One Missed Call

In Michael Mukasey, President Bush finally seems to have an Attorney General worthy of the current moment. In Nancy Pelosi's hometown this week, the former judge who once tried terror cases told the Commonwealth Club audience that even he had no idea of the extent of the threat. Speaking of what he hears in his national security briefings, Mr. Mukasey said, "It is way beyond - way beyond anything that I knew or believed. So, if I was picked for the level of my knowledge . . . that was a massive piece of false advertising."

As reported by the New York Sun, he also offered a perspective, partly personal as a former Manhattanite, on the necessity of warrantless antiterror surveillance. Before 9/11, Mr. Mukasey said, "We knew that there had been a call from someplace that was known to be a safe house in Afghanistan and we knew that it came to the United States. We didn't know precisely where it went. We've got" - here the Attorney General paused with emotion - "we've got 3,000 people who went to work that day, and didn't come home, to show for that."

The AG also addressed why immunity from lawsuits is vital for the telecom companies that cooperated with the surveillance after 9/11. "Forget the liability" the phone companies face, Mr. Mukasey said. "We face the prospect of disclosure in open court of what they did, which is to say the means and the methods by which we collect foreign intelligence against foreign targets." Al Qaeda would love that. The cynics will call this "fear-mongering," but most Americans will want to make sure we don't miss the next terror call.

Source

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Brookes News Update

Savings and the American economy: The lesson that Asians understand and many Americans now need to relearn is that savings and not consumption underpin living standards. And this is why the Democrats' proposed tax increase could sink the US economy
Bernanke's magic circus comes to town: Bernanke who has written a lot about the causes of the great depression. This has given economic pundits the impression that he knows how to deal with financial crises. Unfortunately, Bernanke's reading of what caused the great depression is completely false. He is making the same mistake that the Fed made in the 1920s
Asset booms and monetary policy: It is a Keynesian myth that changes in asset prices change aggregate spending, particularly household spending
Obama's communist mentor: The media have buried Obama's extreme leftwing links and his contempt for America. Nevertheless, the facts that lead to the conclusion that Obama is a socialist with Marxist sympathies are there for anyone who cares to seek them out
Al Jazeera enraged by Cuban-American voters: Republican-hating journalists who smeared Bush, admire Castro, sneer at the war on terror have joined pro-terrorist Al Jazeera where they now try to persuade Cuban-Americans to vote for the Democrats
The roots of black anger: Intellectually honest blacks, such as Shelby Steele, will tell you that racism is such a distant memory that racial victimologists like Wright are now left with concocting wild-eyed conspiracy theories to maintain their power
It's all over for the Democrats: A fit candidate for the Presidency who also happens to be an African-American or a woman will hopefully emerge in the future, but only after having gone through all the traditional rigors of any other candidate for the job
The Barack Obama double standard: In 1999 the media crucified Bush year for daring to give a speech at Bob Jones University. Now the same bunch of political bigots have been busy trying to rationalise away Obama's support for a venomous race-baiting, Jew-hating, anti-American bigot whose default position is one of unadulterated hatred

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ELSEWHERE



Two tales of great heroism in the Middle East, one from Britain and one from the USA. The egotists of the Left would understand neither.

Media talking down the economy: "Just how obvious is it that the media's economic and business coverage is so negatively skewed that it has to be part of a political agenda in an election year? Obvious enough for the folks at Fox News to do an entire segment Saturday morning asking the extraordinary question: "Media `Talking Down' the Economy to Get a Dem Elected?" Despite my surprise seeing "Cavuto on Business" begin with such a question framed at the bottom of the screen, I was almost enraptured by the comments from Neil's guests which not only included regular assertions that this is clearly about getting a Democrat in the White House, but also that media are "committing a crime against the general public" by creating a self-fulfilling prophecy that will end up costing people their jobs in the long run."

Typical psychopathic inconsistency: "Howard Dean slams John McCain's shameless plan to point out he's been there, done that. The Republican Party has seized upon the term "blatant opportunist" to suggest that Dean is implying McCain is an opportunist for including his POW information in his TV ad. What's more interesting are the Dean quotes from 2004 that may come back to haunt him this year. "The real issue is this," Dean said in March 2004, when endorsing formal rival Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., "Who would you rather have in charge of the defense of the United States of America, a group of people who never served a day overseas in their life, or a guy who served his country honorably and has three Purple Hearts and a Silver Star on the battlefields of Vietnam?"

Another Hillary lie: "A senior Democratic lawmaker blew a hole through Hillary Rodham Clinton's claim that she helped pass critical family-leave legislation - just days after the candidate admitted she "misspoke" when she made false claims about landing in Bosnia under sniper fire. Former Rep. William Lacy Clay, a longtime St. Louis politician, says it was senior lawmakers - not the former first lady - who pushed through the measure, which President Bill Clinton signed into law after only 16 days in office. "If Hillary played a role in its passage, it was without my knowledge," Clay wrote in an e-mail that he circulated."

Muslims think stuff in Dutch film is normal: "The imam at Friday prayers in Amsterdam's El Tawheed mosque spoke of "enemies of Islam", but in spite of that clear nod to Geert Wilders, the Dutch anti-immigration politician, and his film, the mood was decidedly relaxed. Mr Wilders' 16-minute film Fitna , the Arabic word for strife, was posted on the internet on Thursday after months of speculation as to just how outrageous the -stridently anti-Islamic MP's project would be. In the event, it consisted of footage of terrorist attacks in New York, Madrid and London and other material juxtaposed with verses from the Koran. One of the Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed that provoked violent protests in Islamic countries two years ago was included, without its author's consent. Omar Bakri, the Libyan-based radical Muslim cleric who is barred from Britain, did not think the film was very offensive. "On the contrary, if we leave out the first images and the sound of the page being torn, it could be a film by the [Islamist] Mujahideen," he said.

For more postings from me, see OBAMA WATCH, TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

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" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)

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