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Dead bodies are floating in the streets, the entire city is mostly submerged, looters are running amok, inmates have taken hostages at a local jail, and they're evacuating the Superdome (a site where there have been, what, three deaths now?)....

Educator working on Nobel Peace Prize nomination for McGovern+

Of note in this morning's Argus LeaderLoser:

A Florida professor is trying to get politicians, scholars and others to write letters that will help him with the paperwork to nominate former Sen. George McGovern for the Nobel Peace Prize. "He had always been one of my heroes," Robert Watson, a political science professor at Florida Atlantic University, said of McGovern, a three-term senator from South Dakota who was the Democratic Party's 1972 presidential nominee. "I can't think of a more compelling or deserving public figure for the causes of peace and alleviating world hunger than George McGovern."

The article continues with the expression of more such sentiments. The only question that occurs to the Chief is WHAT DID HE ACCOMPLISH? Anything specific at all? Anything except opposing Nixon and the Viet-nam war?

As far as that is concerned, even if the anti-war activism of the day was influential in causing the US to abandon aid to South Viet-nam, thereby enabling the Commie victory (thus ending the war), the "peace" that resulted in South Viet-nam, and even more so, Cambodia, had a greater resemblence to Auschwitz in terms of death than it did to anything most rational people would consider to be true peace....unless...it's just OK for Communists to do this sort of thing, since they're on the political left.

Nobel Peace Prize? The Chief would hope not...but given the state of Euro moonbats these days, it just might fly, especially if they use it as a means of jabbing the current GOP administration as resembling (in their minds) the dreaded Nixon.

New Orleans isn't out of the woods yet, but things are looking slightly better (or less disastrous), as Katrina is now "only" a Category 4 storm. (You know things are rough when you're optimistically saying that a hurricane is now...

See what retired Air Force Gen. John Michael Loh said in the Rapid City Journal:Loh said Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., arranged for him to meet with or speak by telephone with seven of the nine BRAC commissioners. Loh said Skinner...

Here's a part of a long story on Ellsworth from Associated Press:When the Pentagon announced that it wanted to shut down Ellsworth Air Force Base, it was an enormous setback for Sen. John Thune. The Republican got elected in part...

Protesting at Walter Reed medical hospital: On Aug. 19, as the anti-war protesters chanted slogans such as "George Bush kills American soldiers," Cybercast News Service observed several wounded war veterans entering and departing the gates of Walter Reed, some with...

Islamists, get out!

A GREAT column from JWR by Daniel Pipes this AM:

As the full implications of the London's terrorism by domestic jihadis sink in, Westerners speak out about the problem of radical Islam with new clarity and boldness. The most profound development is the sudden need of the British and others to assert what it means to be British, Australian, or some other nationality. In the face of the Islamist challenge, historic identities taken for granted must now be explained and codified.

What a concept! Give rules to immigrants: "You want to live here with US, this is how you can do it. If you don't like the rules of our society, don't let the door hit you in the butt on the way back to wherever you came from!"

This can be seen on a diurnal level, where Islamist assertion has provoked a new European willingness in recent months to stand up for historic customs ? as seen by the banning of burqas in Italy, requiring a German school boy to attend co-ed swimming classes, and making male applicants for Irish citizenship renounce polygamy. When a ranking Belgian politician cancelled lunch with an Iranian group after it demanded that alcohol not be present, his spokesman helpfully explained that "You can't force the authorities of Belgium to drink water."

One can hear the moonbats already protesting the lack of inclusiveness and diversity in these policies.

As shown by two statements on the same day last week (Aug. 24), leading Western politicians are going beyond these minor specifics to address the civilizational heart of the matter. David Cameron, the British shadow education secretary and one of the Conservative party's bright prospects, defined Britishness as "freedom under the rule of law," adding that this expression "explains almost everything you need to know about our country, our institutions, our history, our culture ? even our economy." Peter Costello, the treasurer of Australia and regarded as heir apparent to Prime Minister John Howard, asserts that "Australia expects its citizens to abide by core beliefs - democracy, the rule of law, the independent judiciary, independent liberty." Cameron also spoke with a bluntness unique in four years of politicians' discourse since 9/11: "The driving force behind today's terrorist threat is Islamist fundamentalism. The struggle we are engaged in is, at root, ideological. During the last century a strain of Islamist thinking has developed which, like other totalitarianisms, such as Nazi-ism and Communism, offers its followers a form of redemption through violence."

Back to basics - definitely a good move!

Most striking are the growing calls to extrude Islamists. Two politicians have advised foreign Islamists to stay away. Monique Gagnon-Tremblay, Quebec's international relations minister, retracted the welcome mat from those "who want to come to Quebec and who do not respect women's rights or who do not respect whatever rights may be in our Civil Code." Bob Carr, premier of New South Wales, Australia (which includes Sydney), wants would-be immigrants to be denied visas if they refuse to integrate: "I don't think they should be let in." Costello goes further, observing that Australia "is founded on a democracy. According to our Constitution, we have a secular state. Our laws are made by the Australian Parliament. If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Shari'a law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you." Islamists with dual citizenship, he suggests, could be asked "to exercise that other citizenship," i.e., leave Australia.

Likewise, Brendan Nelson, Australia's education minister, also on Aug. 24 urged immigrants to "commit to the Australian constitution, Australian rule of law." If not, "they can basically clear off." Geert Wilders, head of his own small party in the Dutch parliament, similarly called for the expulsion of non-citizen immigrants who refuse to integrate. But it was the British shadow defence minister, Gerald Howarth, who went the furthest, suggesting in early August that all British Islamists must go. "If they don't like our way of life, there is a simple remedy: go to another country, get out." He directed this principle even to Islamists born in Britain (such as three of the four London bombers): "If you don't give allegiance to this country, then leave."

Phew! I think THOSE guys get it, but...:

These statements, all dating from the past half year, prompt several observations. First, where are the Americans? No major U.S. politician has spoken of making American-based Islamists unwelcome. Who will be the first?

Who indeed? They would get MY vote!

Second, note the consistent focus on the law and legal issues. This correctly picks up on the fact that ultimately, the Islamist project concerns the application of Islamic law, the Shari'a. And finally, these comments are likely to be leading indicators of a broader campaign to restrict and remove Islamists ? a move that comes none too soon.

Amen!

I guess Dave Kranz wrote about the news in recent weeks about the Democrats' vegetarian spokesperson:It started when Randy Frederick, state Republican chairman, suggested that his Democratic counterparts at the national level are out of touch with most South Dakotans.Frederick...

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