Daily Archives: December 20th, 2005 «

 

Vote for Kevin!

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 10:46 pm » 1 Comment

No, ST reader and commenter Kevin is *not* running for president (yet) but he has created a banner for the Iraq the Model contest, a contest to determine what banner gets placed at the top of their blog. Kevin’s looks GREAT! First, here’s the post with the five finalists. Scroll down a bit to see [...]

 

Is freedom on the march in the Middle East?

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 9:58 pm » 1 Comment

According to an organization called “Freedom House”: yes: But the most significant improvements were noted in the Middle East, where Lebanon was upgraded from “not free” to “partly free,” despite a series of political killings that shook the country. The Lebanese witnessed major improvements in both political rights and civil liberties following the withdrawal of [...]

 

Killing is a “Muslim obligation” – so why prosecute?

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 9:37 pm » Comments Off

Welcome to bizarro world: Jihad is ‘Muslim obligation’ A lawyer defending al Qaida-linked suspects standing trial for the 2003 suicide bombings in Istanbul told a court that jihad, or holy war, was an obligation for Muslims and his clients should not be prosecuted. “If you punish them for this, tomorrow, will you punish them for [...]

 

Odd Plame/Wilson photo explained

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 9:25 pm » Comments Off

Did ya’ll happen to catch this bizarre photo of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame/Wilson? If so, you were probably scratching your head trying to figure out the symbolism of it just as I was. Wonder no more: Tom Maguire, who has been a blogging machine on la affaire de Plame, has interpreted it for us. [...]

 

Past presidents and the NSA

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 8:56 pm » 29 Comments

Sigh … the more that comes to light about past presidents and their ‘eavesdropping’ the more this so-called ‘scandal’ – which has been reported to the extent you’d think it was worse than Watergate – becomes much ado about *nothing*, outside of a President trying to do his job by doing his level best to [...]

 

Video on Iraqi elections

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 10:06 am » 5 Comments

Michael Yon has a fantastic link to a video someone sent him of the Iraqi elections. Good stuff! Make sure to fwd that link to friends Related Toldjah So posts: The Iraqis are voting – December 15, 2005 Iraqi voter tells it like it is Amazing poll numbers coming out of Iraq on optimism Elections [...]

 

Bill Clinton and the NSA

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 9:38 am » 60 Comments

Via Newsmax: During the 1990′s under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon. On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has instituted “a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices” when [...]

 

Letter from a proud father

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 9:30 am » 6 Comments

Greyhawk over at Mudville Gazette has posted a letter he rec’d from the father of SGT Michael “Mike” James Stokely. Sgt. Stokely was killed in Iraq on August 15th. Have a box of Kleenex handy. (Hat tip: LGF)

 

Roll Call 648

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 9:18 am » 19 Comments

Last Friday the House of Representatives held a vote on a bill titled: “Expressing the commitment of the House of Representatives to achieving victory in Iraq.” The final vote tally was 279 yeas to 109 nays. 108 of those nays were House of Rep. Democrats. See the full results here and be sure to contact [...]

 

WSJ: “Thank you for wiretapping”

Posted by: ST on December 20, 2005 at 8:39 am » 12 Comments

The Wall Street Journal editorial page has a great piece up today on explaining why the President’s critics are flat out wrong on the ‘eavesdropping’ scandal: The allegation of Presidential law-breaking rests solely on the fact that Mr. Bush authorized wiretaps without first getting the approval of the court established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance [...]