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nyt in growing morass
They are on the other side.
Leftist fossil media working for the enemy.
The definition of treason given by the US Constitution, Article 3 Section 3, is:
Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open court.” [my emphasis]
| “President Bush said Monday it was "disgraceful" that the news media had
disclosed a secret CIA-Treasury program to track millions of financial
records in search of terrorist suspects. The White House accused The New
York Times of breaking a long tradition of keeping wartime secrets.
“The fact that a newspaper disclosed it makes it harder to win this war on
terror," Bush said, leaning forward and jabbing his finger during a brief
question-and-answer session with reporters in the Roosevelt Room.
“The Times has defended its effort, saying publication has served America's
public interest.” [Quoted from abcnews.go.com]
“BY NOW IT'S UNDENIABLE: The New York Times is a national security threat.
So drunk is it on its own power and so antagonistic to the Bush
administration that it will expose every classified antiterror program it
finds out about, no matter how legal the program, how carefully crafted to
safeguard civil liberties, or how vital to protecting American lives.
“The Times's latest revelation of a national security secret appeared on
last Friday's front page--where no al Qaeda operative could possibly miss
it. Under the deliberately sensational headline, "Bank Data Sifted in
Secret by U.S. to Block Terror," the Times blows the cover on a highly
targeted program to locate terrorist financing networks. According to the
report, since 9/11, the Bush administration has obtained information about
terror suspects' international financial transactions from a Belgian
clearinghouse of international money transfers. |
from Michelle
Malkin’s website, where you can see
many more examples. She is following this story.
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“The procedure for obtaining that information could not be more solicitous
of privacy and the rule of law: Agents are only allowed to seek
information based on intelligence tying specific individuals to al Qaeda;
they must document the intelligence behind every search request and
maintain an electronic record of every search; and, in an inspired civil
liberties innovation that would undoubtedly garner kudos from the Times
had a Democratic administration devised it, a board of independent
auditors from banks reviews the subpoena requests to make sure that only
terror suspects' transactions are traced. Any use of the data for criminal
investigations into drug trafficking, say, or tax fraud is banned. The
administration briefed congressional leaders and the 9/11 Commission about
the system.” [Quoted from weeklystandard.com]
“If the Justice Department chooses not to prosecute the Times, its
inaction will turn this statute into a dead letter. At stake here for
Attorney General Gonzales to contemplate is not just the right to defend
ourselves from another Pearl Harbor. Can it really be the government's
position that, in the middle of a war in which we have been attacked on
our own soil, the power to classify or declassify vital secrets should be
taken away from elected officials acting in accord with laws set by
Congress and bestowed on a private institution accountable to no one?” [Quoted from weeklystandard.com]
“The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee urged the Bush
administration yesterday to seek criminal charges against newspapers that
reported on a secret financial-monitoring program used to trace
terrorists.
“Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.) cited the New York Times in particular for
publishing a report last week saying that the Treasury Department is
working with the CIA to examine an international database of
money-transfer records.
“King said he will write Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, urging that
the nation's chief law enforcer "begin an investigation and prosecution of
the New York Times -- the reporters, the editors and the publisher."
“"We're at war, and for the Times to release information about secret
operations and methods is treasonous," King said.” [Quoted from washingtonpost.com]
related material
how the fossil media wages war against the civilised world - the auroran sunset
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#nyt_280606
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uk
conservative leader david cameron makes a speech on rights
“Today, in a speech to the Centre for Policy Studies in London, Mr
Cameron will say that "a modern British bill of rights needs to define
the core values which give us our identity as a free nation" and be
"a clear articulation of citizen's rights that British people can use
in British courts". It would "spell out the fundamental duties
and responsibilities of people living in this country", and protect
the rights laid out in the European convention on human rights "in
clearer and more precise terms".
“A panel of expert jurists - as yet unnamed - is being brought in
to draft the law, which he said would need to be developed over several
years to establish a national consensus. The bill of rights could be entrenched
by removing the rights of MPs to force through amendments against the wishes
of the Lords.
”Mr Cameron will say that there is a case for scrapping the Human
Rights Act and doing nothing else. But it would be "a step backwards"
on liberties and "lead to a procession of cases" to Strasbourg.
“Another option was to abolish the act and pull out of the ECHR.
But that would leave British citizens reliant on the common law, which could
not properly protect them from the mercy of ministers.”
There are two critical paragraphs in the actual speech:
- “It will serve its purposes better if it cannot easily be repealed.”
- “By these and other means we can give the Bill of Rights a status
similar to that of the German Basic Law and in so doing help restore British
parliamentary supremacy as against law made elsewhere.”
Both I regard as highly positive developments. The rest
is good-intentioned waffle.
There is one slightly off-colour phrase buried here:
“I shall set out also, at that time, the process through which we
hope - over a number of years - to promote public debate as the drafting
proceeds, in order to achieve a lasting consensus.”
The phrase is “over a number of years”.
It is both vague and suggests more delay than is necessary.
There are plentiful other bills of rights which may
be heavily used and imitated. [The Declarations of Rights, both historic and from
around the world drop-down menu at magnacartaplus.org
gives a significant selection.] There is no need for this process not to be
well towards completion by the next due national election (assuming old.new.old
Labour does not cut and run sooner). I realise the phrase can be regarded
as due caution, but it most certainly should be qualified to a limit, of say
two years, for having the main structure and details in place.
This is especially necessary, given the vital requirement
that Cameron overcomes the natural cynicism
that has developed under the disgraceful behaviour of the former Home Secretary [Interior Secretary], Michael H***** and current UK prime minister, Tony Bliar.
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#cameron_rights_260606
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on the intellectual bankruptcy of the left - “looking only for politicians who emote”
“[...] The keynote speaker on the science panel was General Clark, who
bravely told the audience, "Science is one of the things that's near and
dear to my heart."
“ "What worries me," Clark said, "is the conflict out there between faith
and reason, faith and science." He gave a rambling speech. He told a long,
involved story about his participation in a "radiation project" while a
young man in Arkansas; tackled cosmology ("Apparently, there are many,
many universes. And we're in this one"); listed American inventors from
Franklin to Ford; namedropped Copernicus, Aristotle, and Aquinas; gave the
Newtonian formula for gravity; spelled out Pi to about the fifth numeral;
and quoted the speed of light. The audience loved every minute.
“Clark was playing to the audience's conception of its own intelligence.
This is one of his political gifts, and one of the reasons he is so
popular among the netroots. In some sense, the YearlyKos conference was an
exercise in social differentiation, a way to say, I am not that, whether
that is a religious nut who votes conservative or a neocon warmonger. For
many attendees, the answers to all political questions were self-evident.
While the politicians were working to tap a new source of campaign money,
the bloggers, it seemed, cared more about being with people who agreed
with them and dreaming of future Democratic victories. At the moment, the
netroots is a political movement with only the fuzziest ideology.”
—
“[...] At a moment when Democratic candidates face close races almost
everywhere in the country, one of the party's most influential
constituencies is looking only for politicians who emote, who oppose, who
rail against Bush, the GOP, and the war.”
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#socialist_bankruptcy_240606
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in the real world, beyond the left-wing fossil media
“Hamas has made a major political climbdown by agreeing to sections of a
document that recognise Israel's right to exist and a negotiated two-state
solution, according to Palestinian leaders.” [Quoted in guardian.co.uk]
“Former defense secretary William J. Perry [under clinton] has called on
President Bush to launch a preemptive strike against the long-range
ballistic missile that U.S. intelligence analysts say North Korea is
preparing to launch.
“In an opinion article that appears in today's Washington Post, Perry and
former assistant defense secretary Ashton B. Carter argue that if North
Korea continues launch preparations, Bush should immediately declare that
the United States will destroy the missile before it can be fired.”
[Quoted in washingtonpost.com]
“I understand their concerns," Mr Bush said at a US-European Union summit
in Vienna, Austria. "I’d like to end Guantanamo. I’d like it to be over
with."
“He said, 200 Guantanamo detainees have been sent home. He added that most
of the remaining 460 detainees are from Saudi Arabia, Yemen and
Afghanistan.”
[Quoted in irishexaminer.com]
Yet all you will see emphasised in the fossil media is a few students
“protesting”.
Meanwhile, back in the real world of governments and Bush policy on
the spread of freedom:
“There are some who need to be tried in US courts. They’re cold-blooded
killers. They will murder somebody, if they are let out on the street," Mr
Bush said.
“Schuessel jumped to his guest's defense, invoking memories of World War
II and America's post-war help for Europe to rebuild. He warned Europeans
that they should not be "naive" about the threat of terrorism.
“Don't forget, I was born in 1945. [...] I will never forget that America
fed us," Schuessel said. "I think it's grotesque to say that America is a
threat to the peace in the world compared with North Korea, Iran, other
countries."
“The harmonious tone of Bush's meeting with Schuessel, who also heads the
European Council, the EU's policy arm, and with European Commission
President Jose Manuel Barroso, was in marked contrast to some of Bush's
previous meetings in Europe.
“The leaders spoke with one voice on Iran and North Korea.”
[Quoted in mercurynews.com]
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#socialist_bankruptcy_240606
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meeting of dictators looking for new axis
It looks like the disfunction is continuing at the UN, as a
conflation of dictators and fellow travellers gather to coordinate actions.
The dictatorships are given space, and even voting powers
in the UN.
Clearly, it is growing past time to establish a new UN
organisation of liberal democracies which aspires to civil rights and which
eschews membership of dictators who are holding people in poverty and oppression.
Increasingly, the West has little common ground with these illegitimate
rulers.
Meanwhile, once again you see attempts by the oppressors
of mankind to form common purpose against what they regard as the effete and
decadent democracies.
“Ahmadinejad Calls for Closer Ties With Shanghai Group (Update1)
“Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said he wants to increase cooperation
with a central Asian security group that includes China and Russia and that
the region needs a bulwark against ``outside interference.''
“`We need a strong, powerful organization in the region to protect
us from unreasonable outside interference,'' Ahmadinejad said in a speech
today at the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Iran
is an observer at the group, which includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan,
and Uzbekistan.” [Quoted from bloomberg.com]
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#conflation_of_dictators_180606
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as
the moment of truth closes in on the west west and iran, steyn makes the appeasers
squirm again 
One of the best things Mark
Steyn has written and very precisely accurate. Little wonder the usual
suspects are in a high boiling tizz over it.
As the American administration is now correctly saying:
“Iran Must Respond in 'Weeks Not Months' to US Offer”.
In the past year or two, I have counselled patience. That
time is now run.
“Four years into the "war on terror," the Bush administration
has begun promoting a new formulation: "the long war." Not a reassuring
name. In a short war, put your money on tanks and bombs—our strengths.
In a long war, the better bet is will and manpower - their strengths, and
our great weakness. Even a loser can win when he’s up against a defeatist.
A big chunk of Western civilization, consciously or otherwise, has given
the impression that it’s dying to surrender to somebody, anybody.
Reasonably enough, Islam figures: Hey, why not us? If you add to the advantages
of will and manpower a nuclear capability, the odds shift dramatically.
“What, after all, is the issue underpinning every little goofy incident
in the news, from those Danish cartoons of Mohammed to recommendations for
polygamy by official commissions in Canada to the banning of the English
flag in English prisons because it’s an insensitive "crusader"
emblem to the introduction of gender-segregated swimming sessions in municipal
pools in Puget Sound? In a word, sovereignty [...].
—
“ Anyone who spends half an hour looking at Iranian foreign policy
over the last 27 years sees five things:
- contempt for the most basic international conventions;
- long-reach extraterritoriality;
- effective promotion of radical Pan-Islamism;
- a willingness to go the extra mile for Jew-killing (unlike, say, Osama);
- an all-but-total synchronization between rhetoric and action.
“Yet the Europeans remain in denial. Iran was supposedly the Middle
Eastern state they could work with. And the chancellors and foreign ministers
jetted in to court the mullahs so assiduously that they’re reluctant
to give up on the strategy just because a relatively peripheral figure like
the, er, head of state is sounding off about Armageddon.”
—
“Once again, we face a choice between bad and worse options. There
can be no "surgical" strike in any meaningful sense: Iran’s
clients on the ground will retaliate in Iraq, Lebanon, Israel, and Europe.
Nor should we put much stock in the country’s allegedly "pro-American"
youth. This shouldn’t be a touchy-feely nation-building exercise:
rehabilitation may be a bonus, but the primary objective should be punishment
- and incarceration. It’s up to the Iranian people how nutty a government
they want to live with, but extraterritorial nuttiness has to be shown not
to pay. That means swift, massive, devastating force that decapitates the
regime - but no occupation.
“The cost of de-nuking Iran will be high now but significantly higher
with every year it’s postponed. The lesson of the Danish cartoons
is the clearest reminder that what is at stake here is the credibility of
our civilization. Whether or not we end the nuclearization of the Islamic
Republic will be an act that defines our time.
“A quarter-century ago, there was a minor British pop hit called
"Ayatollah, Don’t Khomeini Closer." If you’re a U.S.
diplomat or a British novelist, a Croat Christian or an Argentine Jew, he’s
already come way too close. How much closer do you want him to get?”
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#iran_150606
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the
socialist psyche
It is deeply ingrained in the socialist
psyche that the everything must be regulated and regimented.
This is fundamental to the paranoid and controlling mindset
of dogmatists.
Having a rule for everything is a barrier against
inherent fear and against reality. It removes any requirement to think
independently.
It is why such people are completely incapable of improving
the world. They wish to freeze the world in an imagined ‘safe’
bunker.
Socialism is driven by fear/cowardice. It is life-denying.
Only by grasping the psychological dysfunction at the heart
of socialism (and other
dogmatism), can you hope to understand their acts.
What constantly surprises me is that people are surprised
by the behaviour of socialists.
They are highly predictable once you understand the underlying
intellectual dysfunction. Socialists are not complex, they are simply foolish
and fearful.
the web address for the article above
is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#socialist_psyche_130606
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on socialist hypocrisy : “spare us the scripted outrage”
“But please spare us the scripted outrage that is simply cheap cover
for wanting Iraq to end as Vietnam, as there appear ten stories on Haditha
for every one about either an American victory over terrorists or help for
Iraqi civilians. Any true moralist who cares for the Iraqi people should
pray that this war doesn’t devolve into helicopters on the embassy
roof - followed by the old predictable liberal silence when the real killing
begins." ”
related material
the choice facing the fossil media
the web address for the article above
is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#fossil_media_110606
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why the uk government health cartel contrives waiting lists
A great deal of private practice is done by medics working
for the NHS [National Health Service].
Waiting lists encourage patients to go private.
Without waiting lists, there would be no private patients.
Without waiting lists, the NHS would be paying for medical services at the
point of use.
With waiting lists, the government avoids paying.
The medics get the extra fees.
The customers pay twice, in tax and in fees.
Those of means who insist on service, go private.
Those who cannot pay, receive the benefits of oldnewoldlabour’s usual
‘service’.
That is how the system works.
Do you really imagine waiting lists are accidental?
the web address for the article above
is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#nhs_110606"
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the choice facing the fossil media - the auroran sunset
The Fossil Times has backed down. This looks like Gerard Baker, the US editor of the Fossil Times of London, has been sat on by Murdoch:
“Al-Haditha, a town on the Euphrates northwest of Baghdad, is still a place where fighters blend into the populace and literally use civilians as cover. Coalition forces may shoot only when threatened, ground rules that call for exemplary discipline and courage in conditions where their observance increases the risk of injury or death.
“That should be acknowledged in the context of what appears to have been an appalling collapse of US military discipline in al-Haditha, where 24 Iraqi civilians were allegedly murdered by a company of US Marines after a member of their patrol was killed and two were injured by a roadside bomb. America's determination to demonstrate zero tolerance of such crimes should also be acknowledged; they in no way reflect US policy, or typify the conduct of American forces. Al-Haditha must not be made the subplot of a spurious morality play whose demon king is not terrorism, but the use and alleged abuse of US power.”
For the fossil media, an amazingly hard and sane article, which is clearly a form of apology for the dishevelled article that Baker allowed to pass his editor’s desk five days ago, and for which he has already offered a disingenuous apology.
[For more details, see below and Michelle Malkin].
I notice that the Times have not yet disowned the original article, the words of which were as maliciously dishonest as the accompanying photograph and caption.
They could give Tim Reid his marching orders...
... Or they can return to the usual hedging. This hedging then allows them to later claim to have been supportive of, or against, the police action all along, depending on which way the winds are blowing. Meanwhile they, possibly correctly, claim that the other fossil media outlets are worse.
To maintain a good reputation is easy: just continue to behave honourably.
To regain such a reputation once lost is much harder: it takes consistent acts over a long period.
... Even then cautious men will continue to doubt.
Welcome as is this new article, it will take more than a single page of pretty words for me believe the sincerity of this new tack by the Fossil Times.
For example, I would be more impressed were they to sack Reid and print their own deconstruction of his article on the front page, in an article explaining the new policy and why they sacked him.
I can’t see it happening; and that inability to either adapt or to face up to their mistakes is a part of why the fossil media is losing power and reputation to the blogs.
The days of the fossil media’s information cartel are over. No longer can they manipulate and lie bare-faced. No longer can they mindlessly copy and produce absurd, sloppy press releases and wire ‘reports’. No longer can they remain complacent in the knowledge that their bigger bullhorn will drown out facts and criticism.
The fossil media have a choice:
- Wither away to inconsequence and derision... Or...
- Adapt to the new world created by the blogosphere, where backable facts, not self-promoted ‘eminence’, are all important... A world where they will never again be more than one of many respected voices... And that only providing they decide to move to the new higher standards available on the web.
The likes of the Fossil Times have the money and the infrastructure to build a real news organisation. It is their choice.
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#fossil_media_choice_080606
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how the fossil media wages war against the civilised world - the auroran sunset
This article has moved to its own page.
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another
close race for the presidency, but democrats stronger this time out
“That she polarizes the electorate is clear from a new Washington
Post-ABC News poll. The survey found that 84 percent of Democrats have a
favorable impression of Clinton, while 73 percent of Republicans have an
unfavorable view. As a point of contrast, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a
leading potential candidate for the Republican nomination, is viewed favorably
by 65 percent of Republicans and 50 percent of Democrats.”
Since McCain and Clinton increasingly look like
the front runners (Giuliani is a possible competitor to McCain), it seems to me the Democrats are not going to dare to run
another moonbat like Kerry and the Republicans will not be able to run another
‘enthusiast’.
Taking the figures above, and ‘adding’
this factor means that Clinton could be tolerated by 111%, while McCain
can be tolerated by 115%.
I get the impression that if either party tries to run
a dogmatist, they are going to lose.
I get the impression that the make or break question will
be “can this candidate be entrusted with controlling the Middle East
and Iran?”; and that any candidate looking the slightest bit weak on
this will (rightfully) go the way of Gore and Kerry.
This seems to me to summarise to both
McCain and Clinton being a shoo-in for their respective parties, as the parties
will not dare chance running an extremist or weakling against either of them.
I further wonder whether McCain’s
appeasement of the moonbat right is going to damage him.
the web address for the article above is
http://www.abelard.org/news/politics0606.php#presidency_usa_010606
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