April 2007 Archives

Anyone who wonders why he's slipping in the polls need listen or read no further than this -- a revealing excerpt from John McCain's interview today on Fox News Sunday:

WALLACE: How would you fight the War on Terror differently than it's being fought now?

J. MCCAIN: I would probably announce the closing of Guantanamo Bay. I would move those detainees to Fort Leavenworth. I would announce we will not torture anyone.

I would announce that climate change is a big issue, because we've got some image problems in the world. I think that we've got to understand — diplomatic, intelligence-wise.

Clearly, in the area of, quote, "propaganda," in the area of the war of ideas, we are not winning as much as — well, in some ways we are behind.

Al-Jazeera and others maybe, in the view of some — my view — may sometimes do a better job than we are.

At the end of the day, it's how people make up their minds as to whether they want to embrace our values, our standards, our ideals, or whether they want to go the path of radical Islamic extremism, which is an affront to everything we stand for and believe in.

So on the one hand, radical Islamic extremism is an affront to everything we stand for and believe in. And on the other hand, the best way to fight it is to close Guantanamo Bay and talk more about global warming. You know, it's a hard call, but between McCain and Barak Obama (during Thursday's debate) on the WOT, at this point I'd have to give Obama a slight edge.

MODERATOR: . . . Senator Obama, if, God forbid a thousand times, while we were gathered here tonight, we learned that two American cities had been hit simultaneously by terrorists, and we further learned beyond the shadow of a doubt it had been the work of al Qaeda, how would you change the U.S. military stance overseas as a result?

OBAMA: Well, the first thing we’d have to do is make sure that we’ve got an effective emergency response, something that this administration failed to do when we had a hurricane in New Orleans. And I think that we have to review how we operate in the event of not only a natural disaster, but also a terrorist attack.

The second thing is to make sure that we’ve got good intelligence, A, to find out that we don’t have other threats and attacks potentially out there; and B, to find out do we have any intelligence on who might have carried it out so that we can take potentially some action to dismantle that network.

But what we can’t do is then alienate the world community based on faulty intelligence, based on bluster and bombast. Instead, the next thing we would have to do, in addition to talking to the American people, is making sure that we are taling to the international community.

Because as has already been stated, we’re not going to defeat terrorists on our own. We’ve got to strengthen our intelligence relationships with them, and they’ve got to feel a stake in our security by recognizing that we have mutual security interests at stake.

There are, of course, similarities between the answers, even though the questions themselves are somewhat different. But McCain's responses are actually counterproductive, while Obama's are (leaving the silly political swipe aside) simply inadequate. Bottom line: Presidential candidates McCain and Obama both seem to agree that the best strategy for defending America against enemies hellbent on our destruction is to get more people to like us better.

Next?

Lots of thoughts, but they're just not organizing themselves right now. Next week, maybe.

Shabbat Shalom.

For some decades now, our enemies have realized that the most effective weapon against this country is the perversion of our own democratic principles. Their first major victory on this front was the Vietnam War. Previous attempts had proven unsuccessful. But there comes a time in the history of any great innovative endeavor when the prize starts getting taken for granted and we of the late sixties generation were a prime target. Not nearly as prime, however, as the typical liberal American of today.

It may take a little effort to remember that the vast majority of Americans who lead the way to our self-imposed defeat in Vietnam were considered fringe countercultural "hippies" until quite late in the game. The self-designated "freaks" who attended Woodstock weren't exactly the student union presidents and valedictorians of the class of '69. They were the dopers and the droppers, the long-haired, bell-bottomed weirdos that often (trust me) got laughed or pushed or punched out of acceptable everyday life in high schools and college campuses across the nation.

But by 1973, a new day had dawned. Long-haired, bell-bottomed weirdness was chic. The President that so proudly we hailed in 1968 and again in 1972 resigned in disgrace and "journalism" had become the enemy of the "establishment." And while I still hold that the housecleaning and transparency that resulted from Watergate have made our nation stronger and better, they also granted our enemies a new avenue of access to the maleable minds of our general populace.

Earlier today, I heard a nitwit proclaim on CNN that Roseanne Barr had opened her eyes to new persepectives on the war in Iraq. I mean, ... what? I can't even think of an analogy absurd enough to emcompass the idiocy of that statement. Whatever Roseanne Barr or any other celebrity may think they know about the war in Iraq, they're in no position to enlighten anyone on that subject. For the simple reason that they, like most Americans, are spared having to burden themselves with such details by the fact that we pay experts, i.e., people who actually do know something about how to wage a war, to do so. For the simple reason that they have access to no more intelligence or information than every other American with an opinion and that some of them (Roseanne Barr being a prime example) are clearly no more qualified to effectively process that intelligence and information than your average barn swallow.

The fact is that, today, the enemies of America are by and large not confined to nations against which we can exercise an effective deterrant strategy. Many of them are individuals who have taken up residence within our shores for the sole purpose of destroying us. Their benefactors, elsewhere, are hard to indentify and even harder to locate. They recognise completely that the freedoms we cherish in this country make our government weak, susceptible of defeat, open to infiltration. They're more than happy to use those openings to their own advantage, and they have, but they have no intention of allowing their own regimes to be brought low in similar fashion once they've succeeded. Why is this so hard to understand?

Those who are using America's principles to defeat America have no respect for human rights, for women's rights, for gay rights, for minority rights, for freedom of religion, freedom of assembly or freedom of speech. In fact, they despise such "rights" as weakness and corruption. This is especially true today, but it's been so for a long, long time. The Fascists and the Communists had little more respect for these rights than the Islamists that are now aligned with the remains of both of those movements do today. And yet we elect government officials in the name of protecting those rights who are ready and anxious to sign our declaration of surrender to those who would obliterate them.

So. Is the American experiment over? Will we prove to the world that freedom and strength can't co-exist? And, if so, how long will it be before some newer, more improved version of democracy dares to rear its head? My guess is, quite some time. I must tell you, I wake up every morning hoping that sense will come to the Democrats in Congress and open their eyes to the threat that's ready to engulf everything they hold dear, everything I hold dear. Or that our President or his advisors will somehow, miraculously, figure out how to effectively articulate that threat. But every day brings more dismal news.

Once upon a time I dreaded what might have to happen to wake America up. And then, on a sunny September morning five and half years ago, something beyond my worst imaginings did happen. But it only woke us up for a few months. In effect, it almost seems to have inoculated us against a healthy understanding of what's to come. Once upon a time I was quite certain I wouldn't live to witness the defeat of America. Today, I'm not so sure.

You'd think this story would be getting a little more attention. But it's not. If I didn't know better, I'd be inclined to write off almost the only current mention of it on Google News as the work of some outlet with an agenda. But I do know better.

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - A couple convicted of tax evasion for concealing $1.9 million in income was sentenced to prison Tuesday, but they refused to attend the hearing and have vowed not to leave their fortress-like mansion.

Ed and Elaine Brown insist tax laws do not exist and have holed up in their hilltop home in Plainfield, which has a watchtower, concrete walls and the ability to run on wind and solar power. Ed Brown, 64, said he has stockpiled food and supplies.

"The world belongs to the creator. It doesn't belong to man," he said Tuesday. "It doesn't belong to the United States government."

The Browns were convicted in January of scheming to hide $1.9 million of income between 1996 and 2003. They were also convicted of using $215,890 in postal money orders to pay for their residence and for Elaine Brown's dental practice. The money orders were broken into increments just below the tax-reporting threshold.

U.S. District Judge Steven McAuliffe sentenced them each to 5 1/4 years in prison. They skipped the sentencing hearings, and in a telephone interview, Ed Brown said they will not surrender to federal authorities.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Morse said the former exterminator and his dentist wife have acted as though they are above the law.

U.S. marshals have been ordered to arrest the couple but said they are not planning to storm the home, blockade the roads or cut off supplies.

"We're not going to engage in that kind of game with them," U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier said. But, he added, "law enforcement is not going away and neither are the warrants."

In telephone interviews, Ed Brown said the couple will stay in their home despite convictions and warrants.

"I could care less what he does," Brown said of McAuliffe. "I can't talk to a fiction. You're a fiction, too."

The Browns based their defense on a theory that no law exists requiring tax payments.

Elaine Brown, 66, said Monday that she doesn't recognize the government, and that its officials are "a fiction in my life."

Ed Brown has been holed up in his "compound" in Plainfield, NH since January. Apparently, in addition to food and supplies, he's hinted that he's also stockpiled weapons. And if you read the rest of the article, you'll find that he also has friends picketing the courthouse.

Some are already invoking Waco and Ruby Ridge. So why is this not news?

As it does every year, the State of Israel passed from darkness to light this evening. Having mourned her sons and daughters who have died in the struggle for her existence, it's time to celebrate the birth of what they gave their lives for.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ISRAEL!!

Yom HaZikaron observed on the Tel Aviv highway (via Israel Insider):

Have you seen this story? Ed Brown, "just a regular guy" and certainly not a nutcase in the eyes of his supporters, is a tax protester who has been holed up in his New Hampshire "compound" (his own term) for three months, defending the American people against the tyranny of our government and the illegal federal income tax. Ed and his wife Elaine were convicted in January of conspiracy to defraud the federal government and conspiracy to disguise large financial transactions to avoid income tax reporting requirements, 20 counts in all. They have now filed an "order" requiring that their case be dismissed because, well, they say so. And they filed this order under the new names they're recently adopted: "Edward, a Living Soul in the Body of the Lord, of the House of Israel," and "Elaine, a Living Soul ..." likewise.

So.

Here's a recent interview with Mr. Brown, conducted by another pair of creative thinkers, John Stoddard Klar and his wife Jackie. Klar's website, which is all about "George W. Bush and the Desecration of Christianity in Modern America," is here. Just to put his views in perspective, Mr. Klar is of the opinion that "the mainstream media have been very uncomfortable criticising this president for the last year and a half."* So he, as a "conservative Christian lawyer" and a patriot, has to step up and do it for them.

Tax protesters, by and large, are a sorry lot of misguided, disturbed individuals. Once in a while you find one who's just a plain vanilla criminal using the tax protester dodge as a way to avoid paying taxes and fleece a bunch of the misguided, disturbed types in the process. This group, which is currently embroiled in its own legal problems and whose founders are currently serving hard time, has jumped with both feet onto the virulently anti-Israel bandwagon, as you can see here, e.g.,

Our hypothesis is as follows:

1) U.S. tax money is being used to oppress and destroy the Palestinian society;
2) in response, the Palestinians and their sympathizers are attacking the United States;
3) in reply, the United States has instituted a domestic War on Terror;
4) the War on Terror has given rise to a growing Police State in the U.S.;
5), the Police State has resulted in an across the board erosion of individual Freedoms, Rights and Liberties; and 6), therefore, U.S. financial aid to Israel is violative of the General Welfare Clause of the Constitution (Article I, Section 8, Clause 1).

If anyone can show that the hostilities being directed toward the United States and the War on Terror has nothing to do with our funding of Israelעs occupation and oppression of the Palestinian people, we beg them to do so.

"We the People" provides, of course, appropriate credit for this garbage to their spiritual guides Jimmy Carter and Professors Walt and Mearsheimer.

As I've pointed out elsewhere, no one pays attention to these kooks, but still. They're out there, dripping their own little bit of poison into the pot. And "We The People" naturally supports Ed Brown, though not his "stated intent to employ violence in defense of his Rights."

My question is: why are Ed and Elaine Brown still living "peacefully" in their "compound?" Well, the aforementioned stated intent to employ violence no doubt has something to do with it. He's not calling it a "compound" for nothing, and he's apparently been able to collect some supporters in there with him. His sentencing hearing is Tuesday. He's not expected to make an appearance.

*Update: More 'wisdom' from John Stoddard Klar:

The only effective counterforce for terrorism is to undermine the conditions which feed its existence. Instead, this administration consistently feeds the infection of Islamic extremism, dishing out the exact recipe to strengthen and enrage these people: unilateral support for Israel as it employs excessive force in Lebanon and Gaza "defending itself"; an attack on Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11; the use of torture, which has included the inflammatory practices of using women as interrogators, and of desecrating the Koran.

It's playing its heart out, I'm sure.

Palestinian forces suffering from emotional issues

Infighting, tensions between Palestinian and Muslim groups, leads security forces to seek counseling for tension, depression

But let's be clear. It's only the infighting and tensions between palestinian and Muslim groups that are the problem. Murdering Israelis ... not so much. In fact, no matter how much shock, tension and depression the infighting may be causing, it's nothing, nothing I tell you, compared to the misery caused by "the occupation."

Palestinian security forces have been seeking emotional counseling, following "internal infighting in Gaza". Dr. Riad al-Aqra, the director for the Gaza hospital for mental health, said that "although the occupation is a major cause for emotional depression for Gaza residents…Palestinian infighting plays a striking role in the increase of shock, tension and depression, present in previously unseen amounts."

Dr. al-Aqra cited the Palestinian website Dunia al-Waran, stating that these phenomena were seen primarily among wives and mothers of Palestinian security force members, but also among the troops themselves.

"One member of the Hamas security force came to me suffering from high tension, which was causing physical problems. He said he felt fear from the fact that he would burn in hell forever if he fired even one bullet at someone," the doctor said.

This is actually starting to sound a little healthy. Hopeful. But, no.

He told of another case, in which a member of the security forces arrived with similar symptoms. "He said he couldn't fire at another Muslim, and that he felt pain and bitterness," al-Aqra said.

"These are the feelings on both sides of the infighting, and emphasize that everyone, deep inside, rejects the civil war in his soul, rejects that which is unnatural," he explained.

Alevai. If only. If only these people would actually start to reject "that which is unnatural," peace would come to the Middle East in short order. If only.

The other victims of the VT massacre:

Statement issued to The Associated Press by Sun-Kyung Cho, sister of Seung-Hui Cho:

On behalf of our family, we are so deeply sorry for the devastation my brother has caused. No words can express our sadness that 32 innocent people lost their lives this week in such a terrible, senseless tragedy.

We are heartbroken.

We grieve alongside the families, the Virginia Tech community, our State of Virginia, and the rest of the nation. And, the world.

Every day since April 16, my father, mother and I pray for students Ross Abdallah Alameddine, Brian Roy Bluhm, Ryan Christopher Clark, Austin Michelle Cloyd, Matthew Gregory Gwaltney, Caitlin Millar Hammaren, Jeremy Michael Herbstritt, Rachael Elizabeth Hill, Emily Jane Hilscher, Jarrett Lee Lane, Matthew Joseph La Porte, Henry J. Lee, Partahi Mamora Halomoan Lumbantoruan, Lauren Ashley McCain, Daniel Patrick O'Neil, J. Ortiz-Ortiz, Minal Hiralal Panchal, Daniel Alejandro Perez, Erin Nicole Peterson, Michael Steven Pohle Jr., Julia Kathleen Pryde, Mary Karen Read, Reema Joseph Samaha, Waleed Mohamed Shaalan, Leslie Geraldine Sherman, Maxine Shelly Turner, Nicole White, Instructor Christopher James Bishop, and Professors Jocelyne Couture-Nowak, Kevin P. Granata, Liviu Librescu and G.V. Loganathan.

We pray for their families and loved ones who are experiencing so much excruciating grief. And we pray for those who were injured and for those whose lives are changed forever because of what they witnessed and experienced.

Each of these people had so much love, talent and gifts to offer, and their lives were cut short by a horrible and senseless act.

We are humbled by this darkness. We feel hopeless, helpless and lost. This is someone that I grew up with and loved. Now I feel like I didn't know this person.

We pray for you, as well.

Shabbat Shalom.

The debate is over. It's time for the international community to embrace Hamas and stop trying to convince the terrorist organization (or any Muslim country, for that matter) to recognize Israel's right to exist. After all, we all know that we musn't ever interfere with the free practice of religious beliefs.

Former PA foreign minister Mahmoud A-Zahar of Hamas said Friday that recognizing Israel contradicts the Koran, Israel Radio reported.

In an interview with a Hamas-affiliated Web site, A-Zahar said that Hamas had not given up on the principle that all of Palestine is Muslim land.

Yes. We knew that.

People ... the Islamic connection, such as it is NOT, to the Virginia Tech shooter, is a non-story and the sooner we dispense with it, the better. The evidence is overwhelming that this was a very, very sick kid. To draw any inference that his abominable actions had any connection whatsoever to any faith, creed, cause or ethnic affiliation would be an immense disservice to both his victims and to the horrific nature of his crime.

Drop it.

Update: I haven't been getting around much lately, so I missed Omri's much more nuanced version of this message. If you did, too, go read now.

This one requires no comment. From Commentary:

Michael Lerner, Vulgarian

Joshua Muravchik - 4.15.2007 - 12:40PM

April 15 is Yom haShoah, the day of commemoration of the Holocaust. The Nazis killed one-third of the world’s Jewish population, and most Jews, at least most Ashkenazi Jews, lost an ancestor or cousin in this unparalleled slaughter. Many lost their whole families. Around the world, Jews will pray for these lost ones and lament the immense part of the body of our people that was torn away from us—a wound that will never heal. It is a moment of deepest grief and solemnity.

Except, that is, to one Michael Lerner, who has just announced that he will use the occasion to launch a “campaign for a Global Marshall Plan.”