Savage Republican

This is the hardest post I have had to write and the hardest story I have ever read.

The Times of London bring us this horrific story.

“EVEN by the stupefying standards of Iraq’s unspeakable violence, the murder of Atwar Bahjat, one of the country’ss top television journalists, was an act of exceptional cruelty. “

Atwar Bahjat was a 30 year old woman journalist in Iraq. She built quite a following for her reports for al Arabiya on the day to day fighting in Iraq. She was abducted at the edge of her native city of Samarra after a day of reporting on the bombing of the Shi’ite mosque (reportedly bu Sunni factions).

“Two men drove up in a pick-up truck, asking for her. She appealed to a small crowd that had gathered around her crew but nobody was willing to help her. “

One can only imagine the terror and betrayal that she was feeling as she begged her follow Samarrans to help her. However, the horror she felt then was just a faint shadow of what was to come. What follows is not rated PG.

” First she was stripped to the waist, a humiliation for any woman but particularly so for a pious Muslim who concealed her hair, arms and legs from men other than her father and brother.
Then her arms were bound behind her back. A golden locket in the shape of Iraq that became her glittering trademark in front of the television cameras must have been removed at some point — it is nowhere to be seen in the grainy film, which was made by someone who pointed a mobile phone at her as she lay on a patch of earth in mortal terror.
By the time filming begins, the condemned woman has been blindfolded with a white bandage.
It is stained with blood that trickles from a wound on the left side of her head. She is moaning, although whether from the pain of what has already been done to her or from the fear of what is about to be inflicted is unclear. “

By the time the filming begins…..the animals that had taken Bahjat were filming the torture that they were inflicting on this defenseless woman! WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE FROM NOW?????

“A large man dressed in military fatigues, boots and cap approaches from behind and covers her mouth with his left hand. In his right hand, he clutches a large knife with a black handle and an 8in blade. He proceeds to cut her throat from the middle, slicing from side to side.
Her cries — “Ah, ah, ah” — can be heard above the “Allahu akbar” (God is greatest) intoned by the holder of the mobile phone.
Even then, there is no quick release for Bahjat. Her executioner suddenly stands up, his job only half done. A second man in a dark T-shirt and camouflage trousers places his right khaki boot on her abdomen and pushes down hard eight times, forcing a rush of blood from her wounds as she moves her head from right to left.
Only now does the executioner return to finish the task. He hacks off her head and drops it to the ground, then picks it up again and perches it on her bare chest so that it faces the film-maker in a grotesque parody of one of her pieces to camera.”

But the monsters were not finished with Bahjat…

“She had nine drill holes in her right arm and 10 in her left, he said. The drill had also been applied to her legs, her navel and her right eye. One can only hope that these mutilations were made after her death. “

DRILL HOLES in her arms, legs, abdomen and head! What kind of animals are they?

Captain Ed wrote about the “cowardice” of the monsters that murdered Bahjat, Michelle Malkin called them “insanely evil” neither of which captures (for me) the revulsion that courses through me at the thought of what these animals did. I don’t think that there is anything “insane” about this. It is pure evil.

John at Powerline reminds us that there are those who harp on US “abuses” all the while ignoring the real atrocties that aatrocities done in the name of Allah and the guys at Anti-Strib continue to remind us why Islam “stinks”. However, this story, more than any other that I have seen so far, drives home (to me) the reality that was revealed to me when I read when I read the Koran a couple of years ago. It reminds me of my visceral reaction, my “gut feeling” to reading the words of “Allah”. That feeling was fear. The writings of the “Prophet” scared me more than anything I had ever read in my life. Prior to my reading of the Koran, all I knew about Islam came from reading “The Prophet” by Kahlil Gibran – a book that was given to me as a gift (from a young man I was dating at the time). Until I actually read the words of the “prophet” I, like my President, thought that Islam was a “religion of peace”. If that were an accurate representation, then the outcries of outrage from “mainstream Islam” against this kind of barbarity would be deafening. Instead the only cries of outrage we get are when someone “insults” Islam. I tried to convince myself that there were “moderate Muslims” out there and that they would indeed speak out against the atrocities. The silence was deafening. Meanwhile, Islams believers insult the Gods of other religions on a daily basis.

Until the rest of the “civilized” world, stands up with one voice and DEMANDS that Islam grows up and becomes part of the 21th century (as opposed to living in the 2nd century like they do now) we will continue to be at war with Islam. No amount of sugar coating by the press or the President will change that fact – I fact that I have finally come to admit.

UPDATE: Captain Ed and Michelle Malkin both report that there are those who are casting doubt on the veracity of this Times story. The video is accurate, but the victim may not have been Atwar Bahjat, but a Nepalese man who had been captured in 2004. Regardless, what was done in this video, be the victim male or female, is reprehensible and those that practice this should be dealt with swiftly and firmly.

Got this from a friend at CD2. Unfortunately wisdom and common sense (along with a any desire to keep the oath of office) is lacking in St. Paul and Washington.
The tribal wisdom of the Dakota Indians, passed on from generation to generation, says that, “When you discover that you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount.”

However, in government and education in America, more advanced strategies are often employed in such situations, such as:
1. Buying a stronger whip.
2. Changing riders.
3. Appointing a committee to study the horse.
4. Visiting other countries to see how other cultures ride dead horses.
5. Lowering the standards so that dead horses can be included.
6. Reclassifying the dead horse as living-impaired.
7. Hiring outside contractors to ride the dead horse.
8. Harnessing several dead horses together to increase speed.
9. Providing additional funding and/or training to increase dead
horse’s performance.
10. Doing a productivity study to see if lighter riders would improve
the dead horse’s performance.
11. Declaring that as the dead horse does not have to be fed, it is
less costly, carries lower overhead, and therefore contributes
substantially more to the bottom line of the economy than do some other
horses.
12. Rewriting the expected performance requirements for all horses.
And of course my favorite. .
13. Promoting the dead horse to a supervisory position.

I happened to catch the lead “Rove Seeks to Re-Energize Conservative Base” on Drudge. I thought “this could be interesting”. Well, the lead doesn’t quite do justice to the article title “Rove Is Using Threat of Loss to Stir Republicans “. No surprise here. The Republicans are so far off the reservation, the only way to get people like me back on board is the “it will be worse with the lefties.” I’ve been hearing this same line from a number of talk show hosts for years. Not a real convincing argument. At all. For me, the issue is do these people deserve re-election? Do they represent me? The Republican platform? Small government? I’ve held my nose in the voting booth way too many times. I’ve seen the Republican House and Senate expand government way beyond what the lefties had ever envisioned. But to save face, the ultra-collectivists needed to say something along the lines of “the Republican programs should have gone further”, while in private I’m sure the lefties were high fiving like Super Bowl winners.
Karl, a quick FYI- I’m energized. But not in way you’d like.

Thus says the Washington Post in this article. What is that agenda you ask? Sue the President, censure the President, impeach the President…..are you sensing a trend here? Do you see anything about what they would do to solve the current Social Security solvency problem? How about solving the high cost of fuel? Or fighting the Global War on Terror?

You can not run solely against the President. You have to run ON something. In 1994, the Republicans had the “Contract for America” which listed all of the things that they would DO should they get elected. It was not all “Anti-Clinton”. Until the Dems get that simple fact they will continue to lose elections.

In the wake of the illegal immigrant protests, comes this lovely bit from the New York Times.

“Warnings of a crippling immigrant boycott did not come true yesterday. The economy survived. But what may not survive — we hope — is people’s willful misunderstanding of the nature of the immigrant-rights movement. The worst among our citizens and politicians are eager to depict illegal immigrants as criminals, potential terrorists and alien invaders.” emphasis mine

Here is a news flash for the editorial staff at the Times. When someone comes into this country in a manner that does not follow our existing immigration laws, then that person is a criminal! That is something that has gone horrifically under-reported during the last 4 weeks of debate on the issue.

What the proponents of preferential treatment (and that is what they are demanding when they demand to be given immediate citizenship) neglected to take into account was the possibility of a backlash. John Podhoretz writes about it in the NY Post and Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) went on Fox News and started that he was “highly offended when illegal people come into this country, take jobs illegally, and then protest and wave foreign flags.” I know a lot of people that were also offended by that, myself included.

Well finally some cities and states are starting to do what the federal government refuses to do. Daily stories like this are popping up around the country.

“In response to what the Board of Health sees as a growing health crisis, local restaurants may be banned from employing illegal immigrants as a condition of their food serving licenses. “

Well New York Times editorial board…what do you have to say about that???? Is the Milford Board of Health “the worst among our citizens”?

Meanwhile, you have American citizens and other immigrant groups who need jobs who can’t get them because there are people willing to take these jobs at below prevailing wages.

Here is some bad news for the DFL. A Federal Judge has ruled that Indiana’s Voter ID law is NOT an undue burden on voters! The law requires that all voters must show a state issued photo id in order to vote! This is a huge win for anyone who wants to ensure that our elections are fair for all!

Now we just need to push the Minnesota State legislature for similar legislation here!

I wrote a couple of weeks back about the silence of the liberals in the media to the suffering in Darfur. Well apparently George Clooney has discovered Darfur and is making a cause of it. Good for you Mr. Clooney – glad to have you on board! There was also a rally (that went largely unnoticed thanks to the rallies of illegal immigrants the following day) on the Washington Mall to try to bring America’s attention to the genocide in Darfur! Many of the planners of the Washington Mall Rally were US Jews, something that will never get mentioned by the anti-Semitic factions around the country and around the world.

The NY Sun brings to our attention, though, the total hypocricy of some of the organizers and protestors.

“We’d be remiss, however, if we didn’t say that we also hope that the Darfur rally yesterday helps to illuminate the hypocrisy of some of those on the left. They want military action now to oppose a genocidal regime in Sudan and to protect its victims. Yet they opposed military action in Iraq to oust a regime, in that of Saddam Hussein, that had engaged in ethnic cleansing of Iraqi Kurds and Shiites and had rained scud missiles on Israeli cities.”

OUCH! However, they are so very, very acurate in that assessment. Several vocal anti-war Congressmen and women are equally vocal that we should send troops to Darfur! An anti-Bush, anti-war group called Working Assetts is lobbying to get our troops pulled out of Iraq and shipped to Darfur!

The editorial writer concluded with this bit of common sense/logic:

“Opposing the war in Iraq while favoring an intervention in Sudan is akin to the position of an American during World War II who favored fighting Japan but taking a strictly pacifist stance toward Germany. It’s so illogical as to make one wonder why.”

All I can say to that is AMEN.

Because I am so behind on things, I am going to probably do a couple of generic subject posts. Please go to the links provided for more in depth details.

Charles Krauthammer said it best in this article. It’s Economics 101 – when demand for a product is high – the price goes up accordingly! Meanwhile, our Republican legislators are pandering to us by proposing a $100 per family gas rebate check. Well whoop-de-do…

Meanwhile, China is starting to drill in the Gulf of Mexico – thanks to their friend Fidel Castro! They are getting rights to drill in the same sensitive areas that our oil companies are NOT allowed to drill in due to environmental restrictions!

And then there are the Democrats….the same people who are now demanding lower gas prices are the same ones who have, for years, been pushing for higher gas taxes in order to reduce driving and thus reduce greenhouse gases.

The New York Times said it best in an editorial (no longer available online)…the price of gas today is a direct result of years and years of horrible energy policy. This is not a Republican or a Democratic failure – it is a House and Senate failure. We need to get a real energy policy in place – on that encourages development of alternative fuels as well as drilling and refining available oil deposits, no matter where those deposits are (ANWR or off the coasts of California or the Gulf of Mexico). Until we get that, we are destined to have even higher gas prices than we are seeing today!

Thanks to some personal issues, I have been AWOL from the Savage Republican. However, now that I am back and have a few scant minutes, I will try to get a couple of quick posts in before the catch up process begins in earnest.

Is it any surprise that the media did not react with the same faux outrage that greeted VP Cheney when Patrick Kennedy didn’t report his automobile accident (which higher ups in the Congression Police force apparently tried to cover up a la his father in Chapaquiddick) for 19 hours? Did you also notice that the press had more sympathy for Congressman Kennedy than they had for radio talk show host (Rush Limbaugh)? If we are indeed, equal under the law, then why isn’t Congressman Kenndy being charged with any drug related crimes? I find that curious indeed.

It just doesn’t end, does it ? Do any of these clowns remember the disaster of the unconstitutional Nixon price controls? So, now Congress, knowing how companies are run, and especially oil companies, are proposing price controls via fear and intimidation. And when you hear conservatives say in frustration that there is no difference between Democrats and Republicans, and hear many “conservative” talk show hosts say there is a huge difference, remember this quote from the left: “ Congressional Democrats, meanwhile, chided Republicans for now pushing a proposal that Democrats tried to get through last fall after the run-up of gasoline prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. ” And Never mind that price is one of those economic signals that allows the market to function. Oh, no. Not from OUR Congress that knows better that millions of Americans making independent decisions.
And as Bruce Barlett points out, what about anti-gouging in pharmaceuticals, real estate,banking, software? Coca-Cola and Yahoo made bigger profit margins. And especially the government where every dollar they bring in is coerced? And again, not a single paragraph, sentence or even word about cutting the gas tax, from the state or feds.
Republicans…