Militant Islam Loses Two Cases

From the New York Times:

A federal appeals court in Manhattan upheld the convictions on Monday of three Al Qaeda operatives in a ruling that bolsters the government’s power to investigate terrorism by holding that a key Constitutional protection afforded to Americans does not apply overseas. Related: [(Opinions (In Re: Terrorist Bombings) (Findlaw.com)]

The unanimous decision by a three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit holds for the first time that government agents may obtain admissible evidence against United States citizens through warrantless searches abroad.

From the Dallas News:

A jury on Monday determined that the Holy Land Foundation and five men who worked with the Muslim charity were guilty of three dozen counts related to the illegal funneling of at least $12 million to the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas.

The unanimous verdicts are a complete victory for the government, which streamlined its case after a mistrial last year, and worked hard to carefully educate jurors on the complex evidence presented in the massive case. Guilty verdicts were read on 108 separate charges.

In retrospect this is good news and, at the same time, troubling news. In the first case, it is disturbing that it took a court to interpret the obvious: the US Constitution does not apply overseas. Captain Obvious would be proud.

In the second instance, it is disturbing that it took two attempts to win this case, fifteen years and millions of dollars.
Steve Emerson said on Bill Bennett’s Morning In America (Tuesday), that it was the most significant terrorism trial in the history of the United States. This has exposed many other groups as well; CAIR was also revealed to be a front for Hamas, Mr. Emerson said. It is a great “tell” that NO Islamic group has supported the case or now, the verdict. The Muslim America Society has called the ruling “not legitimate,” CAIR is blistering, every other “mainstream” Islamic group is upset because, after all, these other groups are “fronts” themselves as well. All these groups are simply going to bleat that the ruling is another “attack” on Islam — to which I would reply in one succinct word: bullshit.

Should SOFA result in American troops leaving Iraq next year en masse, the fight is clearly not over and, in my opinion, efforts will be redoubled by Militant Islam on our domestic soil. Militant Islam still continues to recruit in prisons and in mosques. This would be precisely the perfect time to conduct a strike on our homeland for these reasons: 1) Obama is perceived as inexperienced and flaccid; 2) America is extended and 3) Another strike would certainly hurl our economy completely over the precipice.

BZ

A Point To Ponder

Right now it’s late Sunday as I write this post, about 40-degrees outside, and the sun is casting some beautiful and final afternoon rays around the deep yellow and green leaves from the deciduous trees, interspersed with the many pines and firs on my property. I’ve been scouting about on the internet hither and yon, visiting sites, discovering new places to see and, in the interim, have commenced to pondering about many aspects of our world, our nation. I’m in a contemplative mind.

Have you ever wondered how things got to be the way they are now, perhaps in a more global, more overarching fashion?

I think it distills down to one fundamental difference between two very separate strata of society, and that is this:

It is my considered opinion that not nearly enough politicians, judges and policy-makers lose their jobs with little or no backup in place; suffer the consequences for poor decisions; treat money with which they are entrusted like it’s their own; are beaten; robbed; stabbed; shot; had their checking and savings accounts emptied; are gang raped; are sodomized; have had immediate loved ones injured or killed by criminals; have had to wonder how they’ll meet next month’s bills; are depersonalized by the criminal justice system; are forced to buy an actual used car as an adult; are left naked and bleeding from their anus in a wet alley at night by a person they can identify later.

The more that power brokers, politicians, judges, have the luxury of making their decisions in a vacuum, the more society at large suffers. It removes the personal aspect of “bad.”

And trust me, as all us common folks know: “bad” is very personal.

Your thoughts?

BZ

The GOP Fractious

Whither the Grand Old Party?

Quite frankly, I simply do not know.

Most of my blogging associates have posted about the future of the GOP, well, weeks ago. You’ll note that none of my posts, to this point, have been reflective of Republicans. I’ve been, I suppose you could say, “processing.”

I wish I could say that I’ve come to a clear conclusion.

For my dearest readers, you know that I tried to keep a positive bent right up to the bitter end. And in many ways I really did feel that way. Right up to the bitter end.

Because I simply refused to either NOT vote in the presidential election or vote for Barack Hussein Obama. McCain/Palin was it. That’s how it all shook out. And that’s how I was going to vote. And so I did. I made this fact more than clearly known.

The polls went up and down. And despite having the liability of John McCain on the ticket, the final popular vote was 52% for Barack Hussein Obama and 48% for McCain/Palin. To me, that’s no “mandate” and no “ass kicking” per se.

Think about that for a moment, if you will. As screwed up as the McCain campaign was with, essentially, a Democrat running on the Republican ticket, Barack Hussein Obama just did NOT “walk away” with the vote. And he had so, so many aspects working in his favor:
  • The DEM/MSM drank all the Kool Aid he offered;
  • The MSM provided, literally, millions of dollars worth of free advertising to his campaign;
  • Barack Hussein Obama had millions of dollars more than McCain in his war-chest;
  • Barack Hussein Obama worked the internet like it’s never been worked before;
  • People were SO tired of George Bush;
  • Barack Hussein Obama was young, fresh, well-spoken in front of a TelePrompTer;
  • He said essentially nothing more than his repetitive and broken-record chant of “change”;
  • It was the tired, doddering, ancient white guy and one hot chick against the clean black guy;
  • The DEM/MSM purposely avoided Rezko, Ayers, Wright, Pfleger, Obama’s spinal philosophy;
  • Barack Hussein Obama embraced Joe Biden as his Veep;
  • Barack Hussein Obama made any number of verbal slips (58 states!);
  • Barack Hussein Obama has even less experience than the current Governor of Alaska;

And yet, despite all these factors aligned against the Republican Party and the McCain/Palin ticket, the election really did come right down to the wire.

Upon reflection that’s actually quite astounding, if you ask me.

And here’s Captain Obvious weighing in:

McCain wouldn’t have made it by himself. It was the clear, new, breath-of-fresh-air presence of Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin which generated whatever excitement existed on the GOP side. And McCain, being the ignoramus that he was and is, insisted on shutting her down. And being the neophyte she is, she obeyed.

I’m revealing nothing new when I write that John McCain has been the historic despoiler of the GOP. His Gang of 14, his McCain/Feingold bill, his amnesty ramdown package for Illegal Invaders caused any number of true Conservatives to hock just a little bit of burning throw-up into their collective throats. He should obey his inclination and simply re-register as a Demorat.

And yet, still, I determined to take the McCain/Palin ticket over Obama for the clear and delineated obvious reasons. Yeah yeah yeah, I know all things about McCain. And yet, that’s how much I wanted to defeat Barack Hussein Obama.

Here are the Sad Facts about the current GOP:
  • Roughly 4.1 million Republicans failed to vote this election as compared to 2004.
Recognizing this, is it any wonder that we lost?

THERE ARE NOW TWO CAMPS:

Resultingly, there are two philosophical camps believing they have the answer:

Camp One:
We need to re-think everything. We need to be more inclusive, we need to give up some of our more exclusive ideals in order to bring a greater number of persons on board — because, after all, winning tickets consist of how many people you can swing to your side. Life moves forward. We should do no less. How can we get the Young, the Suburbans, the Mexicans onto our side? Are their inclinations really so completely opposed to ours? it must be asked.

For example, who comprised the two largest parties promoting Proposition 8 (redrafting the Fornicalia Constitution to define marriage as an act between two persons, one male and one female)? Yes, that would be blacks and Mexicans. A fact that few wish to address.

With that kind of Social Conservatism, how can we bring those alienated people on board the GOP? And speaking of that SC, why aren’t we willing to concede that we shouldn’t predicate our entire party on the back of the abortion issue? How long are we going to insist it’s a federal issue rather than a state issue?

Free thinking blacks, Mexicans, minorities, freedoms, don’t have necessarily to be mutually exclusive when it comes to the Republican Party. Individual strength really does = collective strength.

Camp Two:
We, Conservatives, go astray when we fall from The Basics. We need to ensure that our Conservative Triumvirate is met:

  • Fiscal Conservatism: less government, balanced budgets, less spending, fewer taxes; you can’t tax and spend your way out of a deficit;
  • Social Conservatism: the tenets of western religion place us on the track; our government was founded upon religious principles; abortion, gay marriage – these are abominations that will drag us down societally and collectively;
  • Defensive Conservatism: these United States of America need to be sovereign, answerable to naught but domestic positions, strong, vast, overwhelming. We would rather be feared than respected. If something is in the best interest of this country that’s the overarching determinant.

What Happened:
The GOP simply got out-spent. We were in the wrong place at the wrong time. And, naturally, we were our own worst enemy.

When we actually possessed the greatest amount of power we:
  • 1. Not only were reluctant to wield such power;
  • 2. We couldn’t coalesce around said power.
  • 3. We were fractious.

The Demorats, on the other hand, never had or have a problem with steamrollering any administration extant. Whatever power they have they wield and utilize.

Additionally, there really is the President Bush Factor:
  • Adequate communication is, like, totally dude, Job 34;
  • He has no concept as to how to convey his message to the masses;
  • He equates “nice” to “power.” Wrong.
  • Every other country equates “nice” to “weak.”
  • He spent like the worst Demorat.
  • Billions of dollars to Africa for AIDS? What the hell were you thinking?
  • You had a thought or philosophy? Then why didn’t you stick with it?
  • When did your “approval ratings” go up? When you were angry with conviction!
  • When you abandoned The Basics, then Conservatives abandoned you.
Yes, President Bush kept this country free from further domestic terrorism; we’ll always owe him that.

And he’s one primary reason we are where we are now.

At the short end of the stick.

And you know, despite all that, we still weren’t all that far away.

To me, that still bespeaks volumes about Leftists and the Demorats.

To which camp do you belong?

BZ