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The Chinese government is putting on a clean, bright, smiling face for the world in Beijing, complete with bikini-babes cheering on beach volleyball.

But the face that reveals the dark heart of the Chinese government is seen in its treatment of protesters.

China shoots Tibetans dead.

Somebody tell me again. Why do we buy from these murdering bastards?
But not terrorism, said the FBI, before it possibly could have known.

The Denver Post continues investigating the death of a Somali Muslim from cyanide poisoning. The man was found dead with a pound of cyanide.

A Minnesota-based legal advocacy center for Somalis is assembling a troubling, curious background of a man found dead in a Denver luxury hotel Monday near a pound of deadly cyanide.

"He was psychotic; he was on medication," said Omar Jamal, executive director of the Somali Justice Advocacy Center, which has talked to dozens of people who knew Saleman Abdirahman Dirie, a 29-year-old Canadian citizen and former Somali refugee.

Dirie's journey to the U.S. and his stay in an expensive hotel does not fit the profile of his humble, somewhat reclusive life, Jamal said Thursday.

"People who knew him are shocked," Jamal said. "He was unemployed; he had no money. Whoever gave him the money for that hotel may have also given him the cyanide.

We need to find that person."


An unemployed person in "an expensive hotel" with enough poison to kill hundreds of people in the city that will host the Democratic Party convention.
And the unemployed person is a Somali Muslim. Alarm bells should be going off loudly.

Infidel Bloggers Alliance has a photo of the hotel.

Clear-headed thinking by Ralph Peters on Russia's conquest of Georgia, and on Vladimir Putin. Essay here. From the New York Post.
Seven years after 9/11 and Saudi Arabia remains the largest exporter of hatred against the West. No wonder when we examine Saudi textbooks.

What a miserable excuse for a country. And what an illuminating example of what hard-core Arab Islam produces.

Story here.
Posted by: A Waco Farmer
I'll say it again: the Washington Post stands alone as our one great national newspaper, consistently demonstrating the most integrity, and consistently placing the best interest of America over ideology and/or partisanship.

Today in the Post:

If the criticism is correct [from foreign policy sophisticates and serial critics of the Bush administration who blame America for encouraging dangerous delusions of democracy in a young nation at risk], a fundamental and generations-old tenet of American foreign policy is wrong, so we should be clear about what is at stake.

Amen.

There are some strange politics brewing in the United States of America this week in response to a mighty roar from the Russian bear, signaling that a long hibernation is over. Does anybody remember George F. Kennan?

The Post again:

Now we are told that Russia's invasion last weekend proves the improvidence of this policy [promoting democracy]: The United States should have helped Georgia to understand that it lies in Russia's "sphere of influence," beyond the reach of American help.

But for the United States to counsel a "realistic" acceptance of vassal status to any nation would mark a radical departure from past principles and practices.

Changing Gears. The Domestic Politics:

If Obama-Democrats admit that Russia is a threat (or that Russia was even an aggressor in this conflict), they place their 2008 political fortunes at risk. If we truly do live in a dangerous world, and there really are bad actors on the world stage, perhaps a rock-ribbed, hard-eyed, ancient anticommunist realist like John McCain might be a wiser choice for leader of the free world. This explains the massive reluctance on the Left to admit the obvious about a resurgent Russia. Very bad timing for Obama.

On the other hand, the good news for Obama--and the bad news for the world--not many voters seem to have much of an interest in this historic event.

Kudos to the small coterie of traditionally Democratic Party foreign policy wise men who are not averting their eyes this week and adopting the party line. Kudos also to the Washington Post. Their editorial today was not the best or last word on this international crisis, but, considering the long-standing Post political persuasion, it is the most astoundingly courageous.

Read in full here.
For background information: The CIA Factbook , Britannica , The Telegraph (UK) .

I will preface what I say by acknowledging that I am far from expert in this area of the world.

It seems to me that we, The United States, have been doing the right thing up until now by not getting too involved in the fighting between Georgia and Russia. Georgia, like the former Soviet Union generally, has separatist areas that differ ethnically and linguistically from the rest of the nation. The area of South Ossetia has fought to become independent from Georgia, resulting in a cease-fire monitored by the Russians, who support South Ossetia. The Georgians were unwise to make a military push into South Ossetia since such a move had a near certainty of leading to war with Russia, something the Georgians are not, and probably never will be, ready for.

However, if the Russians push into Georgia itself, then we must act in some significant way (what way, I'm not sure of). First, it is in our interest that Russia does not try to put the old Soviet and Tsarist empires back together, crushing the recently independent nations. Second, it is in our interest that the oil pipeline through Georgia does not come under Russian control. In addition to their own large reserves, if Russia controls this pipeline it will control the flow of oil from near the Caspian Sea to the West and be better able to exert pressure on the West. Third, Georgia is our ally, fighting beside us in Iraq. Our militaries have conducted joint training together in Georgia and in the Black Sea. It is in our interest to maintain credibility with allies current or potential in dangerous regions of the world.

May God bless our nation's leaders with wisdom and courage.
Story from The Times of India.

Must be because of the strong support for Israel by India, all the money and weapons. Oops. That's not it.

Must be the legacy of India's foreign policy in the Middle East, propping up dictatorships and humiliating local populations. Oops. That's not it.

Must be the resentment lingering after India's participation in the Crusades, and their imperialistic Christian missionary activity. Oops. That's not it.

How about that. Muslims hating a country other than the U.S., for reasons having nothing to do with those usually offered to explain Why They Hate Us.

Islam has bloody borders because it is innately aggressive.
Driving from Apache, Oklahoma, to Concord, California, I saw a lot of billboards. Way too many billboards. (Why don't environmental terrorists start blowing up big, well-lit, billboards?)

Several of these advertised that positions were available in the U.S. Border Patrol, and what a wonderful career it would be.

No thanks. If I am going to put myself into danger, I want to know that the agency hiring me will support me, not leave me dangling out on my own.

This recent story makes my point. From Gateway Pundit.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent was held at gunpoint Sunday night by members of the Mexican military who had crossed the border into Arizona, but the soldiers returned to Mexico without incident when backup agents responded to assist.

Agents assigned to the Border Patrol station at Ajo, Ariz., said the Mexican soldiers crossed the international border in an isolated area about 100 miles southwest of Tucson and pointed rifles at the agent, who was not identified.

It was unclear what the soldiers were doing in the United States, but U.S. law enforcement authorities have long said that current and former Mexican military personnel have been hired to protect drug and migrant smugglers.

"Unfortunately, this sort of behavior by Mexican military personnel has been going on for years," union Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) said on its Web page. "They are never held accountable, and the United States government will undoubtedly brush this off as another case of 'Oh well, they didn't know they were in the United States.'


And, you remember the conviction of two border agents for what seems like a justified shooting.

I would only consider joining the border patrol if the American government's policy became Threaten a Border Patrol Agent and You Die.

The will to defend its borders is essential to the survival of a nation.
Brits At Their Best brings us links and comments to an article on the use made of International Law by despotic regimes.

From Brits:

One problem with international law, as opposed to common law in the countries of the Anglosphere, is that we already have our rights and liberties and we do not want international law mucking things up. A second problem with international law is that despots can control it.

See also my earlier posts on the (ill)legitimacy of the United Nations here , here , and here.