Looking at life, and everything that goes with it. Oh yeah, and wine and spirits, lots of that.
Saturday, March 06, 2021
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Sunday, September 24, 2006
IRISH!
Irish Use Huge Fourth Quarter to Top Spartans
Terrail Lambert 's interception return leads Notre Dame to victory.
Sept. 24, 2006
Final Stats Notes Photo Gallery
Final Stats (PDF)
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -Notre Dame looked beaten and Michigan State looked unstoppable.
Then, in a stunning turn of events, cornerback Terrail Lambert capped a furious rally by returning an interception 19 yards for a touchdown with 2:53 remaining to give the 12th-ranked Fighting Irish a 40-37 victory over the Spartans on Saturday night.
The loss stunned Michigan State (3-1) and its pumped-up fans, who remained in the stands despite heavy rain in the second half, convinced they were going to see the Spartans beat the Irish (3-1) for the eighth time in 10 games.
But it wasn't to be.
Lambert made sure of that, following up his score by ending the Spartans' hopes moments later with a juggling interception of Drew Stanton's pass in the closing seconds of the game.
"Late in the game, I made some stupid mistakes," Stanton said.
That the decisive plays came from the Irish defense, exposed in a blowout loss to Michigan last week and for much of the game Saturday, may have been the most surprising development.
But the Irish offense also clicked late, led by quarterback Brady Quinn.
Quinn started slow, going just 2-of-8 for 6 yards in the first quarter as Michigan State jumped out to a 17-0 lead.
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But he finished 20-of-36 for 319 yards with five TDs against one interception.
"Give all the credit to Notre Dame," Michigan State running back Javon Ringer said. "They stepped up when they had to."
The Irish trailed 37-21 entering the fourth quarter. But Quinn threw TD passes to Jeff Samardzija (43 yards) and Rhema McKnight (14 yards) to cut the lead to 37-33 with 4:57 remaining.
Michigan State's Jehuu Caulcrick finished with 111 yards and a TD on eight carries. Stanton ran for 53 yards, and completed 10 of 22 passes for 114 yards. He had two TD passes and the two interceptions.
Michigan State looked like it might continue its recent good fortune against the Irish, which included a 44-41 overtime victory in South Bend last year after which a few Spartan players planted a school flag near midfield.
The Spartans led this one 31-14 at halftime and looked as if they should be preparing for another postgame celebration.
"When we went into halftime we said if we don't play 30 minutes of complete football we have no chance." Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said
Terrail Lambert 's interception return leads Notre Dame to victory.
Sept. 24, 2006
Final Stats Notes Photo Gallery
Final Stats (PDF)
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) -Notre Dame looked beaten and Michigan State looked unstoppable.
Then, in a stunning turn of events, cornerback Terrail Lambert capped a furious rally by returning an interception 19 yards for a touchdown with 2:53 remaining to give the 12th-ranked Fighting Irish a 40-37 victory over the Spartans on Saturday night.
The loss stunned Michigan State (3-1) and its pumped-up fans, who remained in the stands despite heavy rain in the second half, convinced they were going to see the Spartans beat the Irish (3-1) for the eighth time in 10 games.
But it wasn't to be.
Lambert made sure of that, following up his score by ending the Spartans' hopes moments later with a juggling interception of Drew Stanton's pass in the closing seconds of the game.
"Late in the game, I made some stupid mistakes," Stanton said.
That the decisive plays came from the Irish defense, exposed in a blowout loss to Michigan last week and for much of the game Saturday, may have been the most surprising development.
But the Irish offense also clicked late, led by quarterback Brady Quinn.
Quinn started slow, going just 2-of-8 for 6 yards in the first quarter as Michigan State jumped out to a 17-0 lead.
procad("http://ad.doubleclick.net/adj/CSTV.ND/SPORTS.MFOOTBL.RECAPS;pos=story;sz=300x250;dcopt=ist;",0);
But he finished 20-of-36 for 319 yards with five TDs against one interception.
"Give all the credit to Notre Dame," Michigan State running back Javon Ringer said. "They stepped up when they had to."
The Irish trailed 37-21 entering the fourth quarter. But Quinn threw TD passes to Jeff Samardzija (43 yards) and Rhema McKnight (14 yards) to cut the lead to 37-33 with 4:57 remaining.
Michigan State's Jehuu Caulcrick finished with 111 yards and a TD on eight carries. Stanton ran for 53 yards, and completed 10 of 22 passes for 114 yards. He had two TD passes and the two interceptions.
Michigan State looked like it might continue its recent good fortune against the Irish, which included a 44-41 overtime victory in South Bend last year after which a few Spartan players planted a school flag near midfield.
The Spartans led this one 31-14 at halftime and looked as if they should be preparing for another postgame celebration.
"When we went into halftime we said if we don't play 30 minutes of complete football we have no chance." Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis said
Thursday, September 21, 2006
YANKS DO IT AGAIN!!
Yanks celebrate ninth straight East title
Bombers fall to Jays, but clinch division with Red Sox loss
By Mark Feinsand / MLB.com
Melky Cabrera (left) celebrates his first division title with Robinson Cano in the clubhouse. (Frank Gunn/AP)
Related Links
• Yanks celebrate: 350K
• Bernie's homer: 350K
• Cano's backhand stop, throw: 350K
• Despite adversity, Yanks persevere
• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title
• Yanks notes: Four regulars get night off
• Wang, Yanks face Shields, Devil Rays
• Halladay injured, might be done for year
• Jays notes: Lind wins third Webster Award
Yankees Headlines
• Yanks win ninth straight AL East title
• Despite adversity, Yanks persevere
• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title
• Yanks notes: Four regulars get night off
• Yanks use long ball again against Jays
• More Yankees Headlines
MLB Headlines
• Yanks win ninth straight AL East title
• Clemens uncertain about future
• Big Papi's 50th homer makes history
• Relive all the magic with Clinch Time
• Royals skipper Bell takes medical leave
'Time to pop the corks. The Yankees are American League East champions once again. New York wrapped up its ninth consecutive division title on Wednesday night, not with a win, but with a Red Sox loss to the Twins.';
e-mail this page
• Get AL East champs hat• Get AL East champs gear• Yanks celebrate: 350K• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title• Statement from George M. Steinbrenner TORONTO -- It's not very often that you will see the Yankees whooping it up in the clubhouse after a loss. In fact, it's not very often that you will see the Yankees whoop it up after a win.
On Wednesday night, about 30 minutes after losing to the Blue Jays, 3-2, the Yankees sat and watched the Twins finish off the Red Sox, 8-2, on the big-screen television in the visitor's clubhouse at the Rogers Centre.
That's when the party started.
Corks were popping, champagne and beer was flying through the air and tears were flowing as the Yankees clinched their ninth straight American League East title.
"When the Twins got three runs in the top of the ninth, everybody grabbed a shirt and hat," said Mike Mussina, sporting a soaking-wet AL East championship T-shirt and backwards hat. "[Manager] Joe [Torre] gave his little toast to congratulate us on our accomplishment -- then we had a little fun."
"I just congratulated them, toasted them and told them how proud I was of them," Torre said. "It was simple."
The celebration scene looked like any other division-winning clubhouse in baseball, which is a little strange considering the regularity with which it has happened for the Yankees.
But with each new year comes new faces, as Bobby Abreu, Melky Cabrera and a host of other newcomers got their first taste of victory champagne in New York.
"This team always goes to the playoffs, so you always want to be part of this," Abreu said. "This is what it's all about: winning and celebrating."
"We have a lot of guys that haven't been here before, they're actually experiencing what we have over the years," Bernie Williams said. "As an old guy being here, year after year it never gets old. It's a great feeling of accomplishment."
Not that the celebrating was limited to the neophytes. Jorge Posada sprayed a group of people with champagne, Jason Giambi was smothered by teammates who covered him with beer, and even Derek Jeter, who has now been to the postseason in each of his 11 years in the Majors, was bombarded by Alex Rodriguez and a few other teammates pouring all sorts of things on him -- while he did a live TV interview.
"Every year is different because you have a different group of guys," Jeter said. "This is as special as any other year."
"It's fun that we were able to put something together that so many people didn't think you could do," Rodriguez said. "It's been a tough year -- a grinding type of year. I'm just proud of this bunch."
Yankees clinch AL East • Buy AL East champs gearNews• Yankees claim AL East crown• Despite adversity, Yanks persevere• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title• Statement from George M. SteinbrennerVideo• Yankees celebrate AL East crown Audio• A-Rod talks clincher • Manager Joe Torre reflects • Robinson Cano on the title • Mariano Rivera postgame • Giambi, Damon on clinching the AL East
Nearly every player in the clubhouse singled out the contributions of the team's youth, from Cabrera to Chien-Ming Wang to Scott Proctor, each of whom played major roles in the Yankees' success this season.
"The injuries to Hideki [Matsui] and Sheff [Gary Sheffield] and the way the young kids stepped up into those roles, and the way Scott Proctor has emerged as a dominating force in the 'pen," Giambi said. "This has been the most gratifying division title I've ever been part of."
"Melky Cabrera came up and he was a big part in what we accomplished; we had key injuries, but he stepped up," Damon said. "Wang stepped up. Proctor stepped up. A bunch of these unsung guys that we know they're as important in this clubhouse. That's what makes championship teams."
Even Proctor himself admitted that this champagne celebration felt a lot more real to him than last year's at Fenway Park, when he was pitching at the back end of the bullpen.
"This was definitely more rewarding, because I actually felt like I did something this year," said Proctor. "I got some big outs, got to pitch in some big situations that helped get us where we are. It was very rewarding."
New York is now 92-60, holding on to a slim lead over Detroit for the best record in the AL. The Yankees will likely take on the AL Wild Card in the Division Series, with the Twins and Tigers looking like the potential opponents.
During the final two innings of the Red Sox-Twins game, Damon was watching more than the final score.
"We were also scouting the Twins now, too, so we were seeing what their pitchers were doing," Damon said. "They're on fire right now; they could be the hottest team going into the postseason."
Regardless of who they play in the first week of October, the Yankees' goal will be to advance further than they have in each of the past two years, when they were knocked out before the World Series.
Most consecutive division titles
Team
Titles
Years
Atlanta Braves
14
1991-2005
New York Yankees
9
1998-2006 *
New York Yankees
5
1960-1964
Oakland Athletics
5
1971-1975
New York Yankees
5
1949-1953
* -- Current streakNote: Divisional play began in 1969 and switched to three divisions per league in 1994. No division titles were awarded in '94 due to the strike which cancelled the postseason.
"We need to make this postseason a lot longer than it's been for us," Torre said. "This ballclub has a nice mix of youth and veterans, so hopefully we're poised to do something special. Whoever we have to face is going to be a battle for us, but we're certainly ready to do it."
"There's so much togetherness here; we support each other, and I hope I can be a part of helping this team win a championship," Damon said. "I want to get a championship for Giambi, get a championship for A-Rod, get a championship for Donnie Mattingly and whoever else has never won one. There's a lot of work to be done."
The Yankees' nine straight division titles now ranks as the longest active streak in the Majors. While some may believe that these celebrations could get tiresome, the players who have done it again and again couldn't disagree more.
"This is what you play for -- to get to the playoffs and have a chance to win a championship," Jeter said. "This is the first step."
"It just doesn't get old doing this, as many times as we have," Mussina said. "Hopefully we'll get to do it a few more times before the season is over."
Bombers fall to Jays, but clinch division with Red Sox loss
By Mark Feinsand / MLB.com
Melky Cabrera (left) celebrates his first division title with Robinson Cano in the clubhouse. (Frank Gunn/AP)
Related Links
• Yanks celebrate: 350K
• Bernie's homer: 350K
• Cano's backhand stop, throw: 350K
• Despite adversity, Yanks persevere
• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title
• Yanks notes: Four regulars get night off
• Wang, Yanks face Shields, Devil Rays
• Halladay injured, might be done for year
• Jays notes: Lind wins third Webster Award
Yankees Headlines
• Yanks win ninth straight AL East title
• Despite adversity, Yanks persevere
• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title
• Yanks notes: Four regulars get night off
• Yanks use long ball again against Jays
• More Yankees Headlines
MLB Headlines
• Yanks win ninth straight AL East title
• Clemens uncertain about future
• Big Papi's 50th homer makes history
• Relive all the magic with Clinch Time
• Royals skipper Bell takes medical leave
'Time to pop the corks. The Yankees are American League East champions once again. New York wrapped up its ninth consecutive division title on Wednesday night, not with a win, but with a Red Sox loss to the Twins.';
e-mail this page
• Get AL East champs hat• Get AL East champs gear• Yanks celebrate: 350K• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title• Statement from George M. Steinbrenner TORONTO -- It's not very often that you will see the Yankees whooping it up in the clubhouse after a loss. In fact, it's not very often that you will see the Yankees whoop it up after a win.
On Wednesday night, about 30 minutes after losing to the Blue Jays, 3-2, the Yankees sat and watched the Twins finish off the Red Sox, 8-2, on the big-screen television in the visitor's clubhouse at the Rogers Centre.
That's when the party started.
Corks were popping, champagne and beer was flying through the air and tears were flowing as the Yankees clinched their ninth straight American League East title.
"When the Twins got three runs in the top of the ninth, everybody grabbed a shirt and hat," said Mike Mussina, sporting a soaking-wet AL East championship T-shirt and backwards hat. "[Manager] Joe [Torre] gave his little toast to congratulate us on our accomplishment -- then we had a little fun."
"I just congratulated them, toasted them and told them how proud I was of them," Torre said. "It was simple."
The celebration scene looked like any other division-winning clubhouse in baseball, which is a little strange considering the regularity with which it has happened for the Yankees.
But with each new year comes new faces, as Bobby Abreu, Melky Cabrera and a host of other newcomers got their first taste of victory champagne in New York.
"This team always goes to the playoffs, so you always want to be part of this," Abreu said. "This is what it's all about: winning and celebrating."
"We have a lot of guys that haven't been here before, they're actually experiencing what we have over the years," Bernie Williams said. "As an old guy being here, year after year it never gets old. It's a great feeling of accomplishment."
Not that the celebrating was limited to the neophytes. Jorge Posada sprayed a group of people with champagne, Jason Giambi was smothered by teammates who covered him with beer, and even Derek Jeter, who has now been to the postseason in each of his 11 years in the Majors, was bombarded by Alex Rodriguez and a few other teammates pouring all sorts of things on him -- while he did a live TV interview.
"Every year is different because you have a different group of guys," Jeter said. "This is as special as any other year."
"It's fun that we were able to put something together that so many people didn't think you could do," Rodriguez said. "It's been a tough year -- a grinding type of year. I'm just proud of this bunch."
Yankees clinch AL East • Buy AL East champs gearNews• Yankees claim AL East crown• Despite adversity, Yanks persevere• Yanks' Big Four deflect credit for title• Statement from George M. SteinbrennerVideo• Yankees celebrate AL East crown Audio• A-Rod talks clincher • Manager Joe Torre reflects • Robinson Cano on the title • Mariano Rivera postgame • Giambi, Damon on clinching the AL East
Nearly every player in the clubhouse singled out the contributions of the team's youth, from Cabrera to Chien-Ming Wang to Scott Proctor, each of whom played major roles in the Yankees' success this season.
"The injuries to Hideki [Matsui] and Sheff [Gary Sheffield] and the way the young kids stepped up into those roles, and the way Scott Proctor has emerged as a dominating force in the 'pen," Giambi said. "This has been the most gratifying division title I've ever been part of."
"Melky Cabrera came up and he was a big part in what we accomplished; we had key injuries, but he stepped up," Damon said. "Wang stepped up. Proctor stepped up. A bunch of these unsung guys that we know they're as important in this clubhouse. That's what makes championship teams."
Even Proctor himself admitted that this champagne celebration felt a lot more real to him than last year's at Fenway Park, when he was pitching at the back end of the bullpen.
"This was definitely more rewarding, because I actually felt like I did something this year," said Proctor. "I got some big outs, got to pitch in some big situations that helped get us where we are. It was very rewarding."
New York is now 92-60, holding on to a slim lead over Detroit for the best record in the AL. The Yankees will likely take on the AL Wild Card in the Division Series, with the Twins and Tigers looking like the potential opponents.
During the final two innings of the Red Sox-Twins game, Damon was watching more than the final score.
"We were also scouting the Twins now, too, so we were seeing what their pitchers were doing," Damon said. "They're on fire right now; they could be the hottest team going into the postseason."
Regardless of who they play in the first week of October, the Yankees' goal will be to advance further than they have in each of the past two years, when they were knocked out before the World Series.
Most consecutive division titles
Team
Titles
Years
Atlanta Braves
14
1991-2005
New York Yankees
9
1998-2006 *
New York Yankees
5
1960-1964
Oakland Athletics
5
1971-1975
New York Yankees
5
1949-1953
* -- Current streakNote: Divisional play began in 1969 and switched to three divisions per league in 1994. No division titles were awarded in '94 due to the strike which cancelled the postseason.
"We need to make this postseason a lot longer than it's been for us," Torre said. "This ballclub has a nice mix of youth and veterans, so hopefully we're poised to do something special. Whoever we have to face is going to be a battle for us, but we're certainly ready to do it."
"There's so much togetherness here; we support each other, and I hope I can be a part of helping this team win a championship," Damon said. "I want to get a championship for Giambi, get a championship for A-Rod, get a championship for Donnie Mattingly and whoever else has never won one. There's a lot of work to be done."
The Yankees' nine straight division titles now ranks as the longest active streak in the Majors. While some may believe that these celebrations could get tiresome, the players who have done it again and again couldn't disagree more.
"This is what you play for -- to get to the playoffs and have a chance to win a championship," Jeter said. "This is the first step."
"It just doesn't get old doing this, as many times as we have," Mussina said. "Hopefully we'll get to do it a few more times before the season is over."
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
good review...good album...napalm death
Napalm Death - Smear Campaign
From Chad Bowar,Your Guide to Heavy Metal.FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
Guide Rating -
The Bottom Line
Grindcore pioneers Napalm Death are in fine form on their latest release.
Pros
Top notch grindcore.
Brutal vocals.
Cons
None.
zSB(3,3)
Sponsored Links
Death MetalSick selection of underground Death Metal, Black Metal, Grindcore, Etc.shop.relapse.com
Heavy Metal MusicDownload Your Favorite Songs 100% Free And Legal!www.GetMusicFree.com
Heavy metal musicDownload The Hottest Heavy Metal Hits Of Yesterday & Today. Free!www.MusicVixen.com
Description
Released in North America September 19, 2006 on Century Media Records.
Produced by Russ Russel and recorded at Foel Studios in Wales.
Napalm Death formed in 1982.
Guide Review - Napalm Death - Smear Campaign
After nearly a quarter century of blazing trails in extreme music Napalm Death is as relevant as ever. Their last few albums have seen a creative rebirth of the band, and that continues on Smear Campaign.
Napalm Death invented grindcore, and of course that is still their bread and butter. But they are also able to dial back the tempo and get into a crushing groove. It's a good balance of lightning fast blast beats and breakneck riffs along with more ominous death metal style playing.
Barney Greenway's vocals are more ferocious than ever, and this is a band that has not mellowed with age. They're still railing against war, religion and other social issues. Anneke Van Giersbergen from the Gathering adds some guest vocals that add a little variety to a couple of the songs without removing any of their inherent brutality.
Napalm Death are as extreme, technical and brutal as they've ever been, and don't show any signs of slowing down any time soon.
From Chad Bowar,Your Guide to Heavy Metal.FREE Newsletter. Sign Up Now!
Guide Rating -
The Bottom Line
Grindcore pioneers Napalm Death are in fine form on their latest release.
Pros
Top notch grindcore.
Brutal vocals.
Cons
None.
zSB(3,3)
Sponsored Links
Death MetalSick selection of underground Death Metal, Black Metal, Grindcore, Etc.shop.relapse.com
Heavy Metal MusicDownload Your Favorite Songs 100% Free And Legal!www.GetMusicFree.com
Heavy metal musicDownload The Hottest Heavy Metal Hits Of Yesterday & Today. Free!www.MusicVixen.com
Description
Released in North America September 19, 2006 on Century Media Records.
Produced by Russ Russel and recorded at Foel Studios in Wales.
Napalm Death formed in 1982.
Guide Review - Napalm Death - Smear Campaign
After nearly a quarter century of blazing trails in extreme music Napalm Death is as relevant as ever. Their last few albums have seen a creative rebirth of the band, and that continues on Smear Campaign.
Napalm Death invented grindcore, and of course that is still their bread and butter. But they are also able to dial back the tempo and get into a crushing groove. It's a good balance of lightning fast blast beats and breakneck riffs along with more ominous death metal style playing.
Barney Greenway's vocals are more ferocious than ever, and this is a band that has not mellowed with age. They're still railing against war, religion and other social issues. Anneke Van Giersbergen from the Gathering adds some guest vocals that add a little variety to a couple of the songs without removing any of their inherent brutality.
Napalm Death are as extreme, technical and brutal as they've ever been, and don't show any signs of slowing down any time soon.
MUSLIMS DID THIS..
Muslim violence
By Jeff Jacoby September 20, 2006
AS SHE LAY dying in a Mogadishu hospital, Sister Leonella forgave her killers. She had lived in Africa for almost four decades and could speak fluent Somali, but her last words were murmured in Italian, her mother tongue. ``Perdono, perdono," she whispered. I forgive, I forgive.
She was 65 and had devoted her life to the care of sick mothers and children. She was on her way to meet three other nuns for lunch on Sunday when two gunmen shot her several times in the back. ``Her slaying was not a random attack," the Associated Press reported. It ``raised concerns" that she was the latest victim of ``growing Islamic radicalism in the country."
Raised concerns? Sister Leonella was gunned down less than two days after a prominent Somali cleric had called on Muslims to kill Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam in a scholarly lecture last week.
``We urge you, Muslims, wherever you are to hunt down the pope for his barbaric statements," Sheik Abubukar Hassan Malin had exhorted worshippers during evening prayers at a Mogadishu mosque. ``Whoever offends our prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim. Sister Leonella was not the pope, but she was presumably close enough for purposes of the local jihadists.
If it weren't so sickening, it would be farcical: A line in the pope's speech suggests that Islam has a dark history of violence, and offended Muslims vent their displeasure by howling for his death, firebombing churches, and attacking innocent Christians. One of the points Benedict made in his speech at the University of Regensburg was that religious faith untethered by reason can lead to savagery. The mobs denouncing him could hardly have done a better job of proving him right.
In his lecture, Benedict quoted the late Byzantine emperor Manuel II, who had condemned Islam's militancy with these words: ``Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
In the ensuing uproar, British Muslims demonstrated outside Westminster Cathedral with signs reading ``Pope go to Hell" and ``Islam will conquer Rome," while the head of the Society of Muslim Lawyers declared that the pope must be ``subject to capital punishment." In Iraq, the radical Mujahideen's Army vowed to ``smash the crosses in the house of the dog from Rome" and the Mujahideen Shura Council swore to ``continue our jihad and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks." Arsonists in the West Bank set churches on fire, and a group calling itself ``The Sword of Islam" issued a warning: ``If the pope does not appear on TV and apologize for his comments, we will blow up all of Gaza's churches."
In fact, the pope did apologize, more than once. Whether the studied frenzy will now subside remains to be seen. But it's only a matter of time until the next one erupts.
This time it was a 14th-century quote from a Byzantine ruler that set off -- or rather, was exploited by Islamist firebrands to ignite -- the international demonstrations, death threats, and violence. Earlier this year it was cartoons about Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Last year it was a Newsweek report, later debunked, that a Koran had been descecrated by a US interrogator in Guantanamo. Before that it was Jerry Falwell's comment on ``60 Minutes" that Mohammed was a ``terrorist." Back in 1989 it was the publication of Salman Rushdie's satirical novel, ``The Satanic Verses."
In every case, the pretext for the Muslim rage was the claim that Islam had been insulted. Freedom of speech was irrelevant: While the rioters and those inciting them routinely insult Christianity, Judaism, and other religions, they demand that no one be allowed to denigrate Islam or its prophet. It is a staggering double standard, and too many in the West seem willing to go along with it. Witness the editorials in US newspapers this week scolding the pope for his speech. Recall the State Department's condemnation of the Danish cartoons last winter.
Of course nobody's faith should be gratuitously affronted. But the real insult to Islam is not a line from a papal speech or a cartoon about Mohammed. It is the violence, terror, and bloodshed that Islamist fanatics unleash in the name of their religion -- and the unwillingness of most of the world's Muslims to say or do anything to stop them
By Jeff Jacoby September 20, 2006
AS SHE LAY dying in a Mogadishu hospital, Sister Leonella forgave her killers. She had lived in Africa for almost four decades and could speak fluent Somali, but her last words were murmured in Italian, her mother tongue. ``Perdono, perdono," she whispered. I forgive, I forgive.
She was 65 and had devoted her life to the care of sick mothers and children. She was on her way to meet three other nuns for lunch on Sunday when two gunmen shot her several times in the back. ``Her slaying was not a random attack," the Associated Press reported. It ``raised concerns" that she was the latest victim of ``growing Islamic radicalism in the country."
Raised concerns? Sister Leonella was gunned down less than two days after a prominent Somali cleric had called on Muslims to kill Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks about Islam in a scholarly lecture last week.
``We urge you, Muslims, wherever you are to hunt down the pope for his barbaric statements," Sheik Abubukar Hassan Malin had exhorted worshippers during evening prayers at a Mogadishu mosque. ``Whoever offends our prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim. Sister Leonella was not the pope, but she was presumably close enough for purposes of the local jihadists.
If it weren't so sickening, it would be farcical: A line in the pope's speech suggests that Islam has a dark history of violence, and offended Muslims vent their displeasure by howling for his death, firebombing churches, and attacking innocent Christians. One of the points Benedict made in his speech at the University of Regensburg was that religious faith untethered by reason can lead to savagery. The mobs denouncing him could hardly have done a better job of proving him right.
In his lecture, Benedict quoted the late Byzantine emperor Manuel II, who had condemned Islam's militancy with these words: ``Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."
In the ensuing uproar, British Muslims demonstrated outside Westminster Cathedral with signs reading ``Pope go to Hell" and ``Islam will conquer Rome," while the head of the Society of Muslim Lawyers declared that the pope must be ``subject to capital punishment." In Iraq, the radical Mujahideen's Army vowed to ``smash the crosses in the house of the dog from Rome" and the Mujahideen Shura Council swore to ``continue our jihad and never stop until God avails us to chop your necks." Arsonists in the West Bank set churches on fire, and a group calling itself ``The Sword of Islam" issued a warning: ``If the pope does not appear on TV and apologize for his comments, we will blow up all of Gaza's churches."
In fact, the pope did apologize, more than once. Whether the studied frenzy will now subside remains to be seen. But it's only a matter of time until the next one erupts.
This time it was a 14th-century quote from a Byzantine ruler that set off -- or rather, was exploited by Islamist firebrands to ignite -- the international demonstrations, death threats, and violence. Earlier this year it was cartoons about Mohammed in a Danish newspaper. Last year it was a Newsweek report, later debunked, that a Koran had been descecrated by a US interrogator in Guantanamo. Before that it was Jerry Falwell's comment on ``60 Minutes" that Mohammed was a ``terrorist." Back in 1989 it was the publication of Salman Rushdie's satirical novel, ``The Satanic Verses."
In every case, the pretext for the Muslim rage was the claim that Islam had been insulted. Freedom of speech was irrelevant: While the rioters and those inciting them routinely insult Christianity, Judaism, and other religions, they demand that no one be allowed to denigrate Islam or its prophet. It is a staggering double standard, and too many in the West seem willing to go along with it. Witness the editorials in US newspapers this week scolding the pope for his speech. Recall the State Department's condemnation of the Danish cartoons last winter.
Of course nobody's faith should be gratuitously affronted. But the real insult to Islam is not a line from a papal speech or a cartoon about Mohammed. It is the violence, terror, and bloodshed that Islamist fanatics unleash in the name of their religion -- and the unwillingness of most of the world's Muslims to say or do anything to stop them
new polls
2006 Senate RealClearPolitics Poll Averages
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Arizona Connecticut Maryland Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana New Jersey Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Virginia Washington
Arizona Senate Race: Jon Kyl (R) vs. Jim Pederson (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Kyl (R)
Pederson (D)
Spread
RCP Average
07/14 to 09/18
-
49.0%
39.5%
Kyl +9.5%
Rasmussen
09/18 - 09/18
500 LV
50%
39%
Kyl +11%
SurveyUSA
09/16 - 09/18
472 LV
48%
43%
Kyl +5%
Ariz. State
08/24 - 08/29
846 RV
46%
36%
Kyl +10%
SurveyUSA
07/14 - 07/16
531 RV
52%
40%
Kyl +12%
Arizona Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Connecticut Senate Race: Lieberman (I) vs. Lamont (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Lieberman (I)
Lamont (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/10 to 09/14
-
48.3%
41.0%
Lieberman +7.3%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/14
550 LV
45%
43%
Lieberman +2%
SurveyUSA
09/09 - 09/11
572 LV
51%
38%
Lieberman +13%
American Res. Group
08/17 - 08/21
790 LV
44%
42%
Lieberman +2%
Quinnipiac
08/10 - 08/14
1083 LV
53%
41%
Lieberman +12%
Connecticut Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Maryland Senate Race: Michael Steele vs. Ben Cardin
Poll
Date
Sample
Steele (R)
Cardin (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/18 to 09/13
-
40.7%
47.7%
Cardin +7.0%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/13
500 LV
43%
50%
Cardin +7%
Zogby Interactive*
08/29 - 09/05
n/a
40%
49%
Cardin +9%
Gonzales Res.
08/18 - 08/25
625 LV
39%
44%
Cardin +5%
Maryland Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Michigan Senate Race: Mike Bouchard (R) vs. Debbie Stabenow (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Bouchard (R)
Stabenow (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/28 to 09/17
-
38.8%
52.0%
Stabenow +13.2%
SurveyUSA
09/15 - 09/17
749 LV
41%
54%
Stabenow +13%
Detroit News
09/07 - 09/12
608 LV
34%
53%
Stabenow +19%
Rasmussen
08/31 - 08/31
500 LV
43%
51%
Stabenow +8%
Detroit Free Press
08/28 - 08/30
803 LV
37%
50%
Stabenow +13%
Michigan Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Minnesota Senate Race: Mark Kennedy (R) vs. Amy Klobuchar (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Kennedy (R)
Klobuchar (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/23 to 09/15
-
37.3%
51.0%
Klobuchar +13.7%
Star Tribune
09/13 - 09/15
820 LV
32%
56%
Klobuchar +24%
Rasmussen
08/28 - 08/28
500 LV
40%
47%
Klobuchar +7%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
790 LV
40%
50%
Klobuchar +10%
Minnesota Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Missouri Senate Race: Jim Talent (R) vs. Claire McCaskill (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Talent (R)
McCaskill (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/23 to 09/13
-
46.3%
46.0%
Talent +0.3%
SurveyUSA
09/11 - 09/13
468 LV
47%
48%
McCaskill +1%
Rasmussen
09/11 - 09/11
500 LV
42%
45%
McCaskill +3%
Research 2000
08/28 - 08/31
800 LV
46%
47%
McCaskill +1%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
574 LV
50%
44%
Talent +6%
Missouri Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Montana Senate Race: Conrad Burns (R) vs. Jon Tester (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Burns (R)
Tester (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/08 to 09/12
-
41.7%
48.0%
Tester +6.3%
Rasmussen
09/12 - 09/12
500 LV
43%
52%
Tester +9%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
641 LV
45%
48%
Tester +3%
Lake Research (D)
08/08 - 08/10
600 LV
37%
44%
Tester +7%
Montana Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
New Jersey Senate Race: Thomas Kean, Jr. (R) vs. Robert Menendez (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Kean (R)
Menendez (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/21 to 09/18
-
45.0%
41.0%
Kean +4.0%
Quinnipiac
09/13 - 09/18
688 LV
48%
45%
Kean +3%
Rasmussen
08/28 - 08/28
500 LV
44%
39%
Kean +5%
Fairleigh Dickinson
08/21 - 08/27
651 RV
43%
39%
Kean +4%
New Jersey Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Ohio Senate Race: Mike DeWine (R) vs. Sherrod Brown (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
DeWine (R)
Brown (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/23 to 09/17
-
41.7%
46.0%
Brown +4.3%
Quinnipiac
09/11 - 09/17
876 LV
44%
45%
Brown +1%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/13
500 LV
41%
47%
Brown +6%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
584 LV
40%
46%
Brown +6%
Ohio Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Pennsylvania Senate Race: Rick Santorum (R) vs. Bob Casey (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Santorum (R)
Casey (D)
Spread
RCP Average
07/31 to 08/27
-
39.6%
48.2%
Casey +8.6%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
600 LV
38%
56%
Casey +18%
Rasmussen
08/22 - 08/22
500 LV
40%
48%
Casey +8%
Keystone Poll
08/16 - 08/21
551 RV
39%
44%
Casey +5%
Quinnipiac
08/08 - 08/13
1011 LV
42%
48%
Casey +6%
Morning Call
07/31 - 08/03
550 RV
39%
45%
Casey +6%
Pennsylvania Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Rhode Island Senate Race: Lincoln Chafee (R) vs. Sheldon Whitehouse (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Chafee (R)
Whitehouse (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/16 to 09/18
-
41.7%
44.3%
Whitehouse +2.6%
Brown University
09/16 - 09/18
578 LV
39%
40%
Whitehouse +1%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/13
500 LV
43%
51%
Whitehouse +8%
Fleming
08/16 - 08/21
401 RV
43%
42%
Chafee +1%
Rhode Island Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Tennessee Senate Race: Bob Corker (R) vs. Harold Ford (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Corker (R)
Ford (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/29 to 09/11
-
45.0%
45.0%
Tie
SurveyUSA
09/09 - 09/11
638 LV
45%
48%
Ford +3%
Rasmussen
09/05 - 09/05
500 LV
45%
44%
Corker +1%
Zogby Interactive*
08/29 - 09/05
n/a
45%
43%
Corker +2%
Tennessee Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Virginia Senate Race: George Allen (R) vs. James Webb (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Allen (R)
Webb (D)
Spread
RCP Average
09/05 to 09/12
-
48.0%
43.3%
Allen +4.7%
Rasmussen
09/12 - 09/12
500 LV
50%
43%
Allen +7%
SurveyUSA
09/10 - 09/12
467 LV
48%
45%
Allen +3%
Mason-Dixon
09/05 - 09/07
625 LV
46%
42%
Allen +4%
Virginia Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Washington Senate Race: Mike McGavick (R) vs. Maria Cantwell (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
McGavick (R)
Cantwell (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/25 to 09/06
-
38.0%
51.0%
Cantwell +13.0%
Rasmussen
09/06 - 09/06
500 LV
35%
52%
Cantwell +17%
SurveyUSA
08/28 - 08/29
669 RV
36%
53%
Cantwell +17%
Strategic Vision (R)
08/25 - 08/27
800 LV
43%
48%
Cantwell +5%
Washington Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
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Arizona Connecticut Maryland Michigan Minnesota Missouri Montana New Jersey Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island Tennessee Virginia Washington
Arizona Senate Race: Jon Kyl (R) vs. Jim Pederson (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Kyl (R)
Pederson (D)
Spread
RCP Average
07/14 to 09/18
-
49.0%
39.5%
Kyl +9.5%
Rasmussen
09/18 - 09/18
500 LV
50%
39%
Kyl +11%
SurveyUSA
09/16 - 09/18
472 LV
48%
43%
Kyl +5%
Ariz. State
08/24 - 08/29
846 RV
46%
36%
Kyl +10%
SurveyUSA
07/14 - 07/16
531 RV
52%
40%
Kyl +12%
Arizona Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Connecticut Senate Race: Lieberman (I) vs. Lamont (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Lieberman (I)
Lamont (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/10 to 09/14
-
48.3%
41.0%
Lieberman +7.3%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/14
550 LV
45%
43%
Lieberman +2%
SurveyUSA
09/09 - 09/11
572 LV
51%
38%
Lieberman +13%
American Res. Group
08/17 - 08/21
790 LV
44%
42%
Lieberman +2%
Quinnipiac
08/10 - 08/14
1083 LV
53%
41%
Lieberman +12%
Connecticut Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Maryland Senate Race: Michael Steele vs. Ben Cardin
Poll
Date
Sample
Steele (R)
Cardin (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/18 to 09/13
-
40.7%
47.7%
Cardin +7.0%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/13
500 LV
43%
50%
Cardin +7%
Zogby Interactive*
08/29 - 09/05
n/a
40%
49%
Cardin +9%
Gonzales Res.
08/18 - 08/25
625 LV
39%
44%
Cardin +5%
Maryland Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Michigan Senate Race: Mike Bouchard (R) vs. Debbie Stabenow (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Bouchard (R)
Stabenow (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/28 to 09/17
-
38.8%
52.0%
Stabenow +13.2%
SurveyUSA
09/15 - 09/17
749 LV
41%
54%
Stabenow +13%
Detroit News
09/07 - 09/12
608 LV
34%
53%
Stabenow +19%
Rasmussen
08/31 - 08/31
500 LV
43%
51%
Stabenow +8%
Detroit Free Press
08/28 - 08/30
803 LV
37%
50%
Stabenow +13%
Michigan Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Minnesota Senate Race: Mark Kennedy (R) vs. Amy Klobuchar (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Kennedy (R)
Klobuchar (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/23 to 09/15
-
37.3%
51.0%
Klobuchar +13.7%
Star Tribune
09/13 - 09/15
820 LV
32%
56%
Klobuchar +24%
Rasmussen
08/28 - 08/28
500 LV
40%
47%
Klobuchar +7%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
790 LV
40%
50%
Klobuchar +10%
Minnesota Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Missouri Senate Race: Jim Talent (R) vs. Claire McCaskill (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Talent (R)
McCaskill (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/23 to 09/13
-
46.3%
46.0%
Talent +0.3%
SurveyUSA
09/11 - 09/13
468 LV
47%
48%
McCaskill +1%
Rasmussen
09/11 - 09/11
500 LV
42%
45%
McCaskill +3%
Research 2000
08/28 - 08/31
800 LV
46%
47%
McCaskill +1%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
574 LV
50%
44%
Talent +6%
Missouri Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Montana Senate Race: Conrad Burns (R) vs. Jon Tester (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Burns (R)
Tester (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/08 to 09/12
-
41.7%
48.0%
Tester +6.3%
Rasmussen
09/12 - 09/12
500 LV
43%
52%
Tester +9%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
641 LV
45%
48%
Tester +3%
Lake Research (D)
08/08 - 08/10
600 LV
37%
44%
Tester +7%
Montana Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
New Jersey Senate Race: Thomas Kean, Jr. (R) vs. Robert Menendez (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Kean (R)
Menendez (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/21 to 09/18
-
45.0%
41.0%
Kean +4.0%
Quinnipiac
09/13 - 09/18
688 LV
48%
45%
Kean +3%
Rasmussen
08/28 - 08/28
500 LV
44%
39%
Kean +5%
Fairleigh Dickinson
08/21 - 08/27
651 RV
43%
39%
Kean +4%
New Jersey Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Ohio Senate Race: Mike DeWine (R) vs. Sherrod Brown (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
DeWine (R)
Brown (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/23 to 09/17
-
41.7%
46.0%
Brown +4.3%
Quinnipiac
09/11 - 09/17
876 LV
44%
45%
Brown +1%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/13
500 LV
41%
47%
Brown +6%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
584 LV
40%
46%
Brown +6%
Ohio Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Pennsylvania Senate Race: Rick Santorum (R) vs. Bob Casey (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Santorum (R)
Casey (D)
Spread
RCP Average
07/31 to 08/27
-
39.6%
48.2%
Casey +8.6%
USA Today/Gallup
08/23 - 08/27
600 LV
38%
56%
Casey +18%
Rasmussen
08/22 - 08/22
500 LV
40%
48%
Casey +8%
Keystone Poll
08/16 - 08/21
551 RV
39%
44%
Casey +5%
Quinnipiac
08/08 - 08/13
1011 LV
42%
48%
Casey +6%
Morning Call
07/31 - 08/03
550 RV
39%
45%
Casey +6%
Pennsylvania Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Rhode Island Senate Race: Lincoln Chafee (R) vs. Sheldon Whitehouse (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Chafee (R)
Whitehouse (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/16 to 09/18
-
41.7%
44.3%
Whitehouse +2.6%
Brown University
09/16 - 09/18
578 LV
39%
40%
Whitehouse +1%
Rasmussen
09/13 - 09/13
500 LV
43%
51%
Whitehouse +8%
Fleming
08/16 - 08/21
401 RV
43%
42%
Chafee +1%
Rhode Island Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Tennessee Senate Race: Bob Corker (R) vs. Harold Ford (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Corker (R)
Ford (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/29 to 09/11
-
45.0%
45.0%
Tie
SurveyUSA
09/09 - 09/11
638 LV
45%
48%
Ford +3%
Rasmussen
09/05 - 09/05
500 LV
45%
44%
Corker +1%
Zogby Interactive*
08/29 - 09/05
n/a
45%
43%
Corker +2%
Tennessee Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Virginia Senate Race: George Allen (R) vs. James Webb (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
Allen (R)
Webb (D)
Spread
RCP Average
09/05 to 09/12
-
48.0%
43.3%
Allen +4.7%
Rasmussen
09/12 - 09/12
500 LV
50%
43%
Allen +7%
SurveyUSA
09/10 - 09/12
467 LV
48%
45%
Allen +3%
Mason-Dixon
09/05 - 09/07
625 LV
46%
42%
Allen +4%
Virginia Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
Washington Senate Race: Mike McGavick (R) vs. Maria Cantwell (D)
Poll
Date
Sample
McGavick (R)
Cantwell (D)
Spread
RCP Average
08/25 to 09/06
-
38.0%
51.0%
Cantwell +13.0%
Rasmussen
09/06 - 09/06
500 LV
35%
52%
Cantwell +17%
SurveyUSA
08/28 - 08/29
669 RV
36%
53%
Cantwell +17%
Strategic Vision (R)
08/25 - 08/27
800 LV
43%
48%
Cantwell +5%
Washington Senate Race: All Polls RCP Analysis Demographics Past Election Results
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Monday, September 18, 2006
such a "peaceful" religion....
The Pope must die, says Muslim18.09.06
Add your view
A notorious Muslim extremist told a demonstration in London yesterday that the Pope should face execution.
Anjem Choudary said those who insulted Islam would be "subject to capital punishment".
Should the Pope have apologised for his remarks? Vote here
His remarks came during a protest outside Westminster Cathedral on a day that worldwide anger among Muslim hardliners towards Pope Benedict XVI appeared to deepen.
The pontiff yesterday apologised for causing offence during a lecture last week. Quoting a medieval emperor, his words were taken to mean that he called the prophet Mohammed "evil and inhuman".
He insisted he was "deeply sorry" but his humbling words did not go far enough to silence all his critics or quell the violence and anger he has triggered.
A nun was shot dead in Somalia by Islamic gunmen and churches came under attack in Palestine.
Choudary's appeal for the death of Pope Benedict was the second time he has been linked with apparent incitement to murder within a year.
The 39-year-old lawyer organised
demonstrations against the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in February in Denmark. Protesters carried placards declaring "Behead Those Who Insult Islam".
Yesterday he said: "The Muslims take their religion very seriously and non-Muslims must appreciate that and that must also understand that there may be serious consequences if you insult Islam and the prophet.
"Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment."
He added: "I am here have a peaceful demonstration. But there may be people in Italy or other parts of the world who would carry that out.
"I think that warning needs to be understood by all people who want to insult Islam and want to insult the prophet of Islam."
As well as placards attacking the Pope such as "Pope go to Hell", his followers outside the country's principal Roman Catholic church also waved slogans aimed at offending the sentiments of Christians such as "Jesus is the slave of Allah".
A Scotland Yard spokesman said of his comments: "We have had no complaints about this. There were around 100 people at the demonstration. It passed off peacefully and there were no arrests."
Larger Islamic groups in Britain said they accepted the Pope's apology. Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "The Vatican has moved quickly to deal with the hurt and we accept that.
"It was something that should never have happened - words of that nature were always likely to cause dismay - and we believe some of the Pope's advisers may have been at fault over his speech."
Yesterday's sermon by the Pope was the first time a pontiff has publicly said sorry.
He said he regretted Muslim reaction to his speech and stressed that the quotation did not reflect his personal opinion. Anger and violence - including attacks on seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza - have characterised one of the biggest international crises involving the Vatican in decades.
The Pope appeared determined to move quickly to try to defuse the anger but the fury of many radicals was unabated last night and there were fears for his safety.
Iraqi jihadists issued a video of a scimitar slicing a cross in two, intercut with images of Benedict and the burning Twin Towers.
The website run in the name of the Mujahedeen Army, used by extremist groups who have claimed responsibility for attacks in Iraq, was addressed to "You dog of Rome" and threatened to "shake your thrones and break your crosses in your home".
In a reference to suicide bombing, it said: "We swear to God to send you people who adore death as much as you adore life."
The threat of violence against Catholics and Christians was emphasised by the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia. Sister Leonella, 66, was shot as she walked from the children's hospital where she worked to her house in Mogadishu, a city recently taken over by an Islamic government.
A Vatican spokesman said he feared her death was "the fruit of violence and irrationality arising from the current situation".
Father Frederico Lombardi said he hoped it was an isolated event. "We are worried about this wave of hatred and hope it doesn't have any grave consequences for the Church around the world," he said.
The murder suggested that extremists are determined to use the Pope's embarrassment as an excuse for violence.
In Turkey, state minister Mehmet Aydin said the Pope seemed to be saying he was sorry for the outrage but not necessarily for his remarks.
"You either have to say this, 'I'm sorry' in a proper way or not say it at all," he told reporters in Istanbul.
There were fierce denunciations of the pontiff from Iran. The English-language Tehran Times called his lecture in Bavaria last week "code words for a new crusade".
The powerful cleric Ahmad Khatami told theological students in the holy city of Qom: The "Pope should fall on his knees in front of a senior Muslim cleric and try to understand Islam."
But the Turkish government signalled it was content and that the Pope's visit to the country in November can go ahead.
In his sermon yesterday at the Papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo outside Rome, Benedict spoke amid strengthened security.
He said: "I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.
"These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address."
No other Pope is thought to have made such an apology.
Add your view
A notorious Muslim extremist told a demonstration in London yesterday that the Pope should face execution.
Anjem Choudary said those who insulted Islam would be "subject to capital punishment".
Should the Pope have apologised for his remarks? Vote here
His remarks came during a protest outside Westminster Cathedral on a day that worldwide anger among Muslim hardliners towards Pope Benedict XVI appeared to deepen.
The pontiff yesterday apologised for causing offence during a lecture last week. Quoting a medieval emperor, his words were taken to mean that he called the prophet Mohammed "evil and inhuman".
He insisted he was "deeply sorry" but his humbling words did not go far enough to silence all his critics or quell the violence and anger he has triggered.
A nun was shot dead in Somalia by Islamic gunmen and churches came under attack in Palestine.
Choudary's appeal for the death of Pope Benedict was the second time he has been linked with apparent incitement to murder within a year.
The 39-year-old lawyer organised
demonstrations against the publication of cartoons of Mohammed in February in Denmark. Protesters carried placards declaring "Behead Those Who Insult Islam".
Yesterday he said: "The Muslims take their religion very seriously and non-Muslims must appreciate that and that must also understand that there may be serious consequences if you insult Islam and the prophet.
"Whoever insults the message of Mohammed is going to be subject to capital punishment."
He added: "I am here have a peaceful demonstration. But there may be people in Italy or other parts of the world who would carry that out.
"I think that warning needs to be understood by all people who want to insult Islam and want to insult the prophet of Islam."
As well as placards attacking the Pope such as "Pope go to Hell", his followers outside the country's principal Roman Catholic church also waved slogans aimed at offending the sentiments of Christians such as "Jesus is the slave of Allah".
A Scotland Yard spokesman said of his comments: "We have had no complaints about this. There were around 100 people at the demonstration. It passed off peacefully and there were no arrests."
Larger Islamic groups in Britain said they accepted the Pope's apology. Inayat Bunglawala of the Muslim Council of Britain said: "The Vatican has moved quickly to deal with the hurt and we accept that.
"It was something that should never have happened - words of that nature were always likely to cause dismay - and we believe some of the Pope's advisers may have been at fault over his speech."
Yesterday's sermon by the Pope was the first time a pontiff has publicly said sorry.
He said he regretted Muslim reaction to his speech and stressed that the quotation did not reflect his personal opinion. Anger and violence - including attacks on seven churches in the West Bank and Gaza - have characterised one of the biggest international crises involving the Vatican in decades.
The Pope appeared determined to move quickly to try to defuse the anger but the fury of many radicals was unabated last night and there were fears for his safety.
Iraqi jihadists issued a video of a scimitar slicing a cross in two, intercut with images of Benedict and the burning Twin Towers.
The website run in the name of the Mujahedeen Army, used by extremist groups who have claimed responsibility for attacks in Iraq, was addressed to "You dog of Rome" and threatened to "shake your thrones and break your crosses in your home".
In a reference to suicide bombing, it said: "We swear to God to send you people who adore death as much as you adore life."
The threat of violence against Catholics and Christians was emphasised by the murder of an Italian nun in Somalia. Sister Leonella, 66, was shot as she walked from the children's hospital where she worked to her house in Mogadishu, a city recently taken over by an Islamic government.
A Vatican spokesman said he feared her death was "the fruit of violence and irrationality arising from the current situation".
Father Frederico Lombardi said he hoped it was an isolated event. "We are worried about this wave of hatred and hope it doesn't have any grave consequences for the Church around the world," he said.
The murder suggested that extremists are determined to use the Pope's embarrassment as an excuse for violence.
In Turkey, state minister Mehmet Aydin said the Pope seemed to be saying he was sorry for the outrage but not necessarily for his remarks.
"You either have to say this, 'I'm sorry' in a proper way or not say it at all," he told reporters in Istanbul.
There were fierce denunciations of the pontiff from Iran. The English-language Tehran Times called his lecture in Bavaria last week "code words for a new crusade".
The powerful cleric Ahmad Khatami told theological students in the holy city of Qom: The "Pope should fall on his knees in front of a senior Muslim cleric and try to understand Islam."
But the Turkish government signalled it was content and that the Pope's visit to the country in November can go ahead.
In his sermon yesterday at the Papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo outside Rome, Benedict spoke amid strengthened security.
He said: "I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.
"These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address."
No other Pope is thought to have made such an apology.
Sunday, September 17, 2006
MUSLIMS DID THIS
Italian nun killed;
Pope sorry for Muslim reaction
Pope sorry for Muslim reaction
***scroll for updates***
Shot in the back three times. Fox News says four times in the back by two "armed gunmen" with pistols. The elderly victim worked at a hospital for mothers and children. Her bodyguard and another hospital worker were also murdered.
Animals. Cowards. Barbarians.
Watch as everyone strains to say this hate slaying has nothing to do with jihad and it was "not clear it had anything to do" with Muslim rage over the Pope (hat tip: SOS):
An Italian nun was shot dead at a hospital by Somali gunmen Sunday, hours after a leading Muslim cleric condemned Pope Benedict XVI for his remarks on Islam and violence.The nun, who was not immediately identified, was shot in the back at S.O.S. Hospital in northern Mogadishu by two gunmen, said Mohamed Yusuf, a doctor at the facility, which serves mothers and children. The nun's bodyguard and a hospital worker were also killed, doctors said.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack, and it was not clear if it was directly linked to the pope's comments. Two people had been arrested, said Yusuf Mohamed Siad, head of security for the Islamic militia that controls Mogadishu.
More details from BBC:
The nun, who has not been named, is believed to be in her seventies.The nun was taken into surgery in the Austrian-funded SOS Hospital, in Huriwa district, but she died from her injuries.
A fluent Somali speaker, the nun was one of the longest-serving foreign members of the Catholic Church in Somalia, a former Italian colony.
I remind you again of Somalia's top jihadi cleric's call for death:
Sheikh Abubukar Hassan Malin urged Muslims to find the pontiff and punish him for insulting the Prophet Mohammed and Allah in a speech that he said was as offensive as author Salman Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses."We urge you Muslims wherever you are to hunt down the Pope for his barbaric statements as you have pursued Salman Rushdie, the enemy of Allah who offended our religion," he said in Friday evening prayers.
"Whoever offends our Prophet Mohammed should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim," Malin, a prominent cleric in the Somali capital, told worshippers at a mosque in southern Mogadishu.
"We call on all Islamic Communities across the world to take revenge on the baseless critic called the pope," he said.
***
Here's the word on the Pope's weekly blessing this morning. Read closely. He's not sorry for what he said. Good:
"I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims," he told pilgrims at his Castelgandolfo summer residence."These in fact were a quotation from a medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought. I hope this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with mutual respect," he said.
The comments, part of his regular Sunday Angelus blessing, came at his first public appearance since making the comments on Tuesday. Italian media said security at Castelgandolfo had been tightened.
A bit of clueless editorializing thrown in by the reporter:
It was not immediately clear if the apology would go far enough for Muslim countries and religious groups who remained angry at what they said portrayed Islam as a religion tainted with violence.
Oh, it is very clear. Very clear.
***
Here are the Pope's full remarks this morning:
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The pastoral visit which I recently made to Bavaria was a deep spiritual experience, bringing together personal memories linked to places well known to me and pastoral initiatives towards an effective proclamation of the Gospel for today.
I thank God for the interior joy which he made possible, and I am also grateful to all those who worked hard for the success of this pastoral visit. As is the custom, I will speak more of this during next Wednesday's general audience.
At this time, I wish also to add that I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address at the University of Regensburg, which were considered offensive to the sensibility of Muslims.
These in fact were a quotation from a Medieval text, which do not in any way express my personal thought.
Yesterday, the Cardinal Secretary of State published a statement in this regard in which he explained the true meaning of my words. I hope that this serves to appease hearts and to clarify the true meaning of my address, which in its totality was and is an invitation to frank and sincere dialogue, with great mutual respect.
The Religion of Peace
Firebombs & Fatwas
Firebombs & Fatwas
Yahoo News: Anglican church in Gaza firebombed
***
New item via AINA: "According to the website Islam Memo, one Christian was killed in Baghdad after the Pope's speech two days ago. The speech created a wave of anger throughout the Islamic world, including Iraq. A poster has been placed in many Baghdad mosques for the previously unknown group, "Kataab Ashbal Al Islam Al Salafi," (Islamic Salafist Boy Scout Battalions). This group threatens to kill all Christians in Iraq if the Pope does not apologize in three days in front of the whole world to Mohammed."
Item: Sheikh Abubakar Hassan Malin's fatwa:
"Whoever offends our Prophet Muhammad should be killed on the spot by the nearest Muslim."
Item: Iraqi jihadi threat:
"We swear that we will destroy their cross in the heart of Rome ... and that their Vatican will be hit and wept over by the Pope," said Jaish al-Mujahideen (the Mujahideen's Army) in the statement, whose authenticity could not be confirmed.The statement lashed out at "Zionised Christians and loathsome crusaders" and was accompanied by six films showing attacks against US military targets in Iraq, which it said were "dedicated to the dog of the crusaders (an apparent reference to the Pope) in retaliation for his remarks".
"We will not rest until your thrones and your crosses have been destroyed on your own territory," said the group, which has claimed many attacks against US and government forces in Iraq.
Item: The Taliban demands an apology...or else.
***
More enraged Muslims prove the Pope's point.
An Arab op-ed threatens: Pope's remarks may lead to war.
Security has been tightened for the Pope's weekly Sunday blessing tomorrow. The Pontif will give his traditional Sunday address at midday (2000 AEST) from the balcony of his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, just south of Rome.
***
Father Raymond de Souza speaks out in the National Post: "Rioters' madness shames Muslim world" (hat tip: Jihad Watch). A few excerpts from this must-read:
The eruption of rage in some quarters of the Islamic world against Pope Benedict XVI requires that several tough things be said.Painful though it may be, speaking frankly is necessary if there is to be honest and open dialogue between the Abrahamic faiths. Given the reaction to Benedict's address, though, one wonders if that dialogue is even possible.
The Pope devoted almost 4,000 words to examining the relationship between faith and reason, and the prospect for dialogue between modernity and the world of religion.
In the course of that address he quoted a dialogue recorded between the Byzantine (Christian) Emperor Manuel II Paleologus and an erudite Persian on the subject of Christianity and Islam. The dialogue took place during the siege of Constantinople between 1394 and 1402.
During their conversation, the Pope said, the Emperor "turns to his interlocutor somewhat brusquely with the central question on the relationship between religion and violence in general, in these words: 'Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.' "
Benedict was quoting a 14th-century Christian emperor, under siege from the Ottomans, defending the position that spreading religion by violence is contrary to the nature of God. The Emperor, quite reasonably given his circumstances, suggested to his Persian interlocutor such a view did not prevail in Islamic thought.
In response to this historical excursus in an academic lecture by one of the world's most erudite theologians, we are witnessing a wave of madness and malice, no doubt an embarrassment to millions of Muslims.
An embarrasment to some. An inspiration to far more.
Continuing, de Souza rights the jihadists' historical wrongs:
It does a disservice to children to call the wild-eyed statements and deranged behaviour of the past days childish.It is not only the obscenity of the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist terrorist band suppressed in several Muslim states, demanding an apology from anyone, let alone the Holy Father.
It is not only the grandstanding Pakistani politicians passing resolutions condemning a papal speech few read, and even fewer understood. It is not only the extraneous charges about the Holocaust and Hitler by the agitated and excited.
It is that we have seen this before.
When Pope John Paul II made his epic pilgrimage to the Holy Land, Palestinian Muslim representatives jostled him on the Temple Mount, shouted at him, and, in one episode of maximum rudeness, abandoned him on stage during an interfaith meeting. Bashir Assad, the Syrian President, treated him to an anti-Semitic rant when the late pope visited Syria.
Catholic goodwill toward global Islam is severely attenuated by such continued maltreatment of our universal pastors.
And it is well past time that the maltreatment of history ceased too.
The irony of the accusations that Pope Benedict has a "Crusader mentality" is that he was speaking about the period in which the Crusades themselves took place.
Catholics have for quite some time now confessed the sinful and wicked shadows that marked the Crusades, but any suggestion the whole affair was about rapacious Christians setting upon irenic Muslims must be rejected.
After all, the formerly Christian lands of North Africa, the Middle East and Asia Minor were not converted to Islam by Muslim missionary martyrs. Those lands were conquered by the sword.
The Crusader idea was that they could be recovered. Who wronged who first is a fruitless historical inquiry, but historical honesty requires an admission that Muslims wronged as much as they were wronged against.
The sword of Islam is carried today by self-professed jihadis. In most countries with Muslim majorities, Christians do not have the full freedom to practise their faith without fear.
Whether private harassment or state-sanctioned torture, Christians the world over know all too well that the sword of Islam has not been sheathed. No doubt the extreme reaction to Benedict's address will serve the purpose of keeping local Christians in their place throughout the Islamic world.
For telling these blunt, unshirking truths, Father de Souza will no doubt earn his own firebomb and fatwa squad.
I believe Oriana Fallaci would have approved.
***
Father Samir K. Samir also speaks out:
"Rather than criticizing Islam, the pope is actually offering it a helping hand by suggesting that it do away with the cycle of violence," Fr. Samir K. Samir, SJ one of the Vatican's leading experts on Islam wrote in the Catholic newspaper Asia News.The pope's academic lecture "was trying to show how Western society-including the Church-has become secularized by removing from the concept of Reason its spiritual dimension and origins which are in God," Fr. Samir stated.
...The tragedy in this controversy, Fr. Samir suggested was that "only by listening to the Pope's suggestions, and those of a few Muslim intellectuals, can Islam's chances for renewal become real."
"It is high time that Islam deal with modernity; not to be swallowed up by it, but rather to take what good it has to offer and improve on it," he said.
***
Dafydd has fun with the Dhimmi Times.
Speaking of dhimmis, meet the head of the Coptic Christian church, who has joined jihadists in denouncing the Pope.
***
***
Previous:
Pope Rage on the Internet; church bombings in Gaza
I support the Pope
Oriana Fallaci, RIP, and the Religion of Perpetual Outrage
BINGO!!
| Buchanan sez Bush should be impeached
|
|
|
| |
| "I think he's committed an impeachable offense in refusing to enforce the immigration laws and in failing to uphold the Constitution by defending the states against this invasion," Buchanan told radio talk show host Curt Smith in an interview broadcast yesterday on National Public Radio stations in Buffalo and Rochester. "When you have 6 million people apprehended on the border and several million got in on your watch - and you have the ability to stop it - I think you're derelict in your duty," he said. "And if the President says 'I can't do it,' you need a new President who will do it." "This is not Ellis Island," said Buchanan, who ran for President in 1992. "This is an invasion." |
Thursday, September 14, 2006
right again,anne!
IF ONLY BIN LADEN HAD A STAINED BLUE DRESS ...
September 13, 2006
If you wonder why it took 50 years to get the truth about Joe McCarthy, consider the fanatical campaign of the Clinton acolytes to kill an ABC movie that relies on the 9/11 Commission Report, which whitewashed only 90 percent of Clinton's cowardice and incompetence in the face of terrorism, rather than 100 percent.
Islamic jihadists attacked America year after year throughout the Clinton administration. They did everything but blow up his proverbial "bridge to the 21st century." Every year but one, Clinton found an excuse not to fight back.
The first month Clinton was in office, Islamic terrorists with suspected links to al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center.
For the first time ever, a terrorist act against America was treated not as a matter of national security, but exclusively as a simple criminal offense. The individual bombers were tried in a criminal court. (The one plotter who got away fled to Iraq, that peaceful haven of kite-flying children until Bush invaded and turned it into a nation of dangerous lunatics.)
In 1995 and 1996, various branches of the Religion of Peace — al-Qaida, Hezbollah and the Iranian "Party of God" — staged car bomb attacks on American servicemen in Saudi Arabia, killing 24 members of our military in all. Each time, the Clinton administration came up with an excuse to do nothing.
Despite the Democrats' current claim that only the capture of Osama bin Laden will magically end terrorism forever, Clinton turned down Sudan's offer to hand us bin Laden in 1996. That year, Mohammed Atta proposed the 9/11 attack to bin Laden.
Clinton refused the handover of bin Laden because — he said in taped remarks on Feb. 15, 2002 — "(bin Laden) had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him." Luckily, after 9/11, we can get him on that trespassing charge.
Although Clinton made the criminal justice system the entire U.S. counterterrorism strategy, there was not even an indictment filed after the bombing of either Khobar Towers (1996) or the USS Cole (2000). Indictments were not filed until after Bush/Ashcroft came into office.
Only in 1998 did the Clinton-haters ("normal people") force Clinton into a military response. Solely because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Clinton finally lobbed a few bombs in the general direction of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
In August 1998, three days after Clinton admitted to the nation that he did in fact have "sex with that woman," he bombed Afghanistan and Sudan, doing about as much damage as another Clinton fusillade did to a blue Gap dress.
The day of Clinton's scheduled impeachment, Dec. 18, 1998, he bombed Iraq. This accomplished two things: (1) It delayed his impeachment for one day, and (2) it got a lot of Democrats on record about the monumental danger of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.
So don't tell me impeachment "distracted" Clinton from his aggressive pursuit of terrorists. He never would have bombed anyone if it weren't for the Clinton-haters.
As soon as Clinton was no longer "distracted" by impeachment, he went right back to doing nothing in response to terrorism. In October 2000, al-Qaida bombed the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and nearly sinking the ship.
Clinton did nothing.
According to Rich Miniter, author of "Losing Bin Laden," Clinton's top national security advisers made the following classic Democrat excuses for doing nothing in response to the Cole attack:
— Attorney General Janet Reno "thought retaliation might violate international law and was therefore against it."
— CIA Director George Tenet "wanted more definitive proof that bin Laden was behind the attack, although he personally thought he was."
— Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "was concerned about the reaction of world opinion to a retaliation against Muslims and the impact it would have in the final days of the Clinton Middle East peace process." (How did that turn out, by the way? Big success, I take it? Everybody over there all friendly with one another?)
— Secretary of Defense William Cohen "did not consider the Cole attack 'sufficient provocation' for a military retaliation."
This is only an abbreviated list of Clinton's surrender to Islamic savagery. For a president who supposedly stayed up all night "working" and hated vacations, Clinton sure spent a lot of time sitting around on his butt while America was being attacked.
Less than a year after Clinton's final capitulation to Islamic terrorists, they staged the largest terrorist attack in history on U.S. soil. The Sept. 11 attack, planning for which began in the '90s, followed eight months of President Bush — but eight years of Bill Clinton.
Clinton's own campaign adviser on Iraq, Laurie Mylroie, says Clinton and his advisers are "most culpable" for the intelligence failure that allowed 9/11 to happen.
Now, after five years of no terrorist attacks in America, Democrats are hoping we'll forget the consequences of the Democrat strategy of doing nothing in response to terrorism and abandon the Bush policies that have kept this nation safe since 9/11. But first, they need to rewrite history.
COPYRIGHT 2006 ANN COULTER
September 13, 2006
If you wonder why it took 50 years to get the truth about Joe McCarthy, consider the fanatical campaign of the Clinton acolytes to kill an ABC movie that relies on the 9/11 Commission Report, which whitewashed only 90 percent of Clinton's cowardice and incompetence in the face of terrorism, rather than 100 percent.
Islamic jihadists attacked America year after year throughout the Clinton administration. They did everything but blow up his proverbial "bridge to the 21st century." Every year but one, Clinton found an excuse not to fight back.
The first month Clinton was in office, Islamic terrorists with suspected links to al-Qaida and Saddam Hussein bombed the World Trade Center.
For the first time ever, a terrorist act against America was treated not as a matter of national security, but exclusively as a simple criminal offense. The individual bombers were tried in a criminal court. (The one plotter who got away fled to Iraq, that peaceful haven of kite-flying children until Bush invaded and turned it into a nation of dangerous lunatics.)
In 1995 and 1996, various branches of the Religion of Peace — al-Qaida, Hezbollah and the Iranian "Party of God" — staged car bomb attacks on American servicemen in Saudi Arabia, killing 24 members of our military in all. Each time, the Clinton administration came up with an excuse to do nothing.
Despite the Democrats' current claim that only the capture of Osama bin Laden will magically end terrorism forever, Clinton turned down Sudan's offer to hand us bin Laden in 1996. That year, Mohammed Atta proposed the 9/11 attack to bin Laden.
Clinton refused the handover of bin Laden because — he said in taped remarks on Feb. 15, 2002 — "(bin Laden) had committed no crime against America, so I did not bring him here because we had no basis on which to hold him." Luckily, after 9/11, we can get him on that trespassing charge.
Although Clinton made the criminal justice system the entire U.S. counterterrorism strategy, there was not even an indictment filed after the bombing of either Khobar Towers (1996) or the USS Cole (2000). Indictments were not filed until after Bush/Ashcroft came into office.
Only in 1998 did the Clinton-haters ("normal people") force Clinton into a military response. Solely because of the Monica Lewinsky scandal, Clinton finally lobbed a few bombs in the general direction of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
In August 1998, three days after Clinton admitted to the nation that he did in fact have "sex with that woman," he bombed Afghanistan and Sudan, doing about as much damage as another Clinton fusillade did to a blue Gap dress.
The day of Clinton's scheduled impeachment, Dec. 18, 1998, he bombed Iraq. This accomplished two things: (1) It delayed his impeachment for one day, and (2) it got a lot of Democrats on record about the monumental danger of Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction.
So don't tell me impeachment "distracted" Clinton from his aggressive pursuit of terrorists. He never would have bombed anyone if it weren't for the Clinton-haters.
As soon as Clinton was no longer "distracted" by impeachment, he went right back to doing nothing in response to terrorism. In October 2000, al-Qaida bombed the USS Cole, killing 17 sailors and nearly sinking the ship.
Clinton did nothing.
According to Rich Miniter, author of "Losing Bin Laden," Clinton's top national security advisers made the following classic Democrat excuses for doing nothing in response to the Cole attack:
— Attorney General Janet Reno "thought retaliation might violate international law and was therefore against it."
— CIA Director George Tenet "wanted more definitive proof that bin Laden was behind the attack, although he personally thought he was."
— Secretary of State Madeleine Albright "was concerned about the reaction of world opinion to a retaliation against Muslims and the impact it would have in the final days of the Clinton Middle East peace process." (How did that turn out, by the way? Big success, I take it? Everybody over there all friendly with one another?)
— Secretary of Defense William Cohen "did not consider the Cole attack 'sufficient provocation' for a military retaliation."
This is only an abbreviated list of Clinton's surrender to Islamic savagery. For a president who supposedly stayed up all night "working" and hated vacations, Clinton sure spent a lot of time sitting around on his butt while America was being attacked.
Less than a year after Clinton's final capitulation to Islamic terrorists, they staged the largest terrorist attack in history on U.S. soil. The Sept. 11 attack, planning for which began in the '90s, followed eight months of President Bush — but eight years of Bill Clinton.
Clinton's own campaign adviser on Iraq, Laurie Mylroie, says Clinton and his advisers are "most culpable" for the intelligence failure that allowed 9/11 to happen.
Now, after five years of no terrorist attacks in America, Democrats are hoping we'll forget the consequences of the Democrat strategy of doing nothing in response to terrorism and abandon the Bush policies that have kept this nation safe since 9/11. But first, they need to rewrite history.
COPYRIGHT 2006 ANN COULTER
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
the killers....soon to be a great album...out oct.3...2006
Sam's Town
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 | This article or section contains information about scheduled or expected future album(s). It is likely to contain information of a speculative nature and the content may change dramatically as the album release approaches and more information becomes available. |  |
| Sam's Town | ||
 | ||
| Album by The Killers | ||
| Released | 3 October 2006 | |
| Recorded | 2005-2006 | |
| Genre | Rock | |
| Length | ?:?? | |
| Label | Island, Lizard King | |
| Producer(s) | Flood, Alan Moulder | |
| Professional reviews | ||
|---|---|---|
| The Killers chronology | ||
| Hot Fuss (2004) | Sam's Town (2006) | |
Sam's Town is the second studio album by Las Vegas-based rock band The Killers. It is scheduled to be released on October 2, 2006 in the UK and October 3 in the US by Island Records and Lizard King Records. The first single scheduled for release from the album is "When You Were Young." The second single released will be "Bones", the music video was directed by Tim Burton and has already been shot. It will feature computer graphics, skeletons, and references to Burton's movies among other things.[1] The album is said to be influenced by the works of Bruce Springsteen and Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers, among others.
[edit]
Track listing
- Song times may be a little off
- "Sam's Town" - 3:58
- "Enterlude" - 0:52
- "When You Were Young" - 3:36
- "Bling (Confession of a King)" - 4:03
- "For Reasons Unknown" - 3:28
- "Read My Mind" - 4:04
- "Uncle Johnny" - 4:02
- "Bones" - 3:39
- "My List" - 4:20
- "This River Is Wild" -Time currently unknown
- "Why Do I Keep Counting?" -Time currently unknown
- "Exitlude" -Time currently unknown
- "Where The White Boys Dance (iTunes Bonus Track)" -Time currently unknown
[edit]
Trivia
- The album takes its name from Sam's Town Hotel and Gambling Hall, a hotel-casino in Las Vegas, the hometown of the band.
| The Killers |
| Brandon Flowers | Dave Keuning | Mark Stoermer | Ronnie Vannucci Jr. |
| Discography |
|---|
| Albums: Hot Fuss | Sam's Town |
| Singles & EPs: "Mr. Brightside" | "Somebody Told Me" | "All These Things That I've Done" | "Smile Like You Mean It" | "When You Were Young" |
BUSH...don't worry about illegals....i have comedians to worry about....
Bush to hold diplomatic talks about Cohen
Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.
Cohen, 35, creator of Ali G, has infuriated the Kazakhstan government with his portrayal of Borat, a bumbling Kazakh TV presenter.
And now a movie of Borat's adventures in the US has caused a diplomatic incident.
The opening scene, which shows Borat lustily kissing his sister goodbye and setting off for America in a car pulled by a horse, had audiences in stitches when it was first shown last week.
But the film, which has just premiered at the Toronto Film Festival, has prompted a swift reaction from the Kazakhstan government, which is launching a PR blitz in the States.
Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev is to fly to the US to meet President Bush in the coming weeks and on the agenda will be his country's image.
President Nazarbayev has confirmed his government will buy "educational" TV spots and print advertisements about the "real Kazakhstan" in a bid to save the country's reputation before the film is released in the US in November.
President Nazarbayev will visit the White House and the Bush family compound in Maine when he flies in for talks that will include the fictional character Borat.
But a spokesman for the Kazakhstan Embassy says it is unlikely that President Nazarbayev will find the film funny.
Roman Vassilenko said: "The Government has expressed its displeasure about Borat's representation of our country.
"Our opinion of the character has not changed.
"We understand that the film exposes the hypocrisy that exists both here in the USA and in the UK and understand that Mr Cohen has a right to freedom of speech.
"Nursultan Nazarbayev has taken Mr Bush up on an invitation to visit this country to help build our relationship with the USA.
"I cannot speak for the president himself, only for the government, but I certainly don't think President Nazarbayev and Mr Bush will share a joke about the film.
"The bottom line is we want people to know that he does not represent the true people of Kazakhstan."
The Kazakh government has previously threatened Baron-Cohen with legal action, for allowing Borat to, among other things, make fun of his homeland, demean women, slander gypsies and urge listeners to "Throw the Jew Down the Well."
Anti-Borat hard-liners have pulled the plug on borat.kz, Borat's Kazakhstan-based Website after his frequent displays of anti-Semitism and his portrayal of Kazakh culture.
Nurlan Isin, President of the Association of Kazakh IT Companies took the action after complaints.
He said: "We've done this so he can't badmouth Kazakhstan under the .kz domain name.
"He can go and do whatever he wants at other domains."
The row originally erupted in November 2005, following Borat's hosting of the MTV Europe Music Awards in Lisbon.
The Kazakh Foreign Ministry was furious over Cohen's bad taste representation of the nation.
'No such thing as bad publicity'
Foreign Ministry spokesman Yerzhan Ashykbayev told a news conference: "We view Mr. Cohen's behaviour at the MTV Europe Music Awards as utterly unacceptable, being a concoction of bad taste and ill manners which is completely incompatible with the ethics and civilized behaviour of Kazakhstan's people.
"We reserve the right to any legal action to prevent new pranks of the kind."
Baron Cohen responded to Ashykbayev in character by posting a video on the Official Borat website.
In the video, Borat said, "In response to Mr. Ashykbayev's comments, I'd like to state I have no connection with Mr. Cohen and fully support my Government's decision to sue this Jew.
"Since the 2003 Tuleyakiv reforms, Kazakhstan is as civilized as any other country in the world.
"Women can now travel on inside of bus, homosexuals no longer have to wear blue hats, and age of consent has been raised to eight years old."
His blatant outpouring then prompted the Kazakh government to hire two public relations firms to counter the claims, and ran a four-page advertisement in The New York Times.
The ad carried testimonials about the nation's democracy, education system and the power and influence enjoyed by women. News of President Nazarbayev's upcoming visit has prompted experts to study the character's impact on US culture.
Sean R. Roberts, Central Asian Affairs Fellow at Georgetown University, has been studying the phenomenon.
He said: "I have found that more Americans are aware of Kazakhstan than four years ago when I last lived in the United States.
"The increased knowledge of Kazakhstan, however, is not due to the country's economic successes or its role as a U.S. ally in the war on terror.
"Instead, most Americans who have heard of Kazakhstan have heard of it through a satire of a Kazakh journalist named Borat.
"Borat certainly does not promote an image of Kazakhstan that is in sync with that which the government and its leader would like to promote abroad.
"As the old adage goes, however, 'there is no such thing as bad publicity.'
"If that is true, Borat is bringing much more publicity to Kazakhstan."
Cohen's representatives refused to allow him or his alter ego to respond to the controversy because it's not close enough to the film's release date.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
MUSLIMS DID THIS...
EYEWITNESS TO STONING WOMAN IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR ADULTERY When the Arabs attack Israelis with stones they call it NON-VIOLENCE. The media and most people agree. Read below and see just how non-violent it is.]
When I was sent to Riyadh for a month to work with the US Air Force for a joint assignment, I never realized the sights I'd see. One of them was a public stoning. All I saw was a woman standing in a hole tied to a post, she was shoulder deep in the hole. The guy I was with wanted to see it. It's rare that westerners are even allowed to see this They gathered around this poor girl for around an hour, throwing rocks at her.Stoning a human to deathDear readers, please put on your thinking cap and imagine a mental picture of the following story.A deep hole is dug in the ground. A 30 year old lady, tied up from feet to shoulders, as a stick, is lowered alive into this hole, in a standing position. Only her neck and head are visible. Can you imagine a human head sticking above ground?When the order is given, a man throws a fist-sized stone at her protruding head. The stone hits her head with a thud. She screems in pain as the blood oozes down her face. Another man picks up a stone and scraps the side of her head drawing a lateral line of blood. She cries and screems in excruciating pain. Since it is a free for all, a teenage spectator from this open playing field, tries his luck, but misses her head completely. Another aims at her and flings it with force. The stone hits its intended target, her forehead.
She screems and cries loudly for mercy. There is now a gash on her forehead. Blood spurting out, down her eyes, nose, cheeks, mouth and down to the ground. She cries out for mercy but to not avail. The minutes become an hour, between the many misses, scraps, nicks, chips and strikes. Another spectator flings forcefully at her.The stone hits the bridge of her nose with another thud. She screems again and again. This time the blood comes down from inside and outside her nose. Probably, her nasal bridge-bone is broken, causing the bleeding from inside her nostrils as well. Though her wounds are grave, as you can imagine, her screems by now are not as vociferous as earlier, and her tears help to wash some of the blood on her cheeks. Her vision has completely gone with the blood coating.The next stone hits her again. A piece of flesh pops out. No, its not, oh god, it really can't be her eye-ball. It is so bloody that you cann't really make out. By this time, blood has covered her entire face and the ground in front of her.She still makes groaning sounds. More time pass. Stoning her, continues. Her sounds are less and less audible. Her face has become unrecognisable. Flesh, like mashed meat is her face, but only more bloody, as she now literally has no human face. Small strips of flesh, like locks of hair are hanging from her. Her head is now droopping forward. At this stage a hit on her make splashes of blood. She has stopped making a sound for the last two stone pelting. Two hours have passed. The Islamic authorities check her neck for pulse. It is still beating but barely, due to the loss of blood. A flesh piece drops off her head, as the stoning process continues.Finally,death comes to this lady. She is then left there for a few more hours for the spectators to see, because this is a public lesson for all muslim females, who commit adultery.Then her father and relatives are allowed to dig her body, and bring it above ground. Pieces of her flesh, lying on the ground, is collected and because she has no face, it is put back on the front of her head, and bundled up. Now readers, imagine that is your mother, or your daughter, or sister, or even you, yourself. DNA is not accepted in Islam, but at least 4 witnesses of reputable character, should give testimony of the actual penetration of the sexual intercourse to convict him. You might ask, who has sexual intercourse in front of 4 witnesses? I can also ask you "how can you consider 4 men watching others' sexual intercourse, as reputable characters?".But, there is no question or denying that this is not a traditonal, customary, cultural or a kangaroo court, but a legal Islamic court, with legal Islamic judges and legal expert Islamic officials, in the muslim state of Bakori ( Nigeria), of the legal Government, democratically elected by the Muslim citizens of this state. These are the undeniable authentic facts, which no amount of words or actions can ever repudiate.Hear the deafening silence of the 1 billion muslims worldwide, who are in a vigorous fit of inactivity, calmly pretending not to know. But, the balance 5/6th of the world, (1.5 billion Christians, 1.1 billion Taoists, 1 billion Hindus, 700 million Bhuddists and others) can do something to stop this barbarism of the middle-east.
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