Night Flashes

From JPost, Ayman Nour appeals his prison sentence: 'The trial of Ayman Nour, who came in a distant second to President Hosni Mubarak in September elections - the first in which the longtime Egyptian leader faced challengers - badly strained US-Egyptian relations. Nour's lawyers told The Associated Press they filed their appeal Saturday on grounds that the court did not provide due process and that the trial was political not judicial. Nour, 41, was convicted Dec. 24 of forging signatures on petitions to register his party before the elections. He said he was brought to trial not because he broke any laws but to eliminate him from politics.' ...

In Israel, "Terrorists in the northern Gaza Strip fired a rocket into Israel late Sunday night, Zaka reported" - the rocket landed near Ashkelon but no casualties resulted ... to understand why those rockets from Gaza make Israelis nervous, read this JPost article linked at Israpundit on preventing disaster: "The Jerusalem Post quoted senior security and government officials who warned that this country must gird itself for “a large-scale disaster,” should the Kassam rockets fired from the northern Gaza Strip hit one of the super-sensitive targets in Ashkelon’s industrial zone. These include the Rutenberg Power Station - which supplies electricity to nearly half of Israel (as well as to Gaza) - huge depots of fuel and potentially deadly chemicals, the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline, a desalination plant and many more. Ashkelon is not only a large and very soft civilian target; it is of vital strategic importance. In this setting, even unsophisticated weaponry can cause environmental and economic catastrophes, to say nothing of the taking of innumerable lives." ...

Freedom for Egyptians covers Condi's upcoming meetings with Egyptian politicians and dissidents - FFE quotes Rice on the importance of democratic reforms, and adds: "I hope she won't miss meeting opposition leader Ayman Nour and the Egyptian Judges."... more here ...

Buy Danish. But don't buy Lurpak. Big Pharaoh isn't going to be happy ...

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"How We Betrayed European Muslims"

Miranda Husain of the Daily Times, Pakistan:

While no one can deny that the European press has offended Muslims worldwide with the printing and reprinting of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) caricatures, the violent response of certain elements in the Muslim world has done an even greater injustice to Muslims everywhere. Especially, those living in Europe.

It can be argued that the cartoons do not criticise the Prophet (PBUH) per se, but what the West believes Muslims have turned themselves into: terrorists and fanatics incapable of entering into dialogue with the ‘other’. ...

Indeed, in the words of New York Times columnist David Brooks, violent, rampaging Muslims have not only demonstrated that they and the West hold different ideas — they have demonstrated their different relationship to ideas.

Read it all.

"God bless Hitler."

Just in case you hadn't seen it already.

Afternoon Roundup

Israpundit follows ISM. Bill Levinson at Israpundit rebuts Huwaida Arraf in this latest post on the International Solidarity Movement (ISM).

Iran regime continues persecution of Sufis. Iran Focus reports the latest IRI brutality against Sufi Muslims:

Islamic mystics, or Sufis, focus on the direct perception of Truth or God through mystic practices based on divine love. Sufism, common to both Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam, has its roots in Iran. Its followers oppose Iran’s ruling theocracy on spiritual grounds.

Police arrested some one thousand Sufis as clashes broke out after the place of worship used by the mystics was demolished Tuesday on government orders.

Hundreds were injured during the clashes after police fired teargas and used truncheons to attack the demonstrating Sufis.

Go to the link for a list of names.

Rice to Arab states: Isolate Hamas, Iran. Reuters via The Intelligence Summit reports that US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called on Arab states to isolate islamist Iran and the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority:

Rice, who will visit Egypt on Tuesday and travel to Saudi Arabia and to a regional meeting in the United Arab Emirates, will lobby states to deny aid to a Hamas-led Palestinian government and push Iran to curb its nuclear plans.

Arab powers such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia oppose Hamas' rejection of peace talks with Israel and fear a nuclear-armed Iran.

But they are reluctant to explicitly support America in the Middle East, where U.S. backing for its top ally in the region, Israel, angers many Arabs and clouds governments' cooperation with Washington.

Full article at the link.

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Fun with Search Terms

what does it mean when a woman wears a ring on her left thumb? I have no idea. (Now a ring on the RIGHT thumb ... well, I know all about that one, but unfortunately I can't explain it here. This is a family-safe blog.)

what terms of the "treaty of versailles" did germany find objectionable? Do your homework, kid.

irshad manji hottie She certainly is!

world's most dangerous lightning storm You've found it, baby!

ITM: US seeking to outspend enemy in Iraq?

New at Iraq the Model:

The Iraqi and American authorities had been trying several ways in dealing with the local insurgents including offering amnesty for those who drop their arms, offering more reconstruction funds for the hot spots and opening the doors for the sons of those areas to join the Iraqi security forces.
But al-Sabah published a report this morning about an alleged big change in the American strategies towards the local insurgents:

Instead of talking to the leaders of the militant groups in the western regions of Iraq, US forces now are trying to arrange for disarming the insurgents through talking to tribal sheikhs and community leaders.
It seems the new strategy includes providing the sheikhs with huge amounts of money to be distributed to great numbers of insurgents to persuade them to stop the violence since they say that they had to resort to violence because they were in need for money. A source with close ties to the insurgents told al-Sabah.

The source revealed that American forces are receiving good feedback which encouraged them to increase their support to the mediators to get more insurgents under the umbrella of this program, and mentioned that the US forces have so far distributed approximately 20 million $ out of 250 allocated by the US authorities for this program.
...
One might say that paying the insurgents to stop the violence means submitting to the pressure of the terrorists and that doing this is useless because they will keep asking for more every time they run out of it. And that makes sense.

But let's look at it from another angle (again assuming the report is accurate) according to the report the insurgents (at least many of them) are paid mercenaries fighting for money and when thinking about the possible sources for this money I can only think of Syria and Iran.
So who's capable of investing more in Iraq, the US or the fading regimes in Iran and Syria?
I think that if it's possible to buy the loyalty of local insurgents with money then we should consider this as an option. so we won't have to keep paying them for a pretty long time.

Remarks: Omar's assumption that "neither the Mullahs nor Asad will be in power few years from now" is important. I believe he is right, in fact I'm guessing they won't be in power even a year or two from now.

Whence this optimism? Well, for one thing, nothing the US and Israel are doing now makes sense unless Jerusalem and Washington are operating under the same assumption. The liberation and reconstruction of Iraq are, quite frankly, doomed to failure unless the neighboring regimes, which are doing their utmost to bring the project to ruin, will themselves fall first. The Israel/Palestine "Road Map" is a tragic and disastrous exercise in self-deception for America and Israel unless the regimes backing Hamas and Hezbollah are to be brought down. The entire premise of the Bush Doctrine will be for naught unless the dominoes continue to fall in Tehran and Damascus. I believe they will.

Based on everything I've been reading, I think it is very likely that the US and its allies will be at war with Iran - and probably Syria too - by the end of March. What happens after the balloon goes up is anybody's guess.


Iraq
Syria
Iran

In this particular instance, it's actually a figure of speech.

Al-Jazeera headline of the day.

H/T: Israellycool.

Not to Be Outdone

As everybody knows by now, a Danish newspaper published some unflattering cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed a few months back, and the incident has been seized on as a pretext for a worldwide orgy of Muslim rage against all things non-Muslim. (Not all Muslims are going along with this nonsense, of course, only those who are willing to let themselves be manipulated by the fascist regimes.) Many in the West have stood firm in defense of freedom of speech against intimidation (again, by no means all).

Suddenly seized with a passion for free expression, an Iranian newspaper announced a Holocaust cartoon contest:

Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said that the deliberately inflammatory contest would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept freedom of expression.

"The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let’s see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons," he said.

From a certain standpoint, this was a stroke of genius. The islamofascists in Tehran enjoy nothing better than tying the liberal West in intellectual knots, and this latest tactic is surely a scheme that Sayyed Qutb himself would have been proud of.

But wait! The mullahs have met their match:

Eyal Zusman (30, back from anonymity) and Amitai Sandy (29), graphic artist and publisher of Dimona Comix Publishing, from Tel-Aviv, Israel, have followed the unfolding of the “Muhammad cartoon-gate” events in amazement, until finally they came up with the right answer to all this insanity - and so they announced today the launch of a new anti-Semitic cartoons contest - this time drawn by Jews themselves!

“We’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!” said Sandy “No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!”

Heh. The ayatoilets slipped on a banana peel and stumbled into that most potent Jewish secret weapon: humor.

Portland's Barry Deutsch is going to enter the contest! The mullahs are doomed.

{dark, malevolent laughter}

cartoons
international Zionist conspiracy

Oregon: Ben Westlund Quits GOP, Will Run for Governor as Independent

Oregon State Senator Ben Westlund of Tumalo has announced he is quitting the Republican Party to campaign for the state's governorship as an Independent.

The Bend Bulletin:

In his career, Ben Westlund has been known by many labels.

Rancher. Legislator. Innovator. Addict.

Tax reform advocate. Consensus builder.

Republican in Name Only.

Tuesday, the state senator from Tumalo added to that list - and with a title that could shake up Oregon politics: independent candidate for governor.

In two press conferences Tuesday, one in Bend and one at the Capitol, Westlund stood with his family and announced his intent to take Oregon in a new direction.

"Paralyzing partisanship is keeping us from the challenges of our day," he said. "I cannot stand for that, and I hope you can't either."

After the Bend speech, he walked upstairs to the Deschutes County Clerk's Office and switched his party affiliation from Republican to independent. ...

The Oregonian:

Westlund, who has been in the Legislature since 1997, now must gather 18,368 signatures from Oregon voters by Aug. 29 to qualify for the ballot. Under a new state law, the signatures must come from people who don't cast a vote in a party primary.

His announcement stirred an immediate and intense political debate about whether his moderate stands might suck votes away from a Democrat or whether his conservative voting record would hamper the Republican.

"What's clear now is there's going to be two Republicans in the general election," said Cameron Johnson, campaign manager for incumbent Gov. Ted Kulongoski, a Democrat who is seeking re-election.

Naomi Inman, spokeswoman for Kevin Mannix, a Republican candidate, predicted Westlund would appeal most to Democratic voters, despite his longtime standing as a Republican.

Citing his past support for a sales tax, Inman said, "We just think he's another liberal in the race." ...

Oregon gay rights activists remember Westlund's name from the SB 1000 cmpaign. Basic Rights Oregon:

Friday, May 20, 2005

Republican Sen. Ben Westlund of Bend has been flooded with phone calls, mail, e-mail and facsimiles attacking him for his support of SB 1000, a measure that would allow same-sex Oregon couples to form civil unions and protect gay, lesbian and transgender individuals from discrimination. The Source Weekly submitted a freedom of information act request to Westlund’s office asking it to provide us with one day’s worth of e-mails on the topic—which are legally considered public records when they deal with public business. Westlund’s office complied. ...

Go to the BRO link for a selection.

Gay Rights Watch is also covering Westlund.

This story is a couple of days old but I'm going to be following it closely here at Dreams Into Lightning, not only because of the gay rights angle but also because I'm interested in Westlund's candidacy all around. Watch this space.

Meanwhile, please visit Ben Westlund for Governor - official site.


Ben Westlund
Oregon

New Fiction

Here.

Who's next?

Will Cheney be replaced? Dr. Sanity cites Peggy Noonan:

It would have to be a man [sic! - aa] wildly popular in the party and the press. And it would have to be a decision made by Dick Cheney. If he didn't want to do it he wouldn't have to. If he were pressed--Dick, we gotta put the next guy in here or we're going to lose in '08 and see all our efforts undone--he might make the decision himself.

Who should it be? Pat Santy thinks she knows ... and I agree.

Here and There

Trevor at The Will to Exist has a few thoughts on literacy:

Yes, literary standards are changing. Yes there is more mediocre writing flooding the market. But language is supposed to evolve. It has to evolve. It’s in the nature of the users for that to happen. Standards are critical if you want to reach any meaningful level of success in writing, but in an increasingly diverse and complex world, you tailor your language to your audience. As the number and type of audiences for various information palettes grows so does the range of the language. English has always been spoken differently by different groups. I don’t think the growth of mediocrity and the growth of the English language are that closely related.

Tom the Redhunter spies a monkey wrench in the attempt to reform the UN commission on human rights:

'A drive by a bloc of Islamic nations for a global ban on "defamation of religions and prophets" has thrown a major kink into U.S. hopes for an overhaul of the leading U.N. human rights body.' ...

The entire affair is an attempt to intimidate the West into making concessions to radical Islam, and what's happening in the UN is only the latest example.

DCat at Razor Sharp Claws has the last word on Cheney and the lamestream media.