Riehl World View

Leave The Dome Alone

Update: Charles has the background and original photo of a mosque in Brunei, which makes no sense to me when used for a survey of American voters, whatever their religion. And given this, which I already documented, I'm comfortable with exactly what I posted - CAIR has designs on the Capitol Dome.

The following statement is attributed to Omar M. Ahmad, a co-founder of CAIR.

"If you choose to live here (in America) ... you have a responsibility to deliver the message of Islam," he said.... Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant, he said. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth, he said

It appears CAIR has some designs on the Capitol Dome.

I like it just the way it is, thank you very much.

For The Record On Tillman

Sgt. Bryan O'Neal was next to Tillman when he was killed and he has spoken to the media recently. There is also video of his April Congressional testimony here. Had there been a plot to kill Tillman as some leftist idiots are suggesting, they would have killed O'Neal, as well. It appears the record was altered for two purposes, to cover up a friendly fire accident and to ensure Tillman was awarded the Silver Star.

O‘Neal said the shooters were "close, close enough for me to recognize them, but they sure weren‘t 10 yards away. They were further than that. I‘ve thought about this plenty of times. They wouldn‘t have been more than 50 yards away."

O‘Neal said Saturday that he knew there were snipers in the convoy that fired at them, but that he can‘t remember their names. Were they fired at by the snipers? "Not that I know of," O‘Neal told the AP.

Q: Are you aware whether or not any U.S. forces snipers were at the scene?

Scott: They were in serial two.

Q: And, and do you know whose GMV (ground mobility vehicle) they were traveling in?

Scott: I don‘t think they were in a GMV. I think they were in a cargo Humvee.

Q: Okay. Do you know if the snipers fired any rounds during this incident involving CPL Tillman?

Scott: I do not, no.

It's Attention That They Crave

So, Mike Stark isn't content with embarrassing himself on CNN's Reliable Sources. He has to take it to the next level by annoying several of Bill O'Reilly's neighbors. But what is it he has achieved besides further marginalizing DailyKos among those not of the extreme and loony Left and apparently generating some much needed attention for himself? Nothing, nothing at all.

He doesn't have a noble cause out in front of him, something in which he believes in so much he goes to extremes to bring attention to it, other than perhaps his distaste for Bill O'Reilly this time out. But as with the Allen fiasco, we know Stark doesn't like anyone on the Right. So, who cares outside of his little echo chamber? So, Stark gets some small amount attention from the liberal blogs for himself - and O'Reilly still has his far larger pulpit which he'll now use to make Stark and DailyKos look even more foolish than they already do.

O'Reilly's neighbors don't care about some silly signs Stark evidently hung about, except perhaps that they'd be double sure to set their burglar alarms when leaving because there was a lunatic roaming around the neighborhood. Yawn!

It's similar to what Ace points out about Ken Layne at Wonkett - attention getting nonsense that ultimately serves no good purpose. The Left is becoming increasingly adept at the politics of marginalization. And ultimately, that's a good thing for the Right. Just turn them loose and let them be themselves. That as much as anything else is the surest way to keep America well-grounded on the Center-Right. Most Americans instinctively recoil from the far-Left when it's unintentionally exposed, or intentionally shows what it's really made of.

God Bless their crazy little hearts.

Report From FOB Falcon On Beauchamp TNR Affair

Matt Sanchez is at FOB Falcon - see his report here.

With the dangers of the real mission in mind, soldiers at the PAO are frustrated that the major media has chosen to focus on the negative, a common complaint I have heard among troops in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Also see the Weekly Standard for more:

No one has seen or heard of the melting lady. No soldier would confuse an officer with a contractor. It just wouldn't happen.

But, We're Winning, Right?

Hilarious. The Lefty Blogs are celebrating their big victory over Bill O'Reilly because Home Depot is not going to advertise on the show. Too bad Home Depot isn't even on the O'Reilly advertiser list they themselves crafted.

But let's not let the facts get in the way of such a big win. It is the reality-based community, after all.

Cohen On Thompson: Guns Don't Kill People, Hormones Do

The Washington Post's Richard Cohen totally mis-characterizes Fred Thompson's NRO piece on gun laws in the wake of the Virginia Tech massacre. Cohen makes it appear as though Thompson was advocating some Wild West approach, allowing anyone and everyone to carry a concealed weapon. Cohen also appears to believe that there can't possibly be anything like a responsible 21 year old in the world today. Unfortunately, maybe that's true in Cohen's view of some liberal utopia, but it still isn't what Thompson suggested.

Cohen: If the university did not prohibit guns, students would have been able "to protect themselves" -- presumably by reaching into their backpacks and gunning down the shooter.

Marshal Dillon begs to differ. He might point out that young people -- especially young men -- sometimes drink too much and have hormonal surges that compare, on a mild day, to Vesuvius on Aug. 24 of the year 79. (Goodbye, Pompeii.) To think that a university president in his or her right mind would permit students to carry guns on campus so stretches the term "right mind" that it loses all meaning.

Here's what Thompson actually wrote. He not only stated that a teacher with a carry permit might have been able to intervene, he also made the case that a 21 year-old able to pass a background check and having gone through some training might have been able to do the same. Actually, even 18 year-olds do it all the time, in Iraq. And liberal illusions to the contrary, rarely with any problems. It's a shame more young people don't appreciate just how little credit liberals give them and that the total lack of expectations from the likes of Cohen may well be the greatest contributor to irresponsible and even criminal acts by young men and women today.

Virginia Tech administrators overrode Virginia state law and threatened to expel or fire anybody who brings a weapon onto campus.

In recent years, however, armed Americans — not on-duty police officers — have successfully prevented a number of attempted mass murders. Evidence from Israel, where many teachers have weapons and have stopped serious terror attacks, has been documented. Supporting, though contrary, evidence from Great Britain, where strict gun controls have led to violent crime rates far higher than ours, is also common knowledge.

So Virginians asked their legislators to change the university's "concealed carry" policy to exempt people 21 years of age or older who have passed background checks and taken training classes. The university, however, lobbied against that bill, and a top administrator subsequently praised the legislature for blocking the measure.

The logic behind this attitude baffles me, but I suspect it has to do with a basic difference in worldviews. Some people think that power should exist only at the top, and everybody else should rely on "the authorities" for protection.

Are Anti-War Dems Going Wobbly?

Actually, they were born wobbly, but I suspect they have great plans to push as much bad news as they can on Iraq come early September. Still, it is good to note the many cracks in the liberal effort to undermine the war effort. Pundita has a round up.

Pelosi Scores Big Win In House

Not that the basic issue isn't wasn't important fifty years ago, but a resolution calling on John Murtha to apologize for maligning our forces would be a bit more timely. Or, they could condemn Chavez for his media crackdown, Castro for his tyranny, or address any number of other issues around the world. But why do that when you can criticize an ally that has re-invented itself so successfully around democracy and capitalism post WW II? These people cost us far too much money for this crap.

House of Representatives speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House made a “strong statement in support of human rights.

“More than 50 years later, the Japanese government has still not issued a clear apology to the “comfort women.’” she said.

“This is disappointing because Japan is a critical ally of the United States and a leading international voice on issues such as global warming and assistance to the poorest people in the world.”

WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives Monday rebuked US ally Japan and called for an apology for the sexual slavery inflicted by its wartime military on 200,000 Asian “comfort women."

In a resolution passed by a voice vote, lawmakers called on the Tokyo government to make an “unambiguous apology” for the coercion of women into army brothels during the 1930s and World War II.

The Japanese government has insisted it has already apologized for the treatment of the women and given no sign that it intends to do so again.

Backers of the resolution immediately hailed it as sending an important message to Japan about the need to make further amends on an episode that still scars, generations after the war.

Citizen Journalism Gets $10.6 Mil Boost

Here's the site: NowPublic, or Crowd Powered Media. It boasts almost 120,000 members in almost 4,000 cities. I did some clicking around, you can select rss feeds by location and there are several categories. It looks like they have some very good ideas, based upon their statements, anyway. See Places for instance -  for now the problem looks to be content. When Philadelphia doesn't have anything for a week, it probably isn't much worth reading. But if they can build the network they appear to be working towards, it looks like a worthwhile experiment. Evidently someone with $10 Mil thought so.

the article

Uses for the money will include ways to reward people that upload stories or images, and developing a system to "geo-locate" contributors so they can be found if they are in range of developments deemed newsworthy.

"We are moving to geo-locating people so we can do some cool stuff," Brody said.

"For example, if there is a bomb in a subway station in London or a virus breaks out in Google's cafeteria and media can't get their(sic) fast enough we can identify people on the scene already and get their content," Brody said.

NowPublic announced Monday that the fast-growing citizen journalism website has scored 10.6 million dollars (US) in financing to fuel its drive to become the world's largest news agency.

The Vancouver-based start-up says it is growing at a rate of 35 percent monthly and has nearly 120,000 contributing "reporters" in more than 140 countries.

In part of a trend referred to as "citizen journalism," NowPublic lets anyone with digital cameras or a camera-enable mobile telephones upload images or news snippets for dissemination via the Internet.

Time Magazine lists NowPublic among its top 50 websites of 2007.

"I promise you, in 18 months NowPublic will be, by reach, the largest news agency in the world," start-up co-founder Len Brody told AFP.

Dems "Impressed" In Iraq

Via AJStrata: but I want to highlight some different passages from the article. If they come back and demand a flat out withdrawal, they are being intellectually dishonest, as well as selling out both our troops and the Iraqis with whom they met.

Ellison, a vocal critic of the Iraq war, said he still believes it was a mistake for the U.S. to invade Iraq.

"But there are 150,000 American soldiers there now, and I care very deeply about them," said Ellison, one of six members on the all-freshman trip led by Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Calif. "I also care about the Iraqi people. I don't want to see them suffer."

Ellison said that local leaders in Ramadi told him of how they partnered with U.S. and Iraqi military officials to virtually rid al-Qaeda from the city.

There have been fewer anti-U.S. sermons as the violence has been reduced, Ellison said, and religious leaders meet regularly with U.S. military officials.

McNerney, the California congressman, also said he saw signs of progress in Ramadi and was impressed by Petraeus, who argued in favor of giving President Bush's troop surge strategy time to work.

McNerney said he still favors a timeline to get troops out of Iraq — something House leaders may bring to the floor again this week as part of a defense spending bill — but is open to crafting it in a way more favorable to generals' wishes.