Hillary Turns her Back

Today's Guardian interview of Hillary Clinton illuminates her stance on terrorism. This is a flattering interview. Guardian America's editor Michael Tomasky seems to have one foot in Hillary's pocket. Even so, this excerpt is terribly telling. Clinton's tuning her rhetoric to suit her political needs- to distance herself from the stance of the current administration- at the expense of speaking clearly against terror. As the interviewer says, the president and current administration officials have said repeatedly that terrorists hate us for our freedoms. Clinton clearly takes a different view:

"Well, I believe that terrorism is a tool that has been utilised throughout history to achieve certain objectives. Some have been ideological, others territorial... And I think we've got to do a much better job of clarifying what are the motivations, the raisons d'etre of terrorists."

"I think one of our mistakes has been painting with such a broad brush, which has not been particularly helpful in understanding what it is we were up against when it comes to those who pursue terrorism for whichever ends they're seeking."

So it's not, I asked, helpful to America's fight to say they hate us for our freedoms? "Well, some do," Clinton said. "But is that a diagnosis? I don't think it's proven to be an effective one."

Ms. Clinton, that brush is indeed broad. It has had to be, to paint the USS Cole, three airliners, embassies in Tanzania and Kenya, the Khobar Towers, the Pentagon, and the World Trade Center, twice. Those terrorists' masterpieces hang in our own national gallery. The brush is wider now, world-wide, well loaded and dripping with the terrorists' favorite shade of crimson, and ready to paint again.

There's adequate proof that Islamofascist terrorists hate and fear our freedoms. We know how they feel about freedom of speech in film, print, and even cartoons. Ask Salman Rushdie, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or Theo Van Gogh- well, you can't ask him, they killed him, you see- if you have doubts. We know how they feel about freedom of religion- ask apostates who want nothing more than to leave Islam and can only do so under a death threat. Worldwide Islam is more about denying freedoms than ensuring them. Women suffer virtual enslavement under their ideals, according to female authors. It's odd that you, one of the few females in a bully pulpit, are unmoved by this and feel no responsibility to speak out.

Ms. Clinton had nothing to say about a strong response to terror. What does she think might be a more effective diagnosis? She's clear about that.

"One of the lessons that I think we all should take out of the last six-and-a-half years is that ideologically driven foreign policy that is not rooted in a realistic assessment of the world as we find it today is not likely to result in any positive outcome."

The terrorists' policies, foreign and domestic, are driven by ideology. Apologists for terror and even those who merely turn away are helping to make the terrorists' assessment of the world a realistic and rewarding one. The outcome will not be positive.

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No electricity. Not yours.

Jayhawks and Downeasters linked arms in energy solidarity this month, rejecting proposals for two wildly different generating plants; wind turbines five miles offshore from Cape Cod and a coal-fired plant in Holcomb, Kansas.

"It's irresponsible to ignore the contribution of greenhouse gases to climate change and the potential harm to our environment and health," said Rod Bremby, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, the organization that rejected Sunflower Electric Power's planned expansion of their existing generating plant.

"It's a watershed moment," said Bruce Niles, head of the Sierra Club's effort to cripple national electrical capacity. "Kansas joins Florida and California and other states to stake out a clean energy future based on renewable resources and rejects coal."

Dorothy Galesky, founder of the Kansas Statewide neo-Luddites and Gaians (SLaGs), attributes the KDHE's reaction to their awareness of a burgeoning environmental consciousness. “We've come to realize that we are the root cause of pollution. Utility companies wouldn't build these plants if consumers didn't expect to have electricity available whenever we plug in. Profiteers have conditioned us to think power should always be available, like tap water. It's time to rethink that paradigm. We're not in Kansas anymore. Just look.”

She waved her hand at the mall parking lot behind her, where, in the gathering darkness, a mob of enthusiastic locals hurled appliances and consumer electronics from the backs of SUVs onto a growing pile. Torches lit the scene with a lurid gleam.

“Electricity is overrated. They're discarding CD players in favor of making their own music- with flutes, guitars- acoustic guitars- , banjos, dulcimers and zithers. Look at all the TV's in that heap! Who needs television when we have community theater? Forget electric leaf blowers. Leaf rakes are selling like hotcakes at the hardware store. And this,” she held up an old Forgecraft chef's knife, “can do anything that food processor can do. I've been using mine for a month and just look at these guns!” she said, flexing her right forearm into a bulbous knot that would make Popeye proud.

Across the country, The Cape Cod Commission denied Cape Wind's application to bury electric cables to connect its proposed 420-megawatt offshore wind farm in Nantucket Sound to the state power grid. Cape residents might see some of the proposed 130 wind turbines on a clear day if they squinted or used binoculars. They, and environmental groups concerned about disrupting the patterns of migratory birds, oppose the project.

Maria Kopeck, Cape resident, spoke at a protest in Boston. “Let's not call wind a renewable resource without recognizing its tragic costs. I heard that somebody near a wind farm somewhere in California saw a seagull so confused by a turbine he dropped a rotten taco he was carrying and flew away hungry. That's just sad. We don't want that happening here.” She blotted tears of anticipatory hypothetical remorse from her ruddy cheeks with an organic hemp pocket handkerchief. “We know we've created the runaway power market by using more and more electricity. We've vowed to live in the dark from now on to atone for our profligate energy use.”

Residents of her Cape community do their best. “We go to bed when the sun goes down now, unless we have whale oil lamps, even though that makes for short days in the winter. It's so romantic, and good for the optometrists, too! We've removed streetlights and yard lights, and the increase in crime hasn't been that bad. We find stores at night just fine using our headlights. And don't get me started on traffic signals! We don't miss that monotonous red, green, and amber tyranny! The best thing of all is that we're free of the glare from the Chatham, Nauset and Highland lighthouses. We've been able to discard our windowshades entirely!”

The two activists plan to meet halfway, in Columbus, Ohio, next month to share power-free lifestyle hints and plan future protests against their latest casus belli, the washing of hands. “Contributions to public health aside, PETA has pointed out that some hand soaps are made from animal products,” Mary and Dorothy agreed. “This has been keeping us up at night.”

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Jackson, Sharpton, and now Farrakhan. Sigh.

The third peg leg of a classic American comedy tripod, Brother Louis, joins Cousin Jesse and Uncle Al for a new taste of the limelight. Black Separatist Louis Farrakhan spoke in Atlanta Tuesday night. Jesse and Al thump bibles. Louis thumps a Koran. Lou says...

"...the Koran says that those who live easy lives have to be careful, because a life of ease sometimes make you forget struggle.” He's chronically out of touch- his grasp on reality has always been loose- but Islam doesn't sell well in the US. Not even fake Islam.

Farrakhan is as “muslim” as I am Irish; that is, as much as it suits him to be. Muslims reject his Nation of Islam because several of the NOI's teachings conflict with the Koran. One key point is that Islam asserts the existence of one God who has never appeared in physical form; Farrakhan's bunch teaches that God appeared in 1930 in the human form of its founder, W. Fard Muhammad. No, really. W. Fard made a very comfortable living off this scam. So did Elijah Muhammed and so does Louis Farrakhan- excuse me, Louis Eugene Wolcott. Fake religion; fake name. It's a marketing thing.

Though he lives very well, he's inclined to take shots at other prominent blacks who've made a excellent living at honest work instead of as a con artist and who, by the way, don't buy into his fantasies. He's a separatist, so anyone black who's a success in the US under current conditions must be guilty of something.

He pointed out Tuesday that although Oprah Winfrey is one of the richest women in the world, 37 million people live in poverty and a third of them are black. He claimed that although Barack Obama is a presidential front-runner, blacks still lose their right to vote because of voter identification laws. "Diddy might have his own clothing line and a Manhattan address, but blacks are moving into prison at four times the rate of blacks in South Africa during the apartheid era. Tiger Woods' face might be on every billboard, but 340,000 blacks are homeless in America on any given night." It's not like the first half of each of those statements has anything to do with the second half, you're just supposed to be deeply moved by their juxtaposition. Feel moved? No, neither did I. Oprah, Obama, Diddy, and Tiger each made something of themselves, didn't they. I don't think anyone handed them anything, I think they earned it. Clarence Thomas did. Thomas Sowell did. Clarence Page did.

Louis needs enemies and goes out of his way to manufacture them. In his words (hit this link for truly amazing quotations and sources), whites are blue-eyed devils, the anti-Christ; Jews are leeches; theocracy is preferable to democracy; and "A decree of death has been passed on America. The judgment of God has been rendered and she must be destroyed..."

No more inclined to miss a desperate swipe at relevance than Jesse or Al, Louis said the anemic rally in Jena last month was a wake-up call. "We should let the world know that we're tired," he said. I'm tired too. Tired of your dated hate speech.

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Five Cops, one dog, citizen with vid cam- Taser Time!

The more Tasers there are, the more unjustified tasings there will be. Have we built enough momentum to keep the Taser News pace at one per day? Portland cops have done their best to keep the streak going. From The Oregonian Monday:

Frank Waterhouse is suing for unlawful seizure with excessive force, alleging that police fired a Taser and bean bag rounds at him on May 27, 2006 because he was videotaping their search of a friend's property. Police followed their dog onto the property during a search for a fleeing suspect. The dog keyed on a car and officers broke out a window. Frank videotaped the search.

Police yelled at him to "put it (the camera) down." Officers report that (he) ran off, they chased and then bean-bagged and Tasered him. One officer wrote, "He... refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon." Waterhouse was arrested and accused of criminal trespass and disorderly conduct. A jury acquitted him of all charges.

So, police run onto private property, smash the window of a car, discover they're being filmed, chase the cameraman down, and force him to stop filming. One unarmed guy, four or five thug cops and a dog. Nice odds! The camera wasn't being used as a weapon, but it could have been. You know, like a loaf of bread could have been. The cops responded to this huge threat with a beanbag gun and a Taser. If they have them, they'll use them.

The jury didn't agree that this guy had an NFL- class passing game and could nail a cop with a camera while running away, so the “weapon” claim is nonsense. It's just cops protecting their technological turf. One example is radar speed measurement (and jamming), another is videotape, and the cops' argument comes down to this.

We can use radar to measure your speed, but you can't try to fool our radar. We can film you, but you can't film us. We can use technology against you, but you can't use it to protect yourself.

Their reaction is predictable. Cops have enough trouble with their own dash cams catching them in acts of brutality. They like it even less when citizens hold the camera.

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TwoFer Taser Newsday- Zap the baby! Zap the foreign traveler!

I've posted before about Taser abuse- see the post about Heidi Gill in Warren, Ohio. Cops are the usual shooters; now bounty hunters and the RCMP want in on the headlines.

In Oklahoma City last Friday night a bounty hunter fired a Taser into a vehicle, missing his intended target and striking an infant. Only one of the darts pierced the baby's skin, so the gun delivered no electric shock. Emergency responders were called to remove the dart from the baby's flesh.

Police think this is all just fine, because the bounty hunter thought it was necessary, and claim the woman used the child as a shield. Maybe so, the only witnesses were the bounty hunter himself and his quarry. Who do you suppose the law will believe? Bounty Hunters are widely known for their excellent judgment and immunity to adrenaline rush. Ask Domino Harvey. Ask Duane “Dog” Chapman. Pillars of the community. Paragons of restraint and reason. Valued Taser Customers!

I wonder whether the Taser's manufacturer is disappointed that the second dart didn't find its target. They insist the guns are not lethal. I don't suppose they have any data on the way an infant's nervous system reacts to a fifty thousand volt shock. Yet.

Bounty Hunters may be suspect but certainly Mounties are good guys. In Richmond, British Columbia, a 40 year old man died after being tased by the RCMP shortly after arrival on an international flight at 1:30 AM Sunday morning. He was pounding on windows and throwing chairs and computer equipment for unknown reasons. He was not speaking English; a flight from Poland had landed about an hour before the incident. The RCMP was unable to calm him using gestures, so tased him and handcuffed him. He appeared to go into cardiac arrest and was soon pronounced dead. Would he be alive now if he'd been able to speak English?

Airport security is fine with this. International arrivals were rerouted but there were no delays in flight schedules. Thank goodness, Eh? More Taser fun to come, count on it.

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