Is The Government of Iraq About To Fall?

Iraqi Government In Deepest Crisis

US and Iraqi officials are trying to prevent complete disintegration

By Sam Dagher, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the July 27, 2007 edition

Baghdad - Iraq is in the throes of its worst political crisis since the fall of Saddam Hussein with the new democratic system, based on national consensus among its ethnic and sectarian groups, appearing dangerously close to collapsing, say several politicians and analysts.

This has brought paralysis to governmental institutions and has left parliament unable to make headway on 18 benchmarks Washington is using to measure progress in Iraq, including legislation on oil revenue sharing and reforming security forces.

And the disconnect between Baghdad and Washington over the urgency for solutions is growing. The Iraqi parliament is set for an August vacation as the Bush administration faces pressure to show progress in time for a September report to Congress.

... read the entire 3 pages; CSM did a very thorough job!

The Country Is Going To The Dogs!

Dog Registered to Vote: It's So Easy!
(HT: Tigress)
The second time Duncan M. MacDonald sent in an absentee ballot, an election worker in Federal Way, Wash., called to ask about the paw print on the envelope. But it took three ballots before the prosecutor contacted the voting dog's owner.

Jane Balogh said she registered the Australian shepherd-terrier mix to vote in protest of a 2005 state voter-registration law that she says makes it too easy for noncitizens to vote.
She put her phone bill in Duncan's name, then used the phone bill as identification to register him as a voter.

"I wasn't trying to do anything fraudulent. I was trying to prove that our system is flawed. So I got myself in trouble," she says.

Prosecutors have offered the grandmother and Army veteran a deal: plead guilty to a misdemeanor charge of making a false statement to a public official and they will not file a felony charge of providing false information on a voter-registration application.

... and they wonder why we don't want ILLEGALS in the country!

Garner - Washington Times

Iran is Nuclear; Deal With It, Says IAEA's ElBaradei

Iran's progress in enriching uranium has rendered unrealistic world powers' quest to prevent Tehran from gaining nuclear expertise, the U.N. atomic watchdog agency director said. Mohamed ElBaradei did not take issue with a U.N. Security Council demand that Iran suspend enrichment in exchange for a suspension of sanctions against it and talks on a solution that would allay suspicion Tehran is trying to build atom bombs.

"Quite clearly, suspension is a requirement by the Security Council, and I would hope the Iranians would listen to the world community," ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said in remarks published by the New York Times and confirmed by an IAEA official.

"But from a proliferation perspective, the fact of the matter is that one of the purposes of suspension - keeping them from getting the knowledge - has been overtaken by events," ElBaradei said.

... firstly, ElBaradei heading the IAEA is like al Sadr controlling the Catholic church; secondly, the Bush admin was never going to do anything about Iran anyway. Israel, it's your move (but your leadership is as weak as ours!)

A LOST Presidency?

Any minute now, President Bush is going to make a fateful mistake. He will announce that his administration will make a concerted effort to secure the prompt ratification of a deeply flawed multilateral accord universally known by its acronym – LOST, as in the Law of the Sea Treaty.

... roughly 60 percent of LOST’s provisions have to do with the supranational management of two-thirds of the world’s surface and its resources.

... photo is the USS Pueblo. remember her? If America wishes to continue to press its power via the world's oceans, signing this into Law will be a gross mistake. Any action taken by the American Navy in International waters could be adjudicated and made null and void!

How Low Can You Go?

Approval Ratings:

Bush - 28%

Cheney - 22%

Pelosi - 30 %

Reid - 22%

... geez, they all have higher marks than I realized!

Refusing To Hold Leaders Responsible - Nation's Border Agents Have No Confidence in Chief

(CNSNews.com) - Fed up with what they see as poor management and a lack of support for those on the frontline, U.S. Border Patrol agents Monday announced a lack of confidence in their leadership.

Amid rallies in Washington D.C. focusing on illegal immigration, leaders of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) - the union representing the country's 11,000 non-supervisory border agents - announced it had cast a unanimous no-confidence vote in U.S. Border Patrol Chief David V. Aguilar.The 100-0 vote stemmed from complaints that field agents lack support from the top, a situation they say is exemplified by the case of two agents in Texas, jailed after shooting a Mexican trying to bring drugs into the country. The resolution cited the chief's willingness to believe what it called the "perjured allegations" of criminal aliens over his own agents.

... their leadership is doing EXACTLY what G.W. Bush wants, BTW!

Irresponsibility: At The Border, On The G.W.O.T. - Now, Contaminated Food!

WASHINGTON — Just 1.3 percent of imported fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods are inspected — yet those government inspections regularly reveal food unfit for human consumption.

Frozen catfish from China, beans from Belgium, jalapenos from Peru, blackberries from Guatemala, baked goods from Canada, India and the Philippines — the list of tainted food detained at the border by the Food and Drug Administration stretches on.

Add to that the contaminated Chinese wheat gluten that poisoned cats and dogs nationwide and led to a massive pet food recall, and you've got a real international pickle. Does the United States have the wherewithal to ensure the food it imports is safe?

Food safety experts say no.

... folks, this is called, "public endangerment" and you can thank Congress, the FDA and the Bush Administration !

Bush Admin Enabling Terror - Clinton Style!

According to the agreement signed in Beijing on Feb. 13, 2007, North Korea was to “shut down and seal the Yongbyon nuclear reactor for the purpose of abandonment” as of today. (April 13th)

That was the condition for U.S. aid and incentives to North Korea set by Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice when she announced the six-party agreement to bring North Korea’s multi-faceted nuclear weapons programs under international control, and ultimately dismantle them.

As expected, the minute the agreement was signed the North Koreans charged forward at top speed – not to implement it, but to stall, while insisting vociferously that they must reap all the promised fruits.

Former Undersecretary of State and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John R. Bolton does not believe the North Koreans will ever get rid of their nuclear weapons because they are “integral to the survival of King Jong Il’s regime.”

Speaking at the American Enterprise Institute on April 5 along with AEI scholars Nicholas Eberhardt and Dan Blumenthal, Bolton argued that nuclear weapons were North Korea’s “ultimate trump card against the United States, Japan, China,” and indeed, against the North Korean people. “North Korea cannot give those weapons up in a way that we would consider acceptable and verifiable without fundamentally undermining the regime itself.”

President Bush set a high standard shortly after the agreement was announced two months ago.

“Those who say that the North Koreans have got to prove themselves by actually following through on the deal are right. And I’m one of them,” he said “[N]ow it’s up to the North Koreans to do that which they say they will do.”

And today, we can see that they haven’t. So what are we going to do about it?

According to Bolton, very little.

Asymmetrical Warfare - Recent Terrorist Attacks In America?

Muslim Cabbies

Contaminated Listerine

Poison Pet Food

Flying Imams

These things are right out of the aQ playbook. Why is it nobody seems to notice?

Harassment is pure unadulterated Guerrilla Warfare. A good team will harass, cajole, pin-prick, kill, maim, and "bother" the enemy in ANY WAY POSSIBLE! Do we have any thinkers left in government?

Another Job Left Undone - A Continuous String Of Errors

Radical Cleric Calls on Iraqis to Halt Cooperation With U.S. Military

The man who should be dead, the renegade cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, urged Iraqi forces to stop cooperating with the United States and told his guerrilla fighters to concentrate their attacks on American troops rather than Iraqis, according to a statement issued Sunday.

Al Sadr's supposed statement cannot be verified, but the effect will be enormous! It comes right after Petraeus' Beg Letter. We can only hope this is a sign of desperation on al Sadr's part!?!

What Lack Of Conviction Leads To - Ralph Peters Discusses The Iraq War

Peters: The mistakes are legion. To cite only a few: Not enough troops early on; the unwillingness to impose security in the streets after Baghdad’s fall (the administration feared the media would carp about any crackdown); trusting partisan émigrés who had narrow, selfish agendas; turning Iraq into a looting orgy for U.S. contractors; the refusal to listen to military advice in wartime; forbidding the military to plan for an occupation; failing to field a unified chain of command; the hubris of sending young, inept party hacks to Baghdad for brief, ticket-punch stints to reconstruct a complex country; the lack of seriousness about defeating the insurgency early on; the lack of resolve to kill Muqtada al-Sadr when he began his campaign of assassinating our allies; disbanding the Iraqi military and government, thus putting idle young males out of work and on the streets; allowing private security contractors to alienate the Iraqi population; and the general lack of courage and will in the administration after Baghdad fell—the dog caught the fire truck and didn’t know what to do with it. President Bush did a noble thing, but did it inexcusably badly.

... read the entire interview. You may speak of hindsight being 20/20, but it would be an untruth in this case. All these items were concerns early on and rejected out of hand by the Bush Administration! The interview also covers the De-Christianization of Europe.

Unwilling To Fight

Doug over at the Elephant Bar made this comment:

Steve Emerson says use of the word "Islamic" is no longer acceptable: FBI Unit just refers to "Radical," not Radical Islamist.Governments, Colleges, Police, MSM all tend to longer use the term. CAIR, et al, solicited for their "help," from Whitehouse on down.

The Long Non-War w/No Enemy!

Doug has hit the nail on the head once again. This President is a non-fighter. He is timid and weak. Just yesterday he gave us another example:

White House retreats on pick for ambassador

Mr. Bush pulled the nomination of businessman Sam Fox, who helped raise $200,000 for the president's re-election campaign, as ambassador to Belgium hours before a Senate committee vote. But the White House move came weeks after Mr. Fox's $50,000 donation to the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth was disclosed by Democrats on the Foreign Relations Committee.

... Mr. President, don't you know an individual is allowed to express their political leanings? Mr. Fox did NOTHING wrong, except; align himself with such a PC LIBERAL as you. Just ask Mr. Bolton. Take Ann Coulter's suggestion; STOP BEING SO DAMN SORRY FOR EVERYTHING!

Photo by AP

Going After U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton

The U.S. Attorney who so aggressively sought Ramos' and Compean's prosecution is now, himself, being viewed under a microscope!

The Texas juvenile justice sexual abuse scandal – in which Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton are accused of failing to take action – is a broader scandal that was covered up for two years, involving hundreds of serious complaints and investigations against dozens of staff members, according to officials.

The Texas Youth Commission scandal went unnoticed, says Texas Ranger Brian Burzynski, despite his numerous attempts, beginning in early 2005, to get local, state and federal prosecutors to investigate allegations teachers, administrators and guards had sex with minor male inmates.

Burzynski exposed the situation March 8 in testimony to the Texas legislature's Joint Committee on Operation and Management of the TYC. He stated he began his investigation Feb. 23, 2005, after a phone call from a teacher at the West Texas state school in Pyote, Texas, alleging another teacher at the school was involved in sexual misconduct with boy inmates.

... in a related article, AG Gonzales involved in cover-up!

Those No-Balls, Gutless Republicans!

The Phoniest Scandal of the Century (So Far)

When will the Bush administration grow some guts? Except for its resolute — read: stubborn — position on Iraq, the White House seems incapable of standing up for itself and battling for its point of view. The Democratic assault on the administration over the dismissal of United States attorneys is the most fabricated and phony of scandals, but the Bush people offer only craven apologies, half-hearted defenses, and concessions. Instead, they should stand up to the Democrats and defend the conduct of their own Justice Department.

... Eunuchs all; even the women! : )

The Unavoidable War With Islam

Glenn Beck calls this, the building of the perfect storm. Others call it incompetence and weakness delaying the inevitable. Here it is from someone who knows - An Arab Christian.

“I have to tell you something which very few of you seem to comprehend.” He continued, “Your bungling war against a few thousand Hezbollah fighters which you should have crushed no matter what, considering the importance of the outcome, has created a completely new situation, not only for this area, but globally. Your inept leadership totally misunderstood the importance of winning this war."

“The American bungling of the war in Iraq only added to their conviction that victory not only over Israel but also over the West is not only possible, but certain. The ramifications of these two bungling wars may bring an Islamic bloody Tsunami all over the West, not only in Israel. The sharks smell blood and these two wars gave them the green light to attack sooner than they had in mind. Your problem is that you are on the defensive and they have the option to choose the time and the places when and where to attack and there is nothing much you can do about it. When will you Westerners realize that half measures don’t work with people who are willing to die by the thousands for Allah to achieve their goal? In their eyes the Western World is simply an abomination on earth that has to be wiped out.”

Bush Enables Terrorism - C.A.I.R. To Meet At White House

What would you say if you knew your President supported groups linked to Terrorism? Well, it's true; and it's been happening for years!

... CAIR officials have been charged with -- and some convicted of -- offenses related to the support of terrorism, including CAIR fundraiser Rabih Haddad, founding board member Ghassan Elashi and former CAIR civil rights coordinator Randall Royer.

"We know [CAIR] has ties to terrorism," said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat and vice chairman of the party's Senate conference. He also criticized the group for having "intimate links with Hamas."

CAIR also was named as a defendant in a class-action lawsuit relating to the September 11 attacks.

Prominent lawmakers, watchdog organizations and law-enforcement authorities insist CAIR has terrorist ties, despite the group's endorsement by Republican and Democratic leaders, including President Bush and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, California Democrat. (also supported by Jeb Bush)

... in a related story, U.S. Visa policy welcomes British homegrown Jihadists!

The Continuing Degradation of American Universities

... FrontPageMag is publishing a terrific 14 part study of indoctrination activities at American universities. Here is the latest installment. All 14 can be accessed here.

The function of the university is to seek and to transmit knowledge and to train students in the processes whereby truth is to be made known. To convert, or to make converts, is alien and hostile to this dispassionate duty. Where it becomes necessary in performing this function of a university, to consider political, social, or sectarian movements, they are dissected and examined, not taught, and the conclusion left, with no tipping of the scales, to the logic of the facts…. Essentially the freedom of a university is the freedom of competent persons in the classroom. In order to protect this freedom, the University assumed the right to prevent exploitation of its prestige by unqualified persons or by those who would use it as a platform for propaganda. - Robert Gordon Sproul, president of the University of California, 1934.

Eyes Wide Open, But Unable To See

Peace=Capitulation - The Neverending Process.

It must be hard to be Condoleezza Rice. Being the umpteenth envoy assigned to bang your head against the wall called “Mideast peace” is hardly enviable. Each trip, she must hold up the flimsiest straw — last week, the fact of a meeting — and call it progress.

From Rice’s point of view, the situation must seem quite absurd. She must ask herself, don’t the Palestinians realize that if they just stop “struggling” they can have the state they are struggling for? Perhaps she wonders: why don’t Israelis see that, if they just put their cards on the table, the Palestinians are exhausted and ready for a deal?

In Western eyes, peace is so obviously desirable that the idea that it could be seen negatively is rarely considered. But try, for a moment, to look at the situation through Arab eyes. Peace would be the ultimate ratification of Israel’s existence. It would be seen as an abject surrender to the West’s bid to dominate the Arabs.

When it comes to a “political horizon,” the problem is not that the Arabs cannot see a Palestinian state, but that they can see a Jewish one.

You Can Have It With Sugar On Top - Sweetening Kim's Deal

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation,

To puff and look important and to say:

—“Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.

We will therefore pay you cash to go away.” And that is called paying the Dane-geld;

But we’ve proved it again and again,That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld

You never get rid of the Dane.

Rupyard Kipling

The Dane in this week’s crisis is Kim Jong Il, the grand panjandrum of North Korea. Last week there was modified rapture in the chancelleries of the six great powers engaged in talking to Kim—Japan, China, Russia, India, South Korea and the United States—because they had negotiated a brand new compromise with him.

... also known as the "appearance" of success!