DON'T GO WOBBLY ON IRAN

(Excerpt from Jeff Jacoby)

"It is not on the table. It is not on the agenda. I happen to think it is inconceivable." That was British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in September, telling the BBC what he thinks about the use of military force to prevent Iran's homicidal theocrats from acquiring nuclear weapons... Fortunately, not everyone is off in Cloud Cuckoo Land when it comes to dealing with Tehran. The acting prime minister of Israel, Ehud Olmert, put his government's position bluntly: "Under no circumstances, and at no point," he said on Jan. 17, "can Israel allow anyone with these kinds of malicious designs against us [to] have control of weapons of destruction that can threaten our existence." As the Jewish state has good reason to know, dictators who publicly vow to commit mass murder generally mean what they say -- and are generally not deterred by threats of "diplomatic solutions."

Israel is widely assumed to be at work on plans to destroy Iran's nuclear program. Iranian rulers have repeatedly declared their intention to wipe Israel off the map, and Vice President Dick Cheney said publicly more than a year ago that Israel "might well decide to act first" and attack Iran's nuclear facilities in its own self-defense. But it isn't clear that Israel could pull off such an operation, which would be far more complex than its strike on Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor in 1981. Unlike Osirak, which was a stand-alone facility, Iran's nuclear facilities are dispersed among dozens of sites. Many are hidden underground. "To attack them all with cruise missiles and fighter-bombers," notes The Economist, "would require an extended campaign and hundreds of sorties. Corridors would have to be cleared through Iran's air defenses and the Iranian air force destroyed." Israel could not hope to carry off such a sustained military effort against targets a thousand miles away. Which is why, if Iran's nuclear program is to be demolished by force, it will have to be done by the United States....

The Bush administration -- and, increasingly, leading Democrats -- have been speaking out with growing urgency about preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear threat. What is not stressed enough is that Iran is not just a potential menace -- it is a clear and present danger right now. The radical Islamists in Tehran bankroll the world's deadliest terrorists. They foment violence in Iraq. They lied for 18 years about their nuclear activities. They persecute democratic activists and oppress women. They declare that their goals are "a world without Zionism or America" and "the destruction of Anglo-Saxon civilization." It was they who began the war we are in -- the global conflict between Islamofascism and the West -- with their seizure of the US embassy in 1979. Fanatic, apocalyptic, totalitarian, the mullahs who rule Iran see their destiny as waging jihad and extending theocracy across the entire Middle East. Under no circumstances can such enemies be permitted to acquire nuclear weapons -- or to doubt that we will do what we must to make sure that they don't.

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ELSEWHERE

The irresponsible suits running Ford and GM might even lose dominance in that great American sport of auto racing: 'It was not a little jarring several years ago when NASCAR fans began arriving at racetracks in Toyota Tundra trucks and other vehicles built by foreign manufacturers. Now, Japanese automaker Toyota is preparing to leave the parking lot and drive into that bastion of American auto racing and culture -- NASCAR's Nextel Cup series. Not since the mid-1950s, when British-made Jaguars ran a handful of races in NASCAR's top series, has a foreign make competed in the Cup. From that time until 2000, when NASCAR allowed a Toyota-powered car in the now-defunct Goody's Dash Series, even the suggestion that a car or engine built by the Japanese, the Germans or any other non-Americans could eventually race in NASCAR kindled everything from heated debate to physical confrontation among the parochial and rabid fans of stock-car racing. Once Toyota ratcheted up to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2004, though, it became clear the next step was stock cars. It was announced earlier this week that a NASCAR edition of the Camry, the best-selling car in the United States in seven of the past eight years, will begin racing in 2007 in both of NASCAR's top stock-car series, the Cup and Busch".

Guess who favours voting rights for felons: "Democratic lawmakers, who have long pushed to restore voting rights to Maryland felons, say racial politics and election-year considerations make this the year they open the polls to every ex-convict. 'This law seriously disenfranchises a large number of African-Americans,' said Delegate Salima Siler Marriott, a black Baltimore Democrat who is gathering sponsors for a voting-rights restoration bill she plans to submit. 'Their disenfranchisement impacts the power of African-Americans in this state,' said Mrs. Marriott, whose bill would give all felons the vote immediately upon release from prison."

MA: Romney may veto religious funds bill: "Governor Mitt Romney signaled yesterday that he is likely to oppose a bill requiring religious institutions to disclose their finances, creating a major hurdle for advocates of the legislation who must gain a veto-proof vote in the House to guarantee that it becomes law. The governor's comment caught supporters of the bill off guard, particularly since Romney had appeared to support the measure last August. Romney's comment also comes as supporters engage in a fierce political struggle on Beacon Hill over the legislation with the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston and other religious denominations. Opponents say the measure violates religious freedoms and puts undue financial burdens on churches, particularly smaller denominations. Meeting with reporters in his office yesterday, Romney said the bill appears to be 'far more intrusive' than 'routine, regulatory interaction' and would place 'substantial burdens on religious organizations.'"

The Left still love traitors to America: "You would think, by now, with a half-century of scholarship behind us and a great deal of damning evidence on display, we would not have to be arguing about the guilt or innocence of various iconic figures of the late 1940s and 1950s: Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White or, perhaps most notoriously, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. But the martyr status of such figures seems irresistible, even today, to a certain kind of sentimental leftist. They still remain symbols of some malevolent American quality--never mind the truth of what they actually did.... In his memoirs Nikita Khrushchev noted that the Rosenbergs "vastly aided production of our A-bomb." Joyce Milton and Ronald Radosh wrote a damning account of their activities in "The Rosenberg File" (1983). And the Rosenbergs' guilt was corroborated by the 1995 declassification of the Venona documents, thousands of decrypted KGB cables intercepted by the National Security Agency in the 1940s. The notion that anyone would today deny their fundamental complicity in Soviet subversion is extraordinary, almost comically so"

Italian restaurant supports the troops: "Tremoglie approached Finocchiaro about sending some of his pasta and sauce to Marine Corps Sgt. Brandon Rogers, and Finocchiaro was happy to oblige. According to Tremoglie, who has since sent two shipments of four pounds of pasta along with sauce, dried mushrooms and cookies, Finocchiario refused payment both times with a simple statement: "It's my honor to do it." Finocchiaro said the e-mails he received from Rogers showing his unit enjoying the pasta were the only payment he could ever want. "It was a touching moment to see them cooking on a stove in the middle of nowhere. Just to see the e-mail, that was a huge payback for us," Finocchiaro said. "I'm sure that they have some good food over there, but that was a moment that makes them feel like they're home."

An amusing screech here from an over-optimistic user of blogger.com. I feel no sympathy for him/her whatever. I myself put NOTHING online until I have saved it to disk.

For more postings, see EDUCATION WATCH, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE. Mirror sites here, here, here, here and here. On Social Security see Dick McDonald and for purely Australian news see Australian Politics (mirrored here).

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Practically all policies advocated by the Left create poverty. Leftists get the government to waste vast slabs of the country's labour-force on bureaucracy and paperwork and so load the burden of providing most useful goods and services onto fewer and fewer people. So fewer useful goods and services are produced to go around. That is no accident. The Left love the poor. The Left need the poor so that they can feel good by patronizing and "helping" them. So they do their best to create as many poor people as possible.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch)

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