July 25, 2006: Various

Harper catches Liberals off-guard, Grits could lose substantial Jewish vote in next general election -- Criticizing the PM's reaction without denouncing the cause is a futile political exercise typical of a political organization that has no ideas. The Liberals just don't get it. By Angelo Persichilli, July 24th, 2006, The Hill Times
www.hilltimes.com/html/index.php?display=story&full_path=/
2006/july/24/angelo/&c=1

Angelo Persichilli is political editor of Corriere Canadese, Toronto's Italian-language daily newspaper.

TORONTO–The situation in the Middle East is too complicated, dangerous and important to be a footnote in a column on Canadian politics.

Furthermore, it's a blatant waste of time to engage in a debate here in Canada over the interpretation of the word "measured," used by Prime Minister Stephen Harper while the real issue is the war going on between Palestinian and Israeli forces in a tormented war-torn land. [....]

The reality is that Israel is capable of controlling those radicals, while the Palestinians, unfortunately, are not. [....]

UN accuses Hezbollah of 'cowardly blending' via SeanMcElroy, 7/24/2006 20:23:17

www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/11454.html
cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2006/07/24/1700573-ap.html

UN humanitarian chief accuses Hezbollah of 'cowardly blending' among civilians

BEIRUT (AP) - The UN humanitarian chief, Jan Egeland, accused Hezbollah on Monday of "cowardly blending" in among Lebanese civilians and causing the deaths of hundreds during two weeks of cross-border violence with Israel.

During that visit, he condemned the killing and wounding of civilians by both sides and called Israel's offensive "disproportionate" and "a violation of international humanitarian law."

On Monday, he had strong words for Hezbollah, which crossed into Israel, captured two soldiers and killed eight others on July 12, triggering fierce fighting.

"Consistently, from the Hezbollah heartland, my message was that Hezbollah must stop this cowardly blending . . . among women and children," he said. "I heard they were proud because they lost very few fighters and that it was the civilians bearing the brunt of this. I don't think anyone should be proud of having many more children and women dead than armed men."

Who supports Israel's war against Hezbollah, the terrorist group that occupies southern Lebanon? Ezra Levant, via CNEWS Forum, SeanMcElroy, 7/24/2006 20:35:58
www.canoe.ca/mb2/messages/cnewsf/11454.html

calsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Levant_Ezra/2006/07/24/1699257.html

[....] Take this statement: "the only way to get rid of (Hezbollah) is what Israel is doing. The operations of Israel in Gaza and Lebanon are in the interest of people of Arab countries and the international community."

[....] It's Ahmed Al-Jarallah, editor-in-chief of Kuwait's Arab Times newspaper, hardly a hotbed of Zionism.

Well, maybe the Kuwaitis are suddenly pro-Israel. What about the Saudis, a country so anti-Semitic Jews are not permitted to enter the country, lest they step on Islam's holy soil? [....]

Note the paragraphs beginning: "Iran throws its weight around in different ways."




Youngest Canada Terror Suspect Granted Bail
www.foxnews.com/wires/2006Jul24/0,4670,CanadaTerrorismArrests,00.html

BRAMPTON, Ontario — The youngest of the 17 suspects arrested in an alleged plot to blow up public buildings in southern Ontario was granted bail Monday.

[....] He is allowed to go to court, school, his lawyer's and the police station without supervision.

What would one have to do in Canada to be denied bail? Terrorize whom?



Islam must be stopped
westernstandard.blogs.com/shotgun/
2006/07/islam_must_be_s.html#comments

For the latest testimony and comments re: Momin Kawaja



John Updike's "Terrorist"

Theodore Dalrymple: The Terrorists Among Us -- "[Updike] understands the deeply human, but also deeply destructive, desire for a simple solution to all existential and practical problems at once."
www.city-journal.org/html/16_3_urbanities-terrorists.html

[....] The mental laziness of Islamism, its desire that there should be to hand a ready-made solution to all the problems that mankind faces, one that is already known, and its unacknowledged fear that such a solution does not really exist, Updike captures well. When asked by his employer why he does not go for further education, Ahmad replies, “People have suggested it, sir, but I don’t feel the need yet.” Updike, as the omniscient narrator, adds: “More education, he feared, might weaken his faith. Doubts he held off in high school might become irresistible in college. The Straight Path was taking him in another, purer direction.” The refusal of free inquiry derives from an awareness of the fragility of the basis of religious faith; and since certainty is psychologically preferable to truth, the former often being willfully mistaken for the latter, anything that threatens certainty is anathematized with fury. [....]

Bingo!



Cheryfa, wife of Qayyum Abdul Jamal

Jamal asks public for cash -- Family destitute, wife of accused terrorist says on Internet posting -- ""It is my intention, (if Allah wills it to be), to register UmmTayyab[dot]com as a non-profit organization so that sincere people can donate charity to us for as long as my husband remains incarcerated or awaiting trial if he is to ever be granted bail." By CHRIS LAMBIE Staff Reporter, July 24, 06
www.herald.ns.ca/Metro/9001066.html

Jump to it, folks.

Former Haligonian Cheryfa MacAulay Jamal has set up a website to raise money for her family left destitute by her husband's arrest on terrorism charges.

[....] Ms. Jamal, 44, was named Sherry MacAulay when she attended Halifax's Cornwallis Junior High School and Queen Elizabeth High School before dropping out in Grade 10. She has several children from her first marriage and four from her present one. [....]

The good life ...

Expert offers a glimpse into world of human smuggling -- Excerpts from court testimony by ICE supervisor AZcentral.com, Jul. 23, 2006 via newsbeat1

Angel Rascon-Rubio, a group supervisor with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, has spent 18 years as an immigration agent in Arizona, primarily investigating human smugglers.

During that time, Rascon-Rubio has interviewed more than a thousand coyotes (smugglers) and been to hundreds of Valley drop houses where undocumented immigrants are held before shipment to final destinations. He worked undercover driving illegal aliens from the border to metro Phoenix, and is a law enforcement instructoron the basics of alien smuggling.

In February, Rascon-Rubio served as an expert witness during the U.S. District Court trial of Julieta Franco-Beltran, a key figure in one of Phoenix's largest smuggling organizations.

The following are excerpts of testimony during questioning by assistant U.S. attorney Lisa Jennis Settel:

[....] Phoenix, Arizona, in fact, is the hub of alien smuggling. I would say that 90 percent of the transactions dealing with the sale of human cargo - those smuggled across the (Arizona) border - occur right here.

Q: Where do most aliens that are found illegally in . . . Arizona come from?

A: The vast majority are Mexican citizens.

There is much to read in that whole article -- a must read.



Who are organizing these protestors? How are they organized? Who funds them?

Cartoons go global -- The spread of protests against the cartoons as a manifestation of globalisation via news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4682262.stm


Quit the CCP Rally Speech -- "the American and Chinese people are locked in a death struggle, but not against each other. They are joined in this battle, fighting together against the Chinese Communist Party." china_e_lobby, July 21, 2006
china-e-lobby.blogspot.com/2006/07/quit-ccp-rally-speech.html

Today, here in the de facto headquarters of the free world, there is much to consider: the battle between Hezbollah and Israel, the crisis over Stalinist North Korea's nuclear and missile ambitions, similar concern over the same ambitions in Iran, and the ongoing battles of Afghanistan and Iraq. Those who focus too exclusively on one or even several of these crises may consider this gathering to be less important. They are wrong, and they are wrong because today, as we stand up against the Chinese Communist Party, we take a stand against not only an evil and brutal regime, but against the one entity that has been the benefactor of every enemy of freedom in the aforementioned crises. The Chinese Communist Party is not merely a danger to the Chinese people; it is the greatest threat to the democratic world, for without it, the other threats would be far weaker, and quite possibly even nonexistent. [....]

Chinese become avid shoppers Jacqueline Thorpe, Financial Post, July 24, 2006

China's massive trade surplus -- especially with the United States -- has been a source of concern for world financial markets. The worry is the surplus -- matched by massive trade and current account deficits in the United States -- could unwind quickly, destabilizing the global economy.

[....] ".... it's the infrastructure differences," Mr. Abramson said. "There's just been phenomenal directed spending on infrastructure in China. There's roads, railroads, bridges."

The spending is aided by surging government revenues, driven higher by swelling corporate taxes, thanks to those bulging exports.

The governments obsession with the 2008 Olympics is driving building in Beijing. In Shanghai, the focus is on constructing tunnels, ports, airports and subways to prepare for the World Expo in 2010. In both cities, the government wants to shift manufacturing outside the city. [....]

Douglas Fisher: Canadians must look east to see the future July 23, 06
www.ottawasun.com/News/Columnists
/Fisher_Douglas/2006/07/23/1698123.html

[....] The defining theme of global affairs in the 21st century is likely to be the rise of China and India. These populous, ancient giants look certain to become major players — surely it’s only a matter of time. For Canada and other western nations the question is this: How do we adjust to this new reality when we have been dominant for so long?

[....] The new challenges largely involve Asia and the Middle East, where we have few traditional ties and limited experience. [....]

Biofuel


Carbon-Policy Fixes and Biofuel: The Right Engine Mix "It's Not California Dreaming" By Sebastian Mallaby, Monday, July 24, 2006; A19
www.sltrib.com/opinion/ci_4091222

Reasonable people say they'd like to tax or regulate carbon, but alas it's politically impossible. They invoke President Bill Clinton's humiliating failure to secure an energy tax in 1993. They declare that carbon taxes or regulations would cripple the economy.

These reasonable defeatists should meet Vinod Khosla, the Silicon Valley venture capitalist who bet big and early on Google and Amazon.

Khosla's current bet is on next-generation ethanol. He believes, with all the passion of a techno-evangelist, that we can get most of our vehicle fuel from the Midwest rather than the Middle East, and we can do so simply by growing it. He shows doubters a photograph of a bamboo-like crop that sprouts 11 feet in just one year. If South Dakota were planted with this stuff, our dependence on Saudi fundamentalists would fall -- and so would our output of climate-warming carbon. [....]

Khosla wants government to require auto companies to make more flex-fuel cars that run on gasoline or ethanol. [....]

SYNOPSIS: Washington Post, [Jul 10, 2006]
www.evworld.com/view.cfm?section=communique&newsid=12406

The writers are research professors in Maglev Research Center at Polytechnic University of New York.

Even if all of the 300 million acres (500,000 square miles) of currently harvested U.S. cropland produced ethanol, it wouldn't supply all of the gasoline and diesel fuel the U.S. now burns for transport, and it would supply only about half of the needs for the year 2025. [....]