End Our Energy Dependence -- Drill and Dig!

THOUGHTS ON ENERGY POLICY: "With the world's largest reserves of coal, after creating the nuclear power industry ex nihilo, and with billions of oil still under our soil and waters, it makes no sense to produce less energy while blaming and taxing those who produce what we have, rather than drilling, digging, and saving, as we find ways to transition to the alternate energies. . . . A postscript: I'm not sure that, ecologically speaking, drilling oil in about 2000 acres in the north of Alaska is all that different from dotting our mountain ridges and coasts (ask the Kennedys et al) with enormous windmills or creating vast acres of solar panels throughout our fragile deserts or covering our roofs with panels and pipes and assorted gadgetry."

DKK
Instapundit

Jobs Report

Jobless Claims Plunge. Democrats And…Well, Just Democrats Hit Hardest.

The number of newly laid off workers seeking unemployment benefits dropped much more than expected last week.

The Labor Department reported Thursday that applications for unemployment benefits fell to 365,000, a decline of 18,000 from the previous week. Economists had been looking for a much smaller decrease of around 5,000.

Ace still has the best headlines -- evah!
DKK

Missile Defense Where It's Needed

"Iranian President Ahmadinejad calls for Israel to be wiped off the map and talks of the Jewish people's annihilation. America should send a message to the Iranian dictator - Israel will have the full weight of America's missile defense system to defend herself," stated Illinois Congressman Mark Kirk.

To that end, On May 5, almost 70 leading Democrats and Republicans signed the Kirk-Harman Letter backing the X-Band Ground-Based Early Warning Radar Fully Integrated with U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense Program. The radar would double Israel's missile defense range, increase engagement time six-fold.
DKK
American Thinker Blog: Send to Missile defense to Iran

How To Hold Power -- Delay the Runoff

The head of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has reportedly said the run-off could be delayed by up to a year.

No date has been set for the second round between President Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai, which should be 21 days after the official results.

This should give Mugabe enough time to bully voters. The opposition party originally produced evidence that they had won the election outright, leading the government to delay release of the certified results and threated the opposition. Now it is too violent to hold elections -- army wearing militias forcing families from their homes -- without the delay the violence could impact turnout and help Mugabe.

Mugabe has taken a proud nation that exported food and transformed it into a starving nation with inflation that has at times been over 100,000 percent.
DKK
BBC

Update:

Zimbabwe's "war veterans" militia plan to intimidate voters by posing as police officers during the presidential run-off, a policeman has told the BBC.

He said they would be based inside polling stations during the vote, whose date has not yet been fixed.

BBC

Perpetual Victims

The GLORIA Center in Israel has published an important new report by Barry Rubin, Asaf Romirowsky, and Jonathan Spyer: UNRWA: Refuge of Rejectionism. The executive summary observes:

On the surface, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) seems a humanitarian group helping Palestinian refugees. In reality, it actually helps destroy the chance of Arab-Israeli peace, promotes terrorism, and holds Palestainians back from rebuilding their lives.

Unique in history, UNRWA's job is to keep Palestinian refugees in suspended animation--and at low living standards--until they achieve the goal set for them by the PLO and Hamas: Israel's extinction. In the meantime, their suffering and anger is maintained as a weapon to encourage them toward violence and intransigence.

UNRWA schools become hotbeds of anti-Western, anti-American, and anti-Semitic indoctrination, recruiting offices for terrorist groups

Perpetual victims, as I have said in the past, when your the third generation you are no longer a refugee -- you live there!
DKK
Powerline -- UNRWA: Refuge of Rejectionism

The #1 Issue This Election

Which party blocked the development of new sources of petroleum?-- Democrat
Which party blocked drilling in ANWR?-- Democrat
Which party blocked drilling off the coast of Florida?-- Democrat
Which party blocked drilling off of the east coast?-- Democrat
Which party blocked drilling off of the west coast?-- Democrat
Which party blocked drilling off the Alaskan coast?-- Democrat
Which party blocked building oil refineries?-- Democrat
Which party blocked clean nuclear energy production?-- Democrat
Which party blocked clean coal production?-- Democrat
You have to go read this whole post -- not to be missed!

DKK
Gateway Pundit -- This Will Be The #1 Issue in the 2008 Elections-- And, It Goes to Republicans

Divorce Laws are Religious Oppression?

Saying "I divorce thee" three times, as men in Muslim countries have been able to do for centuries when leaving their wives, is not enough if you're a resident of Maryland, the state's highest court ruled yesterday.

Yesterday, the Court of Appeals rejected a Pakistani man's argument that his invocation of the Islamic talaq, under which a marriage is dissolved simply by the husband's say-so, allowed him to part with his wife of more than 20 years and deny her a share of his $2 million estate.
...
They said the talaq "directly deprives the wife of the due process she is entitled to when she initiates divorce litigation."
It's religious oppression I tell ya...

Muneer Fareed, secretary-general of the Islamic Society of North America, said that if Aleem had traveled to Pakistan and invoked his talaq there, it might have been recognized in a U.S. court under the concept of comity, under which nations accept the premise of a law in another country "whether or not we agree with the law or its spirit."

DKK
DANEgerus -- Sha'aria meets American divorce court

Freedom To Switch

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia—A Malaysian Islamic court allowed a Muslim convert Thursday to return to her original faith of Buddhism, setting a precedent that could ease religious minorities' worries about their legal rights.

Lawyers said the Shariah High Court's verdict in the northern state of Penang was the first time in recent memory that a convert has been permitted to legally renounce Islam in this Muslim-majority nation.

DKK

AP - Boston.com

It's Their Neighborhood -- Please Deal With Iran For Us!

Praying for a mistake:

The administration is signaling the Iranians that they need to stop supplying and training Shiite militias in Iraq -- or run the risk of U.S. retaliation. The Maliki government in Baghdad, worried about the danger of escalation, is passing this message to Tehran, but so far the only consequence has been that the Iranians have broken off talks in Baghdad that were aimed at stabilizing the situation.

...

The risk of a U.S.-Iranian confrontation is growing in part because Saudi Arabia and other U.S. allies in the Middle East are so eager for it. "Behind closed doors, we are praying that the Iranians will make a mistake so that you will have a reason to attack," one Saudi told me this week. Another prominent Arab official said he hopes the United States will strike Iranian training camps just over the border from Iraq.

DKK

Ace of Spades HQ --Support For Strike on Iran Growing In Mid-East

10 Year Old Raped By Suspected Illegal

Suspected illegal alien raped 10 year old child who then gave birth to his child.

That is one child -- CHILD -- whose life would not have been ruined had our government enforced the laws.

See the whole story here: Stop the ACLU
DKK

Better to Go Door To Door

Martin Sheen was on BBC last weekend and was very proud of his hatred for Bush as well as his record of 67 protest arrests.

That really got me thinking, wouldn't he have been more effective going door to door and making his point to people? He is 67 years old for goodness sake -- 47 years or so of protesting, 67 arrests and what does he have to show for it?

Is Tibet Free?
Is the world nuclear free?
Was war in Iraq avoided?
Did Reagan place missiles in Europe?
Did Norma Ray get a union?
Are the seals safe?
Are the whales safe?

I have no idea what he was protesting, other then America in general, but wouldn't he have had more success actually doing something? Like convincing people one on one?
DKK

Ironman Reviews

I highly recommend Iron Man. Marvel's movies are hit and miss, as their problems with the Hulk show. But this one was a perfect ten. And one of the things I liked most was seeing Robert Downey, Jr. pull off a major acting coup after all the problems he has had. Talk about a guy who seemed headed for oblivion. It gives you hope for other people with drug problems.

Naturally, there's a big, bad arms manufacturer in the movie. But they had enough sense not to do the traditional attack on the government and the military.

Ironman reviews have been generally positive and as I said before Robert Downey has always had talent beyond his personal issues.
DKK
Hog On Ice -- Delray Beach and Iron Man: Ingredients of a Quality Afternoon

Talk About Slow Government Action

Burma's military junta says the country is not ready to accept foreign aid workers, amid mounting criticism of its response to the devastating cyclone.

The foreign ministry said Burma was happy to accept overseas aid, but insisted that it would control the distribution itself.

The statement follows pressure from the United Nations to speed up the issuing of visas to foreign relief experts.

BBC

The cyclone struck Saturday.

Meanwhile the French are wondering if the UN Charter allows the UN to bypass the Junta and bring the relief directly:

YANGON, Myanmar - France has suggested invoking a U.N. “responsibility to protect” clause and delivering aid directly to cyclone-hit Myanmar without waiting for approval from the military.

The proposal came as internal U.N. documents revealed Myanmar’s government is dragging its feet on giving visas to aid workers who are waiting to help the survivors of Cyclone Nargis.

French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters on Wednesday that the United Nations recognized in 2005 the concept of “responsibility to protect” civilians when their governments could or would not do it, even if this meant intervention that violated national sovereignty.

He said the idea was under discussion at the United Nations in New York.

The 2005 concept was in response to the UN and the world's abject failure in the genocide in Rwanda.

DKK
Via Say Anything Blog

al Qaeda in Iraq Update

GATEWAY PUNDIT HAS MORE ON THE AL-MASRI ARREST, including this: "There are reports that al-Masri set up terrorist training camps in Iraq after he fled Afghanistan when the Taliban fell back in 2001."

Remember how Richard Clarke was worried that Osama would "boogie to Baghdad" if we invaded Afghanistan? Well, I guess he was right to worry, in general if not in specific. . . . I guess it's no big surprise -- Saddam offered bin Laden asylum back in 1999 -- but given that nowadays a lot of people pretend that any kind of cooperation between Saddam and Al Qaeda is unimaginable, it's worth pointing out.

But don't make too much of these reports until they're confirmed. As Bill Roggio notes, it's best to wait for confirmation from the U.S. military, which hasn't happened yet

DKK
Instapundit

Flag Pin -- Constitution -- From A Liberal View

The answer, I think, is that the flag is about emotion, while the Constitution is about complicated concepts.

The flag is great for raising goosebumps at patriotic parades, but it’s the Constitution that gives us the right to speak our minds, to embrace the religions of our choice, to be tried in courts of law by juries of our peers, and to enjoy our many other hard-won freedoms.

That explains much of the foundation of liberal philosophy. The center of all is the government not the people that grant the government all of its power --

But the flag doesn’t give us the freedoms we enjoy as Americans. The Constitution does.

RRStar Applesauce Blog

My reply:

Strange thing is that the flag is a symbol of that constitution as well as the declaration of independence and everything since our founding.

Oh and not to quibble, but:

it’s the Constitution that gives us the right to speak our minds, to embrace the religions of our choice, to be tried in courts of law by juries of our peers, and to enjoy our many other hard-won freedoms.

Isn’t quite what our Founding Fathers understood to be, self-evident:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed

The Creator give the rights, the people loan the power to Governments to secure the rights and the Constitution is a contract empowering yet restricting that government.

Modern liberalism would just state that the rights come from the people, I am not sure what political belief says the Constitution gives anything.

The Constitution actually restricts the governments actions — and does not give anything. After all it says “Congress shall make no law,” never does it say, “This Constitution hereby grants the right.”

The government derives its power from the Constitution and Constitution derives its power from the the people.

As someone who has been in the news/talk industry, often as a columnist, most of my adult life he should know that the words we use matter.

DKK

Iraqi al Qaeda Leader Caught In Mosul

Iraqi sources report that al Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri has been captured in Mosul. If this report is correct, al-Masri almost made it to his 2-year anniversary as commander. He took over al Qaeda in Iraq after Abu Musab al-Zarqawi was killed June 7, 2006 in a U.S. airstrike northeast of Baghdad.

As discussed in this post, al-Masri’s top two aides were killed in October 2007, including one who was in charge of foreign suicide bombers.

Apparently al-Masri is in Iraqi custody. Imagine the information al-Masri could share regarding plans for suicide attacks and the identities of possible suicide bombers. If he is turned over to the Americans, what interrogation techniques should be allowed to get information from al-Masri about planned attacks and personnel?

This may not be accurate, we have thought this before, but if it is it is another great catch in Iraq.
DKK
Patterico's Pontifications

How's Your Tea Mahmoud?

With Iran racing forward with its nuclear program, Israel now believes the Islamic Republic will master centrifuge technology and be able to begin enriching uranium on a military scale this year, The Jerusalem Post has learned.

The new assessment moves up Israel's forecasts on Teheran's nuclear program by almost a full year - from 2009 to the end of 2008. According to the new timeline, Iran could have a nuclear weapon by the middle of next year.

Iran, a senior defense official said on Tuesday, had encountered numerous technical obstacles on its way to enriching uranium but was now on track to master the technology needed to enrich uranium within six months.

Israel is also concerned that Teheran is developing a cruise missile that can evade interception by the Arrow, the IDF's anti-ballistic missile defense system. Iran is suspected of having smuggled Ukrainian X-55 cruise missiles and using them as models for an independent, domestic project. A cruise missile, which flies at low altitudes to dodge radar detection and interception, could be used to carry a nuclear warhead.

Maybe Barack can have tea and crumpets with them in Baghdad, after they take it by force?
DKK
Jerusalem Post -- Israel: Iran could have nukes by '09

No Danger, No Freedom

When the Left promises us life without edges, what they really have in mind is life without freedom.

DKK
American Thinker -- Life Without Edges -- The Left's Seductive Promise

It's A Right -- You Don't Have The Right To Challenge It!

This genius proceeds to say, "It's A Right -- You Don't Have The Right To Challenge It!" I think it happened at UW Stephens Point. Has he ever read the constitution?
DKK

Slow Reporting Their Compliance Failure

The registry is required to demonstrate Canada's compliance with its 2012 emissions target and to participate in the Kyoto Protocol emissions cap and trade mechanism.

"The government of Canada is in the process of establishing (the registry), and has been in this process for some time," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper, blaming the delay on a previous administration.

Canada had agreed under the international Kyoto Protocol to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to 6.0 percent below 1990 levels by 2012, but emissions have instead increased by more than 35 percent.

Last year, the government outlined a new plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions 20 percent, based on 2006 levels, by 2020, saying the targets agreed to by the previous administration were unattainable.

It is currently impossible to meet the Kyoto requirements without changing our lives beyond recognition. That we recognized that rather then commit to feel good goals that just are not possible is a positive thing, no matter what the enviro-wacko's tell you.
DKK
AFP -- Canada rapped over Kyoto registry
Via Ace