Shit-Flinging Monkey
Did you get a load ---a steaming load--- of the Gorebot yesterday at that kooky kommie klavern sponsored by MoveOn.org? He was simply unhinged.

Would it be too much to ask Big Media that they follow up the Gorebot's ill-informed rants with coverage from Najaf and Karbala where our just and judicious prosecution of the war is being rewarded? If you listen to chattering sphincters like our former Vice President, you just might think that events there are "spiraling out of control," but if you're a literate citizen (an instant disqualification for a great many Dhimmicratic voters), you might know that we are succeeding. We are demonstrating to the Shiites that we are not going to destroy their great shrines and that all we want is a piece of this worthless turd and his militia so that order can be restored. The majority of Iraqis know this, but not the anti-war Leftists running Big Media: they want you to think that we are in deep trouble.

Hmmm. Time to run some more pictures from Abu Ghraib.

My Response to a Dhimmi
Over at The Left Coaster, I made the following reply to a dhimmi by the nom de plume of Parallel Universe. He wrote:

"Iraqi nationals fighting a foreign occupier of their country are hardly terrorists."

I replied:

The Iraqis who are fighting the Coalition are either Saddamite Sunnis who don't want to see Kurds or moderate Shiites gain any power or hardline Shiites who want to introduce a mullahcracy like their coreligionists in Iran. Are you defending the rights of these two groups to kill Americans and our allies? Do you believe that the kind of government they want to establish is one that will respect human and civil rights? If not, then what, exactly, are you defending?

Useful to the Mahdis and the Saddamites are the many foreign fighters who are seeping into Iraq: jihadis and mujahadeens who practice terrorism against everyone, including the future leaders of a free Iraq. Are you also defending their right to kill our men and women? Are you like that jar of rancid pus (Michael Moore) who is rooting for our defeat and who calls these psychopaths brave resistance fighters? They are detonating cars full of explosives in crowded areas where men and women are trying to find jobs and get on with their lives. Is that brave? Do you have a conscience?

At some point, even anti-war Leftists have an intellectual obligation to think about what they are supporting. No one really doubts that the goal of a free Iraq is the promotion of the human and civil rights that its people were denied for decades under Ba'athist rule. Why is that important to Americans? Because it addresses the root causes of the problem of Islamofascism ---be it stateless terrorism in support of theocratic fantasies or totalitarian oppression of Islamic nations. A liberated Middle East is a peaceful Middle East interested in free trade and cultural exchange in the widest sense. This is a worthy goal. Who are you to stand in the way? All you have is empty, reflexive anti-Bush bullshit infesting your mind.

Remember: Nick Berg lost his head because terrorists wanted to incite his father into trumpeting their cause to the Western world. They succeeded. They killed Michael Berg's son because they knew what a goddamned dhimmi he is.

The wages of appeasement is death.

Sado-Masochism
I just heard the interruptor maximus Chris Matthews say that Abu Ghraib has engendered "centuries of hate" towards America. He was breathing heavily with a former spook, Robert Baer, who suggested that we won't "get over this in our lifetimes."

This need by asshole anti-Bush partisans to beat up on this country's military and leadership week after week over Abu Ghraib is absolutely depraved. The self-abuse is beyond all reason. "Centuries of hate" over what? Sexually humiliating a small group of prisoners is a greater crime than decades of filling mass graves and debasing Iraqi society? The stupidity of a few soldiers now trumps all of that?

Enough of the hyperbolic declarations and ridiculous "understandings" of Muslim sensibilities. Isn't it somehow condescending to reinforce this notion of cultural immutability ---as though Iraqis are incapable of ultimately seeing these acts in their proper prespective as aberrant? As though they lack the intellectual and emotional maturity to accept the true insignificance of those crimes for their society as a whole?

True freedom and popular representation for Iraq will lift the stain of Abu Ghraib. Stop acting as though we have irrevocably damaged our chances to liberate them from real terror.

The Heart of Karbala Is Still
American troops have forced the Mahdi insurgency from the center of Karbala. And we are pressing hard on Kufa, where we have killed three dozen assholes holed up in a mosque there.

Say, Muqi, that sanctity defense just hit the fan. You've got the life-expectancy of a Palestinian pediatrician.

So That's Why King Abdullah Visited the White House Last Week
I'm still trying to learn all I can about Chalabi, and here's something from the New York Post to explain why the White House dumped him this week.

Jordan's King Abdullah fueled the U.S. move against Iraqi leader Ahmed Chalabi by providing bombshell intelligence that his group was spying for Iran, The Post has learned.

An explosive dossier that the Jordanian monarch recently brought with him to White House sessions with President Bush detailed Mafia-style extortion rackets and secret information on U.S. military operations being passed to Iran, diplomats said.

Needless to say, it reflects poorly on those in the Administration who sided with this guy. (Powell and Armitage are said to have opposed his "assistance" from the start.) But, in the game of chess, there's always sacrifices of pawns and strategic feints. Was he selling us out or were we setting him up? I don't know yet.

If those who are constantly serving up and dining on Abu Ghraib from dawn to dusk weren't such worthless turds, I'd say we might actually have a story here worth our attention. I know it's not going to have the same exciting photos to jerk off to, but maybe y'all can give it a shot. Whadda ya say, Big Media?

"First He's Gonna Shit, Then He's Gonna Kill Us!"
Damn! You ought to read about Marine Captain Brian R. Chontosh ---devil dog like a mug!

While leading his platoon north on Highway 1 toward Ad Diwaniyah, Chontosh's platoon moved into a coordinated ambush of mortars, rocket propelled grenades and automatic weapons fire. With coalitions tanks blocking the road ahead, he realized his platoon was caught in a kill zone.

He had his driver move the vehicle through a breach along his flank, where he was immediately taken under fire from an entrenched machine gun. Without hesitation, Chontosh ordered the driver to advance directly at the enemy position enabling his .50 caliber machine gunner to silence the enemy.

He then directed his driver into the enemy trench, where he exited his vehicle and began to clear the trench with an M16A2 service rifle and 9 millimeter pistol. His ammunition depleted, Chontosh, with complete disregard for his safety, twice picked up discarded enemy rifles and continued his ferocious attack.

When a Marine following him found an enemy rocket propelled grenade launcher, Chontosh used it to destroy yet another group of enemy soldiers.

When his audacious attack ended, he had cleared over 200 meters of the enemy trench, killing more than 20 enemy soldiers and wounding several others.

Capt. Chontosh has been awarded the Navy Cross for his great bravery. What a bad-ass.

"Incriminating Pocket Litter"
The US military continues to insist that the ass-kicking we delivered to those desert rats near the Syrian border earlier this week was not a wedding party. It's looking more and more like this is, in fact, the case.

Senior coalition military spokesman said that dozens of people killed in a U.S. attack in the Iraqi desert early Wednesday were attending a high-level meeting of foreign fighters, not a wedding. Photos shown to reporters in Baghdad support that contention.

Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt said six women were among the dead, but he said there is no evidence any children died in the raid near the Syrian border. Coalition officials have said as many as 40 people were killed.

Kimmitt said that video showing dead children killed was actually recorded in Ramadi, far from the attack scene.

"There may have been some kind of celebration," Kimmitt said. "Bad people have celebrations too. Bad people have parties too."

Tee hee.

Obviously a Plot to Distract Us from Abu Ghraib
How transparent can you be?

Required Reading
If you know what's good for you, you'll check out Amir Teheri's recent public remarks on the incompatibility of democracy and Islam. It's a truly impressive argument throughout.

Muslims should not be duped into believing that they can have their cake and eat it. Muslims can build democratic society provided they treat Islam as a matter of personal, private belief and not as a political ideology that seeks to monopolise the public space and regulate every aspect of individual and community life.

Ladies and gentlemen: Islam is incompatible with democracy.

(Thanks to Patriots for the Defense of America.)

More on Gas
My man Charles Krauthammer (easily the best name in all of punditry) has a thought or two on what needs to be done about the gasoline crisis. But it ain't gonna please the hoi polloi.

(That's you and me, jackson.)

The Washington Post: "Convention as Farce"
Even the Washington Post thinks that Kerry's idea to delay his acceptance of the Democratic Party's nomination in order to keep spending as he wants is crap.

And how is he supposed to sell that thing, anyway? Have a huge convention in Boston, all at the taxpayers' expense (not to mention the security costs and inconvenience it imposes on the locals), and not even have the decency to formally accept the nomination, which is why the convention is held in the first place? What balls.

I can just see the documentaries in the years to come, showing those dramatic moments when nominees accept their parties' nominations ---but with Kerry proudly proclaiming that he will delay his own acceptance so that he can keep on spending primary campaign funds. How cynical! How embarrassing!

Little Green Footballs: "Berg's Dad Dishonors His Son"
Mood:  don't ask
Do you want to see how the anti-war Left operates? Michael Berg, the anti-war activist, is using his son Nick's death as propaganda against the President. Disgusting.

I very much wish your son hadn't been decapitated, Mr. Berg, but there is little doubt in my mind that those sorry fucks knew what sort of worthless turd you are because they probably squeezed that information out of your son over the course of torturing him. Do you doubt that they murdered him in the way they did in hopes that you would respond as you have?

And in case you're wondering why Michael Berg hasn't been more prominently displayed by Big Media like the trophy mourner he is, it's because those filthy sell-outs know how bloody their own hands would be if they went all out with it. Don't call it a pang of conscience, though: call it smart business.

Fuck 'em all.

UPDATE: I forgot to include this bit of wisdom from Mr. Berg:

People ask me why I focus on putting the blame for my son's tragic and atrocious end on the Bush administration. They ask: "Don't you blame the five men who killed him?" I have answered that I blame them no more or less than the Bush administration, but I am wrong: I am sure, knowing my son, that somewhere during their association with him these men became aware of what an extraordinary man my son was. I take comfort that when they did the awful thing they did, they weren't quite as in to it as they might have been. I am sure that they came to admire him.

I am sure that the one who wielded the knife felt Nick's breath on his hand and knew that he had a real human being there. I am sure that the others looked into my son's eyes and got at least a glimmer of what the rest of the world sees. And I am sure that these murderers, for just a brief moment, did not like what they were doing.

Chalabi
It's difficult to tell what's going on with Chalabi and the raid on his house last night, but Michael Rubin of the American Enterprise Institute has some very interesting things to say about why Jerry Bremer messed up when he ordered the raid.

All I ever knew about Chalabi is that he is a world-class thief (they say if the Jordanians ever get their mitts on him, he's done) and that he was supposed to have been widely regarded by Iraqis in the run-up to the war as America's would-be puppet. Which is why I figured that there would be little outrage over this dressing down since most Iraqis, presumably, would be pleased to see the puppet get his desserts. But that may not be. He is, after all, a member of the Iraqi Governing Council, and Rubin says that the raid on his home and office will be seen as a real demonstration of America's lack of loyalty with its friends. But that should have been clear enough last week when he lost his huge monthly allowance from Uncle Sugar.

Who knows what the fuck is going on? Throwing Chalabi over may have been a bad move, but it may be nothing compared to our courting this Lakhdar Brahami character from the UN. He may be one of our worst moves yet.

Gas
I don't know much at all about how the world of petroleum markets and regulations and such work, but it's a good idea to get edumacated about it ---especially when they're applying some industrial-grade lubricant to my sweet ass every time I fill up.

My old pal over at DeepBlade turned me on to a really fine article on oil company mergers and manipulations at Public Citizen, which bears reading by Leftists and Americans of every stripe.

But what to do? I don't know. Tapping into the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR) to stabilize prices is nothing but a Democratic trick, frankly. After all, we would have to seriously deplete the SPR to really even make a dent in prices ---and at the risk of exposing ourselves to possible future disruptions in the foreign supply. Doubt that could happen in these days of warfare in the Middle East and potential terrorism comitted against our own refineries? Let's not risk it. Our economy would be crippled if enough of our refining capacity and/or crude imports were threatened at once.

The only real solutions seem to be long-term: Higher fuel-efficiency standards for cars with conventional combustion engines; tax abatements and such for the purchase of hybrid vehicles; real incentives to research, develop, and employ alternative energy sources for non-automobile uses; and disincentives for buying your wife a goddamned Humvee to take Jason and Caitlin to soccer practice on her way to the spa.

This ain't the 1950s, beeyotch. The drunken orgy of the SUV is about to either come to an end or find a smarter ride home.

Abusing Arab Prisoners
Not that I care, except for its value as a counter-example, but read this article about the way Arafat's goons are treating their own people in Gaza.

Arab prisoners beaten and tortured, innocent bystanders killed by gunfire - another damning human rights report.

But the difference this time is that the violence is being perpetrated not by coalition forces in Iraq, but by the Palestinian Authority, and the victims are its own people.

The report, partly funded by the Finnish government, claims Palestinian cities are in a state of near anarchy, with people on the payroll of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority (PA) blamed for 90 per cent of gangland violence.

(Thanks to InstaPundit.)

Want Some Good News on Iraq?
Then go read this guy.

(Thanks to Pejmanesque.)

Gas Prices and My Left Nut ...of Fury
In the past day, the price of regular unleaded in my area has jumped a dime. Can you believe that shit? It's unacceptable.

Some of the financial pages suggest that the improving economy is partly responsible for this outrageous instance of inflation, but I just don't buy it. How does that work? Not that I have a grasp of economics any firmer than a baby's handshake, but let's get serious: the petroleum industry is using the war for Iraq as a rationale for manufacturing a crisis of scarcity. Maybe that makes me sound like a Left-wing conspiracist, but what should we be thinking otherwise? "It's not a lack of crude, but of refining capacity." Yeah? Well, why's that? Did the world's oil producers suddenly forget that the summer driving season is almost upon us?

Oil output should be up. Iraq is back online ---and even legally! I know that the general trend is for Americans to pay more for their gas. The days of dollar-a-gallon gasoline are behind us forever. But I have never seen a jump this fucking high in my life. I'm just not buying the conventional wisdom on this. There's obviously some shenanigans afoot ---but I'm just not smart enough to pin the tail on the donkey.

Not Believing My Ears for Like Ten Minutes
Mood:  surprised
I still can't believe what I just saw on Joe Scarborough's MSNBC program: there was Alan Dershowitz ---advocating torture in the interrogation of terrorists. He even called all of the outrage over the Abu Ghraib scandal an outrage in itself.

What the fuck? Did that just happen?

Ha, ha, ha. Man, does that go a long way towards rehabilitating my very low opinion of that guy!

Wall-to-Wall Prisoner Abuse
Is it settling down at all? I can hardly watch the goddamned TV news anymore for all the ridiculous Abu Ghraib scandal coverage. It's disgusting that America's Big Media should spend so much time and energy on this when it's obvious to anyone that it's only being pursued so obsessively because of the political damage it is doing to Bush.

In the meantime, Kerry could roger a nun in the middle of the Capitol rotunda and no one would notice.

What do you suppose the average Iraqi would think if he knew that the ratio of our media coverage of Abu Ghraib to the assassination of the president of their Governing Council is about 200:1? Maybe it would surprise him. Maybe as much as knowing how far Leftists will go to ignore and excuse the brutality of the Saddamites.

Disproportion, disproportion.

Rejecting Brahimi
Fouad Ajami has written a useful article on why it was a mistake for President Bush to apologize to the King of Jordan for the abuses at Abu Ghraib (which even I thought was a strange audience) and, all the more importantly, why it's an even bigger mistake to trust this UN envoy, Lakhdar Brahimi, to do right by the Shiites.

I know that we have to put a non-American face on this occupation and liberation of Iraq, but let's not give away the store. Maybe Bush figures that, if the UN has some involvement, it will be seen as a concession to "multilateralism," which, if it fails, can be blamed, in part, on that same factor. But I don't see how average Iraqis can have much confidence in anything the UN does when that corrupt organization did all it could to keep them in bondage under Saddam.

30 June is not very far away now, and we have to have a few of our loose ends tied up in the meantime. Let's hope the merchant classes in the holy cities have the stroke to neutralize al-Sadr. Let's work to finish strong in Fallujah and consolidate our gains in the north and south. There are a lot of problems still, but most Americans aren't hearing the many, many good stories coming out of Iraq. We're not seeing, on the whole, that peace and prosperity are flourishing everywhere in Iraq that the insurgents and terrorists are not.

Don't lose the war, President Bush, just because the Left and their heroes in the terrorist cells are dominating the news. That would be a distortion leading to catastrophe.