Religious PC-ism Alive ... In Russia

Every time some attention-starved "artist" who is too afraid to confront the woman-stoners of Islam decides instead to blaspheme Jesus, I wish the blasphemer and the museums who abet them could be made to disappear.

But, hey, we don't live in Russia.

Museum Director on Trial for Blasphemy

MOSCOW (AFP) - Russian prosecutors on Tuesday charged Yuri Samodurov, head of the Moscow museum, with "inciting hatred" and "offending human dignity" in the March 2007 exhibition "Forbidden Art," his lawyer said.

The exhibition drew complaints from members of the Orthodox Church.

It comprised works judged by other museum directors as too shocking for display, such as one juxtaposing swear words with Christ's crucifixion and a biblical scene where Christ's head is replaced by that of Mickey Mouse.

The works were viewable only through small holes in a partition.

A lot of cognitive dissonance with this one. Russia is totalitarian, so why not shut a museum? But Russia is atheist, so why bother?

One last thing. The story quotes a "former dissident," Ludmilka Alexeyeva accusing the Ruskies with state persecution of the museum,. Sounds like Ms. Human Rights-nik is not exactly "former."

Never could understand those Ruskies.

One Way Streets

One of my missionary friends, who is now serving in an Islamic country that shall go unnamed and previously worked in Uzbekistan before being thrown out, sent me a sad and hardly shocking email today.

Dear prayer partners

There is a young brother in Uzbekistan who needs God’s help. Would you pray for him.

Please pray for D***. He is a faithful young man (about 22 I think) who, because of his unique maturity, has been leading and pasturing a group of believers in ******, Uzbekistan. I’ve sat and prayed with this brother many times and have heard first hand his heart for the Lord.

He is facing probable arrest by authorities because he leads an ‘illegal’ Christian house church (who have tried to register and become legal and been rejected with no explanation). He has already faced rejection from his parents and other family. He feels that he may have to flee the country to avoid arrest. Another complication is that his wife is pregnant.

It is no exaggeration to say that Uzbek prisons are some of the worst in the world. Please cry out to God for this dear brother!!

I’ll let you know when / if I know more.

Blessings,
G*****

This sort of thing happens every day throughout the Islamic world, as a hard and vicious wall is thrown up against any belief other than Islam. Children are thrown out of the house, or worse. Customers leave a business. Pastors are thrown in prison. Bibles are burned.

And this sort of thing happens every day throughout the Christian world:

First, we heard about a large group of Somali Muslim airport cabbies in Minneapolis refusing to provide service to travelers carrying alcohol or using dogs. At first, the airport moved to accommodate, but then the Somalis lost the battle to impose coercive interpretations of sharia (Islamic law) upon airport travelers. We recently have also seen airports, schools and universities agreeing to install foot-washing stations for Muslim airport cabbies and students at a significant cost to taxpayers in the name of special accommodations for Muslims. In Lincoln Park, Michigan, a few Muslim women insisted that a co-ed health club to which they signed up provide them a women’s-only room for exercise. Fitness USA acquiesced under fears of litigation despite the fact that the Muslim women signed up for no such guarantee with their enrollment contract. (Islam Watch)

We allow this to happen in our land because we believe in freedom, of course. But that doesn't mean we should ignore the prosecution of minority religions to go on throughout most of the Muslim world? How about for each church the Saudis or the Uzbeks allow to remain open, we will install a foot-washing station?

Crocodile Concern

A few years too late, it seems the International Olympians have realized that something's rotten in the Central Kingdom:

BEIJING (AP/Breitbart) - International Olympic Committee head Jacques Rogge says he's "very concerned" about the unrest in Tibet and other international issues surrounding the Beijing Games.

"I'm very concerned with the international situation and what's happening in Tibet," Jacques Rogge said Monday in Beijing. He was in the Chinese capital to meet with officials from national Olympic committees.

A little late for concern, no? It's not like half the world didn't rise up to tell the Olympic Committee not to give the Beijing Commies the legitimacy -- false legitimacy -- that comes with the Olympics.

So, watcha gonna do about it, Rogge? What kind of window dressing are you going to hang on this mess?

China Torching Budgets

San Francisco ... Fisherman's Wharf, the Golden Gate, and of course Chinatown.

A restless, angry Chinatown none too happy about what's going on in the home country, apparently:

Two months ago, police brass issued a department-wide bulletin that canceled days off on April 9 for all 2,245 members of the force to ensure a major law enforcement presence along the torch route.

On any given day, as many as 600 patrol officers are off duty - and pulling them back on assignment could translate to upward of $360,000 in police overtime.

Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin said he's been told the department's full overtime costs on torch day could top $400,000. (source)

San Franciscans, why don't you send the bill to Hu and his men of hench in Beijing? It's their fault, not yours, that people around the globe are appalled that the Olympics are being dragged through the filth of China's pollution -- political, social and environmental.

Sarkozy Sufficiently Ticked About Tibet

Nicolas Sarkozy continued in his role as the most refreshing European chief of state in eons today with a slap -- albeit a tentative and polite slap -- across Beijing's arrogant cheek:

PARIS (Breitbart/AP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy suggested Tuesday that a boycott of the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was a possibility—the first world leader to raise the prospect of punishing China over its ongoing crackdown in Tibet.

The United States, Britain and Germany all condemned China for using force against Tibetan protesters, but they stopped short of threatening to boycott the games or the Aug. 8 opening ceremony. ...

"Our Chinese friends must understand the worldwide concern that there is about the question of Tibet, and I will adapt my response to the evolutions in the situation that will come, I hope, as rapidly as possible," he said in southwest France.

Asked whether he supported a boycott, Sarkozy said he could "not close the door to any possibility."

His aides confirmed that Sarkozy was talking only about the opening ceremony.

Sarkozy's statement comes after criticism that he had not addressed the Chinese suppression of Tibet -- but better late and a bit strong on the diplomacy genteelness scale than never. With European heads of state gathering on Friday, it appears to be deliberately and well timed.

While I'm still upset Beijing was granted these Olympics and would love to see a sizable international boycott arise to embarrass the regime and promote greater human rights in China, I'm a realist -- and that's a pretty unreal scenario. Sarkozy's middle ground position of boycotting just the opening ceremonies is one that could get traction and create an embarrassment to the thugs that rule China, so let's watch what happens now.

Meanwhile, the totalitarians continue their repressive ways. Chinese state media and human rights groups both reported that two people were killed in a clash between protesters and police in an area of western China that borders on Tibet.

That brings the number killed in the uprising 22 or 140, depending on whether you trust the Chinese official or the human rights groups stats.

Supression In An Electronic Age

There was a day when a brutal, repressive regime would deal with an uprising by sending in its thugs, beat down an upraising and count on an anything-but-free media to keep it on the hush-hush. No more. Says the Telegraph:

China's censors have tried to stem the flow of information from Tibet reaching the outside world and also block foreign news from their own citizens.

The government blocked the YouTube video sharing site within China, to prevent viewers seeing images of the protests and the army's brutal response. Any internet search for a website containing references to Tibet had already been censored.

A Tibetan journalist covering his homeland from neighbouring Nepal, who asked to be identified as Lhuboom, said: "At this stage I think it's really difficult in Lhasa to use the internet at all."

Meanwhile:

Land line telephone and mobile phone services have also been disrupted by the authorities, while there are widespread fears of phone-tapping for those still able to make calls.

So China has tightened the noose -- domestically, at least. The country must be so frustrated that it can't do the same around the world. Frustrated, or, in the words of Lhadon at Tibet Wide Open,

They are scared. They are so scared.

But there's another way to look at this: China may very well be blacking out Tibet in preparation of an armed suppression of the current demonstrations. The people's leaders Communist dictators in Beijing believe that if they can keep home-shot video off the internet, they will be able to pull off the Olympics without the harsh light of an outraged world spoiling the show.

Just maybe Bush should be rethinking this.

Tibet Update: China Kills

Here's a late report on Tibet from The Guardian:

Police have fired teargas to disperse Buddhist monks and others staging a second day of protests in sympathy with anti-Chinese demonstrations in Lhasa that has left at least 30 dead. Unconfirmed reports say the figure is closer to 130.

Several hundred monks marched out of the historic Labrang monastery and into the town of Xiahe this morning, gathering other Tibetans with them as they went. Teargas was fired after the crowd, described as the largest demonstrations in Tibet for 20 years, attacked government buildings and smashed windows in the county police headquarters.

If I remember correctly, Labrang is the second largest monastery in Tibet; only the main monastery in Lhasa is larger. My Tibetan Civilization prof in college, Thigme Norbu, was the chief monk there (if it is, in fact, the second largest) before China invaded, deposing his brother, the Dalai Lama.

AP takes a more conservative stand in reporting deaths, but portends that things could get much worse in coming days:

China ordered tourists out of Tibet's capital Saturday while troops on foot and in armored vehicles patrolled the streets and enforced a strict curfew, a day after riots that a Tibetan exile group said left at least 30 protesters dead.

The protests against Chinese rule of Tibet that began Monday are the largest and most violent in the region in nearly two decades. They have spread to other areas of China as well as neighboring Nepal and India among other countries.

China's governor in Tibet vowed to punish the rioters, while law enforcement authorities urged protesters to turn themselves in by Tuesday or face unspecified punishment.

AFP quotes the Tibetan government in exile in India:

"We are confirming approximately 30 deaths, and we are even hearing numbers of over 100 dead, but this number we are unable to confirm," Tenzin Taklha, a senior official of the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamshala in northern India, told AFP.

"Right now we are hearing that there are many Chinese troops in Lhasa. There are pockets of people out in the streets right now, but there is great fear among the population."

Is the fear justified? Most certainly. Will the Chinese unleash their troops just five months before the Olympics? Quite possibly; it is not a regime that traditionally has cared much about foreign reactions. Perhaps the Olympics will buy the Tibetans some safety ... but the Chinese are between a rock and a hard place here, because they know that if they yield to Tibet, all of western China may follow Tibet's lead, creating a Buddhist-Islamic uprising against the atheists in Beijing.

Now that would be interesting, politically and theologically.

Lhasa Burning As China Masses Troops

Last week, China's foreign minister offered up a rather odd test of China's current stand on human rights:

"Ask 10 people from the street to face public security officers and ask them to say 'human rights are more important the the Olympics' 10 times or even 100 times, and I will see which security officer would put him in jail."

Apparently Chinese security officers have been briefed not to shoot people in the head for this particular demonstration against the state -- fearful, no doubt, that if they don't follow orders, it's their head that will be at the end of a rifle barrel.

It was a nice try by Yang Jiechi, but it's apparently not flying in the thin air of Tibet:

BEIJING (AP) -- Angry protesters set shops on fire in the Tibetan regional capital of Lhasa on Friday, state media and witnesses said, part of ongoing demonstrations against China's 57-year rule by Buddhist monks ahead of the Beijing Olympics in August.

Protests against Chinese rule by monks and other Tibetans took a violent turn on Friday, with shops and police vehicles set on fire in the city's ancient center. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing, meanwhile, issued an advisory to Americans, warning them to stay away from Lhasa, saying it had "received firsthand reports from American citizens in the city who report gunfire and other indications of violence."

Tibet has been seething lately, with the 49th anniversary of China's take-over of the mountain nation. These demonstrations followed the forceful termination of a protest by monks at a small temple, but China's hand has been much heavier than that this week as angry, repressed Tibetans hope to use the upcoming Olympics to embarrass China before the world.

As demonstrations have grown in size over the last week, the Chinese sent troops (which you can see by the trucks in this picture) to seal off the three largest monasteries in Lhasa yesterday -- a cultural event it is difficult to find parallels with in Western culture. Think of this, though, because I think it's roughly the same: American troops sealing off the Kaaba in Mecca.

Then, last night they sealed off all roads into the city, an action frighteningly similar to the steps preceding the Tienanmen Square massacre -- a thought that no doubt has occurred to many residents of Lhasa. For more foreboding, here's CNN:

Opponents of Chinese rule in Tibet set fire to vehicles and shops on Friday as tear gas filled the streets and gunfire rang out in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, according to witnesses, human rights groups and the Chinese state-run news agency. ...

On Friday, about 1,000 people hurled rocks and concrete at Chinese security forces, demolishing military trucks and pushing back riot police, a witness told CNN. Ethnic Tibetans seemed to target shops and vehicles owned by Han Chinese, the predominant ethnic group in China.

A main market in the capital was set on fire, and some Tibetans were hospitalized with serious injuries, said Kate Saunders, a spokeswoman for the International Campaign for Tibet.

China has proved itself quite savvy at maintaining control with low-profile tactics as the Olympics approach, but it appears that approach is failing in Tibet. I've learned enough not to expect protests against totalitarian regimes to lead to much, but the world's sympathies are definitely with Tibet, and the timing is perfect.

For timely updates, check out Beijing Wide Open.

Foreign Policy Quiz

This is a two parter. The first question is to name the country that is the focus of this passage from Reuter's story about the State Department's 2007 Human Rights Report:

This year ___ was classified among authoritarian countries that are undergoing economic reform and rapid social change but which "have not undertaken democratic political reform," the report said.

In ___, controls were "tightened on religious freedom in Tibetan areas and in the Xinjiang Uighur Autonomous Region and the treatment of petitioners in Beijing worsened," the report said.

"The government also continued to monitor, harass, detain, arrest, and imprison activists, writers, journalists, and defense lawyers and their families, many of whom were seeking to exercise their rights under the law," it said.

"Although the government pursued some important reforms, such as the Supreme People's Court's resumption of death penalty review power in cases handed down for immediate execution, efforts to reform or abolish the reeducation-through-labor system remained stalled," it said.

Did you guess China? Good! (I know; the photos gave it away.)

Now the second question: What did the State Department do as a result of all this?

If you guessed "It removed China from its list of the world's worst human rights violators," you're right! Congratulations! You've won a trip to the gulag of your choice!

Sure, the top ten offenders could give China a run for its money. After all North Korea, Myanmar, Iran, Syria, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Eritrea and Sudan have nothing much to be proud of in the human rights arena. But with a population of 1.3 billion, China can trounce on more human rights in an afternoon than its competitors can falsely imprison, torture or just plain murder in a month of Sundays. (Remember, no praying allowed on Sundays. Or any other day.)

Obviously, there is some pandering going on here -- most likely an effort to encourage China to get North Korea in tow and de-nuked. If moving them down to 11 on the list of nefarious nations helps, it's worth it, especially since China has proven beyond the shadow of a torture rack doubt that it's not going to change its policies whether it's on the list or not.

Before we go, let's do a little exercise in civics with the top ten:

• North Korea, Communist dictatorship
• Myanmar, Communist junta
• Iran, Islamist theocracy
• Syria, Islamist dictatorship
• Zimbabwe, Socialist dictatorship
• Cuba, Communist dictatorship
• Belarus, Soviet anachronism, Communist style
  
• Uzbekistan, Soviet anachronism, Islamist style
  
• Eritrea, Islamist dictatorship
• Sudan, Islamist theocratic dictatorship
  

Gee, not a democratic nation, Judeo-Christian or otherwise, among them. What have we learned, class?

Bush Wields A Necessary Veto

As President Bush vetoes legislation that would ban waterboarding and other "harsh" interrogation techniques -- a veto Congress will have trouble overturning, news reports reveal that the usual suspects are lined up against him:

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Bush often warns against ignoring the advice of U.S. commanders on the ground in Iraq. Yet the president has rejected the Army Field Manual, which recognizes that harsh interrogation tactics elicit unreliable information, said Reid, D-Nev.

"Democrats will continue working to reverse the damage President Bush has caused to our standing in the world," Reid said.

Just like al-Qaida is working to damage our standing in the world?

And we can always count on Human Rights Watch for a lucid view of world events and foreign affairs:

Jennifer Daskal, senior counterterrorism counsel at Human Rights Watch [oxymoron, anyone?], said Bush "will go down in history as the torture president" for defying Congress and allowing the CIA to use interrogation techniques "that any reasonable observer would call torture." [There they go, calling me unreasonable again!]

"The Bush administration continues to insist that CIA and other nonmilitary interrogators are not bound by the military rules and has reportedly given CIA interrogators the green light to use a range of so-called 'enhanced' interrogation techniques, including prolonged sleep deprivation, painful stress positions, and exposure to extreme cold," Daskal said. [The horror of it all!] "Although waterboarding is not currently approved for use by the CIA, Attorney General Michael Mukasey has refused to take it off the table for the future."

The Dems and Soros-funded Human Rights Watch would restrict all interrogations to those allowed in the Army Field Manual -- but what does that mean?

It’s easy to find what interrogation techniques are banned by in the new Army Field Manual. Obviously, it bans all the stuff we all used to think of as torture: anything that could cause death or physical injury. Think Jack Bauer.

Then, “based on lessons learned since the United States began taking prisoners in the war on terrorism after the Sept. 11, 2001, (AP, via NPR), the manual banned a bunch of other stuff: forced nakedness, hooding, sexual humiliation, threatening them with dogs, mock executions. Think Abu Ghraib.

Also included in this bunch of banned stuff attributed to the war on terror, according to the AP report: being beaten, shocking prisoners with electricity, burning them, causing other pain, and waterboarding. With the exception of waterboarding – which reportedly has been very limited in its use and very successful in its results – I know of no reports of American forces using any of the other techniques during the war on terror. AP didn't bother to attribute its charge -- so did they just make it up?

Who knows?

So what are the 16 interrogation techniques the Army Field Manual allows? That, my friends, is much harder to find out by reading the general media. My browser has been whirring, and it appears the MSM are much more interested in what's not allowed instead of what is allowed.

Three techniques were added “in response to the war on terror,” and are not unlike what you might experience if you were being interrogated by your local cops:

• Playing good cop/bad cop
• The American interrogator not identifying himself as such
• Separating those being interrogated, so they can’t collaborate on stories. POWs can’t be separated, but enemy combatants can be.

And all the old allowed techniques? Hard to find in the MSM, so let's turn to the Army Manual's section FM2.22.2, Human Intelligence Collection Operations, 384 pages of detailed, comprehensive instructions. The US Army is the best, longest-writing Army in the world!

The section on the human intelligence collection process begins with six pages on screening potential HUMINT sources, then goes into 14 pages on planning and preparing for an interrogation. There then are multiple-page sections on approaching the HUMINT and building rapport -- which does not include the MCs "softening them up," which is not allowed.

While Saddam's guys were innovating with electric chords and raping wives in front of husbands and kids, our guys are reading on "incentive approach" and even "emotional love" approach:

Love in its many forms (friendship, comradeship, patriotism, love of family) is a dominant emotion for most people. The HUMINT collector focuses on the anxiety felt by the source about the circumstances in which he finds himself, his isolation from those he loves, and his feelings of helplessness. The HUMINT collector directs the love the source feels toward the appropriate object: family, homeland, or comrades. If the HUMINT collector can show the source what the source himself can do to alter or improve his situation or the situation of the object of his emotion, the approach has a chance of success.

Attila the Hun this ain't ... although there are sections on emotional fear and emotional hate. Before Human Rights Watch gets all a-tizzy, let's repeat: emotional fear, emotional hate. In short, all of the 16 techniques detailed in the Army Field Manual are verbal techniques, and we all know that sticks and stone can break bones, but words will never hurt us.

Can we conceive of no situation where the nature of the detainee and the timeframe we're working in would require something far short of Jack Bauer but more than Maybury PD?

For our safety's sake, for the sake of the reputation of our country, and out of respect for the intelligence personnel tasked with working with foreign agents, we need more than the law Bush is vetoing. We need clear instructions for the use of limited, enhanced techniques -- and the Dems should be as interested in defining them and their use as anyone else.

Harry Reid image: Hidden Dragon Politics

Quote Of The Day: Relativism Gone Wild Edition

"If trials are held in Guantanamo by flawed military commissions, the system will be on trial as much as the men being accused of horrific crimes."
-- Jennifer Daskal, Human Rights Watch (source)

Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and his band of brothers buggers plotted the deaths of 2,973 Americans, none of whom were engaged in any kind of warfare with Mohammed's country or religion. He has, to our knowledge, never expressed one word of regret, other than a regret that he didn't kill more of us.

The Soros-funded Human Rights Watch, whose agenda is in significant part to embarrass America, will not rest until it has tried every trick to shift the focus from the ruthless Islamist terrorists to the American process for dealing with these dangerous, unrepentant men.

We will not be fooled, Daskal! Try as you will, you'll not convince us that Mohammed and his co-conspirators deserve anything more than prisoners of war deserve. They don't even deserve that, as they fight for no nation and wear no uniform.

Our system is not on trial, except by those who want to destroy our system, those who take their money and their cues from Soros, the world's premier America-hater and noted contributor to the Democratic party.

Beijing Float Protest Fails

I missed the first broadcast of the Rose Bowl parade, but the Beijing Olympics float just went by in the re-broadcast, and no signs of protest were evident.

Human rights activists had asked parade-route viewers to stand and turn their backs on the float to protest Beijing's abysmal human rights record, but while I saw impeachment and Ron Paul posters picked up in the TV coverage, but for the several minutes KTLA showed the float, I couldn't pick up a single person along the parade route giving the float his or her backside.

The City of Pasadena, which is careful to discourage politicizing of the parade, denied protesters more public opportunities to protest, so the back-turning was their last-ditch effort to turn the hugely popular and globally broadcast Rose Bowl parade into a statement against Beijing's policy.

It was a good idea, but ultimately, it failed.

Protests To Meet Beijing Rose Bowl Float

After the city of Pasadena nixed all their protest plans, anti-Beijing protesters have come up with a unique way to draw the huge Rose Bowl Parade audience's attention to Beijing's horrific record of human rights abuses: They are asking those lining the parade route to turn their backs on the Beijing Olympics float as it passes.

Human rights groups, frustrated that Pasadena will not allow them to protest a Rose Parade float touting the 2008 Olympics in China one minute before the parade begins, asked spectators Friday to turn their backs to the float when it goes down Colorado Boulevard next week.

"We are asking all Rose Parade attendees to show their support for human rights in China by turning their backs as it passes by," said Tseten Phanucharas, president of Los Angeles Friends of Tibet.

"We, as a coalition, support this wholeheartedly, and we will be out on the parade route urging everyone to turn their backs." (source)

The float is sponsored by the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations and Avery Dennison Corporation, whose web site is mum on the subject, but a business web site quotes the company:

"Avery Dennison has been doing business in China for over 15 years and we are proud to co-sponsor a float that will highlight the economic success of China of the 21st century and the first Olympic Games ever hosted by Beijing," said Dean A. Scarborough, president and CEO of Avery Dennison. "Having China participate in one of our most American of celebrations demonstrates the important link between the two countries."

No chance for a float highlighting China's world-topping execution rates or its sophisticated torture technologies.

The same site lists the Roundtable members as:

Members of the Roundtable of Southern California Chinese-American Organizations include: Sue Zhang, president, Tsinghua Education Foundation of North America; Gareth Chang, chairman, GC3 International Corp.; Dunson Cheng, chairman & CEO, Cathay Bank; Grace Chew, vice president, Hong Kong Association of Southern California; Leo Chu, chairman, Hollywood Park Casino & Hotel; Feng Deng, director, Tsinghua Education Foundation of North America; Michael Fulton, president and CEO, Western Market, Comerica Bank; May Hsu, president, China Electronic Commerce Association North American Office; Evans Lam, senior vice president, Citi Smith Barney; Richard Lee, chairman, Amsino Corporation; and Yuling Li, president, American International Cultural Exchanges Foundation.

Bankers and Chinese industry reps -- none overly concerned about torture, false imprisonment and crushing on freedom of speech and religion.

But Jianzhong (John) Li, a Caltech lab employee who sought asylum in the US after the 1989 Tiananmen Square violent repression of public protest and is now a follower of Falun Gong, sees it differently:

“The Chinese are using the Rose Parade to show the world that a country, without caring about human rights, can achieve so much. It reminds me of the Olympic Games in 1936, which gave Hitler an opportunity to demonstrate for the world how efficient Nazi Germany was.”

Yup.

The French Become More Likable

More good news out of France:

PARIS (Reuters) - The Paris prosecutors' office has dismissed a suit against Donald Rumsfeld accusing the former U.S. defense secretary of torture, human rights groups who brought the case said on Friday.

The plaintiffs, who included the French-based International Federation of Human Rights Leagues (FIDH) and the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), said Rumsfeld had authorized interrogation techniques that led to rights abuses.

The FIDH said it had received a letter from the prosecutors' office ruling that Rumsfeld benefited from a "customary" immunity from prosecution granted to heads of state and government and foreign ministers, even after they left office.

I would have liked to have had the decision based on more substantive reasons, like the techniques were not torture and the FIDH and CCR were ridiculously trumping up charges in pursuit not of human rights, but publicity.

Still, the dismissal is justified. Underlings -- far, far underlings -- way down the command chain from Rumsfeld were prosecuted for their crimes, which were against U.S. policy. And that should be the end of it ... unless grandstanding is your desire.

The French courts, it seems, will have none of that.

Sunday Scan

The Jerry Lewis Porkathon

The San Bernardino Sun reports on the hometown Congressman:

Rep. Jerry Lewis, R-Redlands, is tops among California's 54 congressional representatives when it comes to securing federal dollars in money-spending bills.

Lewis even bested House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-San Francisco, by 56 percent.

Numbers compiled by a non-partisan budget watchdog group, Taxpayers for Common Sense, show that Lewis - sometimes partnering with other lawmakers - scored more than $126 million worth of earmarks in a dozen appropriations bills for fiscal 2008.

Lewis does have some classic pork in his $126 million, including $8million in Army research funding for a local military contractor, but not all pork is created equal.

Lewis represents some of the fastest-growing cities in the nation, so his region needs a lot of help to cope with growth: New roads, new water and sewer systems, new hospitals. Developers pay a big chunk as do taxpayer-approved bonds, but it makes sense that Lewis' district should get more than slow-growing districts.

Then there's the fires that have swept the mountain communities above Redlands. Lewis represented those people well by getting money to help rebuild their towns.

While I'm no fan of pork, I'm even less a fan of lazy reporting.

Preposterous Prosperity Preachers

"Give and the Lord will give back" is a message heard from many pulpits, often with biblical purity. God loves a giving heart -- but if He loves televangelist prosperity preachers, who do a lot of preaching about giving, it would be one of God's greater mysteries.

Now a Republican Senator has launched an investigation of some of the biggest of these money-sucking televangelists:

The powerful top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee earlier this month sent detailed letters to six mega-ministries that are exempt from paying federal taxes, asking about their fundraising and use of donations.

For example, [Sen. Charles] Grassley wants to know for what tax-exempt purpose Joyce Meyer Ministries, based in Fenton, Mo., bought a $30,000 malachite round table, and spent $11,219 on a French clock and $19,162 on Dresden vases.

He's also interested in the total amount of "love offerings" received in lieu of salary by Bishop Eddie Long of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Lithonia, Ga., and how Long reports them on his W-2 forms to the Internal Revenue Service.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries, in Newark, Texas, also received a letter. Grassley is curious about reports that a gathering of ministers presented Kenneth Copeland with a "personal gift" in excess of $2 million, in celebration of the organization's 40th anniversary.

The other three targets are Randy and Paula White of Without Walls International Church in Tampa, Fla.; Benny Hinn of World Healing Center Church Inc. in Grapevine, Texas; and Creflo and Taffi Dollar of World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga. Des Moines Register via Right Views)

My only question is why it took so long. These thieves have been taking money from the widowed, feeble and naive for so long their place in Hell is well secured; their time in prison should have started long ago.

A pulpit is the worst place to hide behind ... with the possible exception of the television camera. If Sen. Grassley's investigation bears fruit, then the next step should be going after some television broadcast licenses.

The $30,000 malachite table caught my eye; here's Malachi 1:6:

“A son honors his father, and a servant his master. If I am a father, where is the honor due me? If I am a master, where is the respect due me?” says the Lord Almighty. “It is you, O priests, who show contempt for my name.

Amen.

Happy 60th Betty and Phil

Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip are celebrating their 60th, and BBC has provided us with 60 wedding tidbits including ones of wealth:

The Queen's bridal veil was made of tulle and held by a tiara of diamonds. This tiara was made for Queen Mary in 1919. It was made from re-used diamonds taken from a necklace/tiara purchased by Queen Victoria from Collingwood and Co and a wedding present for Queen Mary in 1893. In August 1936, Queen Mary gave the tiara to Queen Elizabeth from whom it was borrowed by Princess Elizabeth for her wedding in 1947.

... and ones of war-time austerity:

The two Royal kneelers, used during the service, were covered in rose pink silk. They were made from orange boxes, due to war time austerity, and date stamped 1946.

It's an interesting journey into another time, another place, and makes a nice Sunday read.

Paranoid Libertarians

Steve Greenhut, editorial writer at the OCRegister, is a years-long friend. We talk frequently about property rights, crazed greenies, global warming hysteria and other common interests.

We almost never talk about the war, because as a libertarian, Greenhut has been against it since day one, and his normally clear vision gets clouded, as in his column today:

One of the most disturbing lessons I've learned following the 9/11 attacks is that many people will go along with just about any government-imposed outrage if it's couched in the right terms and plays on their fears.

In the past few years, we've seen the federal government become increasingly aggressive in its efforts to spy on, detain, wiretap, monitor, imprison, search and harass not only suspected "enemy combatants" but pretty much anyone, at its discretion.

Pretty much anyone, Steve? Where are the cases in point? Who's been harassed? Who's been imprisoned? If you think the targets are "anyone," then our legal targets will shrink to pretty much no one, and the Islamists will have successfully exploited our freedoms in their efforts to take our freedoms away from us.

Greenhut's focus is Manzanar, the internment camp for Japanese-Americans in WWII:

One columnist, quoted in the book, "Reflections," about the Manzanar relocation center in California, made this argument: "I'm for the immediate removal of every Japanese on the West Coast to a point deep in the interior … let 'em be pinched, hurt, hungry … let us have no patience with the enemy or with anyone who carry his blood. Personally, I hate the Japanese."

Last year when I first researched this topic, I found such bile to be common in newspapers. At the time, The Orange County Register's longtime co-publisher R.C. Hoiles was one of the only West Coast newspaper publishers to come out against the internment.

Hindsight can be 20/20, but Greenhut should understand that among all those unjustly interned were some whose interment was good for us and for the war effort -- something Greenhut dismisses with:

The justification was to protect against espionage and sabotage, although there was scant evidence that Japanese-Americans and Japanese nationals living on the West Coast had engaged in any such activities.

But how could there be evidence unless there was the sort of spying on, wiretapping and monitoring that Greenhut abhors?

I have friends who lived in Manzanar, and I am well aware that the internment was ugly for all and unnecessary for nearly all. But the fact is this: There hasn't been any government call for internment of Muslims or any government effort that we know of that involves wholesale electronic spying on Muslims.

To fear such civil liberty breaches from within so much that you ignore the very real effort of some to undermine and destroy our freedoms, then that is the greater risk to freedom.

The Islamo-Socialist Front

Two terrible regimes are getting together today as the Venezuelan vampire drops by to visit the Tehraniacs. No good will come of this.

McGovern: The Dems' Vietnam

Look at the Dem Prez hopefuls and you see candidates who are running on a platform that speaks to activist core of the part, with planks on peace, economic justice and social equality.

If that sounds mistily familiar, think back to McGovern, says poli-sci prof and author Bruce Miroff. He looks at today's situation through a lens of an ongoing McGovern shock to the Dems:

Republican political ascendancy since the Reagan presidency has centered on a few core—and clear—principles: limited government, the free market, a strong military, traditional values. The Democrats’ alternative public philosophy is far less distinct. For decades, their party had had trouble articulating what it cares about and what it believes. Republicans have been proud to call themselves conservatives. Democrats have not really wanted to call themselves anything in particular.

I argue in my recently published book, The Liberals’ Moment: The McGovern Insurgency and the Identity Crisis of the Democratic Party, that the McGovern campaign was the last time that a presidential nominee of the Democratic Party voiced a full-fledged public philosophy: liberalism. ...

But McGovern lost by a huge margin, crushed by a landslide in which forty-nine states voted for the incumbent, none other than Richard Nixon. ...

A legacy of the McGovern campaign was that it made Democrats lose confidence in their longstanding public philosophy even as Republicans were gaining confidence in their new one. The McGovern defeat can thus be seen as a profound trauma for contemporary Democrats, a political and psychic wound that has been covered over with layers of denial and defensiveness. (History News Network)

Miroff is, of course, right. Today's candidates all remember the McGovern debacle well, just as they remember the Reagan juggernaut. What they're forgetting is that there is a place in Dem-dom somewhere between the unrealistic positions of McGovern or Markos Moulitsas and the hard right positions of the Conservative revolution.

It may take another generation for the Dems to leave McGovern behind and find a new voice for the party -- a bit of New Deal, a bit of populism, a bit of progressivism (as in embracing change, not running from it as the Dems are today). Hillary is the embodiment of McGovernitis, with her unwillingness to take a position on anything, her searching for something safe and electable to believe in.

Not that this augers well for the GOP in 2008. The people are free to elect people who can't say what they believe in -- especially if the people don't know what they believe in either.

The Religion Of Peace: Execute Gays

An Iranian top dog says the homosexuals who of course do not exist in Iran should be hanged:

Homosexuals deserve to be executed or tortured and possibly both, an Iranian leader told British MPs during a private meeting at a peace conference, The Times has learnt.

Mohsen Yahyavi is the highest-ranked politician to admit that Iran believes in the death penalty for homosexuality after a spate of reports that gay youths were being hanged.

President Ahmadinejad, questioned by students in New York two months ago about the executions, dodged the issue by suggesting that there were no gays in his country. ...

Minutes taken by an official describe a meeting between British and Iranian MPs at the Inter-Parliamentary Union, a peace body, in May. When the Britons raised the hangings of Asqari and Marhouni, the leader of the Iranian delegation, Mr Yahyavi, a member of his parliament’s energy committee, was unflinching.

He “explained that according to Islam gays and lesbianism were not permitted”, the record states. “He said that if homosexual activity is in private there is no problem, but those in overt activity should be executed [he initially said tortured but changed it to executed]. He argued that homosexuality is against human nature and that humans are here to reproduce. Homosexuals do not reproduce.” (Source)

Sounds like Yahyavi would find a home among the human scum at the Westboro Baptist Church. Westboro is a disgusting aberration of Christ's call not to sin, to recognize our own sin, and to love others, and Christiandom been loud and eloquent in its disgust.

Somehow I think the moderate Muslims -- who are about as vocal as giraffes -- won't be heard today giving Yahyavi a verbal shellacking for his views.

Hope, And Hope Delayed

Yesterday at the U.N., President Bush reminded that fallen body that it once stood for freedom and human rights, and it should again. He focused on countries that have taken steps toward freedom, and those that continue in darkness, including Myanmar ... er, Burma.

Bush used "Burma", and the CIA World Fact Book tells us:

... since 1989 the military authorities in Burma have promoted the name Myanmar as a conventional name for their state; this decision was not approved by any sitting legislature in Burma, and the US Government did not adopt the name, which is a derivative of the Burmese short-form name Myanma Naingngandaw

Good enough for me (although not the UN or the MSM, which use Myanmar). Here's what Bush had to say about Burma:

Americans are outraged by the situation in Burma, where a military junta has imposed a 19-year reign of fear. Basic freedoms of speech, assembly, and worship are severely restricted. Ethnic minorities are persecuted. Forced child labor, human trafficking, and rape are common. The regime is holding more than 1,000 political prisoners -- including Aung San Suu Kyi, whose party was elected overwhelmingly by the Burmese people in 1990.

The ruling junta remains unyielding, yet the people's desire for freedom is unmistakable. This morning, I'm announcing a series of steps to help bring peaceful change to Burma. The United States will tighten economic sanctions on the leaders of the regime and their financial backers. We will impose an expanded visa ban on those responsible for the most egregious violations of human rights, as well as their family members. We'll continue to support the efforts of humanitarian groups working to alleviate suffering in Burma. And I urge the United Nations and all nations to use their diplomatic and economic leverage to help the Burmese people reclaim their freedom.

It is obvious that it'll take more than mere words to force Burma out of the grip of the Socialist junta that rules it, as the Chinese-supported regime paid no heed and moved virtually as Bush spoke to try to crush the latest popular uprising there:

YANGON, Myanmar - Security forces shot and wounded three people, and beat and dragged away dozens of Buddhist monks Wednesday in the most violent crackdown against the protests that began last month, witnesses said. About 300 monks and activists were arrested, dissidents said.

Reports from exiled Myanmar journalists and activists in Thailand said security forces had shot and killed as many as five people in Myanmar's biggest city, Yangon [Rangoon]. The reports could not be independently confirmed by The Associated Press.

Witnesses in Yangon known to the AP said they had seen two women and one young man with gunshot wounds in the chaotic confrontations.

Zin Linn, information minister for the Washington-based National Coalition Government of the Union of Burma, which is Myanmar's self-styled government-in-exile, said at least five monks were killed, while an organization of exiled political activists in Thailand, the National League for Democracy-Liberated Area said three monks had been confirmed dead, and about 17 wounded.

It seems like beating Buddhist monks is not a good strategy for gaining popular support in a nation where nearly 90 percent of the people are Buddhist. Of course, it would also seem that refusing to relinquish power after a popular election, as the junta did in 1990 after Aung San Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy won a landslide victory in a popular election.

So, how about an International League for Democracy to snuff out the brutes that are denying a nation its freedom? Bush reminded the U.N. that in theory we have such an organization headquartered in NYC, but that the theory and the practice have become woefully disjointed.

President Bush concluded his speech:

With the commitment and courage of this chamber, we can build a world where people are free to speak, assemble, and worship as they wish; a world where children in every nation grow up healthy, get a decent education, and look to the future with hope; a world where opportunity crosses every border. America will lead toward this vision where all are created equal, and free to pursue their dreams. This is the founding conviction of my country. It is the promise that established this body. And with our determination, it can be the future of our world.

Inspiring words to some, but let's face it: They're threatening words to a significant number of the world leaders who sat before him, whose sheer numbers drive the U.N., whose influence is too strong for the likes of Ban-ki Moon to stand up to.

PETA Priorities: Dogs Over Humans

As PETA protesters gather around Michael Vick's partner in the Bad Newz Kennels, thought I'd just pose a simple question:

Have you ever seen a PETA protest outside an abortion clinic?

Vick and his cohorts killed at least eight dogs they no longer wanted, which was enough to get the PETA folks in a lather. Abortionists kill about 8 pre-borns every three minutes in the U.S., minute in and minute out, day in and day out, year in and year out.

But that's not worth PETA's time.

hat-tip: Jim

More Evidence Of Evil In The Heart Of China

Modern, moral nations just don't have people who do things like this:

BEIJING (AP) — China is still freeing people — including children — forced to work as slaves in illegal brick factories, two months after the scandal involving the brick yards was exposed, officials said Monday.

The scandal erupted in early June after children as young as 8 were abducted or recruited from bus and train stations with false promises of well-paying jobs and sold to kilns for about $65.

"Another 359 slave migrant workers have been rescued in Shanxi since late June, including 15 child workers and 121 mentally handicapped ones," said Xue Yanzhong, executive vice governor of Shanxi province.

The Chinese government, which prides itself on knowing every last detail of what its citizens are up to, did nothing about the slavery at the brick kilns of Shanxi until it was forced to do so by an internet storm of outraged public opinion. Even then, the main perpetrator of the first case, the son of a local party official, got off easy.

So don't credit the Commies with any kudos for these latests arrests. They occurred because the Commies are backed into the corner on the slavery issue, at least in the Shanxi brick kilns. And let's not kid ourselves: Shanxi is not the only place in China where this is occurring; it's just the only place where something is being done about it.

China doesn't deserve to host the Olympics, and we shouldn't participate.

Yahoo-China Connection Under Investigation

As Chinese journalist Shi Tao sits in jail for 10 years -- for an email about Chinese restrictions on the media, of all things -- the heat is being turned up on the American company that may have helped put him there.

What Yahoo knew and who it shared it with is now the subject of a Congressional investigation, says WSJ:

Yahoo General Counsel Michael Callahan told lawmakers at a hearing last year that the Sunnyvale, California, company had no information about the nature of the investigation when it provided details about Mr. Shi to Chinese officials, Rep. [Tom] Lantos [D, CA] said.

But the Dui Hua Foundation has released a document that it says shows the Beijing State Security Bureau had written Yahoo saying it wanted email content about Mr. Shi for an investigation into suspected "illegal provision of state secrets to foreign entities."

Yahoo says the truth will prevail and they will be found blameless. I doubt it. Sleep with dirty scum and you're going to get dirty.

It's high time America put China and the companies that partner with the Commies on notice that we stand for something; let's call it freedom, human rights. If it takes a Democrat working with human rights advocates to start getting this mess un-messed, then thank you, Congressman Lantos.