9/11 Families Respond to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

From Debra Burlingame:

New York, NY, August, 18 — For the last four months, 9/11 families, first responders, survivors and concerned citizens have been asking where developers are getting funding for a $100-million dollar mosque and Islamic center planned for Ground Zero. The imam who is heading the project has refused to identify the source of the $5 million cash that was used to purchase the building, and told an Arab newspaper that he will get funding for the project from Arab and Muslim countries. Given the imam’s statements, that America was “an accessory to the crime” on 9/11, that “Osama Bin Laden was made in the U.S.A.” as well as his repeated refusal to condemn Hamas, we believe he has an obligation to come clean to the public on his financial sources. Our concern has been amplified by news that the imam’s worldwide “Shariah Index Project” is being funded by the Malaysian government, and that he is a principal figure in the Perdana Global Peace Project, the number one funder of the Gaza Flotilla, a violent attempt to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza.

Today we learn that instead of taking our concerns seriously, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi suggested that the opponents of the Ground Zero mosque should be investigated. This comment is clearly intended to intimidate those of us who are speaking out to preserve the sanctity of Ground Zero, where more than 20,000 human remains have been recovered, 1,845 in the last five years. We can assure Ms. Pelosi that whatever funds we have spent to get our message out, they pale in comparison to the price we have personally paid since that day, and continue to pay as a result of the mosque project. The vast majority of the American people support us. They lived through September 11 with us, and they know, as we do, that this not a “local issue.” What happened on 9/11 affected all Americans.

Debra Burlingame
Tim Sumner
Co-founders, 9/11 Families for a Safe & Strong America

See also Power Line (c/o Memeorandum).

VIDEO: Keep America Safe.

Who’s Extreme?

Via National Review and Nice Deb (c/o Memeorandum):

Pamela Geller, Robert Spencer Make Impact Nationally — And Get Smeared For It at WaPo

At Washington Post, "The pens of anti-Muslim conservatives impact N.Y.C. mosque debate mightily." (Via Memeorandum.) It's amazing that you can't read a story in the mainstream press that doesn't strain with incredulity at the moral righteousness of folks like Pamela Geller. She's flamboyant. Uh oh, that makes her untrustworthy? And not only that, the piece picks up on the smears forwarded by people like Charles Johnson and offers them as fact. For example, Pamela has never said President Obama is Malcolm X's love child. Robert Spencer responds: "This is lazy propagandizing at its very finest masquerading as journalism." And the Post identifies Charles Johnson's Little Green Footballs as a "national security blog," to which Robert responds: "That's the funniest thing I've heard in weeks."

RELATED: "FOX Money Rocks: Pamela Geller on Imam Rauf's Ground Zero Mosque Money."

U.X.A.

And now for something different --- U.X.A.:

More here.

Hey Monday

I'm bored with the Ground Zero controversy, so check out Cassadee Pope while I go read myself to sleep:

Check Atlas Shrugs, GSGF, The Other McCain, and Theo Spark as well.

Howard Dean Goes Off the Reservation...

...And radical leftists are not pleased:

'He's a Kind of a Spokesman For a Post-American World, and We Think He Represents an Important Piece of the Puzzle For Us'

That's Time Managing Editor Richard Stengel on the announcement that Fareed Zakaria will leave Newsweek to join Time Magazine as a contributing editor.

There is no "Post-American" world, of course. Or at least not outside of the ideological constructs of the Beltway media elite. As noted recently, international theory expects a continued long reign of American dominance in the international realm (see, "Do States Ally Against the Leading Global Power?"). The U.S. is not as preponderant as it once was, but to speak of a "Post-American" era is about as meaningful as the notion, from just a few years back, of "The Rise of the European Superstate" (to rival American power). How's that working out?

Tolerance and Suicide

A truly phenomenal presentation. From Bill Whittle, at Pajamas Media:

In related news, media outlets are playing up the "split" in the GOP establishment over the Victory Mosque. The Los Angeles Times has a front-page story today, "New York mosque debate splits GOP." Also, at WSJ, "Norquist and Gingrich: Debating a Mosque Near Ground Zero." (And at Memeorandum.)

Frankly, while this is a central issue, I'm surprised the debate's gone on --- as a front-burner issue --- for weeks now. I've discussed the debate in my classes as an excellent example of both freedom of religion and freedom of speech, but also of political polarization. House Speaker Nance Pelosi also provided yet another example of Democratic Party authoritarianism. See, "Pelosi's Preposterous Pontificating On the Ground Zero Mosque." Plus, "AUDIO - Rep. Pelosi calls for investigation of WTC mosque opposition."

Hey, Hey, Hey!

Have you heard the news, baby?

Van Halen's back together! See, "Van Halen Recording New Album With David Lee Roth."

I heard the news baby
All about your disease
Yeah, you may have all you want baby
But I got somethin' you need. Oh, yeah!
Ain't talkin' 'bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Just like I told you before. Yeah, before

You know you're semi-good lookin'
And on the streets again
Ooh yeah, you think you're really cookin' baby
You better find yourself a friend, my friend

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain't gonna talk about love
Just like I told you before! Before! Uh, before! Uh, before! Before!

(Guitar Solo)

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Babe, it's rotten to the core
Ain't talkin' bout love
Just like I told you before. Uh, before

I been to the edge
And there I stood and looked down
You know I lost a lot of friends there baby
I got no time to mess around

Mmm, so if you want it, got to bleed for it baby
Yeah! Got to, got to bleed, baby
Mmm, you got to, got to bleed, baby
Hey! Got to, got to bleed baby

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
My love is rotten to the core
Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Just like I told you before! Before! Before!

Ain't talkin' 'bout love
Don't wanna talk about love
Don't need to talk about love
Ain't gonna talk about love
No more! No more! Ahhh!

(Guitar Solo)

Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!
Hey, hey, hey!

'I Want to Be Able to Say What's On My Mind Without Some Special-Interest Group Deciding This Is the Time to Silence Dissent'

It's an abbreviated quotation, from Dr. Laura Schlessinger, upon her announcement that she'll "end her radio career at the end of the year."

Shoot, I'd quit too (leftist ayatollahs are a pain, no doubt), except I'm hardly near the same income bracket as Dr. Laura.

EARLIER STEREOTYPICAL LEFTIST EXAMPLE: "Dr. Laura Apologizes For N-Word, But She's Still A Racist."

RELATED: "Dr. Laura Schlessinger to End Radio Show."

Toronto Star Denies Hacking Rob Ford's Wikipedia Page

Toronto City Councillor and mayoral candidate Rob Ford's in the news. He's apparently at the center of a Wikipedia "contributor" hacking allegations scandal. Ford's Wikipedia page was fixed so that readers who clicked his campaign link were sent to satirical site instead. An alert reader noticed, and checked who last edited Ford's entry, and traced the IP back to the Toronto Star. I probably wouldn't have even noticed, but Kathy Shaidle links to her hubby Blazing Cat Fur, "Toronto Star Linked To "Edits" of Rob Ford Wikipedia Page." And see also Toronto Sun, "Toronto Star Denies Ford Wikipedia Change":

The anonymous poster who traced a Wikipedia edit on Rob Ford to the Toronto Star’s corporate parent says he was just trying to get himself up to speed on the civic election.

“I was reading through some of the Wikipedia entries on the candidates because I wanted to get informed about the election,” ES, who didn’t want his name used, said in an interview.

The Star denied the IP address that made the edit is associated to the newspaper.

ES said he was surfing about on Aug. 5 when he noticed a link on mayoral candidate Rob Ford’s Wikipedia entry, purporting to be “Rob Ford’s Personal Blog,” was actually a satirical website.

“It was basically set up to make fun of him,” ES said.

“It is supposed to be official links related to Rob Ford,” he said. “If you look at other people’s Wiki pages, it generally doesn’t list satire pages as official blog sites. It kind of struck a red flag for me. I was a little concerned because I don’t want to see that for any candidate.”

ES deleted the link, only the second time he’s ever contributed to a Wikipedia article and then checked the history of who had added it to find the IP address. A check of that address showed it was related to the Star, although a spokesman for the newspaper denied any involvement.

“It is inaccurate, these allegations that we are editing Rob Ford’s Wikipedia page,” Bob Hepburn said.

Instead, Hepburn said the address is used by several other publications owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Ltd., including Sing Tao, Metro and the Metroland newspapers.

“We’re trying to track it down, where specifically it came from,” Hepburn said. “It may be impossible given the number of publications.

“We don’t have a policy that firm but we would frown heavily on people going in and changing things in Wikipedia,” he said.

Wikipedia describes itself as “the free dictionary that anyone can edit.” But while it’s assembled from largely anonymous contributors, every edit can be tracked on the site.

There's a history there, it turns out. Ford plans to sue the Star for stories published earlier.

But be sure to check Blazing's post.

NewsBusted — Obama Endorses Ground Zero Mosque

Via Theo Spark:

'The Center of Interactive Media — Increasingly, the Center of Gravity of All Media — Is Moving to a Post-HTML Environment'

At Wired:

You wake up and check your email on your bedside iPad — that’s one app. During breakfast you browse Facebook, Twitter, and The New York Times — three more apps. On the way to the office, you listen to a podcast on your smartphone. Another app. At work, you scroll through RSS feeds in a reader and have Skype and IM conversations. More apps. At the end of the day, you come home, make dinner while listening to Pandora, play some games on Xbox Live, and watch a movie on Netflix’s streaming service.

You’ve spent the day on the Internet — but not on the Web. And you are not alone.

This is not a trivial distinction. Over the past few years, one of the most important shifts in the digital world has been the move from the wide-open Web to semiclosed platforms that use the Internet for transport but not the browser for display. It’s driven primarily by the rise of the iPhone model of mobile computing, and it’s a world Google can’t crawl, one where HTML doesn’t rule. And it’s the world that consumers are increasingly choosing, not because they’re rejecting the idea of the Web but because these dedicated platforms often just work better or fit better into their lives (the screen comes to them, they don’t have to go to the screen). The fact that it’s easier for companies to make money on these platforms only cements the trend. Producers and consumers agree: The Web is not the culmination of the digital revolution.

A decade ago, the ascent of the Web browser as the center of the computing world appeared inevitable. It seemed just a matter of time before the Web replaced PC application software and reduced operating systems to a “poorly debugged set of device drivers,” as Netscape cofounder Marc Andreessen famously said. First Java, then Flash, then Ajax, then HTML5 — increasingly interactive online code — promised to put all apps in the cloud and replace the desktop with the webtop. Open, free, and out of control.

But there has always been an alternative path, one that saw the Web as a worthy tool but not the whole toolkit. In 1997, Wired published a now-infamous “Push!” cover story, which suggested that it was time to “kiss your browser goodbye.” The argument then was that “push” technologies such as PointCast and Microsoft’s Active Desktop would create a “radical future of media beyond the Web.”

“Sure, we’ll always have Web pages. We still have postcards and telegrams, don’t we? But the center of interactive media — increasingly, the center of gravity of all media — is moving to a post-HTML environment,” we promised nearly a decade and half ago. The examples of the time were a bit silly — a “3-D furry-muckers VR space” and “headlines sent to a pager” — but the point was altogether prescient: a glimpse of the machine-to-machine future that would be less about browsing and more about getting.

Actually, there's some debate on this as well.

House Republican Conference — 'Working For You'

From the GOP Congressional Caucus:

'Israel Is a Bulwark. If Israel Wasn't There You Have No Idea How Much Evil Would Be Unleashed On the World'

That's a key quote from Pamela's lecture last night. She actually prefaced that by saying "You have no idea how much terrorism Israel absorbs" from the Middle East, thus providing the West with a bit of under-appreciated inoculation from Jihad. This was an extremely interesting point. I was really impressed with Robert Spencer's profound knowledge on the issues as well.

David Swindle has more at NewsReal Blog.

RELATED: "Preserving Our Freedoms."

Preserving Our Freedoms

Both AoSHQ and R.S. McCain have this posted:

Today's my long day at the college (Tuesdays and Thursdays during the semester). Posting will be light. I'm thinking about last night's lecture and book signing with Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer. I need to write down some thoughts about it, but if you get the chance to hear them speak don't miss it. Folks who want to preserve liberty can't be shy in proclaiming the majesty of our nation. You get that and more from Pamela Geller. She's a patriot of the first order. My batteries were recharged big time. And my thinking was clarified too. We have a purpose as Americans, as part of our citizenship, to give back to the country. There are responsibilities to uphold. Pamela reminded people not to lose hope. She urged people to get involved in their communities. She pointed out that as the tea parties grew last year the despicable "racist" attacks on them escalated, but they just keep getting bigger. The tea parties are not our salvation. They are the sign that Americans haven't lost the determination to resist tyranny. The beauty of this country is in its founding principles opposing tyranny. We're in a tyrannical era of progressive rule. It's not even a soft tyranny, in the sense that the damage to our nation will take great time and effort to undo. The ramifications are not just national but global, with this president being the first in history who's using global institutions to suppress the rights of Americans. It was Robert Spencer who spoke of this last night, and he's noted this at Jihad Watch previously (see, "Obama Declares War on Free Speech"):

The Obama Administration has now actually co-sponsored an anti-free speech resolution at the United Nations. Approved by the U.N. Human Rights Council last Friday, the resolution, cosponsored by the U.S. and Egypt, calls on states to condemn and criminalize "any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence" ...

Now no less distinguished a personage than the President of the United States has given his imprimatur to this tyranny; the implications are grave. The resolution also condemns "negative stereotyping of religions and racial groups," which is of course an oblique reference to accurate reporting about the jihad doctrine and Islamic supremacism -- for that, not actual negative stereotyping or hateful language, is always the focus of whining by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) and allied groups. They never say anything when people like Osama bin Laden and Khaled Sheikh Mohammed issue detailed Koranic expositions justifying violence and hatred; but when people like Geert Wilders and others report about such expositions, that's "negative stereotyping"...

So go back and listen to Ronald Reagan once more above.

I'll have more on all of this tonight.

Pamela Geller Book Signing!

I was surprised to see Robert Stacy McCain out in front of the Skirball Center when I arrived at 7:00pm. Almost soon as we went inside we were posing for photos with Pamela Geller.

I also spoke with Robert Spencer, and both Pamela and Robert signed my book. I was also pleased to meet Dave Swindle, who is Associate Editor at FrontPage Magazine and Managing Editor of NewsReal Blog. Extra bonus was seeing my good friend Opus #6 . We talked while I waited to have the authors sign my book.

I'll have some substantive comments on the full lecture when I have more time. Meanwhile, Robert's got more pictures, "Pamela Geller Goes Hollywood."

'A Film Unfinished'

Opens Friday in Los Angeles. I should be able to make it. And from LAT:

Four years ago, Yael Hersonski was struck by an unthinkable concept: In the foreseeable future, there would be no Holocaust survivors left to bear witness to the atrocities they once experienced. So the Israeli filmmaker set out to find the kind of unforgettable footage she might cinematically use to help keep this horrific chapter of history alive. What Hersonski uncovered, with an assist from producer Noemi Schory, was a 62-minute, 35-millimeter rough cut of a never-released 1942 Nazi propaganda film simply labeled "Das Ghetto."

The film, discovered by Schory in a Jerusalem Holocaust museum but first unearthed in an East German film archive in 1954, was particularly curious as it was apparently abandoned after it was shot without evidence of who was behind it, its exact purpose or why it was never completed. More remarkable was the fact that it even still existed, given that a reported 90% of film footage shot by the Nazis was destroyed at the end of World War II. But this one, lost and recovered several times through the decades, had already been examined in the years following the war, its footage thought to be a starkly real depiction of life inside the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest of the Jewish ghettos established by the Nazis in occupied Poland.

It was one of many such films produced by the Third Reich to promulgate its policies, help gain and maintain power, vilify the Jews and, in some segments, portray Jews seemingly living the high life under the Nazis' "compassionate" protection.

But what Hersonski came across as she watched four unfolding reels of emaciated captives, corpse-strewn streets and even scenes of the Jewish elite attending posh Champagne balls, was a staggering fifth reel of outtakes that had been discovered in 1998 by a British researcher. In those images could be seen entire scenes being reshot, cameramen in the background and signs of staging. It was proof that the film, while capturing some genuine suffering, was being manipulated by SS cameramen.

This soundtrack-free assemblage so inspired the director it would wind up as the centerpiece of her own unique and gripping Holocaust documentary, "A Film Unfinished," which opens in Los Angeles theaters Friday.

RTWT.

The film's official homepage is here.

Heading Out to L.A. Book Signing for The Post-American Presidency

L.A readers!

Are ya'll in?

See you out there tonight at Skirball Center for the book signing! The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America:

China Passes Japan as Second-Largest Economy

This is really interesting, since I was discussing balance of power and changes in the world economy today while introducing my World Politics course. At NYT:

After three decades of spectacular growth, China passed Japan in the second quarter to become the world’s second-largest economy behind the United States, according to government figures released early Monday.

The milestone, though anticipated for some time, is the most striking evidence yet that China’s ascendance is for real and that the rest of the world will have to reckon with a new economic superpower.

The recognition came early Monday, when Tokyo said that Japan’s economy was valued at about $1.28 trillion in the second quarter, slightly below China’s $1.33 trillion. Japan’s economy grew 0.4 percent in the quarter, Tokyo said, substantially less than forecast. That weakness suggests that China’s economy will race past Japan’s for the full year.

Experts say unseating Japan — and in recent years passing Germany, France and Great Britain — underscores China’s growing clout and bolsters forecasts that China will pass the United States as the world’s biggest economy as early as 2030. America’s gross domestic product was about $14 trillion in 2009.

“This has enormous significance,” said Nicholas R. Lardy, an economist at the Peterson Institute for International Economics. “It reconfirms what’s been happening for the better part of a decade: China has been eclipsing Japan economically. For everyone in China’s region, they’re now the biggest trading partner rather than the U.S. or Japan.”

For Japan, whose economy has been stagnating for more than a decade, the figures reflect a decline in economic and political power. Japan has had the world’s second-largest economy for much of the last four decades, according to the World Bank. And during the 1980s, there was even talk about Japan’s economy some day overtaking that of the United States.

But while Japan’s economy is mature and its population quickly aging, China is in the throes of urbanization and is far from developed, analysts say, meaning it has a much lower standard of living, as well as a lot more room to grow. Just five years ago, China’s gross domestic product was about $2.3 trillion, about half of Japan’s.

No time for a discussion, but I'll come back to this topic in upcoming days. (What are some of the broader strategic implications especially?)

Academic Bankruptcy

Saw this over the weekend, and Glenn Reynolds is now linking as well. From Mark Taylor:

WITH the academic year about to begin, colleges and universities, as well as students and their parents, are facing an unprecedented financial crisis. What we’ve seen with California’s distinguished state university system — huge cutbacks in spending and a 32 percent rise in tuition — is likely to become the norm at public and private colleges. Government support is being slashed, endowments and charitable giving are down, debts are piling up, expenses are rising and some schools are selling their product for two-thirds of what it costs to produce it. You don’t need an M.B.A. to know this situation is unsustainable.

More specific examples at the article, and the call for reform.

Muslim Leaders to Abandon Victory Mosque at Ground Zero — Not

It's the big story this afternoon, but a bogus rumor actually. Via Reuters, "New York Muslim Center Backers Vow to Push Ahead":

Backers of a Muslim cultural center and mosque near the site of the World Trade Center vowed on Monday to press ahead with plans despite a report they will scrap the $100 million project, which has drawn fierce debate.

Sharif El-Gamal, the owner of the building where the Cordoba House would be located, said a report that the center would be relocated further from Ground Zero, reported in Israeli newspaper Haaretz on Monday, was false.

"Everything is on track and we are moving forward with the location," said El-Gamal, chief executive of Soho Properties, which owns the building.

Haaretz reported that leaders agreed to abandon the site to prevent an escalation of anti-Muslim sentiment.

The proposal, announced this spring, has caused an uproar among many New Yorkers, who feel the location of the center is insensitive to the memory of the nearly 3,000 people who died in the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

President Obama weighed in on the issue during the White House's annual dinner marking the start of Ramadan on Friday.

"Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country," Obama said. "That includes the right to build a place of worship and a community center on private property in Lower Manhattan, in accordance with local laws and ordinances."

Obama later tried to distance himself from the controversy and refused to "comment on the wisdom of making the decision to put a mosque there." Political pundits say the issue will factor into debates ahead of the November mid-term elections.

Close to 60 percent of Americans oppose the plan, although supporters say having the Islamic cultural center is a chance to promote understanding of the religion and begin healing nearly a decade after the attacks.

Also dubunked at Jawa Report.

Center for American Progress, Top 'Progressive' Group, Supports Ground Zero Victory Mosque

At Weasel Zippers:

As a former radical Leftist, I know that this kind of ‘Progressive’ rhetoric is a facade designed to mask their true beliefs. They support building this mosque because it represents a slap in the face to Right-wing opponents of this project and would also be a blow against “Pig AmeriKKKa”

More at the link.

FDA Death Panels

Doug Ross has the news, "Berwick's First Strike: Susan G. Komen Foundation and Ovarian Cancer Alliance Decry First-Ever Medicare Denials of FDA-Approved Cancer Drugs."

Ann Althouse asks if these are "death panels"? And the response:

If Avastin is what stands between you and death, then yes, "Death Panel" is an "appropriate statement" and yes, it is appropriate to cause alarm.

Full disclosure. I have advanced ovarian cancer. Hello friends and relatives.

The statistics for my stage of ovarian cancer (Stage IIIc) project an 18% survival rate two years after diagnosis.

I took part in a clinical trial for Avastin. My provider recently revealed to me that I received the test drug.

I am approaching that two-year mark of initial diagnosis, and so far, I am doing well. I attribute that good result to Avastin, which prevents the regeneration of cancer cells. Yeah, I had some lousy side effects, but it seems to have worked.

Thank you, and good night, Irene.

Obama's Mosque Comments Creates Issue for Dems

One of my first thoughts was that Obama had lost his mind politically. So, at ABC News, "President Obama Adds Issue to Party's Challenge: Democrats Grumbling After Endorsement of Islamic Center Near Ground Zero":

Book Signing! The Post-American Presidency

Tonight!

And both Pamela and Robert will be there. I'm stoked.

Have you read it? I can't imaging a more timely book. The Post-American Presidency: The Obama Administration's War on America.

Dig a Pony

Others are tweeting their favorites from The Beatles. I tweeted back.

The Ugly, Pockmarked, Troop-Hating Face of the Anti-War Left

What a post, from Sister Toldjah at RWN:

Anti-war types like to claim they "support the troops but not the war." I don't think so, not when you consider how what they do almost always has negative, disastrous consequences for the those who volunteered to serve and to, in effect, take a bullet in the battlefield for all us back home in the name of freedom, even the contemptible armchair nitwits who have made it their mission to make their lives a living hell - at the risk of either injury and/or death. So no, these so-called "peace lovers" don't support the troops, and they certainly do not give a rip about "peace." They are the enemy. And I see very little difference in that type of enemy and the in-your-face enemy our troops face on the battlefield.

RTWT.

PREVIOUSLY: "Pfc. Bradley Manning, Atheist Gay Loner, Hailed as Antiwar Hero in Criminal WikiLeaks Case."

For the 9-11 Families

Some deep thoughts on 9/11 and Ground Zero, at the Barricuda Brigade:

Obama eviscerated America's pledge, to the families; of the 9-11 attacks. His endorsement of a "Victory Mosque" at Ground Zero, is beyond unacceptable; it's Treason. The innocent souls lost on that Tuesday, deserve so much better than this. Obama's utter insensitivity to the 9-11 families, is arrogance, gall and terrorism.

Who's a Pirate?

Interesting piece at WSJ, "Who's a Pirate? In Court, A Duel Over Definitions." And I learned something right away. Captain Edward Teach was Blackbeard, and William Teach at Pirate's Cove isn't a Teach at all.

Anyway, read WSJ's essay. We do have modern-day pirate problems:

Prosecuting pirates, rather than hanging them from the yardarm, is the modern world's approach to the scourge of Somali piracy that has turned huge swathes of the Indian Ocean into a no-go zone for commercial vessels.

But there's a problem: Some 2,000 years after Cicero defined pirates as the "common enemy of all," nobody seems able to say, legally, exactly what a pirate is.

U.S. law long ago made piracy a crime but didn't define it. International law contains differing, even contradictory, definitions. The confusion threatens to hamstring U.S. efforts to crack down on modern-day Blackbeards.

The central issue in Norfolk: If you try to waylay and rob a ship at sea—but you don't succeed—are you still a pirate?

It may seem strange there should be doubt about an offense as old as this one. Piracy was the world's first crime with universal jurisdiction, meaning that any country had the right to apprehend pirates on the high seas

And by the way, international relations scholars are on the case. See Bridget Coggins, "The Pirate Den."

Courtney Cambern on Facebook

Cool lady:

I am a former Democrat who has become more Conservative since the 9/11 attacks. I am a member of the Tea Party Movement. I believe in States Rights, limited Federal Government, fiscal Conservative Free-Market principles, and a strict adherence to the United States Constitution.

Electronic Narcotics

From conservative old schooler George Will:

The ubiquitous barrage of battery-powered stimuli delivered by phones, computers, and games makes “the chaos of constant connection” an addictive electronic narcotic. As continuous stimulation becomes the new normal, “gaps between moments of heightened stimulation” are disappearing; amusement “has squeezed the boredom out of life.” For the hyperstimulated, “the synaptic mindscape of daily life” becomes all peaks and no valleys.

Harvard Divests From Israel?

I'm going to bed and will sort this out later. Readers will see scheduled posts throughout the morning. Meanwhile, see Atlas Shrugs, "Harvard Whores for Jihad: Harvard University Fund Sells all Israel holdings." And Solomonia, "Is Harvard Divesting from Israel? Not So Fast!"

More at Memeorandum. Especially John at Power Line, "Et Tu, Harvard?":

There is a pretty clear pattern here -- again, assuming that the five nearly-simultaneous sales of shares in Israeli companies were not coincidental. Harvard is happy to do business with oppressors--real oppressors, that is -- as long as there is enough money in it. China and Saudi Arabia have, in sheer monetary terms, a lot to offer. But taking a "principled" stand against Israel, still the Middle East's only democracy (unless you count Iraq, on which the jury is still out) and the only country in the region with a Western human rights sensibility, is cost-free. Sort of like banning military recruiters.

'No Time'

From my Facebook greeting tonight:

My classes start tomorrow, for fall semester. It's been a great summer. Less walking around money on me than I'd like, but what can you do? Seasons change and so do I ...

'Centurion'

Just now hearing about this at today's LAT. I love this stuff. Here's a blurb:

A Roman soldier (Michael Fassbender) leads a small band of troops on a mission to rescue a key Roman general after becoming trapped in the territory of their sworn enemies in this period action-adventure film from director Neil Marshall (The Descent, Doomsday). The year is A.D. 117: despite the growing strength of the Roman Empire, a fierce tribe known as the Picts has prevented Hadrian's armies from conquering northern Britain. The Picts offer a devastating display of their guerilla power when they raid a Roman frontier fort, and Quintus just barely manages to escape with his life. Thirsting for revenge, Quintus joins General Virilus' Ninth Legion as the squadron begins traveling north on a mission to find and kill Gorlacon, the leader of the Picts. That mission is complicated when the Ninth Legion is ambushed and General Virilus is captured, leaving his men stranded behind enemy lines. Now, as the Quintus and the surviving members of the Ninth Legion are hunted from the shadows, they prepare to make one last, desperate bid to save General Virilus and reach the Roman frontier before being captured or killed by the Picts.

'This Whole Islamaphobia Line of Thought is Concocted to Distract Unsuspecting Americans From Discovering the Truth'

From Tim Brown, at Coalition to Save Ground Zero (via Memeorandum):

When I first met Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, I was taken by him. He was very soft-spoken and charming. I thought to myself, now this is a guy I can work with. It gives me no pleasure in admitting I was wrong.

As we took a closer look at Imam Rauf and the other leaders of the Ground Zero Mosque project, we discovered startling inconsistencies in their stories. They could not even keep their lies straight between each other. We learned they are working side-by-side with radical Islamic organizations that have been identified by our own government as co-conspirators in one of the largest terrorism cases in the last few years, the 2008 Holy Land Foundation (HLF) terrorism trial that funneled $12 million to Hamas. In fact, one of Rauf’s many organizations, the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) maintains it’s offices at 475 Riverside Drive on the same floor (and next to) the NY office of the Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR). CAIR is one of the co-conspirators in the HLF trial.

Rauf also blames America for the violent attacks of Sept. 11th and will not condemn Hamas as a terrorist organization. After initially being misled by Imam Rauf, I now have my eyes wide open and he is not the man he claims to be. I wish he were.

Here are some questions we have about the project:

SOHO Properties paid $4.85 million dollars in cash for the property at 45-47 Park Place in July 2009 (they lied to Community Board 1 about also owning 49-51 Park Place). In June 2009 one of Rauf’s many organizations; the American Society for Muslim Advancement (ASMA) received $537,000 from Qatar, a known financier of worldwide terror. We suspect this money was used to purchase the property. The fact that the property was purchased with cash along with the suspiciously –timed “donation” from the government of Qatar raises troubling questions and justified skepticism. We want to know if any money has or will be coming from foreign states that sponsor terror.

Imam Rauf claims to be an interfaith man who wants to build bridges. Why, then does he claim to want to “leverage 9/11” and the deaths of our friends, and ignores how insensitive it is to the families, many of whom still have not recovered one ounce of their loved one’s body?

Rauf is involved with several radical Muslim organizations (CAIR, ISNA, Muslim Brotherhood), all un-indicted co-conspirators in the HLF terrorism trial. He is also no. 2 in the Perdana Global Peace Organization (attached) that was the largest financier ($366,000) of the Free Gaza Movement that resulted in the suicide deaths of 9 Palestinian activists. Every time we question him about it he avoids and deflects any answer. Again, why is this self-proclaimed man-of-peace involved with these radical terrorist organizations?

The leaders of the GZ mosque project are adherents and proponents of shar’ia law. They claim the U.S. Constitution is shar’ia-compliant. The truth is that the American Constitution and shar’ia law are opposite of each other. Shar’ia does not recognize freedom of speech, freedom of conscience or equal rights of all people before the law. You cannot find two documents more diametrically opposed to each other. Which does Imam Rauf choose? You cannot have it both ways.

Muslims have worshiped in New York without incident both before and after the attacks of 9/11. This whole Islamaphobia line of thought is concocted to distract unsuspecting Americans from discovering the truth. I spent 20 years as a New York City fireman helping whoever needed help. We never stopped to ask anyones color or creed. I have not changed. How dare anyone call me an Islamaphobe or a fear-monger or a bigot.

President Hussein's Ramadan Gift Bag

O-Box Cutters. At American Digest:

At Barack Hussein Obama's taxpayer-funded Ramadan dinner last night, not only did the alleged president give the assembled Muslims the tremendous gift of support for building the Ground Zero mosque, but he also gifted them with the multi-purpose "Presidential Seal Boxcutter" which will soon be available in the Cordoba House gift shop.

RELATED: "Administration's Muddled Response on Mosque Creates New Election Year Debate" (via Memeorandum and Protein Wisdom).

America's Democrat-Socialist Party

I've long written about this — most recently at "Progressives Are Communists (If You Didn't Know"). It's a done deal now. Leftists can quit lying about it. The Democratic Party is a socialist party. (I call them commies, and while there's some additional steps in the Marxist dialectic before you get there, the ultimate destination is the same no matter how one self-identifies). The key posts are at Gateway Pundit and Nice Deb ("Can We Call Them Democrat Socialists, Now?").

Below is the screencap from the Democratic Socialists of America, "What is Democratic Socialism?" Notice how the manifesto states that "we are not a separate party" from the Democratic Party of Barack Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid:

Gateway Pundit links to the party's blog, American Socialist Voter. Then there's a link to the DSUSA homepage. And then clicking around the "about" page, we find the "Where We Stand" pamphlet, with the chapter, "Strategy for the Next Left." And as explained there:

Socialists have historically supported public ownership and control of the major economic institutions of society -- the large corporations -- in order to eliminate the injustice and inequality of a class-based society, and have depended on the the organization of a working class party to gain state power to achieve such ends. In the United States, socialists joined with others on the Left to build a broad-based, anti-corporate coalition, with the unions at the center, to address the needs of the majority by opposing the excesses of private enterprise. Many socialists have seen the Democratic Party, since at least the New Deal, as the key political arena in which to consolidate this coalition, because the Democratic Party held the allegiance of our natural allies. Through control of the government by the Democratic Party coalition, led by anti-corporate forces, a progressive program regulating the corporations, redistributing income, fostering economic growth and expanding social programs could be realized.

And additionally:

Social Redistribution. Social redistribution -- the shift of wealth and resources from the rich to the rest of society -- will require:

1. massive redistribution of income from corporations and the wealthy to wage earners and the poor and the public sector, in order to provide the main source of new funds for social programs,income maintenance and infrastructure rehabilitation, and

2. a massive shift of public resources from the military (the main user of existing discretionary funds) to civilian uses.

Although such reforms will be very difficult to achieve on a national scale in the short term, their urgency increases as income inequality intensifies. Over time, income redistribution and social programs will be critical not only to the poor but to the great majority of working people. The defense and expansion of government programs that promote social justice, equal education for all children, universal health care, environmental protection and guaranteed minimum income and social well-being is critical for the next Left.

Okay, a "shift of wealth and resources from the rich to the rest of society," or to "spread the wealth around." We've heard that before:

And that makes sense, since "OBAMA SIGNED UP WITH DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST PARTY IN '95!"

Going back over to the American Socialist Voter homepage, the site is careful in attempting to distance itself from violent Marxist-Leninist revolutionary agitation. And of course this is always the case with socialists (who are all by definition Marxists) as they try to revive a world-historically discredited ideology. Hence, today's leftists embrace a subterranean neo-communist ideological program that works to destabilize and transform democratic-capitalist institutions from the inside. This is the "burrowing from within" associated with Alinsky's Marxists. More on this here: "Obama = Alinsky = Gramsci = Marx."

Conservatives know most of this already. See Melanie Phillips' essay from September 2008, "Revolution You Can Believe In." Save it. Put all of this at your sidebar. Never confuse "liberals" with "progressives." (As Maureen Dowd does today at New York Times.) These people are Marxists. They've adopted a go-slow approach to the revolutionary agenda. It's about burrowing, destabilizing, indoctrination, and infiltration. Unfortuntely, hubris kills the grandest ambitions, and the Democrat-socialist redistribution scam is being increasingly repudiated by the American public ("Even the Poor Are Abandoning Obama"). November will see an epic smackdown against the radical left members of the Democratic congressional party. Then in 2012 President Hussein will be repudiated. The country can then try to restore some of its founding principles, not to mention a little sanity.

RELATED: From DSA internal documents, "WHO ARE THE SOCIALIST IN ELECTED OFFICE TODAY — DSA-Members: American Socialist Voter - Democratic Socialists of America."

Obama's Ground Zero Backpedaling Fail

Byron York calls Obama's Ground Zero statements "Clintonian":

... there is simply no doubt that Obama's Friday evening speech, in the context in which it was delivered, was an endorsement of the Ground Zero project. It was certainly widely understood as such. The headlines of the three New York papers reporting the speech were: "Obama Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site" (New York Times); "Allah Right By Me" (New York Post); and "Prez: Build the Mosque" (New York Daily News). The lead of an Associated Press report on the speech was: "President Barack Obama on Friday forcefully endorsed building a mosque near ground zero, saying the country's founding principles demanded no less." But on Saturday, Obama said all those listeners were wrong, that they misunderstood him.

Several years ago, there was a word for Obama's rhetorical technique: Clintonian. Like the former president, Obama spoke words he knew would be understood as having a particular meaning in a particular context. He also knew that those same words, when examined closely outside that context, might also be interpreted as having a different meaning. In that sense, the mosque affair is a good lesson for both supporters and opponents of the president. From now on, with Obama, as it was with Clinton, the rule is: Don't listen to the speech. Read the words very carefully.

And Tom Maguire, "Obama On The Mosque - The Backpedaling Begins":

I have an idea our President will love - maybe we can open an Islamic Waffle House in a building damaged in the 9/11 attacks. Obama can be the first customer.

Hat Tip: Glenn Reynolds.

RELATED: Nice Deb, "Obama “Forcefully Endorses” Ground Zero Mosque."

Pfc. Bradley Manning, Atheist Gay Loner, Hailed as Antiwar Hero in Criminal WikiLeaks Case

The antiwar left embraces misfits when it needs them, uses them up, spits them out, then moves on to the next target of destruction. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning is the next Cindy Sheehan. He's an atheist gay loner who never fit in. He's being used now by the anti-American crowd, including Code Pink and International ANSWER, and they'll suck him dry and flatten him — he'll be dead to them like a honey bee after stinging. NYT posted a sorry essay previously, "Early Struggles of Soldier Charged in Leak Case." It notes there that classmates in Oklahoma "made fun of him for being gay." Poor guy. I guess that makes it okay then to criminally leak classified information that puts American and allied lives at risk. Radical leftists don't care, of course. He's the new big guy of the movement. See WaPo, "Army Analyst Linked to WikiLeaks Hailed as Antiwar Hero" (via Memeorandum):

For antiwar campaigners from Seattle to Iceland, a new name has become a byword for anti-establishment heroism: Army Pfc. Bradley E. Manning.

Manning, a 22-year-old intelligence analyst, is suspected of leaking thousands of classified documents about the Afghanistan war to the Web site WikiLeaks.

The breach has elicited a furious reaction from national security officials, who say it has compromised the safety of U.S.-led forces and their Afghan allies.

Yet, since his arrest in the spring, Manning has become an instant folk hero to thousands of grass-roots activists around the world, some of whom are likening the disclosure to the unauthorized release of the Pentagon Papers or the anonymous tips that helped uncover the Watergate scandal.

Neither Manning nor his attorney have commented on the WikiLeaks dump -- and WikiLeaks has not identified Manning as its source. But chat logs released by an online confidant suggest that the intelligence analyst was as disturbed by U.S. foreign policy as many of the strangers now supporting him.

In the logs, Manning said he had seen "incredible things, awful things" in classified government files. It's "important that it gets out . . . I feel, for some bizarre reason," he said.

The Pentagon has played down the significance of the files disclosed by WikiLeaks. But that has done little to dampen the enthusiasm of Manning's supporters.

And according to the article, one of his antiwar support groups, Courage to Resist ...

... developed a line of Manning memorabilia, replete with images of the boyish-looking private. There are "Save Bradley Manning!" badges, posters and T-shirts. The products' tagline: "Blowing the whistle on war crimes is not a crime."

Yep, using him up. That's sick.

Bloody WikiLeaks

I like Charli Carpenter. She's a serious political scientist. In relation to myself, her work's over on the other side of security studies (human rights, constructivist theories). She's published in top-notch journals and she takes positivist methodology as legitimate. (Her lead article in I.O. Fall 2003, "'Women and Children First': Gender, Norms, and Humanitarian Evacuation in the Balkans 1991–95," is cool.) Charli also blogs. I think I first saw her stuff at Duck of Minerva, where the content is mostly all-academic. Some time back, though, Charli joined the roster at Lawyers, Guns and Money. I thought it strange, and I've said so here previously. Dave and SEK are basically hate-bloggers, and while Robert Farley generally eschews that kind of demonology, he's an unserious academic who's not only dishonest but revels in it. And because of that, I don't think she's a good fit over there. In fact, in speaking to Charli recently I joked that I was going to convert her to neoconservatism, since we have overlapping interests on security issues, and especially on Julian Assange's WikiLeaks media whistle-blowing operation. I don't think Charli's going to become a feminist "Charli" Krauthammer any time soon, but I hope sometime she finds a prominent (high-traffic) blog that's a better fit.

Perhaps toward that end, Charli's got an essay up at Foreign Policy on WikiLeaks (maybe a good sign, considering the stable of solid bloggers over there). See, "How WikiLeaks Could Use Its Power for Good."

Charli argues that WikiLeaks' is not in fact a "criminal enterprise" (as Marc Thiessen has argued, and I've seconded). Yet, she notes that the massive, indiscriminate "document dump" by WikiLeaks wasn't smart, and that perhaps a more carefully designed leaking strategy might be good. In releasing its information, WikiLeaks ought to pick its targets carefully, not unlike how the military targets its enemies. And Charli adds:

WikiLeaks adds real value to the international regime governing the behavior of soldiers in wartime by promoting precisely the sort of accountability that the Geneva Conventions require but military culture tends to discourage. The laws of war compel soldiers to refuse illegal orders and report war crimes, but troops are typically expected do so through their own chain of command, an act that goes against the grain of everything else they're taught about obedience and loyalty. When service personnel do take the leap to speak out, they can only hope their confidentiality will be respected and that they will be rewarded rather than penalized for honesty.

WikiLeaks could provide a solution -- a reporting mechanism through which individual soldiers could report specific war crimes without fear of retribution. The organization has servers in many countries and sophisticated encryption techniques, all of which are intended to disseminate incriminating secrets while protecting the anonymity of sources. Consider what this could have meant in the case of Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, for example. When Sgt. Joseph Darby saw former high school friends abusing prisoners in 2004, he fulfilled his duties under the Geneva Conventions by reporting the abuses to the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command. Though he asked to remain anonymous, then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld revealed his identity, inviting hate mail and death threats from the public. It is no wonder that so many other participants at Abu Ghraib chose not to stick their necks out for fear of compromising their careers and personal safety. The Abu Ghraib case is hardly an isolated one.

More at the link.

Charli's argument is fine on its face, or, at least to the extent that it's good to have the release of information (and accountability) on criminal military liabilities. What I think she omits --- and this is a fatal omission with regards to the WikiLeaks project --- are the intentions of Julian Assange and those of the (nefarious) global network of anti-American whistle-blowers. Charli Carpenter wants to save lives, particularly civilians who are killed or injured in what is otherwise the lawful exercise of military power. The problem is that's not what Julian Assange wants, nor is it what his worldwide backers want. Frankly, I don't think these people care about "human rights" except as a vehicle to chain the United States to supranational norms and to limit America's international power. Thus, I don't think Assange and WikiLeaks should be the agents of the kind of military transparency that Charli proposes.

Let's look a bit more at some related issues, which cast more light on the un-humanitarian motives of the WikiLeaks network. First, as I've pointed out here, WikiLeaks puts lives at risk, both needlessly and indiscriminately. See, "Julian Assange and Wikileaks Abbetting Murder in the Name of 'Openness'." At issue is the compromised information on the identity of hundreds of Afghan nationals working with the United States. Taliban operatives pledged to kill them when the news of the Afghan operatives came to light. As bad as that was, Assange's response assuaged nothing. He claimed that "Anything in theory has the potential to harm anything else." He also blamed the United States, saying he was "appalled that the U.S. military was so lackadaisical with its Afghan sources. Just appalled." Assange has come under fire from many on the left, for example, Reporters Without Borders. But for the most part, the world's antiwar, anti-American neo-communists have relished the release of the documents, Afghan civilian casualties be damned.

As we saw with the Apache attack video released previously, WikiLeaks' interest is in damaging the United States. The "Collateral Murder" episode clearly showed Assange's agenda (which wasn't objective journalism), and unfortunately few in the mainstream press investigated the now-debunked claims made at the tape (bloggers did, especially Jawa Report). There's litte more to be expected with the pending release of the remaining Afghanistan documents. All along, myself and others have portrayed WikiLeaks as not a "journalistic" outfit but an information warfare operation against the United States Military.

My friend Charli Carpenter means well in making the case for a benign incarnation of WikiLeaks. I'm not confident that's possible. And while Charli may still not be convinced, I'm pleased to see IBD's latest editorial echoing these themes, "WikiLeaks' Hands To Get Bloodier":

The Pentagon warns that WikiLeaks' vow to publish more stolen U.S. documents may be worse than the first leaks. Even the anti-war left opposes the theft. When will WikiLeaks be treated as an enemy?

WikiLeaks, which puts stolen, mostly classified U.S. documents on the Internet, justifies its publishing of secrets as throwing sunlight on the devious doings of governments.

In reality, its founder, Julian Assange, is an anti-American agitator whose main aim is to end the U.S. war in Afghanistan by any means necessary. If that means publishing the name of an Afghan tribesman who's so much as given a U.S. soldier a drink of water in Kandahar, he's indifferent to the impact.

So there's no doubt the 76,000 stolen documents he's already published are the work of an enemy who is maddeningly exempt from the U.S.' excessively legalistic approach to war.

He's already published more than 100 names of Afghans connected to U.S. troops in his first info dump. The name-filled battlefield reports shed no sunlight on anything readers of the news don't already know of the U.S. war strategy — which is based on relationships with informants. But for the Taliban, it's a gold mine.

Having been defeated in battle, they've turned to killing Afghans who oppose them. Already a Taliban spokesman has said the Taliban is scouring these documents to find U.S. allies "to punish."

Newsweek says that, four days after WikiLeaks released its first U.S. documents, 80 death threats rolled in at the homes of tribal elders in southern Afghanistan. In a Kandahar village called Monar, the Taliban took Khalifa Abdullah from his home and killed him.

It's blood on the hands of WikiLeaks, and even the anti-war left is taking cover. Last week, George Soros-funded leftist groups like the Open Society Institute, the International Crisis Group and Amnesty International warned WikiLeaks that "we have seen the negative, sometimes deadly ramifications for those Afghans identified as working for or sympathizing with international forces."

It was followed by a letter from another group, Reporters Without Borders, warning of the same thing. If they think this is a bad thing, what moral justification does WikiLeaks have left?

Response to Democrat 'F*ck Tea' Campaign

Via No Sheeples Here! ...

RELATED: At Proof Positive, "F*ck Tea? More like Poopy-Mouth Kool-Aid®."