Commandeering the Ship of State

Replacing elections with activist judges.

Treasure Island

Parrot says if you can't win it in elections, you can always steal it.

Chirac Asserts Robust Response

From The Therapist:

France Passes Emergency Mandatory Turban Law

Chirac to wear solidarity Burka

Paris—In a defensive posture taken after the still-developing 7/7/05 transportation attacks in London, French president Jacques Chirac signed an executive order, ordering all French citizens to “adorn themselves, and their children in attire commensurate with Islamic sympathies.”

“The time has come to stand up," said Chirac to a televised audience. “Besides, it’s easier to step into Muslim clerical robes when you’re not sitting down.” ...snip...

Marshall Plan to End Terrorism

From Scott Ott at Scrappleface:

G8 Mulls Qaeda Offer to End Modern Civilization

(2005-07-07) -- Leaders of the world's major industrialized nations, meeting in Scotland at the G8 Summit today, said they would consider al-Qaeda's latest proposal to "end modern civilization and return to the glorious days of feudalism."

The al-Qaeda offer came in the form of multiple explosions during rush hour in London, drenching buses and trains with the blood of ordinary working people.

"Modern civilization had a good long run," said one unnamed global diplomat, "and these Qaeda chaps have made a serious proposal that one must consider. It should spark thoughtful discussion at the G8 about whether Western values have become obsolete in the face of the growing popularity of this progressive Islamic lifestyle." ...snip...

News

Cooked Up War

From Wretchard at The Belmont Club:

The Blitz Comes to London

Terrorists have attacked multiple nodes of the London public transportation system according to CNN. At least 90 persons were injured in Aldgate Station alone. The BBC is reporting attacks on other stations:

Large numbers of casualties have been reported after at least six explosions on the Underground network and a double-decker bus in London.
UK Home Secretary Charles Clarke said several explosions in central London had caused "terrible injuries". The BBC's Frank Gardner said Arab sources said the blasts were probably the work of al-Qaeda but police have not confirmed a terrorist link.

One caller to BBC Five said his friend had seen "the bus ripped open like a can of sardines and bodies everywhere". ... British Transport Police said incidents took place at Aldgate, Edgware Road, King's Cross, Old Street and Russell Square stations. ... Hospitals have said they are no longer accepting non-emergency cases, BBC Five Live reported.

Hat tip: Michelle Malkin

McCarthyism

Nullifying elections with bully, bluster and smear.

Kennedy Snickered

At Gitmo, detainees make fun by throwing feces at the guards. They're reported to hold their arms outstretched like an airplane, make airplane noises, then yell 'BOOM' when the feces hit the guards. Guards refer to being hit by the feces as 'being snickered'.

The SNICKER AWARD goes to public figures who most thoroughly display the Hate-America, Blame-America-First mindset, and who most effectively undermine the values and way of life of America as we know it. For this Independence Day, the SNICKER AWARD goes to Senator Edward Kennedy.

Runners up were Naom Chomsky, Chuck Schumer, and Howard Dean.

Sisters

Happy Independence Day

USSC, yes!

Excerpted from opening of Judge Brown’s dissent in San Remo Hotel v. City and County of San Francisco (via Power Line):

Americans are a diverse group of hard-working, confident, and creative people molded into a nation not by common ethnic identity, cultural legacy, or history; rather, Americans have been united by a dream—a dream of freedom, a vision of how free people might live. The dream has a history. The idea that property ownership is the essential prerequisite of liberty has long been “a fundamental tenet of Anglo-American constitutional thought.” (Ely, The Guardian of Every Other Right (1998) p. 43.) “Indeed, the framers saw property ownership as a buffer protecting individuals from government coercion. Arbitrary redistribution of property destroyed liberty, and thus the framers hoped to restrain attacks on property rights.” (Ibid.) “Property must be secured, or liberty cannot exist” (6 The Works of John Adams, Discourses on Davila (1851 ed.) p. 280), because property and liberty are, upon examination, one and the same thing.

Private property is in essence a cluster of rights inuring to the benefit of the owner, freely exchangeable in accordance with the terms of private agreements, and recognized and protected by common consent. In the case of real property, this cluster of rights includes the right to exclude persons from certain physical space. In the case of intellectual property, it may include the right to employ a valuable method or process to the exclusion of others. In other words, private property represents zones of individual sovereignty—regions of autonomy within which we make our own choices.

But private property, already an endangered species in California, is now entirely extinct in San Francisco. The City and County of San Francisco has implemented a neo-feudal regime where the nominal owner of property must use that property according to the preferences of the majorities that prevail in the political process—or, worse, the political powerbrokers who often control the government independently of majoritarian preferences. Thus, “the lamb [has been] committed to the custody of the wolf.” (6 The Works of John Adams, supra, at p. 280.) San Francisco has redefined the American dream. Where once government was closely constrained to increase the freedom of individuals, now property ownership is closely constrained to increase the power of government. Where once government was a necessary evil because it protected private property, now private property is a necessary evil because it funds government programs.

The left would like to tag this 'extremist'. After Kelo v. New London, it seems that Janice Rogers Brown’s ideas are held by many more people than the left, including the MSM, are willing to admit. A woman for the times, she'd make a fine replacement for Justice O'Conner.

Iran: Carter's Legacy?

Jimmy Carter's Legacy
Iran held a presidential "election" the other day, and the "winner" was Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the "hard-line" mayor of Tehran. Now the Iran Focus Web site says it has identified Ahmadinejad as a terrorist depicted in a 1979 Associated Press photo "holding the arm of a blindfolded American hostage on the premises of the United States embassy in Tehran." ...snip...

Although Al-Jazeera says some Iranian officials deny that the president-"elect" was involved in the attack, the Washington Times reports that several former hostages recognize him:

"As soon as I saw his picture in the paper, I knew that was the bastard," said retired Army Col. Charles Scott, 73, a former hostage who lives in Jonesboro, Ga.

"He was one of the top two or three leaders," Col. Scott said in a telephone interview. "The new president of Iran is a terrorist." . . .

Donald Sharer, a retired Navy captain who was for a time a cellmate of Col. Scott at the Evin prison in northern Tehran, remembered Mr. Ahmadinejad as "a hard-liner, a cruel individual."

"I know he was an interrogator," said Capt. Sharer, now 64 and living in Bedford, Iowa. He said he was personally questioned by Mr. Ahmadinejad on one occasion but does not recall the subject of the interrogation.

Col. Scott recalled an incident when Mr. Ahmadinejad berated a friendly Iranian guard who had allowed the two Americans to visit another U.S. hostage in a neighboring cell. Col. Scott, who understands Farsi, said Mr. Ahmadinejad told the guard, "You shouldn't let these pigs out of their cells."

Let this be a lesson to those who are calling for America to cut and run from Iraq. Jimmy Carter's stunning show of weakness in the face of the Iranians' act of war allowed the mad mullahs to solidify their hold on power, so that a quarter century later they are on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons.

It also sent a message to Islamist wackos everywhere that America didn't have the stomach for a fight--a message the subsequent three presidents reinforced by withdrawing precipitously from Lebanon and selling arms to the Iranian regime (Reagan), failing to fight the Gulf War to victory (Bush père) and bugging out of Somalia (Clinton).

Carter has been traveling the world these past few years advocating a policy of American weakness, but his legacy should be cause for pause for current officeholders who are inclined to agree. Not only did it create problems and dangers we're still dealing with a quarter century later, it wasn't even good short-term politics. After all, the voters decisively rejected Carter when he sought re-election in 1980. and in his ex-presidency Carter has accomplished something we'd never have thought possible: He's made Bill Clinton look like a statesman. -- WSJ.com, Best of the Web Today, June 30, 2005, James Taranto.