Figuring that with all the new media coverage this week marks the first time many Americans have heard of Geert Wilders, I wrote this week's column to reflect on the political progress of his ideas.

What a difference a year makes. I say this on realizing that just over one year ago, Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders -- who has been on a multi-stop media and speaking tour of New York, Boston and Washington, D.C. -- that includes a screening of his film "Fitna," hosted by Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., in the U.S. Capitol -- was little known outside the Netherlands.

ndeed, most of what people seemed to know about him -- and I refer to those of us irresistibly riveted on Islamization as the great, ignored, existential peril -- was that Wilders, along with then-fellow Dutch parliamentarian Ayaan...

Read More »

After four years at West Point, nine years of honorable service, including two wars and a Bronze Star for valor, Captain Roger Hill now faces a "less than honorable discharge" in a massive miscarriage of military "justice."  Three retired senior officers--Army Col. Andy O'Meara, Air Force Lt. Gen. Thomas McInerny and Army Maj. Gen. Paul Vallely--explain the case below and call for sanity to return to our armed forces in the form of either an honorable discharge for Capt. Hill, or his reinstatement as a commanding officer. Here is what O'Meara, McInerny and Vallely wrote:

When President Obama dispatched another 17,000 troops to Afghanistan, he didn't know that one of the biggest risks they face comes from the U.S. military's own lawyers. An out-of-control, politically correct legal code means U.S. soldiers could be brought...

Read More »

Now, a second active duty soldier in Iraq is questioning Barack Obama's eligibility to be commander-in-chief. Here is the first story from Worldnetdaily.com. The second begins this way:

Another U.S. soldier on active duty in Iraq is joining a challenge to President Obama's eligibility to be commander-in-chief, citing WND's report on 1st Lt. Scott Easterling, who has agreed to be a plaintiff in a lawsuit over the issue, as his inspiration. "I was inspired by 1LT Easterling's story and am writing you to inform you that I would like to be added as a plaintiff against Obama as well if you feel it would help your case," the soldier, identified for this report only as a reservist now on active duty in Iraq. His letter...

Read More »

Behold Sen. Chris Dodd's Irish idyll--a "cottage" in beautous, coastal County Galway, Eire. This makes the third home to Dodd's name--and the third stinky, sweetheart, unconventional, something-fishy real estate purchase to his name, too. From The Corner, via Kevin Rennie's dogged reporting published in the Hartford Courant, now picked up in today's London Telegraph.

When will they read about it in the Senate Ethics Committee?

Or--heaven help Dodd--at the local pub?



 

...

Read More »

Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly both had Geert Wilders on their Fox shows last night. Here is a link to both segments. It was Beck's second interview; O'Reilly's first. Both men were respectful.

That's not to say that Beck didn't balk at condeming Islam based on his own friendships with individual Muslims--failing to appreciate that any such personal experiences in no way alter the immutable and animating laws of Islam that Wilders and other critics (including yours truly) oppose. Wilders was nonetheless able to make good points, and introduce the notion that what the Free World needs is a kind of international First Amendment to protect speech, an initiative co-sponsored by the International Free Press Society. Meanwhile, O'Reilly must have cut off the end of every sentence Wilders spoke. But the interview went off quite well, with Wilders making good arguments against O'Reilly's two bone-headed contentions: that "everybody knows" what O'Reilly called "Islamic fascism" is behind world terrorism, so...

Read More »

You've heard of tin pot dictatorships--how about tin cup superpowers? Hillary Clinton confirms our new status in the course of an unusually straightforward piece of reporting about China and the about-faces former candidates Obama and Clinton took on assuming office by CBS News' Wyatt Andrews, as noted by AIM's Cliff Kincaid.

Once upon a time--a few months ago--both O & C promised to stand up to China's unfair trade practices, including currency manipulation. Now, they will do anything to get China to finance the "stimulus."

As Hillary told CBS. "We are relying on the Chinese government to continue to buy our debt.”

 

 

...

Read More »

GoV brings good news from an important new front--the linen-draped tabletops of Vienna, where a culinary school, far from acceding to Islamic prohibitions on pork, alchohol and Western dress, is requiring all students in its Kitchen and Service class to prepare, taste and serve pork and alchohol and refusing to allow headscarves in the waitress uniform.

Wunderbar!

 



This week's column takes the lesson Admiral Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, says that seven years of war in Afghanistan have taught America--namely, that the US must win the "trust" of the Afghan people--and gives the good admiral an "F."

The buzzword on Afghanistan is "trust." Having routed the Taliban, liberated millions, midwived a (Sharia-supreme) constitution, assisted in elections, propped up a government and routed the Taliban some more, all the United States needs now to win victory in Afghanistan is to win the "trust" of the Afghan people.

So wrote Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, in a column appearing in the Washington Post just days before President Obama ordered 17,000 new troops to Afghanistan, nearly doubling the American presence there. The president's top military adviser explained the policy this...

Read More »

Frontpage headline of the NYT Wednesday:"From Pakistan, Taliban Threats Reach New York." And pray tell, why is that? Because there are thousands of "Swatis"--Pakistani immigrants from Pakistan's Swat valley, where Pakistan has just recognized sharia (Islamic law) in exchange for a truce (worth the paper it's written on)--living in the New York area.

Front section of the Washington Post today:"Court Blocks Release of 17 Uighurs into US." This story is about Uighurs picked up in Pakistan now held  in the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay whom the government wants to "resettle with Uighur families in the Washington region."

And from Frontpagemag today:...

Read More »

Watch Rick Santelli on CNBC (via Drudge) here. It will do you good.

"The goverment is promoting bad behavior...Do we really want to subsize the losers' mortgages...This is America! How many of you want to pay your neighbors' mortgages? President Obama, are you listening?How about we all stop paying our mortgages? It's a moral hazard!"

Anne Bayefsky (via The Corner) takes us behind the putrid scenes of Durban II where US diplomats are shaming our nation's good name with fawning supplication over the gangsterism of the UN "Human" "Rights" Council. Bayefsky sets the scene:

U.S. representatives were addressing a human-rights negotiating committee with an executive consisting of a Libyan chair, an Iranian vice-chair, and a Cuban rapporteur. Russian Yuri Boychenko was presiding over Monday’s “human rights” get-together. Before them was a draft document which participants plan to adopt in finished form at the conference itself. The draft now contains mountains of offensive references to limits on free speech, anti-Israel and anti-Jewish provisions, and incendiary allegations of the victimization of Muslims at the hands of counter-terrorism racists.     Now, get a load of this:

Here is how the American delegates responded...

Read More »

Literally (via The Corner).

The London Telegraph reports:

A bust of the former prime minister once voted the greatest Briton in history, which was loaned to George W Bush from the Government's art collection after the September 11 attacks, has now been formally handed back.

The bronze by Sir Jacob Epstein, worth hundreds of thousands of pounds if it were ever sold on the open market, enjoyed pride of place in the Oval Office during President Bush's tenure. But when British officials offered to let Mr Obama to hang onto the bust for a further four years, the White House said: "Thanks, but no thanks."

Diplomats were at first reluctant to discuss the whereabouts of the Churchill bronze, after its ejection...

Read More »

After reading Powerline's Scott Johnson's extremely thoughtful rumination on the question, I'm afraid the intriguing but horrifying answer is yes.

Fanning out across the globe, Obama administration envoys are bearing hearts and flowers to assorted meglomanical, nuke-seeking strongmen.

In a story headlined "Clinton, Heading Abroad, Takes Softer Tone to North Korea," The New York Times today reports that SecState Hillary has promised "great openness" to the hermetically sealed Stalinist dictatorship of North Korea if it will just give up on its pesky nuclear program. For its part, North Korea, on this eve of Mrs. Clinton's maiden State trip to the Orient, "has engaged in bellicose talk toward the South, and there were reports on Sunday that the North was preparing to test a long-range missile."

Not to worry. Mrs. C won't let any "bellicose" talk chill official US warmth. The Times further notes:

Mrs. Clinton played down suspicions, long held by some in the Bush administration, that North Korea has a clandestine...

Read More »

I dunno. Was there? Rep.Paul Kanjorski (D-PA), Chairman of the Capital Markets Subcommittee, says there was, as this week's column notes.

From Islam in Europe via De Telegraaf:

According to the most recent polls in the Netherlands, if elections were held today, the Party for Freedom (PVV), led by Geert Wilders, would come in second place with 25 seats, trailing only the Christian Democratic Appeal (CDA), led by the prime minister, which would carry 27.

Of course, there are nine other parties... Here's how it all stacks up:

Why should Lord West of Spithead (photo above) be ashamed of himself? For many reasons, including his support for the British government's travel ban on Geert Wilders.

But there's something else.

Geert Wilders has made available at his website a transcript of an exchange that took place yesterday in the House of Lords with Lord West, who is Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the British Home Office (and no relation) as several other British lords asked this government minister why the UK was barring Wilders from entering the country. Or, as the transcript puts it:

Private Notice Question

Asked By Lord Taverne

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is their justification for denying Mr Geert Wilders entry into the United Kingdom.

Lord West of Spithead (Im not kidding, although I'm guessing Brits...

Read More »

From the International Free Press Society website:

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you very much.

Thank you for inviting me. Thank you Lord Pearson and Lady Cox for showing Fitna, and for your gracious invitation. While others look away, you seem to understand the true tradition of your country, and a flag that still stands for freedom.

This is no ordinary place. This is not just one of England’s tourist attractions. This is a sacred place. This is the mother of all Parliaments, and I am deeply humbled to speak before you.

The Houses of Parliament is where Winston Churchill stood firm, and warned – all throughout the 1930’s – for the dangers looming. Most of the time he stood alone.

In 1982 President...

Read More »

Scroll for updates.

----------

I have it on excellent authority that Geert Wilders has landed at Heathrow. Confirmation here (I think!) in Dutch.

9:53 AM EST: Radio Netherlands Worldwide reports: "His plane is still on the tarmac of Heathrow. A journalist of the Spits message who is on board says that Mr Wilders is not being allowed off the plane."

10:09 AM EST: According to Twitter (via Tundra Tabloids): Wilders has text-messaged the AP that he will be returning to the Netherlands "within the hour after arrest." 

10:44 AM EST: Here are a few updates from The Guardian:

On the plane from Amsterdam, the controversial leader of the Freedom party told Dutch...

Read More »

An open letter to the government of the United Kingdom from the International Free Press Society:

On Tuesday, February 10, 2009, Dutch parliamentarian Geert Wilders, leader of the Partij voor de Vrijheid (Party for Freedom), received a letter written on behalf of British Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. It informed Mr. Wilders that on traveling to the UK at the invitation of UK Independence Party peer Lord Pearson to screen the film Fitna and hold a Q&A in the Parliament on Thursday, February 12, 2009, Mr. Wilders should expect to be barred from entry into the UK for the following stated reason:

“The Secretary of State is of the view that your presence in the UK would pose a genuine, present and sufficiently serious threat to one of the fundamental interests of society. The Secretary of State is satisfied that your statements about Muslims and their beliefs,  as expressed...

Read More »

Leave it to the Baron at the Gates of Vienna to come up with a way for us to follow Geert Wilders' attempt to travel to that Sharia'd Isle, I mean, that Sceptered Isle, Great Britain. According to the Baron, via VH: The most popular blog in The Netherlands, GeenStijl.nl, says they have managed to be on board this Thursday and will film the arrival (noon or early afternoon):

“[…] On board the KLM plane there will be a certain G. Wilders and his entourage. Yes, Geert is going for the confrontation with England and POWNED will be there. Costs a few bucks, but then you also get something. We want to witness live when those pale thick gay tea-drinkers shackle a Dutch parliamentarian. In England, no less, an EU country with a currency that is worth nothing, that recently buried freedom of expression and where they are on verge of establishing the Sharia.” They might have pictures or even a...

Read More »

On September 15, 2009, Rep. Kanjorksi reveals, there was "an electronic run on the banks" that the government intercession stopped when it reached $550 billion. If the government had not interceded, Kanjorksi says, as much as $5.5 trillion could have been withdrawn by the end of the afternoon. His amazing statement begins at about 2 minutes 20 second into the video (below).

Photos: Lord Pearson, Geert Wilders, Lord Ahmed

The UK ban-on-Wilders debacle has morphed into diplomatic "row" coverage of the ministerial back-and-forth between the Netherlands and the UK. Thankfully, the Netherlands government is strongly backing Wilders. (And, in order to think positive, I won't even add "so far.") On the side of the British angels (there still seem to be some) still upholding their invitation to Wilders, we have Lord Pearson and Baronness Cox, both Independence Party peers in the House of Lords. But look who's vocally supporting the British government ban? Dear old Lord Ahmed--the same Lord Ahmed, who, as the London Sun reports today, recently invited an al-Qaeda-linked...

Read More »

Here's a story with a happy ending--make that a chapter with a happy ending, since the saga, of course and alas, continues. It's about the power of the little people--dedicated, gallant bloggers in Norway--who stopped a sharia-serving speech code cold. Read it here via Kathy Shaidle.



From the London Telegraph's report on the UK refusal to admit Geert Wilders into the country:

Home Office sources confirmed Mr Wilders had been refused entry to the UK.

A Home Office spokesman told The Daily Telegraph: "The Government opposes extremism in all its forms.

"It will stop those who want to spread extremism, hatred and violent messages in our communities from coming to our country.

"That was the driving force behind tighter rules on exclusions for unacceptable behaviour that the Home Secretary announced on in October last year."

Geert Wilders opposes the spread of sharia (Islamic law); he opposes Koranic exhortations to violence; he opposes Islamic supremacism. These are the opinions that now count as "extremism" and "unacceptable behavior" in the UK, and, as such, are officially "opposed" by the British government.

To think that the men and women of Britain who faced down totalitarian Germany gave rise to this generation that now bars from its very shores a foe of totalitarian Islam.

...

Read More »

All in a day's (bad) news:

First, "UK Parliament to Show Fitna." 

Then, "UK Government Bars Wilders' Entry into Britain"

What next?

Uniformly wretched media performance last night at Obama (De)presser #1--unless, that is, these media performers are trying out as trained seals.

Mr. President, how will we know your economic plan is working? Mr. President, don't you think you will require MORE money to solve the credit crisis? Mr. President, are there Taliban in Pakistan? What did you think about A-Rod's performance-enhancing drug use admission?

Of course, if the seal tank is full, this White House press corps will still have a shot at slots in some really new media: a global network being promoted at   the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting at Davos to usher in a new state of "global governance."

Cliff Kincaid has the extremely disturbing details here. Cliff writes:

This outlandish and frightening...

Read More »

Remember when Jesse Jackson (whose son Jesse Jr., before taking a whirl at Blago Senate Lotto, was then serving as an Obama campaign co-chairman) said, basically, it was curtains for Israel in an Obama White House? And then when the Obama campaign doth protested a whole lot? Well, Jesse was right on the money (and literally, in a way).

Read Ed Lasky's important analysis of how Obamatik will shape up in the Middle East under Israel-unfriendly NCS advisor Gen. James Jones. It opens:

Barack...

Read More »

 

...he has no money. And some people--very few, but some--are noticing.

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) made the point in the Wall Street Journal last week:

As a nation, we got into this mess by spending and investing money that didn't exist. We won't get out of it by doing more of the same.

And Gov. Mark Sanford, R-SC, elaborated on it, setting this disastrous fantasy into the disastrous reality of our brave new Obama era (via Michelle Malkin):

“A problem that was created by building up of too much debt will not be solved with yet more debt,” Gov. Mark Sanford said Sunday, making a reference to the federal deficit spending that will likely finance the federal stimulus package.

“We’re moving precipitously close to what I would call a savior-based economy,” Sanford also said Sunday on CNN’s State of the Union. The South Carolina Republican said such an economy is...

Read More »

 



One of the most amazing things about Youtube--cutting edge but mass-accessible Youtube--is the way it has so quickly become the nation's Internet attic, open to all to riffle through and replay seemingly long past cultural moments. A reader sent me this fantastic clip (click "Read More" to see it) of the Glenn Miller Orchestra featuring Marian Hutton, Tex Beneke and the Modernaires singing the World War II song "People Like You and Me." The sequence, set up like a recording sesssion, opens with the band, casually attired for rehearsal, getting into place and gradually working into the opening of "Chatanooga Choo-Choo." Sharp-eyed viewers may catch a youthful Jackie Gleason taking the stand with his stand-up bass, Caesar Romero plinking at the piano, and handsome George Montgomery on trumpet. 

What gives? This proto music video is actually a number from the 1942 movie Orchestra Wives, also starring Ann Rutherford, a very entertaing little picture that features probably the best extended...

Read More »

This week’s column is an open letter to New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

Dear Mayor Bloomberg,

Last week, in the presence of Dutch dignitaries visiting New York City to mark the 400th anniversary of Henry Hudson’s remarkable first voyage on behalf of the Dutch East India Co. to “Nieuw Amsterdam” (New York), you spoke of the need to safeguard freedom of expression.  “Of course, I do not appreciate everything I hear,” you said, according to a translated report from the Amsterdam newspaper De Telegraaf. “But when you start restricting that, you step on a slippery slope. Before you know it, you can no longer say what you want.”

Congratulations,...

Read More »

The Corner's Marc Thiessen reports:

[CIA director nominee] Panetta just said that if they caught Osama bin Laden, they would find a place to hold him briefly, give him access to the International Red Cross, and use the Army Field Manual to question him.

What, no tea time? Let's hope the ladies' badminton team will at least, um, man the battledores. Thiessen notes:

If we had followed this policy when Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was captured, we would have gotten no information from him – and America would have been attacked again.

We have sunk very low very fast.

John at Powerline recently posted a video of a barely-controlled ruckus between Fatah and Hamas that took place last month on the steps of the Minnesota Capitol. That's right. Not in Gaza; not in Ramallah; not, for Pete's sake, in London, but outside a state seat in our nation's heartland.

"How," John wonders, "did Minnesota get to the point where its state capitol can become an outpost of a terrorist organization from the Middle East?"

He leaves the pointed question hanging, concluding: "Until a few years ago, I wouldn't have believed it possible."

Observation and belief aside, John's question is one we must force ourselves to answer. We indulge in the the rhetorical pause of endless contemplation at our peril. A few years ago, a Fatah-Hamas rally on the steps of US statehouse would have been unheard of, unthinkable, unimagineable. How, expanding John's question,...

Read More »

From USA Today's The Oval:

Sports and diplomacy appear to have mixed once again:

State Department spokesman Robert Wood said this morning that the U.S. is disappointed that Iran did not issue visas to an American women's badminton team that was invited to a tournament in Tehran.

He said the team had supplied all the paperwork required.

The Associated Press writes that:

The team's participation in the event starting Friday was to have been the first U.S.-Iranian exchange under the Obama administration. The two countries have not had diplomatic relations since the Islamic Revolution and the hostage-taking at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran in 1979.

According to the BBC, Iranian Foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Qashqavi "said there was not enough time for the lengthy...

Read More »

...The Situation Room with CNN's Wolf Blitzer tonight around 6:30 pm.

The figure disguised in the black burqa is the Dutch cartoonist known as Gregorius Nekschot. The picture was  taken by Snaphanen as the cartoonist,  who was arrested last year for the crime of drawing insufficiently sensitive political  cartoons, addressed the Danish Free Press Society in Copenhagen this week. An excerpt:

On May the 13th of the year 2008, however, the cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot was dragged out of his house by ten civil servants and thrown into jail. Moreover, his home was searched and his computer, mobile telephone, agenda and sketchbooks were confiscated. Cartoons that allegedly discriminated against ethnic minorities and against Muslims caused captivity and a far-reaching infringement of his privacy. Such is the state of affairs in the Netherlands,...

Read More »

Ann of the excellent Refugee Resettlement Watch has been posting her way through Saul Alinsky's Rules for Radicals. This book is the closest thing to a Bible for community organizers such as, well, our president, who, nonetheless, doesn't ever mention the book or credit Alinsky in either of his two memoirs. While there's probably a rule for radicals about that--as in Cover Your Tracks--Ann just sent me a post by her blog partner Judy showing that not just conservatives are noticing the Obama-Alinsky connection.

It is called "Alinsky's son boasts that Obama uses his father's methods" and it quotes from a column by Phyllis Schlafly that opens:

Immediately after the...

Read More »

Just as five courageous US Representatives forthrightly warned their colleagues to "think twice" about having anything to do with CAIR because of its connections to Hamas, Tony Blair gets out there calling for bringing Hamas into the so-called preace process.

Gauntlet thrown.