You Have the Right To Jihad...

You have the right to falafel, if you can not afford falafel the court will subsidize it for you...

Sound silly? I hope so but it actually is not so far from the position of the Democrats. Will our soldiers be required to carry Miranda cards with them?

This is extremely silly and fatuous. The Dems whine they are not being taken seriously when it comes to national security, well why should we? Why should the American public accept the idea those waging war on the US be treated the same as a guy who sticks up an old lady? This is what the Dems are proposing.

What if Woodrow Wilson suggested captured Germans be read Miranda warnings (uh, lets change that to garden variety criminals let alone German POWs). How about FDR wanting the same warnings read to Japanese POWs? Its ironic FDR is a hallowed saint in the Democratic Party, how ironic they would label him a Nazi torturer.

The only way the Left will be satisfied with the War on Terror is if we replace the army with the Keystone Cops.

However much I may say Michael Savage is a danger to the US he has one thing spot on. This is not about fighting the war on terror or protecting the nation. The Dems and their enablers are desperate for power. If a Dem were in office they could turn the Middle East into glass (i.e. nuke it all) and it would be off of the front pages in a week in order to make room for something a Republican did 25 years ago.

The talk of the left indicates they want an ALL OUT WAR FOR CIVILIZATIONAL SURVIVAL. Huh you say? Yes. They talk about shared sacrifice, tax raising, and the draft. However, why not head that off? Instead they take the fools bargain.

Don't Go There!

Hillary Clinton says if Bill were in office when the infamous PDB was issued they would have paid more attention. The implication is 9/11 would not have happened.

First that is speculation, big time. As Jonah Goldberg formulates that PDB was about as informative as saying bears want to defecate in the forests.

If President Clinton (or Gore, shudder) wasn't able to prevent the East African embassy bombings then why think that PDB was enough to go on to prevent 9/11?

FYI, in June of 1998 I saw warden notices that indicated Osama was up to no good.

I don't blame President Clinton for not connecting the dots but acknowledge the enemy will from time to time steal a march.

I pounded this out on my palm pilot so excuse typos, nisspellings, and obviously under-edited writing.

Reminder to Myself.

I want to comment on how this whole meltdown shows how important it is to maintain civilian control of the military. Even if the commander in chief is a reviled by the military.

On the Clinton Meltdown.

Wow.

I have been reading some of the back and forth on the Clinton meltdown. The discussion focuses on the conservative reaction to his thumping Afghanistan & The Sudan after the East African Embassy Bombings.

The left wingers accuse us right-wingers of chanting "wag the dog" and hoaccusing President Clinton of acting tough to distract from his impeachment troubles.

To be sure there was some of this going on. To say it emnated strictly from the right-wing is disingenuous. Quite a bit of it came from the left-wing as well.

Most of the response I have seen consists of digging into various archives and seeing what was said back then. Most conservative blogs & commentators who were published back then have proof they said no such things.

While you have to take my word for it here was my take. I recall driving to Platteville and being around Belmont Wisconsin when news of the thumping reached myself (via NPR). I recall being very pumped about the news (I had just returned from the Middle East a couple of months prior). When I was certain I had a complete picture of what went down my reaction was Is that it? When hearing Wag the Dog my reaction was Well, if that is what it takes, then why don't we send him another dozen buxsome interns? That is to say, I didn't care whether or not he did it because he was trying to distract the nation from his intern affairs. You do the right thing because it is right not because you don't want to be seen as oppurtunisitc.

In fact, I defended his actions when people complained how the "aspirin factory" in The Sudan was reported to have been just that (right). In fact, remember what that was all about? IIRC President Clinton's administration claimed that Al-Shifaa was a nexus point of Al-Qaeda & Saddam's Iraq (the point here is not the connection was real but it was being argued by the Clinton Administration). I defended the thumping of Al-Shifaa on the fact The Sudan was not a nice nation.

One other Clintonian strawman is how conservatives were accusing President Clinton of being obsessed with Bin Laden. Jonah Goldberg bats this one down:

Update: A quick — and therefore imperfect — Nexis-Lexis search finds not a single story from 1998-2000 mentioning Bin Laden in which "Clinton" and "Obsessed" appear in the same sentence, except those mentioning "sex-obsessed" or obsession with his own legacy. None talk about obsession with Bin Laden, in other words.

Source: National Review Online's The Corner - Jonah Goldberg

Dr. Jose Dalisay To Speak In Green Bay.

Who? Who? Who?

Dr. Jose Dalisay English professor from the Philippine is the visiting exchange professor at St. Norberts College in DePere (and its shallow over there).

Dr. Jose Dalisay Jr. will speak on Wednesday September 27, 2006 at 7:00pm at St. Norbert's College in DePere WI. Dr. Dalisay is professor of English from the Philippines. The title of his talk is: In Your Image: English in the Philippines The exact location of the talk is at the Fort Howard Theater, in Bemis International Center

Source: NEW Bayanihan - Philippino Professor to Speak.


In addition to his professorial duties Dr. Dalisay writes for the Philippine Star & Pilipinas Magazine.

If you are in the Green Bay area and are free this Wednesday go and see him. Tell him Marcus Auerlius sent you!

X-Posted at: At the Badger Blog Alliance.

A Blogger Beer Blogroll Addtion.

It has been some time since I have added a new blog to the blogroll. Please give a hearty Blogger Beer welcome to the Pinoy Penman It is the blog of Dr. Jose "Butch" Dalisay, who is in our locale instead of Manila.

So give a welcome to Butch & his wife to the blogroll and to Northeastern Wisconsin!

A Green Campaign Communication.

Dear fellow Green Teamer:

Just when you thought Jim Doyle couldn’t go any lower, he has proven yet again why people like state Senator Mike Ellis – Wisconsin’s leading ethics reform champion – label him “the most ethically challenged governor we’ve had.”

Today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel confirms what we have known from the start – Jim Doyle’s campaign was calling the shots when the Democrat appointees of the state Elections Board defied their own legal counsel’s advice and reversed nearly 30 years of precedent to retroactively change campaign finance rules to help Doyle’s ethically bankrupt campaign.

You can read the article here , which describes a series of e-mail exchanges between Jim Doyle’s attorney and the Democratic members of the Elections Board in the days before the Elections Board meeting. You can read all the e-mails here , which show that without a doubt, Team Doyle was directing the supposedly independent board’s efforts to attack Mark.

Here are a couple highlights from the e-mails:

Even though one of the Democrats on the board, Robert Kaiseta, told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that he wasn’t told how to vote by Doyle or his aides, in an e-mail Kaiseta expressly asks Doyle’s attorney “to go through the language of the motion before the meeting.”


Demonstrating his understanding that this manufactured decision would draw wide criticism and ultimately be overturned in court, Doyle’s attorney wrote in one e-mail: “I have also been told that the Gov’s Campaign and the Dem party and others will give you cover on this in the media. Even if this ends up in Court it is a PR victory for us since it makes Green spend money and have to defend the use of his Washington DC dirty money.”
Jim Doyle knows he can’t win this election in a fair fight, so he is trying to stack the deck against Mark.

As you know by now, for 29 years the state Elections Board has allowed federal candidates to convert their campaign accounts to a state committee. Five years ago, Democratic Congressman Tom Barrett did just that when he decided to run for governor. On a unanimous and bipartisan vote, the board ruled that what Tom Barrett did was both allowed and proper.

Doyle’s manipulation of the Elections Board has created the exact firestorm of criticism that Doyle’s attorney promised to provide “cover” for.

Editorial boards from around Wisconsin have called the decision “wrong,” “suspect and political,” and “selective enforcement.”

Even Russ Feingold’s campaign manager said the board’s decision “rewrites the law” and represents a “double standard.”

People from all over Wisconsin have shown their disdain with Jim Doyle’s actions by making a contribution to Mark or singing up to join our Green Team volunteer army as we head into the home stretch of the campaign.

But, as we’ve seen, Jim Doyle will stop at nothing to hold onto power. The dirty tricks will continue. Mark needs your help to fight back against Jim Doyle’s corrupt brand of politics and bring a much needed change to Madison.

That’s why I’m again writing you to ask for your help. Please make a “contribution for change” by using our secure Web site.

Last time I asked for your help, thousands of Wisconsinites responded and we raised a record amount of campaign donations over the Internet in just 72 hours.

Please help Mark keep fighting by clicking here and making a donation today . Any contribution will be greatly appreciated.

With your help we will continue to counter Jim Doyle’s effort to cheat his way to re-election.

Thank you for your continued support.

Sincerely,

Mark Graul
Campaign Manager

P.S. Please use our secure Web site to make your contribution to Mark… and forward this e-mail to your friends so they can help us take back our state government from Jim Doyle.

E-mail from "Mark Graul, Campaign Manager" What Doyle's campaign did is the old trick we see on cheesey lawyer shows. An attorney makes a statement or a claim and knows will be objected to. However much the other attorney objects and the judge agrees (and no matter the truth of the matter) the words can not be taken back, they can be strucken from the record but not from the heads of jurors.

This is a start and the Green Campaign needs to make an issue of this and situations such as the Adelman Travel scandal. Is that how politicians act in Wisconsin?

Propoents of campaign finance reform need to to call Doyle on his cynical use of the elections board to make sure only 100% governemnt approved candidates run against him, i.e. none.

THugo's Shoe

That podium at the UN has taken another shoe banging.

Well, THugo you are not the only person to have stood up at the UN and tell us we are going down. A bigger more powerful nation did that some years ago and where are they now?

Tell you what THugo you and Ahmednuttyjihad can go and take the old flying leap down the well. Perhaps you can cozy up with the 12th Iman.

AP, Al-Pazeera, Al-Jazeera. What's The Difference?

Negligible.

Bilal Hussein a stringer who snaps shots for the AP is in US custody and US Forces report he was caught in the company of high level terrorist types.

Michelle Malkin displays some of the infamous photos of Bilal's and asks:

You tell me: What exactly is the journalistic value of having Hussein hanging out in the desert with civilian-slaughtering terrorists and snapping Theater of Jihad glamour shots for them? Why doesn't the American media leave that job to as Sahab, al Qaeda's media production unit, and its analogues?

Urging news organizations to think twice about being used as tools in the terrorists' propaganda war isn't "thuggery." It's responsible journalism and responsible citizenry. Oops, did I say a bad word?

Source: AP vs. the "so-called blogosphere" Michelle Malkin

Dr. Rusty Shackleford of the Jawa Report takes up this story as well.

Pakis Know Where Bin Laden Is, Bush May Send in Troops »
September 20, 2006
Journalistic ethics be damned if those ethics include balancing coverage by hiring stringers with known ties to people killing American soldiers. If it is ethical to hire an enemy propagandist, then I'm just not sure what ethics really mean.

Call it ethics if you want. I call it treason.

Source: When Ethics Trump Patriotism and Morality: Ethicsgate - The Jawa Report
This story is one that has been festering and periodically rupturing from time to time. Bilal Hussein has been in this position before and I doubt anything serious will be done about him by the US. Of course, Al-Pazeera will stand behind the skirts of press freedom and lash out at those who believe they should stand with liberal civilization.

We may hate the pretense of neutrality by practitioners of journalism but the days of pretend are coming to an end. Journalists will soon have to openly choose a side. I much prefer that than the pretense of impartial journalism.

Trojan Camel

I have done some googling and found others using the phrase Trojan Camel. But I didn't see those prior to forming the blog in which I use the term. I did find some references but none seem to use it in the same sense as I do.

Now onto another term I coined.

Martyr The Islamic Way Vs. The Christian Way.

Martyring the Islamic way vs. the Christian way.

If you are a Christian you may be martyred walking from a hospital to your room. Walking back after a hard day of serving Muslim vicitms of violence perpetrated by Muslims.

If you are a Muslim you may be martyred exploding yourself in a pizza restaurant killing other Muslims and if lucky some Christians and Jews.

Make me a channel of your peace.
Where there is hatred let me bring your
love.
Where there is injury, your pardon, Lord
And where there's doubt, true faith in
you.

Chorus:
Oh, Master grant that I may never seek
So much to be consoled as to console
To be understood as to understand
To be loved as to love with all my soul.

Make me a channel of your peace
Where there's despair in life, let me bring
hope
Where there is darkness, only light
And where there's sadness, ever joy.

Chorus:

Make me a channel of your peace
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned
In giving to all men that we receive
And in dying that we're born to eternal
life.

Chorus:

Source - Make Me a Channel - Christian Lyrics

Whose song is the one above?

Wretchard Observes:

Wretchard makes his usual keen observations:

Jonah Goldberg perceptively points out that these statements horrify us, not because of what they actually say -- we are almost impervious to the actual message -- but because they are an affront to our self-esteem. We don't want to love so much as need to be loved.

SourceBelmont Club - The Limbo Rock

This is something that should be obvious to the...casual observer. It seems every time a lefty wants to bash President Bush they talk about how the whole world hates us now (of course by implication this means they think the world loved us before when President Clinton was in office). This is a silly.

Why should the world love us, especially those nations that think liberty is a dirty word?

Here is how it typically goes:
Leftoid: The world hates us for our policies.
Righty: What? No they hate us for who we are!

Here is how it should go:
Leftoid: The world hates us for our policies.
Righty: Yes, so? The Mafioso just sentenced to jail for extortion hates the judge who sentenced him and the law enforcement officer who arrested him. He also hates the legislature that passed the laws he violated and by extension the people who support those legislators. Yes, Al-Qaida hates us for our policies, but I would rather be hated for supporting liberty and liberal governance for all than to support a wicked oppressive status quo.

I hate to bring this comparison out but here it comes. Often times the meanest dogs are those beaten and maltreated by their masters. In fear they defend and submit to their masters but lash out at everyone else. If a beaten and oppressed population hates us so be it. We do it so their children and grandchildren may live in liberty's light.

Its not over though. Wretchard in the commentary states:

Tigerhawk has a good point there about Pope Benedict XVI really seeing the Muslim immigrants to Europe as potential converts to Christianity. [emphasis added] But it will all depend on whether we can offer the right mix of Christian meekness and manliness -- yes manliness -- to attract them. The best missionaries in the Third World are incredibly inspirational. You want to emulate such men. Some of milquetoast that passes for Christianity today attracts nobody except afficionados [sic] of limp spaghetti. People don't want to be social workers in cassocks. They want people who will be with them through sickness and triumph and literally to the hour of their deaths.

The Belmont Club - The Limbo Rock

Well I want to coin a term here. I have done a little googling and find no one else it quite this way. The Trojan Camel. Europe has accepted a gift from the Arab World a gift I call The Trojan Camel. They get cheap labor as a gift but it is quite apparent hidden in the cheap labor are the soldiers of the jihad. It isn't dad & moms who are inspiring this but the imams and lack of a competeing voice who are.

The Danish cartoons, the Pope's comments, the picture of Piglet, the liquor ad on TV, are all molehills. However, the radical imams are turning those molehills into mountains and those mountains are being beckoned onto Mohammed. Already, the skirmishers of the fight to come are in contact with the European masses and fighting and they are winning too.

What is the answer? Wretchard & Tigerhawk hint at it above in their analysis of Pope Benedict XVI's remarks. Europe needs to convert their Muslim immigrants to Christianity. Christianity is the only thing in Europe with the backbone to do the job. However, it has to be a manly Christianity and this is the problem.

Europe has been up for grabs in the past and is once again up for grabs. Look into the origin of the croissant however, this time the invaders are in.

EXTREME is Extremely Annoying.

I have become annoyed at the overuse of EXTREME. The extreme games, extreme dodgeball, extreme this, extreme that, and yes, extreme the other thing.

Closely related is the X thing as well.

Sometime ago I heard market research showed putting extreme in front of something or X did make the product more appealable.

X and EXTREME have become extremely cliché.

Another One of Those Weekends.

That is going to make work seem resting, refreshing, and relaxing.

Still, as busy as it was the to do list didn't get much shorter. We had a household appliance crisis that ate valuable time. Well, I guess that is better than what a dear friend of ours is going through.

The worst thing about it is I get all sorts of ideas about blogs. Of course, when I get time to sit down and crank them out they are long gone. Oh well see the close of the last paragraph.

Osama Is Happy.

Osama Bin Laden must be happy. His hearthrob is getting a divorce. Who is that? Whitney Houston. What? He will not like her drug thing? Well, that is probably nothing a little beating can't cure.

John Gard for Congress.

Well, its over for Terri McCormick. She had an uphill fight from the start and unfortunately for her she lost.

Now, onto the future. We must maintain our hold on this seat. Now, I know some of Terri's supporters dislike Mr. Gard and one told me he just will not vote for the position. Well I have something I hope changes your mind. Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Dr. Kagen has an impressive organization. He overcame being an unknown in Green Bay and took Green Bay over Nancy Nussbaum. That organization is only going to become larger and more organized and effective. Don't let your disappointment in Terri's defeat enable Nancy Pelosi and the likes of John Conyers.

A Hyperpartisan Press Or Blogosphere.

Listening to O'Reilly talking with Lanny Davis. Both are bemoaning a partisan press & media.

The debate is assumes a chimera a non-existent beast. Actually it isn't a chimera as a non-partisan press did exist however briefly. Even then it was partisan but mildly so.

Right now the most damage to the press is coming from the idea of an unbiased press that reports just the facts. There is no such thing as an unbiased press. The big MSM try to pretend they are moderate in the middle or report just the facts but it isn't true. If they would admit it they could free themselves from their shackles and probably come up with better bottom lines.

Jonah Goldberg sometime ago wrote an article for National Review Online that made the argument. He noted it was only from the '50s to the mid-'60s or so that a "moderate" press developed. The reason he argues is the same reason the big beers are brewed to a less than distinctive taste, they appeal to the broadest array of people.

However, now in the days of micro-brews people can choose the beer that suits their taste the best. Same too with the media, people now do not have a choice of just three channels. Not only three channels but like a dozen news channels, radio stations of all sorts, and of course the Internet.

Jonah also argues in the days before the emergence of mass media most media outlets had a distinct political agenda and did not hide that. If you were a Democrat you bought Paper X and not paper Y.

You know I don't mind Dan Rather has an opinion but I do mind he tries to tell he doesn't and is reporting just (bogus) facts.

Nuts.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers torture? Even if you don't like the music getting put into a cold room and being forced to listen to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers is not torute. It isn't nice but then don't don't do bad things.

The Comfy Chair.

A shot from Gitmo showed an interrogration room with what looked like a lazy boy. So we are putting terrorists in the comfy chair, I hope they get a coffee service at 3:00 (with cream & sugar) pm or Katherine Newell-Biermann & Human Rights Watch will be all over them.

More Dumberester

In one memorable scene, Maines watches news footage of the president being interviewed about the furor that followed the singer's on-stage comment that she was ''ashamed the President of the United States is from Texas,'' which resulted in the group being dropped from most radio stations, as well as protests and plummeting sales. ''The Dixie Chicks are free to speak their mind,'' Bush told Tom Brokaw at the time, adding, ''They shouldn't have their feelings hurt just because some people don't want to buy their records when they speak out. You know, freedom is a two-way street.''

After watching this footage, Maines repeats the president's comment about how the group shouldn't have their ''feelings hurt,'' incredulous, and then says, ''What a dumb f---.'' She then looks into the camera, as if addressing Bush, and reiterates, ''You're a dumb f---.''

Source: Entertainment Weekly - Dixie Chicks Of course Ms. Maines who is the President of the most powerful nation in the world and who is a country music singer trying to appeal to a crowd that hates country music? Who is the dumb one?

It irritates me to a certain extent leftoids constantly harp on about the President's supposed stupidity. However, it keeps them losing and when I think of it that way it makes it much nicer.

President Clinton warned his party and supporters not to "misunderestimate" George W. Bush and they keep doing it. Who are the dumb ones?

Moron Moran What's the Difference?

This is not to insult the many decent Morans.

However, there is a certain congressman from Virginia by the name of Moran who is a moron. Note:

U.S. Rep. Jim Moran, D-8th, lauded the “perfect professionalism” of Arlington's public-safety personnel, who responded to the Pentagon after the crash and won worldwide accolades for containing the damage with no additional loss of life.

He also praised the community-wide outreach effort that occurred after the attacks.

“Arlington has woven together the fabric of a community that can't be torn apart,” he said.

But Moran then maneuvered into more sensitive ground, suggesting that the country was not safer and intimating that the Bush administration's foreign policy was headed in the wrong directions.

“More people hate us,” Moran said, a comment that drew an outburst from the crowd.

“My brother died on 9/11 - don't make this political,” a woman in audience cried out.

Moran continued, calling on the nation to address the root causes of terrorism by the 10th anniversary of the attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center.

Source: Sun Gazette - Arlingtonians Remember 9/11 in Their Own Ways Really. Root causes root causes squawk! You know I wonder how loved we were in Japan after the Battle of Midway? I wonder how many in the South loved Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclomation?

I was listening to a song this morning with the line: Conform or be cast out...Be cool or be cast out. Evidently it is more important for the left to conform or cool than it is to support liberty abroad.

Sweet and Sour.

I went to see my first ballgame at Miller Park today.

Sweet it was. Dave Bush put in a five hit complete game shutout performance. Even though it was against a less than an Astro A team it was still fun to watch. The Brewers hit the ball fairly well and hit a couple of homeruns in addition to some traditional run manufacturing.

We left Miller Park with a smile, then I called my brother and asked about The Packers. OMG, what a disaster that was. How sour. Well, they can only get better.

False Debates.

There are those who are characterizing the President's challenge to congress as a choice between cruel and barbaric torture vs. letting the terrorists off.

No that's not it at all. Its asking members of congress to go on the record. A number of them harp and criticize but offer nothing. Now, they are forced to offer an alternative. As we are seeing the alternative is stark.

Dr. Rusty Shackleford has the details on the like we are debating with.

Wow.

Doyle of the contribute to my campaign and get a nice fat plum from the Government is now upset his toadies on the state election board are not being listened to.

See what campaign finance reform is about.

Libertarians have now become irrelevant. That is one libertarian who has sold his soul. It is highly ironic one of the groups that complains most loudly about how campaign finance reform is intended to squelch their chances to gain power now actively conspire to abuse the same laws they complain about.

Libertarians in the '02 election wouldn't vote for Scott McCallum because Scott wasn't sufficiently pro-gun. Pro-gun libertarian, its up to you do we go through another four years of anti-gun bias in the statehouse or do we get someone you can work with?

Folly, Folly It is All Folly.

There is an appointed time for everything, and a time for every affair under the heavens.

A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot the plant.

A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to tear down, and a time to build.

A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance.

A time to scatter stones, and a time to gather them; a time to embrace, and a time to be far from embraces.

A time to seek, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away.

A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to be silent, and a time to speak.

A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

What advantage has the worker from his toil?

I have considered the task which God has appointed for men to be busied about.

He has made everything appropriate to its time, and has put the timeless into their hearts, without men's ever discovering, from beginning to end, the work which God has done.

Source: Ecclesiastes 3:1-11

It is now a time for war. The jihadists have bases in the Western hemisphere in Venezuela.

Saudi Arabia has a bomb and it is not a given who those weapons are pointed at. Israel is everyone's first reaction but they are undoubtedly pointed at Tehran as well. Iran is shortly to get the bomb and is aligning itself with the gullible in the Western hemisphere. Wonderful, a three way nuclear standoff in the Middle East.

The left in the west is hostile to itself. They have turned day into night and now actively aid those who would impose a real theocracy. They tut-tut and make excuses and refuse to fight. The likes of Nancy Pelos-eye and Hillary Clinton seem to be rock-ribbed centrists. The left is embracing those who talk the same as Jihadists and the jihadists embrace and parrot them.

Many other people are complacent. Whatever huh-huh. Unfortunately the days of whatever are going to be whatever.

A multi-megaton weapon will go off somewhere in this nation. Its coming it will happen. Pray you are not there when it happens but have your boots on. The left that works to oppose the war on terror (war on Islamic fascists or whatever you want to call 'em an enemy by any other name) is going to be in very serious trouble then. Of course, it will be all of us in serious trouble, but the left as exemplified by the sixties crowd will fade into insignificance. Then the left may re-emerge as it once was, that is of course we are not praying five times a day orienting ourselves to Mecca.

Malakas at Matalino na Siya!

Sino? Si President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo (PGMA).

Al-Pazeera (aka the Associated Press) ran a story today on President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo of the Philippines. I picked it up via Yahoo News.

The Philippine president, one of Washington's strongest backers in the war on terror, has been the target of constant coup rumors since she was swept into office in January 2001 by the country's second "people power" revolt. Now she has just performed another escape act by fending off a second impeachment attempt.

The late-August victory prevented a potentially explosive trial in the Senate — an opposition stronghold — on allegations of vote-rigging, corruption, human rights abuses and violations of the Constitution. As a result, she has gained an aura of political invincibility, immune from the opposition's best shots while she manages a never-ending string of crises, including natural disasters, terror attacks and other emergencies.

Source: Yahoo News - Philippines' Arroyo a political survivor (PAUL ALEXANDER, Associated Press Writer)

PGMA is tough and smart. Her opposition seems dumbfounded by her ability to hang onto power. The article goes onto say it is going to a long few years until she is required to step down and how the political class is going to be struggling amongst itself over her legitimacy. Instead, the political class should focus on stabilizing the Philippines.

I have said this before and will say so again. The Philippines is a land starved for capital. They have an incredible amount of ingenuity and can-do but lack capital. Jeepney shops don't have mechanized sheers but instead ladders and manual sheers with 10' long handles. The job gets done but why should that human effort be wasted by going up and down a ladder to sheer sheet metal? The peso is pushing 50 pesos = $1.00 (from a low of probably about 57 = $1.00).

What would the Filipino economy be doing were it not for the political instability?

The Corner is in a Tizzy.

Quite a discussion has been going on for at least a week over at The Corner. The topic? What to term the war we are in or at least what to term the enemy.

They have been kicking a few things around but does it matter? Eventually they all seem to agree it is kinda moot. The term Islamic Fascism set it off. They were not debating whether it was wrong to link the two so much as a discussion about whether they qualify as fascists or not. Eventually we start seeing blog titles like: Naming The Enemy--Just Not That Important, An Enemy By Any Other Name etc.

The upshot is if the Islamists we are fighting gain the upper hand, ladies & gents get used to praying five times a day. Not to mention the loss of liberty worldwide. The contributors at the Corner recognize the fact most people recognize what's at stake even though our leaders tippy-toe around certain words or combinations of words.

Moon Arising.

Recently Adam Ghadan (another CAlifornia product) and Ayman Al Zawahiri essentially said convert to Islam or else.

Well unfortunately I am stuck in a hotel room with a Windoze (Gad, how do all of you windoze uzers get by?) laptop. I am unable to access my regular graphical tools to fashion a graphical answer to Mr.s Ghadan & Zawahiri. However, it involves a cresecent and a moon ;-) and would border on Human Resources Dangerous and certainly on the edge of family friendly as well. However, when I cobble that image together and post it, I will give plenty of warning.

Anyway the verbal answer to Ghadan & Zawahiri is kiss my....

BTW, I can not recall who it was but one blogger (was it someone on The Jawa Report) noted the left calls the Islamic Terrorists kin of Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson et al. However this has the blogger wondering, if that were so, how come the language coming from the terrorists almost seems as if it is straight out of a Michael Moore script. That is the Islamic baddies seem much more at ease with our whacky left.

A Touch of Irony.

Adorns the death of Steve "Crocodile Hunetr" Irwin.

I was not a big fan of his but the show man that was in him often stopped me on the channel cruise.

As was his wish some good may come of his death. It is reported he wanted the footage of his death (should it come from an animal and filmed) shown. That way it may serve as a warning to people that wild animals are dangerous.

People are not usually superior physically but we are superior mentally. Too many people give up that advantage and do dumb things around animals. Unfortunately, there are way too many videos of people doing dumb things around animals. The difference between most of those people & Mr. Irwin is Mr. Irwin knew very well the dangers presented.