THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.. Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy,
Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic, Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues
MOST RECENT ARTICLES
PARTISAN POLITICS & U.S. ENERGY POLICY PC, Volume X, Issue # 200, Aug. 13, 2008
"NEW" ENERGY REFORM: SAME OLD POLITICS
By Christopher G. Adamo
Once again, the “greater good” has been served inside the Beltway, “bipartisanship” has broken a stalemate, the rancor
over energy policy has ended and, as is always the case when such milestones are achieved, Conservative America has
been sold out. Somehow, Republicans never seem to figure out that when right and wrong attempt to find common
ground with each other, “right,” by design, will inevitably be the first casualty.
Full Story
AMERICAN POLITICS & U.S. FOREIGN POLICY PC, Volume X, Issue # 199, Aug. 12, 2008
THE U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN:
FOREIGN POLICY MOVES FRONT & CENTER
By Dr. Michael Rubin
As Iranian centrifuges spin and Russian tanks roll into Georgia, foreign policy has moved to the front of the presidential
election debate. U.S. Senator Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., the presumptive Democratic Party nominee, promises change.
Such rhetoric appeals to an electorate exasperated with U.S. President W. Bush, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and
high energy prices. How ironic it is, then, that, by conflating change with pandering, Obama replicates Bush's mistakes.
It was neither the Iraq war nor the failure to embrace multilateralism which undercut U.S. credibility under Bush, but
rather foreign policy flip-flops.
Full Story
ELECTRICITY GENERATION IN THE U.S.A. PC, Volume X, Issue # 198, Aug. 10, 2008
HOW NOT TO HAVE ELECTRICITY
By Alan Caruba
Electricity is so commonplace that no one gives any thought to not having access to it. Few give any consideration to
how it is generated, but we are now being inundated with the most virulent nonsense about how wind or solar power is
“clean” and practically “free.” Every week there’s some new proposal to cover the nation with wind farms and solar
panels.
The problem for everyone who wants to get rich with these energy sources or those who think they are the answer to our
energy needs is that neither wind nor solar can ever power anything more than relatively small projects like a farm or a
local stadium. A nation of more than three hundred million people, however, needs a lot of generation capacity.
Full Story
PRO-PALESTINIAN PROPAGANDISTS IN THE U.S.A. PC, Volume X, Issue # 197, Aug. 9, 2008
"POPULAR PALESTINIAN CONFERENCE" PEDDLES PROPAGANDA
By Cinnamon Stillwell
This weekend, the "Popular Palestinian Conference 2008" will be held in Chicago, and, if past is prologue, a slew of
anti-Israel propaganda will be part of the repertoire. The organizers make no effort to conceal their nefarious intentions,
titling one of the workshops "Inserting Palestine into High School Curricula in the U.S. & Empowering Students to
Challenge Dominant Narratives" and subtitling the conference, "Palestinians in the U.S.: Reclaiming Our Voice,
Asserting Our Narrative." Unfortunately, this "narrative" is a false one in which Israel is the oppressor, the Palestinians
are its perpetual victims, and the United States of America an accomplice in crime.
Full Story
WARDING OFF LEGAL CHALLENGES TO THE AKP PC, Volume X, Issue # 196, Aug. 8, 2008
ERDOGAN, ERGENEKON, & THE STRUGGLE FOR TURKEY
By Dr. Michael Rubin
Last month, Turkish prosecutors issued a 2,455-page indictment detailing an alleged plot to overthrow Prime Minister
Recep Tayyip Erdogan by an elaborate network of retired military officers, journalists, academics, businessmen, and
other secular opponents of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Although the precise facts of the case are
not yet clear, the socalled Ergenekon conspiracy appears to be a largely fictionalized construct, with an ongoing
investigation geared mainly to warding off constitutional challenges to the ruling party, not preventing coups.
Full Story
U.S. DIPLOMACY & IRAN'S NUCLEAR PROGRAM PC, Volume X, Issue # 195, Aug. 7, 2008
BUSH'S DISASTROUS DIPLOMATIC FLIP FLOP
By Dr. Michael Rubin
Press and pundits applauded President George W. Bush's decision last month to send a representative to Geneva to join
a meeting with Iran's nuclear negotiator. Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., the 2008 presumptive Democratic Party presidential
nominee, said, "Now that the United States is involved, it should stay involved with the full strength of our diplomacy."
Senator John Kerry, the 2004 Democratic Party presidential nominee, said the decision might be "the most welcome flip
flop in diplomatic history".
To bring the Islamic Republic into compliance with its international commitments through peaceful means is a noble goal.
Nevertheless, the White House reversal was the wrong move at the wrong time. Just as constitutional democracy is
about more than elections, diplomacy is about more than just a willingness to talk. Absent the preliminary work necessary
for its success and attention to timing, diplomacy can accelerate conflict.
Full Story
WHAT IS AMISS ON THE EUROPEAN CONTINENT? PC, Volume X, Issue # 194, Aug. 7, 2008
OBAMA IS EUROPE'S "VISION" FOR AMERICA
By Christopher G. Adamo
Fawning over Barack Hussein Obama, Jr., as they did during his recent overseas campaign swing, those cheering
multitudes of Europeans said much more about themselves than they did about either Illinois U.S. Senator and
Democratic presidential candidate or the best course to chart for the future of the United States of America. Somewhat
surprisingly, and despite all of the dutiful and harmonious consensus of Obama’s lackeys in the American media, his
campaign gained little credibility from the venture.
Something is amiss on the European continent, and Americans know it.
Full Story
THE THREAT OF AN IRANIAN NUCLEAR ATTACK PC, Volume X, Issue # 193, Aug. 6, 2008
LIVING WITH THE BOMB
By Alan Caruba
Sixty-three years since the first and only atomic bombs were used to end a war that had cost millions of lives, we are still
living with the bomb. The immediate question is whether we will witness its use against Israel and the United States.
Full Story
ISLAMIC LAW VERSUS RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PC, Volume X, Issue # 192, Aug. 5, 2008
FEAR STALKS MUSLIM APOSTATES IN THE WEST
By Dr. David J. Rusin
Persuading Western Muslim leaders to repudiate Shari'a-sanctioned violence against apostates can be a frustrating
exercise, as Prince Charles discovered in 2004. Troubled by the treatment of Muslims who convert to Christianity in
Islamic nations, the Prince convened a summit of senior figures from both religious communities. It ended in
disappointment. The Islamic representatives failed to issue a declaration condemning the practice, a declaration which
the Christians had requested.
Full Story
ISRAELIS & U.S. MIDDLE EAST STUDIES PROGRAMS PC, Volume X, Issue # 191, Aug. 4, 2008
IN ACADEMIA, HIRING TOKEN JEWS
By Asaf Romirowsky
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict long ago spilled over into America's university departments of Middle East studies. In an
attempt to appear balanced in the face of charges of anti-Israel biases, some departments or programs of Middle East
studies have added Israeli scholars to their ranks — a move that, at first glance, appears welcome.
Yet, many of these Israeli academics have built their reputation on scholarship that is harshly critical not only of Israeli
policy, but of Israel's very existence.
Full Story
ARCTIC OIL & THE UN LAW OF THE SEA TREATY PC, Volume X, Issue # 190, Aug. 3, 2008
U.S. ARCTIC OIL MAY BE LOST TO THE UNITED NATIONS
By Alan Caruba
“The Arctic may hold 90 billion barrels of oil, more than all the known reserves of Nigeria, Kazakhstan, and Mexico
combined, and enough to supply U.S. demand for 12 years.” One would have thought Joe Carroll’s Bloomberg
News report would have evoked some interest by other media outlets and by the general public. Instead, news of the
U.S. Geological Survey was greeted mostly by a giant collective yawn.
Full Story
AMERICAN POLITICS & THE IMMIGRATION ISSUE PC, Volume X, Issue # 189, Aug. 1, 2008
SAYING NO TO UNLIMITED IMMIGRATION
By Jim Camp
As a negotiation coach, it is natural for me to view the election campaigns conducted by the two rival candidates for
U.S. President, along with the varying and competing groups of voters, as a negotiation involving multiple agendas,
adversaries, and intense decision-making.
That is why it strikes me as disturbing that both presidential candidates have similar positions on immigration,
positions that run contrary to the views of the vast majority of voters in both of America's major political parties.
Other than the war in Iraq and concerns about the economy, the issue of immigration -- both legal and illegal -- and
the need to bring immigration reform into our society are likely to emerge as a deciding factor in the election.
Full Story
BRITAIN'S FLAWED DEFENSE STRATEGY PC, Volume X, Issue # 188, July 31, 2008
ENDING LONDONISTAN
By Melanie Phillips
In February, 2008, Gwyn Prins and Robert Salisbury published in the RUSI Journal "Risk, Threat, and Security:
The Case of the United Kingdom" -- a breakthrough essay on the incongruity between current British defense discourse
and the threat posed by radical Islam. The essay represents the consensus view not only of the authors, but also of ten
former military chiefs, diplomats, analysts, and academics. The essay highlights the profound conceptual flaws at the
heart of Britain's strategy for combating the threats facing the country, criticism made more devastating by the combined
weight and authority of the essay's authors.
The RUSI paper is a direct challenge to current British government policy that pursues a strategy of cultural appeasement
in order to buy off — as it believes — the worse prospect of terrorism and urban violence. But the British government's
misguided approach merely enables Islamism, or radical Islam, to achieve its goals. By chance, the paper was published
during the uproar generated by the Archbishop of Canterbury, who, on February 7, 2008, suggested that the British state
should accommodate Islamic law, so that British Muslims could choose whether to be regulated by English law or Shari‘a
in certain civil matters.
Full Story
AMERICAN COMMENTARY ON ISRAELI POLICY PC, Volume X, Issue # 187, July 30, 2008
MAY AN AMERICAN COMMENT ON ISRAEL?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
I protest the whole concept of privileged information – the notion that one's location, age, ethnicity, academic degrees,
experience, or some other quality validates one's views. The recent book by Christopher Cerf and Victor S. Navasky --
I Wish I Hadn't Said That: The Experts Speak, and Get it Wrong! humorously memorializes and exposes this
conceit. Living in a country does not necessarily make one wiser about it.
It is a mistake to reject information, ideas, or analysis on the basis of credentials. Correct and important thoughts can
come from any provenance – even from thousands of miles away.
Full Story
ENHANCED FOOD PRODUCTION, NOT BIOFUELS PC, Volume X, Issue # 186, July 29, 2008
CHINA RELEASES BIOTECH RICE, BARS
BIOFUEL TO PROTECT FOOD SUPPLY
By Dennis T. Avery
China says short world grain supplies have persuaded it to release biotech rice nationwide, ensuring the broadest-ever use
of genetic engineering in a food crop. Chinese plant breeders say biotech crops are certain to produce higher yields,
forestalling the need to finance costly rice imports for China’s billion-plus consumers.
To further protect its grain supplies, China has also been discouraging grain-based ethanol for the last two years. Chinese
demand for grain ethanol — mainly from corn — had threatened to inflate prices for China’s rice and livestock products as
world oil prices hit record levels.
Full Story
LEGISLATING A TRANSITION TO WIND ENERGY PC, Volume X, Issue # 185, July 28, 2008
BLOWING HOT AIR UP OUR SHORTS:
Federal Renewable Energy Mandates Make Good Ad Copy, but Lousy Policy
By Paul K. Driessen
T. Boone Pickens is being lionized for his proposal to legislate a transition to “eco-friendly” wind energy, via mandates,
eminent domain, and subsidies. However, his policy prescriptions would bring new energy, economic, legal, and
environmental problems – and a price tag of over $1.2 trillion.
Wind contributes more every year to our energy mix, but still provides only 1% of our electricity – and increasing wind’s
contribution to a fifth of our electricity by 2020 is far-fetched. In fact, using wind to replace all gas-fired power plants
would require over 300,000 1.5-MW turbines, covering Midwestern “wind belt” acreage equivalent to the acreage within
the boundaries of the State of South Carolina – plus enormous amounts of steel and concrete. For that, we should give
up our hydrocarbon and nuclear options?
Citizens and legislators need to understand that there is no free lunch on energy – and that giving up much of our fossil
fuel base would have far-reaching repercussions, especially for our poorest families.
Full Story
REJECTION OF GLOBAL WARMING THEORY PC, Volume X, Issue # 184, July 27, 2008
THE GREENS ARE GOING CRAZY
By Alan Caruba
It’s hard to ignore the fact that the Greens are going crazy, not just in the United States, but around the world. They are
increasingly frantic over the opposition being voiced against the theory of global warming, one of the greatest hoaxes
in modern history.
The Greens have bet everything on global warming as the reason for giving up the use of long established sources of
energy such as oil, coal, and natural gas. The object has been to slow everything the modern world calls progress.
Full Story
LEADERSHIP OF AMERICA IN THE REAL WORLD PC, Volume X, Issue # 183, July 25, 2008
BARACK OBAMA IN BERLIN
By Dr. Michael Rubin
Obama's words are inspirational, but, if anything will be learned from the Bush administration, it is that leadership must run
deeper than rhetoric. Berlin's freedom was won with blood and treasure. It was secured neither with withdrawals nor
unilateral disarmament.
Full Story
BARACK'S POLITICAL THEATER IN EUROPE PC, Volume X, Issue # 182, July 24, 2008
THE POLITICS OF SHOWMANSHIP
By Alan Caruba
For political theatre, there is no denying that the speech U.S. Senator Barack Obama delivered in Berlin drew a huge, adoring
crowd and was filled with the kind of talk intended to impress, not just Berliners, not just Europe, not just America, but the
entire world that a new leader has appeared on the scene to work miracles.
The same speech could have been delivered by U.S. Senator John McCain because its content was ideologically quite similar
in many ways to that of McCain's speeches. The critical difference between the two presidential candidates is that McCain is
imbued with the values of a family that, for generations, has fought to protect American values, has fought to defend
American freedoms.
Full Story
THE LIBERAL PLAN TO DESTROY FREE SPEECH PC, Volume X, Issue # 181, July 23, 2008
THE "FAIRNESS" DOCTRINE: AMERICA IN THE BALANCE
By Christopher G. Adamo
Lurking in the gloom of the Democratic Party agenda is a resuscitation of the socalled “Fairness Doctrine,” which would
allow the U.S. central government, at the behest of Liberal Leftist special interests, to selectively harass and intimidate
radio stations whose broadcasting format it finds objectionable. Thus, the proliferation of Conservative talk-radio and
virtually all of the alternative media would be threatened with eventual extinction.
Full Story
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY TOWARD THE MIDDLE EAST PC, Volume X, Issue # 180, July 22, 2008
A GRAND STRATEGY FOR AMERICA IN THE MIDDLE EAST:
A REVIEW OF POLLACK'S BOOK
By Dr. Michael Rubin
The Middle East will continue to dominate American security concerns, regardless of who next occupies the Oval Office.
Record oil prices, terrorism, Israel's security, Iraqi stability, and Iran's nuclear ambitions will top the new President's
foreign policy agenda, whatever his ideological outlook. With A Path Out of the Desert: A Grand Strategy for
America in the Middle East (Random House, 2008), Dr. Kenneth Michael Pollack -- Ph.D. (MIT - 1996), former
CIA analyst, and Clinton-era National Security Council staffer -- has penned a thoughtful rejoinder to those who,
frustrated by President George Bush's failures, might throw up their hands in frustration and walk away from the region.
Full Story
THE INITIAL STAGES OF WORLD WAR IV PC, Volume X, Issue # 179, July 21, 2008
MY PENTAGON YEARS: BRIEFING BY DOUGLAS J. FEITH
A SUMMARY ACCOUNT OF THE BRIEFING
By Mimi Stillman
The Middle East Forum presented Douglas J. Feith in a discussion of his new book, War and Decision: Inside the
Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism (HarperCollins, 2008), a chronicle of his experiences as Undersecretary of
Defense for Policy in the Bush administration between 2001 and 2005. In this position, he formulated policy through
critical stages of the wars in Iraq and against radical Islam.
Full Story
THE IRANIAN REGIME & U.S. DIPLOMACY PC, Volume X, Issue # 178, July 21, 2008
NOW BUSH IS APPEASING IRAN
By Dr. Michael Rubin
While European diplomats hope Iranian regime pragmatists might re-inject responsibility in the debate over Iran's nuclear
program and its foreign policy toward Israel, the U.S.A. and the West, Condoleezza Rice and the U.S. State Department have
bolstered Ahmadinejad and his fellow travelers. As Ahmadinejad begins his presidential re-election campaign, he can say
he has successfully brought Washington to its knees through blunt defiance, murder of U.S. troops in Iraq, and Holocaust
denial. Should he win re-election in 2009, he will have George Bush's whiplash diplomacy to thank for his greatest -- and,
given the state of his economy, perhaps only -- victory.
Full Story
HISTORY OF THE MODERN STATE OF ISRAEL PC, Volume X, Issue # 177, July 21, 2008
SAMIR KUNTAR & THE LAST LAUGH
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
Israel has lived the past sixty years more intensively than any other country.
Its highs – the resurrection of a two-thousand year old state in 1948, history's most lopsided military victory in 1967, and
the astonishing Entebbe hostage rescue in 1976 – have been triumphs of will and spirit that inspire the civilized world. Its
lows have been self-imposed humiliations: unilateral retreat from Lebanon and evacuation of Joseph's Tomb, both in 2000;
retreat from Gaza in 2005; defeat by Hizbullah in 2006; and the corpses-for-prisoners exchange with Hizbullah last week.
An outsider can only wonder at the contrast. How can the authors of exhilarating victories repeatedly bring such disgrace
upon themselves, seemingly oblivious to the import of their actions?
Full Story
ISRAELI ATTACK ON SYRIA'S NUCLEAR FACILITY PC, Volume X, Issue # 176, July 20, 2008
AN ISRAELI WATERSHED: STRIKE ON SYRIA
By Dr. Eyal Zisser
On the morning of September 6, 2007, Israel Air Force (IAF) planes penetrated deep into Syrian airspace and attacked a
nuclear facility near the town of Dayr al-Zur in the northeastern part of the country. In an almost unprecedented fashion,
the Israeli government and military refused to confirm the involvement of Israeli aircraft, the target or the raid's success,
with the first report of the operation coming from Damascus. [1] The lack of disclosure from Israel has been in inverse
proportion to the raid's importance, which effectively called Bashar al-Assad's bluff. Since the 2006 Israel-Hezbollah war
in Lebanon, Assad had created a sense of fear that threatened to limit the Israeli military's options regarding Syria. After
a decades-long status quo between Damascus and Jerusalem, Israeli leaders found themselves on the defensive. The
strike on this suspect nuclear facility restored the status quo ante, and by doing so, Israeli leaders revealed Bashar's
strategic weakness. While diplomats praised Bashar's restraint and maturity, his inaction undercut the image he sought
to project. Despite his bellicose rhetoric, Assad feared a confrontation with Israel and was not prepared to pay the price
of a conflict. Nevertheless, Damascus's covert flirtation with nuclear technology suggests Assad has not moved beyond
rashness and that his judgement remains poor.
Full Story
GLOBAL WARMING THEORY EXPLODED PC, Volume X, Issue # 175, July 19, 2008
"CONSENSUS" ON MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING SHATTERING
By Dennis T. Avery
The “consensus” on man-made global warming may have received a mortal wound. Physics & Society, the journal
of the 46,000-member American Physical Society, just published “Climate Sensitivity Revisited,” by Viscount Christopher
Monckton, an avowed man-made global warming skeptic and former Science Advisor to the late British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. Viscount Monckton contends that the climate alarmists have mistakenly pre-programmed their
computer models with equations that overstate the earth’s sensitivity to carbon dioxide by 500 to 2,000 percent, thus
creating a senseless First World panic that itself threatens the future of society.
Full Story
COLD WAR VICTORY & AMERICAN GREATNESS PC, Volume X, Issue # 174, July 18, 2008
APOLLO 11: AMERICAN EXCELLENCE REMEMBERED
By Christopher G. Adamo
Sunday, July 20, 2008, will likely be a fairly typical summer day in America. People will get up, go to Church, and maybe hold
a barbeque in the back yard. Perhaps the more industrious amongst us will wash the family car. Calmness, serenity, and,
above all, normality will rule the day. And, in a way, that is an awful shame.
Full Story
THE U.S.A. & THE MUJAHEDEEN-E KHALQ PC, Volume X, Issue # 173, July 17, 2008
WILL WASHINGTON BETRAY ANTI-REGIME IRANIANS?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
As the United Nations mandate that legitimizes the presence of U.S forces in Iraq expires on December 31, 2008, a
humanitarian and strategic disaster is coming into view. The fate of about 3,500 anti-regime Iranians will be decided in the
course of status-of-forces negotiations between Washington and Baghdad.
They are members of the Mujahedeen-e Khalq (MEK), the leading Iranian opposition group. Based at Camp Ashraf in
central Iraq, where they are recognized as "protected persons" under the Fourth Geneva Convention, they have, since
2004, been under the protection of U.S. military forces. According to the Convention Against Torture of 1984, to which
the U.S. government is a party, expiration of the UN mandate does not end the American obligation to continue to protect
MEK members in Iraq.
Further, the MEK's network of supporters inside Iran have provided invaluable intelligence. For example, it exposed
Tehran's nuclear ambitions and its shipments of roadside bombs to Iraq
Full Story
THE STIMULUS THAT AMERICA REALLY NEEDS PC, Volume X, Issue # 172, July 16, 2008
MY STIMULUS BRIBE
By Alan Caruba
I received my stimulus check yesterday. It was $600, and I put it into my checking account and immediately paid a bill that
accounted for half of it. I have serious doubts that it did anything to stimulate an economy that is undergoing a crisis of
confidence in its financial and government institutions.
We need a stimulus in rational solutions to real problems. We need something that a government must earn, not confiscate,
and not secure through a bribe. It’s called trust. It’s called confidence.
Full Story
CHECHNYA -- NATIONALISTS & ISLAMISTS PC, Volume X, Issue # 171, July 15, 2008
THE RISE OF THE CHECHEN EMIRATE?
By Dr. Dimitry Shlapentokh
Chechnya has been at war with Russia for generations. By 1999, when the Second Chechen War broke out, two
resistance groups had emerged: nationalists and jihadists. While long simmering below the surface, the schism between
the two camps erupted publicly in 2006 on the Internet, after Akhmed Khalidovich Zakaev, the moderate Foreign
Minister of the shadow Chechen government, argued that the goal of the Chechen resistance should be an independent
Chechen state modeled after Western democracies and integrated into the global community. Movladi Udugov, a jihadist
and Editor of Kavkaz Center, the best-known online resistance publication, vehemently disagreed and declared
that, for real Muslims, spiritual bonds should be more important than blood ties. He argued that he would rather embrace
ethnic Russians who had converted to Islam than Chechens who had strayed from their religion. There was no point in
modeling society after Western states, he contended, because all non-Muslim states, or those that are Muslim only in
name, but not in essence, are corrupt. Instead, Chechens should fight for the establishment of a global caliphate.
Full Story
ENERGY POLICY & ESCALATING FUEL PRICES PC, Volume X, Issue # 170, July 13, 2008
ARE THESE PEOPLE STUPID, NUTS, OR BOTH?
By Alan Caruba
There are two states on opposite sides of the American nation, two states where, if something really stupid can be
proposed, they represent the most fertile ground. I speak, of course, of New Jersey and California.
Full Story
OBAMA & MCCAIN AGREE ON ENERGY POLICY PC, Volume X, Issue # 169, July 11, 2008
THE PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION WON'T RESOLVE
GAS PRICES OR GLOBAL WARMING
By Dennis T. Avery
On most U.S. political issues, Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain take sharply different positions and
represent real choice for the voters. However, on the biggest issue of all — $4 per gallon gasoline and global warming
strategy — Obama and McCain seem to agree. They both think energy prices need to triple yet again to prevent
man-made global warming.
Full Story
LIBERAL POLICIES & HIGH ENERGY PRICES PC, Volume X, Issue # 168, July 10, 2008
HOLDING LIBERALS ACCOUNTABLE FOR ENERGY WOES
By Christopher G. Adamo
How long can Democrats in Congress hope to continue their anti-capitalist, anti-American agenda without facing
accountability from the voting public? Current indicators are that congressional Democrats intend to hold firm on their
signature issues, believing that the American public will simply not recognize the correlation between their actions of
recent years and the horrendous economic fallout that ensued as a direct result. And nowhere can this relationship be
seen more clearly than in the skyrocketing energy prices currently threatening to squeeze the economic vitality from
the American middle class.
Full Story
VIOLENCE & HATRED DIRECTED AT ISRAEL PC, Volume X, Issue # 167, July 9, 2008
JUAN COLE'S JIHAD AGAINST ISRAEL
By Cinnamon Stillwell
One can always count on University of Michigan History Professor Juan Cole to excuse violence and hatred directed at
Israel. At his blog, Informed Comment (which, judging by the references to the mythical Jenin "massacre" and the
USS Liberty canard in the comments section, is read avidly by anti-Israel conspiracy theorists), Cole takes pains to
explain away last week's horrific bulldozer attack in Jerusalem.
Full Story
ISLAM, SECULARISM, & TURKISH POLITICS PC, Volume X, Issue # 166, July 8, 2008
TURKISH SECULARISM IS DEMOCRATIC
By E. Haldun Solmazturk
At the heart of the political debate in Turkey lies the tension between Islam and secularism. Is the former democratic and
the latter, at least in Turkey, autocratic? Ömer Taspinar, a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institute, recently argued
this case in Foreign Affairs ("The Old Turks' Revolt," November/December, 2007). His thesis is trendy in certain
circles, but it is dishonest. He bases his argument on false assumptions, cherry-picks data, and ignores context. What
results is not so much scholarship as propaganda.
Taspinar paints Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan as a progressive, committed democrat, who is enthusiastic
about embracing Europe. The reality is more ambivalent.
Full Story
COLLEGES SLOWLY EVISCERATING THE SAT PC, Volume X, Issue # 165, July 6, 2008
DUMBING DOWN AMERICA'S COLLEGES
By Alan Caruba
The process that began in the 1960s to transform America’s elementary, middle, and high schools into places where
students could literally graduate without being able to read their diploma, where the teaching of mathematics was
reduced to mush without rules and where it was more important for students to feel really good about themselves than
having to measure up scholastically with millions in foreign nations, has now reached the campuses of America’s
colleges and universities.
Full Story
ENVIRONMENTALISM & EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE PC, Volume X, Issue # 164, July 4, 2008
GREENS ADD FOOD PRODUCTION TO THEIR HIT LIST
By Dennis T. Avery
British diesel is a self-inflicted $12 per gallon, biofuels have nearly doubled British food prices, and 40 percent of the
United Kingdom's electrical power will be shut down over the next six years. Now, the same Green alarmists, who warn
of man-made global warming while the planet cools, demand sharp reductions in Europe’s pesticide use. That will slash
Europe’s crop production in half during a global food emergency.
Full Story
NO RELATION BETWEEN ECONOMICS & ISLAMISM PC, Volume X, Issue # 163, July 3, 2008
WHICH HAS MORE ISLAMIST TERRORISM,
EUROPE OR AMERICA?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
If the U.S.A., despite the much better socio-economic standing of its Muslims, suffers from 2.5 times more terrorism per
capita than does Europe, improvement of the socio-economic condition of the Muslim minority in Europe is unlikely to
solve the continent's problems with Islamist terrorism.
Islamism has little to do with economic or other stresses. Put differently, ideas matter more than personal circumstances.
The factors that cause militant Islam to decline or flourish appear to have more to do with ideology and issues of identity
than with economics. Whoever accepts the Islamist (or Communist or Fascist) worldview, whether rich or poor, young or
old, male or female, also accepts the ideological infrastructure that potentially leads to violence, including terrorism.
Full Story
USURPATION OF THE LEGISLATIVE POWER PC, Volume X, Issue # 162, July 3, 2008
MANIFOLD DANGERS OF A LIBERAL SUPREME COURT
By Christopher G. Adamo
As far back as Sun Tzu, military strategists have well understood the concept that victory in war does not require the
destruction of one’s enemy, but merely convincing that enemy that destruction is inevitable if the fight continues.
Similarly, in a dictatorship, absolute control is neither necessary nor, in most cases, even possible. All that is needed for
the dictator to endure is the presumption among the underlings that the leader does indeed hold a monopoly of power.
It is a point that Americans ought to seriously ponder, as the future of their nation appears to increasingly rise and fall
on the basis of a single vote in the United States Supreme Court.
Full Story
MIDDLE EAST & NORTH AFRICA STUDIES PC, Volume X, Issue # 161, July 2, 2008
TRUTH ABOUT ISLAM IN ACADEMIA
By Cinnamon Stillwell
While the Middle East Studies Association (MESA) has long dominated the field, its highly politicized leadership's
inability to withstand criticism, inattention to radical Islam, and apologetic approach towards the West's foes has left many
Middle East Studies scholars feeling unwelcome by their umbrella professional organization.
Enter the Association for the Study of the Middle East and Africa (ASMEA). Founded last year by Professors Bernard
Lewis and Fouad Ajami, ASMEA offers an alternative to MESA's post-colonialist biases and a venue for studying those
elements of Islam and the Middle East that MESA's leaders ignore or downplay.
Full Story
EUROPEAN CONVERTS TO ISLAMIST IDEOLOGY PC, Volume X, Issue # 160, July 2, 2008
EUROPEAN CONVERTS TO TERRORISM
By Milena Uhlmann
Conversion to Islam among native Europeans is on the rise. Many converts live at peace within their native societies;
some convert only for marriage, and reject neither contemporary culture nor Europe's Judeo-Christian values. A minority,
however, embraces radical interpretations of Islam and can pose a security risk. The involvement of Muslim converts in
recent terrorist attacks has raised concern in Europe about these "converts to terrorism." While intelligence agencies
and security services track international communications and guard borders, such homegrown terrorists pose just as
potent a threat to the security of Western constitutional democracies. European security services and politicians remain
unprepared to handle this growing phenomenon.
Full Story
THE ALLIANCE BETWEEN ISLAMISTS & LEFTISTS PC, Volume X, Issue # 159, July 1, 2008
THE ISLAMIST-LEFTIST ALLIED MENACE
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
The burgeoning alliance of Western Leftists and Islamists ranks as one of today's most disturbing political developments,
one that impedes the West's efforts to protect itself. When Stalin and Hitler made their infamous pact in 1939, the
Red-Brown alliance posed a mortal danger to the West and, indeed, to civilization itself. Less dramatically, but no less
certainly, the coalition today poses the same threat. As seven decades ago, this one must be exposed, rejected, resisted,
and defeated.
Full Story
THE NEED TO DRILL FOR OIL IN THE U.S.A. PC, Volume X, Issue # 158, June 30, 2008
DRILL HERE, DRILL NOW, DRILL ANWR:
To Pay Less, Save the Environment, & Stop
Sending Trillions to Foreign Dictators
By Paul K. Driessen
Drilling for American oil is not a magical solution for our energy supply problems. But it is essential. Drilling in ANWR would
get large quantities of new oil flowing in 5 to10 years – far faster than benefits would flow from supposed alternatives, such
as converting our vehicle fleet to hybrid and flex-fuel cars. It would generate over a trillion dollars in benefits.
It would also have fewer environmental impacts than many proposed “alternatives.” ANWR drilling and production
operations would impact only 2,000 acres – to produce 15 billion gallons of oil annually. By comparison, producing seven
billion gallons of ethanol in 2007 required corn grown on an area the size of Indiana: 23,000,000 acres. Wind and solar power
would mean covering thousands of square miles of scenic areas and wildlife habitat with turbines or solar panels.
Full Story
IMMIGRATION POLICY & U.S. SOVEREIGNTY PC, Volume X, Issue # 157, June 29, 2008
REAL INDEPENDENCE MEANS SECURE BORDERS
By Alan Caruba
As we celebrate our nation’s independence, it is worth keeping in mind that real independence depends on having secure
borders. A nation that cannot or will not protect itself from a massive and intentional invasion for the purpose of changing
its population and politics is a nation that will not exist very long.
Full Story
POLITICS -- LIBERALISM & ENVIRONMENTALISM: PC, Volume X, Issue # 156, June 26, 2008
RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM: THE "IMPERFECT STORM"
By Christopher G. Adamo
Liberals inadvertently delivered a telling message in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. In essence, it is the same message they
have sent on the heels of every major calamity, whether natural or man-made, to befall the nation during the past several
decades. Let a heat wave hit or a bridge collapse, and their first impulse is to assign guilt, invariably among their political
opposition. But, by their immediate and hysterical finger-pointing, they telegraph their desperation to avoid any culpability
for the real problems at hand.
Full Story
CEASEFIRE AS AN ISLAMIST MILITARY TACTIC PC, Volume X, Issue # 155, June 25, 2008
TACTICAL HUDNA & ISLAMIST INTOLERANCE
By Dr. Denis MacEoin
The use by Westerners of the word hudna highlights an anomaly. Whenever journalists, diplomats, or commentators
covering the Middle East use a non-English word, it will almost always be Arabic or perhaps Persian; seldom do they use
any Hebrew words. Never has a U.S. or British newspaper, for example, used the Hebrew word for cease-fire (hafsakat
esh). This is odd, as Israel is the other side to these cease-fires. The majority of Arabic terms reproduced in Western
language newspapers are concerned with either military topics (jihad, mujahideen, fida'iyin, shahid) or religious affairs
(fatwa, mulla, ulema, ayatollah, Shari‘a, Allahu akbar). There is nothing wrong with borrowing Arabic words. However,
doing so without understanding the word's nuance and historical development will render deficient any understanding
of that word's true meaning.
Full Story
VENEZUELA'S OIL INDUSTRY NATIONALIZED PC, Volume X, Issue # 154, June 22, 2008
VENEZUELA GOES TO THE DOGS
By Alan Caruba
Coming just a week or so after U.S. Representative Maurice Hinchey (Democrat - New York) publicly said the U.S.
government should nationalize the nation’s oil refineries, echoing a similar earlier threat by Representative Maxine
Waters (Democrat - California) to nationalize the entire industry, it is instructive to see what has happened in Venezuela,
where a Communist wannabe dictator, Hugo Chavez, nationalized that nation’s oil industry.
Full Story
ENDING THE RULE OF THE AKP IN TURKEY PC, Volume X, Issue # 153, June 21, 2008
THE CASE AGAINST TURKEY'S RULING PARTY
By Dr. Michael Rubin
Sometime this Summer, Turkey's Constitutional Court will decide whether Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's Justice
and Development Party (AKP) violated the "principles of a democratic and secular republic" that undergird the Turkish
Constitution and should be barred from politics. Across the Turkish political spectrum, most officials expect the Court to
rule against the AKP, thus dissolving the party and banning Erdogan and his closest aides for at least five years.
Full Story
THE TRUE NATURE OF THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY PC, Volume X, Issue # 152, June 19, 2008
IS THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY THE CPUSA IN DISGUISE?
By Alan Caruba
It’s no secret that Democrats are Liberal, but when you peel away their devotion to environmentalist policies that have
left America vulnerable to foreign nations on whom we depend for the importation of oil, what has been revealed is an
intention to nationalize our nation’s oil industry. That, simply stated, is Communism.
One might expect members of the Communist Party USA to advocate the nationalization of our oil companies, but
hearing it from the lips of Democratic Party members of the U.S. House of Representatives should send a chill of fear
through every American.
Full Story
WORLD WAR IV -- IDENTIFYING THE ENEMY PC, Volume X, Issue # 151, June 19, 2008
THE ENEMY HAS A NAME
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
If you cannot name your enemy, how can you defeat it? Just as a physician must identify a disease before curing a
patient, so a strategist must identify the foe before winning a war. Yet, Westerners have proven reluctant to identify the
opponent in the conflict the U.S. government variously (and euphemistically) calls the "global war on terror," the "long
war," the "global struggle against violent extremism," or even the "global struggle for security and progress."
This timidity translates into an inability to define war goals.
Full Story
AN OBAMA PRESIDENCY & ITS IMPACT PC, Volume X, Issue # 150, June 18, 2008
OBAMA WOULD BE A CLINTON THIRD TERM
By Christopher G. Adamo
Forget about the rancor of the Democratic presidential primary season. That is all history now. In truth, the heated rivalry
between the two contenders for the Democratic Party's nomination of its candidate for U.S. President was hardly an
indicator of any philosophical or moral differences between the two contenders, but only a strident argument about which
Liberal Leftist “messiah” deserved to be the Democratic candidate for President. Even the fierceness of their efforts was
itself a reflection of comparable components of raw ambition that each contender possesses.
Full Story
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY IN THE MIDDLE EAST PC, Volume X, Issue # 149, June 17, 2008
THE COSTS OF RELYING ON AGING DICTATORS
By Caroline Sevier
Almost as soon as it started, the democratization agenda that the Bush administration hoped would be the lodestar of its
post 9-11 foreign policy has been all but shelved. The insurgency and sectarian bloodshed in Iraq, the regional threat
posed by an expansionist Iran, and the Palestinian civil war have combined to help resurrect the U.S. embrace of regional
stability as a foreign policy priority and have convinced President George W. Bush to reduce his emphasis on
transformative diplomacy.
But even as U.S. policy once again organizes around the idea that strongmen bring stability, Washington will soon face
the downside of such a strategy: Aging rulers die; replacement leaders are frequently weak, and transitions can be volatile.
Instability is a looming threat in four Western-allied dictatorships that many in Washington currently embrace as bulwarks
of stability: Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, and Oman.
Full Story
AN OIL SHORTAGE CREATED BY GOVERNMENT PC, Volume X, Issue # 148, June 15, 2008
A WORLD AFLOAT ON AN OCEAN OF OIL
By Alan Caruba
Considering how much untapped oil is known to exist, not just in the United States of America, but worldwide, one would
think that its current price was some kind of anomaly, and it is. It is more the result of speculation than anything else.
Full Story
WIRED MAGAZINE'S NEW ECO-HERESIES PC, Volume X, Issue # 147, June 14, 2008
WILL THE GREENS SACRICICE THEIR OWN "SACRED COWS"?
By Dennis T, Avery
Wired Magazine has published a list of “Green sacred cows” it says must be sacrificed to save the planet.
Wired’s Founding Editor, Kevin Kelly, formerly edited the Whole Earth Catalog, so the magazine has
credentials for rethinking what it means to be Green.
“Today, one ecological problem outweighs all others: global warming,” says Wired’s May 19, 2008, issue.
“Restoring the Everglades, protecting the Headwaters redwoods, or saving the Illinois mud turtle won’t matter if
climate change plunges the planet into chaos. . . . Winning the war on global warming requires slaughtering some of
environmentalism’s sacred cows. We can afford to ignore neither the carbon-free electricity supplied by nuclear
energy nor the transformational potential of genetic engineering. . . .”
Full Story
ISLAMIST INDOCTRINATION IN U.S. SCHOOLS PC, Volume X, Issue # 146, June 12, 2008
ISLAM IN AMERICA'S PUBLIC & OTHER TAXPAYER-FUNDED SCHOOLS:
EDUCATION, OR INDOCTRINATION?
By Cinnamon Stillwell
With fatal terrorist attacks on the decline worldwide and al-Qa'ida apparently in disarray, it would seem a time for optimism
in the global war on terrorism. But the war has simply shifted to a different arena. Islamists, or those who believe that Islam
is a political and religious system that must dominate all others, are focusing less on the military and more on the ideological.
It turns out that Western constitutional democracies can be subverted without firing a shot.
Nowhere is this more evident than in the educational realm. Islamists have taken what's come to be known as the "soft jihad"
into America's classrooms and children and youth in K-12 are the first casualties. Whether it is textbooks, curriculum,
classroom exercises, film screenings, speakers or teacher training, public education in America is under assault.
Full Story
HILLARY'S "SUSPENSION" OF HER CAMPAIGN PC, Volume X, Issue # 145, June 11, 2008
SUNSET ON THE CLINTON ERA
By Christopher G. Adamo
Momentarily setting aside the tragic impact on America, should Barack Obama
be elected President, it is nonetheless worthwhile to ponder the
significance of Hillary Clinton’s announcement last Saturday that she is
dropping out of the presidential race. Her announcement highlights an awareness on her part that, at
least for the moment, she cannot succeed in a toe-to-toe contest against
Obama. So, despite the many ominous circumstances facing this country,
heartland America can heave a collective sigh of relief. The nightmare of
the Clinton epoch appears to be over.
Full Story
U.S. ENERGY POLICY & U.S. ENERGY SOURCES PC, Volume X, Issue # 144, June 11, 2008
DRILL NOW FOR ENERGY IN AMERICA:
Our Abundant Oil & Natural Gas Would Keep
Money, Jobs, & Opportunities Here in the U.S.A.
By Roy Innis
America’s energy situation is becoming more untenable and intolerable by the day. The cost of keeping our jobs, heating
and cooling our homes, driving our cars, and putting food on our tables and clothes on our backs is increasing daily.
Small businesses, energy intensive industries like manufacturers and airlines, and poor, minority and fixed-income families
are getting hammered.
Full Story
HOW TO REDUCE ENERGY PRICES IN THE U.S.A. PC, Volume X, Issue # 143, June 11, 2008
WHY CAN'T JOHN MCCAIN SAY "OIL"?
By Alan Caruba
While grabbing a bite to eat for lunch, I turned on the television, and MSNBC was broadcasting live a presentation
John McCain was making somewhere. He does well in these relatively unscripted events, but when he got to the topic
of the price of gasoline and how to reduce current and future pain at the pump, he could not bring himself to say “oil.”
Full Story
INCUCING IRAN TO END ITS NUCLEAR PROGRAM PC, Volume X, Issue # 142, June 11, 2008
PREPARE TO ATTACK IRAN
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
Ideally, the Iranians themselves can still be induced to close down their nuclear program, for the alternatives – either a
U.S. or Israeli attack, or allowing the apocalyptically-minded leadership in Tehran to get the Bomb – are far worse.
Reviving a sense of apprehension in Iran offers the unique way to achieve this goal. Only by convincing Tehran that it
will never be allowed to have nuclear weapons can Washington persuade it to terminate its program, avoiding the need
for a military campaign. This can yet be attained, but it requires a basic shift in U.S. policy.
Full Story
A LAW TO GOVERN IRAQI LOCAL ELECTIONS PC, Volume X, Issue # 141, June 10, 2008
IRAQ: RETURN OF THE PURPLE FINGERS
By J. Scott Carpenter & Michael Rubin
Within the next few months, Iraqis will once again wave purple fingers in the air as they cast ballots for provincial
governments. As Iraq's Parliament debates a law to govern the elections, U.S. diplomats and international experts have
an opportunity, if not to correct past mistakes, then to help put local government on the right footing.
Full Story
ENERGY & ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY DECISIONS PC, Volume X, Issue # 140, June 9, 2008
AMERICA'S NATIVE CRIMINAL CLASS:
Locking Up Energy, Driving Up Prices, & Destroying Jobs
in Order to "Save the Planet"
By Paul K. Driessen
Energy and environmental policy decisions by Congress, driven by members' self interest, eco-activist agendas and
corporate rent-seeking, border on the criminal. They have locked up enough oil, gas, coal, and uranium to power the
United States of America literally for centuries, and forced us to use up oil that the rest of the world needs, while
exporting trillions of dollars that wise energy policies would keep here in the United States.
Even worse, many politicians are demanding that U.S. carbon dioxide emissions be slashed by 71% – to levels last seen
in 1937, during the Great Depression, when our population was one-third of today’s, and electricity use was in its
infancy. The impact on poor, minority, and elderly families would be disastrous.
Full Story
ENVIRONMENTALISM & THE FOOD SHORTAGE PC, Volume X, Issue # 139, June 9, 2008
THERMOMETERS ARE DOING THE TALKING
By Dennis T. Avery
What a world!! Global warming alarmists bring us to the brink of world food shortage and economic collapse — using
words and computer models, not higher temperatures. As a result, more wildlife species are threatened by palm oil
plantations growing biodiesel than by climate change. Heavy sea ice just trapped a big Russian ice-breaker for seven
days in the Arctic’s Northwest Passage, which the alarmists told us last year would soon be open sailing. The sunspots
and a Pacific Ocean cooling phase are forecasting the earth will cool further over the next two decades. In the past, both
have been accurate in their in their predictions.
Full Story
THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE & THE CONSTITUTION PC, Volume X, Issue # 138, June 8, 2008
SELECTING THE PRESIDENT OF THE U.S.A.:
WHY THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE DECIDES
By Alan Caruba
Call it the Gore Curse. In 2000, Albert Gore had a slim margin of popular votes nationwide, until the U.S. Supreme Court shut
down what had already become an endless process of re-counting the votes in Florida. When, as U.S. Vice President and Senate
President, Gore presided over the counting of the Electoral College votes in the presence of a joint session the U.S. Senate
and House of Representatives, it was George W. Bush who was the winner.
That was precisely the way the Founding Fathers intended the election of a President should be.
Full Story
THE JUDICIARY AS GUARDIAN OF DEMOCRACY PC, Volume X, Issue # 137, June 7, 2008
TURKEY'S PUTIN DESERVES TO GO
By Dr. Michael Rubin
Yesterday, Turkey's Constitutional Court overturned a new law that would have allowed women in the secular republic –
established in 1923 by the Westernizing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – to wear Muslim headscarves in universities.
It now appears all but certain that, this Summer, the Court will go even further, when it decides a larger case against the
country's Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party AKP). Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the AKP stand
accused of violating "the principles of a democratic and secular republic." Penalties could range from a suspension of the
party's public financing to its disbandment and the suspension of its leadership from politics. Such a development should
be welcome in the United States.
Full Story
U.S. FOREIGN POLICY & THE STATE OF ISRAEL PC, Volume X, Issue # 136, June 5, 2008
OBAMA VERSUS MCCAIN ON THE MIDDLE EAST
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
With the Democratic Party primaries over, American voters can focus on issues of political substance. For instance: How
do the two leading candidates for U.S. President differ in their approach to Israel and related topics? Parallel interviews
with journalist Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic, who spoke in early May with Democrat Barack Obama and in late
May with Republican John McCain, offer some important insights.
Full Story
ENVIRONMENTALIST LIES VERSUS THE TRUTH PC, Volume X, Issue # 135, June 1, 2008
THE GREENPEACE SCAM
By Alan Caruba
Greenpeace, a multi-million dollar operation with branches around the world, has demonstrated the capacity to
manipulate public opinion, but it does so in the fashion that the entire environmentalist movement has adopted, the
unrelenting attack on the motives and credibility of those who step up to present the truth, believing that it is the
best defense against the endless flow of lies with which the environmentalist movement has become identified.
Full Story
COAL -- THE ANSWER TO HIGH FUEL PRICES PC, Volume X, Issue # 134, May 31, 2008
GAS PRICES TOO HIGH? BURN CLEAN U.S. COAL.
By Dennis T. Avery
We are truly conflicted about energy. Everyone agrees gasoline prices are far too high, but the U.S. Congress claims the
oil industry is manipulating gas prices, while that same Congress refuses to allow oil drilling. President Bush’s corn
ethanol mandate has nearly doubled the world’s food prices, while producing only a tiny amount of low-grade automobile
motor fuel.
The Senate is meanwhile debating the Lieberman-Warner bill, which would deliberately tax gasoline and every other fossil
fuel more and more heavily until we stop using them. That’s to “save us” from global warming.
Full Story
ENVIRONMENTALISM & GLOBAL WARMING PC, Volume X, Issue # 133, May 28, 2008
CZECH PRESIDENT'S "INCONVENIENT CHALLENGE" TO AL GORE
By Christopher G. Adamo
Since leaving office, former U.S. Vice President Al Gore has gained enormous stature within certain circles on the world
scene, acquiring it per the standard Liberal formula. Taking up his “Earth in the Balance” cause, he produced the feature
length movie, An Inconvenient Truth, which is replete with fantastic prophesies of doom for the planet, unless
America immediately regresses to Third World squalor.
Full Story
MEXICO -- A GROWING PROBLEM FOR THE U.S.A. PC, Volume X, Issue # 132, May 25, 2008
MEXICO IS SOON TO BE A BIGGER PROBLEM
By Alan Caruba
As if the constant flow of illegal aliens and drugs from Mexico were not already a huge problem for the United States, the
problems associated with Mexico are about to get worse. When Business Week took notice of Mexico’s dwindling
oil reserves and failed national oil company, Pemex, in its May 5, 2008, edition, it signaled a problem whose significance is
as great as the one involving an invading population.
Full Story
REFUTING THE GLOBAL WARMING HOAX PC, Volume X, Issue # 131, May 23, 2008
OVER 31,000 U.S. SCIENTISTS DENY MAN-MADE GLOBAL WARMING
By Dennis T. Avery
In 1998, Dr. Arthur Robinson, Director of the Oregon Institute for Science and Medicine (OISM), posted his first Global
Warming skeptic petition, on the Institute’s website (www.oism.org). It quickly attracted the signatures of more than
17,000 Americans who held college degrees in science. Widely known as the Oregon Petition, it became a counter-weight
for the “all scientists agree” mantra of the man-man Global Warming crowd.
Recently, with America being dragged toward Kyoto-style energy limits by cadres of alarmists, Robinson mailed a new copy
of the petition to his original signers, asking them to recruit additional qualified scientists. Now his list includes nearly 32,000
American man-made warming skeptics with science qualifications. More than 9,000 hold scientific PhDs. Almost 32,000
thousand skeptics happen to be twelve times as many scientists as the 2,500 scientific reviewers claimed by the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to form a scientific consensus.
Full Story
POPULAR VOTES & THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY PC, Volume X, Issue # 130, May 22, 2008
HOLLYWOOD REWRITES HISTORY -- AGAIN
By Alan Caruba
The movie, Recount, arrives at a time when the Democratic Party is trying to determine whether the “popular” vote
in its primaries takes precedent over the actual number of delegates, whether “pledged” or “super delegates” whose only
allegiance is to (1) retaining their power in Congress and the Democratic Party and (2) actually trying to win the national
election in November, 2008.
There is enough written about the 2000 election results in Florida to suggest that, had the U.S. Supreme Court not
intervened and stopped the vote count, Al Gore would have won by the slimmest of margins, but that ignores the way
the Gore campaign successfully got disqualified from consideration the absentee military votes that would have
unquestionably put Bush over the top.
Full Story
CONSERVATISM & GOP ELECTION DAY FORTUNES PC, Volume X, Issue # 129, May 22, 2008
GOP CONGRESSIONAL DISASTERS: THE "MCCAIN EFFECT"
By Christopher G. Adamo
For nearly the last four decades, a consistent pattern has been established in the Republican political arena, whereby both
good and bad fortunes can be directly correlated to the overt Conservatism, or the lack thereof, in the Republican Party.
The more Conservative the Party and its candidates are, the better they do on election day. Conversely, as GOP members
seek “common ground” with Liberal Democratic rivals, their prospects at the ballot box diminish.
Full Story
THE HADITH PROJECT -- RE-INTERPRETING ISLAM PC, Volume X, Issue # 128, May 21, 2008
IS TURKEY'S GOVERNMENT STARTING A MUSLIM REFORMATION?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
Accounts from Turkey suggest that the government is attempting a bold re-interpretation of Islam.
Its unusually named ministry of religion, the "Presidency of Religious Affairs and the Religious Charitable Foundation,"
has undertaken a three-year "Hadith Project" systematically to review 162,000 Hadith reports and winnow them
down to some 10,000, with the goal of separating original Islam from the accretions of fourteen centuries.
Full Story
UNRWA AS AN INSTRUMENT OF TERRORISM PC, Volume X, Issue # 127, May 20, 2008
DEFUND UNRWA
By Asaf Romirowsky
A few days ago, an Israeli air strike killed a member of a Palestinian missile team that had been firing rockets from Gaza.
Now, the United Nations has come out with an unusual statement of bewilderment and utter shock as the truth has come
out. The dead man, Awad al-Qiq, was a UN employee and Headmaster of a top prep school in Gaza. He was also the
chief rocket-maker for Islamic Jihad.
Mr. Al-Qiq — not surprisingly, a science teacher — worked for one of the schools run by the United Nations Relief and
Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). Now that he is out of the rocket business, the
employment of such a "respectable" individual by the sole UN agency devoted to Palestinian refugees deserves an
explanation.
Full Story
LOW-QUALITY PUBLIC EDUCATION IN THE U.S.A. PC, Volume X, Issue # 126, May 18, 2008
THE NIGHTMARE WE CALL OUR SCHOOLS
By Alan Caruba
A high school diploma means nothing. No Child Left Behind is an even bigger joke. It is a scary situation that could lead
us to third world status, but we are prepared for that, since we already teach English as a second language.
Full Story
GLOBAL CLIMATE CHANGE & SPECIES SURVIVAL PC, Volume X, Issue # 125, May 17, 2008
SAVING ARCTIC PLANT SPECIES FROM CLIMATE CHANGE
By Dennis T. Avery
The Norwegian government is building its high-tech new Global Seed Vault on the Arctic island of Svalbard to protect the
world’s plant varieties in case of global climate change. Meanwhile, outside the Svalbard vault, the island’s own hardy
Arctic plants are demonstrating that Mother Nature knows how to keep her species alive through natural adaptation to the
earth’s naturally radical climate cycling
Full Story
MIDDLE EAST STUDIES & ISLAMIST SUBVERSION PC, Volume X, Issue # 124, May 16, 2008
MIDDLE EAST STUDIES IN FICTION
By Cinnamon Stillwell
It isn't often that characters based on the field of Middle East Studies show up in current fiction, but the novels of author
Daniel Silva are an exception. The last three novels of his series featuring Israeli secret agent/art restorer Gabriel Allon
explore the intersection of Middle East Studies and international intrigue.
Full Story
CURRENT DISCORD AMONG LIBERALS PC, Volume X, Issue # 123, May 15, 2008
"OPERATION CHAOS" FUELED BY REALITIES OF LIBERALISM
By Christopher G. Adamo
The Liberal “crack up” has been coming for quite some time. But, to put it into proper perspective, “democracy,” or
our constitutional representative democratic republic, should be considered as it was originally intended, and, then,
as it has been degraded at the hands of corrupt politicians in general, and the current crop of Liberals permeating the
government and the media.
Full Story
U.S. ENERGY CRISIS -- WRONG RESPONSE PC, Volume X, Issue # 122, May 14, 2008
WHEN CANDIDATES ARE DANGEROUSLY WRONG
By Alan Caruba
Americans have painted themselves into the corner on energy, and the two presumptive candidates for President are ready
to finish off the nation with the worst possible “solutions.”
Full Story
PERSECUTION OF DISSIDENTS IN SAUDI ARABIA PC, Volume X, Issue # 121, May 12, 2008
DISSIDENT WATCH: ABDUL RAHMAN AL-LAHIM
By Nathaniel Rosenblatt
A Saudi court's sentence of 200 lashes and six-months' imprisonment for a 19-year-old victim of gang rape, known only as
the "Qatif girl," recently made headlines across the United States. Her story would never have come to outside attention
without the efforts of her lawyer, Abdul Rahman al-Lahim. A specialist in commercial law, the 36-year-old Saudi also takes
human rights cases on a pro-bono basis.
Full Story
MULTICULTURALISM VERSUS UNIVERSALISM PC, Volume X, Issue # 120, May 12, 2008
A SCHISM OVER SHARI'A IN THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND
By Dr. David J. Rusin
The debate over the trajectory of the Western sociopolitical system and its strained relations with Islam is the most pivotal
of our time, as approaches decided upon today will impact billions not yet born. Two prelates in the ever more fractious
Church of England provide a microcosm of this discourse.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Bishop of Rochester Michael Nazir-Ali have emerged as central combatants
in the dispute between two fundamentally opposed models of social organization: multiculturalism and universalism. The
former bestows equal standing upon different cultures in the public square. The latter bestows equal standing upon
individuals who wield a common set of rights and responsibilities. Which system prevails will ultimately determine the level
of danger that homegrown Islamists pose to Britain, Europe, and the broader West.
Full Story
SERIOUS THREATS TO ISRAEL'S EXISTENCE PC, Volume X, Issue # 119, May 11, 2008
LIVING ON THE EDGE OF DESTRUCTION:
ISRAEL'S SIXTIETH ANNIVERSARY
By Alan Caruba
There are serious lessons to be drawn from this sixtieth anniversary of the State of Israel, and serious threats to Israel's
existence on the near horizon. If we permit the destruction of Israel, we nullify the values of both Judaism and Christianity.
We put our souls at risk.
Full Story
BIOFUELS & THE WORLD'S FOOD SUPPLY PC, Volume X, Issue # 118, May 10, 2008
MUST WE SUFFER GLOBAL FAMINE AGAIN?
By Dennis T. Avery
Do today’s soaring food prices and Third World food riots mean we’re headed for global famine?
Not any time soon — if we suspend the biofuels mandates quickly. Unfortunately, if we keep burning corn, wheat, and palm
oil in our vehicles, there’s no limit to the hunger, malnutrition, wildlife extinction, and political disruption we can cause.
Full Story
ISRAEL'S CURSE -- THE THREAT OF ELIMINATION PC, Volume X, Issue # 117, May 8, 2008
ISRAEL'S PREDICAMENT AT SIXTY:
WORLD'S WORST NEIGHBORHOOD
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
Two religiously-identified new states emerged from the shards of the British Empire in the aftermath of World War II.
Israel, of course, was one; the other was Pakistan.
They make an interesting, if infrequently-compared, pair. Pakistan's experience with widespread poverty, near-constant
internal turmoil and external tensions, culminating in its current status as a near-rogue state, suggests the perils that
Israel avoided, with its stable, constitutional democratic political culture, dynamic economy, cutting-edge high-tech
sector, lively general culture, and impressive social cohesion.
But, for all its achievements, the Jewish state lives under a curse that Pakistan and most other polities never face: the
threat of elimination.
Full Story
IRAN -- A GROWING NUCLEAR THREAT PC, Volume X, Issue # 116, May 7, 2008
HILLARY CLINTON'S RIGHT TO SAY "OBLITERATE"
By Dr. Michael Rubin
On April 29, 2008, answering a question on ABC's "Good Morning America," U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton warned that, if
Iran attacked Israel with nuclear weapons, "we would be able to totally obliterate them." On NBC's "Meet the Press,"
Sunday, May 4, U.S. Senator Barack Obama chided Clinton. "It's language reflective of George Bush. ...This kind of
language is not helpful," Obama told Tim Russert.
If peace and stability are Obama's goals, one only needs to read the Iranian newspapers to see that he is dead wrong.
Full Story
JOHN MCCAIN VERSUS TRADITIONAL AMERICA PC, Volume X, Issue # 115, May 7, 2008
JOHN MCCAIN'S "REVEREND WRIGHT MOMENT"
By Christopher G. Adamo
As the Hillary Clinton/Barak Obama melee continues, America is increasingly able to see their politically fatal flaws.
Polling of recent weeks has clearly shown that, despite all of the pathetically transparent media hype for Barack Obama,
the public would gladly opt instead for a candidate who could be counted on to uphold the values and mores of
traditional America.
By this reason alone can the sudden surges in John McCain’s polling numbers be explained. Bearing little or no
correlation to his campaign activities, they receive a boost with each ensuing clash between Hillary Clinton and Barak
Obama. Yet it is apparently beyond the Arizona Senator’s comprehension that his current “popularity” has absolutely
nothing to do with him.
Full Story
THE EARTH -- COOLING, INSTEAD OF WARMING PC, Volume X, Issue # 114, May 1, 2008
NEW JASON SATELLITE INDICATES 23-YEAR GLOBAL COOLING
By Dennis T. Avery
Now it’s not just the sunspots that predict a 23-year global cooling. The new Jason oceanographic satellite shows that
2007 was a “cool” La Nina year — but Jason also says something more important is at work: The much larger and more
persistent Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has turned into its cool phase, telling us to expect moderately lower global
temperatures until 2030 or so.
Full Story
LEFTIST ATTEMPTS TO RE-DEFINE CHRISTIANITY PC, Volume X, Issue # 113, April 30, 2008
LIBERAL "SOCIAL JUSTICE" PORTENDS NEW DARK AGE
By Christopher G. Adamo
The American public, and Christians in particular, are being deluged, once again with talk of the thoroughly ambiguous
concept of “social justice.” It is, after all, election time. Thus, the pseudo-religious among us must make their pitch for
the Christian vote, on whatever spurious terms they can concoct.
Full Story
TURKEY -- POLITICS &THE POLITICAL SYSTEM PC, Volume X, Issue # 112, April 30, 2008
TURKEY'S UNCERTAIN FUTURE
By Dr. Michael Rubin
The legal case against the AKP is an affirmation of constitutional democracy, rather than an assault upon it. Constitutional
democracy rests upon the rule of law and constitutionalism. Neither plurality support nor a majority in Parliament should
place any politician or political party above the law.
Full Story
RUSSIA & THE GEOPOLITICS OF ENERGY PC, Volume X, Issue # 111, April 27, 2008
FROM THE SOVIET UNION TO PUTIN'S RUSSIA
By Alan Caruba
Russia’s dominance in oil and natural gas is now being used “to project hegemony over its neighbors, from the Far East
(energy-starved China and Japan) to Europe in the west, and attempting to control transit (pipeline) countries such as
Ukraine and Belarus.” Communism, Soviet-style, is back in power in Russia under Putin, while America “has been
helplessly watching Russia’s re-emergence.”
At the heart of this new threat to America’s role in the world is oil and natural gas. Unless Americans begin to
understand the geopolitics of energy — and soon — a lifestyle we have taken for granted is going to be severely
impacted.
Full Story
NORTH AMERICA RICH IN FOSSIL FUELS PC, Volume X, Issue # 110, April 24, 2008
U.S. AGENCY CAREFULLY OPTIMISTIC ON BAKKEN DEPOSIT
By Dennis T. Avery
One of the most extensive oil deposits in the world — the huge Bakken Formation — underlies North Dakota and
Saskatchewan. The Bakken holds up to 500 billion barrels of oil, double the proven reserves of Saudi Arabia. But it lies
in thin, shallow shale formations that are hard to drill and don’t flow readily. Is the Bakken America’s energy
independence; a dire threat of global overheating; or just expensive holes in the ground?
Full Story
THE DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES PC, Volume X, Issue # 109, April 23, 2008
HILLARY CLINTON VERSUS BARAK OBAMA:
WHOSE LIES WILL PREVAIL?
By Christopher G. Adamo
Perhaps, the most striking conclusion to be drawn from this week’s Pennsylvania Primary is that, despite its results,
nothing in the Democratic Party’s currently tangled state will change. And this would have been so, no matter how the
primary election had unfolded.
Full Story
REWRITING THE MODERN HISTORY OF ISRAEL PC, Volume X, Issue # 108, April 23, 2008
ILAN PAPPE'S THE ETHNIC CLEANSING OF PALESTINE:
A BOOK REVIEW
By Seth J. Frantzman
Among many Israeli academics and Western revisionists, it has become fashionable to examine Israel's War of
Independence from an Arab perspective in which Jews were the aggressors and Arabs the victims. This trend began
in 1989 with works by Ben-Gurion University Professor Benny Morris and Oxford University Professor Avi Shlaim,
and developed further with the writings of the late Hebrew University anthropologist Baruch Kimmerling, Neve
Gordon at Ben-Gurion University, and Meron Benvenisti, a political scientist who served as Deputy Mayor of
Jerusalem between 1971 and 1978.
Ilan Pappé has now seized on what the New Historians started and brought it to new heights by promoting revisionist
arguments that place exclusive blame on early Zionists for victimizing Arabs and destroying opportunities for peace and
reconciliation.
Full Story
POLICIES THAT WILL DESTROY THE ECONOMY PC, Volume X, Issue # 107, April 21, 2008
GLOBAL WARMING TAX HIKES HEADING YOUR WAY:
Deficient Computer Models Drive Public Policies
That Destroy Jobs, Profits, & Family Budgets
By Paul K. Driessen
America is in the throes of a major housing and financial downturn, soaring food and energy costs, rising unemployment
and near recession. But legislators, bureaucrats, and presidential candidates are falling all over themselves to restrict
fossil fuel use, advance climate change legislation, and thereby increase energy prices, oil imports, and costs for families
and businesses.
Computer models ingest assumptions, hypotheses and scientists’ incomplete grasp of complex and turbulent climate
systems – and conjure up worst-case scenarios and Frankenclime monsters designed to scare people into accepting
draconian rules that will stifle economic growth and roll back living standards.
In fact, climate change isn’t about protecting the Earth. It’s about the selection, production, taxation, and prevention
of energy. It’s about access to real energy versus mandates to use futuristic, mostly illusory, and certainly insufficient
“alternative” energy. It’s about who gets to decide how much energy we will have, where that energy will come from,
and what it will cost.
Full Story
LIES TOLD TO ACHIEVE THE GREEN AGENDA PC, Volume X, Issue # 106, April 20, 2008
EARTH DAY IS A HOLIDAY FOR LIARS
By Alan Caruba
Earth Day is a holiday for liars. I have followed the apocalyptic claims and the legislated mandates of the environmentalist
movement since the 1970s and their single unifying factor has been the lies told to achieve various elements the Green
agenda.
Since 1970, April 22 has been celebrated as Earth Day. It is generally regarded as the date of the birth of the modern
environmentalist movement.
Full Story
ACCOMODATING ISLAMISTS IN THE WEST PC, Volume X, Issue # 105, April 19, 2008
PRIVATE ACCOMODATIONS FOR ISLAM
By R. John Matthies
There are now many cases of Islamists in the West demanding accommodations – and of these demands being met.
These range from trivial cases of employee accommodation to cases of gender segregation. While state and local
authorities have often bent to the designs of political Islam, it is to private institutions that one turns to examine the
most egregious examples of accommodation.
Full Story
ISLAM & CONSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY PC, Volume X, Issue # 104, April 18, 2008
A DEMOCRATIC ISLAM?
By Dr. Daniel Pipes
There's an impression that Muslims suffer disproportionately from the rule of dictators, tyrants, unelected presidents,
kings, emirs, and various other strongmen – and it's accurate. A careful analysis by Frederic L. Pryor of Swarthmore
College in the Middle East Quarterly ("Are Muslim Countries Less Democratic?") concludes that "In all but the
poorest countries, Islam is associated with fewer political rights."
The fact that majority-Muslim countries are less democratic makes it tempting to conclude that the religion of Islam,
their common factor, is itself incompatible with democracy.
Full Story
THE CARTER PRESIDENCY -- TOTAL DISASTER PC, Volume X, Issue # 103, April 17, 2008
JIMMY CARTER'S ALTERNATE UNIVERSE
By Christopher G. Adamo
If America must be reminded of just how bad things could get under the leadership of a wholly incompetent president, it
needs only to recall the disgraceful and humiliating four years of the Carter administration, beginning in January of 1977.
Within the span of a single presidential term, James Earl Carter managed to thoroughly decimate the U.S. military, while
simultaneously telegraphing the nation’s vulnerability, along with his absolute reluctance to exercise American power to
defend American interests.
Full Story
BIOFUELS & A LOOMING GLOBAL FOOD CRISIS PC, Volume X, Issue # 102, April 15, 2008
CONSERVATION LOSES OUT TO GLOBAL WARMING PANIC
By Dennis T. Avery
A global food crisis looms, as crops are diverted to biofuels. Food prices have soared 83 percent in three years.
Thousands of U.S. farmers are pulling their land out of the government’s biggest conservation program to plant millions
of acres back to crops and pasture. U.S. environmentalists warn that “years of conservation progress” will be lost as
America’s 35-million-acre Conservation Reserve dwindles, especially in the important bird-nesting areas of the northern
Great Plains.
Full Story
TURKEY -- RULING REGIME & GULEN MOVEMENT PC, Volume X, Issue # 101, April 14, 2008
TURKEY'S TURNING POINT
By Dr. Michael Rubin
Few U.S. policymakers have heard of Fethullah Gülen, perhaps Turkey's most prominent theologian and political thinker.
Self-exiled for more than a decade, Gülen lives a reclusive life outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Within months,
however, he may be as much a household a name in the United States as is Ayatollah Khomeini, a man who was as
obscure to most Americans, up until his triumphant return to Iran almost 30 years ago.
Full Story
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