Remember "No Boots On The Ground"?

someone better start printing those "Obama lied, troops died" signs

CBS:

General: U.S. may consider troops in Libya
Army Gen. Carter Ham says ground forces wouldn't be ideal, but may be a possible way to aid rebels; Says current operation largely stalemated

(CBS/AP) WASHINGTON - The United States may consider sending troops into Libya with a possible international ground force that could aid the rebels, according to the general who led the military mission until NATO took over.

Army Gen. Carter Ham also told lawmakers Thursday that added American participation would not be ideal, and ground troops could erode the international coalition and make it more difficult to get Arab support for operations in Libya.

Ham said the operation was largely stalemated now and was more likely to remain that way since America has transferred control to NATO.

He said NATO has done an effective job in an increasingly complex combat situation. But he noted that, in a new tactic, Muammar Qaddafi's forces are making airstrikes more difficult by staging military forces and vehicles near civilian areas such as schools and mosques.

The use of an international ground force is a possible plan to bolster rebels fighting forces loyal to the Libyan leader, Ham said at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.

Asked if the U.S. would provide troops, Ham said, "I suspect there might be some consideration of that. My personal view at this point would be that that's probably not the ideal circumstance, again for the regional reaction that having American boots on the ground would entail."

President Barack Obama has said repeatedly there will be no U.S. troops on the ground in Libya, although there are reports of small CIA teams in the country. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates told lawmakers last week that there would be no American ground troops in Libya "as long as I am in this job."

Ham disclosed that the United States is providing some strike aircraft to the NATO operation that do not need to go through the special approval process recently established. The powerful side-firing AC-130 gunship is available to NATO commanders, he said.

Other strike aircraft, including fighters and the A-10 Thunderbolt, which can provide close air support for ground forces, must be requested through U.S. European Command and approved by top U.S. leaders, including Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Ham said that process is quick, and other defense officials have said it can take about a day for the U.S. to approve the request and move the aircraft in from bases in Europe.

Ham said recent bad weather and threats from Qaddafi's mobile surface-to-air missile systems hampered efforts to use aircraft like the AC-130 and the A-10 to provide close air support for friendly ground forces. He says those conditions contributed to the stalemate.

Since the U.S. handed off the strike mission to NATO, U.S. planes account for only 15 percent of NATO planes now doing those air attacks, Ham said.

Meanwhile, rebel fighters claimed NATO airstrikes blasted their forces Thursday in another apparent mistake that sharply escalated anger about coordination with the military alliance in efforts to cripple Libyan forces. At least two rebels were killed and more than a dozen injured, a doctor said.

The attack - near the front lines outside the eastern oil port of Brega - would be the second accidental NATO strike against rebel forces in less than a week and brought cries of outrage from fighters struggling against Muammar Qaddafi's larger and more experienced military.

"Down, down with NATO," shouted one fighter as dozens of rebel vehicles raced eastward from the front toward the rebel-held city of Ajbadiya.

page two

Mass Media on Egypt: Admitting in April What Was Obvious in February

I now understand that the purpose of the mass media is to report on things that don’t fit the agenda only after they have happened and are so blindingly obvious that ignoring them is impossible. Oh yes, and by then it’s also too late to avoid catastrophes.

What prompted that conclusion is seeing that the mass media reports in April what was completely clear — and which I reported–in February. I mean, just look at this Los Angeles Times article:

“The secular reformers and twenty-something urbanites at the vanguard of Egypt’s Jan. 25 revolution have found themselves eclipsed. They lack experience and grass-roots networks to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood and other religious groups that have quietly stoked their passions for this moment. In a sense, Mubarak’s obsession with both co-opting and crushing Islamists instilled in them the discipline and organization that now propels their political agendas.”

Or in other words:

– Yes, it was obvious back in January that this was a small group that would inevitably be eclipsed, but the mass media and the Obama administration said they would run the country and transform it into a liberal, modern democracy.

– Yes, it was obvious back in January that the Brotherhood was well-organized, strong, determined, and possessing a compelling ideology. Will someone please compile a list of U.S. government, media, and “expert” statements saying the exact opposite?

– Ha! Notice how the last sentence tries to blame Mubarak for this outcome? What they should be saying is: We were wrong when we said that it was a lie perpetrated by dictatorships that the only choice was them or the radicals. You are welcome to dig up quotes on that point.

“The military council ruling the country has astounded many by permitting Islam a wider role. The Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition party, expects a strong showing in September’s parliamentary elections. In Egypt’s first taste of true democracy, the Brotherhood and more fundamentalist Salafist organizations told followers that it was their religious duty to vote to approve a referendum on constitutional amendments that benefited Islamists by speeding up elections. One of Egypt’s leading ultraconservative sheiks, Mohamed Hussein Yacoub, influenced by Saudi Arabia’s Wahhabi strain of Islam, was quoted as saying after the referendum had passed: ‘That’s it. The country is ours.’”

– I wasn’t astounded. We have been watching growing pro-Islamist feeling in the Egyptian army for years.
– Yes, I guess you never thought that an Islamist group in a highly religious country (even by Muslim and Arab standards) would tell people persuasively that it was their religious duty to vote for Islamists. Allah wants you to vote for me! Pretty good campaign slogan. Even better than: Yes we can (turn Egypt into an Islamist state, fight Israel, and tell America to go drink the Nile).

– Yes, we were repeatedly told that the Islamists were scared because peaceful democracy is shown to work.
Memo to experts, journalists, and government officials:

A revolutionary movement seeks to seize state power as its goal. A strategy is their long-term plan for doing so. Tactics are specific actions designed to fulfill that strategy and to achieve that goal. Violence and terrorism are only a tactic. If needed, other tactics — running for elections, building a base through social welfare services, etc. — can be used within the strategy to fulfill the goal.

Consequently, the use of elections or setting up afterschool activities for kids do not prove that a group isn’t a radical and dangerous organization. And, besides, afterschool activities are good for spotting potential suicide bomber candidates.

Is it too much to ask that highly trained, expensively educated, and well-paid people who make decisions and report or analyze events understand the previous two paragraphs?

Continued on Next Page ->

Two wounded in anti-tank missile attack on school bus ,one critical!

They won't say whether the injured are children, but there are two people wounded - one seriously and one moderately - as a result of an anti-tank missile hitting a school bus in the Gaza envelope (I'm typing this as I listen - it happened at 3:17 pm Israel time).

The bus was traveling from Kibbutz Saad to Kibbutz Nahal Oz in the Gaza envelope area. Israel Radio is now confirming that the seriously wounded person is a child and is being taken by helicopter to Soroka hospital in Beer Sheva.Israel Radio said it might have been a mortar and not an anti-tank missile. This may be the statistical anomaly that the terrorists scored a direct hit.There was also a kindergarten hit.Police now saying that bus was hit by shrapnel from an 82mm mortar.Local residents now told to take shelter.

Read the full live updated story here.

Jihad slaughter in Brazil

A Muslim convert in Rio de Janeiro butchered at least 11 people (H/T: Atlas Shrugs):

At least 11 people, mostly children, died Thursday and more that 15 were wounded when an armed man attacked a school in Realengo in the poor suburbs of Rio de Janeiro.

According to a preliminary police report, the attacker - a 24- year-old former student at the school - was among the dead after shooting himself in the head. He attacked Tasso da Silveira school, where some 400 students ages 9-14 were in classes. [...]

Beltrami described the letter as 'the words of a person who no longer believes in anything, full of sentences that made no sense and references to Islamic fundamentalism.'

Shouldn't that be "no longer believes in anything BUT Islam"?

Beltrami said the attacker was friendly as he went into the school, chatting with administrators and teachers and asking for permission to address the children. When he reached the third floor of the building, the suspect entered one of the classrooms and started to shoot at students, killing nine girls and one boy.

The attacker apparently committed suicide upon being chased by a police officer who had been called in by a student who managed to escape the building

Roselane de Oliveira, a sister of the attacker, told Rio de Janeiro radio station Band News that the young man 'was very strange.'

'He had no friends, and he spent all his time on the Internet,' she said.

In recent months, she said, he appeared to have got closer to Islam.

Police stressed, however, that there was no concrete evidence that the attack had either a religious or a political motive.

Translation: they haven't read the Koran, and don't want to acknowledge how the writings of Muhammed condone murdering non-Muslims, women, Jews, and even fellow Muslims.

Following this, is Brazil going to wake up to what they've got in their own midst?

What good is the Iron Dome system if it doesn't cease the existence of a terrorist outfit itself?

A school student and a bus driver were wounded in a missile attack today. The IDF has retaliated, and their Iron Dome counter-missile system did shoot down an enemy missile, but it's not satisfying.

If the Hamas continues to operate in Gaza, they'll not only still have every chance of obtaining rockets, but they'll continue to fire them regardless, and the chance they'll make it through the defense system is quite possible too. The same goes for Hezbollah in Lebanon: what if they've rearmed since 2006?

So the question now is, when is the government finally going to authorize a full ground strike on Gaza and destroy Hamas once and for all? They're only making a joke of themselves, including if they're worried about an international condemnation. Sooner or later, they're going to have to do it.

100 women arrested during search for Fogel family murderers

During a raid on Awarta to find the murderers of the Fogel family, 100 women were arrested by the IDF. That's interesting, as it's the first time the IDF has really done this, and the intention, I'm guessing, is to interrogate them as to what they enabled by sitting around doing nothing to prevent it.

Most important to note here, however:

A just-released survey shows that a full third of Palestinian Authority residents have expressed support for the brutal massacre of the Fogel family. The poll was jointly conducted by the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace at the Hebrew University and the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research in Ramallah.

And what if there's more who do, but deny it taqqiya style?

TRUMP: “this country is going to hell”

Also in Trumpworld:

MEREDITH VIEIRA:
Okay. Are you saying if you were President, you would take us out of Afghanistan?

DONALD TRUMP:
Well, nothing’s simple. Because I don’t believe in foot soldiers. They get blown up on streets. But I do believe in airplanes that are 50,000 feet up. And when we see through intelligence what’s going on, knock the hell out.

Read more: http://thepage.time.com/2011/04/06/trump%e2%80%99s-hawaii-investigation/#ixzz1IrFj6yaZ

H F S

Trump Investigates Obama's Birth Certificate

Trump’s Hawaii Investigation

Magnate tells “Today” he has people in the Aloha State conducting on-the-ground research into the president’s birthplace.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: So, is the time right now for you?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, the time certainly is right. We’re a laughing stock as a country throughout the world. We’re being taken advantage of by other countries

DONALD TRUMP: I am saying I want to see the birth certificate. It’s very simple. I want to see the birth certificate. How come his own family doesn’t know which hospital he was born in? How come-- forget about birth certificates. Let’s say there’s no birth certificate. How come in the hospital itself, okay? This is one of the…in the hospital itself, there’s no records of his birth. In other words, it doesn’t say how much they paid, where is the doctor, here’s your room bill. You know, all the

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You’ve been privy to all of this to know this?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they’re talking.

MEREDITH VIEIRA: You have people now out there searching-- I mean, in Hawaii?

DONALD TRUMP: Absolutely. And they cannot believe what they’re finding. And I’m serious--Read the full story here.More here .

Michael Coren on the Koran Burning

This Week On The Gathering Storm

(This post is a weekly announcement. Please scroll down for other material)

Listen to The Gathering Storm Radio Show, hosted by WC and Always On Watch. The show broadcasts live every Friday beginning at noon, Pacific Time, for 30 minutes.

The call-in number is 646-915-9870.

Callers welcome!

Our scheduled guest this week is IQ al Rassooli.

Listen to the April 8, 2011 edition of The Gathering Storm Radio Show, live or later, by CLICKING HERE.

UPCOMING SHOWS
April 15: Midnight Rider
April 22: IQ al Rassooli
April 29: Mark Alexander
May 6: Joe Kaufman
May 13: IQ al Rassooli
May 20: Midnight Rider
May 27: IQ al Rassooli
June 3: Revere Rides Again (no web site at present)

New DNC National Chairwoman Endorses Fringe Anti-Israel Group

Any REAL surprises?

Washington, D.C. (April 6, 2011) - The newly appointed chair of the Democratic National Committee, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) has sustained and controversial ties to the fringe anti-Israel lobby, J Street.

In early 2009, Wasserman Schultz hosted an event on Capitol Hill with J Street, a group then under fire for issuing a statement accusing Israel of collective punishment in Gaza and equating Israeli self-defensive measures with those of Hamas. J Street’s comments were so incendiary, they drew immediatecondemnation from all corners of the Jewish community, including noted liberal Rabbi Eric Yoffie, who called the group “profoundly out of touch.”

Yet Wasserman Schultz, only weeks later, showed her support for J Street (here and here), calling the controversial group an “organization that supports Israel and supports peace and is working to foster an advanced peace process,” placing her at odds with even the most liberal of Jewish Democrats. She also compared the group to pro-Israel stalwart AIPAC, described J Street’s goals as “worthy as well,” and later served as featured speaker for J Street’s first annual gala event in Washington, DC, despite many of her colleagues choosing to disavow the event.

“We are deeply troubled by incoming DNC Chairman Wasserman Shultz’s embrace of groups, such as J Street, that undermine Israel’s security,” RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks said. “In blindly conferring legitimacy on fringe groups like J Street, she has raised serious questions about her own credibility and judgment.”

Brooks added, “As the chairman of the DNC, Wasserman Schultz will be under increasing pressure to yield to the fringe left of the Democratic Party and further strengthen her ties to anti-Israel groups like J Street and anti-Israel donors like George Soros.”

http://jstreet.org/campaigns/gaza-stop-violence1/

http://www.jta.org/news/article/2009/01/05/1001999/j-street-responds-to-yoffie-attack
http://wassermanschultz.house.gov/2009/05/2009JAHM.shtml

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/05/15/1005192/j-street-celebrates-jahm-with-wasserman-schultz-white-house-rep

http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2009/10/23/1008690/debbie-wasserman-schultz-to-address-j-street

http://www.weeklystandard.com/weblogs/TWSFP/2009/10/more_j_street_evacuations_gill.asp

http://jta.org/news/article/2010/09/26/2741032/j-street-owns-up-to-soros-funding

Maybe we should do the same thing - NBC’s Brokaw: Saudis ‘So Unhappy’ With Obama They Sent Emissaries to China, Russia Seeking Enhanced Ties

Jimmy Carter on crack.

The world finally realizes as they did by 1979 that the place is empty and they had better make some provisions, as the USA becomes IRRELEVANT to the near future, and security.

Reporting from Baghdad, Iraq yesterday, NBC’s Tom Brokaw said the Saudi Arabian monarchy is “so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt” that it has sent senior officials to the Peoples’ Republic of China and Russia to seek expanded business opportunities with those countries.After remarking on the difficulty of establishing democracy in the Middle East, Brokaw said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates “will face some tough questions in this region about the American intentions going on now with all this new turmoil, especially in an area where the United States has such big stakes politically and economically.”

“And a lot of those questions presumably will come from King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia,” reported Brokaw on the Nightly News. “I was told on the way in here that the Saudis are so unhappy with the Obama administration for the way it pushed out President Mubarak of Egypt that it sent high level emissaries to China and Russia to tell those two countries that Saudi Arabia now is prepared to do more business with them.”

Earlier in his report, Brokaw noted that while U.S. military forces are supposed to leave Iraq at year’s end, the U.S. Embassy staff was being beefed-up from 8,000 to nearly 20,000 personnel.

Is it just me, or is Yankee Stadium half filled sounding like a crowded ‘embassy’?

But, back on point, among the nations FORMERLY full time allies, we see understandable consternation and friendly action towards those inimical to us, and among those we curry friendship with, like the ‘popular’ revolt in Egypt, and Libya we see OUR ENEMIES IN THE FOREFRONT. Yet when it comes to revolts in Syria and Iran, we are too afraid to even SPEAK LOUDLY, let alone lend their revolutionaries moral support and more.

2012 SEEMS TOO FAR AWAY TO HOLD OUR BREATH.

Video: Dennis Miller On Burning The Koran

The Trump ‘surprise’ is actually the SURPRISE OF THE MEDIA

Trump has made name over several decades (good or bad, who knows).

During that time he has spent time on BOTH sides of R&D by the ISSUE and BY THE CANDIDATE.

He has had cable and major broadcast media presence for man years, EVERY WEEK.

As a VERY successful businessman he is confident in his judgement.

That judgment in many areas is in parallel with a great many of the people of the USA.

So why is it a shock at all that he is #2 in the GOP.

WSJ:

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Among Republican primary voters, Mr. Romney captured the support of 21% in a broad, nine-candidate field. Mr. Trump was tied for second with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, with 17%. House Speaker Newt Gingrich got 11%, just ahead of former Republican Vice Presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s 10%. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, considered a strong contender by political handicappers, remains largely unknown, with just 6% support. Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota had 5%, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum 3%, and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbourwith just 1%.

Personally I find it most disappointing that neither Herman Cain nor Mitch Daniels show up in this poll, while someone like Santorum does.

Get ready for two things … a Trump unafraid to make headlines LIVE IN A DEBATE by saying things no ‘politician’ would ever say. And get ready for the media to attempt to Palinize him. ‘I can see Trump’s comb-over from my house’

I hope he makes fun of himself, when the inevitable occurs.

I don’t know yet if he is worthy of support, but I know he is a SERIOUS voice, a NON-POLITICAL voice, which needs to be heard.

And money is volume.

Ann Barnhardt Bitch Slaps Lindsey Graham Then Shreds & Burns the Koran, Page by Page, Sura by Sura, Verse by Verse Thus Bitch Slaping The Goatfuckers

h/t In Mary's Image





Ok, Infidels. Time to arm yourselves. Fatwas in 5. . .4. . .3. . .

Humpday Blues

T-Bone Walker
Don't Throw Your Love On Me So Strong

SOMEBODY PUT A CHAT FEATURE ON

THIS BLOG!

Stuff happens way too fast around the world now. We need either a live ticker or a chat feature where we can talk to other blog members. If other blogs can do this, I believe we can too. Sadly I have no idea how or I would offer some tips.

We need something that would be effective but wouldn’t slow the loading of the page way too much. So something light and fast. Any ideas?

(Of course, we would need to ask Midnight Rider and Pastorius about this.)

Ashes for Allah: New Calls for Censorship

Guest Commentary by Edward Cline:

In the 21st century, on the lunatic fringe of American religion, a man decided to revive the medieval practice of putting an animal or inanimate object on trial for some grave offense, which was usually for witchcraft or being an instrument of the devil. The medievalist man is Terry Jones, pastor of the Dove Outreach Center in Gainesville, Florida, who announced plans to hold a “trial” of the Islamic Koran, charging it with “inciting murder, rape and terrorism.” Mr. Jones’s capacity for intellectual discourse on the evil of the ideas contained in the book being severely limited (he is a Baptist), burning an inanimate object was all that is left to him in the way of rebuttal and protest.

On the evening of March 20, the “trial” went ahead with Jones presiding. It ended with another pastor setting alight a kerosene-soaked copy of the Qur’an.

A brief Agence France Presse (AFP) report said that although the event was open to the public fewer than 30 people attended. A subsequent local media report said the only journalists who turned up on the day were an AFP stringer, several students and an unassigned photographer. A video clip was posted online, however.

The news media paid the event little or no attention. Jones had promised to burn a copy of the Koran last September 11, on the anniversary of 9/11, but was talked out of it by officials who feared a repetition of the Danish Mohammad cartoon riots. They feared in vain. The riots occurred anyway. For Muslims, knowledge is a dangerous thing. If it doesn’t fit, they throw a fit.

Everyone underestimated the determination of Jones to make some statement, however addled it might be, and presumed that his apparent thirst for publicity had been slacked.

The “trial” served as an excuse for another round of riots, murder and mayhem by Muslims. Warring Muslim factions, however, have burned or destroyed more copies of the Koran than have any group of Westerners, but this fact is an unthinkable thought to Muslims. As with Jones’s original broadcast intention to burn a copy of the Koran, together with the publication of the Danish cartoons, there was also this time a measurable delayed reaction that went unnoticed. Time passed between knowledge of the “offenses” and Muslim reaction. This was to give the doyens of “anger management” time to whip their predisposed flocks and armies of manqués into a frenzy.

As of April 5th, the riots and protests against Jones and a potpourri of things Western continue.

A unique train of events ensued, one that led to the latest blathering of American politicians.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who last week drew Afghan public attention to the burning, an event that initially gained little media coverage, on Sunday called on the U.S. Houses of Congress to join in the condemnation and prevent a repeat incident.

Several Muslim clerics seized on this unsolicited piece of Constitutional advice by our alleged “ally” to give their humble congregations double doses of feverish outrage.

Karzai was abetted in this by Pakistan.

On March 22, Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, in a speech to the federal parliament, condemned the incident “in the strongest possible words,” and Pakistan’s foreign ministry called the burning a “despicable act.” Dozens of reports on the Qur’an burning appeared in Pakistani media outlets on March 22-23, but the story received negligible coverage elsewhere in the Islamic world.

The klaxon of hurt Muslim feelings was also sounded by the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) at the U.N. Human Rights Commission.

On March 31, 2011, Pakistan’s United Nations ambassador, Abdullah Hussain Haroon, spoke to reporters at UN headquarters on behalf of the 56 member state Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) Ambassadorial Group, condemning the recent burning of a copy of the Koran by the pastors of a small Baptist Church in Gainesville, Florida. He highlighted the OIC’s “grave concern that the despicable act had severely hurt the feelings of 1.5 billion Muslims around the world” and warned reporters that it could lead to “incidents that are uncontrollable.”

 Was that a “prophecy,” a hope, or a threat?

The very next day Ambassador Haroon’s warning turned into a tragic, self-fulfilling prophesy. A large mob of demonstrators in Afghanistan, angry at the Koran burning and apparently responding to calls for revenge by three mullahs who had addressed worshippers at Friday prayer in one of Afghanistan’s holiest mosques, stormed a United Nations compound in the northern region of the country and killed a number of innocent people, including at least seven UN staff members - two reportedly by beheading.

Not to be outdone in condemning Jones for “causing” the Afghan riots, a number of American politicians, a Supreme Court justice, and one American general chimed in with their own “anger.” South Carolina Republican Lindsey Graham, Senate majority leader Nevada Democrat Harry Reid, one Supreme Court justice, Steven Breyer, and General David H. Petraeus, commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and U.S. Forces Afghanistan, all piled on the hapless Jones.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says congressional lawmakers are discussing taking some action in response to the Koran burnings of a Tennessee [sic] pastor that led to killings at the U.N. facility in Afghanistan and sparked protests across the Middle East, Politico reports. “Ten to 20 people have been killed," Reid said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We’ll take a look at this of course. As to whether we need hearings or not, I don’t know.”

Lindsey Graham was more specific, but just as ignorant.

Senator Lindsey Graham said Congress might need to explore the need to limit some forms of freedom of speech, in light of Tennessee [sic] pastor Terry Jones’ Quran burning, and how such actions result in enabling U.S. enemies. "I wish we could find a way to hold people accountable. Free speech is a great idea, but we're in a war," Graham told CBS' Bob Schieffer on “Face the Nation” Sunday.

 ABC’s George Stephanopoulos of “Good Morning America” reported these interesting instances of ignorance.

We also saw Democrats and Republicans alike assume that Pastor Jones had a Constitutional right to burn those Korans. But Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer told me on “GMA” that he's not prepared to conclude that -- in the internet age -- the First Amendment condones Koran burning.

Last week President Obama told me that Pastor Jones could be cited for public burning – but that was “the extent of the laws that we have available to us.” Rep. John Boehner said on “GMA” that “just because you have a right to do something in America does not mean it is the right thing to do.”

 General Petraeus offered his own politically correct obloquy:

"We condemn, in particular, the action of an individual in the United States who recently burned the Holy Quran. We also offer condolences to the families of all those injured and killed in violence which occurred in the wake of the burning of the Holy Quran.

We further hope the Afghan people understand that the actions of a small number of individuals, who have been extremely disrespectful to the Holy Quran, are not representative of any of the countries of the international community who are in Afghanistan to help the Afghan people."

Where have all the great generals gone[To Ivy League grad schools. The results speak for themselves. GJ.]? Can you imagine George Patton being outraged over a desecration of Mein Kampf, or William Sherman frowning on a mocking rendition of “Dixie”? Lastly, President Barack Obama consulted his script writer and had this to say:

The desecration of any holy text, including the Koran, is an act of extreme intolerance and bigotry. However, to attack and kill innocent people in response is outrageous, and an affront to human decency and dignity. No religion tolerates the slaughter and beheading of innocent people, and there is no justification for such a dishonorable and deplorable act.

Empty but ominous words. In Indonesia, as a boy, Obama reputedly studied the Koran, and should know better than any other politician that the Koran indeed tolerates – nay, encourages – the slaughter and beheading of non-Muslims and other infidels. Note that he specified the “text,” and not the physical object. The “text” contains ideas that sanction a brutal ideology. Mr. Obama is certainly smarter than Terry Jones.

Daniel Greenfield summed it up neatly on Sultan Knish. Citing the incident of a German propagandist jailed during WWI, he notes:

Today we aren't jailing filmmakers who traffic in anti-American propaganda in wartime. If we did then half of Hollywood would be behind bars. Instead Democratic and Republican Senators are discussing banning speech offensive to the enemy. Because even though they're killing us already-- we had better not provoke them or who knows how much worse it will become.

What it will all lead up to is a kind of selective censorship that will insulate Islam from any criticism. Politicians, generals and pundits do not become overwrought about the burning of bibles, Torahs, or other religious documents. Only about Korans. This is because Islam is always in the news, in some form or another, and that is because Muslims are always being “provoked” by the least criticism of them and their creed to throw bloody tantrums. Islam is another “culture,” another religion, another “way of life,” and by the criteria of political correctness and an affinity for dhimmitude, it must be protected from all forms of offense.

And that selective, privilege-granting censorship will serve as a precedent and lead to other brands of censorship, including prohibiting the kind of writing you are reading here. Calm, reasoned, and deserved criticism of Islam must sooner or later be classified as a “hate crime,” as “injurious,” “hurtful,” and “bigoted” as burning a Koran. Observe the intellectual and moral stature of Americans who attempt to establish a causal relationship between the Afghan riots and Jones’s publicity stunt-cum-protest.

These people are not going to defend the First Amendment. They are unable to. They are intellectual troglodytes. For evidence of the fishbowls of swirling, floating abstractions their minds are, I invite anyone to read the transcript of an interview of Lindsey Graham by The National Review and to reach his own conclusion. The interview was conducted to give Graham a chance to expand and qualify his weekend statements on the Afghan riots and Jones’s Koran-burning. I challenge anyone to find an operating principle in his illiterate, emotionalist gibberish, the kind of equivocating rhetoric that can justify the kind of fascism that is congealing around American life. To wit:

"Let me tell you, the First Amendment means nothing without people like General Petraeus. I don’t believe that the First Amendment allows you to burn the flag or picket the funeral of a slain service member. I am going to continue to speak out and say that’s wrong. The First Amendment does allow you to express yourself and burn a Koran. I’m sure that’s the law, but I don’t think it’s a responsible use of our First Amendment right."

And if Graham, Boehner, Reid, Petraeus, and Obama do not think my writing here is a “responsible” use of my First Amendment right, what do they propose to do about it? How do they propose to make me “accountable”? The menacing growl is in their words. The First Amendment has already been whittled down to a splinter of what it once meant. It would be nothing to them to reduce it to a sliver.

What distinguishes their position on freedom of speech from that of the United Nations? Nothing. A U.N. spokesman felt compelled to add his own two cents about freedom of speech as he recounted the murders of the U.N. staff by the Muslim mob in Mazar-i-Sharif. Staffan de Mistura, the U.N’s Envoy to Afghanistan, described the Koran-burning as an “insane and totally despicable gesture.”

"Freedom of speech does not mean freedom of offending culture, religion or traditions," de Mistura said. "Those who entered our building were actually furiously angry about the issue about the Quran. There was nothing political there."

Oh, but there was, Mr. Mistura. Freedom of speech now stands to be sacrificed on the altar of pragmatic accommodation to Muslims and Islam. And as a Graham or Reid or Boehner touch a match to a compromise-soaked Constitution, Muslims, gathering after their prayers, will watch the ashes and smoke rise in the sky, and chant: “Burn, baby! Burn!”

They will not need to chant, “Death to America!” America will already be dead.

Crossposted at The Dougout