ABOUT THAT CIVILIAN NATIONAL SECURITY FORCE

Okay, so Obama went to Europe, blah blah blah.

Still, if you look at some of the things he's said on the campaign trail and pair them with what his wife has said, against the German backdrop, it does conjour up images.

He said:

"We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we’ve set. We’ve got to have a civilian national security force that’s just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded"

She said:

"Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”

She didn't say if they would use the security force to make this happen, but...

Didn't they try that whole require-you-to-work-civilian-security-force thing in Germany a few years back?

The Gestapo was originally the Prussian security police and pre-dated the Nazi party. Goehring took it over and went national with it before handing it off to Himmler.

I'm not trying to make an overt Nazi comparison, it's just that when you get something that big set up, run by human beings, it's open to abuse.

Especially if it's ideologically driven.

What began as a run-of-the-mill European security aparatus became, in the hands of someone with broader ambitions, a different entity.

The building process of something that pervasive should consider what can happen if it's badly run. Given the habit of government programs to mutate, it's not an unreasonable concern.

HUGO'S PAL HAS A NEW TOY, BUT WILL HE SHARE?

Ajad and Crazylegs Chavez are tight and getting tighter.

The new Long Range Shahab 3 Iran tested yesterday (link in headline) has a range of about 2,000 kilometers.

Distance from Caracas to Puerto Rico? 886 kilometers.

Distance from Caracas to Miami? 2152.77 kilometers.

Anyone else notice this?

Anyone?

AND THEN WE ARE ALL ON TRIAL

In a crowded subterranean courtroom about the size of a two car garage, arguments raged this week between the broad founding principles of western secular civilization and the forces aimed at its undoing.

For five days, Mark Steyn and Maclean's Magazine have been under quasi-judicial scrutiny for a column published a year or two back that the Council on Islamic American Relations (Canada) chose as a battleground in their ongoing efforts to silence any opinion they disagree with.

I dropped by this morning. It was a hot ticket and a small venue and I didn't expect to get in. The proceedings are being well documented by the National Post's Andrew Coyne (hit the link in the headline for the latest).

I went more to see who was there. It was a mixed bag: men and women, young and old, all shapes sizes and hues.

At the 10:30 break, like the stateroom scene in the Marx Brothers 'Night at the Opera', the door opened and everyone spilled out into the large corridor. Steyn was in great form- jovial and engaging, signing a few autographs before huddling with his team, while the plaintiffs huddled at a different end of the hallway. Andrew Coyne looked a little weary and if you read his blog about the week, you'll know why.

Considering what was at stake, there was remarkably little media present. The MSM has been very slow to pick up on this and I can't for the life of me understand why.

Perhaps it's function of their overall state of denial as their familiar world continues to unravel. Local media is among the most somnolent on the issue and may well look back one day and ask themselves 'why didn't we have someone there?'.

In a forum where rules of evidence, case law and even truth are not relevant to the proceedings, to let the story slide by unremarked is journalistic malpractice and further enables the cause of the plaintiffs.

Across the hall from Courtroom 105, the scene of the tribunal, was an office for a native outreach service with a sign on the door advertising an upcoming 'talking circle'. I don't think it could hold a candle to the circles talked this week in that tiny room.

It's so very odd. Canada is a polite, peaceful place where strangers are welcomed and accommodated. Muslims, particularly, have had a very easy ride in the court of public opinion. Mosques are springing up, without a quibble, across the country. In suburban Toronto, a new subdivision 'Peace Village' is being built by and for followers of Islam. All the houses face Mecca and the toilets are aligned to avoid offense. There has been no outcry, nor need there be.

In fact, the very existence of the tribunal is evidence that Canadians have enshrined their desire not to offend into this ludicrous law.

Yet the self-appointed guardians of Islamic interests scour the landscape looking for fuel to justify their very existence. If you aren't under threat, you don't need guardians.

When 9/11 happened, politicians of all stripes rushed to express solidarity with Islamic Canadians in anticipation of a backlash that never came.

Radical Muslims in Ontario plotted to blow up parliament and behead the prime minister. Again, dire warnings of a backlash that, again, never came.

There was some tut-tutting when the CBC, our left-wing national broadcaster, aired the sitcom 'Little Mosque on the Prairie', but most of the country took it all in stride.

Few countries have been as welcoming and accommodating to Muslim immigrants and the vast majority have settled in and got along. Should they be grateful? Perhaps. Those who left homelands behind to find a better life for them and their families probably are.

But as radical global Islam flexes its muscles, sinews bulge here as well.

Such is the makeup of this unaccountable body that I don't anticipate a victory for the defendants. There are also five Canadian bloggers in line for similar treatment.

If this case goes to the plaintiffs, things look grim for the five.

And then we are all on trial.

AFRICA ON VERGE OF ANARCHY- UN SPRINGS INTO ACTION TO INVESTIGATE...THE USA

JUST IN TIME FOR THE FALL ELECTION CAMPAIGN!

I know, picking on the UN Human Rights council is like shooting fish in a barrel. Really, really retarded fish.

Nile Gardiner has a great post at NRO on the UNHRC's current investigation of 'Racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance' in the US of A.

Beats going to scary third world places and actually helping people I guess. Hit the link in the headline.

BREAKING

NATIVE OWNED BORDER STATE CASINOS LINKED TO TERRORIST FUNDING


Electronic skimming going to...

...wait for it...

PAKISTAN!

From a source I trust on the regulatory side.

More soon.

Developing...as they say

Egypt cuts fuel supplies to Gaza, UN condemns Israel

JOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOS!!!!!11!

In a communique issued April 15 titled:

"UN agencies call on Israel to immediately resume full fuel shipments to Gaza"

Our friends at the UN spoke thusly:

“The current absence of fuel at petrol stations has meant that normal transportation has ceased,” the agencies said. “Many students have been unable to get to school, and many health professionals have been unable to get to hospitals and clinics. There have been difficulties transporting essential items such as food throughout Gaza.”


Two days later word comes from The Austrialian, via the World News Network (hit the link in the headline) that Egypt has done the same:

EGYPT has shut off fuel supplies to the Sinai Desert south of Gaza to deter Hamas from again blowing up the border wall and allowing a mass infiltration of Palestinians seeking supplies.


We await the condemnation.

Still waiting.

Also- Richard Warman is a dick, pass it on

So, uber Canadian human rights turd-sniper Richard Warman is suing some Canadian bloggers.

In a speech he delivered in 2005 to the Anti-Racist Action group, known for their violent tactics, he explained his 'Maximum Disruption' methodology:

The ‘maximum disruption’ part comes in because wherever I think it will be most helpful, or even if I just feel it will be the most fun, I strongly believe in hitting the neo-nazis on as many of these fronts as possible either at the same time or one after the other. I say this because it keeps them off-balance and forces them to respond to things that focus their energies on defending themselves…”

The link is to a web site giving details on this cruel and unusual person. Hit the link in the headline and pass it on.

Any of us could be next.


Update:

Here's a graphic representation of the number of 'human rights' complaints filed by this freak.

Problem outlines solution

Sooo...the Mookster might want to re-think his PR strategy. One of his peeps gets his allah-gram and Al Sadr gets all suggesty.

Quoth he:

"The occupiers will not rest in our land as long as I am alive."

Um, is it just me, or does this not suggest an easy-bake recipe for 'rest'?

Am I missing something?

h/t Ace

Inaction in action

Great news from the IAEA! Success!

During this month´s Board of Governors meeting, several IAEA Member States noted the success of the Integrated Regulatory Review Service programme (IRRS), a comprehensive instrument that assesses a State´s safety practices regarding nuclear installations, radiation, waste, transport, emergency preparedness and security.

CIA chief Michael Hayden, however, sees less reason to celebrate. Hit the headline for the link.

Earth decade celebrated with annual spring ritual

If you turned your power off for an hour yesterday, you've got a long way to go to beat Lil' Kim, lovable environut with world's smallest carbon footprint.

The neighbours are celebrating (via the Boston Globe):

SEOUL - A grim rite of spring in Northeast Asia is the calculation of how many North Koreans could starve before the fall harvest - and what the neighbors are willing to do about it.

This year, though, the famine bailout season is more urgent, more complicated, and more politically explosive than at any time since the mid-1990s, when millions starved behind North Korea's closed borders.

Severe crop failure in the North, surging global prices for food, and tougher behavior by donors, particularly South Korea and China, are putting unaccustomed pressure on Kim Jong Il's dysfunctional communist state.

Good thing they don't have any nuclear weapons or missles.

Hit the link in the headline to read it all.

Enemy identified

At the poorly-attended annual conference of the Arab League in Damascus this weekend, Lybian president Muammar Ghaddafi hit the nail on the head.

When asked about efforts to begin an Arab joint nuclear program, he replied:

"How can we do that? We hate each other, we wish ill of each other and our intelligence services conspire against each other. We are our own enemy."

I was going to link to the story, but it's Al Jazeera. So fuck em.

Dear Caliban

Dear Caliban,

As a conservative Republican, I'm in a quandary. The guy that will probably get the GOP nomination is an insufferable cranky old prick who's so far away from me on most of the issues I really care about that it makes me want to pull my curly hair out by the roots, then move up and pull out the hair on my head.

I can't stand the idea of not voting, but I also can't stand the idea of voting for him. I'm thinking of doing something I've never done before and sitting out.

WTF?

Livid in Louisville


Dear Livid,

I TOTALLY hear where you're coming from. Remember this though: who is your enemy?

In a general election, it can suck that your candidate is a 4 out of 10. But if his opponents are a 2 or even a 1 out of 10 and you don't vote, you vote for them. There are currently about 20 people running for president including Ralph Nader (Ind.) and Cynthia McKinney (Greens- remember her?) and they all get votes, at least from the family members that are still speaking to them.

Like I said, it sucks. BUT-you have to ask yourself what the candidates bring to the dance. IF Obama or Clinton win, you'll get buried in red tape from an expanding bureaucracy as you pay the freight for people who don't feel like working.

Fact: The border will be bad no matter who wins. This is an election about least expectations and that sucks but that's where it is.

You can take this to the bank: Iran is working on getting the Bomb. With the Bush presidency winding down (and for all its faults, he at least scared the fuckers) who will stand up to them? This may be the only relevant long-term question. Protecting the border won't mean Jack if you let Iran get a toehold in, oh, say Venezuela or Nicaragua with their Al-sahab missiles and some heat on the end of them.

If Obama or Clinton win, they will abandon Iraq leaving a gaping hole in US security as they focus on domestic entitlements, leaving the Islamic nutjobs to roam free, re-establish bases in the Middle East, and attack America at home yet again.

How many more people will die? A discovery of uranium in Colombia recently does not bode well for the future.

Obama and Hillary will give you entitlements you might not live to collect. McCain will keep you alive. You can argue with him till the ends of the earth about other things after that, but you have to be breathing to do it. He, at least, gives you your best shot at that, as piss-poor a choice as it is.

It sucks, but McCain will crawl over broken glass to keep Americans at home and abroad alive. I wish you had a better choice, but there it is.

To paraphrase Churchill:

John McCain is the worst candidate for US president in the world, except for all the others.

Kisses,

Caliban

Wouldn't you simply DIE without Mullah?

Sooo,

The brave 'Militant' dirtbags who kidnapped the Austrian tourists in response to 'western cooperation with Israel' have extended their deadline in a 'show of generosity'.

This, of course, is '100% bullshit'.

I'll stop associating Islam with terror when the whackjobs stop associating terror with Islam.

One of the best explanations for 'Islamic resistance' I've ever read was delivered by Dr. Tawfik Hamid during a recent speech at Pepperdine University.

He calls bullshit too.

Click on the headline for the link.

h/t: The Big Picture