... Awaiting the beginning of a lasting peace:

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — After weeks of inaction, the United States and France appeared close to breaking a deadlock on a U.N. resolution aimed at ending the monthlong conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and a U.S. diplomat said there could be a vote on Friday.

....

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett said she was flying to New York to "reinforce" Britain's efforts to reach agreement on a resolution, calling the situation "urgent" and saying "we need now to complete the task."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also was prepared to come either to vote "or, if need be, to work out any last-minute details," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.

In Jerusalem, Israeli officials said they would hold off on expanding the current offensive in Lebanon to give diplomacy more time to work. The Security Cabinet has authorized Olmert to expand the offensive.

Israel Television reported that the latest draft resolution calls for the current 2,000-strong U.N. force in southern Lebanon to be enlarged to 20,000 troops, with Spain, German, Italy and Australia among the new troop contributors.

The Americans and the French want to make sure the resolution is acceptable to the Israelis and the Lebanese, who rejected their original draft circulated Aug. 5.

France is backing Lebanon's call for Israeli troops to start pulling out once hostilities end and when Lebanon deploys 15,000 troops of its own in the south.

Bolton said the United States believes Lebanon's decision to deploy the army "is significant, and we are going to take account of that in the resolution." But he said the strategic issue remains how to ensure that Hezbollah does not "re-infiltrate the southern part of Lebanon."

The United States is supporting Israel's insistence on staying in southern Lebanon until a robust international force is deployed, which could take weeks or months.

What's a few weeks when you've been waiting thousands of years?

Godspeed.

It really doesn't bother me that comparatively few read my views as expressed in this blog.  I neither solicit nor receive money for doing this.  I write for myself as a release for my own frustrations with most things political and because it is my right to write!  I write with sincerity and without drafts .... only recently (at the urging of my niece) have I begun using spell check on a regular basis. 

I do read other blogs, however.  Regularly.

A theme that piqued my attention today was the reaction to President Bush's use of the term "Islamic fascists." 

Immediately --- CAIR expressed their objection. 

"We believe this is an ill-advised term and we believe that it is counter-productive to associate Islam or Muslims with fascism," said Nihad Awad, executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations advocacy group. "We ought to take advantage of these incidents to make sure that we do not start a religious war against Islam and Muslims," he told a news conference in Washington. "We urge him (Bush) and we urge other public officials to restrain themselves."

Ace offers the most succinct response to CAIR I've read today:

"Restrain themselves? That IS the restrained form of the descriptor. It is an attempt to separate peaceful Muslims from the jihadists, by differently describing jihadists as not simply "Muslims," but "Islamic Fascists."

If we drop that phraseology, you know what descriptor we're left with? Just plain old "Muslims."

What CAIR really seeks is for the world to stop noticing at all that the people forever jacking off to Al Qaeda murder-porn are all -- all -- Muslims.

Sorry. Reality is a little more important to me than "sensitivity" to a group that has not shown much "sensitivity" to non-Muslims' legitimate desire to not be murdered in large numbers."

Leftist scholars also took the Prez to task for misusing/abusing the word "fascist."  While scholarly discourse has its value and place (heck, even I have a doctorate), let's lighten up on the BDS-induced hysterics and hyperbole, Hairballs. 

Fascism: "a political theory advocating an authoritarian hierarchical government  (as opposed to a democracy)."  Simple enough?  Even though I have profound respect for the historical significance for the roots of fascism -- this definition works for me.  So give it a break, OK? 

And speaking of scholars -- skip over to sisu (after reading my post, of course) for an enlightening discourse on why Islamic jihadists and moonbats want to blame  nigh-on-to everything on the Israeli's:  "Success is anathema to the Left because it puts an end to victimhood; without victims the Left has no reason to exist ...."  If you follow the link above, you'll find an insightful review which explains why moderates (such as moi) often believe as we do:

In her book The New Anti-Semitism (2005), American feminist academic Phyllis Chesler writes: "The American and European Left have made a marriage in hell with their Islamic counterparts. The same Left that has still never expressed any guilt over its devotion to communist dictators who murdered millions of their own people in the service of a Great Idea has now finally, fatefully, joined the world jihadic chorus in calling for the end to racist Zionism and to the Jewish apartheid state."

Just to prove I'm not all highbrow <wink>, I'll slap low line hockey pucks at both CAIR and those elitist scholars from the left. 

Get off the ice. 

Enter BDS: The acute onset of paranoia in otherwise normal people in reaction to the policies, the presidency -- nay -- the very existence of George W. Bush.
  
Enter Left-Wing Lunacy.

Sorry, moonbats -- today's foiled terrorist plot to blow up several airplanes was not concocted by Republicans or Lieberman in retaliation for Lamont's slim win.  Nor can it be blamed on UK Muslims reacting to UK's support of Israel, U.S. foreign policies and the GWOT (global war on terror). 

The terrorist plot to blow up multiple airplanes carrying thousands of innocent civilians has been in the planning for months, if not years.  

Try again, Moonbats. 
The terrorists certainly will.

 

Recently posted at Whizbang by Gull: 

Beyond BDS ....

"One could hope that we could -- for once -- get beyond the Bush Derangement Syndrome and realize that, as a previous poster stated: terrorists want ALL of us dead.

Ahhhhhh ... to see bloggers working together: moonbats and wingnuts blogging keyboard to keyboard in a concerted war-of-words AGAINST terrorism -- instead of sniping at each other. We could be the Moonwing Marauders! The Batnut Brigade!!!

Seriously -- could it happen? Could we not find mutual goals? Common objectives?

Probably not. Now playing on monitors everywhere: the BDS soundtrack against undertones of left/right extremism -- with minimal moderation in a battle of woofers and tweeters.

Too bad. Our survival may depend on it."

Why not make an effort?  Every one of us should be united in our concern about 8 missing students who came to the US to study and have strangely disappeared.  Post their photos on your site and help locate them!

 

HELP LOCATE THESE "MISSING"  EGYPTIAN STUDENTS --------- Post their photos everywhere!!  If seen or recognized, contact local authorities.

 

IDES --  An acronym from the Internet, meaning "intimidate, demoralize, emasculate, subjugate."  It specifically involves immediate, wild, at times nonsensical, hateful, insulting personal attacks, without termination.  IDES is about using anarchy against those who might gain from anarchism.

Unless there is sufficient incentive to respond beforehand, the Iranian president Ahmadinejad will give the United States a "final answer" about its nuclear development on August 22.

The man is a lunatic.  A dangerous lunatic. 

What is the significance of Aug. 22?   Per the Koran and religious traditions, August 22 marks the long awaited return of the Hidden Imam, indicating the final victory of the forces of good over evil. 

Be careful what you pray for.

This year, Aug. 22 corresponds to the 27th day of the month of Rajab. Many Muslims believe this date commemorates the flight of the prophet Muhammad, first to "the farthest mosque" (usually identified as Jerusalem) and then to heaven and back.

Warning to Ahmadinejad:  It would not be a false assumption to suspect that Israel already has nuclear warheads in its military arsenal.  

The re-writing of history and tradition is not uncommon ... Assuming that Ahmadinejad preports himself to be Muhammad, he should anticipate an extended detour enroute to Jerusalem -- through hell. 

But, back to lunatics.

Ahmadinejad is a dangerous fanatic.

France's diplomatic corps (more on these oil-grubbing, US-bashing, back-stabbing folks later) quickly distanced themselves from Ahmadinejad when he stated:  "Although the main solution is for the elimination of the Zionist regime, at this stage an immediate cease-fire must be implemented."

What stage?  Might the final "stage" be revealed on August 22?  Is this a signal to let all hell break loose in Israel?  In the US?  England?  Australia?  Is Ahmadinejad buying time, i.e., using the Hezbollah-Israeli conflict as a smoke screen to allow Iran time to obtain nuclear weapons?  To mount an assault, as has been threatened, on Israel from all borders?  Egypt?  Lebanon? Jordan? Syria?  Gaza?  The West Bank? Golan Heights?

An immediate cease-fire?  Why?  Why not allow Hezbollah to continue the "softening" of Israel?  Ahhhhh .... Is this simply a "time-out" to allow Hezbollah to re-group?  To re-build bridges?  To re-supply?

Let's examine the historical significance of "cease-fire" jihad-style: 

"In jihadist ideology, a truce can be offered to the enemies of Islam only for tactical reasons - principally when the enemy is strong and the Muslims are weak. The truce period is to be used to change the balance of forces. When this is accomplished, and the stage has been set for a Muslim victory, the truce must be broken. This strategy follows the practice and teachings of Islam's founder, the Prophet Mohammed, who arranged a 10 year truce with the Quraysh tribe in 628, when his forces were not yet powerful enough to defeat the Quraysh. The truce has been known since then as the "Treaty of Hudaybiyah," after the site near the Quraysh city of Mecca where it was negotiated. Less than 2 years later, when Muslim forces were sufficiently strong, the Quraysh were defeated by the Muslims and Mecca captured. The Arabic term used to describe the truce with the Quraysh was hudna - the same word used by Hamas in their "truce"offers to Israel. Yasir Arafat, may his memory be erased, also described the Oslo Accords between Israel and the PLO as a "hudna" in a speech made to an Arabic audience shortly after the famous handshake on the White House lawn. This should have been a warning to Israel and the United States about the dis-ingenuousness of Arafat regarding long-term peace with Israel, but it was not heeded."

Ahmadinejad is a dangerous lunatic. 

Arabic leaders do not appear able (willing?) to restrain Ahmadinejad's obsession with annihilating Israel at any cost.  Possibly the only such restraint may be the person who is actually "in charge" in Iran -- Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.  Pundits and world leaders may sometimes forget that Ahmadinejad  neither "officially" rules Iran nor controls its foreign and military policies.  He is permitted by Iranian clerics to serve as Iran's President.  Stability in the Middle East, i.e., the diverting of a lunatic's ambition to engage in a holy war, may well be in the hands of the lunatic's spiritual leader.

If the Khamenei does not intervene, we may all find ourselves in God's Hands -- literally.

 

Lebanon says, "We'll call up 30,000 reserves.  Ooops.  We don't have that many.  Make that 15,000 reserves."

And in the next breath (ummmmm -- noooo -- not to fight the IDF), but to patrol Southern Lebanon -- in lieu of a larg(er) U.N. peacekeeping force -- to monitor Hezbollah and secure the Israeli-Lebanonese border. 

And Israel (calling their bluff) says, "Great!  Come on down.  No matter that you're six years late.  But until you get here, we'll stay."

And back to the drafting table go France and the US. 

CONDI RICE:  "When this UN Security Council resolution is passed, we're going to know who really did want to stop the violence and who didn't."

Will the Lebanonese take charge of their country?  Unlikely.  Will Israeli forces leave S. Lebanon?  Only when a serious international peacekeeping force is in place.  Will such a force be sent to Southern Lebanon?  Likely.  Problem is:  Iran and Syria don't want a serious international force in place.  

No problem.   U.N. leadership is too busy garnering pay-offs and kick-backs to enact a serious peacekeeping effort.  

But NATO isn't.

 

 

From the Jerusalem Post .... comments by Condi Rice regarding acceptance of the first U.N. resolution for an Israeli-Hizbullah cease fire:

"We're trying to deal with a problem that has been festering and brewing in Lebanon now for years and years and years," Rice said. "And so it's not going to be solved by one resolution in the Security Council."

She said the resolution, by requiring Hizbullah to stop firing missiles, would be a kind of litmus test for the group. "I know Hizbullah has said all kinds of things. I've heard, 'We should have an immediate cease-fire,' I've heard, 'We'll keep fighting,' I've heard all of those things," she said.

"When this UN Security Council resolution is passed, we're going to know who really did want to stop the violence and who didn't."

What may be even more revealing will be the nations who abstain or vote no ....

Russia?  China? 

 

  to PowerLIne .... A draft of the Franco-American U.N. resolution calling for a cease fire between Israel and Hezbollah has been rejected by Lebanon.  While Israeli leaders hail the preliminary resolution, Lebanon officials state that the resolution favors Israel and fails to require that Israel leave Lebanon. 

Will Lebanon's knee-jerk response diminish world sympathy for their plight? 

Hopefully. 

The draft reads:

Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hizbollah'€™s attack on Israel on 12 July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons,

Emphasizing the need for an end of violence, but at the same time emphasizing the need to address urgently the causes that have given rise to the current crisis, including by the unconditional release of the abducted Israeli soldiers,

Mindful of the sensitivity of the issue of prisoners and encouraging the efforts aimed at settling the issue of the Lebanese prisoners detained in Israel,

1. Calls for a full cessation of hostilities based upon, in particular, the immediate cessation by Hizbollah of all attacks and the immediate cessation by Israel of all offensive military operations;

2.  Reiterates its strong support for full respect for the Blue Line;

3.  Also reiterates its strong support for the territorial integrity, sovereignty and political independence of Lebanon within its internationally recognized borders, as contemplated by the Israeli-Lebanese General Armistice Agreement of 23 March 1949;

4.  Calls on the international community to take immediate steps to extend its financial and humanitarian assistance to the Lebanese people, including through facilitating the safe return of displaced persons and, under the authority of the Government of Lebanon, reopening airports and harbours for verifiably and purely civilian purposes, and calls on it also to consider further assistance in the future to contribute to the reconstruction and development of Lebanon;

5. Emphasizes the importance of the extension of the control of the Government of Lebanon over all Lebanese territory in accordance with the provisions of resolution 1559 (2004) and resolution 1680 (2006), and of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, for it to exercise its full sovereignty and authority;

6.  Calls for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the following principles and elements:

• strict respect by all parties for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Israel and Lebanon;
• full respect for the Blue Line by both parties;
• delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including in the Shebaa farms area;
• security arrangements to prevent the resumption of hostilities, including the establishment between the Blue Line and the Litani river of an area free of any armed personnel, assets and weapons other than those of the Lebanese armed and security forces and of UN mandated international forces deployed in this area;
• full implementation of the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006) that require the disarmament of all armed groups in Lebanon, so that, pursuant to the Lebanese cabinet decision of July 27, 2006, there will be no weapons or authority in Lebanon other than that of the Lebanese state;
• deployment of an international force in Lebanon, consistent with paragraph 10 below;
• establishment of an international embargo on the sale or supply of arms and related material to Lebanon except as authorized by its government;
• elimination of foreign forces in Lebanon without the consent of its government;
• provision to the United Nations of remaining maps of land mines in Lebanon in Israel's possession;

7.  Invites the Secretary General to support efforts to secure agreements in principle from the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 6 above;

8.  Requests the Secretary General to develop, in liaison with key international actors and the concerned parties, proposals to implement the relevant provisions of the Taif Accords, and of resolutions 1559 (2004) and 1680 (2006), including disarmament, and for delineation of the international borders of Lebanon, especially in those areas where the border is disputed or uncertain, including by dealing with the Shebaa farms, and to present those proposals to the Security Council within thirty days;

9.  Calls on all parties to cooperate during this period with the Security Council and to refrain from any action contrary to paragraph 1 above that might adversely affect the search for a long-term solution, humanitarian access to civilian populations, or the safe return of displaced persons, and requests the Secretary General to keep the Council informed in this regard;

10.  Expresses its intention, upon confirmation to the Security Council that the Government of Lebanon and the Government of Israel have agreed in principle to the principles and elements for a long-term solution as set forth in paragraph 6 above, and subject to their approval, to authorize in a further resolution under Chapter VII of the Charter the deployment of a UN mandated international force to support the Lebanese armed forces and government in providing a secure environment and contribute to the implementation of a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution;

11. Requests UNIFIL, upon cessation of hostilities, to monitor its implementation and to extend its assistance to help ensure humanitarian access to civilian populations and the safe return of displaced persons;

12. Calls upon the Government of Lebanon to ensure arms or related matériel are not imported into Lebanon without its consent and requests UNIFIL, conditions permitting, to assist the Government of Lebanon at its request;

13. Requests the Secretary-General to report to the Council within one week on the implementation of this resolution and to provide any relevant information in light of the Council as intention to adopt, consistent with paragraph 10 above, a further resolution;

14. Decides to remain actively seized of the matter.

The Security Council will consider the resolution on Monday or Tuesday.

By rejecting this resolution, Lebanon may have just Katyusha'ed some of their global sympathy.

 

 Reuters altering a photo???  (Now withdrawn -- with an apology) A photo taken by the photographer who was at the scene of the alleged Qana disaster????

Adnan Hajj, the photographer who sent the altered image, was also the Reuters photographer behind many of the images from Qana – which have also been the subject of suspicions for being staged.

Credit for identifying the altered photo came from Little Green Football's Charles Johnson.

In May 2006, Johnson, whose blog often comments on terrorist activities, also received a death threat from an Reuters IP address. 

A Reuters employee has been suspended after sending a death threat to an American blogger.

The message, sent from a Reuters internet account, read: "I look forward to the day when you pigs get your throats cut."

In the threat, the Reuters staff member, who has not been named, left his email address as "zionistpig" at hotmail.com.

Reporting the message to his readers, Johnson wrote on his website: "This particular death threat is a bit different from the run of the mill hate mail we get around here, because an IP lookup on the sender reveals that he/she/it was using an account at none other than Reuters News."

Speaking to Ynetnews, Johnson said: "I was surprised to receive a threat from a Reuters IP, but only because it was so careless of this person to use a traceable work account to do it."

He added: "I think it's more than fair to say that Reuters has a big problem."       -- Ynet

Not just Reuters.  You would expect our MSM to have been "all over" these incidents.

 

Sunday Morning Hat-tip  to ....

Me.  I'm reorganizing a few life-choices this month.  Possibly inspired by my 45th high school reunion -- coupled with a blown power-steering gizmo that went out Thursday in the middle of a busy intersection with the temp hovering at 97 degrees -- I'm about to enter a self-preservation mode. 

I've realized my dawg eats better than I do.  And she drinks only water.  Fresh water.  My beverage of choice(s) range from two cups of coffe each morning to several cans/glasses of coke, dr. pepper or iced tea before bedtime .... my bad. 

My house is the cleanest it's been in a year.  I'm gonna keep it that way and pledge to take out the garbage and empty the ashtrays at least once a day. 

I'm going to clean closets.  Really clean them.  For years I've been repacking them as a pretense to cleaning.  No mas.  No mas.  I see a yard sale on the horizon ....

I pledge to watch less news and more "engrossing" TV such as the Discovery and History Channels -- interspersed with fewer Law and Order re-runs.  (I've seen them all, anyway.)

Once this blasted heat wave ends, I promise to begin a daily walking regime for me and muh dawg.  We both need it. 

And I promise to do all of this before September 30, so when the New Year rolls around, I won't have to make any of those meaningless resolutions.

eh.