November 11, 2004

Silvia Rich, who was liberated by U.S. soldiers when she was an infant in Italy, applauds during ceremonies before the Veteran's Day Parade in New York, November 11, 2004. Now a New Yorker, Rich joined thousands lining the Fifth Avenue parade route to salute vets.



Wendy Whaling of Cedar Hill, Texas, holds a sign of appreciation as soldiers march by during the Veterans Day parade in downtown Dallas, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004.

Thank you, ladies!
Your signs say it all.
(And I'm so proud that Dallas has such a nice Vets' Day parade!)
How can we adequately thank each and every one of our vets for preserving the blessings of liberty with their very lives and blood?
We owe you owe gratitude and our remembrance for your sacrifice--from the farmer turned militiaman in rags at Valley Forge with George Washington to the men and women of the 1st I-D in Fallujah today.

Eight-year-old Jozef Brumback holds a sign thanking veterans while watching a Veterans Day parade in Las Vegas, Thursday, Nov. 11, 2004.

I hope that this Veterans' Day was a little less bitter for our Vietnam Vets, thanks to the efforts of the Swiftboat Vets, who exposed the lies about Vietnam perpetrated by John Kerry, Jane Fonda and their fellow travellers in the "anti-war" movement that our troops were "baby killers" and "war criminals."
I hope that the defeat of traitor Kerry at the polls helped give them the victory parade they never got when they came home.
We may have "given up" in Vietnam, but by our military actions there, we stopped the spread of Communism in Asia considerably and all you vets fought just as bravely and answered the call of your country just as dutifully as any of our other soldiers in other conflicts.
Both the Vietnam vets and the veterans of the Korean conflict are often unsung and this should end on our part;
with our eyes being frequently drawn to the Korean peninsula by Kim Jung-Il's nuclear saber-rattling, we should remember that the Republic of South Korea enjoys the freedom and prosperity it does today because of our soldiers who shed their blood for that freedom in 1950-53.
God bless you all for your service in the defense of Freedom around the world and here at home!

"Jubilation When The Wicked Perish"

An interesting debate is being conducted in some circles in Israel as to precisely how happy one should be at Arafat's demise.

One Biblical verse that has often been quoted of late is, "When the wicked perish, there is jubilation" (Proverb 11,10). A statement by the Tekumah party - a faction of the National Union - notes that the Talmud cites this verse in response to witnesses who fear that their testimony might help put someone to death. The judges tell them, "You will not be liable for this blood; it is rather a merit for you, to purify the world from evil and to add light and joy, as is written, 'When the wicked perish, there is jubilation.'"

Let the rejoicing begin and be heard throughout the land of Israel: Arafat's dead!
Hurray!
And he's not gonna be buried in Jerusalem in a Paleostinian state of his own making after having wiped the Israelis off the map either...not even close.
God is good and God is great!
With this mass murderer gone, the world's leading terrorist (not counting his "student" Bin Laden), has been removed from the world scene forever.
It may get wild in the "Palestinian" areas in the near future as they absorb the reality of the power vacuum Yasser's death leaves, but I predict that the PA/PLO will never be the same again.
And that is definitely worth jubilation of a high order!
Oh Israel, let the ululations of happiness and prayers of thanksgiving go up unto the heavens! (where Araf*rt isn't, BTW)

November 10, 2004

In honor of thereof and for all those brave and fine guys and gals who are taking out the trash in Fallujah now, I give you:
The Marines Prayer

Almighty Father, whose command is over all and whose love never fails, make me aware of Thy
presence and obedient to Thy will. Keep me true to my best self, guarding me against dishonesty in purpose in deed and helping me to live so that I can face my fellow Marines, my loved ones and Thee without shame or fear. Protect my family. Give me the will to do the work of a Marine and to accept my share of responsibilities with vigor and enthusiasm. Grant me the courage to be proficient in my daily performance. Keep me loyal and faithful to my superiors and to the duties my country and the Marine Corps have entrusted to me. Make me considerate of those committed to my leadership. Help me to wear my uniform with dignity, and let it remind me daily of the traditions which I must uphold.
If I am inclined to doubt; steady my faith; if I am tempted, make me strong to resist; if I should miss the mark, give me courage to try again. Guide me with the light of truth and grant me wisdom by which I may understand the answer to my prayer. Amen.

Amen and Semper Fi!

November 09, 2004

Here's the incomparable Roger L. Simon on the departure of John Ashcroft:
The Patriot Act, John Ashcroft and Me

By now practically everyone knows that John Ashcroft is resigning as Attorney General. Whether he was in any way pushed out or whether this is entirely his own decision, in part in response to his own equally well known health problems, I do not have a clue. What I do know is that when he was first appointed, I groaned. It was proof, if I needed any, that the new "Chimp" in the White House was a reactionary Christer. He had chosen one of his own to be the country's number one law enforcer.

Then 9-11 came and Ashcroft's job became quite serious. The Patriot Act was enacted and the attorney general charged with seeing to its enforcement. In short order, Ashcroft was the butt of almost every anti-Bush assault.
[Don't forget Rummy, Cheney & Halliburton and the eeeeevil cabal of neocons around the President like Wolfowitz, though!--Jen]
"Ah, Ashcroft... Ah, the Patriot Act..." many of my friends and acquaintances said, rolling their eyes in disdain. Ashcroft was the scourge of democracy, the number one threat to our civil rights.

Yet, here's the interesting thing. Not one... I will repeat in bold face... not one of the people I knew who excoriated Ashcroft and the Patriot Act ever read the legislation, which is short and easily available on line. (I know because I asked them. The subject was quickly changed. Kerry, as we know, like virtually everyone in Congress, voted for it and then made his, as usual amorphous, assertions that some parts should be amended.) Furthermore, despite all the bad-mouthing of Ashcroft as if he were the second coming of A. Mitchell Palmer, only one... I will put that in bold again... only one person, as far as I know, in a nation of some three hundred million may have been illegally incarcerated - Jose Padilla. And even that is inconclusive.
[And I think it's clear that Padilla probably wasn't "wrongly" incarcerated, as he's a jihadist who allegedly had real plans to hit a large American population with a dirty bomb.--J.T.]

Yet I would still agree, as Theo Van Gogh would, I am sure, were he still alive, that religious fundamentalism is a highly dangerous phenomenon in this world.
[See post below this one for more about Van Gogh's slaughter and the Dutch need for their own Patriot Act.--Jen]
But I am now absolutely certain that those who thought or are still thinking that John Aschroft is or was a dangerous fundamentalist are lying to themselves or to us. Ashcroft, whatever his indiosyncracies, his prudish desire not to be photographed with nude statues,
[Perhaps Ashcroft isn't an art mullah, but found that the nude statues of Justice behind him were distracting, which they were!]
etc., was fully aware of one of Jesus' greatest teachings - render unto Casear what is Caesar's - and behaved accordingly. Nothing remotely happened during his tenure to dispute this. We owe Ashcroft a debt of gratitude for his service during exceptionally difficult times. And personally, I think I have learned something from him in a strange way. I used to be rather intolerant of people of faith. I am now less so.

I love Roger Simon's blog!
As a former Liberal Democrat, his opinions bring that much more power to the current conversation.
(And his commenters are among the best on the web, too--Don't miss them, either!)
I can only hope that others on the Left (or formerly on the Left) agree with Simon's final impression of AG Ashcroft and the Patriot Act.
Ashcroft has been one of the most reviled and vilified members of the Bush Administration for no reason whatsoever while he valiantly served this country while it was under attack and at war right here at home.
I'm going to miss him, as I while other departing members of the Administration.
Either because I'm a Bush-backer and a proud GOP member or because I feel emotionally attached to almost every member of President Bush's 1st term Cabinet due to the 9/11 attacks and being under threat, I have a "bond" with these public servants that I can't profess to have had with any other presidential team.
Thanks and God Bless you, Mr.s Ashcroft and Evans!

Update:Look at how tacky and hateful the Dims and the Left continue to be, even as a tired and not-very-well-looking John Ashcroft announces his resignation:

Ashcroft's critics cheered his departure. "We wish John Ashcroft good health and a good retirement. And we hope the president will choose a less polarizing attorney general as his successor," said Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y.

Anthony Romero, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said, "Mr. Ashcroft's legacy has been an open hostility to protecting civil liberties and an outright disdain for those who dare to question his policies."

Unreal, huh?
Guess my optimism for the truly deluded seeing the light was misplaced.
We may never (or then again, we might, someday) know how many terror attacks have been stopped by the diligence of the FBI under Ashcroft and with the very necessary, yet non-intrusive Patriot Act which helps us round up the evildoers before they strike here.
Needless to say, Schumer's remarks show only too well why the Dims did so badly last Tuesday;
They never hesitate to take cheap shots for no reason other than partisan power plays and sheer vitriol, even when, as in this case, it means that so many of their electorate have been protected from harm (and in the case of the state of NY, which Schumer represents, just the arrest of the members of the Lackwanna 6 terror cell alone should have demanded his commendation for a job well done!).
Can you imagine the praise from Schumer if Ashcroft had been a Clinton appointee and if Clinton had implemented something like the Patriot Act after the first WTC bombing?

Van Gogh's murder, our freedom

We hardly needed the reminder, but the brutal murder earlier this week of Dutch filmmaker and controversialist Theo van Gogh shows again that the enemies of the open society aren't disposed to spare tolerant societies by virtue of their tolerance.
[And yet, the Leftists in the media are busy telling the Dutch to have more tolerance in the wake of this horrific murder!--Jen]
His death has rightly saddened and enraged the Netherlands, known for its famed tolerance but increasingly becoming just another battleground between reactionary Islamism and modern society.
    
Mr. van Gogh, a great grand-nephew of the famous painter, was killed Tuesday by an Islamist.
[God rest his soul!
Van Gogh even looked like his great uncle.
(Compare this photo with one of Great Uncle Vincent's self-portraits and the resemblance is almost uncanny.)

His grandfather, Theo, was the artist's chief supporter and poor Van Gogh would have done far less well without the help of his devoted brother.]
Dutch authorities say an assailant whom they are identifying only as Mohammed B. shot Mr. van Gogh, slit his throat and left a five-page letter in Arabic on his chest stabbed under a knife.

    Mr. van Gogh's views were controversial, to say the least, and incensed Dutch opinion across the political spectrum. A self-described "reactionary," he reportedly delighted in inflammatory language in his newspaper columns, had been fired from several jobs on that account and was a frequent provocator of Islam. Recently, he had received death threats for "Submission,"
[Of course, this is the what the word "jihad" means.--J.T.]
a film he directed depicting a Muslim woman's arranged marriage, rape by an uncle and brutal punishment for committing adultery.
[Needless to say, all common practices of those who embrace the "Religion of Peace."]
The film had come under fire from Muslims, not least because one scene depicted the Muslim woman in question nude with passages from the Koran scrawled across her body.
[Van Gogh's murder is nothing less than a repeat of the Salmon Rushdie "Satanic Verses" fatwa, but in poor Theo's case, the Islamist killers made the death threat a reality.]
    Mr. van Gogh had shrugged off the death threats, saying his film was "the best protection I could have." He was wrong.
    In the Netherlands as elsewhere, people are beginning to wonder — what with anti-immigration populist Pim Fortuyn's murder two years ago by another (non-Islamist) fanatic — whether free speech in their famously tolerant country is under attack.

    Clearly it is. But then, no easy solution emerges for the Dutch, or for the rest of us. One place for the Dutch to begin looking is the country's security apparatus. Ironically, at the time of his death, Mr. van Gogh had been working on a film on the Dutch security services' failure to prevent Mr. Fortuyn's murder just a week before national elections in which Mr. Fortuyn had been a leading candidate. Mr. van Gogh was on to something. Any solution to the problem of radical Islamism will need to include heightened surveillance of suspected militants. But ultimately the Dutch will only be safe when the United States, Britain, the Philippines and all the other targets of Islamist fascism are secure. And we will only become secure when all civilized nations unite to defeat the fascists. Even France will eventually be driven into solidarity with civilization.

This was a cruel, horrible murder in cold blood and in public of an artist merely using his freedom of expression, a civil right honored in the Netherlands for centuries.
It's not that the Dutch need more tolerance;
they apparently have been the paragon of tolerance for decades, being one of the most liberal countries in the world when it came to allowing any and every personal liberty imaginable from using hard drugs to euthanasia to gay rights.
The Dutch just got a hard lesson in jihad, having it shown to them all too clearly with Theo Van Gogh's slit throat that it is most likely that very tolerance, openness and liberty that is angering Islamist fundamentalists to lash out.
Calling this their 9/11, many of the people of the Netherlands have finally reached the limit of their tolerance.
Nor does it help that their many Muslim immigrants have not adopted Dutch culture or otherwise assimilated themselves in with the native-born, "white" citizenry.
In the aftermath of the murder, there have been attacks on mosques and Islamic schools, which were followed by retaliatory fire-bombing of Christian churches.
It seems the Dutch--almost alone in Western Europe--have finally awakened to the IslamoFacist evil living among them and this has only begun.
I'd like to suggest to them that they take a look at our Patriot Act as a start to dealing with the scourge of violent jihad in their midst.
The fact that they picked up 6 "known" radicals immediately after this murder shows that Dutch authorities probably knew all along that these particular Muslims were trouble, but had no way to move preemptively before someone got hurt.
The first home-turf casualty of the WOT has occurred for Holland.
Now we find out if the Dutch are more committed to Western democracy and freedom or to PC-politeness and tolerance for "righteous" outrage expressed violently.
I like the Dutch and I'm hoping for the former:
they, almost alone in Europe, fought the Nazi takeover of their country during WWII--even when the Germans bombed Rotterdam-- and sheltered their Jews (like the immortal Anne Frank) for as long as they could.
    

TERROR LAWYER SHOCK

Radical lawyer Lynne Stewart yesterday admitted that she believes violence is necessary to thwart governments steeped in "entrenched capitalism."

Stewart is on trial for allegedly helping smuggle incendiary messages from blind cleric Omar Abdel-Rahman — who is imprisoned for life for plotting to blow up city landmarks — to terrorist followers overseas.
[Why the Post doesn't mention the fact that Abdel-Rahman was convicted primarily for being one of the masterminds of the 1993 WTC bombing, I don't know.
Maybe NYers just know that too well by now...--Jen]
Prosecutors charge that the acts violated prison rules and aided and abetted terrorist activity.

"I believe entrenched capitalism needs to be changed, and that's not easy," Stewart told Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember on her seventh day on the stand in Manhattan federal court.

Asked if violence was necessary to achieve such change, Stewart replied, "I don't think they [the targeted governments] will give up without that kind of threat.

"I'm taking about a popular revolution," she said.
[Actually, she's talking about a Marxist revolution by the "proletariat," taken straight out of the writings of Lenin and Das Kapital.--J.T.

Stewart said she backed a revolution in Egypt where hard-line Islamic fundamentalists would overthrow Egypt's secular government — the same view espoused by Abdel-Rahman.

In earlier testimony, Stewart insisted she was a legal advocate of the sheik but did not necessarily support his violent stands.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Dember grilled Stewart on a June 2000 statement she issued to Reuters announcing Abdel-Rahman had canceled his support for a "cease-fire" that the "Islamic Group" had with the Egyptian government.

Abdel-Rahman was considered the spiritual leader of the Egyptian-based Islamic Group, whose members wanted to overthrow the Cairo government.
[If I haven't mistaken the group, these are the same IslamoNazis who assassinated Sadat in 1981 and carried out several attacks on European tourists in Egypt during the '90's, among other terror activities.]

Stewart's statement on Abdel-Rahman's behalf ignited a firestorm in Egypt and other parts of the Mideast.
[Great! Just what we need...another Islamist jihad.
And Egypt's trying to deal with the ramifications of what's happening in next-door Israel with the death of Arafat and Israel's planned disengagement from Gaza.]
[...]
Under cross-examination from Dember, Stewart admitted she knew Rahman advocated violence, preached hatred of America and wanted to destroy Israel.

What a charming couple!
Good thing we got him in prison where he should be watched constantly.
Who knows why Stewart decided to come clean (the government must have the goods on her!), but being a lawyer herself, she realizes the consequences of what she's admitting to in court.
I hope the judge throws the book at her, too and puts her in the cell with Rahman and then has the key thrown away.
How an American and a woman who's obviously so smart can go so wrong is beyond me, but she's revealed herself to be an enemy of this country in wartime who aids and abets the violent overthrow of our government, Egypt's and probably any other country's that isn't sufficiently "Islamic" or is too "entrenchedly capitalist" and for that, she must be stopped in her efforts.

November 08, 2004

General Gives Pre-Combat Speech

As U.S. forces prepared for what is expected to be the biggest Marine-led urban assault since Vietnam, U.S. commanders pumped up troop spirits Sunday, saying they were no different from the storied heroes of Iwo Jima and Korea.

Standing before some 2,500 Marines who stood or kneeled at his feet, Lt. Gen. John F. Sattler, the commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, told them that they would be at the front of the charge.

"This is America's fight," Sattler said. "What we've added to it is our Iraqi partners. They want to go in and liberate Fallujah. They feel this town's being held hostage by mugs, thugs, murderers and terrorists."

Two Marine battalions, along with a battalion from the Army's 1st Infantry Division, will be the lead units sent into a Fallujah attack. They will be joined by two brigades of Iraqi troops.

"God bless you, each and every one. You know what your mission is. Go out there and get it done," Sattler said.
[What can I add to this but a hearty "Amen"?!--Jen]

More than 10,000 U.S. troops massed around the Sunni Muslim city are expected to take a role in the assault on Fallujah, whose green-lit minarets are visible from the U.S. base near the city.

That's well over twice the number of Americans who were involved in an April siege on Fallujah. That assault lasted for three weeks, until Marines were forced to pull back amid Iraqi outcry over the hundreds of casualties. Sunni insurgents then tightened their hold.
[Get ready for more whining about dead killers from Ass. Press, Al-Reuters, the BBC and Human Rights Watch after this one!--Jen]

Sgt. Maj. Carlton W. Kent, the top enlisted Marine in Iraq, told troops Sunday the coming battle of Fallujah would be "no different" than the historic fights at Inchon in Korea, the flag-raising victory at Iwo Jima, or the bloody assault to remove North Vietnamese troops who occupied the ancient citadel of Hue in the 1968 Tet Offensive.
[All of which we won, including Tet no matter what Walter Cronkite told his CBS audience!--J.T.]

"You're all in the process of making history," Kent boomed in a clarion voice. "This is another Hue city in the making. I have no doubt, if we do get the word, that each and every one of you is going to do what you have always done — kick some butt."

Marine battalion commander Lt. Col. Mike Ramos said many of the young fighters would be dashing into battle for the first time.
[Lord love you, guys!
Be of good heart and courage.
Your God and your country are with you.]
In the barracks, Marines could be seen packing up gear, strapping anti-tank missile tubes to their packs. They would also be carrying gas masks in case of chemical weapons, a threat Ramos deemed unlikely.

"They're sharpening their K-Bar fighting knives; they're cleaning their weapons for the last time; they've fueled their vehicles and they've rehearsed the plan," said Ramos, 41, of Dallas.
[I'd like to send a special shout out to my fellow Dallasite, Lt. Col. Ramos!
You do Dallas proud.]

Ramos predicted that "freedom and democracy" would prevail in Fallujah within days.

"Make no mistake about it, we'll hand this city back to the Iraqi people," he said. "I think it will be rapid."

During the fight, rules of engagement allow U.S. troops to shoot and kill anyone carrying a weapon or driving in Fallujah, a move aimed at allowing U.S. troops to fire on car bombers, Ramos said. Military age males trying to leave the city will be captured or turned back.

"If I see someone who looks like a martyr, driving at high speed toward my unit, I'll send him to Allah before he gets close," Ramos said.

Sattler reminded the troops that the assault would be a joint U.S.-Iraqi effort. The fledgling Iraqi military, which has been under intense U.S. training, needs to be led by example into the fight against Fallujah, he said.

"This is a whole can of whoop-butt all combined here," Kent said, surveying the Marines surrounding him.

A pumped-up crowd shouted a deafening "Hoo-rah" in response.

I hate like h*ll that we have to send our guys into Fallujah to clean out this terrorist swamp, but do it we must.
May God be with all of you fine soldiers, both Coalition and Iraqi, and steady your head, hands and feet onto quick victory.
I pray also that casualties will be minimal on our side and that we'll get lots of bad guys and take them out of action.
We love our U.S. Marines and Army soldiers--Hooah!
God Bless!
Kick IslamoNazi Butt!

Arafat's Wife Accuses Deputies of Wanting Him Dead

Yasser Arafat's wife accused Palestinian leaders hoping to travel to France Monday to visit her critically ill husband of plotting to "bury him alive."

Israeli media had reported the 75-year-old president would be taken off life-support equipment after Palestine Liberation Organization Secretary General Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie and Foreign Minister Nabil Shaath arrived in Paris.

"I appeal to you to be aware of the scope of the conspiracy," a screaming Suha Arafat said on Arabic Al Jazeera satellite television, monitored in the West Bank.
[This shrew must have gone over well with all those chauvinistic misogynist Muslims who think women shouldn't even be seen, much less heard and yelling at that!--Jen]

"They are trying to bury Abu Ammar (Arafat) alive," she said in comments that flew in the face of efforts by Arafat's lieutenants to project an image of unity and business as usual at a time when many Palestinians fear chaos if he dies.
[This is a feature, not a bug...and an inevitability, as well, because Arafat concentrated everything in the Paleostinian areas into himself.--J.T.]

"Abu Ammar is well and he is coming back to his homeland," she said without giving any details about Arafat's illness and accusing the three leaders of being desperate to succeed him.
[The poor woman is living in a dream world!
I think what she really fears is that the 3 leaders will get there and realize that Yasser is either very dead or brain dead and in an irreversible coma close to physical death.
They'll tell the rest of the Paleos and Arafat will have died without telling Suha or anyone else how to access the billions he's socked away.
I think she hopes that somehow, someway Arafat will regain consciousness and tell her what she needs to know.
The irony is too delicious!]

Palestinian officials have privately accused Mrs. Arafat, who prior to her husband being flown to a Paris military hospital on Oct. 29 had not seen him in three years, of limiting access to and information about the veteran leader.

Arafat, symbol for decades of the Palestinian struggle for a state and against Israeli occupation, was suffering from liver failure and his health was not improving, one official said.

An Israeli newspaper's Web site said the "working assumption" among Israeli security officials preparing for Arafat's death was that any life support equipment would be shut down Tuesday.

"Suha does not want the Palestinian leaders to come to visit Arafat," one Palestinian official said before her Al Jazeera interview was broadcast. "Talks are going on and it's not clear when the leaders will come to

Arafat's close circle has been concerned fears about his health may increase chaos at home. Others fear a power struggle among Palestinians locked in a 4-year-old uprising against Israel. Mrs. Arafat has lived abroad for much of the uprising.
[Al-Reuters will be the last media organ to admit that the Intifada was a failure and that that's been obvious for a long time.]

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier described Arafat's condition as "very complex, very serious and stable at the time we are speaking."
[Can the French ever say anything that has any meaning?!
It sounds very pretty, but if it has relates any information, I can never discover any amidst the flowery language.]

Abbas and Qurie, overseeing the Palestinian Authority in Arafat's absence, wanted to go to Paris Monday to learn the facts about his condition, a Palestinian official said.

Looking ahead to life without Arafat, his subordinates in the West Bank decided to carry out a plan to restore law and order to the Palestinian territories.

It was the first major decision they had announced since Arafat left.
[Arafat's tyranny made these men impotent, indecisive and weak.
Doesn't it seem as if he thought he'd never die?]

Officials in Ramallah said the plan, drafted in March, was concerned more with ending local lawlessness than reining in militants -- a long-standing Israeli and international demand.
[You're not going to get an orderly populace when you keep them poor and agitated to wage jihad against the Israelis 24/7 and to execute as "Zionist collaborators" any Paleos who try to quit using terror.
The Islamist chickens are coming home to roost in the Sumaria and Gaza!]

Calling for more security forces to be deployed, the plan also bans militants from carrying arms except when confronting Israel and from intervening in local disturbances.

Israel has said Palestinian failure to curb anti-Israeli violence was one of the main reasons for its decision to carry out a unilateral withdrawal of settlers and soldiers from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank.

The evacuation, scheduled for 2005, is seen by Palestinians as a ruse aimed at cementing Israel's hold on larger settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Addressing the delicate issue of where Arafat should be buried if he dies, Israel said it had completed preparations for his eventual burial in the Gaza Strip.

Arafat wants to be buried in Jerusalem's Old City, which is holy both to Muslims and Jews.
[...and Christians, thank you!]
But Israel refuses to let Arafat lie in annexed land it calls part of its indivisible capital.

How I wish that Suha would spare us all and have the old murderer buried in Paris!
I've been to Pere La Chaise and he'll have other PLO neighbors.
I am almost outraged that Arafraud is getting to die of old age (he's 75) in the cleanliness and peace of a hospital, albeit French, from ill health and not blown into a million pieces when he was just living his life, as so many of his victims were.
When I think of the women, children, old people and even babies in the womb that he's had murdered just because they were Jewish, it makes me furious that this Godfather of Terrorism should have such a "good" death!
Arafat started this whole militarized and radicalized IslamoFacist movement when he and his Black September group were kicked out of Jordan in the '70's and went on to plan and carry out the slaughter of the Israeli wrestling team at the '72 Munich Olympics.
Yasser taught Osama everything he's ever known about killing infidels.
I hope and pray that Arafat has left this earth for Hell and that he's taken most of the Paleostinian terror movement with him.
The remaining bad guys in the Paleo territories will try to strike without him, but without him, the whole PA thing will lose most of its "mojo" (or should I say its boom instead?).
Good riddance to a very evil monster!
( I wonder if best friend Bill Clinton will go to his funeral...stay tuned.)

France Deploys Major Force in Ivory Coast

France rolled out overwhelming military force Sunday to put down an explosion of anti-French violence in its former West African colony, deploying troops, armored vehicles and helicopter gunships against machete-waving mobs that hunted house-to-house for foreigners.

Actually, it's a little spookier than just "foreigners."
Further down in the report, it becomes clear that they're after whites:

An AP reporter watched a crowd clutching machetes and iron bars enter one neighborhood, demanding if any French lived there.

"If there are any whites in this neighborhood, we're going to get ... them," one man shouted.

Here's how all the trouble apparently started:

The airstrike on the peacekeepers came after government forces last week broke a cease-fire that had been in place for more than a year and launched aerial bomb attacks on rebel positions.

The chaos erupted Saturday when Ivory Coast warplanes launched a surprise airstrike that killed nine French peacekeepers and an American civilian aid worker. The government later called the bombing a mistake.
[Poor b*stards! It probably was a mistake, but the damage was done.--Jen]

France hit back within hours, wiping out Ivory Coast's newly built-up air force - two Russian-made Sukhoi jet fighters and at least three helicopter gunships - on the ground.

President Laurent Gbagbo appealed for calm Sunday in his first public comments since the cease-fire was broken on Thursday.

"I implore, I implore the population to stay calm ... and I ask all demonstrators to go back to their homes," the Ivorian leader said.

What a mess...or quelle bourdelle!, as they'd say in France.
Let me see if I got this straight: the French went in to Cote d'Ivoire to support the legitimate goverment, but got fired on by them and now they're attacking both rebel forces and government ones?
Or maybe it's just anyone (black) with a machete?
And France has the um...GALL to lecture President Bush and the United States for military action and acting "unilaterally" in Iraq!
Maybe the real reason Weasel Power France keeps opposing us in Iraq is because they're bogged down in the real quagmire of the Ivory Coast.
And they care intensely about their source of chocolate!

The peacekeepers are trying to hold together a nation whose stability is vital in a region where several nations are only just recovering from devastating civil wars in the 1990s. Ivory Coast is the world's top cocoa producer and until the late 1990s stood as West Africa's most prosperous and peaceful nation.

Ah! Africa, our politically youngest and most troubled continent.
Say a prayer tonight for Cote d'Ivoire along with those for Darfur in the Sudan that they might see peace and not violence sometime soon.