empire. With U.S.-supplied Stinger missiles, the Afghan mujahideen, many of them fathers of today's al Qaeda terrorists, grounded Soviet fighter-bombers, gunships and troop transports. Only eight months elapsed between withdrawal of the last Soviet troops from Afghanistan on Feb. 15, 1989, to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and the liberation of Eastern Europe.

    Therefore, it is reasonable to assume al Qaeda seeks manpads - several hundred thousand are former Soviet models readily available on the international arms black market - as the weapon bin Laden believes could paralyze the U.S. or at the very least, bring the world economy to a standstill. Three airliners brought down the same day in different parts of the world would probably send markets into a tailspin.

    The U.S. government knows more about al Qaeda in Europe, the Middle East, South and Southeast Asia than it does about the self-hating American Muslim admirers of bin Laden now under the spell of Wahhabi imams. Compared to the $100 billion plus the U.S. spent on intelligence since September 11, 2001, the resources devoted to the FBI's counterterrorist efforts on the home front are paltry: $1 billion for 2004.

    If the most respected member of the Muslim community in Washington, D.C., with easy access to the White House and Congress in the 1990s, can plea bargain his way out of a plot to assassinate Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah with more than $1 million of Moammar Gadhafi's moola, it is again a reasonable assumption Abdurahman Alamoudi, a U.S. citizen, is but the tip of the proverbial iceberg. He was on the board of half a dozen "charitable" Muslim foundations in the tristate region, certified 75 Muslim chaplains for the U.S. Armed Forces, founded and once led the American Muslim Council (AMC), praised by the FBI Director Robert Mueller for its mainstream moderation.

    More recently, Mr. Mueller testified before Congress he believes several hundred al Qaeda operatives are living in America. He deliberately understates the case to avoid the label of Islamophobe Muslim-basher.

    Some 500 cases of suspected terrorist links are now under surveillance. If one includes al Qaeda's support group of America-hating Muslim fundamentalists with U.S. passports, Osama bin Laden's U.S. footprint is large by any measure.

    The latest estimate of illegals in the U.S. is now closer to 12 million than the officially conceded 8 million. ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) has 2,300 agents tasked with the apprehending and deporting some 80,000 "criminal aliens" in the U.S., as well as the detaining and removing 320,000 "absconders," foreign nationals ordered deported and now on the lam. Several thousand Arabs and other Muslims are among them.


    Arnaud de Borchgrave is editor at large of The Washington Times and of United Press International.


Copyright © 2004 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Islamic Plans for America Plain to the Eye - Powerful Counter Action Available

2004-08-12T19:46:00.000-07:00

Are we not the subject of voracious envy and murderous hate and lustful covetousness? It is a fact. Jihad, holy war, has been declared by the Jihaadii, such as Osama bin Laden and others and already acted upon through the Nineties and the Clinton Administration but simmering, growing, glowering more or less behind the scenes since being held in check the last time Islam attempted world conquest - "Totalitarian Political Ideology" in deed - some hundreds of years ago, when Europe almost fell to the Crescent and it took much of that time to kick Islam back out of Spain - and we are yet dealing with the effect of those days in Bosnia and elsewhere. Further, the betrayal and abandonment of the so-called Palestinians by Islam in the interests of Jihad, falsely portrayed as oppression of those people by Israel serves only to advance Jihad by the shed blood of fellow Muslims willy nilly so long as Jews and Americans, and others, die. They do not mind genocide of others, even their own citizens, as we see going on in Sudan, today, from just one source, for example: Darfur.org. Well, just one more, okay? Frontline Fellowship.

According to the 9/11 Report a little commented upon aspect found is that the objective of the Jihaadii, the 'radical, very extremist' faction of Islam, and, as one is free to suppose, of all Islam, rightly understood is, as when asked what it would take from America for the attacks to end, Osama Bin Laden said America should get out of the Middle East, the American people convert to Islam and disassemble American social culture as it is, in his words, the worst in history. Faced with this fact, then, that it is kill or be killed - or at least, so isolate them as to render them relatively harmless must be the focus of our attention until it is done.

Muslims have said their intent is to bring Shariah to America - we have seen the affect on women and the 'quality of life' and the 'sanctity of life' under Shariah in Afghanistan. Of course, when objections are raised, they contend this will only happen once the majority of [then surviving] Americans convert to Islam. The fact is, it is now clear, so clear even "The 9/11 Commission" Report points out that the enemies of America are most actively seeking the weapons of mass destruction sufficient to accomplish their diabolical scheme. As of this week, Iran's nuclear plant has arrived at ninety percent readiness, according to Israeli sources.

The Jihaadii, these Al-Qaeda, and so on in the name of religion and politics, while distorting both do seek totalitarian political ideological hegemony over the entire planet. And they are doing it with your money. There are about four hundred companies, many abroad, but more than thirty American, of which some are foreign subsidiaries of American companies selling dual use technology to Iran and Syria and so on and handing out cash all over the Islamic world. Siemans is one. So many retirement plans and fund management firms rebel at the accountability to withdraw investment in such firms - while those funds go to your enemy and mine. As in the days of apartheid, advisedly, the withdrawal of investment funds drove not only change of policy but even change of government in South Africa - might not such action vis a vis public companies doing business in countries providing state supported aid to the Jihad be in the best interests of people everywhere and too, of America and Americans?

Osama Bin Laden and his ilk have clearly indicated that, in the coming election in America, "Anyone but Bush" is their preference... Strongly suggesting the sitting president has got their attention! Appeasement, negotiation and police style interdiction will not do with an implacable enemy who has declared war on you and your way of life, no less than on your government and very country. Interesting, how America's internal enemies, the Quislings, the Fifth Column presently pulling the strings of the Democrat Party would say the same thing - "Anyone but Bush" else, "Four more years of hell". Thank you, Mrs Kerry, for illustrating our point. It is a tough thing to have to say and here it is, any way: The friend of my enemy is my enemy... If you hate America and or hate Israel *You* are the enemy.

Islam strictly understood calls for the death of all who will not submit to the sword of Islam, unless useful, or too strong and only for a time, during which time 'tribute' shall be paid until usefulness passes or weakness grows and then the subjugated are overthrown and murdered.

An "all inclusive" Christmas display, labeled, All Americans - suggesting the Islamic Crescent gobbling up the Star of David

'This logo derives from the year 2000 conference held by the American Muslim Alliance, an organization that declares itself working "towards political empowerment of the American Muslim community" through "methodically gain[ing] influence in the American political system commensurate with the sum total of our skills and creativity, resourcefulness, imagination, moral and ethical concerns, our intellectual contributions and our strength of numbers." ' Courtesy Daniel Pipes - An Authoritative Commentator on the Middle East

Is Scouting being hijacked to raise up Jihaadii for Al-Qaeda and others within America?

The UASR vision
'And then there is this, provided by the United Association for Studies and Research under the title "Islamic Vision for the 21st Century." Courtesy: Daniel Pipes

We are familiar with "Front groups" from the Soviet Union days... When you have the time, be encouraged to have a look at the following in order to broaden and deepen one's understanding of the application of the Islamic tactic of dissimulation and deception as displayed by the Council on American Islamic Relations [CAIR]: Daniel Pipes Article "394"; Apologetics Index; Answering Islam and Front Page Magazine.

If driving around the country with a twelve foot tall caricature of the president of these united States, President George W Bush, with its trousers 'on fire' of colored cloths and spouting real smoke into the atmosphere in blatant disregard for the environment is meant to convey by image the saying, liar, liar, pants on fire on the Goebblesian-Hitlerian presumption that an oft repeated lie will be believed, what then is to be made of these images?

Ten Gallon Hat Tip: Daniel Pipes
Hat Tip: Senator Sclade Gordon [R-Wash] Mbr 9/11 Committee on Michael Medved, today

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Candidate John F Kerry - Unfit for Office? - Worth Knowing for Sure?

2004-08-10T20:51:00.000-07:00
John F. Kerry is the Democrat Party nominee for President, Campaign of 2004. But is he fit for office?

Read all about it at Amazon.com

Brought to you by Swift Vets for Truth

One might profit by following the present discussion vis a vis John Kerry's alleged trip to Cambodia at Christmas, 1968 on Hugh Hewitt's blog. There, you will find a link to Instapundit, and view there a collection of Left Wing Bloggers' comments on this subject - and where one may view a recent photo of the relevant Congressional Record wherein Senator John F Kerry in 1986 is recorded how on the Senate floor he told his tale of Christmas in Cambodia - just in case anyone, like his campaign people or, anyone else, try to say he never said he was in Cambodia.

Captain's Quarters Blog will broaden one's perspective of such things and about how various parties are trying really hard to silence dissent from the wartime peers of Democrat Party Presidential Candidate John F Kerry which Just One Minute tries really hard to balance - and finds he must come down in doubt of Senator John F Kerry... And Roger L Simon, Mystery Novelist and Screenwriter joins in - in probes of the, er, depths of deception.

For review, one is encouraged to view Senator John F Kerry's Resume.

Kerry has a long and well-documented history of providing "aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of war - particularly in the case of North Vietnam, Nicaragua and Cuba. Kerry, by his own account of his actions and protests, violated the UCMJ, the Geneva Conventions and the U.S. Code while serving as a Navy officer. Kerry met, on two occasions, with North Vietnamese negotiators in 1970 and 1971, willingly placing himself in violation of Article three, Section three of the U.S. Constitution, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare.

Kerry was recognized for such "aid and comfort" in 1983, when he received an award for special contributions to the Communist victory from the incoming general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Do Moi.

'John F Kerry, directing VVAW's massive pro-Hanoi demonstration in Washington. - April 1971'
Photo courtesy www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com

'Thus, in accordance with the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, which states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President ... having previously taken an oath ... to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof," We, the People of these United States, believe John F. Kerry is unfit for public office. A Petition to this effect is available for examination and signature. Should the kind reader like to have another also sign the petition, one who does not have Internet access, such a one should be directed to send a blank e-mail to sign-Kerry@PatriotPetitions.US. Each e-mail sent to this address will be counted as one signature for the petition.'

"A youthful John Kerry is pictured in the background directly above Hanoi Jane Fonda's head during Operation RAW at Valley Forge"
Photo courtesy www.vietnamveteransagainstjohnkerry.com

Photo courtesy wintersoldier.com

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Florida Senate Race Turning Nasty - News Max 080804 Insider Report

2004-08-08T20:11:00.000-07:00
Florida Senate Race Turning Nasty

News Max
has been covering the critical Florida Senate race, especially the Aug. 31 Republican primary.

The race is critical because it may determine who controls the Senate, and the right candidate could help Bush win Florida -- and the 2004 election.

Clearly, the best candidate is Mel Martinez, President Bush's former HUD secretary.

Polls show that Martinez, a Reagan conservative, is also the only Republican who can beat the likely Democratic candidate, Betty Castor, in November. Castor is a protege of Janet Reno.

There are other solid Republicans running, but we have been disappointed by some of their efforts to torpedo Martinez and curry favor with the liberal media.

First, conservative Bill McCollum went soft on embryonic stem cell research, coming out in favor of using the cells of aborted fetuses. McCollum has also broken Reagan's "Eleventh Commandment," frequently attacking Martinez.

Now another conservative, Doug Gallagher, well behind in the polls, has made a similar desperate attempt to garner attention in the crowded primary and hurt Martinez.

Gallagher, a multi-millionaire businessman, recently hired the infamous election attorney Mark Herron to launch a baseless attack on Martinez.

Herron served as the Democratic Party of Florida's counsel and is notorious for his work on behalf of Al Gore's presidential campaign during the Florida recount. He authored a five-page memorandum for the Gore campaign that became a 'how-to guide' on disqualifying U.S. military absentee ballots.

In yet another puzzling attack on Republicans, the Gallagher campaign hired Herron to file a frivolous election complaint against Martinez.

Martinez, as the Florida co-chairman for the Bush-Cheney 2000 campaign, fought the Gore team to have military ballots counted.

Martinez spokesperson Jennifer Coxe responded: "It was just a matter of time until Doug Gallagher, who has repeatedly attacked President Bush, the Republican Congress and Mel Martinez, hired Al Gore's recount attorney to attack Mel. It was despicable that Al Gore and Mark Herron worked to disqualify the votes of America's brave men and women who were stationed abroad protecting America."

Republican voters will decide on Aug. 31 if they want their Senate candidate working closely with Al Gore's lawyer.

Open Letter to President George W Bush - Do Stand Tall - Support SwiftVets For Truth - Let the Record Speak For Itself by the Eye Witness of Peers

2004-08-06T10:33:00.000-07:00
"Guard against the impostures of pretended patriotism." - George
Washington

Mr. President - Let the record speak for itself - Let the jury of John F Kerry's peers have their say. Caught by his own words is Kerry in the trap of his ambition set to catch us.

Mr President - Stop the turncoat John McCain covering the six - the dirty posterior - of that other turncoat, John F Kerry, with his mewling about the SwiftVets For Truth - It is not the SwiftVets For Truth who are dishonorable, but the collaboration with the enemy, likely directly by McCain while at 'the Hanoi Hilton' and directly, too - but so much more corroboratively and so much more harmfully, by John F Kerry in his "anti-war" anti-American 1971 falsehoods and since. On the Internet is that photo of Kerry so honored by the North Vietnamese Communists that his image is mounted in their War Remnants Museum [formerly "the War Crimes Museum"] - in a place of honor dedicated to those who most served their cause, then - and who knows but perhaps, even now.

Mr President - Permit the questioning of Kerry's legal right to remain in the office of Senator, no less than question his right to run for President... in view of these eye witness testimonies. He ran from the perceived face of the enemy, at least temporarily abandoning his comrades so fast one man fell overboard, lied about it and fraudulently garnered medals. He not 'should' but *ought* to be charged on so many counts by his own admission, no less than by his deliberate lies self serving and treacherous as they are and he is.

"If thine enemy wrong thee, buy each of his children a drum."
- Chinese proverb

There are non partisan loyal hearts in this, Mr President - and as and if it is in deed true there is not GOP funding for the SwiftVets For Truth as and when appropriate, say so. If the GOP is helping, say so - and how much, and proudly... It is about time Americans stood up to the bullies from the Left who, corrupt, accuse others of the same. It is about time it be demonstrated that one's personal life, one's character does matter in consideration of eligibility for office and of high office in particular.

"Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts." - Charles M. de Talleyrand, French statesman, 1754-1838 - 'frenchurian candidate', in deed.

The private agenda - the actions and character of John F Kerry in his Swift Boat service and his later deliberate aiding and abetting and giving comfort to the enemy right before our faces and while in sworn testimony before Congress - then running for public office - surely must be subject to some sort of judicial scrutiny - and to popular review, so much the more, irregardless. We now have available the testimony of a significant number of men who served with Kerry, who knew personally and professionally both he and the nature and character of that service - and who are so motivated by *whatever* to now speak out...about Kerry's un-fitness to command. We are at war - *But* even if not: The point is, to the extent the SwiftVets For Truth testimony is true and valid, it demands a public hearing and due action upon - factors political, nevertheless, now.

Mr President - Do rally Americans of what ever party to rise up to stop the usurpation of our rights and the reins of government by those with an agenda inimical to the interests of our self determination - our freedom and helpful to the cause of our enemies - our destruction and enslavement - from which they rapidly become indistinguishable.

The first duty of the revolutionary is to get away with it. - Abbie Hoffman: (1936-____) US political activist

Please, Mr President - Don't let Kerry and our enemies "get away with it".

Respectfully submitted, Mr President.

"It does not take a majority to prevail ... but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men." - Samuel Adams

"We know the Race is not to the swift nor the Battle to the Strong. Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?" - John Page, July 20, 1776

"Posterity - you will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." - John Quincy Adams

Daniel Webster was right, 'God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.'

"Let the American youth never forget, that they possess a noble inheritance, bought by the toils, and sufferings, and blood of their ancestors; and capacity, if wisely improved, and faithfully guarded, of transmitting to their latest posterity all the substantial blessings of life, the peaceful enjoyment of liberty, property, religion, and independence." - Justice Joseph Story

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship." - Patrick Henry

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison, "The Father of Our Constitution", and the fourth President of the united States of America

"I have long believed that the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, they are the universal right of all God's children." - Ronald Reagan (1991)

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

The Terror Web - The New Yorker 080404

2004-08-04T20:02:00.000-07:00
The New Yorker

August 4, 2004

THE TERROR WEB

by LAWRENCE WRIGHT

Were the Madrid bombings part of a new, far-reaching jihad being plotted on the Internet?

Issue of 2004-08-02
Posted 2004-07-26

For much of Spain’s modern history, the organization that has defined its experience with terror is ETA, which stands for Euzkadi Ta Azkatasuna (Basque Homeland and Liberty). ETA, which was founded in 1959, has a clear political goal: it wants to set up a separate nation, comprising the Basque provinces, in northern Spain, and parts of southern France. Although ETA has killed some eight hundred people, it has developed a reputation for targeting, almost exclusively, politicians, security officials, and journalists. Over the years, the terrorists and the Spanish police have come to a rough understanding about the rules of engagement. “They don’t commit attacks on the working class, and they always call us before an explosion, telling us where the bomb is situated,” an intelligence official in the Spanish National Police told me recently in Madrid. “If they place a bomb in a backpack on a train, there will be a cassette tape saying, ‘This bag is going to explode. Please leave the train.’” And so on March 11th, when the first reports arrived of mass casualties resulting from explosions on commuter trains, Spanish intelligence officials assumed that ETA had made an appalling mistake.

At 7:37 A.M., as a train was about to enter Madrid’s Atocha station, three bombs blasted open the steel cars, sending body parts through the windows of nearby apartments. The station is in Madrid’s center, a few blocks from the Prado Museum. Within seconds, four bombs exploded on another train, five hundred and fifty yards from the station. The bombs killed nearly a hundred people. Had the explosions occurred when the trains were inside the station, the fatalities might have tallied in the thousands; a quarter of a million people pass through Atocha every workday. The trains at that hour were filled with students and young office workers who live in public housing and in modest apartment complexes east of the city. Many were immigrants, who had been drawn by the Spanish economic boom.

As emergency crews rushed to the scene, two more bombs demolished a train at the El Pozo del Tío Raimundo station, three miles away. By then, José María Aznar, the Prime Minister, had learned of the attacks, which were taking place at the end of an uneventful political campaign. The conservative Popular Party, which Aznar headed, was leading the Socialists by four and a half points in the polls, despite the overwhelming opposition of the Spanish population to the country’s participation in the war in Iraq. It was Thursday morning; the election would take place on Sunday.

At seven-forty-two, one minute after the El Pozo bomb, a final bomb went off, on a train at the suburban Santa Eugenia station. Emergency workers arrived to find mangled bodies littering the tracks. The Spanish had never seen anything like this—the worst ETA atrocity, in 1987, killed twenty-one shoppers in a Barcelona grocery store. At Santa Eugenia, there were so many wounded that rescue crews ripped up the benches in the waiting area to use as stretchers. In all, there were a hundred and ninety-one fatalities and sixteen hundred injuries. It was the most devastating act of terrorism in European history, except for the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

Aznar, who survived an ETA car bomb in 1995, had made the elimination of the group his biggest priority. His security forces had decimated ETA’s ranks, but they were aware that remnants of the organization were attempting to stage a retaliatory attack in Madrid. The previous Christmas Eve, police had arrested two ETA commanders who had planted backpack bombs on trains, and in February the Civil Guard intercepted an ETA van that was headed to the capital carrying eleven hundred pounds of explosives. A top Spanish police official, a political appointee, told me that authorities had planned a major strike against ETA for March 12th, the last official day of campaigning. Such a blow might have boosted Aznar’s party at the polls. eta, however, had seemingly struck first.

At 10:50 A.M., police in Alcalá de Henares received a call from a witness who pointed them to a boxy white Renault van that had been left that morning at the train station. “At the beginning, we didn’t pay too much attention to it,” an investigator told me. “Then we saw that the license plate didn’t correspond to the van.” Even that clue, though, struck a false note. When ETA operatives steal a car, they match it with license plates from the same model car. It had been years since ETA had made such an elementary mistake.

The lack of warning, the many casualties, the proletarian background of many of the victims, and ETA’s quick disavowal of the crime all suggested that there was reason to question the assignment of blame. The police no longer considered eta capable of carrying off such an elaborate attack. Moreover, the telephones of known ETA collaborators were bugged. “The bad guys were calling each other, saying, ‘Was it us? It’s craziness!’” a senior intelligence official said.

That afternoon, detectives looked more carefully at the white van. They collected fingerprints, and under the passenger seat they found a plastic bag with seven detonators matching the type used in the bombings. There were cigarette butts, a woman’s wig, and a Plácido Domingo cassette. In the tape player was a different recording—it bore Arabic inscriptions, and turned out to be Koranic recitations for religious novices. By that time, police had learned that the explosive used in the bombings was Goma-2, which ETA no longer used. “We told the government that there was something odd, that it was possibly not ETA,” the intelligence official told me.

That evening, however, Aznar called the editors of Spain’s newspapers. “ETA is behind the attacks,” he assured them. Then he called José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, his Socialist opponent, to tell him about the van with the Arabic tape; at the same time, he insisted that “there is no doubt who did the attacks.”

The case broke open in the middle of the night, when a young police officer, sorting through belongings recovered from the trains, opened a sports bag and discovered twenty-two pounds of Goma-2, surrounded by nails and screws. Two wires ran from a blue mobile phone to a detonator. It wasn’t clear why the bomb had failed to explode.

Police officers realized that a chip inside the phone would contain a record of recently dialled numbers. By tracing these calls, they were quickly able to map out a network of young Arab immigrants, many of whom were known to Spanish intelligence. Data stored on the chip revealed that a calling plan had been set up at a small telephone and copy shop in Lavapiés, a working-class neighborhood near the Atocha station. The store was owned by Jamal Zougam, a Moroccan who had previously been under surveillance because of alleged connections to Al Qaeda. He was soon arrested.

Information began leaking to the public about the direction of the investigation. By Friday afternoon, demonstrators were standing in front of the Atocha station, holding signs that linked the tragedy to the war in Iraq. It was clear that the election would swing on the question of whether Islamists or ETA terrorists were responsible for the bombings. That day, the Interior Minister, Ángel Acebes, insisted publicly that ETA was the prime suspect—even though the police were now certain that ETA was not directly involved.

At twilight, some eleven million Spaniards assembled around the country to protest the violence. In rainy Madrid, the umbrellas stretched for miles down the Paseo del Prado. The anger and grief of the marchers were compounded by confusion about the investigation. “I walked with a million people in Madrid’s streets,” Diego López Garrido, a Socialist deputy in the Spanish congress, told me. “Many people were saying, ‘Who is the author of these attacks?’ And they wondered, ‘Why is the government lying to us?’”

The day of the bombings, analysts at the Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt, a Norwegian think tank near Oslo, retrieved a document that they had noticed on an Islamist Web site the previous December. At the time, the document had not made a big impression, but now, in light of the events in Madrid, it read like a terrorist road map. Titled “Jihadi Iraq: Hopes and Dangers,” it had been prepared by a previously unknown entity called the Media Committee for the Victory of the Iraqi People (Mujahideen Services Center).

The document, which is forty-two pages long and appears to be the work of several anonymous authors, begins with the proposition that although Coalition forces in Iraq, led by America, could not be defeated by a guerrilla insurgency, individual partners of the Coalition could be persuaded to depart, leaving America more vulnerable and discouraged as casualties increased and the expenses became insupportable. Three countries—Britain, Spain, and Poland—formed the European backbone of the Coalition. Poland appeared to be the most resolute, because the populace largely agreed with the government’s decision to enter Iraq. In Britain, the war was generally deplored. “Before the war, in February, about a million people went out on a huge march filling the streets of London,” the document notes. “This was the biggest march of political protest in the history of Britain.” But the authors suggest that the British would not withdraw unless the casualty count sharply increased.

Spain, however, presented a striking opportunity. The war was almost universally unpopular. Aznar had plunged his country into Iraq without seeking a consensus, unlike other Coalition leaders. “If the disparity between the government and the people were at the same percentage rate in Britain, then the Blair government would fall,” the author of this section observes. The reason Aznar had not yet been ousted, the author claims, was that Spain is an immature democracy and does not have a firm tradition of holding its rulers accountable. Right-wing Spanish voters also tended to be more loyal and organized than their leftist counterparts. Moreover, the number of Spanish casualties in Iraq was less than a dozen. “In order to force the Spanish government to withdraw from Iraq, the resistance should deal painful blows to its forces,” the writer proposes. “It is necessary to make utmost use of the upcoming general election in Spain in March next year. We think that the Spanish government could not tolerate more than two, maximum three blows, after which it will have to withdraw as a result of popular pressure. If its troops still remain in Iraq after these blows, the victory of the Socialist Party is almost secured, and the withdrawal of the Spanish forces will be on its electoral program.” Once Spain pulled out of Iraq, the author theorizes, the pressure on Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister, to do the same might be unbearable—“and hence the domino tiles would fall quickly.”

The document specifies that the attacks would be aimed at Spanish forces within Iraq—there is no call for action in Spain. Nonetheless, the authors’ reading of the Western political calendar struck the Norwegian researchers as particularly keen. “The relation between the text and the bombings is unclear,” Thomas Hegghammer, a researcher at Forsvarets Forskningsinstitutt, told me. “But, without the text, we would still be asking, ‘Is this a coincidence?’”

That day, Hegghammer forwarded a copy of the document to Haizam Amirah Fernández, a colleague at Madrid’s Real Instituto Elcano. Amirah was shocked. Until now, the announced goals of Al Qaeda had been mainly parochial, directed at purging the Islamic world, especially Saudi Arabia, of Western influences; overturning the established Arabic governments and restoring the clerical rule of the ancient caliphate; and purifying Islam by returning it to the idealized time of the Prophet. In an audiotape aired on the Arabic satellite channel Al Jazeera in February, 2003, Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda, had identified Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen as “the most qualified regions for liberation.” (Iraq was notably absent from his list.) And yet he offered no political platform—no plan, for instance, for governing Saudi Arabia on the morning after the revolution. As for the rest of the world, bin Laden’s goals seemed to be motivated mainly by revenge. In 1998, he had decreed that it was the “duty of every Muslim” to kill Americans and their allies. The spectacular violence that characterized Al Qaeda’s attacks was not a means to a goal—it was the goal. Success was measured by the body count, not by political change.

The Internet document suggested that a new intelligence was at work, a rationality not seen in Al Qaeda documents before. The Mujahideen Services Center, whatever that was, appeared to operate as a kind of Islamist think tank. “The person who put together those chapters had a clear strategic vision, realistic and well thought out,” Amirah says. He told Hegghammer, “This is political science applied to jihad.”

Although the document was posted on the Internet in December, 2003, the authors note that a draft had been written in September. In October, assassins shot a Spanish military attaché in Iraq, José Antonio Bernal Gómez, near his residence; in November, seven Spanish intelligence agents were ambushed and murdered south of Baghdad. Photographs of the killers standing on the agents’ bodies circulated on Islamist Web sites. Another Internet document soon appeared, titled “Message to the Spanish People,” signed by the Information Commission for the Help of the Iraqi People (Department of Foreign Propaganda), which threatened more attacks. “Return to your country and live peacefully,” it demands, or else “the battalions of the Iraqi resistance and its supporters outside of Iraq are able to increase the dosage and will eclipse your memory of the rotten spies.”

Variations in the Arabic transcriptions of English words in the “Jihadi Iraq” document suggested to Amirah that writers of various nationalities had drafted it. For instance, in some cases the “T” in Tony Blair’s name was transcribed with the Arabic “ta,” but in the section about Spain the author used the “dha,” which is more typical of the Moroccan dialect. Also characteristic of Morocco is the use of Arabic numerals (the style used in the West) in place of the numbering system that is common from Egypt to the Persian Gulf. Those clues, plus certain particularly Moroccan political concerns expressed in the document, such as the independence movement in Western Sahara, suggested that at least some of the authors were diaspora Moroccans, probably living in Spain.

The link between the Internet document and the bombings soon became clearer. There is a reference early in the document to Abu Dujana, a companion of the Prophet who was known for his ferocity in battle. His name had been invoked by other jihadis, notably in the suicide bombings at the J. W. Marriott hotel in Jakarta in August, 2003. On Saturday evening, a television station in Madrid received a call from a man speaking Spanish with a Moroccan accent, who said that a videotape had been placed in a trash bin near the city’s main mosque. “We declare our responsibility for what has occurred in Madrid, exactly two and a half years after the attacks on New York and Washington,” a masked speaker on the videotape said. He identified himself as Abu Dujan al-Afghani, “the military spokesman for Al Qaeda in Europe.” He continued, “It is a response to your collaboration with the criminal Bush and his allies. You love life and we love death, which gives an example of what the Prophet Muhammad said. If you don’t stop your injustices, more and more blood will flow.”

Until this tape appeared, even those investigators who were arguing that the train bombings were perpetrated by Islamic terrorists, not eta, had been troubled by the fact that there were no “martyrs” in the attacks. It is a trademark of Al Qaeda to sacrifice its killers; this practice has provided a scanty moral cover for what would otherwise be seen simply as mass murder. But, when the investigators saw that the man calling himself Abu Dujan al-Afghani was dressed in white funeral robes, they realized that suicide was on the horizon.

The Al Qaeda cell in Spain is old and well established. Mohamed Atta, the commander of the September 11th attacks, came to Spain twice in 2001. The second time was in July, for a meeting in the coastal resort of Salou, which appears to have been arranged as a final go-ahead for the attacks. After September 11th, Spanish police estimated that there were three hundred Islamic radicals in the country who might be affiliated with Al Qaeda. Even before then, members of the Spanish cell had been monitored by police agencies, as is evident from the abundant use of wiretaps and surveillance information in indictments that were issued in November, 2001, when eleven suspects were charged with being Al Qaeda members—the first of several terrorist roundups. And yet, according to Spanish police officials, at the time of the Madrid attacks there was not a single Arabic-speaking intelligence agent in the country. Al Qaeda was simply not seen as a threat to Spain. “We never believed we were a real target,” a senior police official said. “That’s the reality.”

At four o’clock on Saturday afternoon, sixty hours after the attacks and the day before the elections, Interior Minister Acebes announced the arrest of Jamal Zougam and two other Moroccans. Still, he continued to point at ETA. But by now the Socialists were publicly accusing the government of lying about the investigation in order to stay in power.

Polls opened the next morning at nine. Thirty-five million people voted, more than seventy-seven per cent of the electorate, eight per cent more than expected. Many were young, first-time voters, and their votes put the Socialists over the top. As José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero declared victory, he again condemned the war in Iraq and reiterated his intention to withdraw troops.

Four days later, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group claiming affiliation with Al Qaeda, sent a bombastic message to the London newspaper Al-Quds al-Arabi, avowing responsibility for the train bombings. “Whose turn will it be next?” the authors taunt. “Is it Japan, America, Italy, Britain, Saudi Arabia, or Australia?” The message also addressed the speculation that the terrorists would try to replicate their political success in Spain by disrupting the November U.S. elections. “We are very keen that Bush does not lose the upcoming elections,” the authors write. Bush’s “idiocy and religious fanaticism” are useful, the authors contend, for they stir the Islamic world to action.

On April 2nd, two weeks after the election, a security guard for the ave, Spain’s high-speed train line, discovered a blue plastic bag beside the tracks forty miles south of Madrid. Inside the bag were twenty-six pounds of Goma-2. Four hundred and fifty feet of cable had been draped across the security fence and attached, incorrectly, to the detonator. Had the bomb gone off when the ave passed by—at a hundred and eighty m.p.h., carrying twelve hundred passengers—the results could have been far more catastrophic than those of March 11th. Spanish citizens asked themselves: If the bombings of March 11th had accomplished the goals set by Al Qaeda, what was the point of April 2nd?

Gustavo de Aristegui is one of the leaders of the Popular Party in Spain’s Basque country. For years, he represented Donostio-San Sebastián, the region’s capital, in the Spanish congress. A lawyer and former diplomat, Aristegui has been preoccupied for many years with the rise of Islamic terror. His father was Spain’s Ambassador to Lebanon and was killed in Beirut in 1989, when Syrian forces shelled his diplomatic residence.

“Al Qaeda has four different networks,” Aristegui told me in Madrid, the day after the Socialists took power. “First, there is the original network, the one that committed 9/11, which uses its own resources and people it has recruited and trained. Then, there is the ad-hoc terrorist network, consisting of franchise organizations that Al Qaeda created—often to replace ones that weren’t bloody enough—in countries such as the Philippines, Jordan, and Algeria.” The third network, Aristegui said, is more subtle, “a strategic union of like-minded companies.” Since February, 1998, when Osama bin Laden announced the creation of the World Islamic Front for Jihad Against Crusaders and Jews—an umbrella organization for Islamist groups from Morocco to China—Al Qaeda has expanded its dominion by making alliances and offering funds. “Hamas is in, or almost in,” Aristegui said. “Bin Laden is trying to tempt Hezbollah to join, but they are Shia, and many Sunnis are opposed to them.” Finally, there is the fourth network—“imitators, emulators,” who are ideologically aligned with Al Qaeda but are less tied to it financially. “These are the ones who committed Madrid,” Aristegui said.

Until the Madrid attacks, the Al Qaeda operations—in Dhahran, Nairobi, Dar es Salaam, Aden, New York, Washington, Jerba, Karachi, Bali, Mombasa, Riyadh, Casablanca, Jakarta, and Istanbul—had been political failures. These massacres committed in the name of jihad had achieved little except anger, grief, and the deaths of thousands. Soon after September 11th, Al Qaeda lost its base in Afghanistan and, along with that, its singular role in the coördination of international terror. New groups, such as the bombers in Madrid, were acting in the name of Al Qaeda, and although they may well have had the blessings of its leaders, they did not have the training, resources, or international contacts that had bolstered the previous generation of terrorists. Some operations, such as the 2003 attack on Western compounds in Riyadh, which killed mainly Muslims, were such fiascos that it appeared that Al Qaeda was no longer able to exercise control.

“Al Qaeda is not a hierarchical organization, and never was,” Marc Sageman, a psychiatrist, a former C.I.A. case officer, and the author of “Understanding Terror Networks,” told me. “It was always a social movement.” The latest converts to the cause didn’t train in Afghanistan, and they approach jihad differently. “These local guys are reckless and less well trained, but they are willing to kill themselves, whereas the previous leaders were not,” Sageman said. Moreover, as the Spanish attacks showed, the new generation was more interested in committing violence for the sake of immediate political gain.

The kind of short-term tactical thinking displayed in the “Jihadi Iraq” document and the March 11th bombings is decidedly out of step with Al Qaeda’s traditional world view, in which history is seen as an endless struggle between believers and infidels. It is the mind-set of fundamentalists of all religions. This war is eternal, and is never finally won until the longed-for Day of Judgment. In this contest, the first goal is to provoke conflict. Bold, violent deeds draw the lines and arouse ancient resentments, and are useful even if they have unsought consequences. Polarization is to be encouraged, radical simplicity being essential for religious warfare. An Al Qaeda statement posted on the Internet after the March 11th bombings declared, “Being targeted by an enemy is what will wake us from our slumber.” Seen in this light, terrorism plays a sacramental role, dramatizing a religious conflict by giving it an apocalyptic backdrop. And Madrid was just another step in the relentless march of radical Islam against the modern, secular world.

Had the Madrid cell rested on its accomplishment after March 11th, Al Qaeda would properly be seen as an organization now being guided by political strategists—as an entity closer in spirit to ETA, with clear tactical objectives. April 2nd throws doubt on that perspective. There was little to be gained politically from striking an opponent who was complying with the stated demand: the government had agreed to withdraw troops from Iraq. If the point was merely humiliation or revenge, then April 2nd makes more sense; the terrorists wanted more blood, even if a second attack backfired politically. (The Socialists could hardly continue to follow the terrorist agenda with a thousand new corpses along the tracks.) April 2nd is comprehensible only if the real goal of the bombers was not Iraq but Spain, where the Islamic empire began its retreat five hundred years ago. “Spain is a target because we are the historic turning point,” Aristegui said. “After this, they are going to try to hit Rome, London, Paris, and the U.S. harder than they did before.”

Juan Áviles, a history professor at Madrid’s Autonomous University and an adviser to the Civil Guard, told me, “From our Western point of view, it doesn’t make sense that the killings of Atocha are meaningless. In Spain, we expect ETA to behave in certain ways. With Al Qaeda, the real dimensions of the threat are not known. And that produces uneasiness.”

In the weeks after the March 11th attacks, Spanish police combed the immigrant neighborhoods outside Madrid, carrying photographs of suspects. “We didn’t have them perfectly located, but we knew they were in Leganés,” a police official told me. Leganés is a bland suburb of five-story red brick apartment complexes. The wide streets are lined with evenly spaced, adolescent oaks. In the mornings, the sidewalks are full of commuters rushing for the trains; then the place is vacant, except for grandmothers and strollers. In the evenings, the commuters return and close their doors.

At three o’clock on the afternoon of April 3rd, the day after the discovery of the bomb on the ave tracks, police approached an apartment building on Calle Carmen Martín Gaite. They saw a young Moroccan man with a baseball cap on backward who was taking out trash. He yelled something in Arabic, then ran away at an impressive pace. (He turned out to be a track champion; the police did not catch him, and he remains at large.) A moment later, voices cried out, “Allahu Akhbar!,” and machine-gun fire from the second floor of the apartment house raked the street, scattering the cops. Over the next few hours, the police tactical unit, Grupo Especial de Operaciones, evacuated the residents of nearby apartments. Tanks and helicopters moved in, and the siege of Leganés began.

Inside the apartment were seven young men. Most of them were Moroccan immigrants who had come to Europe seeking economic opportunity. They had gone through a period of becoming “Westernized”—that is to say, they had been drinkers, drug dealers, womanizers. They hung out in cybercafés. They folded into the ethnic mix of urban Madrid. But they also lived in the European underground of Islamic radicalism, whose members were recruited more often in prison than in the training camps of Afghanistan.

Their leader was Sarhane Ben Abdelmajid Fakhet, who was thirty-five years old and had a round, fleshy face and a patchy beard. He was a real-estate agent who had come to Madrid eight years earlier on a scholarship to study economics. His boss told the Spanish press that Fakhet was “a wonderful salesman,” who held the record for the number of apartments sold in a month. Yet he did not talk to his co-workers or make friends with other Spaniards; he remained sequestered in his Muslim world.

“He was very soft and well educated,” Moneir Mahmoud Aly el-Messery, the imam at the principal mosque in Madrid, told me. The mosque—a massive marble structure, built with Saudi money—is the center of Muslim cultural life in the Spanish capital. It overlooks the M-30, one of the main freeways feeding into Madrid. When Fakhet was a student, he worked in the restaurant that is attached to the mosque, and he sometimes came to Messery’s weekly religion class. In the beginning, the imam noticed that Fakhet spoke familiarly to women as well as to men. “Then, for three or four years, I sensed that he had some extremist thoughts,” Messery recalled. After class, Fakhet would ask telling questions, such as whether the imam believed that the leaders of the Arab countries were true believers, or if Islam authorized the use of force to spread the religion. Last year, he married a sixteen-year-old Moroccan girl who veiled her face and dressed entirely in black, including gloves. His performance at work declined, and he eventually stopped showing up altogether. According to police, he attended meetings with a small group of fellow-Muslims at a barbershop in Madrid, where the men would drink holy water from Mecca. Police believe that this ritual was aimed at absolving the men of the sin of suicide, which is condemned by Islam.

Soon after the attacks of September 11th, the imam had a dream about Fakhet. “Sarhane was in his kitchen, cooking on the stove,” he recalled. “I saw what he was cooking was a big pot of worms. He tried to give me a plate of the food to eat. I said no. I said, ‘Please clean the kitchen!’” Days later, the imam confronted Fakhet. “This is a message from God!” the imam said to him. “The kitchen is the thought, and the thought is dirty.” Fakhet didn’t respond. “He’s a very cold person,” the imam told me.

Fakhet was not the only young man in the M-30 mosque who had taken a turn toward extremism. Amer Azizi, a thirty-six-year-old Moroccan who was a veteran of jihad in Bosnia and Afghanistan, had been indicted in Spain for helping to plan the September 11th attacks. (He was accused of setting up the July, 2001, meeting between Atta and other conspirators in Salou.) Among people who frequented the mosque, Azizi had the reputation of being a drug addict, although he attended some classes on Islam along with Fakhet. In June, 2000, when the Arab countries’ ambassadors to Spain came to the mosque to mourn the death of the Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad, Azizi insulted them, yelling, “Why do you come to pray for an infidel?” Police charge him with being a senior member of Al Qaeda and the leader of the Moroccan Islamic Combat Group, which was responsible for five bombings in Casablanca in May, 2003. He fled Spain just before his indictment.

Another of Fakhet’s friends was Jamal Ahmidan, a drug dealer who police say financed the March 11th bombings with seventy pounds of hashish. Messery blamed an Islamist cleric in London, Abu Qatada, a radical Palestinian from Jordan who emigrated to Britain as a refugee in 1994. After September 11th, police in Hamburg found eighteen tapes of Abu Qatada’s sermons in Mohamed Atta’s apartment there. British authorities arrested him in October, 2002, but he still wields great authority among Islamists around the world. The imam told me, “It was as if there were black hands behind a curtain pushing these young men.”

At six o’clock in the evening on April 3rd, three hours after the start of the Leganés siege, a handwritten fax in Arabic, signed by Abu Dujan al-Afghani, arrived at ABC, a conservative daily in Madrid. Referring to the bomb found beside the ave tracks the day before, the author argues that it failed to explode because “our objective was only to warn you and show you that we have the power and capacity, with the permission of Allah, to attack you when and how we want.” The letter demanded that Spain withdraw its troops from both Iraq and Afghanistan by the following Sunday. Otherwise, “we will turn Spain into an inferno and make your blood flow like rivers.” On the surface, the fax represented another turn toward tactical political thinking; more likely, it was an attempt to salvage a bungled operation.

Outside the Leganés apartment, the police attempted to negotiate, but the cornered terrorists cried out, “We will die killing!” Phone calls that they made to relatives during the siege confirmed their intentions. They also attempted to call Abu Qatada in London’s Belmarsh Prison, apparently seeking a fatwa that would morally sanction their suicide.

Instead of turning off the electricity and waiting them out, the police decided to storm the apartment. They ordered the terrorists to come out “naked and with your hands up.” One of the occupants responded, “Come in and we’ll talk.” At 9:05 p.m., the police blew the lock on the door and fired tear gas into the room. Almost immediately, an explosion shattered the apartment, killing the terrorists and a police officer. The blast was so intense that it took days before the authorities could determine how many people had been in the apartment. The body of Jamal Ahmidan was hurled through the walls and into a swimming pool. One of the seven bodies still has not been identified.

In the ruins, police found twenty-two pounds of Goma-2 and two hundred copper detonators that were similar to those used in the train bombings. They also found the shredded remains of a videotape. These fragments were painstakingly reassembled, to the point where police could view the final statement of Fakhet and two other members of the cell, which called itself “the brigade situated in Al Andalus.” Unless Spanish troops left Iraq within a week, the men had declared, “we will continue our jihad until martyrdom in the land of Tariq ibn Ziyad.”

Al Andalus is the Arabic name for the portion of Spain that fell to Muslim armies after the invasion by the Berber general Tariq ibn Ziyad in 711. It includes not only the southern region of Andalusia, but most of the Iberian Peninsula. For the next eight hundred years, Al Andalus remained in Islamic hands. “You know of the Spanish crusade against Muslims, and that not much time has passed since the expulsion from Al Andalus and the tribunals of the Inquisition,” Fakhet says on the tape. He is referring to 1492, when Ferdinand and Isabella completed the reconquest of Spain, forcing Jews and Muslims to convert to Catholicism or leave the Iberian Peninsula. “Blood for blood!” he shouts. “Destruction for destruction!”

Were these the true goals of Al Qaeda? Were the besieged terrorists in Leganés simply struggling to get Spain out of Iraq, or were they also battling to regain the lost colonies of Islam? In other words, were these terrorists who might respond to negotiation or appeasement, or were they soldiers in a religious fight to the finish that had merely been paused for five hundred years?

Less than a month after 9/11, Osama bin Laden and his chief lieutenant, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, had appeared on Al Jazeera. “We will not accept that the tragedy of Al Andalus will be repeated in Palestine,” Zawahiri said, drawing an analogy between the expulsion of the Moors from Iberia and the present-day plight of the Palestinians. The use of the archaic name Al Andalus left most Spaniards nonplussed. “We took it as a folkloric thing,” Ramón Pérez-Maura, an editor at ABC, told me. “We probably actually laughed.” This January, bin Laden issued a “Message to the Muslim People,” which was broadcast on Al Jazeera. He lamented the decline of the Islamic world: “It is enough to know that the economy of all Arab countries is weaker than the economy of one country that had once been part of our world when we used to truly adhere to Islam. That country is the lost Al Andalus.”

The Muslims who were expelled from Al Andalus took refuge mainly in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia. Some families, it is said, still have the keys to their houses in Córdoba and Seville. But the legacy of Al Andalus persisted in Spain as well. Up until the Victorian era, the country was considered to be more a part of the Orient than of Europe. The language, the food, and the architecture were all deeply influenced by the Islamic experience—a rival past that Catholic Spain, in all its splendor, could never bury. “In modern Arabic literature, Al Andalus is seen as the lost paradise,” Manuela Marín, a professor at the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, in Madrid, told me. “For Spain, the history of Al Andalus has a totally different meaning. After all, what we know as Spain was made in opposition to the Islamic presence on the peninsula. Only recently have people begun to accept that Islam was a part of Spain.”

Although many Spanish historians have painted Moorish Spain as something other than paradise for Jews and Christians, for Muslims it remains not only a symbol of vanished greatness but a kind of alternative vision of Islam—one in which all the ills of present-day Islamic societies are reversed. Muslim tourists, including many heads of state, come to Spain to imagine a time when Islam was at the center of art and learning, not on the fringes. “The Alhambra is the No. 1 Islamic monument,” Malik A. Ruíz Callejas, the emir of the Islamic community in Spain and the president of Granada’s new mosque, told me recently. “Back when in Paris and London people were being eaten alive by rats, in Córdoba everyone could read and write. The civilization of Al Andalus was probably the most just, most unified, and most tolerant in history, providing the greatest level of security and the highest standard of living.”

Imams sometimes invoke the glory of Al Andalus in Friday prayers as a reminder of the price that Muslims paid for turning away from the true faith. When I asked Moneir el-Messery, of the M-30 mosque, if the Madrid bombers could have been motivated by the desire to recapture Al Andalus, he looked up sharply and said, “I can speak of the feeling of all Muslims. It was a part of history. We were here for eight centuries. You can’t forget it, ever.”

The fear that the “Moors” would one day return and reclaim their lost paradise—through either conquest or immigration—has created a certain paranoia in Spanish politics. Construction of the mosque in Granada was delayed for twenty-two years because of the intense anxiety surrounding the growing Islamic presence. In 1986, Spain joined the European Union; generous E.U. subsidies ignited an economic boom, drawing thousands of young men from North Africa. “The Muslims are young, and male, and they come by themselves,” Mohammed el-Afifi, the director of press relations at the M-30 mosque, told me two years ago, when I visited him. “They don’t speak Spanish, and they don’t have much information about Spain. And they arrive with a different religion.” At the time, Afifi placed the number of Arab immigrants in Spain at three hundred thousand. Now the number of Arabic-speaking immigrants is five hundred thousand, not including half a million illegals. The Spanish government has encouraged official immigration from South America at the expense of North Africa, but smugglers in high-speed power boats make nightly drop-offs on the ragged Spanish coastline, and the frequent discovery of corpses washing up on the beaches testifies to the desperation of those who did not quite get to shore.

Muslim immigration is transforming all of Europe. Nearly twenty million people in the European Union identify themselves as Muslim. This population is disproportionately young, male, and unemployed. The societies these men have left are typically poor, religious, conservative, and dictatorial; the ones they enter are rich, secular, liberal, and free. For many, the exchange is invigorating, but for others Europe becomes a prison of alienation. A Muslim’s experience of immigration can be explained in part by how he views his adopted homeland. Islamic thought broadly divides civilization into dar al-Islam, the land of the believers, and dar al-Kufr, the land of impiety. France, for instance, is a secular country, largely Catholic, but it is now home to five million Muslims. Should it therefore be considered part of the Islamic world? This question is central to the debate about whether Muslims in Europe can integrate into their new communities or must stand apart from them. If France can be considered part of dar al-Islam, then Muslims can form alliances and participate in politics, they should have the right to institute Islamic law, and they can send their children to French schools. If it is a part of dar al-Kufr, then strict Muslims must not only keep their distance; they must fight against their adopted country.

The Internet provides confused young Muslims in Europe with a virtual community. Those who cannot adapt to their new homes discover on the Internet a responsive and compassionate forum. “The Internet stands in for the idea of the ummah, the mythologized Muslim community,” Marc Sageman, the psychiatrist and former C.I.A. officer, said. “The Internet makes this ideal community concrete, because one can interact with it.” He compares this virtual ummah to romantic conceptions of nationhood, which inspire people not only to love their country but to die for it.

“The Internet is the key issue,” Gilles Kepel, a prominent Arabist and a professor at the Institut d’Études Politiques, in Paris, told me recently. “It erases the frontiers between the dar al-Islam and the dar al-Kufr. It allows the propagation of a universal norm, with an Internet Sharia and fatwa system.” Kepel was speaking of the Islamic legal code, which is administered by the clergy. Now one doesn’t have to be in Saudi Arabia or Egypt to live under the rule of Islamic law. “Anyone can seek a ruling from his favorite sheikh in Mecca,” Kepel said. “In the old days, one sought a fatwa from the sheikh who had the best knowledge. Now it is sought from the one with the best Web site.”

To a large extent, Kepel argues, the Internet has replaced the Arabic satellite channels as a conduit of information and communication. “One can say that this war against the West started on television,” he said, “but, for instance, with the decapitation of the poor hostages in Iraq and Saudi Arabia, those images were propagated via Webcams and the Internet. A jihadi subculture has been created that didn’t exist before 9/11.”

Because the Internet is anonymous, Islamist dissidents are less susceptible to government pressure. “There is no signature,” Kepel said. “To some of us who have been trained as classicists, the cyber-world appears very much like the time before Gutenberg. Copyists used to add their own notes into a text, so you never know who was the real author.”

Gabriel Weimann, a senior fellow at the United States Institute of Peace, has been monitoring terrorist Web sites for seven years. “When we started, there were only twelve sites,” he told me. “Now there are more than four thousand.” Every known terrorist group maintains more than one Web site, and often the sites are in different languages. “You can download music, videos, donate money, receive training,” Weimann said. “It’s a virtual training camp.” There are two online magazines associated with Al Qaeda, Sawt al-Jihad (Voice of Jihad) and Muaskar al-Battar (Camp al-Battar), which feature how-to articles on kidnapping, poisoning, and murdering hostages. Specific targets, such as the Centers for Disease Control, in Atlanta, or FedWire, the money-clearing system operated by the Federal Reserve Board, are openly discussed. “We do see a rising focus on the U.S.,” Weimann told me. “But some of this talk may be fake—a scare campaign.”

One of the sites has been linked directly to terrorist acts. An editor of Sawt al-Jihad, Issa bin Saad al-Oshan, died in a gun battle with Saudi police on July 21st, during a raid on a villa in Riyadh, where the head of Paul M. Johnson, Jr., the American hostage, was discovered in the freezer.

The importance of the Internet in the case of Madrid is disputed among experts. “Yes, the Internet has created a virtual ummah,” Olivier Roy, an expert on political Islam at the French Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, wrote to me recently. “The Web sites seem to attract the lonely Muslim cybernaut, who does remain in a virtual world. But Madrid’s bombers used the Internet as a tool of communication. Their leaders had personal links with other Al Qaeda members, not virtual ones.”

Thomas Hegghammer, the Norwegian investigator, divides the jihadi Internet community into three categories. “First, you have the message boards,” he explained in a recent e-mail. “There you find the political and religious discussions among the sympathizers and potential recruits. The most important message boards for Al Qaeda sympathizers are Al Qal’ah (The Fortress), Al Sahat (The Fields), and Al Islah (Reform).” These boards, Hegghammer wrote, provide links to the “information hubs,” where new radical-Islamist texts, declarations, and recordings are posted. “You often find these among the ‘communities’ at Yahoo, Lycos, and so on,” Hegghammer continued. “There are many such sites, but the main one is Global Islamic Media.” It was at this site that Hegghammer discovered the “Jihadi Iraq” document. “Finally, you have the ‘mother sites,’ which are run by people who get their material directly from the ideologues or operatives. They must not be confused with the myriad amateur sites (usually in English) set up by random sympathizers or bored kids.”

Hegghammer pointed to several key sites associated with Al Qaeda, including Al Faruq (He Who Distinguishes Truth from Falsehood) and Markaz al-Dirasat wal-Buhuth al-Islamiyyah (Center for Islamic Study and Research). “Al Faruq is difficult to place geographically and organizationally, but it seems closer to the Afghanistan-based elements of Al Qaeda,” Hegghammer wrote. Markaz al-Dirasat concentrates on Saudi Arabia. These sites move continuously, Hegghammer wrote, sometimes several times a day, to avoid being hacked by intelligence agencies or freelance Internet vigilantes. One of Al Qaeda’s first sites, Al Neda, was operating until July, 2002, when it was captured by an American who operates pornography sites. The Internet jihadis now cover themselves by stealing unguarded server space. Jihad videos have recently been discovered on servers belonging to George Washington University and the Arkansas Department of Highways and Transportation.

Last March, in Pakistan, Jamal Ismail, a reporter for Abu Dhabi TV, showed me how he monitors the Al Faruq site. Each day, he receives an e-mail with a link, which leads him to the new address. Like several other jihadi sites, the Al Faruq site announces itself with a white stallion racing across the screen, which is the Al Qaeda logo. “Every few days, it announces a new name, but it is the same Web site with a new look,” he told me. “It concentrates on Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Afghanistan.” In mid-July, I asked Ismail via e-mail if there was any discussion of the upcoming American Presidential election; the Department of Homeland Security had just announced contingency plans to postpone the election in the event that Al Qaeda attempts to disrupt it. “There is no new article like the Spanish one, but we are all expecting people to talk about it,” Ismail said. Sageman said that he had seen “vague statements along the lines of ‘We’ll do to the U.S. the same as we did to Spain,’” but nothing specific or authoritative.

I went to Yahoo Groups and typed in “jihad.” There were a hundred and ninety-two chat groups registered under that category. With my Arabic-speaking assistant, Nidal Daraiseh, I checked out qal3ah.net, which had 7,939 members. On March 12th, the day after the train bombings, a message titled “The Goals of Al Qaeda in Attacking Madrid” had been posted by a writer calling himself Gallant Warrior. Echoing a theme that is frequently repeated on these sites, the writer noted that by carrying out its threat to Spain, Al Qaeda proved that its words were matched by actions: “Al Qaeda has sent a message to the crusading people: do not think that death and fear are only for the weak Muslims. . . . Aznar, the American tail, has lost. And great fear has spread among the people of the countries in alliance with America. They will all be vanquished. Thank God for letting us live this long to see the jihad battalions in Europe. If anyone had predicted this three years ago, one would have said he was dreaming.”

Another site I visited, ikhwan.net, was unusual in having a number of female correspondents. A writer named Murad chastised those who condemned the Madrid bombings. “You pity the deaths of those non-Muslims so quickly! If Muslims had died in their lands in the manner the writer discusses, would he have cried for them?” A woman named Bint al-Dawa responded, “Brother Murad, Islam does not allow the killing of innocent people.” A man who called himself “Salahuddeen2” entered the discussion: “We have said that we are against the killing of civilians anywhere, but the enemies of God kill Muslim civilians every day and do not feel shame. They should drink from the same bitter cup.”

Though these sites have become an ideological home for many Muslims, for most Arab immigrants Europe has provided comfort and support, while at the same time allowing them the freedom to maintain their Islamic identities. Three Moroccan immigrants died on the trains on March 11th. One was a devout thirteen-year-old girl, Sanae Ben Salah, for whom the M-30 mosque was said to have been her “second home.” Another, Mohamed Itabien, twenty-seven, was an illegal immigrant who taught Arabic classes at a mosque in Guadalajara. He was the sole source of support for his family, including eleven siblings, most of whom lived in a tiny town in Morocco where there were no telephones. The third, Osama el-Amrati, was a builder who was engaged to a Spanish woman. “Europe has given us opportunities our own countries didn’t give us,” Mustapha el-M’Rabet, the head of the Moroccan Workers and Immigrants Association, told me in Madrid. “Our children are in school, and we are working. Thousands of families in Morocco can live with the money we get here.” When I asked M’Rabet if Al Andalus was part of the lure for Moroccan immigrants, he said, “Nobody with common sense could talk about going back to that. It’s madness. It’s a disease.”

Under Aznar, relations with Morocco deteriorated to the point where, in 2002, the countries broke off diplomatic relations over various problems, including territory disputes, immigration, and the flow of drugs into Europe through Spain (according to the United Nations, Morocco exports twelve billion dollars’ worth of marijuana each year). Eventually, the governments returned their ambassadors, without resolving the disputes that had led to the rupture. When twelve suicide bombers struck in Casablanca in May, 2003, killing forty-five people, one of their targets was a restaurant called Casa de España.

“Spain is the bridge between the Islamic world and the West,” Haizam Amirah Fernández said, when we met in a conference room at Madrid’s Real Instituto Elcano shortly after the train bombings. “Think of that other bridge to the east, Turkey. Both have been hit by jihadist terrorists—in the same week.” In Istanbul, on March 9th, two suicide bombers attacked a Jewish club, killing one person and injuring five others. “The whole idea is to cut off these bridges,” Amirah said. “If the goal is to polarize people, Muslims and infidels, that is a way of doing it. Jihadists are the most fervent defenders of the notion of a clash of civilizations.”

One evening, I went to a pub with some Spanish cops. “There is this legend that Spain and the Arab world were friends,” a senior investigator said. He nodded toward the waitress and the customers at several nearby tables. “Here in the bar are five Arabs sitting next to you. Nobody used to think it was strange. Now people are reacting differently.” He paused and said, “They want to smell the jasmine of Al Andalus and pray again in the Granada mosque. Can you imagine the mentality these S.O.B.s have?”

On a splendid April day in Paris, I went to lunch with Gilles Kepel, the Arabist scholar, and Jean-Louis Bruguière, the doughty French counter-terrorism judge. Despite the beautiful weather, the men were in a gloomy frame of mind. “I am seriously concerned about the future,” Bruguière said, as we sat at a corner table under an arbor of lilacs that shed blossoms onto his jacket. His armor-plated Peugeot was parked on the street and his bodyguards were discreetly arrayed in the restaurant. “I began work on this in 1991, against the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria. These groups were well known and each had an understandable structure. The majority were sponsored by states—Syria, Libya, Iraq. Now we have to face a new and largely unknown organization, with a loose system and hidden connections, so it is not easy to understand its internal functioning. It appears to be composed of cells and networks that are scattered all over the world and changing shape constantly.”

Bruguière pointed to the Istanbul bombings in November, 2003, and the March 11th bombings in Madrid as being the opening salvos in a new attack on Europe. “They have struck in the east and in the south,” he said. “I think the next stop will be in the north.”

“London or Paris,” Kepel suggested.

“The principal target is London,” Bruguière declared.

Chechnya is playing a larger and more disturbing role in the worldwide jihad, Bruguière said. At present, Al Qaeda and its affiliates operate on a rather low-tech level, but in Chechnya many recruits are being trained to exploit the technical advantages of developed countries. “Some of these groups have the capacity for hijacking satellites,” he told me. Capturing signals beamed from space, terrorists could devastate the communications industry, shut down power grids, and paralyze the ability of developed countries to defend themselves.

“In 2001, all the Islamist actors in Madrid were identified,” Bruguière said. His own investigations had led him to the Spanish capital that June. He quickly informed the Spanish police that Jamal Zougam, the owner of the phone shop, was a major contact for jihad recruits in Europe and Morocco. But Zougam was not apprehended. French and Spanish authorities have a long history of disagreement over the handling of terrorism, with the Spanish accusing the French of giving sanctuary to ETA terrorists. Bruguière said that when he arrived in Madrid he found that “the Islamic threat was underassessed.” The Spanish police had made him wait a year before allowing him to interview Zougam. After Bruguière went back to Paris, the Spanish police put Zougam under surveillance and searched his apartment, finding jihadi tapes and videos. The authorities briefly renewed their interest in him after the 2003 Casablanca bombings, but once again there was insufficient evidence to arrest him.

I asked Bruguière if he thought that the Madrid attacks represented an evolution in Al Qaeda’s operational ability, or suggested that the organization had lost control. He said that Al Qaeda was now little more than “a brand, a trademark,” but he admitted that he had been surprised. “It was a good example of the capacity and the will of these groups to adopt a political agenda. The defeat of the late government and the agreement of the new government to withdraw troops—it was a terrorist success, the first time we have had such a result.”

Later, Kepel and I discussed the reason that Europe was under attack. “The future of Islam is in Europe,” he said. “It has a huge Muslim population. Either we train our Muslims to become modern global citizens, who live in a democratic, pluralistic society, or, on the contrary, the Islamists win, and take over those Muslim European constituencies. Then we’re in serious trouble.”

"I doubt whether anyone can seriously suggest that Spain has not acted in a way that suggests appeasement,” Ramón Pérez-Maura, the editor at ABC, told me shortly after Zapatero had announced plans to withdraw Spanish troops from Iraq in May, without waiting to see if U.N. peacekeeping troops would become involved. Pérez-Maura recalled a recent lunch he had had with the Iranian Ambassador to Spain, Mortez Alviri. According to Pérez-Maura, Alviri said that Miguel Ángel Moratinos—Zapatero’s pick for Foreign Minister—had approached the Iranians to negotiate with Moqtada al-Sadr, the radical Shiite cleric, whose militia was engaged in savage urban warfare with Coalition troops. (Moratinos has denied this.) According to Pérez-Maura, Alviri passed Moratinos’s message along, and, less than a day after Zapatero announced the withdrawal, Sadr said from Najaf that Spanish troops would be allowed to leave Iraq unmolested. That was a false promise. American and Spanish forces had to shoot a path through Sadr’s militia in Najaf, which repeatedly attacked them.

On April 15th, the voice of Osama bin Laden spoke again. “This is a message to our neighbors north of the Mediterranean, containing a reconciliation initiative as a response to their positive reactions,” bin Laden said on the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya. Now it was the Al Qaeda leader who cast himself in the role of a rational political actor. “It is in both sides’ interest to curb the plans of those who shed the blood of peoples for their narrow personal interest and subservience to the White House gang.” He proposed a European committee to study “the justice” of the Islamic causes, especially Palestine. “The reconciliation will start with the departure of its last soldier from our country,” bin Laden said—not indicating if he was referring to Iraq, Afghanistan, or the entire Muslim world. “The door of reconciliation is open for three months from the date of announcing this statement. . . . For those who want reconciliation, we have given them a chance. Stop shedding our blood so as to preserve your blood. It is in your hands to apply this easy, yet difficult, formula. You know that the situation will expand and increase if you delay things. . . . Peace be upon those who follow guidance.”

From bin Laden’s perspective, he was offering to bring Europe into an unsettled middle ground called the dar al-Suhl. This is the land of the treaty, where Muslims live as a peaceful minority. European leaders rejected bin Laden’s proposal almost immediately, seeing it as a ploy to aggravate the tensions in the Western alliance. “It’s the weirdest thing in the world,” a senior F.B.I. official told me. “It shows he’s on the ropes, desperate.”

Bin Laden’s truce offer immediately became a topic of discussion on the Islamist Web sites. “This initiative should be considered a golden opportunity to the people of Europe,” read a posting by Global Islamic Media on qal3ah.net. “Do not find it strange if after a while, a year or so, you will hear about secret negotiations by one country and representatives of Al Qaeda. . . . The organization has come to represent the Islamic ummah and speaks in its name. It appears that we are returning to the days of the caliphate.”

On another site, islah.tv, a writer calling himself “Ya Rab Shahada” (Oh God, Martyrdom) picked up on the theme: “The Sheikh speaks these words as the Caliph of the Muslims and not as a wanted man. . . . This is the sign to begin the big strike on America.” Another writer said, “Here we have the lands of Al Andalus where the trains were struck. The Sheikh is isolating America now . . . and it will be seen who will choose peace from those who chose suicide.” A writer calling himself “@adlomari@” added, “The Sheikh has . . . proved to the world that Europe does not want peace with Muslims, and that it wants to be a partner in the Crusader crimes against Muslims. The coming days will show that events in Europe are coming if it does not respond to the Sheikh’s initiative. Tomorrow is near.”

The fact that bin Laden was addressing nations as an equal showed a new confidence in Al Qaeda’s ability to manipulate the political future. Exploiting this power will depend, in part, on convincing the West that Al Qaeda and bin Laden remain in control of the worldwide Islamist jihad. As long as Al Qaeda is seen as being an irrational, unyielding death cult, the only response is to destroy it. But if Al Qaeda—amorphous as that entity has become—has evolved into something like a virtual Islamist state that is trying to find a permanent place for itself in the actual world, then the prospect of future negotiations is not out of the question, however unlikely or repellent that may sound to Americans. After all, the Spanish government has brokered truces with ETA, which has killed four times as many people in Spain as Al Qaeda has, and the accelerated withdrawal of Spanish troops from Iraq following the train bombings has already set a precedent for accommodation, which was quickly followed by the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Last year, Germany paid a six-million-dollar ransom to Algerian terrorists, and the Philippines recently pulled its fifty troops out of Iraq in order to save a hostage from being beheaded.

On July 21st, immediately after the Philippine hostage was freed, new warnings appeared on the Internet, from a body called the Tawhid Islamic Group, promising terror attacks against Poland and Bulgaria unless they withdrew their troops from Iraq. Although leaders of both countries immediately rejected the demands, opinion polls showed that popular sentiment was turning against the countries’ presence in Iraq. Another threat, allegedly from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s group, Tawhid and Jihad, warned Japan that “queues of cars laden with explosives” were waiting, unless Japanese humanitarian troops left Iraq. Also in July, the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades posted a communiqué on the Internet ordering Italians to overthrow their Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi. “We are in Italy, and not one of you is safe so long as you refuse our Sheikh’s offer,” the message said. “Get rid of the incompetent Berlusconi or we will truly burn Italy.” The Internet warriors have been emboldened, although it is impossible to know how seriously to take their threats.

Appeasement is a foolish strategy for dealing with Al Qaeda. Last year, many Saudis were stunned when the terrorist group struck Western compounds in Riyadh—shortly after the U.S. had announced that it would withdraw troops from Saudi Arabia, fulfilling one of bin Laden’s primary demands. The Saudis now realize that Al Qaeda won’t be assuaged until all foreigners are expelled from the Arabian Peninsula and a rigid theocracy has been imposed. Yet some of the countries on Al Qaeda’s hit list will no doubt seek to appease terrorists as a quick solution to a crisis.

Intelligence officials are now trying to determine who is the next target, and are sifting through “chatter” in search of a genuine threat. “We see people getting on the Internet and then they get on their phones and talk about it,” a senior F.B.I. official told me. “We are now responding to the threat to the U.S. elections.” The idea of attacking before Election Day, the official said, “was born out of Madrid.” Earlier this year, an international task force dubbed Operation Crevice arrested members of a bomb-making ring in London. During the investigation, officials overheard statements that there were jihadis in Mexico awaiting entry into the U.S. That coincided with vague warnings from European imams about attacks before the elections. As a result of this intelligence, surveillance of border traffic from Mexico has been increased.

Even though Al Qaeda has been weakened by the capture of key operatives, such as Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the architect of the 9/11 attacks, it is hardly defunct. “There is a replacement for Mohammed named Abu Faraj,” the F.B.I. official said. “If there is an attack on the U.S., his deputy, Hamza Rabia, will be responsible. He’s head of external operations for Al Qaeda—an arrogant, nasty guy.” The official continued, “The most dangerous thing now is that no one is in control. These guys don’t have to go back to bin Laden or Zawahiri for approval.”

One of the most sobering pieces of information to come out of the investigation of the March 11th bombings is that the planning for the attacks may have begun nearly a year before 9/11. In October, 2000, several of the suspects met in Istanbul with Amer Azizi, who had taken the nom de guerre Othman Al Andalusi—Othman of Al Andalus. Azizi later gave the conspirators permission to act in the name of Al Qaeda, although it is unclear whether he authorized money or other assistance—or, indeed, whether Al Qaeda had much support to offer. In June, Italian police released a surveillance tape of one of the alleged planners of the train bombings, an Egyptian housepainter named Rabei Osman Sayed Ahmed, who said that the operation “took me two and a half years.” Ahmed had served as an explosives expert in the Egyptian Army. It appears that some kind of attack would have happened even if Spain had not joined the Coalition—or if the invasion of Iraq had never occurred.

“The real problem of Spain for Al Qaeda is that we are a neighbor of Arab countries—Morocco and Algeria—and we are a model of economy, democracy, and secularism,” Florentino Portero, a political analyst at the Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos, in Madrid, told me. “We support the transformation and Westernization of the Middle East. We defend the transition of Morocco from a monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. We are allies of the enemies of Al Qaeda in the Arab world. This point is not clearly understood by the Spanish people. We are a menace to Al Qaeda just because of who we are.”

When spiders unite, they can tie down a lion - Ethiopian Proverb

2004-08-03T22:37:00.000-07:00

American friend Kevin Morris is one of these 'spiders' ... Say, Hi, Kevin!

I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship. - Louisa May Alcott

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

By Way of Contrast: GeorgeWBush.com :: The Official Re-election Site for President George W. Bush

2004-07-28T16:31:00.000-07:00
GeorgeWBush.com :: The Official Re-election Site for President George W.
Bush

In a Nutshell...

2004-07-28T15:27:00.000-07:00
While having his weekly visit by telephone from somewhere in the world on the radio with Hugh Hewitt, Mark Steyn, speaking of the "Democratic Party", concluded, " ... this party is just not serious about defending the American way of life."

When Ya Gotta Soft Pedal the Truth...

2004-07-27T20:15:00.000-07:00
... In a visit to Camp Pendleton, California today, the Vice President of the United States, Mister Dick Cheney said that 'Our enemies have an agenda to end religious and political pluralism in the world'.

'Like Winter Snow on Summer Lawn - Time Past is Time Gone'

2004-07-24T03:52:00.000-07:00
Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Love is the only game that is not cancelled on account of darkness. - M. Hirschfield

Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. - Attributed to Chief Seattle 1854

Not many men have both good fortune and good sense. - Titus Livy

Sittin' in the morning sun,
I'll be sittin' when the evenin' come.
Watchin' the ships roll in,
Then I watch 'em roll away again.

Yeah, I'm sittin on the dock of the bay,
Watchin' the tide roll away.
Ooh, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the day,
Wastin' time.

I left my home in Georgia,
Headed for the Frisco bay.
I have nothin' to live for,
Look like nothin's gonna come my way.

So I'm just gonna sit on the dock of the bay,
Watchin' the tide roll away.
Ooh, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the day,
Wastin' time.

Looks like nothin's gonna change;
Everything still remains the same.
I can't do what ten people tell me to do,
So I guess I'll remain the same.

Sittin' here restin' my bones,
And this loneliness won't leave me alone.
Two housand miles I roam,
Just to make this dock my home.

Now I'm just gonna sit at the dock of the bay,
Watchin' the tide roll away.
Ooh, I'm just sittin' on the dock of the bay,
Wastin' time.

Song Lyrics & Chords - (Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay:
by Steve Cropper and Otis Redding

The Chords:

4/4 Moderate beat =144

||: G | G :||

s/s | G | B | C B Bb | A | G | B | C B Bb | A |

| G | E(9) E | G | A | G | To Coda ()

1. | E || D. S. s/s

2. | E || G D C | C | G D C | C | G D C | C | F | D || D. S. s/s al Coda

() Coda: | E ||: G | G | G | E :|| Repeat ad lib and fade

A careless word may kindle strife.
A cruel word may wreck a life.
A timely word may quell stress.
A loving word may heal and bless.

Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a harder battle - Plato

"If it is not truthful and not helpful, don't say it.
If it is truthful and not helpful, don't say it.
If it is not truthful and helpful, don't say it.
If it is truthful and helpful, wait for the right time." - Buddha

'Horror gripped the heart of a World War I soldier, as he saw his lifelong friend fall in battle. The soldier asked his Lieutenant if he could go out to bring his fallen comrade back. "You can go," said the Lieutenant, "but don't think it will be worth it. Your friend is probably dead and you may throw your life away." The Lieutenant's words didn't matter, and the soldier went anyway. Miraculously, it seemed, he managed to reach his friend, hoisted him onto his shoulder and brought him back to their company's trench. The officer checked the wounded soldier, then looked kindly at his friend. "I told you it wouldn't be worth it," he said. "Your friend is dead and you are mortally wounded." "It was worth it, Sir," said the soldier. "What do you mean by worth it?" responded the Lieutenant. "Your friend is dead." "Yes, Sir," the soldier answered, "but it was worth it because when I got to him, he was still alive and I had the satisfaction of hearing him say, "Jim... I knew you'd come." ... ... Many times in life, as to whether a thing is worth doing or not, really depends on how one looks at it. Take up all your courage and do something your heart tells you to do so that you may not regret not doing it later in your life.'... A true story, according to one M Gurunath.

To see a world in a grain of sand, / And a heaven in a wild flower, / Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, / And eternity in an hour. - William Blake, poet, engraver, and painter (1757-1827)

And a youth said, "Speak to us of Friendship."
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
And he is your board and your fireside.
For you come to him with your hunger, and you seek him for peace.
When your friend speaks his mind you fear not the "nay" in your own mind, nor do you withhold the "aye."
And when he is silent your heart ceases not to listen to his heart;
For without words, in friendship, all thoughts, all desires, all expectations are born and shared, with joy that is unacclaimed.
When you part from your friend, you grieve not;
For that which you love most in him may be clearer in his absence, as the mountain to the climber is clearer from the plain.
And let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
For love that seeks aught but the disclosure of its own mystery is not love but a net cast forth: and only the unprofitable is caught.
And let your best be for your friend.
If he must know the ebb of your tide, let him know its flood also.
For what is your friend that you should seek him with hours to kill?
Seek him always with hours to live.
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures.
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed. - Kahlil Gibran

Heard melodies are sweet, but those unheard / Are sweeter. - John Keats, poet (1795-1821)

Absence is to love what wind is to fire. It extinguishes the small, it enkindles the great.

Never test the depth of the water with both feet. - Anonymous

Caring is a reflex. Someone slips, your arm goes out. A car is in the ditch, you join the others and push. You live, you help. - Hindu Proverb

You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give. - Kahlil Gibran, mystic, poet and artist (1883-1931)

Youth would be an ideal state - if it came a little later in life. ~ Herbert Henry Asquith

Real knowledge is to know the extent of one's ignorance. - Confucius, philosopher and teacher (c. 551-478 BC)

Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down. ~ Oprah Winfrey

There's a mighty big difference between good, sound reasons and reasons that sound good.

"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - VS Rawat

Knowing all truth is less than doing a little bit of good. - Dr Albert Schweitzer

Beware the fury of the patient man. - John Dryden, poet and dramatist (1631-1700)

Maybe this world is another planet's Hell. - Aldous Huxley, novelist (1894-1963)

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it - Omar Khayyam

Sleep Tight - Dead or Alive is the Question

2004-07-23T21:41:00.000-07:00
This morning I searched my wallet, It was empty, then I checked my pockets, I found a few coins. I then searched my heart and found you guys, then I realised how rich I really am... - "Gireesh Dixit"

CAN YOU NAME THIS COUNTRY?

709,000 REGULAR (ACTIVE DUTY) PERSONNEL.

293,000 RESERVE TROOPS.

EIGHT STANDING ARMY DIVISIONS.

20 AIR FORCE AND NAVY AIR WINGS WITH 2,000 COMBAT AIRCRAFT.

232 STRATEGIC BOMBERS.

19 STRATEGIC BALLISTIC MISSILE SUBMARINES WITH

3,114 NUCLEAR WARHEADS ON 232 MISSILES.

500 ICBMs WITH 1,950 WARHEADS.

FOUR AIRCRAFT CARRIERS AND 121 SURFACE COMBAT SHIPS AND SUBMARINES PLUS ALL THE SUPPORT BASES, SHIPYARDS, AND LOGISTICAL ASSETS NEEDED TO SUSTAIN SUCH A NAVAL FORCE.

IS THIS COUNTRY :

RUSSIA ?   NO

CHINA ?   NO

GREAT BRITAIN ?   NO

FRANCE ?   WRONG AGAIN

MUST BE USA ?   STILL WRONG (SORT OF)

GIVE UP ?

THESE ARE THE AMERICAN MILITARY FORCES THAT WERE ELIMINATED DURING THE ADMINISTRATION OF BILL CLINTON AND AL GORE.

SLEEP WELL!

Also, keep this in mind as the elitist political pundits spew their anti-Bush propaganda ... There are airing about several claims that our servicemen are deployed for too long, and serving longer tours. This kind of talk is sure to continue as the election looms closer. To the extent these rumors have even a smattering of truth, which they very well may, it behooves us to remember that, if we still had all those military personnel and resources that were axed by the Clinton Administration, it would be likely our troops could be rotated more frequently - and perhaps, too, Iraq would be quiet and Iran would be just a tad bit more forthcoming and North Korea more careful.

Hat Tip: Friend Justus

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

Fair Tax Act - Strategy for Success for All Americans - Open Letter to President George W Bush

2004-07-15T08:03:00.000-07:00
Mr President - This is an open letter to you, Sir. Please consider for your campaign for re-election and or for your administration once re-elected the Fair Tax Act.

Americans for Fair Taxation http://fairtax.org/ is a 501c(4) non-profit, non-partisan organization, headquartered in Houston, Texas with an office in Washington, D.C. Since it was founded in 1995, Americans for Fair Taxation has grown to become the largest tax reform organization in the United States with over 400,000 supporters and members. Americans for Fair Taxation advocates the elimination of the current income tax code and proposes to replace it with the FairTax, a single-rate, federal consumption tax collected only once, at the final point of purchase for personal consumption.

The FairTax Act, a bipartisan bill sponsored by John Linder (R GA) and Collin Peterson (D-MN) would remove the burden of the income tax and other federal income-based taxes.

The FairTax Act would replace the current tax system with a national consumption tax that will:

Allow Americans to keep 100% of their paychecks, pensions, and Social Security payments.

Dramatically reduce the cost of goods and services by 20% to 30%.

Allow families to save more for homeownership, education, and retirement.

Raise the same amount of money for the federal government... But with enormous savings in collection costs and prosecution expenses for tax evasion - actually realize a net growth in revenue.

Make American products more competitive overseas.

"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan (1986)

"I've been told that some members of Congress disagree with my tax-cut proposal... Well, you know, it's been said that taxation is the art of plucking the feathers without killing the bird. It's time they realized the bird doesn't have any feathers left." - Ronald Reagan (1981)

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." - Ronald Wilson Reagan

I urge you, Mister President George W Bush to heed the vast majority of voters who will surely support you when you display such leadership of the American people as you are seen making a stand for passage of this historic Fair Tax reform measure. Thank you, sir.

--
jp
http://www.elderflower.blogspot.com

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship." - Patrick Henry

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison, "The Father of Our Constitution", and the fourth President of the united States of America

"I have long believed that the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, they are the universal right of all God's children." - Ronald Reagan (1991)

It is Mister President George W Bush, to you; the president of these united States of America, then, thank you very much.

2004-07-14T12:02:00.000-07:00
'GO FIGURE' how that similar facts can have puzzling opposite conclusions. Here is a set of statements of fact - comparing situations that occurred within the past decade or so - and placing them in a somewhat clearer light. Let us see, once: Have I got this straight?

Clinton awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Yugoslavia - good...

Bush awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq - bad...

Clinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia - good...

Bush spends 87 billion in Iraq - bad...

Clinton imposes regime change in Serbia - good...

Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

Clinton bombs Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslim Albanian terrorists - good...

Bush liberates 25 million from a genocidal dictator - bad...

Clinton bombs Chinese embassy - good...

Bush bombs terrorist camps - bad...

Clinton commits felonies while in office - good...

Bush lands on aircraft carrier in jumpsuit - bad...

Clinton says mass graves in Serbia - good...

Entire world says WMD in Iraq - bad...

No mass graves found in Serbia - good...

Not many (12) WMD found in Iraq - bad...

Stock market goes into recession under Clinton - good...

Slow, Steady and Strong Recovery under Bush - bad...

Clinton refuses to take custody of Bin Laden - good...

Bush goes after Bin Laden - bad...

Clinton says Saddam has nukes - good...

Bush says Saddam has nukes - bad...

Clinton calls for regime change in Iraq - good...

Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

Terrorist training in Afghanistan under Clinton - good...

Bush destroys training camps in Afghanistan - bad...

Milosevic not yet convicted - good...

Saddam in custody - bad...

Ah, such a puzzle!

[Hat Tip: Hi, Dad!]

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It

2004-07-13T18:31:00.000-07:00

If It's Not Close, They Can't Cheat: Crushing the Democrats in Every Election and Why Your Life Depends on It

http://hughhewitt.com

"War Against The Infidels - The message behind the beheadings"

2004-07-13T18:29:00.000-07:00
War Against the Infidels
The message behind the beheadings.
by Paul Marshall
Weekly Standard, 07/05/2004, Volume 009, Issue 41

'THE BEHEADING of American Paul Johnson in Saudi Arabia was terrible enough in itself, but for me it struck strangely close to home.

'Johnson's full name was Paul Marshall Johnson. When he was kidnapped, some media outlets, and the terrorists, referred to him as "Paul Marshall (Johnson)," with the surname in parentheses. The first I knew of the abduction was a phone call to my office from a network evening news reporter who thought that, since I have written on the Saudis and terrorism and was planning to return to the Middle East, I must be the one who had been kidnapped.

'Then on Friday, June 18, al Qaeda announced Johnson's death with the words, "In answer to what we promised . . . to kill the hostage Paul Marshall (Johnson) . . . the infidel got his fair treatment," prompting more calls from friends and reporters.

'Happily, of course, I could reassure them. But the episode underlined the fact that all of us are potential targets - and not just as Americans. Certainly, al Qaeda wants to kill Americans and drive them from the Arabian Peninsula, not least to cripple Saudi oil production. But the extremists, who beheaded a South Korean last week, have many more enemies than this and much larger goals.

'The statement announcing Johnson's death referred to him as an "infidel" - in Arabic kufr, unbeliever - rather than as an American. This is entirely consistent with al Qaeda's religiously based worldview and its recent actions.

'A few weeks before Johnson's death, the man believed to be his murderer, al Qaeda operative Abdelaziz al-Muqrin (himself reportedly killed on June 18 by Saudi security forces), had claimed credit for the May 29 massacre of 22 people at Khobar, Saudi Arabia. His statement on that occasion vowed, "We renew our determination to repel the crusader forces and their arrogance, to liberate the land of Muslims, to apply sharia [Islamic law] and cleanse the Arabian Peninsula of infidels." The Khobar attacks, too, were directed at "infidels" in general rather than just Americans.

'But to understand indelibly who al Qaeda thinks its enemies are, it is advisable to read an even more chilling document. It is a long interview with another Saudi terrorist, one of al-Muqrin's followers, published on the al Qaeda-linked website Sawt Al-Jihad and translated from Arabic by the Middle East Media Research Institute. Although only brief excerpts can be given here, lengthy excerpts are available on MEMRI's website. The speaker, Fawwaz bin Muhammad Al-Nashami, commanded the Al-Quds [Jerusalem] Brigade, which took responsibility for the Khobar killings. In the interview he describes the murderous rampage (except where indicated, bracketed inserts are the translator's):

'"We tied the infidel [a Briton] by one leg [behind the car]. . . . Everyone watched the infidel being dragged. . . . The infidel's clothing was torn to shreds, and he was naked in the street. The street was full of people, as this was during work hours, and everyone watched the infidel being dragged, praise and gratitude be to Allah. . . .

'"We entered one of the companies' [offices], and found there an American infidel who looked like a director of one of the companies. I went into his office and called him. When he turned to me, I shot him in the head, and his head exploded. We entered another office and found one infidel from South Africa, and our brother Hussein slit his throat. We asked Allah to accept [these acts of devotion] from us, and from him. This was the South African infidel.

'"We went out from the company [offices] and found our brother, Nimr the hero, standing at the entrance to the company and guarding us, drinking a little water as though he were on a hike. [He acted this way] because of his great courage - may Allah have mercy on him. . . .

'"At the same time, we found a Swedish infidel. Brother Nimr cut off his head, and put it at the gate so that it would be seen by all those entering and exiting. We continued in the search for the infidels, and we slit the throats of those we found among them. . . .

'"We found Filipino Christians. We cut their throats and dedicated them to our brothers the Mujahideen in the Philippines. [Likewise], we found Hindu engineers and we cut their throats too, Allah be praised. That same day, we purged Muhammad's land of many Christians and polytheists. . . .

'"Afterwards, we turned to the hotel. We entered and found a restaurant, where we ate breakfast and rested a while. Then we went up to the next floor, found several Hindu dogs, and cut their throats. . . .

'"The Indian Muslims told us that their manager was a vile Hindu who did not permit them to pray, and that he would arrive shortly. When [the manager] arrived, we verified his religion by means of his identifying documents, and we kept him with us for a short time [before killing him - PM].

'". . . brother Hussein was on the stairs and noticed an Italian infidel. He aimed his gun at him and told him to come closer. The infidel came closer. We saw his identifying documents . . . afterwards we would cut his throat and dedicate him to the Italians who were fighting our brothers in Iraq and to the idiotic Italian president who wants to confront the lions of Islam."

'Consistently, these Wahhabis describe their enemies, whatever their country or race or politics, as "infidels" or "polytheists." They are particularly joyful at the killing of an Italian, a Briton, and, on June 22, the South Korean Kim Sun-il, whose countries are participants in the coalition in Iraq. But they also kill a Swede and a South African, whose countries took no part in the invasion, and their greatest frisson seems to come from killing Hindus, who, as purported polytheists, are even further down al Qaeda's religious scale than "people of the book" such as Christians and Jews.

'The pattern is consistent. It was discernible in the Riyadh massacres of November 8, 2003, when the target was Lebanese Christians. It's why, when BBC correspondent Frank Gardner lay bleeding in the street after being shot by terrorists in Riyadh earlier this month, he could buttress his claim for help by calling out in Arabic, "I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim, help me."

'Americans, to be sure, are perceived to be the greatest power among the infidels. But at Khobar, after debating the matter, the terrorists spared one American because he was a Muslim, and even apologized to him for getting blood on his carpet. Meanwhile, they happily killed Filipino, Swedish, British, Italian, and South African Christians and Indian Hindus - just as their allies in Thailand are killing Buddhists like the 63-year-old rubber-tapper Sieng Patkaoe, beheaded in late May. Muslims who do not share the extremists' vision are not spared. Al Qaeda's Algerian ally, the Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat, has for several years been beheading Muslims it regards as apostates. Meanwhile Sudan's National Islamic Front, formerly called the Muslim Brotherhood and, like Hamas, an offshoot of the Egyptian group of the same name, is attempting to starve to death hundreds of thousands of Muslims in Darfur who do not share its vision.

'These killings are not about the Abu Ghraib prison scandal or American actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, though those are grievances. They are not about Israel, though that is another grievance. In fact, most of the Islamist terrorists' victims worldwide are not Americans or even Westerners, but Asian and Middle Eastern Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. For the extremists, the justification for the slaughter is not current foreign policy but rather - as the religious exaltation, even ecstasy, in Al-Nashami's interview shows - an apocalyptic war to purge the world of all but their version of Islam.

'Spaniards will not be spared because Spanish troops are gone from Iraq. Europe cannot make its way into the terrorists' good graces by distancing itself from America, any more than the United States can mollify the Islamists by acting through the United Nations or wooing "world opinion." These are fantasies.

'Al Qaeda's enemy is anyone who opposes its program for the restoration of a unified Muslim ummah, ruled by a new Caliphate, governed by reactionary Islamic sharia law, and organized to wage jihad on the rest of the world. The lesson of Riyadh, Khobar, and Paul Marshall Johnson is that we can resist this program, in which case, tragically, we may well see more videos of beheadings. Or we can acquiesce to this program and see a great many more beheadings. These are the choices. We are in a war we must win. Everything else is wishful thinking'. [Emphasis mine - JP]

Paul Marshall is a senior fellow at Freedom House's Center for Religious Freedom and the author of Islam at the Crossroads.

War Against the Infidels
The message behind the beheadings.
by Paul Marshall
Weekly Standard, 07/05/2004, Volume 009, Issue 41

© Copyright 2004, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved.

[Hat Tip: "Gireesh Dixit"]

The Moving Finger writes; and, having writ,
Moves on: nor all your Piety nor Wit
Shall lure it back to cancel half a Line,
Nor all your Tears wash out a Word of it - Omar Khayyam

Every creature is better alive than dead, men and moose and pine trees, and he who understands it aright will rather preserve its life than destroy it. - Henry David Thoreau, naturalist and author (1817-1862)

"This is what the Muslims did when they took over Spain, removed every sign of the cross,"... "I always say, Israel's safety belt is America's Bible Belt. As long as Americans respect the cross, Jews and other minorities are safe. In post-Christian Europe, anti-Semitism is rife." - Rabbi Daniel Lapin, president of the National Jewish Christian Alliance Toward Tradition

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship." - Patrick Henry

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison, "The Father of Our Constitution", and the fourth President of the united States of America

"I have long believed that the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, they are the universal right of all God's children." - Ronald Reagan (1991)

Of all nature's gifts to the human race, what is sweeter to a man
than his children? - Marcus Tullius Cicero, statesman, orator (106-43 BC)

Remember when life's path is steep to keep your mind even. - Horace, poet and satirist (65-8 BC)

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

"Who Is Abu Zarqawi? - What we know about the terrorist leader who murdered Nicholas Berg"

2004-07-12T18:28:00.000-07:00
Who Is Abu Zarqawi?
What we know about the terrorist leader who murdered Nicholas Berg.
From the May 24, 2004 issue
by Robert S. Leiken & Steven Brooke
Weekly Standard, 05/24/2004, Volume 009, Issue 35

'WHO KILLED NICHOLAS BERG? His grief-stricken family blames the U.S. government for the appalling videotaped beheading of their son in Iraq. A more fitting object of outrage is the executioner. For the terrorist who claims credit for the killing of the Jewish-American civilian is no walk-on, no lackey or even lieutenant of Osama bin Laden. Instead, he is an independent operator with a long history in global jihad - sometimes coordinated with al Qaeda, sometimes not - who may be challenging bin Laden for the leadership of global Sunni terrorism.

'Abu Musab al Zarqawi is hot right now. He masterminded not only Berg's murder but also the Madrid carnage on March 11, the bombardment of Shia worshippers in Iraq the same month, and the April 24 suicide attack on the port of Basra. But he is far from a newcomer to slaughter. Well before 9/11, he had already concocted a plot to kill Israeli and American tourists in Jordan. His label is on terrorist groups and attacks on four continents.

'Zarqawi was first thrust into the global media spotlight in February 2003, before the U.S. invasion of Iraq, when Secretary of State Colin Powell at the U.N. called him an "associate and collaborator" of bin Laden and part of a "sinister nexus between Iraq and the al Qaeda terrorist network." Zarqawi, however, is not Osama's man, and still less was he Saddam's.

Zarqawi was born Ahmed al-Khalayleh to a Palestinian-Jordanian family in 1966 and grew up in a shabby two-story dwelling in a dusty mining town 17 miles north of Amman. The town was called Zarqa - hence the nom de guerre. But while we know the details of bin Laden's privileged youth, we know next to nothing about Zarqawi's impoverished early years. His parents are dead, and few near relatives have been uncovered by the press. His passport picture is on a U.S. poster offering a $10 million reward for him, but his height and weight are listed as "unknown." Nor do we know what he studied in school; only that he dropped out of high school and locals say he was "pious." Until recently, the mystery man rarely claimed credit for his terrorist exploits. U.S. intelligence once thought he'd been injured in the American assault on Afghanistan and had taken refuge in northern Iraq, later traveling to Saddam's Baghdad to have his leg amputated; now they're not so sure.

'We do know that like thousands of Muslim youths he rallied to the anti-Soviet jihad in Afghanistan and gained renown as a fighter. Returning to Jordan after the Soviet withdrawal, he may have joined the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, which merged with al Qaeda in 1998. While in Jordan he also associated with Hizb ut Tahrir, an angry, anti-Semitic conclave devoted to the restoration of Islamic rule. Released in 1997 after five years in a Jordanian prison for plotting to replace the monarchy with an Islamic state, Zarqawi fled to Europe. He returned to Afghanistan in 2000 and built his own network of training camps near Herat, seizing control of the clandestine routes between Iran and Afghanistan.

'In his camps, Zarqawi dispensed his specialized knowledge of chemical weapons and poisons to loyal followers, who then dispersed to the Middle East and Europe. The week of April 19, Jordanian police broke up a Zarqawi-financed and orchestrated plot they estimate would have detonated 20 tons of chemicals and released a cloud of poisonous gas into central Amman. The blast could have killed some 80,000 civilians and destroyed the U.S. embassy and Jordanian intelligence headquarters. In a videotaped confession shown on Jordanian TV, the head of the cell admitted, "I took explosives courses, poisons high level, then I pledged allegiance to Abu Musab al Zarqawi, to obey him without any questioning."

'ABU ZARQAWI knows no limits and many continents. Investigating the Hamburg cell after September 11, German authorities came across another terrorist group called al-Tawhid (unity), made up mainly of Palestinian militants trained in Zarqawi's Afghan camps. Tawhid operatives told investigators they got their start in Europe selling stolen and forged documents to militants traveling between the Middle East and Western Europe.

'With the outbreak of war in Iraq, Tawhid converted its alien-smuggling and document-forgery ring into a two-way underground railroad between Western Europe and the Middle East. According to European press reports, networks in Spain, Italy, and Germany send recruits into Iraq via Syria. U.S. military officials in Iraq now blame the most heinous terrorist attacks on "the Zarqawi network." But Zarqawi's alien-smuggling system also dispatches Middle Eastern jihadis into Europe via Spain, Turkey, Italy, and Greece. In November 2003, Italian wiretaps recorded two Tawhid operatives speaking of "the jihad part" and its "battalion of 25-26 units" of suicide bombers.

'If Zarqawi's underground railroad demonstrates the terrorist uses of illegal immigration, the investigation into the Madrid bombings reveals new connections to Zarqawi every week. Zarqawi's lieutenant, a 36-year-old Moroccan named Amer el Azizi, planned the Madrid terror and is the living link between al Qaeda, the Zarqawi network, and the Moroccan immigrant cell that set the Madrid bombs. Azizi also organized and presided over the 2001 meeting in Spain where Mohammed Atta and al Qaeda leaders put the finishing touches on the September 11 plan.

'Azizi fled Spain in November 2001 as Spanish authorities dismantled the al Qaeda logistics cell. He jetted to Afghanistan via Iran, where Zarqawi's cross-border networks helped him elude the coalition. While falling in with Zarqawi, Azizi kept an eye on Spain and his Moroccan colleagues, who managed to set off bombs in Casablanca in May 2003. Shortly before the Madrid 3/11 train bombings, Azizi left Iran via Turkey and slipped into Spain to witness the carnage firsthand. He is still at large.

'PROBABLY THE MURKIEST and most intriguing feature of this man of many mysteries is the question of Zarqawi's relations with Osama bin Laden. Though he met with bin Laden in Afghanistan several times, the Jordanian never joined al Qaeda. Militants have explained that Tawhid was "especially for Jordanians who did not want to join al Qaeda." A confessed Tawhid member even told his interrogators that Zarqawi was "against al Qaeda." Shortly after 9/11, a fleeing Ramzi bin al-Shibh, one of the main plotters of the attacks, appealed to Tawhid operatives for a forged visa. He could not come up with ready cash. Told that he did not belong to Tawhid, he was sent packing and eventually into the arms of the Americans.

'Zarqawi and bin Laden also disagree over strategy. Zarqawi allegedly constructed his Tawhid network primarily to target Jews and Jordan. This choice reflected both Zarqawi's Palestinian heritage and his dissent from bin Laden's strategy of focusing on the "far enemy" - the United States. In an audiotape released after the recent foiled gas attack in Amman, an individual claiming to be Zarqawi argued that the Jordanian Intelligence Services building was indeed the target, although no chemical attack was planned. Rather, he stated menacingly, "God knows, if we did possess [a chemical bomb], we wouldn't hesitate one second to use it to hit Israeli cities such as Eilat and Tel Aviv."

'The Tawhid cell uncovered in Hamburg after 9/11 scouted Jewish targets, including businesses and synagogues. Zarqawi's operatives have been implicated in an attack on a Mombassa hotel frequented by Israeli tourists and an attempt to shoot down an Israeli jetliner. He is also suspected to have played a role in the Casablanca bombings of a Jewish community center and a Spanish social club. In February 2002, a Jordanian court sentenced him in absentia to 15 years' hard labor for his involvement in a failed plot to kill American and Israeli tourists at the turn of the millennium, a scheme coordinated with Abu Zubaydah, a top lieutenant of bin Laden. And another Jordanian court sentenced him, again in absentia, to death for the assassination of U.S. diplomat Laurence Foley. Zarqawi is also the prime suspect in the August 2003 truck bombing of the Jordanian embassy in Baghdad.

'Zarqawi has been associated with other groups besides Tawhid. Most notorious is Ansar al Islam, a largely Kurdish organization operating out of Northern Iraq, which U.S. officials have linked to al Qaeda. Before the war, Ansar al Islam ran chemical warfare camps in northern Iraq. Last year British counterterrorist investigators traced poisonous ricin found in Manchester to those camps. Zarqawi has been linked with two less-known al Qaeda splinter groups, Beyyiat el-Imam, implicated in attacks in Israel as well as the November 2003 attack on a synagogue in Turkey, and Jund al-Shams, a Syrian-Jordanian group blamed by Jordanian authorities for the assassination of Foley. Zarqawi has also been linked to Chechen jihadis, and Indian intelligence says he belongs to Sipah-e-Sahaba Pakistan (SSP), a Pakistani Sunni group responsible for slaying hundreds of Shias in South Asia.

'The slaughter of Shias touches on another Zarqawi beef with bin Laden. While both men follow the strict code of Salafi Islam, which reckons Shias as apostates, bin Laden prides himself on being a unifying figure and has made tactical alliances with Shia groups, meeting several times with Shia militants. Zarqawi, by contrast, favors butchering Shias, calling them "the most evil of mankind . . . the lurking snake, the crafty and malicious scorpion, the spying enemy, and the penetrating venom." American military officials hold Zarqawi responsible not only for assassinating Shia religious leaders in Iraq, but also for the multiple truck bombings of a Shia religious festival this past March, which killed 143 worshippers.

'But though bin Laden and Zarqawi differ on strategy, Zarqawi too cloaks his plans for mass murder in the language of the religious zealot. To Zarqawi, "religion is more precious than anything and has priority over lives, wealth, and children." He considers Iraq ideal for jihad especially because "it is a stone's throw from the lands of the two Holy Precincts [Saudi Arabia] and the al Aqsa [mosque, in Jerusalem]. We know from God's religion that the true, decisive battle between infidelity and Islam is in this land [Greater Syria and its surroundings]. . . ." On the tape of the beheading of Nick Berg, entitled "Sheikh Abu Musab Zarqawi executes an American with his own hands and promises Bush more," Zarqawi rages, "Where is the compassion, where is the anger for God's religion, and where is the protection for Muslims' pride in the crusaders' jails? . . . The pride of all Muslim men and women in Abu Ghraib and other jails is worth blood and souls."

'The CIA has verified that Zarqawi himself spoke on the tape and personally beheaded Berg. Similarly, the videotaped beheading of Daniel Pearl of the Wall Street Journal in February 2002 was carried out directly by another jihadi leader, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The latter, like Zarqawi, never swore allegiance to bin Laden. In this bloodthirsty crowd, it appears that slitting the throat of an American Jew wins laurels.

'IN JANUARY 2004, Iraqi Kurds captured a message from Zarqawi in Iraq to bin Laden. Zarqawi offered bin Laden a chance to expand al Qaeda's role in Iraq. Victory, Zarqawi instructed, meant fomenting sectarian war between Shiites and Sunnis. There are no indications that bin Laden responded, and there are now signs of cooperation between some Iraqi Shia and Sunni militants. Are bin Laden and Zarqawi running competing terrorist organizations in Iraq?

'Zarqawi's letter is addressed to a colleague or even a potential competitor rather than to one he regards as his sheikh or emir. He offers darkly, "We do not see ourselves as fit to challenge you." Zarqawi gives bin Laden two choices: "If you agree with us . . . we will be your readied soldiers, working under your banner, complying with your orders, and indeed swearing fealty to you publicly and in the news media. . . . If things appear otherwise to you, we are brothers, and the disagreement will not spoil [our] friendship."

'Zarqawi exemplifies Sunni terrorism after 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq, what some call "al Qaeda 2.0." The Western counteroffensive decimated al Qaeda's leadership, stripped the organization of safe havens and training camps, and disrupted its command and control. Former al Qaeda subsidiaries became franchises, receiving inspiration from bin Laden's occasional messages but operating independently. Historically speaking, the dynamic of revolutionary movements favors the most radical faction - the Jacobins, not the Girondists, the Bolsheviks, not the Menshiviks. If this dynamic prevails in contemporary Sunni terrorism, Abu Musab al Zarqawi represents the future.'

Robert S. Leiken, author of Bearers of Global Jihad? Immigration and National Security after 9/11, is the director of the Immigration and National Security Program at the Nixon Center. Steven Brooke is a program assistant at the Nixon Center>/i>.

Who Is Abu Zarqawi?
What we know about the terrorist leader who murdered Nicholas Berg.
From the May 24, 2004 issue
by Robert S. Leiken & Steven Brooke
Weekly Standard, 05/24/2004, Volume 009, Issue 35

© Copyright 2004, News Corporation, Weekly Standard, All Rights Reserved.

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

Care Packages for Coalition Troops - Audience: Everyone

2004-07-11T17:28:00.001-07:00
Confronted with the fact people we know and care about are 'in harm's way' in an official capacity - being in the armed forces, serving our country - me and you - And knowing there are things they are going without - for our sake - we can so easily supply - What can we do to help?

There are the valuabe services of soldiersangels.org to 'adopt' a Coalition Forces person and correspond, send 'care packages' to, and so on; and booksforsoldiers.com also helps to support Coalition Forces personally with reading material, and such, too.

But just how to go about it, especially when we do actually, personally know some of the folks in uniform - How do we best support these beloved friends and family members in practical terms?

The following segment from our friend Patrick Douglas Crispen in the so Providential 10 July issue of Tourbus 'just happens' to address this very question.

We are most thankful for this provision that we might the better see to the comfort and support of our forces at risk in our behalf.

'A fellow Tourbus rider stationed in Iraq sent me the following email earlier this week:

'"If you could pass on to your readers that if they know somebody over here, they would enjoy receiving a care package of treats or a letter. It is great receiving something in the mail from home and friends."

'The key words are "know somebody." Because of security concerns, the military mail service is no longer accepting packages addressed to "any soldier" or "any service member." Some well-intentioned people have tried to bypass this new restriction by sending large quantities of packages to a single, known service member, but the Defense Logistics Agency Defense Distribution Center cautions against doing this because it "clogs the mail system and causes unnecessary delays."

'So, how can you support our troops in Iraq and other countries without clogging up the military mail system? Simple! Find a service member in your community who recently deployed - chances are someone from your work, church, or school is currently stationed overseas - and then contact that service member's family to ask if there is anything you can do for them.

'For example, offer to buy the family some supplies to be included in their next care package. Newsweek ran an brief article earlier this week talking about some of the more popular items among the soldiers in Iraq:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5359303/site/newsweek/

'Most military families already know this next part, but before you ship ANYTHING to our troops make sure to double-check the US Postal Service's most recent list of restrictions on overseas military mail. You can find the list buried inside the latest Postal Bulletin at

http://www.usps.com/cpim/ftp/bulletin/pb.htm

'The Postal Bulletin is updated every three or four weeks. Just look for "Overseas Military Mail" in the Bulletin's index.

'What if you don't know a service member but still want to show your support? Not to worry. The US Department of Defense has a huge "Support Our Troops" page at

http://www.defendamerica.mil/support_troops.html

that has links to dozens of support agencies that sponsor programs for members of the armed forces overseas. Better still, check out the Army and Air Force Exchange Service's "Gifts from the Homefront" page at

http://www.aafes.com/docs/homefront.htm

'This page lets you purchase gift certificates that the troops can use in any military exchange retail store. You can send the gift certificates to someone you know or you can donate it to an organization like the American Red Cross or USO who will distribute your gift certificate to a random service member.

'I hope this helps.' Amen

Totalitarian Political Ideology & Marxist Dialectical Materialism/Leninist Ideology & Propaganda

2004-07-09T11:07:00.000-07:00
More than just interesting, it is illustrative of the mind of the Adversary in the form of Totalitarian Political Ideology - be it Communism or Islam, both false religions; in that both are so verified as such in their mutual denial to one degree or another of The Creator Creature Distinction - and of their use of truth to advance lies per hidden agenda, i.e., propaganda - the lie being the hallmark of The Father of Lies, The Adversary, The Devil.

In that Liberalism is felt not thought, it is the plaything of the Progressive - the Ideologue - which ideologues, the Communists, are more plainly evident today lurking below the Platform of the Democratic Party, pulling the strings. "... they shall be known by their doings..."

Should one experience a moment of disorientation at the preceding, that is not too surprising, today, as such is understood as the product of the so far rather successful inroads against freedom already made. The reader, then is urged to haul out the ole' Google and have a look at, for example, Dialectical Materialism, Marxism, Leninism and Totalitarian Political Ideology. Only, best to don eye protection, first, for it shall be an eye opening experience, of that you may rest assured! Don't get any on ya!

Who can wake the one who is already awake but prefers to feign sleep? - MC Gupta

I used to think that the brain was the most wonderful organ in my body. Then I realized who was telling me this. - Emo Phillips

Government is like a baby. An alimentary canal with a big appetite at one end and no sense of responsibility at the other." - Ronald Wilson Reagan (1911-2004), 40th US President.

The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won't. - Henry Ward Beecher

Since the masses are always eager to believe something, for their benefit nothing is so easy to arrange as facts. - Charles M. de Talleyrand French statesman, 1754-1838

Facts are many, but the truth is one. - Rabindranath Tagore Bengali poet, playwright, essayist...1913 Nobel Prize for Literature.1861-1941

Don't confuse facts with reality. - Robert D. Ballard

There's a world of difference between truth and facts. Facts can obscure the truth. - Maya Angelou African-American poet, b.1928

"I have long believed that the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, they are the universal right of all God's children." - Ronald Reagan (1991)

"Every thinking man, when he thinks, realizes that the teachings of the Bible are so interwoven and entwined with our whole civic and social life that it would be literally impossible for us to figure ourselves what that life would be if these standards were removed. We would lose almost all the standards by which we now judge both public and private morals; all the standards which we, with more or less resolution, strive to raise ourselves." - Theodore Roosevelt

"We live in an age of science and of abounding accumulation of material things. These did not create our Declaration. Our Declaration created them. The things of the spirit come first. Unless we cling to that, all our material prosperity, overwhelming though it may appear, will turn to a barren scepter in our grasp." - Calvin Coolidge

We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force. - Ayn Rand, The Nature of Government

"The Declaration of Independence...[is the] declaratory charter of our rights, and the rights of man." - Thomas Jefferson

Daniel Webster was right, 'God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.'

Please, Vote.

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

Just in case you wanted to know, this post is provoked by viewing this, which is a thing entirely different from our kind friend Jonathan, to whom this Hat Tip is due.

Things Might Still Be In The Green Were Clinton's "Is" That Usama Bin Laden "Is" 'To Be Terminated With Extreme Prejudice'

2004-07-06T22:58:00.000-07:00

Courtesy The Christian Science
Monitor

USAMA BIN LADEN
CONSIDERED ARMED AND EXTREMELY DANGEROUS

IF YOU HAVE ANY INFORMATION CONCERNING THIS PERSON, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL FBI OFFICE OR THE NEAREST U.S. EMBASSY OR CONSULATE.

REWARD

The Rewards For Justice Program, United States Department of State, is offering a reward of up to $25 million for information leading directly to the apprehension or conviction of Usama Bin Laden. An additional $2 million is being offered through a program developed and funded by the Airline Pilots Association and the Air Transport Association.

With Appreciation: FBI

America - One Nation Under God - With Liberty And Justice For All

2004-07-05T20:31:00.000-07:00
"I have long believed that the guiding hand of Providence did not create this new nation of America for ourselves alone, but for a higher cause: the preservation and extension of the sacred fire of human liberty. The Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of these United States are covenants we have made not only with ourselves, but with all of mankind. Our founding documents proclaim to the world that freedom is not the sole prerogative of a chosen few, they are the universal right of all God's children." - Ronald Reagan (1991)

"We have staked the whole of all our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government, upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God." - James Madison, "The Father of Our Constitution", and the fourth President of the united States of America

"It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship." - Patrick Henry

Man did not weave the web of life - he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. - Attributed to Chief Seattle 1854

"But you're gonna have to serve somebody, yes indeed
You're gonna have to serve somebody,
Well, it may be the devil or it may be the Lord
But you're gonna have to serve somebody." - Bob Dylan

The fire shall ever be burning upon the altar;
it shall never go out. - Leviticus 6.13

Ronald Reagan's Fourth of July - On the 30th & Last Day of Official Mourning His Passing

2004-07-04T20:31:00.000-07:00
Independence Day 2004

The Better Angels of Our Republic

Was the founding of our Republic providential? Or is America an accident, an aberration, a result of happenstance? Moreover, if our country was merely a happy chance, how can we explain our peculiar destiny, as well as the character and courage of those who founded our nation?

These questions aren't arid or stale. On the contrary, they challenge us now more than ever. Our nation is in the midst of campaigns against determined enemies - foreign and domestic - enemies bent upon the destruction of liberty and free enterprise, and the Judeo-Christian foundation of our great Republic. And whether our nation survives this deadly conflict depends in largest measure on how we answer.

But how to answer? The time warp of analysis may be misleading. Seen as the past, history retains a distinct certainty. Yet that air of inevitability, particularly during the events swirling around the first Independence Day of 1776, was nowhere present. Armed hostilities had commenced on April 19, 1775, at the battles of Lexington and Concord, and the colonials faced the full power of the British Empire in their quest for American independence. A year before taking that step, on July 5, 1775, the Continental Congress adopted the Olive Branch Petition, beseeching the British king for a peaceful resolution of the American colonies' grievances. A day later, that same Congress resolved the "Declaration of the Causes and Necessities of Taking Up Arms." King George III refused to read the peace petition and assembled his armies. On July 2, 1776, Richard Henry Lee's proposal for a formal declaration passed, and the document that was ordered printed on July 4th ended, "And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm Reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor." They knew the cause of liberty was risky. And, yet, our Founders had great confidence in the rightness of that cause.

Just this past month, we witnessed an extraordinary reassessment regarding Ronald Reagan's role in ending the Cold War. The collapse of the Communist empire has recently been portrayed as nearly inexorable, with the only real debate involving quibbles over how much, if any, Reagan and his resolute allies contributed to the fall of the Iron Curtain. But while Reagan was in office, most elite commentators viewed the Soviet Union as a permanent fixture of global politics.

President Reagan, however, believed differently. In 1977, he stated, "My theory of the Cold War is that we win and they lose." Although he was convinced Communism could be defeated, he knew victory was not sure. His confidence was based in "a reliance on the protection of divine Providence," and his faith in the American people.

And he'd been saying so for years. In 1964, he challenged, "You and I have a rendezvous with destiny. We will preserve for our children this, the last best hope of man on earth, or we will sentence them to take the first step into a thousand years of darkness. If we fail, at least let our children and our children's children say of us we justified our brief moment here. We did all that could be done."

In 1974, he spoke of the effect of the culture of liberty in producing the kind of people capable of great deeds: "[I]t might be appropriate to reflect a bit on our heritage. You can call it mysticism if you want to, but I have always believed that there was some divine plan that placed this great continent between two oceans to be sought out by those who were possessed of an abiding love of freedom and a special kind of courage. This was true of those who pioneered the great wilderness in the beginning of this country, as it is also true of those later immigrants who were willing to leave the land of their birth and come to a land where even the language was unknown to them. ...[O]ur heritage does set us apart."

He continued, "Somehow America has bred a kindliness into our people unmatched anywhere.... Where did we find such men? They are typical of this land as the Founding Fathers were typical. We found them in our streets, in the offices, the shops and the working places of our country and on the farms. We cannot escape our destiny, nor should we try to do so. The leadership of the free world was thrust upon us two centuries ago in that little hall of Philadelphia. ... We are indeed, and we are today, the last best hope of man on earth."

Interestingly, Reagan often spoke of America as the "shining city upon a hill," invoking the words of John Winthrop, written in 1630 just as he was to first set foot on this continent's soil. The image dates to the colonial founding of America, a century and a half before the Revolutionary Founding. The beliefs and principles of those settlers of the New World imparted a distinct character to American liberty - as Reagan well knew. Indeed, Ronald Reagan stands with the Founders in a seamless line of liberty.

In his first inaugural address of 1981, President Reagan referred to a little-known Founder, saying, "On the eve of our struggle for independence, a man who might have been one of the greatest among the Founding Fathers, Dr. Joseph Warren, President of the Massachusetts Congress, said to his fellow Americans...." The Warren quote, which Reagan then repeated in part, is from March 6, 1775, and reads in full: "Our country is in danger, but not to be despaired of. Our enemies are numerous and powerful; but we have many friends, determining to be free, and heaven and earth will aid the resolution. On you depend the fortunes of America. You are to decide the important question, on which rest the happiness and liberty of millions yet unborn. Act worthy of yourselves."

As he was departing the office of the presidency in 1989, Reagan asked a question we will repeat: "How stands the city...?" On this, its 228th birthday, the shining city is again "in danger,
but not to be despaired of." Ironically, the gravest internal danger comes from our courts, which in the guise of protecting our Founding heritage have been gradually overturning it. (What else can be concluded, with this week's decision from the Supreme Court that foreign enemy combatants, lodged outside U.S. borders after taken into custody for warring to destroy our nation, have recourse to our civilian courts?)

Has God's hand truly been in the history of our blessed land? If so, we may expect His blessings in our current war so long as we follow the precepts for our conduct laid down by our Founders.

Let us act worthy of ourselves - and of our history.

"What July Fourth Means to Me" - Ronald Reagan

For one who was born and grew up in the small towns of the Midwest, there is a special kind of nostalgia about the Fourth of July.

I remember it as a day almost as long-anticipated as Christmas. This was helped along by the appearance in store windows of all kinds of fireworks and colorful posters advertising them with vivid pictures.

No later than the third of July - sometimes earlier - Dad would bring home what he felt he could afford to see go up in smoke and flame. We'd count and recount the number of firecrackers, display pieces and other things and go to bed determined to be up with the sun so as to offer the first, thunderous notice of the Fourth of July.

I'm afraid we didn't give too much thought to the meaning of the day. And, yes, there were tragic accidents to mar it, resulting from careless handling of the fireworks. I'm sure we're better off today with fireworks largely handled by professionals. Yet there was a thrill never to be forgotten in seeing a tin can blown 30 feet in the air by a giant "cracker" - giant meaning it was about 4 inches long. But enough of nostalgia.

Somewhere in our growing up we began to be aware of the meaning of days and with that awareness came the birth of patriotism. July Fourth is the birthday of our nation. I believed as a boy, and believe even more today, that it is the birthday of the greatest nation on earth.

There is a legend about the day of our nation's birth in the little hall in Philadelphia, a day on which debate had raged for hours. The men gathered there were honorable men hard-pressed by a king who had flouted the very laws they were willing to obey. Even so, to sign the Declaration of Independence was such an irretrievable act that the walls resounded with the words "treason, the gallows, the headsman's axe," and the issue remained in doubt.

The legend says that at that point a man rose and spoke. He is described as not a young man, but one who had to summon all his energy for an impassioned plea. He cited the grievances that had brought them to this moment and finally, his voice falling, he said, "They may turn every tree into a gallows, every hole into a grave, and yet the words of that parchment can never die. To the mechanic in the workshop, they will speak hope; to the slave in the mines, freedom. Sign that parchment. Sign if the next moment the noose is around your neck, for that parchment will be the textbook of freedom, the Bible of the rights of man forever."

He fell back exhausted. The 56 delegates, swept up by his eloquence, rushed forward and signed that document destined to be as immortal as a work of man can be. When they turned to thank him for his timely oratory, he was not to be found, nor could any be found who knew who he was or how he had come in or gone out through the locked and guarded doors.

Well, that is the legend. But we do know for certain that 56 men, a little band so unique we have never seen their like since, had pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor. Some gave their lives in the war that followed, most gave their fortunes, and all preserved their sacred honor.

What manner of men were they? Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, eleven were merchants and tradesmen, and nine were farmers. They were soft-spoken men of means and education; they were not an unwashed rabble. They had achieved security but valued freedom more. Their stories have not been told nearly enough.

John Hart was driven from the side of his desperately ill wife. For more than a year he lived in the forest and in caves before he returned to find his wife dead, his children vanished, his property destroyed. He died of exhaustion and a broken heart.

Carter Braxton of Virginia lost all his ships, sold his home to pay his debts, and died in rags. And so it was with Ellery, Clymer, Hall, Walton, Gwinnett, Rutledge, Morris, Livingston and Middleton. Nelson personally urged Washington to fire on his home and destroy it when it became the headquarters for General Cornwallis. Nelson died bankrupt.

But they sired a nation that grew from sea to shining sea. Five million farms, quiet villages, cities that never sleep, three million square miles of forest, field, mountain and desert, 227 million people with a pedigree that includes the bloodlines of all the world. In recent years, however, I've come to think of that day as more than just the birthday of a nation.

It also commemorates the only true philosophical revolution in all history.

Oh, there have been revolutions before and since ours. But those revolutions simply exchanged one set of rules for another. Ours was a revolution that changed the very concept of government.

Let the Fourth of July always be a reminder that here in this land, for the first time, it was decided that man is born with certain God-given rights; that government is only a convenience created and managed by the people, with no powers of its own except those voluntarily granted to it by the people.

We sometimes forget that great truth, and we never should.

Happy Fourth of July.

- Ronald Reagan, President of the United States (1981)

- Text made available by the Very Great Courtesy of The Federalist

Evidence of Choosing Up Sides Continues - India

2004-07-03T23:33:00.000-07:00
--------------------------------------------------------
Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do
are in harmony. - Mohandas K. Gandhi (1869-1948)
--------------------------------------------------------

Chauhan asked :
PS : Can anybody tell me the number of muslims killed in Gujrat .
=============================
There are two respectable Gujarati dailies, one is Gujarat Samachar, being
published simulteniously from Ahmedabad and Mumbai, owned and published by
Jains,
Shreyans and Bahubali Shah.
The other is India's oldest surviving newspaper ( established 1822 ),
Mumbai Samachar, belonging to a Parsi group, Bombay Chronicle Press and
edited by Jehan Daruvala, being published from Mumbai.

Gujarat Samachar reported 156 Hindu deaths and 455 Muslim deaths.

The figures from Mumbai Samachar were 156 and 464 respectively.

These papers carried count on daily basis, giving full name, age, address
( where available ), cause of death whether stabbing, arson, private firing,
police firing etc. of the unfortunate victims.

It was very clear that all Hindu deaths were result of attacks from Mulsims
with knives, swords, daggers etc. and by bullet firing by Musalmans.,
whereas the Muslim deaths occured largely from arson by Hindu mobs and
firing by local policemen, the ratio in two cases being roughly 3 : 1
respectively.

Now one may ask the oft raised question as to why the police was targetting
only the Muslim trouble makers ?
The fact is, the Hindu mobs, as they are, disperse from the scene the moment
they get an inkling of arrival of police. The acts of arson killings were
done at locations where police was nowhere in sight and thus Hindu
fatalities in police firings is usually negligible. Hindus are generally
unruly in the absence of vigilante, i.e. state police, BSF, home guards etc.
but not really much in their presence. You may regard them as nominally or
somewhat respectful to the law enforcing agencies or plain cowards or by
whatever adjective you choose.

But the case with Muslims is different. In such a volatile situation, far
from staying indoors, they boldly venture out in the open, as if their
virility was on trial. All the Quranic teachings ( hitherto latent ) such
as 'not to be afraid of anyone but one Allah, not to obey anyone's appeal
but to proceed with fight according to Allah's injunctions in Quran" etc.
surface. They never show respect to the loud speaker announcements of police
to stay indoors during curfew and hand over the prospective criminal
elements. Instead they resort to cries of Islam in danger, Allah O Akbar,
Pakistan Zindabad and what you have opening bullet firing on police from the
rooftops and secret locations.
Now you do not expect armed police to say prayers while they are being fired
upon by the miscreants.
It is my firm belief that if Muslims excercise some control of mind and stay
cool indoors in the troubled days, many casualties will be avoided.
After all, the city streets are not the best venue to exhibit physical
prowess.

Regret belated posting,

Rohit Zaveri.

Birth of Pakistan

It is generally accepted that the call for the creation of a separate home
land for the Muslims of Indian sub-continent was heard first sometime in
1935 through the mouth piece of Muslim League.

But a careful study of the anti-national mindset of this volatile community
takes us a hundred years backwards in the country's history to reveal that
as early as 1867 a similar, in fact more stronger call was given by Maulvi
Mohammed Ali in the issue of Jama Tafseer of the same year.

Quote :

Let all know this. In a country where the ruling religion is other than
Muhammadanism, the religious precepts of Muhammad cannot be enforced. It is
incumbent on Mussalmans to join together and wage war upon the infidels.
Those who are unable to take part in the fight should emigrate to a country
of The True Faith......... Oh Brethren, we ought to weep over our state, for
the Messenger of God is angered with us because of our living in the land of
the infidel. When the Prophet of God himself is displeased with us, to whom
shall we look for shelter ?

Unquote.

Soon after this publication, Hunter, chief magistrate in Patna recorded his
concern.

" A network of conspiracy has spread itself over our Provinces, and that the
bleak mountains that rise beyond the Punjab are united by an unbroken chain
of treason-depots with the tropical swamps through which the Ganges merges
into the sea.
Jihad is a source of chronic danger to India. "
-------------------------------------------
Rohit Zaveri.

Courtesy nukkad

We do think Groucho Marx said it best: "Those are my principles. If
you don't like them I have others."

A Match Struck

2004-07-03T16:26:00.000-07:00
Strike a match wooden,
a straight tender sliver:
the victim sacrificial,
to kill, destroy;
grabbed, grasped and ground along.
Coarse scorching scraping,
dragging by the head,
gouting combustion glares.
Oh! Oh!
Engulfing, heartless ignition -
Violence - kindling sparkling incandescent
incinerating immolation.

Riant horrific,
the bright, slender slip dances,
contorts writhing, flaming akimbo.
Oh!
Conflagration! in small.

And, giving all -
one small, hot blazing -
illumination so brief!
surrendered, subsides:
Slowly, softly succumbing,
swiftly a cinder becoming...

And, the deed done black,
tumbles discarded, crumbling char
to ash falling, no ember remaining.

© 2004 JP

In War, Surrender and Retreat Are Links Forged, Foundations Laid and A Nation United in Freedom At So Great A Cost in Blood

2004-07-03T14:22:00.000-07:00
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BLUE AND GREY STRUGGLE IN GORE TO BLOODY CLIMAX

On July 3, 1863, the Civil War's Battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania ended after three days in a major victory for the North as Confederate troops retreated... Of which much was reported in The New York Times the following day.

The Great Battles

Splendid Triumph of the Army of the Potomac

Rout of Lee's Forces on Friday
The Most Terrible Struggle of the War
Tremendous Artillery Duel
Repeated Charges of the Rebel Columns Upon Our Position
Every Charge Repulsed with Great Slaughter
The Death of Longstreet and Hill
Our Cavalry Active on the Enemy's Flank
The Rebel Retreat Cut Off
Chambersburgh in Our Possession
Advance of the Militia Under Gen. Smith to Important Positions
The Rebel Pontoon Bridge at Williamsport Destroyed
The Contents of the Captured Dispatches from Jeff. Davis to Lee
A Peremptory Order for the Rebel Army to Return to Virginia
Official Dispatches From Gen. Meade

Special to The New York Times

Washington, Saturday, July 4 - 10:10 A.M.

The following has just been received:

Headquarters Army of Potomac, Major-Gen. Halleck, General-in-Chief:

The enemy opened at 1 P.M. from about one hundred and fifty guns, concentrated upon my left centre, continuing without intermission for about three hours, at the expiration of which time, he assaulted my left centre twice, being upon both occasions, handsomely repulsed, with severe loss to him, leaving in our hands nearly three thousand prisoners.

Among the prisoners is Brig. Gen. Armstead and many Colonels and officers of lesser rank.

The enemy left many dead upon the field, and a large number of wounded in our hands.

The loss upon our side has been considerable. Maj.-Gen. Hancock and Brig.-Gen. Gibson were wounded.

After the repelling of the assaults, indications leading to the belief that the enemy might be withdrawing, a reconnaissance was pushed forward from the left and the enemy found to be in force.

At the present hour all is quiet.

My cavalry have been engaged all day on both flanks of the enemy, harassing and vigorously attacking him with great success, not withstanding they encountered superior numbers of both of cavalry and infantry.

The army is in fine spirits.

George G. Meade

Maj.-Gen. Commanding

Washington, Sunday, July 5 - 4 P. M.

The latest official dispatch received here, up to this hour, from Gen. Meade, is dated at Headquarters Army of Potomac, 7 A.M., July 4, which merely states that the enemy had withdrawn from his position, occupied for attack, on Friday. The information in the possession of Gen. Meade, at that hour, did not develop the character of the enemy's movement, whether it was a retreat or a maneuvre for other purposes.

Reliable information received here to-day asserts that Gen. Lee's Headquarters were at Cashtown yesterday afternoon, and further represents that the rebels were fortifying at Newman's Cut in the South Mountains, apparently to cover a retreat.

Later official dispatches are expected this evening.

Second Dispatch

Headquarters Army of Potomac

July 4 - Noon

Maj.-Gen. Halleck:

The position of affairs is not materially changed since my last dispatch of 7 A.M.

We now hold Gettysburgh.

The enemy has abandoned large numbers of his killed and wounded on the field.

I shall probably be able to give you a return of my captures and losses before night, and a return of the enemy's killed and wounded in our hands.

George G. Meade, Major-General

Third Dispatch

Headquarters Army Potomac, July 4 - 10 P. M.

To Maj.-Gen. Halleck:

No change of affairs since my dispatch of noon

Geo. G. Meade, Major-General

Fourth Dispatch

Washington, Monday, July 6 - 12:30 A. M.

The following is the latest official dispatch:

Headquarters Army of the Potomac

Sunday, July 5 - 8:30 A. M.

Major-Gen. Halleck: The enemy returned under cover of the night and the heavy rain, in the direction of Fairfield and Cashtown.

Our cavalry are in pursuit.

I cannot give you the details of our captures in prisoners, colors, and arms.

Upward of twenty battle-flags will be turned in from one corps.

My wounded and those of the enemy are in our hands.

GEO. G. Meade, Major-General

The President to the Country

Washington, D. C., July 4 - 10:30 A. M.

The President announces to the country that news from the Army of the Potomac, up to 10 P.M. of the 3d , is such as to cover that army with the highest honor; to promise a great success to the cause of the Union, and to claim the condolence of all for the many gallant fallen; and that for this, he especially desires that on this day He, whose will, not ours, should ever be done, be everywhere remembered and reverenced with profoundest gratitude.

(Signed) A. Lincoln

The Great Battle of Friday

Our Special Telegrams from the Battle-Field

Near Gettysburgh, Saturday, July 4

Another great battle was fought yesterday afternoon, resulting in a magnificent success to the National arms.

At 2 o'clock P. M., Longstreet's whole corps advanced from the rebel centre against our centre. The enemy's forces were hurled upon our position by columns in mass, and also in lines of battle. Our centre was held by Gen. Hancock, with the noble old Second army corps, sided by Gen. Doubleday's division of the First corps.

The rebels first opened a terrific artillery bombardment to demoralize our men, and then moved their forces with great impetuosity upon our position. Hancock received the attack with great firmness, and after a furious battle, lasting until 5 o'clock, the enemy were driven from the field, Longstreet's corps being almost annihilated.

The battle was a most magnificent spectacle. It was fought on an open plain, just south of Gettysburgh, with not a tree to interrupt the view. The courage of our men was perfectly sublime.

At 5 P.M. what was left of the enemy retreated in utter confusion, leaving dozens of flags, and Gen. Hancock estimated at least five thousand killed and wounded in the field.

The battle was fought by Gen. Hancock with splendid valor. He won imperishable honor, and Gen. Meade thanked him in the name of the army and the country. He was wounded in the thigh, but remained on the field.

The number of prisoners taken is estimated at 3,000, including at least two Brigadier-Generals - Olmstead, of Georgia, and anothe - both wounded.

The conduct of our veterans was perfectly magnificent. More than twenty battle flags were taken by our troops. Nearly every regiment has one. The Nineteenth Massachusetts captured four. The repulse was so disastrous to the enemy, that Longstreet's corps is perfectly used up. Gen. Gibson was wounded in the shoulder. Gen. Webb was wounded and remained on the field. Col. Hammell, of the Sixty-sixth New-York, was wounded in the arm.

At 7 o'clock last evening, Gen. Meade ordered the Third corps, supported by the Sixth, to attack the enemy's right, which was done, and the battle lasted until dark, when a good deal of ground had been gained.

During the day Ewell's corps kept up a desultory attack upon Slocum on the right, but was repulsed.

Our cavalry is to-day playing savagely upon the enemy's flank and rear.

L. L. Crounse

From Another Correspondent

Gettysburgh, Friday, July 3

The experience of all the tried and veteran officers of the Army of the Potomac tells of no such desperate conflict as has been in progress during this day. The cannonading of Chancelorsville, Malvern and Manassas were pastimes compared with this. At the headquarters, where I write, sixteen of the horses of Gen. Meade's staff officers were killed by shell. The house was completely riddled. The Chief of Staff, Gen. Butterfield, was knocked down by a fragment of case-shot. Col. Dickinson, Assistant Adjutant General, had the bone of his wrist pierced through by a piece of shell. Lieut. Oliver, of Gen. Butterfield's Staff, was struck in the head; and Capt. Carpenter, of Gen. Meade's escort, was wounded in the eye.

While I write the ground about me is covered thick with rebel dead, mingled with our own. Thousands of prisoners have been sent to the rear, and yet the conflict still continues.

The losses on both sides are heavy. Among our wounded officers are Hancock, Gibbon and a great many others whose names I feel restrained from publishing without being assured that they are positively in the list of casualties.

It is near sunset. Our troops hold the field, with many rebel prisoners in their hands. The enemy has been magnificently repulsed for three days - repulsed on all sides - most magnificently to-day. Every effort made by him since Wednesday morning to penetrate Meade's lines has been foiled. The final results of the action, I hope to be able to give you at a later hour this evening.

S. Wilkson

Dispatch to the Associated Press

Headquarters Army of the Potomac, Friday, July 3 - 6 A. M.

The enemy's guns opened on our left wing at daylight, apparently to feel our position. They found us "at home," and soon suspended operations. They also endeavored to push forward their front on our right; steadily drove them back for half an hour, when the enemy were reinforced, and a portion of the Sixth corps was sent to its support.

Failing in this, the enemy opened a heavy cannonade all along the line. The attack on the right is believed to have been a feint to cover a more formidable flank movement on the left. The cannonading is now heavy in that direction, and appears to be extending.

The Third Corps suffered greatly yesterday. The number of wounded is heavy, with a large number of officers. No estimate can be formed of the killed at this writing.

Heavy musketry has opened now on our right again and cannonading on our left is slackening. The enemy are fighting with the greatest desperation. Nothing can surpass the vigor and precision of our artillery.

Yesterday, the rebels took two of our guns, for want of horses and infantry support, but the division (Humphrey's, I think) rallied and recaptured them. We took one from the enemy.

Comparatively few prisoners have been taken on either side up to this hour.

Ten o'clock A. M. - The cannonading has slackened. Rebel prisoners say when their infantry charged our left-wing batteries yesterday, the massacre was beyond parallel. Some of the guns were masked, and did not open until the enemy were within canister range.

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July 3, 2004

THE NEW YORK TIMES OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR FRED ANDERSON WRITES, What Would George Celebrate? from Boulder, Colorado

Because the Fourth of July commemorates the birth of our Republic, we might easily imagine that the holiday had a central importance in the lives of the men who made the Revolution. For many, it did. Both John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, mortally ill, clung to life until July 4, 1826, in order to see the 50th anniversary of independence. Jefferson's last words bespoke his determination: "Is it the Fourth?"

An intense focus on "the Glorious Fourth" characterized the 1820's, when the passing of the revolutionary generation gave Independence Day the kind of emotional resonance we have lately seen in World War II commemorations. Yet for George Washington, at least, the Fourth of July seems never to have been as significant a date as the third.

Indeed, in a letter Washington wrote on July 20, 1776, as he awaited the British invasion of New York, he made no mention of the independence proclaimed two weeks earlier, but noted only his "grateful remembrance" of "escape" at the battle of Fort Necessity on July 3, 1754. That defeat, in which a French and Indian force wiped out a third of Washington's Virginia Regiment, helped precipitate the 18th century's greatest conflict, the Seven Years' War.

Because France and Britain and their allies fought in North America, the West Indies, Europe, Africa, India and the Philippines, some have called it the first world war. Today Americans barely remember it, and know it (if they speak of it at all) only as the French and Indian War.

In fact this great war was a watershed in North American history. It began when Washington, acting in the name of King George II (and also on behalf of the land-speculating gentry of Virginia), tried to exert military control over the forks of the Ohio River, where Pittsburgh now stands. Because the river represented the main avenue to the heart of the continent, the empire that controlled the forks would in all likelihood determine North America's future.

The French, whose fragmented settlements stretched from the St. Lawrence River to the Mississippi River, understood this only too well. They also understood wilderness warfare much better than Colonel Washington, and had little trouble trapping him and his men in Fort Necessity, a pathetic stockade near what is now Farmington, Pa. At the end of a murderous day, Washington had no choice but to accept the terms of surrender that the enemy commander dictated in the rain-drenched dusk of July 3, 1754.

Over the next three years, the French and their Indian allies continued to advance. They made big gains along Anglo-American frontiers — from the Carolinas to Maine — driving settlers back to within 100 miles of the Atlantic.

In 1758, however, the tide began to turn in Britain's favor. The shift did not come without sacrifice: it came only after the heroic mobilization of colonial populations, huge commitments of British military resources, phenomenal amounts of British money spent to subsidize the colonies and determined diplomatic efforts to woo the Indians away from their French allies.

But the efforts paid off. Quebec fell in 1759; the following year, Montreal, France's last bastion in North America, surrendered. Fighting continued for two more years in the Caribbean, Europe and the Philippines, producing further triumphs and further expenses. The Treaty of Paris, signed in early 1763, ended France's empire in North America. Britain emerged as master of everything from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, from Hudson Bay to the Gulf of Mexico.

It took the British a little more than a decade to squander the victory they had won, alienating colonists to such a degree that thousands of them took up arms against the king's troops in 1775, with George Washington, once a loyal soldier of empire, at their head. The Americans' complaints, as everyone knows, centered on Parliament's attempts to tax them, as it tried to impose order and fiscal stability on a vastly extended, virtually bankrupt empire. Yet we cannot fully grasp the colonists' willingness to resort to violence in defense of their rights without seeing the Revolution, as they did, in light of the recent imperial war.

The French and Indian War had convinced the colonists that they had achieved full partnership in a British empire that stood for liberty and individual rights — especially property rights — under the rule of law. When Parliament tried to impose order on the colonists between 1763 and 1775, however, it treated them not as partners but as mere subjects.

The colonists' sense of betrayal was palpable not because they understood themselves as Americans at the time, but because they saw themselves as British patriots who had shed their blood to preserve the rights that Parliament now seemed determined to destroy. When Britain responded to their protests with force, it seemed only to make manifest a tyrannical intention to destroy their liberty and expropriate their property.

The 250th anniversary of the Battle of Fort Necessity reminds us that imperial victories can endanger the victor as much as the vanquished. Success in the Seven Years' War convinced Britain's leaders that their nation possessed the world's greatest military power. From that accurate perception, they drew the fatal inference that they had nothing to lose by using force against colonists whose genuine affection for British institutions, rights and liberties had hitherto constituted the empire's strongest bond.

In this light, the Revolution can be seen as an unintended and perhaps paradoxical consequence of imperial victory: an empire shattered when leaders, backed by tremendous military might, failed to understand that their only enduring basis of control lay in the consent of the governed.

Fred Anderson, a professor of history at the University of Colorado, is the co-author of the forthcoming "Dominion of War: Empire and Liberty in North America, 1500-2000."

Copyright 2004 The New York Times Company

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In America, elections are won by making deals and putting together alliances of voters. To put together enough to win a presidential election takes a lot of compromises. It works pretty good. So far, we have had only one [un]civil war. It's messy being an American. We have to win the majority to an opinion before we can get action. A dictatorship takes less effort, but then you have to have a dedicated army, and that can get even messier. Not many Americans are willing to kill their fellow citizens to advance a political agenda. Considering the history of the world, I think I am glad for that. - CW Powell

Open Letter to Al-Qa'ida

2004-07-01T17:18:00.000-07:00
From a Marine officer on the Iraqi front in the war with Jihadistan...

(This is an open letter to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, "Islamic Response," and the rest of the so-called al-Qa'ida "insurgents" in Iraq and elsewhere. We don't have an e-mail address for these swine - though we are closing in on their snail-mail address, but we are forwarding this letter to Federalist Patriots around the world in the hope you good people will forward it to as many other Patriots as possible to rally prayer and support for our fellow Marine, Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun. Should these al-Qa'ida pigs spill his blood, we want them to rest assured that the contents of this letter will eventually be nailed to their foreheads. Thank you for your assistance.)

To al-Qa'ida terrorists in Iraq:

I see that you have captured a U.S. Marine, and that you plan to cut off his head if your demands are not met. Big mistake. Before you carry out your threat I suggest you read up on Marine Corps history. The Japanese tried the same thing on Makin Island and in a few other places during World War Two, and came to regret it. Go ahead and read about what then happened to the mighty Imperial Army on Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They paid full price for what they did, and you will too.

You look at America and you see a soft target, and to a large extent you are right. Our country is filled with a lot of spoiled children who drive BMWs, sip decaf lattes and watch ridiculous reality TV shows. They are for the most part decent, hard working citizens, but they are soft. When you cut off Nick Berg's head those people gasped, and you got the media coverage you sought, and then those people went back to their lives. This time it is different. We also have a warrior culture in this country, and they are called Marines. It is a brotherhood forged in the fire of many wars, and the bond between us is stronger than blood. While it is true that this country has produced nitwits like John Kerry, Michael Moore, Howard Dean and Jane Fonda who can be easily manipulated by your gruesome tactics, we have also produced men like Jason Dunham, Brian Chontosh and Joseph Perez. If you don't recognize those names you should. They are all Marines who distinguished themselves fighting to liberate Iraq, and there will be many more just like them coming for you.

Before the current politically correct climate enveloped our culture one of the recruiting slogans of our band of brothers was "The Marine Corps Builds Men." You will soon find out just how true that is. You, on the other hand, are nothing but a bunch of women. If you were men you would show your faces, and take us on in a fair fight. Instead, you are cowards who hide behind masks and decapitate helpless victims. If you truly represented the interest of the Iraqi people you would not be ambushing those who come to your country to repair your power plants, or sabotage the oil pipelines which fuel the Iraqi economy. Your agenda is hate, plain and simple.

When you raise that sword over your head I want you to remember one thing. Corporal Wassef Ali Hassoun is not alone as he kneels before you. Every Marine who has ever worn the uniform is there with him, and when you strike him you are striking all of us. If you think the Marines were tough on you when they were cleaning out Fallujah a few weeks ago you haven't seen anything yet. If you want to know what it feels like to have the Wrath of God called down upon you then go ahead and do it. We are not Turkish truck drivers, or Pakistani laborers, or independent contractors hoping to find work in your country. We are the United States Marines, and we will be coming for you.

"Contemplate the mangled bodies of your countrymen, and then say, 'What should be the reward of such sacrifices?' ... If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animating contest of freedom, go from us in peace. We ask not your counsels or arms. Crouch down and lick the hands which feed you. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that ye were our countrymen!" - Samuel Adams

KERRY RESUME FOR PRESIDENT

2004-07-01T17:00:00.000-07:00
"It should be the highest ambition of every American to extend his views beyond himself, and to bear in mind that his conduct will not only affect himself, his country, and his immediate posterity; but that its influence may be co-extensive with the world, and stamp political happiness or misery on ages yet unborn." - George Washington

Everyone is encouraged to share this message and to visit Kerry-04.com for the full story on John Forbes Kerry. You and yours may also view John Kerry's Resume in HTML format

JOHN FORBES KERRY, "MAN OF THE PEOPLE"

CAREER OBJECTIVE

President of the United States, Renter of the Lincoln bedroom, Intern Supervisor, Commander and Chief and Defender of the Working Man, I mean Person

EDUCATION

Educated at Swiss Boarding Schools - because my parents did not like me that much

Attended elite private schools like Fessenden School in West Newton, Massachusetts and St. Paul's in New Hampshire - just like your kids

Graduated Yale University, 1966 (I am much smarter than that Bush guy - oh, wait, he also went to Yale)

Graduated Boston College Law School in 1976 (I am much smarter than that Bush guy - oh, wait, he got an MBA from Harvard)

VIETNAM MILITARY SERVICE

Served as an officer on a swiftboat in the Mekong Delta in VIETNAM for three long months - tried my best to come home a hero like JFK after his service on PT-109. I was in VIETNAM - VIETNAM was a place where I was for a while. Did I mention that VIETNAM veterans love me?

I collected three Purple Hearts in my three months (had to get three in order to come home and run for Congress as a hero like JFK) and the last one for that scratch on my finger - it REALLY did hurt! It was important to have the right connections so I could get home and run for Congress on my hero status like JFK - he was not in VIETNAM, but I was. I brought my own motion camera to make sure images of me in VIETNAM becoming a hero made it back home to the States. Got a free trip home after three months on my swiftboat where I suffered severe injuries and collected three Purple Hearts (did I mention that?), a Bronze and Silver Star for heroism - ensuring my destiny as a hero and man of the people like JFK

Got home and found out they were not bestowing hero status on war heroes like me, so I threw my medals, or was it my ribbons, over the White House fence. Maybe it was someone else's medals

Co-founder of the VIETNAM Veterans of America and spokesperson for the VIETNAM Veterans Against the War and worked closely with Jane Fonda to make sure everyone knew that all the guys in VIETNAM were war criminals - I was too, and even testified before the Senate about my own war crimes

"Represented" my cadre of anti-American misfits in a Paris meeting to discuss how we could better provide "aid and comfort" for the North Vietnamese and to discuss the unconditional surrender of the U.S. In doing so, I knowingly, directly violated UCMJ Article 104 part 904, and U.S. Code 18 U.S.C. 953

Did I mention that this meeting, and my other anti-American activities, also put me in violation of the Constitution's Article three, Section three, which defines treason as "giving aid and comfort" to the enemy in time of warfare?

Consequently, I stand subject to the Constitution's Fourteenth Amendment, Section 3, which states, "No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President...having previously taken an oath...to support the Constitution of the United States, [who has] engaged in insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof."

But I don't have to resign - I am understudy to Teddy Kennedy, now the patriarch of JFK's family

I topped off my coddling of Commies by authoring a book called The New Soldier - but since military heroes are back in vogue, I now sue anyone who reproduces the cover of that book on any website, especially a website like http://kerry 04.com. The cover picture is a mockery of the Iwo Jima flag raising - you can see it here, until my lawyers get them to take it down

CONGRESSIONAL "SERVICE"

Volunteered as a campaign worker for my mentor, Teddy Kennedy in 1962. I just love that big lug!

My first campaign for Congress was in 1972 - I was a war hero like JFK but nobody noticed so I ran on my anti-American platform. I won the primary with a little help from my campaign manager (brother Cameron) who broke into my opponent's campaign headquarters. Unfortunately, because of that Watergate thing, I lost the general election to a Republican even after spending more than any other Congressional campaign in the nation

In 1982, with the help of Uncle Teddy, I got elected as lieutenant governor for governor Michael Dukakis - then got elected to the Senate in 1984 - it has been smooth sailing ever since

I have dedicated the last 20 years - between wives and vacation homes - promoting big government spending (except in defense and intelligence, which I vote against every chance I get), class warfare, the welfare state and general wealth redistribution, any kind of abortion on demand (without parental consent for minors), and obstructionist tactics in the judicial nominee process

According to Americans for Democratic [sic] Action, a far-left watchdog group, I have a higher lifetime liberal voting record at 93% than Ted Kennedy with 88%

I am the ranking Democrat member of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship. My current millionaire wife is heiress of the Heinz Ketchup fortune - a "small" business

I am the ranking member of the Hispanic Task Force, even though I "borked" Miguel Estrada

I Chaired the Senate Democratic Leadership Steering and Coordination Committee

In 1987, I teemed up with Teddy to get an override of presidential veto of Boston's Big Dig Boondoggle - one of the most larded distributions of taxpayer largess in U.S. history.

In 1991 the Senate created the Select Senate Committee on POW/MIA Affairs to investigate the possibility that U.S. prisoners of war and soldiers designated missing in action were still alive in Vietnam. Acting as chairman, I helped persuade the group to vote unanimously that no American servicemen still remained in Vietnam. In doing so, I helped begin the process of normalizing U.S.-Vietnamese relations. What buddies left behind?

I am the wealthiest senator ("man of the people"), with an estimated net worth of nearly $200 million (that's $800 million if you combine it with my current wife's assets)

POLITICAL POSTURING AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS:

ABORTION

I voted to federally fund abortions

I voted against parental consent for minors

I voted against ban on Partial Birth Abortion (3 times)

I voted against ban on sending money to UN population fund - the money that was sent to pay for China's forced abortion and sterilization policy

I have been warned by Catholic clergy that I will not be served communion due to my stance on this issue

NARAL lifetime rating of 100%; National Right to Life Committee lifetime rating of 0%

DEATH PENALTY

I oppose federal and/or state death penalty (except for innocent unborn children - see above)

I voted against death penalty for terrorists

I voted against death penalty for drug-related murders

TAXES & ECONOMICS

I like high taxes and want to raise them

I voted against all three Bush tax cuts & want to repeal them

I voted for 1993 Clinton tax hike (largest in history)

I voted against major tax relief packages at least 10 times

I support re-raising taxes on the wealthy to redistribute money for "healthcare and education" - i.e., Socialism

I claim I can stop outsourcing and create 10 million new jobs in four years, despite the fact that there are only about 8 million unemployed people in the U.S.

I want to raise the minimum wage, which will result in outsourcing and the loss of jobs.

I voted at least 5 times against balanced budget amendments

I voted at least 5 times to raid the Social Security Trust Fund

I believe Washington manages your money better than you could

Lifetime rating of 26% from Citizens Against Government Waste

MILITARY & NATIONAL SECURITY

We don't need a military, per se

I favor UN control of remaining U.S. Troops

I voted for 7 major reductions in military funding

I voted against Gulf War I (1991)

I voted for Gulf War II - but then criticized and voted against military appropriation for troops

I voted against MX missile, Trident Submarine, SDI (Strategic Defense Initiative - Star Wars), and the B-1 and B-2 Stealth Bomber/Fighter

I supported slashing $2.6 billion from intelligence funding while serving as a member of Senate Intelligence Committee

Photo courtesy wintersoldier.com

SECOND AMENDMENT

I am against the right to bear arms by American civilians - militia or not

I have earned a lifetime rating of 0% from the National Rifle Association

FAITH & VALUES

I am against/I don't have any

I voted Against Defense of Marriage Act

I favor civil unions for homosexuals until marriage is popular enough to support

I voted to extend hate crimes protections to homosexuals

I voted against voluntary school prayer

I voted against ban on human cloning and support embryonic stem-cell research

EDUCATION

I voted against voucher pilot program

I voted against approving a school-choice pilot program

I support racial profiling and preference for admission to universities, known as "affirmative action"

JUDGES, COURTS & LAW

I am against racial profiling and preference when dealing with terrorism

I voted against confirmation William Rehnquist as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court

I voted against confirmation of Robert Bork and Clarence Thomas to the Supreme Court

I only support activist judges who will support abortion, persecute Christians and rewrite the Constitution

I voted against confirmation John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General

I Voted against punitive damage limits in products liability cases

As Michael Dukakis' Lt. Governor from 1983-1985, I supported granting prison furloughs to hundreds of Massachusetts inmates

FOREIGN POLICY

I am against linking Most Favored Nation status to China's human rights record

I voted for Kyoto Protocol on Environment that exempted major Third World polluters, while creating an unfair burden on American taxpayers

I supported Iraq regime change as late as January 2003, but not anymore

I support unilateral nuclear freeze

I support submitting completely to the UN, as well as the International Criminal Court, taking all sovereignty away from the U.S. and its citizens

I don't know what the Geneva Conventions say, mean or to whom they apply to

OTHER QUALIFICATIONS

Five multi-million dollar mansions

A large multi-million dollar yacht

Many "American" cars, including several gas-guzzling SUVs, which I am opposed to politically

Personal 757 campaign jet

Access to unlimited condiments - did I mention my current millionaire wife is heiress to the Heinz fortune?

I have dual citizenship in France

REFERENCES

General Vo Nguyen Giap - most celebrated military hero of NORTH VIETNAM, where I served - in fact, I was recognized for such "aid and comfort" in 1983, when I received an award for special contributions to the Communist victory from the incoming general secretary of the Communist Party of Vietnam, Comrade Do Moi. There is a photo of me in recognition of my contributions to the 'great victory in VIETNAM' by the North in a place of honor in the Museum of Remnants, Hanoi

"Hanoi Jane" Fonda

Teddy Kennedy

John F. Kennedy - hey, we have the same initials!

Howard Dean - (Albert Gore by proxy)

Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw and Peter Jennings

"Foreign Leaders" whom I am unable to name at this time

FAVORITE WEBSITE

Kerry-04.com sponsored by The Federalist

NOTE: Please join fellow Patriots and sign the
petition demanding John Kerry's resignation.

"We have this day restored the Sovereign to whom all men ought to be obedient. He reigns in heaven and from the rising to the setting of the sun, let His kingdom come." - Samuel Adams

The aspects of a thing that are most important to us are hidden to us because of their simplicity and familiarity. - Ludwig Wittenstein

Return Courtesy - Email from Dad: "Whodunit To Social Security?"

2004-07-01T11:24:00.000-07:00
"Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it." - Ronald Reagan (1986)

Subject: WHODUNIT TO SOCIAL SECURITY?

Everybody needs a little history lesson now and then.

Now is Now. You'll be glad you did!

- jp Senior

You may have seen this before... Enlightening!

To All:

Especially the elders that may have forgotten what the orignal plan was and then the not so old who may not have ever known what the original contract stated: It is time we *all awaken* and take action at the polls come the November 2004 Election.

When Franklin D. Roosevelt, a Democrat, introduced the Social Security (FICA) Program he promised:

1.) That participation in the Program would be completely voluntary,

2.) That the participants would only have to pay 1% of the first $1,400 of their annual incomes into the Program,

3.) That the money the participants elected to put into the Program would be deductible from their income for tax purposes each year,

4.) That the money the participants would be put into an independent "Trust Fund" rather than into the General operating fund, and therefore, would only be used to fund the Social Security Retirement Program, and no other Government program, and,

5.) That the annuity payments to the retirees would never be taxed as income.

Since many of us have paid into FICA for years and are now receiving a Social Security check every month - and have found out that we are now getting taxed on 85% of the money we paid in to the Federal government to "put away" for us, you may be interested in the following:

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from that independent "Trust Fund" and put it into the General fund so that Congress could spend it?

A: It was Lyndon B. Johnson and the Democratic Party-controlled House and Senate.

Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?

A: The Democratic Party.

Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?

A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the "tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the Senate while he was Vice President of the United States.

Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?

A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive SSI Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though the immigrants had never paid a dime into it!

After all this lying and thieving and violation of the original contract - (FICA), the Democrats then turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take away your Social Security! - And the worst part about it is, is that uninformed citizens would believe it!

Perhaps we are asking the wrong questions during this 2004 election year!

"I've been told that some members of Congress disagree with my tax-cut proposal... Well, you know, it's been said that taxation is the art of plucking the feathers without killing the bird. It's time they realized the bird doesn't have any feathers left." - Ronald Reagan (1981)

Dad's Truck

2004-06-29T21:27:00.003-07:00
Quiet beneath the moon does the forest lie. Here and there freshening air moves through leaves and ripples across great stands of trees - until the deep woods breathe - resound, as though at the sight in unison some hidden choir did catch their breath.

I hear him coming along the highway, now. Through moon bleached woods over rolling hill country, familiar finds he the way. He motors nearer, sure hands at the wheel.

I hear him turn off the highway moonlight bright and in to our road through the trees he drives, with a bang and a shake and a rattle that filters and echoes through the branches and the leaves with that light in the night mixed.

And then, as he picks up speed he runs faster, his truck aclatter to reach our lane - and home. I hold my breath to hear him come, gun the engine and cross those timbers over the stream with that funny rumbling roar - the timbers trodden once more - once again to land onto the roadbed with that familiar jarring thump: Almost home!

Eyes alight as near by my window I listen in full moon glow, breathing in the soft, illumined, woodscent air that runs tender fingers through my hair - I suddenly sense, that this time, something is wrong.

For upon the gunning engine follows no moon soaked wooden corduroy thunder but squeal of brake and shriek of metal torn - wood cracks - and silence! Then that plunging crash! swallowed up so quickly, deep in that moon-shadowed forest.

Dad's in the creek! Gotta get to Dad! Lest over him cold waters close and my Dad I lose and he be no more than a corpse in a truck, all soaked and dead. I pound the stairs where down them I daren't leap - bang! - through the kitchen door and across the porch - and plunge into the wooded path to the stream.

Moonlit speckled through the trees do I fly; moon beams make plain my way as to the water's rush I race, where Dad's truck upset in the flood I see just going by. When I make to dive after great arms rise and pluck me from the air - snatches me back from the brink - with a laugh so warm and mellow! My Father! holds me clear of those waters near, his happy grin broad and bright in the shadows, there.

His name in my throat to cry now I shout as in his mighty arms locked I pound his back so broad - between huggings so tight. At length he sets me down on my feet, again and, with a last clap to my back, turns to home. In moonlight rippling dappled, together we trudge through the trees, shoulder to shoulder - or nearly so, in a year, or so.

And at the turning we glance at each other, all agrin - and, side by side with my Dad, him home we bring.

© 2004 JP

Dad's Truck premiered on ~ elderflower ~ 25 June 2004

Lithocardia ex

2004-06-29T11:32:00.000-07:00
From the face of the earth, collected,
From the ground, retrieved:
Rocks of every kind,
Each on one end double round and 'round
To a point shaped.
Of size, assorted,
Wee pale little ones
And great throbbing things, too,
Of spectrum'd colors span'd;
Of quantity, a goodly sum,
Sprinkled here, one, there another
The globe about -
Seemingly at random - hardly that.

Heard of late how others, too,
Hearts of stone have found.

Nothing asparkle to catch the eye,
No glint nor gleam, no,
Nothing special at all.
For Notice,
Only a heart shaped rock,
Is all.
And at this, Curious' attention drew and
Slew that cat the rock attract'd.
And hummed an artless tune
Down the lane or, as well, along the strand,
Cardiolith in hand.

Then did Ponder in puzzlement
Reflect upon this rocky heart rock
And at what might lie within, or had.
And Wonder rose as the Dawn
When Comprehension spread:
For, it was what was in,
And now, out, there, lying about;
One in Curious' hand.

For lithocardia ex -
A cardiolith in deed -
Where and when given
A heart of flesh.

So, behold Discard,
That late heart of man elect,
Hard, mean and bitter;
Full of hate:
Proud, of kindness, lean -
By Conversion, become litter.

© 2004 JP