The Scriptorium

President Bush’s nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O’Connor is drawing considerable praise from pro-family values advocates.

President Bush’s nomination of Samuel Alito to the U.S. Supreme Court is getting rave reviews from the pro-family community. Basically saying the president “got it right this time,” they are applauding Alito’s nomination — despite the fact it may take a major battle in the Senate to get the experienced federal judge approved for the high court.
…
Pat Mahoney of the Christian Defense Coalition says Alito is well-known among conservatives. So much so, he says, that “in conservative circles, he’s referred to as ‘Scalito’ — because of his close judicial philosophy to Justice [Antonin] Scalia.”

Gary Bauer of American Values agrees with the president’s choice. “This appointment is a grand slam home run,” Bauer says. “The president has really gotten back to the basics here by nominating a mainstream conservative. Obviously there will be a fight, but it’s a fight worth having with people like Ted Kennedy and the other far-left senators.”

Bauer expects pro-family and Christian activists to rally behind the president. Mahoney concurs, saying he expects conservative Christians to be pleased with the nomination of Alito. “I think the president is now fulfilling a campaign promise,” he says. And because of that, the activist expects conservatives will support the president to push this nomination through the process.

Agape Press Article

We bring you sad news of Pastor Kyle Lake, who went to be with the Lord after being electrocuted in front of his congregation. Pastor Lake was performing baptisms during a particularly well-attended service at University Baptist Church in Waco, Texas. Pastor Lake was electrocuted when he grabbed a microphone while standing in the baptistry. The woman who was being baptized was not seriously hurt. There is no explanation other than God wanted him home. 33-year-old Pastor Lake leaves behind a wife and three children. If you wish to make a donation, please do so here.

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13, Paul tells us that Christians don’t grieve in the same manner as those who have no hope. All who have accepted Christ as Savior will one day be reuinited with Pastor Lake, or have the chance to meet him for the first time. However, this does not mean his family and friends will feel no grief. We ask you to join us in lifting the Lake family and Paster Kyle Lake’s friends to the Lord in prayer.

There is hope for the United Methodist Church! As with other “mainline” Protestant denominations, the UMC has had its share of internal strife over their ban on “self-avowed, practicing homosexual” clergy. One of the battles has been waged over Beth Stroud, a lesbian minister from Philadelphia. She was originally removed from her post, then a church appeals court reversed that decision. The Judicial Council has reversed the appeals court, defrocking her. It’s hard for me to understand how there could even be debate in light of the Bible’s clear condemnation of homosexuality, but this is a move in the right direction for the UMC.

The ruling today (October 31) by the nine-member Judicial Council said the associate pastor, Beth Stroud, violated the Methodists’ ban on “self-avowed, practicing homosexual” clergy. In its ruling, the Council said a Northeastern Jurisdiction Appeals Court “erred in reversing and setting aside the verdict and penalty” from Stroud’s trial last December.

Stroud has been at Philadelphia’s First United Methodist Church of Germantown since 1999. She said she decided to “come out” two years ago because hiding the truth was interfering with her religious faith. A complaint was filed against her last year. She said today’s decision against her indicates that “the existing discrimination in the United Methodist Church is clear.”

Mark Tooley with the Institute on Religion and Democracy says he is pleased with the outcome, which he accurately predicted last week. Tooley says the ruling shows that the United Methodist Church, the third-largest denomination in the United States, “is not going to follow the direction of the Episcopal Church,” which consecrated an openly homosexual bishop two years ago.

Instead, says Tooley, the UMC is “moving in a more orthodox direction and is increasingly more attuned to growing international Christianity — and it will uphold traditional Christian teachings regarding marriage and sex.”

The “traditional Christian teachings” to which Tooley referred are found, of all places, in the Bible . To read more about the biblical perspective on homosexuality, click here, and here, and here.

With the indictments of Tom Delay and Scooter Libby, the ignorance of many with regards to the nature of grand juries and indictments have surfaced and parroted by the MSM. Many of my liberal associates have gleefully asked my opinion now that Delay and Libby have been “convicted” by grand juries. A Reuters story carried in the Washington Post had to be corrected after calling Congressman Delay an “indicted felon”. The truth is that grand jury indictments do not constitute a conviction at all, but rather a bringing of charges. It is basically a fancy way to arrive at an accusation, nothing more.

Grand juries differ from trial juries in many ways, but most notably in the following manner:

• Grand juries serve a term, typically of one year, and
  meet two to three days per month (typically)
• Grand jury proceedings lack a judge.
• Grand jury proceedings hear evidence only from the prosecution – no defense is presented.
• Under most circumstances the target of a grand jury investigation is not present for any of the proceedings, nor is their legal representation.
• In many cases, the target of a grand jury does not even know they’re under investigation!
• The burden of proof is less in a grand jury than in a jury trial

Given the circumstances above, you can see that the accused is not usually offered the opportunity to offer potentially or conclusively exculpatory evidence on their own behalf during grand jury proceedings. Grand juries receive instructions in law from the prosecution, not from a judge. When they choose to indict, it is simply an acknowledgement that enough evidence exists to CHARGE somebody with an offense. They are in no way found guilty of the offense through a grand jury indictment. In fact, many indicted persons have had their cases dropped or had a finding of summary judgment in their favor after producing exculpatory evidence which they could not present to the grand jury. In the case of Tom Delay, the prosecutor had two consecutive grand juries return “no true bill” (meaning they found insufficient evidence to indict) before getting a third grand jury to issue an indictment. At least one of those indictments stands to be dismissed prior to the trial.

In ways, the grand jury is the most democratic application of the judicial process, as one is charged by a jury, rather than a single prosecutor. However, a prosecutor with an agenda has almost free-reign to manipulate and mislead a grand jury in order to bring an indictment. In today’s politically-charged and factually challenged environment, fed by the equally factually challenged MSM, an indictment is broadcast as a conviction. People are tried in the media without due process, and even if they are able to win an acquittal or dismissal of charges, their names are never truly cleared. Their careers can be ruined by the simple accusation. Let’s not fan the flames by feeding the mass of misinformation with regards to indictments. Let the accused present their defense and hold true to this nation’s legal philosophy that an accused person is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a COURT TRIAL.

It looks like things are heating up in Israel again. Encouraged by the victory in Gaza, Pali terrorists are positioning rockets for attacks on Jerusalem and Tel Aviv. What will Sharon do now? He can’t hardly hand Jerusalem over to the terrorists. Even his leftist Allies in Israel wouldn’t support that. If he thinks his cowardly retreat from Gaza will gain him support from the rest of the world, he’ll be sorely disappointed when any retaliation for attacks on Jerusalem are roundly condemned as more Israeli aggression. And the cycle of Muslim violence goes on.

Israel today revealed it arrested three terrorists on their way to set up Qassam rocket manufacturing abilities in the West Bank, sparking fears Palestinian groups will soon be able to fire rockets and mortars at nearby Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.

The arrests of the terrorists, members of the umbrella group Popular Resistance Committees, follow a WorldNetDaily interview last week in which the Committees spokesman warned his organization transported missile technology from Gaza to the West Bank and is planning to fire rockets and mortars at Jewish homes in the West Bank, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Israel said it caught the three Committees members crossing from Egypt into the northern Negev, and said interrogations revealed they received funds and training from Hezbollah to set up Qassam factories in the West Bank. The Committees is a network of Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Fatah terrorists responsible for many of the rockets that have been fired from Gaza. The three were reportedly caught carrying a computer memory drive containing information prepared by Hezbollah on the manufacturing of bombs.

According to Israel’s Shin Bet Security Services, one of the terrorists confessed to launching Qassam rockets against Israel in Gaza and carrying out numerous bombing and shooting attacks, including involvement in planting a roadside bomb in 2002 near a Gaza Jewish community that killed three Israeli soldiers. . . . . .

If this actually surprises anyone, you haven’t been paying attention (Hat tip: Jesus_is_Lord):

If a pair of visiting scholars, speaking this week at Florida Southern College’s annual Bible Symposium, are correct, practically everything most people believe the Scriptures teach about sex is wrong.

The topic of this year’s symposium, the Lakeland Ledger reported, was “Sex, Love and Marriage in Scripture and Tradition.” Two of the presentations, however, were less than traditional, and many would say, unscriptural.

[snip]…

James L. Crenshaw, professor of Old Testament at Duke Divinity School, questioned Scripture’s authority to govern matters of sexuality – the Old Testament text, he argued, was written over 12 centuries under a variety of shifting circumstances. It is the reader, he argued, that determines the text’s meaning.

“We possess no statement describing a normative practice” of sex and marriage, he told the attendees.
…
Given the lack of a cohesive approach to sexuality in the Bible, Crenshaw argued “those who practice alternative sexual lifestyles” should not be condemned.

[snip]…

The second speaker, L. William Countryman, professor of biblical studies at The Church Divinity School of the Pacific, is an ordained priest in the Episcopal Church and has been outspoken in debates over homosexuality in the clergy of that denomination. For Countryman, it is the gospel, – “the good news that God made us all alike and loves us all equally” – that has primacy. He has chastised those Anglicans opposed to the consecration of openly homosexual Gene Robinson as bishop of New Hampshire, for “their arrogance in commandeering Scripture as their peculiar property.”

At the Lakeland symposium, Countryman offered his own “peculiar” take on the well-known passage on homosexuality found in the first chapter of Romans.

[snip]…

“The language is harsh,” Countryman conceded, “but Paul doesn’t say explicitly that it is sinful. … All we can say is that the case isn’t very strong. For myself, I’m frankly unconvinced,” he concluded. “Most important of all, the gospel doesn’t enter into it.”

Passages like this, Countryman said, have to be interpreted as part of Paul’s entire message in Romans – that Jews and gentiles should not feel superior toward each other.

We have here someone from the United Methodist Church and the Episcopal Church (two denominations well known for watering down the biblical teaching on homosexuality) who refuse to accept the clear teaching of the Bible as it pertains to homosexuality. When you read the Bible as a whole, you cannot escape the conclusion that homosexuality is a sin. The only way to claim otherwise is to deny the divine inspiration of the Bible. Such a perspective is false at its foundation. Unlike other literary works from antiquity, such as Homer’s Iliad, the Bible stands alone as the inerrant Word of God.

For more information on the Biblical perspective on homosexuality, see here, here, and here.

Reuters has spewed its spin on the beheadings in Indonesia. The problem is not Islamic terrorism in Indonesia, a country where Al Qaeda had a large presence. According to Reuters, the problem is “sectarian violence”. No specific religion need be blamed because Christians live in the area where there has been a history of violence, bombings, and beheadings. As long as you don’t point out that Muslims have been trying to exterminate the Christians in Indonesia for years, you have the perfect, politically correct, Al Reuters news report. If you’ve read any of Osama’s letters, or taken a look at the Koran, it’s obvious that Islam’s goal is to kill all Jews and Christians and conquer the world for Islam. If our media and our government continue to call Islamic terrorism against Jews and Christians “sectarian violence” or present it as both sides warring against each other, Christians will continue to die in countries around the world (Africa, the U.S., Indonesia. . . . ).

Indonesian police increased patrols on Sunday in the Poso area, plagued by sectarian violence for years, after assailants in black beheaded three teenage Christian girls.

At the Vatican, Pope Benedict offered his deepest sympathies to the families of the 16 to 19-year-old students, who police said were attacked by six machete-wielding men as they walked to school on Saturday on Indonesia’s eastern island of Sulawesi.

Police official Made Rai said about 1,000 police, including reinforcements from other parts of the country, were securing the remote regency of Poso, with more than 300 additional officers expected to arrive during the day.

“So far no witness has been questioned and no suspect arrested,” Rai told Reuters by telephone from Poso, about 1,500 km northeast of the capital Jakarta. One student survived and had described the attack.

The Vatican called the killings “barbaric” and said in a statement that the Pope would pray for “the return of peace among the people” of the region.

Muslim-Christian clashes in the Poso area killed 2,000 people from 1998 through 2001, when a peace deal was agreed.

While the worst violence abated after the deal, there have been sporadic outbreaks since. Bombings in May in the Christian town of Tentena killed 22 people.

The three headless bodies of the girls, dressed in brown uniforms, were left at the site of the attack. Their heads were found at separate locations two hours later by residents.

Notice how a break in the peace agreement occurred after bombings in a Christian town. Reuters won’t say it, but they were bombings by Islamic terrorists. Now we have the heads of high school girls being placed near Christian schools. Any Christian on Muslim violence was likely in response to their children’s heads being chopped off. Sectarian violence is not the problem, Al Reuters. Islam is the problem. How many “moderate Muslims” have you heard denouncing the daily bombings around the world, or demanding that terrorists stop killing in their name. Telling isn’t it.

As if we care what Charles thinks. He wants to have tea and crumpets with the terrorist, while we try to save the civilized world from losing their heads – literally.

The Prince of Wales will try to persuade George W Bush and Americans of the merits of Islam this week because he thinks the United States has been too intolerant of the religion since September 11.

The Prince, who leaves on Tuesday for an eight-day tour of the US, has voiced private concerns over America’s “confrontational” approach to Muslim countries and its failure to appreciate Islam’s strengths.

The Prince raised his concerns when he met senior Muslims in London in November 2001. The gathering took place just two months after the attacks on New York and Washington. “I find the language and rhetoric coming from America too confrontational,” the Prince said, according to one leader at the meeting. . . . . .

Bit by bit, the Islamists are taking over cultures around the world. How much easier it will be to demand conversion or death by the sword once our cultures have been Islamicized. (Hat tip: LGF)

POLICE are being advised to treat Muslim domestic violence cases differently out of respect for Islamic traditions and habits.

Officers are also being urged to work with Muslim leaders, who will try to keep the families together.

Women’s groups are concerned the politically correct policing could give comfort to wife bashers and keep their victims in a cycle of violence.

The instructions come in a religious diversity handbook given to Victorian police officers that also recommends special treatment for suspects of Aboriginal, Hindu and Buddhist background.

Some police officers have claimed the directives hinder enforcing the law equally.

Police are told: “In incidents such as domestic violence, police need to have an understanding of the traditions, ways of life and habits of Muslims.”

They are told it would be appreciated in cases of domestic violence if police consult the local Muslim religious leader who will work against “fragmenting the family unit”.

Charlie Rangel isn’t giving up on his weird obsession with Vice President Cheney’s health. If anyone wasn’t convinced Rangel is completely deranged, this should do it.

Rangel: “Suppose I was to challenge the Vice President on your show and say if you’re not mentally ill why don’t you take a test and show the American people you’re up to it…And guess what? He’s been out of town ever since we said that. Ever since we discussed this he’s left town … It’s not enough when you’re sick to say that you’re not sick. That’s what you call denial…”

You can watch the video here

The Religion of Peace has had a busy day. CNN tells us that three explosions ripped through New Delhi today. They just spontaneously ripped through. The RoP didn’t really bomb another market full of innocent people. The AP will likely report that “It is unclear what was behind the bomb ripping through the market”. It may have been a militant Mennonite, or one of the insurgent Amish from the militant wing of the local Amish tribe. On second thought, it would be acceptable to refer to these groups as terrorists and blood thirsty murderers.

Three explosions ripped through New Delhi on Saturday evening within minutes of each other, killing at least 42 people — most of them at a marketplace crowded with thousands of people getting ready for India’s festival of lights, the state of Delhi’s chief minister Sheila Dikshit told CNN.

She said at least 31 people died at the Sarojini Nagar marketplace in central Delhi and the others were killed at the Paharganj marketplace, both packed with people preparing for the Hindu holiday of Diwali, India’s largest festival.

While it is not clear what caused the blasts, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s office said he believes it was a terrorist attack. . . . . .

LIBERAL RESPONSE: “An innocent freedom fighter was driven to kill because the “richest 1%” made him poor and desperate, and he didn’t have the education necessary to know that mass murder is wrong. Making matters worse, he recently found out that Bush didn’t sign the Kyoto Treaty, and he was too upset to control himself. Halliburton was also seen taunting the young Muslim only a day before he accidentally caused explosions to rip through public markets in New Delhi.”

More CNN spin here

While our politicians insist on calling Islam a “religion of peace,” Muslims continue to act contrary to that description.

Three girls have been beheaded and another badly injured as they walked to a Christian school in Indonesia.

They were walking through a cocoa plantation near the city of Poso in central Sulawesi province when they were attacked.

This is an area that has a long history of religious violence between Muslims and Christians.

A government-brokered truce has only partially succeeded in reducing the number of incidents in recent years.

Police say the heads were found some distance from the bodies.

It is unclear what was behind the attack, but the girls attended a private Christian school and one of the heads was left outside a church leading to speculation that it might have had a religious motive.

UDATE (posted by Jennifer 12:06) :

International Christian Concern has more information on the attack, and gives some insight into the source of the rise in Islamic terrorism in Indonesia. It’s the same source that is indoctrinating and importing terrorism into United States mosques, while our President celebrates Ramadan at the White House and gives speeches on the RoP, effectively lulling us to sleep. When the beheadings start here, I fear it will be too late.

The hidden background to all this is the funding of radical Imams, mosques, and pesantrens (Islamic boarding schools) by Saudi Arabia. Although Muslims and Christians had good relations for hundreds of years, since the advent of Saudi influence in Indonesian Islam there has been wave after wave of death and destruction.

This same pattern is repeated in Pakistan. Now thanks to the work of Freedom House, it has been found that the same influence is being spread in US mosques.

All this while the Saudi’s spend millions of dollars each year in the US trying to convince US citizens on TV ads and through the efforts of Washington’s top lobbyists of their undying friendship with the people of the US.

We would ask all concerned individuals to contact the Indonesian embassy to politely ask for the protection of Christians in Poso as well as to end the pattern of Church closings in West Java, Indonesia.

Embassy of Indonesia, Washington DC
Ambassador: Duta Besar
Minister: Andri Hadi
2020 Massachusetts Ave NW
Washington DC 20036
202-775-5200

“Sin whispers to the wicked, deep within their hearts.
They have no fear of God to restrain them.
They lie awake at night, hatching sinful plots.
Their course of action is never good.
They make no attempt to turn from evil.”
(Ps.36:1,4)

“Let my enemies be destroyed
by the very evil they have planned for me.
Let burning coals fall down on their heads or throw them into the fire;
or into deep pits from which they cannot escape.”(Ps.140:9-10)

Michelle Malkin has a blog post today revealing just how low, and corrupt the New York Times really is. They’ll even omit information and mischaracterize the final words of a fallen Marine. Be sure to read all of this, and never trust anything printed in the New York Slimes. Our media should be a target in the war on terror.

CPL. JEFFREY B. STARR: WHAT THE NYTIMES LEFT OUT

Those goofy Muslims

Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan stressed that anti-Islamism must be treated as a crime against humanity just like anti-Semitism, the Turkish daily Zaman reported on Tuesday, September 6.

Addressing the sixth meeting of the Eurasian Islamic Council meeting in Istanbul Monday, September 5, Erdogan said his government has added an article to the declaration in the European Council regarding Islamophobia stipulating that anti-Islamism be accepted as a crime against humanity.

He also urged the Muslim scholars to do their utmost efforts to clear misconceptions associating Islam and Muslims with terrorism.

“We struggle against the spread of the misconception of Islam in all international meetings we attend,” Erdogan said.

“This meeting will be nothing more than a tourist holiday if you just come here, talk and then go on your own way; however, we want to yield fruits from this meeting within the Eurasian geography.”

Since the people committing terrorists acts, blowing themselves up in markets, taking out buildings, and murdering as many people as they can are all Muslim, good luck convincing us that Muslims shouldn’t be associated with terrorism. In light of this Muslim-terrorist connection, good luck making it a crime to have a phobia about Islam. On second thought, you’ll probably succeed. Europe will be more than willing to cast their people into dhimitude.

Linky

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently spoke at the State Department’s annual Iftaar Dinner to a primarily Muslim audience. Here is an excerpt from her speech:

Welcome, all of you, to our Annual State Department Iftaar Dinner. I want to thank you, Imam Hendi, for that really beautiful and moving invocation. We will always remember the spirit of Ramadan as you talk to us about it.

In the past few years, I’ve had the chance to attend several Iftaar Dinners that President Bush has hosted at the White House. These meals have given me the opportunity to speak with many Muslim men and women and to gain a deeper understanding of the month of Ramadan. I have learned that Ramadan is characterized by sacrifice and abiding faith, by prayer and self-reflection and by compassion and profound joy.

I’ve also learned that Ramadan inspires more than a billion Muslims all across the world to renew their bonds to family and friends, to neighbors and colleagues, and most of all to God.

We in America know the benevolence that is at the heart of Islam.

As we saw recently in Israel, Ramadan is also the time for blowing innocent people to pieces. As we heard from the President of Iran, Ramadan is also the time for calling for the extermination of Jews and Israel. Ramadan is the time for unrelenting violence. Benevolence? Perhaps, in some quarters. However, it is more than an exploding minority that engages in violent actions and rhetoric during Ramadan. The minority is the segment that actually engages in benevolence. I was always told growing up that if I couldn’t say something nice about someone, I shouldn’t say anything at all. Secretary Rice, Islam is NOT a religion of peace, so Shhhhhh!

In Middle East news, a Palestinian pot was heard calling an Israeli kettle black today. The Palestinians have had an obsession with construction projects on and under the Temple Mount for a long time. Always in need of a new Mosque or another addition to support the growing number of Arab terrorists in Israel, they’ve been tunneling under the Mount for years. Whenever priceless artifacts from the temple periods are found, a new “construction project” is announced and the landfills in Israel start filling up with rubble that would make an archeologist cry. Periodically, the Israeli Antiquities Authority or an Egyptian engineer will sound the alarm and warn the P.A. that they’re constant digging is in danger of causing a collapse. So, it’s ironic that the P.A. is now warning Israel against building a visitors center near the Western Wall. They’re calling on the Palestinian people to swarm the Temple Mount and stop the “Israeli aggression” before it causes the destruction of the Dome of the Rock. Israel might as well continue their visitors center. The Palestinians will bring their mosque down on their own heads eventually, and Israel will be blamed anyway. The visitor’s center provides a handy “Israeli aggression” to blame the collapse on, but they really don’t need one. It’s a given. The Joooooooos did it!

A senior Al Aqsa leader whose group has been accused of associations with Hamas told WorldNetDaily yesterday recent Israeli digs near the Temple Mount and a plan to construct an underground visitors center near the Western Wall are really Jewish designs to destroy the mosque, potentially sparking deadly riots.

The group, which has previously been involved with Temple Mount violence, has been sending buses the past few weeks to Israeli Arab neighborhoods asking Muslims to “swarm” the Al Aqsa Mosque to protect it from “Jewish attacks,” WND has learned.

“The truth is these digs and plans are political in character and goal. It is part of the Israeli occupation and of the Israeli big plan to hurt Al Aqsa,” Sheik Kamal Hatib, vice-chairman of the Islamic Movement, told WND. “These diggings endanger the basis of the mosque. The Israelis want and hope that these works will contribute and hasten the destruction of the mosque. In that way they think they will not be accused that they have directly destroyed Al Aqsa.”

Hatib was responding to a new archeological site near the Mount recently unveiled by Israel, and Israeli plans announced last month to open an underground tourist center that will snake around pathways under the Western Wall.

Discoveries at the new site include a ritual bath from the period of the second Jewish Temple, destroyed in 70 A.D., and a wall archaeologists say dates to the first Jewish Temple, destroyed in 586 B.C. The findings were widely reported by the media as strengthening Jewish ties to the Temple Mount.

The visitors center, which opens next month, is built around the new findings and includes large glass windows that look into recently excavated sections of the Western Wall. Israel hopes the center, which also features a music and light show, will become a major tourist attraction. . . . . .

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WND

The “international community” is responding as it always does when an Islamic country threatens to “erase Israel from the map”. Britain called on an Iranian official to step up and condemn the Iranian President’s speech, the U.N. threatened to debate it, and each country that’s expected to have an opinion issued a strongly worded statement to the media. Iran, of course, was scared right into issuing their own statement in response. They announced that, while they wouldn’t mind seeing Israel erased from the planet, their nuke program is for entirely peaceful purposes. There’s nothing to see here, please move along.

Let’s analyze Iran’s “peaceful nukes” claim for just a second. Iran has stated more than once that its goal is the complete elimination and destruction of the Jewish state of Israel. Ask yourself how a country like Iran would go about completely destroying an entire country, even one as small as Israel, and killing every Jew living there (keep in mind Israel is a nuclear power). They’ve already tried an Arab, allied attack. That didn’t work out so well, and conventional wars don’t erase countries from the map, especially when the target country has the ability to wipe you out first. There is a weapon however that would do the job, and it’s the only weapon capable of eliminating a country that already has that weapon. Amazingly enough, it just happens to be made from the stuff Iran is currently trying to acquire for peaceful purposes. Coincidence? I think not.

Israel’s vice prime minister said Iran should be expelled from the United Nations after its new president said Israel should be “wiped off the map,” and Britain summoned an Iranian diplomat Thursday to protest the remarks.

Italy on Thursday also condemned the words of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, telling the Iranian ambassador the comments were “unacceptable” and that they confirm worries over the political positions — and nuclear intentions — of Iran’s new leadership.

Shimon Peres, Israel’s vice prime minister and a Nobel peace laureate, said it was “impossible to ignore” Ahmadinejad’s comments.

“Since the United Nations was established in 1945, there has never been a head of state that is a U.N. member state that publicly called for the elimination of another U.N. member state,” Shimon Peres told Israel Radio.

In a speech Wednesday in Tehran, Ahmadinejad said “there is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world.”. . . . . . .

Continue Article
Al AP

It’s unbelievably scary to me that our courts are currently ruling on the content of prayers. A branch of our government is actually dictating to us who we can pray to, what words we can use, and where and when we are allowed to pray. The founders of our country would be horrified to see that the country they founded makes the European government they were escaping by coming to America look good in comparison. What liberals can’t seem to grasp is that the wall of separation that Jefferson wrote about in his letter to the Danbury Baptists was addressing this exact fear – the fear that Government would try to control religion and religious expression. The founders didn’t want a state religion like the one they’d left behind where the government dictated when, where and how people should worship. It’s tragic that their words have been twisted, reinterpreted, and plucked out of context in order to bring about the very government persecution and bigotry they feared.

Charging the American Civil Liberties Union is on a “rampage,” a public-interest legal group is offering free assistance to three legislative bodies threatened for opening public meetings with prayers that refer to Jesus.

“Make no mistake, the ACLU’s true agenda is the eradication of Christian prayers from our nation’s public life, as their misuse of the term ‘sectarian’ confirms,” said Jeremy Tedesco, attorney for the Alliance Defense Fund, or ADF.

Arizona-based ADF said it has offered free legal assistance to a city and two county councils in South Carolina after a growing number of legal threats from the ACLU in that state regarding so-called “sectarian” prayer at public meetings.

As WorldNetDaily reported in July, prayers in the name of Jesus stopped at council meetings in Great Falls, S.C., town after the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of a case brought by a Wiccan.

“The ACLU claims that these prayers violate the Constitution because they are ‘sectarian,’ but as the Supreme Court has noted, the word ‘sectarian’ was used as a code word for the Catholic Church by people hostile to it,” Tedesco said. “Today, the ACLU employs the same word against Christianity in general.”

Tedesco asserted the ACLU is demanding government control over the content of prayers, seeking “to impose its desire for meaningless, God-free prayers through court orders by activist judges.” . . . . .

Continue Article
WND

I’m confused. Where’s the ACLU? The Department of Education is giving an award to a religious school, and the ACLU isn’t filing a lawsuit? They haven’t gone to the press with a dire warning that the government is promoting religion, and favoring one religion over another? How can that be? It can be, because the wall of separation is not between church and state. It was created out of thin air by people who hate Christians and can’t tolerate Christianity. If you disagree, explain to me why it’s okay for our government to give an award to an Islamic school, but our courts ruled that it’s unconstitutional for a student majoring in Divinity to be awarded a scholarship, because doing so would violate the “separation of church and state” and the government would be seen as promoting one religion over another? You can’t deny that religion is NOT the determining factor in deciding what constitutes a violation of the “Church/State” myth. The determining factor is WHICH religion is being supported, awarded, or simply allowed the rights guaranteed them under the constitution. Only one religion is ever targeted in these lawsuits, court rulings, and negative media spin – Christianity. This country has become blind to bigotry and hypocrisy.

Jihad through Da’wa [conversion of non-Muslims] in the form of domestic Islamic education has gotten a boost from an unlikely source, the U.S. government.

The administration has just presented the New Horizons Islamic School in Pasadena, California the United States Department of Education’s “Blue Ribbon for Excellence” award.

This first ever award to a Muslim school appears to validate the predictions which cleric Yusuf Qaradawi made a decade ago, at a Muslim Youth conference in Ohio.

“…Some countries will fall to the armed Islamic jihad, but in others, such as the United States, victory will come through Da’wa – the teaching of Islam to non-Muslims – which will trigger Westerners to convert to Islam ‘in droves.’ We will conquer America not by the sword but by Da’wa.”

Qawadari has since been banned from the U.S. due to his terror connections, but his vision of Da’wa transforming America into a United States of Allah, is reflected in the curriculum used in schools like that of New Horizons and as developed by affiliates such as ISNA [The Islamic Society of North America]. the BIAE [The Board of Islamic and Arabic Education] and the UK based IBERR [International Board for Education Research and Resources].

The BIAE, based in Los Angeles – which plans the curriculum of the New Horizons School together with the Islamic Center of Southern California even offers an Islamized version of the Pledge of Alliance on their website. It begins with the phrase – “As an American Muslim I pledge alliance to ALLAH and his Prophet.” http://www.biae.net/pledge.html

Another component of the Wahhabist funded domestic Islamic educational network is The Islamic Schools League, the mission of which reflects the role of Islamic education inculcating the fard [religious obligation] to convert non-Muslims to Islam.

“For the League, the success of Islamic schools is not an option; it is a must. Our vision is achievable. Our mission requires that we all work together in support of Islamic schools. Ultimately this service is to Allah (swt).”

The Da’wa agenda is also promoted by the Bureau for Islamic and Arabic Education (BIAE), which “aims to increase the impact of Islam on the daily life of both Muslims and non-Muslims everywhere.” . . . . .

What’s that? This Islamic school is saying the Pledge of Allegiance? Someone alert Michael Newdow and call the ACLU! All blogs put out a “theocracy” alert and write Congress! Wait. . . . . . stop the bus. False alarm. Since the pledge has been altered to make reference to Allah, it clearly doesn’t violate the separation of church and state, and can’t be labeled offensive or intolerant. Perhaps this is the answer then. We can avoid any further ACLU lawsuits against schools who can’t afford the legal costs to defend themselves by simply contacting our Senators and asking them to pass legislation replacing the word “God” in the Pledge of Allegiance with “Allah”. As absurd as this sounds, I think we’d all be surprised at the number of people in this country who really would be okay with this solution.

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Militant Islam Monitor

It’s that time of year again. Winter is closing in and the ACLU is getting into that litigation spirit. They’re dreaming of Christians roasting over an open fire, and visions of lawsuits dance in their heads. Yes, it’s Chris. . . . X-ma . . . . Winter Sol . . . Winter holiday. . . . .it’s that holiday where schools are sued for singing Christmas songs, law suits are filed to prevent the “evil” nativity scene from being displayed in any public setting, and the colors red and green are banned in school decorations because they’re deemed “too Christian”.

The Anti-Christian Litigation Unions attack on Christianity gets more bold and unbelievable every year. Fortunately, people are finally waking up enough to do something about it. Several more influential groups (with deeper pockets) have joined the fight. It may seem wrong to seek help from groups that have more money, but money is exactly what has allowed the ACLU to engage in a hostile takeover of our culture and our system of government. It takes a lot of money to file a law suit and go all the way to the Supreme Court. The ACLU has all the money it needs and tax payer money continues to flow in with every court victory. The only way we’ll win this war is by having the money to fight them in court until such time as we have elected representatives that have enough backbone to clamp down on the judicial branch and put a stop to frivolous lawsuits (that may be a while). I encourage all of you to donate to groups like the ones named in this article. The ACLJ is also a wonderful non-profit that is working hard to fight off the ACLU terrorists in court and save our constitution from activist judges.

A Christian educators group is teaming up with a Christian legal group as part of a national campaign to warn schools against prohibiting celebration and discussion of Christmas.

The campaign, called “Friend or Foe,” provides education about celebrating Christmas in public schools and on public property. For the past three years, Florida-based Liberty Counsel has conducted the campaign, offering pro bono legal advice and defense to government entities that do not censor Christmas, but filing suit whenever Christmas is censored.

Joining Liberty Counsel this year is the Christian Educators Association International, which is asking its 8,000 members to be the “eyes and ears” of the campaign. CEAI executive director Finn Laursen says the members of his organization are being encouraged to report incidents of religious discrimination — specifically, attempts to censor Christmas — as the holiday approaches.

“We’re finding that there’s an increase of adversarial attitudes really resulting in religious discrimination when it comes to the recognition of Christmas in our public schools,” Laursen shares. “There are some schools that really believe that the holiday needs to be sanitized out of school.”

The CEAI leader says schools that willfully engage in religious discrimination will be challenged in court by Liberty Counsel. Contrary to what many school administrators believe, he says, Christmas is not constitutionally “taboo” in public schools.

“The public school, because it’s an arm of the government, cannot inhibit the expression of religion,” he explains. “And we have to admit that Christmas is certainly a major part of our culture across this nation, both by those that are faithful and also from a secular perspective.”

Laursen notes that students have the right to say “Merry Christmas” and to sing Christmas carols — and teachers have the right to display Nativity scenes. In the past, he explains, some schools have even gone to the extent of mandating that during the month of December, the colors red and green cannot be used because they may be interpreted as promoting Christmas — and suspending students for handing out candy canes with cards attached that describe the celebration of Christmas.

As part of the campaign, CEAI members will be distributing to school districts and government officials a seven-page memo from Liberty Counsel [PDF] explaining that schools are not “religion-free zones,” and that the right to free speech includes the right to distribute printed material — including such things as Christmas cards.

Agape Press

If Britain slips any farther into dhimitude, they might as well give up and join the Arab League. Why must everything Muslims don’t like be banned? The intelligence of the human race really must be questioned when we will ban our own culture and religions in order to accommodate our worst enemies, and avoid offending the same people who have vowed to kill or convert every last one of us.

British banks are banning piggy banks because they may offend some Muslims.

Halifax and NatWest banks have led the move to scrap the time-honoured symbol of saving from being given to children or used in their advertising, the Daily Express/Daily Star group reports here.

Muslims do not eat pork, as Islamic culture deems the pig to be an impure animal.

Salim Mulla, secretary of the Lancashire Council of Mosques, backed the bank move.

“This is a sensitive issue and I think the banks are simply being courteous to their customers,” he said.

However, the move brought accusations of political correctness gone mad from critics.

“The next thing we will be banning Christmas trees and cribs and the logical result of that process is a bland uniformity,” the Dean of Blackburn, Reverend Christopher Armstrong, said.

“We should learn to celebrate our difference, not be fearful of them.”

Khalid Mahmoud, the Labour MP for a Birmingham seat and one of four Muslim MPs in Britain, also criticised the piggy-bank ban.

“We live in a multicultural society and the traditions and symbols of one community should not be obliterated just to accommodate another,” Mr Mahmoud said.

“I doubt many Muslims would be seriously offended by piggy banks.”

Agape Press

There was a time when our schools and universities were filled with students who loved their country, supported the military that defended their rights, and were actually willing to sacrifice something to help America win a war. Kids, wives, and mothers across the country did their part to raise money for the war effort and to keep the country running smoothly while our boys were overseas fighting a two world wars.

Fast forward to 2005 and you’ll find something very different. Students and parents protest at our schools to block military recruiters from talking to the students, and spit and curse at the recruiters as if they were the enemy. Teachers don’t help organize fund raisers for the war now. They teach the students that America is evil and we’re fighting an illegal war, carefully withholding any information that might lead the students to recognize our terrorist enemies as the true threat.

You won’t see people celebrating victories as they’re reported from the frontlines to our media back home. You’ll only hear death counts, grim milestones, and doom and gloom news analysis. There are no reporters on the frontlines. They sit in their hotel room, read the AP and Reuters propaganda off the wires, and write about any rumor of poor conduct from our military, or signs the terrorists might be winning. If you go to an “anti-war”, lefty protest you’ll witness far more appalling things than this. It’s scary really. These terrorist supporting, hate-filled cowards will eventually be running for positions in our government. God help us if they get elected.

  

Yesterday, Iran’s president declared that Israel should be destroyed and all Jews eliminated from the planet (Hat tip: Sweidman Houston). Today, a suicide bomber blew up another market in Israel, injuring and killing innocent Israelis while they were doing their shopping in the “occupied market”. Yep, that Gaza pullout was a great idea. Iran and Russia (and probably the French…they’ve never heard a bribe they didn’t like) are well on their way to giving the Arabs their first nuke, and the recent victory in Gaza has them in such a frenzy of excitement, they can’t help but announce their genocidal plans in the media every other day.

Of course, this won’t be reported on the front page of every newspaper as a “grim milestone” in the Middle East conflict. Justifying Palestinian terrorism would be harder to do if too much was made out of the hundreds of dead Jews who’ve been killed in the “Intifada”. It really brings home how corrupt and evil this world has become when the nations of the world protest and lash out at the U.S. for liberating Iraq from the rule of a mass murdering dictator, but they say nothing when Arabs threaten to wipe out a country, and slaughter all its inhabitants. In fact they respond by awarding the “Islamic Personality of the Year” award to a terrorist who calls Jews “pigs and monkeys” and tells his followers to exterminate the Jews from the earth. And, while they’re at it, they give the Nobel Peace Prize to a Jew hater who once < a href="http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/?entry=13504&only">advised, in response to Iran’s Nuke program, that we all just cross our fingers and hope nothing happens. Who knew crossing your fingers could be so affective as to produce results worthy of the “Nobel Appeasement Prize”.

With the rise in Palestinian terrorist rhetoric, and now a return to market bombings, I hope this is not a sign that the terrorist’s Gaza celebration is over and the next stage in the PA’s plan to destroy Israel is beginning. My guess is, Hamas and their human bombs have reached their limit on pretending to adhere to a cease fire. The excitement over the victory in Gaza, and the temptation to bring about more concessions in the West Bank and Jerusalem will be too much for them. They can always count on Iran and the United Nations to keep moral high.

Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.

“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesdays during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”

“Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury (while) any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad said.

Ahmadinejad also repeated the words of the founder of Iran’s Islamic revolution, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who called for the destruction of Israel.

“As the Imam said, Israel must be wiped off the map,” said Ahmadinejad, who came to power in August and replaced Mohammad Khatami, a reformist who advocated inter-civilization dialogue and tried to improve Iran’s relations with the West . . . . .

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Jerusalem Post

Read more here for more on the bombing, and here for the Al Reuters damage control spin.

P.S. I’m feeling much better after my back surgery and am looking forward to getting back to blogging daily. With my back taken care of and God’s help, I should be able to be more consistent in my posting now, and get back to covering more of the day’s news. I apologize to those who’ve been frustrated with my occasional disappearing act. That should happen much less often from here on out. My new laptop is fired up and ready to get back to work. We will also be able to get our monthly Contender Ministries newsletters out on time and more frequently. It’s good to get back to things. God bless!
-Jen

At a time when all Americans should be prayerfully considering the families of those who have given their lives in service to their country, as well as lifting up those who continue to risk their lives, the MSM and the agenda-driven liberals are jumping on the “grim milestone” bandwagon, touting the 2000th U.S. military death in Iraq as an occasion to press their agenda for complete withdrawl. The American Friends Service Committee (aka, the Quakers) have teamed up with other pacifist organizations to hold vigils (parties) tonight. They’re inviting attendees to “have fun…in a peaceful atmosphere“. Regardless of one’s political beliefs or agenda, using the death of a soldier as an occassion to “have fun” is despicable and immoral.

While the media is parroting the words “grim milestone” ad nauseum (just do a google search for grim+milestone+Iraq), an Army Lieutenant Colonel has some words of wisdom for everyone to consider:

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Steve Boylan, director of the force’s combined press center, described the number as an “artificial mark on the wall.”

“I ask that when you report on the events, take a moment to think about the effects on the families and those serving in Iraq,” Boylan said in an e-mail. “The 2,000 service members killed in Iraq supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom is not a milestone. It is an artificial mark on the wall set by individuals or groups with specific agendas and ulterior motives.

“The 2,000th Soldier, Sailor, Airman, or Marine that is killed in action is just as important as the first that died and will be just as important as the last to die in this war against terrorism and to ensure freedom for a people who have not known freedom in over two generations,” Boylan wrote.

He complained that the true milestones of the war were “rarely covered or discussed,” and said they included the troops who had volunteered to serve, the families of those that have been deployed for a year or more, and the Iraqis who have sought at great risk to restore normalcy to their country.

Boylan said they included Iraqis who sought to join the security forces and had became daily targets for insurgent attacks at recruiting centers, those who turned out to vote in the constitutional referendum, and those who chose to risk their lives by joining the government.

“Celebrate the daily milestones, the accomplishments they have secured and look to the future of a free and democratic Iraq and to the day that all of our troops return home to the heroes welcome they deserve,” Boylan wrote.

Amen, Colonel Boylan. May the Lord grant peace to those who have lost loved ones, and may he watch over those still in harm’s way.

Thirty-five members of the House of Representatives are pushing President Bush to sign an executive order protecting the religious freedoms of military chaplains. Since complaints of proselytizing and religious peer pressure at the Air Force Academy made headlines, senior military officials have been doing their best to de-Christianize the Christian chaplains – restricting how “sectarian” they may be outside of actual religious worship services. The Stars and Stripes article says:

Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said he has received letters from chaplains, both stateside and deployed overseas, complaining that superior officers have criticized and even reprimanded them for using Bible verses and invoking the name of Jesus in memorial services, pre-mission remarks and other events outside of their religious services.

“This is a First Amendment right,” Jones said. “Our chaplains should not have any second thoughts about how they should pray. Let their heart speak with what God puts in their mind to pray.”
…
The letter calls the requirement of nondenominational prayers “a euphemism declaring that prayers will be acceptable only so long as they censor Christian beliefs.”

Stars & Stripes article

The “peace activist” organization CODEPINK Women For Peace is revealing its true colors by sponsoring a “friendship delegation” to travel to Cuba for a New Year’s bash. (Hat tip: LGF)

This New Year’s CODEPINK will be organizing a large group of fun-loving and freedom-loving Americans to break George Bush’s ban on travel to Cuba. Join co-founders Medea Benjamin and Jodie Evans, together with Academy Award winning producer Paul Haggis, as we visit with farmers at their co-ops, doctors at their family clinics, dancers at the National Folklore Group, and young people at the ballpark. Don’t miss this historic chance to dance salsa, drink mojitos, and visit beautiful beaches—all while defending our constitutional rights!!!

The federal restrictions barring travel to Cuba are not only counterproductive and outmoded in this post-Cold War context, but also a violation of our constitutional freedom to travel.

While CODEPINK seems to consider travel to an oppressive communist dictatorship to be a dream vacation, someone simply MUST correct some errors in their announcement. First, the travel ban is not George Bush’s travel ban. The travel ban was introduced in 1963 by President John F. Kennedy in response to Cuba playing host to Soviet missiles. The travel ban continued until Jimmy Carter refused to renew it in 1979. President Reagan renewed the travel restrictions in 1982, and they continue to this day. There are also various commerce restrictions in addition to the travel ban. The commerce embargo actually predates the travel ban. If they want to credit any president with the ban on travel to Cuba, they could credit Kennedy. Moreover, in spite of CODEPINK’s happiest thoughts and wishes, there is no “right to travel” guaranteed anywhere in the United States Consitution. That’s found in the imaginary amendment guaranteeing the right for heathens to not be offended, the right to kill babies, and the right to marry whomever or whatever one wishes – regardless of gender or species.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer obviously has a low threshold for who may qualify as a guest columnist. As a prime example, we turn to a recent editorial by guest columnist Akiva Kenny Segan. Segan is a part-time library clerk, artist, and director of holocaust-art.org. As his October 18th column reveals, he also lacks a basic understanding of constitutional rights and is an anti-Christian bigot. His column referenced an earlier P-I article about Youth Pastor Judah Smith’s Evangelical Christian church services held on the campus of the University of Washington. Pastor Smith’s messages are biblically sound to the delight of the young people who attend his services, and much to the consternation of Segan. Some snippets from his column:

It is troublesome that the University of Washington allows publicly funded facilities for religious rallies that are considered hateful, racist and demeaning to non-Christians, including myself and many of my friends and co-workers (“A pastor for the young crowd,” Oct. 5).

While Pastor Judah Smith is entitled to believe in religious supremacism, why must racist theology be presented on public school property? U.S. students, faculty and staff have never been as diverse in background and faith as today. That diversity is a great gift of human experience.
….
In the United States, students attending publicly funded schools should be entitled to practice the faith of their families without facing peer pressure to convert.

Rallies on public campuses are un-American and run counter to the spirit of tolerance that our nation’s founders and generations of public school teachers and political leaders have led us to believe is our right.
….
Publicly funded institutions should decline speakers with supremacist agendas. Let them speak in houses of worship and privately owned corporate facilities.

Now, I’m assuming that Mr. Segan meant religious supremacy, as “supremacism” is not a word found in the dictionary. Usage of imaginary words aside, the concept that Smith teaches or practices supremacy is supremely absurd! Smith teaches the same gospel I learned, that tells us that we are all sinners and in need of forgiveness. There is no supremacy in this message. The only supremacy taught by Pastor Smith is the supremacy of God and the absolute truth found in His Word. Likewise, Segan’s accusations of hate and racism are unfounded. Smith’s congregation is ethnically diverse, and his sermons do not carry any message of hate or racism. Segan and his ilk often use the tactic of “drive-by accusations”, hoping that people will be content to believe the accusation without asking for substantive support. In this case, Segan has no factual supports to buttress his accusations.

While “supremacism” isn’t in the dictionary, tolerance is. Segan apparently believes that tolerance should be defined as “believe like I believe, and if you don’t, keep your mouth shut.” This is far removed from the traditional definition of tolerance, which means that people who disagree can still get along with one another.

Mr. Segan states that “Rallies on public campuses are un-American…” Whoever taught American History to Mr. Segan should be shaking their head by now. Among other things, the first amendment to the United States Constitution guarantees the “right of the people peaceably to assemble.” It also guarantees the free exercise of religion. I have no doubt that Segan has no recollection or knowledge of the text of the first amendment, recalling only that certainty that it must say something about “separation of church and state” (which, of course, it doesn’t). The Supreme Court has ruled time and time again that public institutions must allow equal access to their facilities, and may not discriminate based on the religious viewpoints of certain groups. The University of Washington allows secular groups to utilize its facilities, and therefore cannot forbid a religious organization from doing the same. It’s ironic, isn’t it? Segan is calling for tolerance, but is the only one advocating the violation of someone’s constitutional rights.

Segan advocates the violation of constitutional rights under the banner of “tolerance,” citing the tolerance of this nation’s founders. Let me close by stating what one of the founders said about tolerance. Patrick Henry is most notably remembered for his famous line, “Give me liberty or give me death!” Segan needs to consider another quote of Patrick Henry’s: “It cannot be emphasized to strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.”

The Scriptorium’s primary blogger and webmistress, Jennifer Rast, is recuperating from a recent surgery. She’s home, but resting, for the next few days. She hopes to be back at the helm by Monday. God is faithful and the surgery appears to have been a success. Praise the Lord!

Sports-related stories aren’t customary fare here at The Scriporium, but this latest tidbit is giving me heartburn. The NBA has established a dress code for players that will go into effect next season. While players are appearing on league or team business, they will be required to wear business casual attire and avoid certain unprofessional accessories.

The NBA announced Monday in a memo to teams that a dress code will go into effect at the start of the season. Saying players must dress in “business casual” attire, the league banned items such as sleeveless shirts, shorts, sunglasses while indoors, and headphones during team or league business.

The edict also requires players on the bench not in uniform to wear sport jackets, shoes and socks. ….

They can’t wear visible chains, pendants or medallions over their clothes.

The reaction from some players is mind-boggling. Some, like Jason Richardson of the Golden State Warriors believe the policy is racist, as it seems to eliminate hip-hop [ahem] fashion. Others, like Allen Iverson, obviously feel this dress code will be a financial burden.

“I feel like if they want us to dress a certain way, they should pay for our clothes,” said Philadelphia’s Allen Iverson. “It’s just tough, man, knowing that all of a sudden you have to have a dress code out of nowhere. I don’t think that’s going to help the image of the league at all. … It kind of makes it fake. The whole thing is fake.”

Excuse me?! PAY for our clothes? Allen Iverson will make more than $14.6 million this season, and he is whining about having to pay for business casual attire?! I have a comment for these players. WELCOME TO THE REAL WORLD!! You are now joining the ranks of the grown-up working world where many of us have to buy clothing that conforms to a particular dress code. Most of us would have to work for more than 250 years to make what you, Mr. Iverson, will make next season. Yet somehow we survive. Somehow we are able to abide by the dress codes established by our employers. We in the grown-up world know the value of dressing professionally. Such dress codes are not racist, nor will they pose an undue hardship on a bunch of spoiled, rich athletes. GROW UP!

AP Article (Registration Required)

You may have heard that the Baltimore tunnels were shut down this morning because of another terrorist threat. As has become the standard response from our media when terror warnings are issued, most cable news outlets wasted no time in calling it a probable hoax, and looking for some way to blame Bush for scaring people (it’s really him and Rove terrorizing us you know). It looks like, however, their reporting may have been another example of the complete absence of investigative reporting in our media today. An investigation has been going on in Baltimore since last Thursday, and arrests have actually been made.

My guess is this story will be dropped like a hot potato in most of the media. The suspects,now in FBI custody, owned a Middle Eastern market in Baltimore and were planning to use their delivery truck to set off a bomb in one of Baltimore’s underground tunnels. There’s just no way to spin that so that it supports the MSM’s talking points – Islam is a religion of peace, moderate Muslims, yada yada yada. Since all Muslims in the U.S. are moderate and peace loving, this story necessitates an impossible amount of rewording, softening, and fact changing to make the story culturally sensitive enough to print – all in the interest of tolerance and remaining neutral, of course. I suppose they could come out and claim that the would-be bombers were likely domestic, Christian terrorists trained by Timothy McVeigh, but that might be too obvious even for the MSM.

(WJZ) Eyewitness News has learned that there may be a link between a Middle Eastern market in Southeast Baltimore and the alleged threat to Baltimore’s tunnels.

Sources say two men affiliated with the Koko market on Eastern and Dundalk avenues are in FBI custody and authorities are looking for a third person.

State and federal authorities have been investigating Koko’s since last Thursday when word of a possible threat began to surface.

The terrorist plot reportedly involved a delivery truck from the Koko market being driven into one of Baltimore’s tunnels under the Inner Harbor loaded with explosives and left there to detonate.

WJZ Baltimore

Christians have been losing the battle over religious rights for some time now, and judging by our society’s willingness to accept that loss, individual Christian’s freedom of speech will likely be the next big battle in the secularists war on religion. Being a Christian has even become an acceptable disqualifier for serving in our government, and I believe the left will be emboldened by these kind of successes and the ease with which they have rewritten history and our constitution.

How this defamation case turns out could have far reaching implications for Christian websites and ministries. If these Christian publishers are successfully sued for publishing information about the cult “The Local Church”, it will be open season on apologetics ministries, writers, and eventually Christian churches. Those unwilling to adopt humanism as the starting point for their religious beliefs, and accept the new global religion of tolerance (of everything but Christianity) will be punished. Of course, Islam will get a pass. As long as you kill Americans and hate the U.S., it can be ignored that women have no rights in your religion, murder is condoned, and people of other religions are decapitated and tortured by Jihadists believing their reward will be 72 virgins in paradise.

Secularists have been disturbingly successful at convincing the American public that it’s illegal to offend someone, and the courts have been all too willing to create laws from the bench supporting them. It started with Christian symbols, prayers in specific venues, religion in schools, and any visible evidence that our country was founded by Christians. In all of these things, they have been successful. It’s only a matter of time before secularists, using the precedents that have already been set in courts across the country, turn their sights on the internet, a thriving Christian book industry, and our constitutional right to discuss religion in public. Their hope is that the American “sheeple” will have been sufficiently brainwashed, and won’t recognize the path we’re traveling down as the same path taken by Communist Russia, China, and every other oppressive, controlling government throughout history. It’s not a huge leap from our culture’s current intolerance of SOME religions, to a society that burns religious books, punishes and censors the writers who write them, and criminalizes speech that does not conform to the new “atheist only” government, and state religion of Humanism. Wouldn’t these people feel more at home in China?

A civil liberties group is asking a court to toss out a defamation lawsuit brought against a group of Christian publishers and ministries.

The Rutherford Institute has filed a “friend of the court” brief with the Texas Court of Appeals on behalf of Moody Publishers, Gospel Light Books, and the Christian Film and Television Commission. A religious movement known as “The Local Church” has filed a defamation lawsuit against Harvest House Publishers for referencing the movement in a 700-page book called Encyclopedia of Cults and New Religions, authored by John Ankerberg and John Weldon.

Doug McKusick, an attorney for The Rutherford Institute, fears the lawsuit could potentially chill the free-speech rights of Christian publishers.

“We were concerned about the fact that they could be held liable for defamation based on some statements that were made in the book but which didn’t seem to really apply to the plaintiff in the action [The Local Church],” the lawyer states. He adds that, in his opinion, no defamation occurred “because the book did not specifically identify The Local Church as having engaged in this, in either illegal or immoral conduct.”

For that reason, McKusick believes the suit needs to be dismissed.

In their introduction, authors Ankerberg and Weldon define the term “cult” as “a separate religious group generally claiming compatibility with Christianity but that adheres to select teachings that are theologically incompatible with teachings of the Bible.” Along with that they include a list of characteristics they say make up the “perfect cult.”

The Local Church — while mentioned in the book, but not singled out as promoting or engaging in behavior attributable to some sects or cults — charges that the list of characteristics defames their movement. . . . . .

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Agape Press

The Iraqis are going to the polls today, and the Associated Press is doing their usual negative, bogus reporting. Their reporting has several glaring contradictions like this one:

The propaganda piece’s title reads, “Iraqi Insurgents Incite Voting Day Violence”

Sounds pretty bad. The major news to report on voting day is insurgent violence. Even if the rest of the media weren’t reporting that violence is very low so far and there is record turn out that will likely exceed the last election, the AP eliminates all doubt about their extreme bias and lousy reporting at the end of the article. This is the voting day violence they’re spinning:

Insurgents attacked five of Baghdad’s 1,200 polling stations with shootings and bombs, wounding seven voters, but there were no major attacks reported as U.S. and Iraqi forces clamped down with major security measures around balloting sites.

Five out of 1,200 polling places and only 7 voters wounded – not dead, wounded. And no major attacks reported. Makes the headline look pretty stupid doesn’t it. The wire services don’t even try to hide their stupidity anymore. They aren’t giving up on the idea that whatever they say will be accepted as truth. Maybe it was that way once, but it certainly isn’t now. The bloggers in Iraq repeatedly expose the U.S. media’s lies about the war and the political process in Iraq.

The rest of the article is much the same. They somehow know, before a single vote has been cast, that most of the Sunnis are voting against the constitution. Every other news source I’ve seen (with the exception of Al Reuters) is reporting that no districts are reporting yet and it will be a few days before we have any final results. But, it’s got to be a fact that the referendum is doomed, the Sunnis are preparing for civil war, people are dropping like flies, and it’s a day of violence. The AP says so. Don’t believe a word the MSM says without fact checking them.

Oh, and Fox News dutifully puts the story up on their website, even though their reporters have been saying the exact opposite all morning. Anything to get better ratings.

There are very few things that make me more angry than the “world community’s” (communists, the EU, and terrorist supporting countries) desire to take control of the internet. The idea has been around for some time, but the EU, China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and several other fascist governments are approaching the subject with renewed vigor. What I didn’t realize is that we have already come very close to losing the internet as we know it once before. Bill Clinton -globalist, UN lover, and liar extraordinaire – made a deal during his presidency to hand control of the internet over to a global governing body made up of the same countries who now censor the internet in their own countries (the E.U. now feels abused because we’ve reneged on that deal). It doesn’t surprise me at all that controlling iternet content would be supported by Bill Clinton, nor does it surprise me that the MSM ignored this decision and remains silent about the subject now. They know there would be a huge public backlash if such plans were discussed, and they don’t want to mess up an opportunity to shut down those pesky blogs that continue to expose their lies and embarrass them.

The U.S. government is exactly right when they say that the E.U. wants to globalize control of the internet because they want to control content. If you doubt this, you should know that Tehran is currently heaping praise on the E.U.’s proposed plan for internet governance. The only way Iran would support a plan to govern the internet is if it eliminates the opposition they hate, silences the Infidels who expose Islam and terrorist regimes for what they are, and establishes a way to regulate and control content on a global scale. The E.U.’s plan, which will be presented to the U.S. in Tunisia soon, is also enthusiastically supported by China and Saudi Arabia. Need I say more?

The control freaks in Europe have obviously become more desperate to control the flow of information and ideas. They have moved from strongly worded letters to making threats. If the United States does not relinquish control of the internet (that we created and paid for), the E.U. will be forced to create their own and break up the net. Nooooo!!!!! Not that!!!! I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t visit websites controlled and filtered by China, Russia, and Venezuela. The whole internet would surely become useless, right?

It’s laughable really. First, the same people who can’t agree on a common E.U. circus policy, would have to come together and figure out how to create a working internet. Then they’d have to pay for it and agree on regulations that will limit the spread of knowledge and information sufficiently enough to protect every corrupt government involved in the project. An informed public can’t be controlled and brainwashed, you know. They’d end up with a network of advertisements, spyware, and propaganda. Everything else on the internet is sure to offend someone somewhere, and we all know offending someone is illegal under the U.N. charter. Go ahead Europe, cut yourself off. I’m sure your citizens will love the new waste of time you create in its place. The civilized world isn’t too keen on giving up our freedom of speech just because you threaten to take your toys and go home.

A battle has erupted over who governs the internet, with America demanding to maintain a key role in the network it helped create and other countries demanding more control.

The European commission is warning that if a deal cannot be reached at a meeting in Tunisia next month the internet will split apart.

At issue is the role of the US government in overseeing the internet’s address structure, called the domain name system (DNS), which enables communication between the world’s computers. It is managed by the California-based, not-for-profit Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) under contract to the US department of commerce.

A meeting of officials in Geneva last month was meant to formulate a way of sharing internet governance which politicians could unveil at the UN-sponsored World Summit on the Information Society in Tunis on November 16-18. A European Union plan that goes a long way to meeting the demands of developing countries to make the governance more open collapsed in the face of US opposition.

Viviane Reding, European IT commissioner, says that if a multilateral approach cannot be agreed, countries such as China, Russia, Brazil and some Arab states could start operating their own versions of the internet and the ubiquity that has made it such a success will disappear.

“We have to have a platform where leaders of the world can express their thoughts about the internet,” she said. “If they have the impression that the internet is dominated by one nation and it does not belong to all the nations then the result could be that the internet falls apart.”

The US argues that many of the states demanding a more open internet are no fans of freedom of expression.

Michael Gallagher, President Bush’s internet adviser and head of the national telecommunications and information administration, believes they are seizing on the only “central” part of the system in an effort to exert control. “They are looking for a handle, thinking that the DNS is the meaning of life. But the meaning of life lies within their own borders and the policies that they create there.”

The US government, which funded the development of the internet in the 60s, said in June it intended to retain its role overseeing Icann, reneging on a pledge made during Bill Clinton’s presidency. Since Icann was created, the US commerce department has not once interfered with its decisions. . . . . .

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London Guardian

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Who is going to be isolated?

Keep the Internet Free

You’ve probably heard the liberal Media gleefully reporting that Bush’s approval ratings are the worst of his presidency. What you won’t hear from the MSM is these poll results reported in historical context. Context only becomes relevant to a story when it can be used to generate more negative news about the “bushitlerhalliburton” presidency. Here’s the facts:

Despite the fact President Bush’s job approval ratings have dropped to the lowest point of his presidency, they still remain higher than the low-point ratings of the last seven presidents, including his predecessor Bill Clinton.

Data from six polling organizations in October show an average of 39.5 percent job approval for Bush. The low points for recent commanders in chief are as follows:

Bill Clinton: 37 percent
George H. W. Bush: 29 percent
Ronald Reagan: 35 percent
Jimmy Carter: 28 percent
Gerald Ford: 37 percent
Richard Nixon: 24 percent
Lyndon Johnson: 35 percent

To find presidents with higher low-point approval ratings than Bush, one has to go back to John Kennedy at 56 percent, and Dwight Eisenhower at 48 percent.

The media would rather the American public believe that no president has ever had poll numbers as low as George Bush. To report otherwise would damage their opportunity to declare the Bush presidency a failed presidency 3 years before his term is even over. When the facts are presented, it leads those of us who don’t have BDS (Bush Derangement Syndrome) to conclude that President Bush is doing better than previous presidents, especially considering his presidency has seen terrorist attacks, wars in two countries, a war on terror, Hurricanes, record gas prices, and a media that suppresses news from the frontlines of the war and reports only death counts. Clinton on the other hand had a media solidly behind him, avoided dealing with terrorism, benefited from the Contract with America, and was adored by socialist, communist, and dictatorial governments around the world, yet his poll number sank lower. Maybe us Americans aint so shtoopid as the media hopes we is.

It’s the liberal’s worst nightmare (and the terrorists, but the two are almost synonymous). The Iraqi’s are once again proudly displaying their purple, stained fingers.

See Getty Images here and here.

“Stop the ACLU” has posted a list of lawsuits filed by the ACLU. In each of these lawsuits the tax payers of America have been forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars into the ACLU coffers. The ACLU has literally made millions of dollars off of the religious cleansing and corruption of our culture. As you look through this list, you’ll notice that every lawsuit has as its motive a desire to corrupt our society with pornography, immorality, and secularism, while cleansing it of any sign of morality or Christianity. How have we come to this point in our culture where our own courts force us to give millions of dollars to domestic terrorists who overturn the will of the people and strip the majority of us of our rights? Sadly, too many people are either unaware of this danger, or they ignore it. If you are one of the few who care about the future of our country, be sure to sign these petitions supporting legislation that will prevent the ACLU from using our own money to terrorize us and destroy our constitution.

ACLU Generates Revenue in Courtroom Campaign

$156,960 = Nebraska

The ACLU was awarded $156,960 after a judge overturned an amendment to the Nebraska Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman. The amendment was approved by 70 percent of Nebraska voters.

$790,000 = San Diego

The ACLU was given $790,000 after suing to nullify a lease between the city of San Diego and the Boy Scouts of America. A federal judge sided with the ACLU, ruling that the Boy Scouts are a religious organization because they require kids to pledge an oath to God and promise to live a “morally straight”

$150,000 = Barrow County (Ga.)

The ACLU was awarded $150,000 after suing to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from the Barrow County Courthouse.

$615,500 = Florida Supreme Court

The Florida Supreme Court established the Florida Bar Foundation and then commissioned the foundation to provide $615,500 to the ACLU of Florida between the years of 1990 and 1997.

$121,500 = Kentucky

The ACLU was awarded $121,500 after suing to remove a monument outside of the Kentucky Capitol building.

$277,000 = Kentucky

The ACLU was awarded a whopping $277,000 after suing to overturn a state law against abortion in 1994.

$299,500 = Kentucky

In 2001, the ACLU was awarded more than $299,500 after suing to overturn abortion regulations in Kentucky.

$50,000 = Tennessee

A Tennessee County was forced to pay the ACLU $50,000 after losing a legal battle to preserve a display of the Ten Commandments.

$37,037 = Loudoun County (Va.)

The ACLU was awarded $37,037 after winning a lawsuit to prevent a Loudoun County (Va.) from installing pornography filters on public library computers.

$175,000 = Alabama

Following the lawsuit, involving former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, to remove a Ten Commandments monument from the rotunda of the Alabama Supreme Court building, state taxpayers were forced to pay nearly $550,000 in attorney fees and court costs. Of that, $175,000 went to the ACLU.

$63,000 = California

Taxpayers were forced to give the ACLU a whopping $63,000 after their lawsuit to remove a World War One Memorial Cross from the Mojave National Preserve.

$74,462 = Habersham County (Ga.)

The ACLU received $74,462 from Georgia taxpayers after suing to remove a Ten Commandments display from the Habersham County (Ga.) Courthouse.

$25,000 = Pulaski County (Ark.)

The ACLU was awarded $25,000 after suing an Arkansas county for telling the child’s parents that the 14-year-old boy was living an openly gay lifestyle in school.

$135,000 = Cobb County (Ga.)

The ACLU is scheduled to receive $135,000 from Cobb County taxpayers, after suing the county to remove warning stickers from the district biology books. The stickers simply read, “Evolution is a theory, not a fact.”

$75,000 = Pasco (Wash.)

The city of Pasco, Washington was forced to pay the ACLU $75,000 after they lost a lawsuit to remove the painting of a naked woman from the Pasco City Hall.

$52,000 = Seattle (Wash.)

Residents in Seattle, Washington, were ordered to pay $52,000 to the ACLU — for defending a student’s “right” to mock the assistant principal in a sexual online parodies … sodomizing Homer Simpson and appearing in Viagra commercials.

$6,000,000 = American taxpayers

The ACLU, along with other pro-abortion organizations, have shared in court awards estimated to be worth roughly six million dollars following the Supreme Court’s decision in which they declared the Nebraska partial birth abortion ban unconstitutional. Reportedly, these lawsuits affected thirty states.

$18,000 = London (Ohio)

After suing London, Ohio, for allowing their football coach to host a voluntary prayer for athletes, the ACLU was awarded $18,000 in attorney fees.

$110,000 = Multnomah County (Oregon)

Incredibly, Multnomah County taxpayers were asked to pay a whopping $110,000 after the ACLU sued them for allowing the Boy Scouts of America to recruit on public school campuses.

$111,000 = Operation Rescue

Operation Rescue was ordered to pay the ACLU $111,000 after losing a lawsuit in which the ACLU sought to prevent the organization from picketing near abortion clinics.

$230,000 = San Diego (California)

San Diego residents were forced to pay $230,000 in legal costs in an effort to defend the Mount Soledad Cross (a memorial to the Korean War) from an ACLU lawsuit. The Korean War Memorial had been established in 1952.

No society can withstand this kind of assault on it’s values and constitutional rights for long. If the secularization of our country isn’t stopped, it WILL destroy us.

New poll results came out today showing that President Bush’s poll numbers have fallen to an all-time low of 40%. Naturally, the liberal blogs are all celebrating the news and patting themselves on the back. They mistakenly believe that these polls indicate an increase in support for the Democrats that will translate into votes in the next election. However, if they (or the media) cared to take a look at the details, they’d notice that his numbers are lower because his base is not happy with him at all right now. Bush’s base supporters would likely never vote for a liberal, and have not suddenly become anti-American moonbats, ready to don their tinfoil hats and protest the war. The fact that Bush has forgotten what got him elected in many ways does not mean angry Republicans are now changing parties. It means they’re letting their leaders know they are not happy. Granted, that isn’t good for the party, but it’s not quite the homerun the moonbats think it is.

I happen to be one of those Republicans that, if asked by a pollster, would say I’m not happy with Bush’s job performance. That doesn’t mean I think Kerry, Hillary, or any other liberal would do a better job. In fact, I find the thought of a liberal in power terrifying. But. . . . . .I don’t think the Republican party is doing what we elected them to do. They aren’t cutting spending (Bush has never seen a spending bill he didn’t like), they are being hypocrites in their fight against Islamic terrorists (the Palestinians), and, as this news article points out, they’ve failed miserably at homeland security.

I’ve never understood Bush’s obsession with keeping our southern border wide open. If he’s worried about losing the Hispanic vote, he’s not looking at the polls. The majority of Hispanics (with voting rights) support stopping the flow of illegal immigration. Not to mention, losing the support of his base is far worse for the Republican party than upsetting illegal immigrants.

Our government can throw all the money they want to at homeland security, but they’re throwing money down a rat hole as long as our borders are wide open. When governors in border states have to declare a state of emergency and call in the National Guard, that’s a pretty good indication the federal government is not doing its job. Consider the following information:

“In the first seven months of this year, there were 119,000 illegal immigrants from countries other than Mexico who were apprehended and then released into Texas streets,” Perry said.

He called current policy a “catch and release program,” and said thousands of those released, and who never appeared in court, were from countries “where terrorists and al-Qaida are active,” including Iraq, Iran and Bangladesh.

Hello?!!!!! Thousands of illegals from terrorist countries are being released inside our borders! It appears our government didn’t learn anything from 9/11. Terrorists don’t even have to bother with fake visas, overstaying their visas, or getting caught because their name is on a watch list anymore (those watch lists seem kind of stupid now don’t they?) They can walk across our southern border, and even if they are caught, it’ll just be a minor inconvenience on their way to their next terrorist target. Darn right I’m not happy with Bush’s job performance, but his poll numbers are nothing compared to what they’ll be if American’s die because the borders were not secured. Now, THAT would be the a good day for the Democrats. Their politicians thrive on death counts.

Read the full article
WND

How many times over the past several years have we seen the ACLU file lawsuits because Christians were being allowed to offer prayers at government meetings or in government buildings. In each case the ACLU argued that prayer in government meetings and buildings violates the so-called “separation of church and state”. Why, then, did the ACLU sue to allow a Witch to offer Wiccan prayer at a county meeting in Richmond, VA? A liberal would whine, “but if Christians get to pray, witches should too.” They’d be right – the first amendment guarantees EVERYONE’S right to pray and practice their religion openly. But, that’s not the point. The ACLU already argued before federal courts across the country that it was unconstitutional for prayers to be offered at official government meetings. They are now completely contradicting themselves and violating their own made up separation rule by asking the Supreme Court to allow Wiccan prayers at these same meetings. The fact is, the terrorists at the ACLU are fine with prayer in government meetings, as long as it’s not a Christian prayer.

It’s no wonder I’ve come across liberals who actually think the ACLU is a part of the United States government with powers not even given to the judicial branch under our constitution. I kid you not. I’ve heard more than one liberal make this claim, and protest when I explained that the ACLU is nothing more than a non-profit organization, albeit a well funded one. It’s pitiful really that people who know so little about their own country’s history and government are never even remotely embarrassed by their ignorance. They would first have to admit they’re wrong and let go of their alternate universe where facts don’t matter.

A practicing witch who sought to have her prayers heard at government meetings in a Richmond, Va., suburb had no magic before the U.S. Supreme Court.

Justices rejected an appeal by Cyndi Simpson, a Wiccan priestess and member of the Broom Riders Association, who wanted to offer a generalized prayer to the “creator of the universe” in Chesterfield County, Va.

“I wasn’t going to talk about the goddess,” Simpson said previous to today’s decision. “I was going to call the elements, maybe offer up an invocation to the highest being.” . . . .

Stop the ACLU

Al Qaeda’s goals are the Democrat’s goals.  Al Qaeda’s plans for Iraq are the Democrat’s plans.  The latest release of correspondence between Bin Laden’s deputy Zawahiri and Al Qaeda’s leader in Iraq  provides proof that the Democratic party is the terrorist’s best ally.

As the letter reveals, Al Qaeda keeps fighting a losing ground war in Iraq because the Democrats give them hope that their strategy will be successful. The strategy outlined in the letter (and in most Democratic speeches given over the last 4 years), is to continue attacks in Iraq, keep the death count as high as possible, and wait for America to do what they did in Vietnam, Somalia, and after every terrorist attack prior to 9/11. In all of those cases, America gave up and ran from a fight. And, why would the terrorists not believe America will be weak again?  With Cindy Sheehan, Al Gore, John Kerry, Senate Democrats, and countless liberal political organizations calling the Iraq war another Vietnam quagmire, and with the front-pages filled with stories of anti-war, revived-hippie protests, they have no shortage of encouraging propaganda to feed the Islamic terrorists in Iraq. When a former Vice President goes overseas to accuses America of “occupation”, routine torture, and certain failure in Iraq, there is absolutely no reason for the terrorists to stop killing or worry that America may actually finish the job this time.

Some basic analysis of Zawahiri’s letter to Iraq reveals a startling number of similarities between the goals of our worst enemy and the Democratic party in America.

Direct quotes from the letter are in blue.

IRAQ IS THE CENTER OF THE WAR ON TERROR

Iraq – “which was formerly the field for major battles in Islam’s history, and what is now the place for the greatest battle of Islam in this era. . . . .

“Chechnya, Afghanistan, Kashmir, and Bosnia, they are just the groundwork and the vanguard for the major battles which have begun in the heart of the Islamic world.”

In other words, Islam’s goal of conquering the Middle East began long before the U.S. invaded Iraq. The “groundwork” went unanswered for years, and the Democrats believe we should allow the terrorists to continue this plan to conquer the world for Islam unhindered and unanswered.

“God has blessed you and your brothers while many of the Muslim mujahedeen have longed for that blessing, and that is Jihad in the heart of the Islamic world (Iraq).”

This is important.  Liberals would have us believe that our “occupation” has angered the terrorists and made the terrorist threat worse.  But Al Qaeda considers the opportunity for Jihad in Iraq a blessing – a blessing that, Zawahiri explains, the prophet Mohammed prophesied.  The groundwork was being laid through unanswered terrorist attacks around the world long before the terrorists were “blessed” with the opportunity to murder and plunder in Iraq.

AL QAEDA’S WAR IS A RELIGIOUS WAR! THEIR GOAL IS TO FORCE ISLAM ON THE WORLD….EVEN LIBERALS

“God also blessed you not only with the splendor of the spearhead of Jihad, but with the splendor as well of the doctrines of monotheism, the rejection of polytheism (they consider Christians polytheists -ed.), and avoidance of the tenets of the secularists and detractors and inferiors, the call to the pure way of the Prophet, and the sublime goal that the Prophet left to his companions."

“If we are in agreement that the victory of Islam and the establishment of a caliphate in the manner of the Prophet will not be achieved except through jihad against the apostate rulers and their removal. . . “.

It is ignorance that leads secular humanists to hate Christianity and work feverishly to ban Christians from the public square, while promoting tolerance of Islam to the point of teaching it in our public schools. Islam considers these secularists “inferiors”, equally deserving of forced conversion or death. Liberal tolerance is seen as weakness by Islam, and it does nothing to keep Liberals from being counted among the infidels.

IRAQ IS THE NEXT STEP IN RE-ESTABLISHING THE CALIPHATE
(for the uneducated liberals, this explains what the caliphate is . . . .hint: secularists are eliminated in the establishment of the Caliphate.)

“If our intended goal in this age is the establishment of a caliphate in the manner of the Prophet and if we expect to establish its state predominantly according to how it appears to us in the heart of the Islamic world, then your efforts and sacrifices – God permitting – are a large step directly toward that goal."

THE TERRORISTS 1ST STRATEGIC GOAL IS ALSO THE 1ST GOAL OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY

“The first stage: Expel the Americans from Iraq”

Sound familiar? Does “get our troops out of Iraq” ring a bell? The Islamic terrorists, whose goal it is to destroy us, keep fighting in Iraq because they are given hope by the anti-war (anti-America) movement in the United states – this includes Democratic Senators and party leaders. Al Qaida’s leaders recognize the importance of the high morale their liberal supporters in the U.S. can generate.

“One of the most important things facing the leadership is the enthusiasm of the supporters, and especially of the energetic young men who are burning to make the religion victorious.”

“Americans will exit soon, God willing, and the establishment of a governing authority – as soon as the country is freed from the Americans – does not depend on force alone. Things may develop faster than we imagine. The aftermath of the collapse of American power in Vietnam – and how they ran and left their agents is noteworthy.”

Interesting. Al Qaeda agrees with the Democrats view that our surrender and retreat in Vietnam is noteworthy and applies to the war in Iraq. Evil minds think alike.

“Because of that, we must be ready starting now, before events overtake us and before we are surprised by the conspiracies of the Americans and the United Nations and their plans to fill the void behind them.”

LEAVING IRAQ WILL NOT MAKE AMERICA MORE SAFE AND BRING SECURITY AND STABILITY TO IRAQ

“The Second stage (after the Americans are gone -ed.): Establish an Islamic authority or amirate, then develop it and support it until it achieves the level of a caliphate – (remember all secularists and atheists die in the process of establishing the great caliphate -ed.) over as much territory as you can to spread its power in Iraq, ie., in Sunni areas, is in order to fill the void stemming from the departure of the Americans, immediately upon their exit and before un-Islamic forces attempt to fill this void, whether those whom the Americans will leave behind them, or those among the un-Islamic forces who will try to jump at taking power.”

Liberals love to throw the word theocracy around. They claim to despise those who force their religion on others and aren’t “tolerant” of other religions. Yet, our enemies tell us that as soon as we “get our troops out of Iraq”, they will exercise power over all non-Muslims or un-Islamic forces left behind. Hint: This is how a theocracy operates. They will then establish a terrorist state and use it to wage jihad on the rest of the world.

FROM IRAQ, AL QAEDA’S GOAL IS TO INVADE AND CONQUER ALL NEIGHBORING SECULAR GOVERNMENTS

“The third stage: Extend the jihad wave to the secular countries neighboring Iraq.”

Are the liberal secularists out there getting the hint? You are marked for elimination and your enemies hope to establish their home base in Iraq. Just as soon as your anti-war, moonbat forces succeed in causing a Vietnam style surrender and retreat, the process will begin.

If it’s not yet clear enough to the lefties out there, Zawahiri spells it out for us.

“…the mujahedeen must not have their mission end with the expulsion of the Americans from Iraq, and then lay down their weapons, and silence the fighting zeal. We will return to having the secularists and traitors holding sway over us. Instead, their ongoing mission is to establish an Islamic state, and defend it, and for every generation to hand over the banner to the one after it until the Hour of Resurrection.”

THE TERRORISTS RECOGNIZE THE VALUE OF MSM PROPAGANDA

“However, despite all of this, I say to you: that we are in a battle, and that more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media.”

They know they can’t win the war on the ground, but the liberal MSM can hand them a victory if they play their cards right. Their biggest asset in their war on civilization is ignorant, gullible Democrats who take their enemy’s side and believe helping that enemy defeat the U.S. will make them safe. These pitiful, naive people will never learn until the Jihad is at their infidel doorstep, and the Jihadist’s sword is at their neck. Death is the only reward a secularist, atheist, or non-Muslim gets in Islam.

The Democratic party is the party of traitors, and the treasonous, anti-American rhetoric goes all the way to the top. Al Gore went on another anti-Bush, America bashing tirade while speaking at a economic forum in Sweden today. A man who once ran for the Presidency is overseas telling our enemies and our allies that America wouldn’t be engaged in routine torture of human beings if he were president. Thank God this man was not elected. Lord help us if a Democrat ever runs this country again. It’s the equivalent of electing Osama bin Laden to office (see Osama’s letter published today – it could pass for DNC strategy memo).

Former Vice President Al Gore said Wednesday he had no intention of ever running for president again, but he said the United States would be “a different country” if he had won the 2000 election, launching into a scathing attack of the Bush administration.

“I have absolutely no plans and no expectations of ever being a candidate again,” Gore told reporters after giving a speech at an economic forum in Sweden.

When asked how the United States would have been different if he had become president, though, he had harsh criticism for Bush’s policies.

“We would not have invaded a country that didn’t attack us,” he said, referring to Iraq. “We would not have taken money from the working families and given it to the most wealthy families.”

“We would not be trying to control and intimidate the news media. We would not be routinely torturing people,” Gore said. “We would be a different country.”

Trying to control and intimidate the media?!!!! What?! So, Bush must be intimidating the media into printing every negative thing they can find about the war and his presidency. It’s Rove’s new master plan – force the media to constantly attack the president and, by ruining his own presidency, Bush will take all the fun away from the Democrats. How stupid do they think we are?

When Democratic leaders accuse America of routinely torturing people, and then defend Sadam Hussein, who filled mass graves with innocent Iraqis, tortured and raped Iraqi women, and imprisoned Iraqi children, they’ve reached a level of evil that destroys countries. They call evil good, and good evil, and think nothing of ignoring mass murder if it benefits their fight for power. These self-hating, liars must never rule over us again. Too much is at stake with Islam on the march.

Read the full article if you can stomach it.