Thai Islamists Continue Jihad

Ah, the restive South Thailand regions. It's such a lovely place. You've got Islamists seeking to create their own Islamist state, and the Thai government is once again entertaining the thought of appeasing them, despite the ongoing jihad:

Three teenage boys were killed and a Buddhist man slain and his body set on fire in separate attacks in Thailand's restive southern provinces, police said Saturday.

Three 14-year-old Muslim boys were killed when suspected separatist insurgents threw a grenade and opened fire with automatic weapons at a busy teashop in Yala province's Bannang Sata district late Friday, police Lt. Anan Ritthitham said. Another 10 people were wounded, he said.

Manoon Sangthong, 46, was shot dead Saturday morning and his body set on fire near his rubber plantation in Narathiwat province's Rue So district, 800 kilometers (500 miles) south of Bangkok, Police Lt. Khanchitphol Kuenor said. Manoon was a Buddhist, he said. Seven schools were also torched in Yala and Songkhla provinces on Friday night, police said. Songkhla borders the three southern provinces and violence often spills over into there.

Thailand's Defense Minister Gen. Boonrod Somtad, speaking to reporters Saturday, said the government is willing to talk with insurgents and knows some of the leaders. Boonrod made the comments on his return from visiting Malaysia and said Thailand's neighbor to the south offered to give full cooperation in efforts to resolve the violence in the south.

The Islamists aren't just murdering people, but they're destroying schools to further intimidate anyone who isn't a Muslim or as Muslim as the Islamists into submitting to their way of life. They're destroying any opportunity those living in the region have of improving their lives - gaining an education that doesn't consist solely of regurgitating passages of the Koran.

North Korea Agrees To Shut Plutonium Plant

Pyongyang and Washington have agreed on a three-week timeframe for shutting down the North's plutonium-producing reactor, a top U.S. nuclear envoy said Saturday after returning from a rare visit to the reclusive state.

Christopher Hill -- the chief U.S. negotiator at international talks on North Korea's nuclear programs -- said they were looking at a three-week timeframe for shutting down the Yongbyon reactor, when asked by reporters on his arrival at Tokyo's Haneda Airport.

"Yes, stay tuned," he said, adding that the timeframe started Friday. (Watch CNN interview with Hill Video)

Hill, an assistant secretary of state, arrived in Tokyo Saturday to brief his Japanese counterpart on the outcome of his two-day surprise trip to the North Korean capital.

The trip -- the first by a high-ranking U.S. official since October 2002 -- came amid growing optimism that North Korea may finally be ready to take concrete steps toward fulfilling a promise to dismantle its nuclear programs.

Last week, the secretive state invited inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency to begin discussions on the procedures for shutting down its Yongbyon reactor. The country expelled the U.N. nuclear inspectors in late 2002.

The IAEA announced Friday that a delegation led by Olli Heinonen, a deputy director general of the IAEA, would travel to Pyongyang on Tuesday to prepare for the first inspection.

Hill said he was happy the team was set to go, but cautioned that shutting the reactor was just a first step.

"Shutting down the reactor won't solve all our problems, but in order to solve our problems we need to make this beginning," he said. "We really think this is the time to pick up the pace."

This is notable in that we're not talking about six party talks, but direct negotiations that led to the supposed breakthrough. That's notable in its own right since the US had often warned that it would not negotiate with North Korea alone and that discussions must involve the other regional powers.

The reactor was supposed to be shut down earlier this year, but there were delays due to the North Koreans complaining over the shutdown of bank accounts that the North Koreans were using for money laundering counterfeit American currency.

Also, shutting the nuclear facility is only a step in the process. Ensuring that the facility is not restarted or that the North Koreans have or will facilitate proliferation to third parties is a major concern.

Besieged and Spreading?

Al Qaeda in Iraq is getting it from all sides. The Iraqi tribes are fed up with them, and the Iraqi army and US forces are taking the fight to al Qaeda in a big way. Two major al Qaeda figures were picked up by the US yesterday, and that comes as dozens of other al Qaeda were killed or captured.

U.S. and Iraqi troops captured two senior al-Qaida militants and seven other operatives Saturday in Diyala province, an Iraqi commander said, as an offensive to clear the volatile area of insurgents entered its fifth day.

The U.S. military also cracked down elsewhere in Iraq, saying in a statement that seven other al-Qaida fighters were killed and 10 suspects detained in raids in Tikrit, east of Fallujah, south of Baghdad and in Mosul.

Three other militants suspected of having ties to Iran were detained in a predawn operation by U.S. forces working with Iraqi informants in Baghdad's main Shiite district of Sadr City, the military said separately.

The Americans have accused Tehran of providing mainly Shiite militias with training and powerful roadside bombs known as explosively formed projectiles, or EFPs, that have killed hundreds of U.S. troops in recent months.

Indeed, the US reports 68 al Qaeda were killed. That's a switch from the usual reporting, which focuses on US casualties before burying the detail that the US is engaged in offensive operations that are more likely to expose US forces to enemy fire and that the US has been wiping the floor with the insurgents and al Qaeda.

Don Surber notes that he's not sure which side is winning during the Surge, but he knows which side he's rooting for. I'm with you Don.

J.J Johannes writes about the ongoing fight in Iraq and that the ISG is making a comeback - yes that's the same pseudorealism that I've been warning about for some time. The military is making strides, but the political side is sorely lacking.

Bill Roggio provides updates on what is going on all over Iraq, and with much more detail than one finds in most media outlets. He's providing all kinds of details about what is going on during the surge, which the military calls Operation Phantom Thunder. This guy deserves a wider forum.

The ongoing concern is that al Qaeda may seek to look elsewhere as their fighters are decimated in Iraq. Those that have managed to survive in Iraq will take their tactics and methods and seek to implement them elsewhere. I'd suggest looking at the failed states/regions in the region, including Lebanon, Gaza, Somalia, and Sudan as possible locations where al Qaeda could regroup.

Another Day, Another Declaration

So, will Fred Thompson officially enter the race for the Presidency this coming week? That's the latest rumor to come down the pike. Everyone knows he's going to run. Polls are already including him among the candidates even as he hasn't officially declared himself a candidate or participated in the debates.

He's currently benefiting from the fact that he isn't officially in the race.

I've been saying for some time now that the race began way too early and that most people aren't engaged in the process. Those declared candidates are already spending money to stay relevant and working on their operations rather than biding their time to enter later in the year when candidates traditionally announced.

To me, this doesn't change the composition of the field much as most candidates have already factored him into the equation.

Compare and Contrast

Yes, Gal Gadot is included in the video.

This is what passes as improving Hamas's image:

Suspicious Package at Gas Station Causes Holland Tunnel Traffic Jam

This morning, a suspicious package discovered at a gas station near the entrance to the Holland Tunnel in Jersey City, New Jersey caused a major traffic jam for those entering the tunnel. Traffic is finally getting back to normal as the package was safely removed.

The Holland Tunnel has been targeted by terrorists in the past, so law enforcement does not take chances with these kinds of events.

The Battle For Ground Zero, Part 232

For those who have been counting, I accidentally ran two pieces in this series with the number 230, so here we are in the 232nd installment of this series.

JP Morgan Chase has revealed its design for the Deutsche Bank site, and it includes a cantilevered structure for full size trading floors that will envelop and surround the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church at its base. Curbed has the details.

UPDATE:
Steve Cuozzo doesn't mince words. He thinks the new design is a zero; mashed together because of conflicting needs at the site.

War Drums Beating Again?

Fatah's Abbas is reorganizing his cabinet, sacking the thug in charge of Fatah's Gaza security. You think? The PLO is also offering to hold elections once the situation in Gaza settles down. As I noted yesterday, Fatah would likely lose those elections given the dissatisfaction most Palestinians have with the kleptocrats in charge.

The Israelis may have to parachute food into Gaza because the situation really is that bad. And if someone gets injured in the airdrop? That would be Israel's fault as well. No good deed goes unpunished.

Iran admits that it has been backing Hamas, but it denies providing weapons and then makes the absurd claim that NATO is providing weapons to the Taliban in Afghanistan. This should be a surprise to absolutely no one. Iran has been pushing its agenda for the region more aggressively since it sees the US and Israel hamstrung by domestic opposition and is exploiting both a media that opposes the war in Iraq and taking the fight to the entities that are behind much of the fighting in the region - Iran and Syria.

Al Qaeda may also be taking advantage of the situation in Gaza, as this editorial suggests:

IT SEEMS that Al Qaeda’s dream is on its way to turning into reality. At last it has found a foothold on the Palestinian scene. Witness the kidnapping of BBC reporter Alan Johnston in Gaza by the Al Qaeda affiliated Jaish al-Islam 100 days ago yesterday, and the heated battles in Nahr al-Barid refugee camp between the Lebanese army and Al Qaeda sympathisers Fatah al-Islam over the past month. And with Gaza and the West Bank sliding further into anarchy, with Hamas and Fatah turning on each other after a year of crushing siege, this new presence can only grow stronger.

Since declaring jihad in 1998, Al Qaeda has aspired to acquire the legitimacy of representing the Palestinian cause, well aware of its rich symbolism within the Arab and Islamic collective conscience. Ever since the eruption of the Arab-Israeli conflict in 1948, Palestine has offered vital legitimacy to a great many political movements and regimes, from nationalist Nassirites and Ba’athists to liberals and Islamists. It is this moral authority that gave the late Yasser Arafat the status he enjoyed not only among Palestinians, but across the Arab world and beyond.

Palestine is the mirror in which the Arab political scene is reflected. Fatah was an expression of the rise of the left and nationalism; Hamas of the shift towards political Islam. And that is precisely why events in Gaza and Lebanon’s Palestinian refugee camps today should not be taken lightly. They are ominous harbingers of what could lie ahead. When Osama bin Laden and his lieutenant Ayman al-Zawahiri issued their “Jihad against Jews and Crusaders” statement on February 28 1998, responses to their declaration varied from apathy to amusement. They were an obscure group lost in the faraway emirate of the Taliban, a pathetic remnant of the fight against the USSR during the cold war. Their role looked historically defunct and their discourse archaic.

Jihad isn't solely against Israel and for the liberation of Palestine from the Jews, but rather the spread of Islam by the sword. Defeating Israel in the heart of the Islamic world would be a monumental victory for al Qaeda and the jihadis since it would be interpreted as nothing less than a divinely inspired victory, and thereby increase the likelyhood that others predisposed to jihad would join the fight against the West.

Along the same lines, Ahmadinejad makes yet another not so subtle threat against Israel. Those are just words, until Iran manages to get enough of its centrifuges spinning for weeks and months on end to produce weapons grade nuclear materials for a weapon. When that happens, and the estimates are all over the map, though one report claims that they have enriched 100kg of uranium, no one knows what Iran will do, but I don't think there's any peaceful intent there. Iran will use those weapons, either against the Israelis or against the Saudis, Egyptians, Jordanians, Iraqis, or US interests in the region.

That 100kg of enriched uranium doesn't mean that it is weapons grade, but simply the result of running the centrifuges long enough to have begun down that road. Iran also says that they'll step up enrichment if sanctions are imposed. Huh? They'll be stepping up enrichment either way, and the IAEA has once again failed to do its job.

There are once again reports that Israel is training for a long range mission to take out Iran's nuclear facilities.

Lebanon, meanwhile, has claimed victory over Fatah al Islam, after 33 days of fighting at the Palestinian camp near Tripoli, although it appears that the fighting is still ongoing.

Lebanese army helicopters and artillery fired on Friday at Islamist fighters who had retreated into the heart of a Palestinian refugee camp after troops captured all their outlying positions.

But Nahr al-Bared camp was generally calm a day after the army claimed victory in 33 days of fierce fighting against al Qaeda-inspired militants in which 172 people were killed.

Gazelle helicopter gunships fired machine guns and four shells hit the camp in the afternoon amid scattered gunfire.

It was not clear if Fatah al-Islam militants were shooting back. The defense minister has sworn to besiege the camp until they surrender, but says major military operations are over.

The battle for Nahr al-Bared in north Lebanon was the country's worst internal violence since the 1975-90 civil war.

This report indicates that Fatah al Islam lost many of its terrorist leaders and that they had no choice but to fall back.

We're also fast approaching the one year anniversary of Hamas's capture of Gilad Shalit in a raid that killed two other Israeli soldiers. There has been absolutely no movement on that front, as the most recent demands are little changed from the original demands - Hamas wants hundreds of Palestinians, including many terrorists, released from Israeli jails in exchange for Shalit.

The Quartet will be meeting in Jerusalem on Tuesday.

UPDATE:
It hasn't been a good week for the US, Israel or the West, in large part because of the beating their weak horse Fatah thugs took at the hands of Hamas. So, what does the US, Israel and the West do to compound the problem? They decide to throw even more money at Fatah and Abbas. Yes, that's a real bad move alright. Tom Rose has more - via LGF. This doesn't mean that the good work the US and Iraqi forces have been doing against al Qaeda and the insurgents in Iraq has been for naught, but the US has to recognize terrorists and actually treat them as such; the State Department is getting caught up in their pseudorealism once again.

UPDATE:
Iran has reportedly amassed a significant number of armed fast patrol boats for use in the Persian Gulf. Try 1,000 of these boats, which could be outfitted with torpedoes, guns, and missiles, in the hopes of simply overwhelming a ship or ships defenses:

In 2005, IRGC developed its swarm doctrine following Teheran's assessment that the United States was considering an air strike on Iran's nuclear facilities. Officials said the swarm doctrine was designed to exploit the slow pace of U.S. aircraft carriers and destroyers in the shallow waters of the Gulf.

"Iran still states that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps will employ swarming tactics in a conflict,'' U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence spokesman Robert Althage said.

IRGC swarming tactics envision a group of more than 100 speedboats attacking a target, such as a Western naval vessel or a commercial oil tanker. They said 20 or more speedboats would strike from each direction, making defense extremely difficult.

The Navy, with at least two carrier groups in the Gulf, has been developing counter-measures to an Iranian swarm attack. These include using minesweepers, unmanned aerial vehicles to monitor Iranian speedboats and the deployment of weapons that could blast Iranian speedboats at standoff range. Such exercises have been conducted over the past few months.

The problem for the Iranians is that the US has over the horizon capabilities to see threats well in advance of its ships and could similarly launch attacks against those boats. However, there is always a chance that such an attack could be successful - see how the USS Cole was badly damaged by a boat suicide bomb attack.

UPDATE:
Some Israelis are wondering why the Israelis are supporting Fatah. You could give Fatah F-16s and they wouldn't be able to deal with Hamas notes Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman. That's a dose of reality, but Olmert and the pseudorealists aren't going to have anything of it.

So, how did Hamas manage to get the editorial pages of the WaPo and NYT to pick up their agitprop on the same day no less? Reuters spills the beans:

Hamas leaders rarely have access to major U.S. media to express their views unfiltered, and getting an opinion piece into the Times and the Post on the same day appeared unprecedented.

Both Fred Hiatt, the Post's editorial page editor and David Shipley, the Times' deputy editorial page editor, said they would not have carried the articles had they known of the other paper's publishing plans.

In The New York Times, Yousef objected to the Western portrayal of the bloody events in Gaza as a Hamas coup against Fatah. "In essence, they have been the opposite.

"Eighteen months ago, our Hamas party won the Palestinian parliamentary elections and entered office under Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh but never received the handover of real power from Fatah, the losing party."

Yousef also complained that recent news coverage had failed to mention that Hamas had offered a 10-year ceasefire to Israel and adhered to a unilateral ceasefire for 18 months.

"Nor has it been evident to many people in the West that the civil unrest in Gaza and the West Bank has been precipitated by the American and Israeli policy of arming elements of the Fatah opposition who want to attack Hamas and force us from office."

In The Washington Post, under the headline "Engage with Hamas," Yousef said President George W. Bush's administration had never intended to honor the outcome of the January 2006 Palestinian elections.

"Those who warn of 'failed states' and 'Hamastan' as a breeding ground for terrorism forget where blame for the failure belongs - at the feet of the American administration which has chosen to isolate, rather than deal with, the elected government."

The U.S. lifted its aid embargo to the Palestinian government last Monday after Abbas swore in a new 13-member emergency Cabinet without Hamas members.

Neither op-ed piece mentioned what the United States, Europe and Israel see as the key obstacle to dealing with Hamas: its refusal to recognize Israel and a world view of Jewish conspiracies and domination laid out in the organization's charter.

Reuters doesn't quite get all the problems with the Hamas position either. They omit the fact that Hamas has a bunch of thugs running around alligned to Hamas, but going by different names these days - plausible deniability, but they've still been launching attacks against Israel. The so-called 10-year truce is a strategic pause to enable Hamas the ability to up-arm for the next round in the jihad against Israel, and that Hamas's refusal to recognize Israel's right ot exist is founded on its religious ideology, and is non-negotiable.

Also, it's laughable how the media covered the Hamas takeover of Gaza; ignoring or minimizing the brutal way in which Hamas went after Fatah - including tossing Fatah thugs off rooftops and summary executions, including murdering injured Fatah thugs in hospitals (Fatah has done the same thing to Hamas, so they're both equal opportunity murderous thugs and terrorists).

Neither deserves space in the editorial pages, and yet Hamas managed to get into both on the same day.

UPDATE:
To continue with the Hamas editorials; as I had previously highlight above, WaPo and NYT editors had no problem with Hamas submitting their agitprop. They only found a problem after realizing that the other paper got the same kind of editorial. Only then would they have run something different.

UPDATE:
Via Rantburg comes this report about how the head of the thugs who captured Alan Johnston is demanding assurances from Hamas not to go after him.

The head of a Palestinian clan in the Gaza Strip holding BBC reporter Alan Johnston wants Hamas to guarantee his and his relatives safety in exchange for the reporter's release, the daily Jerusalem Post said Friday. Clan leader Mumtaz Dagmoush, is refusing to release the journalist - kidnapped over 100 days ago - for fear that Hamas will kill him and most of his clan members, the Jerusalem Post said, citing Hamas sources. Dagmoush, who is known as Abu Muhammad, is negotiating Johnston's release with Hamas leaders in return for assurances that he and his relatives will not be killed, the report said.

Since last Saturday, the sources said, dozens of Hamas militiamen have been surrounding the area where the Dagmoush clan lives in Gaza City's Sabra neighbourhood. Hamas has warned that it will use force unless Johnston is freed by Monday.

"This man is a big thug," an unidentified source was quoted as saying by the Jerusalem Post.

So, Dagmoush is a thug, but so is Hamas. So many thugs, and so little empathy for the lot of them. Hamas is applying the carrot and the stick with Dagmoush, though it is quite liberal with the stick. It is all that Hamas knows.

UPDATE:
From the cognitive dissonance files, here comes the Shiite Islamist leader in Lebanon, blaming all the violence on the US to further US interests in the region. Right. Just ignore Syria next door, Fatah al Islam, and Hizbullah.

Senate Approves Higher Mileage Requirements

On its face, raising the CAFE standards to 35 mpg sounds like a good idea. Better gas mileage means that a person could go further on a tank of gas, which would also mean less pollutants emitted per mile driven.

The vote, 65 to 27, was a major defeat for car manufacturers, which had fought for a much smaller increase in fuel economy standards and is expected to keep fighting as the House takes up the issue.

But Senate Democrats also fell short of their own goals. In a victory for the oil industry, Republican lawmakers successfully blocked a crucial component of the Democratic plan that would have raised taxes on oil companies by about $32 billion and used the money on tax breaks for wind power, solar power, ethanol and other renewable fuels.

Republicans also blocked a provision of the legislation that would have required electric utilities to greatly increase the share of power they get from renewable sources of energy.

As a result, Senate Democrats had to settle for a bill that calls for a vast expansion of renewable fuels over the next decade — to 36 billion gallons a year of alternatives to gasoline — but does little to actually promote those fuels through tax breaks or other subsidies.

One possible problem is that there appears to be a relationship between the institution of higher CAFE standards and the death rates of vehicle occupants. When the mileage requirements were made more stringent, there was an increase in the death rate, and it is a concern that the new requirements might cause a similar increase, especially as consumers continue to flock to SUVs. Don Surber has the details.

Another problem is that better gas mileage might actually encourage even more people to drive more, negating any benefits from increased efficiency. It is that conundrum that would lead one to suspect the only way to alter consumer behavior to get out of the habit of driving everywhere is to heavily tax gasoline. Well, I'm sure legislators are licking their chops at that prospect as well.

As for the issue with ethanol, consider that every gallon of ethanol produced means that there's corn not being used for food - increasing the cost of various food products significantly as demand continues to soar. This isn't good for consumers either.

UPDATE:
Instapundit opposes raising the CAFE standards, but notes various ways that the carmakers can get it done. Nearly all of the methods involve higher prices for the consumer. Figures.

Friday Funny

What we call the news. It's cutting and right on target.

via Jib Jab.

Waiting for Gadot

Hey, this kind of posting has its benefits. Lots of folks like to see pretty things. Are we in blog sweeps this week? I sure hope so.



That's Gal Gadot, the Israeli beauty on the red carpet for the Maxim hosted event for the Israeli consulate in New York City.

Gov. Corzine's Driver Could Have Avoided Accident

A team of crash investigators has determined the state trooper driving Gov. Jon Corzine on April 12 could have prevented the crash on the Garden State Parkway that put the governor in the hospital for 18 days, a state law enforcement official said.


The State Police Motor Vehicle Accident and Vehicular Pursuit Review Board has forwarded its conclusion to Superintendent Rick Fuentes, who is expected to issue his response to the finding this afternoon, according to the official, who did not want to be named so as not to upstage announcement.

Fuentes, attending a Senate committee hearing this morning, confirmed an announcement was imminent, saying, "This afternoon we hope to bring it to closure."

The governor, who was not wearing a seat belt, was seriously injured in the crash that occurred just after 6 p.m. on April 12 as a two-vehicle convoy was rushing Corzine from Atlantic City to Drumthwacket for a meeting.

Crash investigators later determined Corzine's driver, Trooper Robert Rasinski, was driving 91 mph in a 65 zone when it was clipped by a pickup truck and slammed into a guardrail. The governor was sitting in the front passenger seat.

Corzine suffered 15 broken bones, including 11 broken ribs and a fracture of his femur that ripped a six-inch gash in his thigh. He was sedated and on a ventilator for more than a week.

This isn't much of a surprise. As we've learned since the accident, there was no reason for the driver to be speeding, nor was there any reason for Corzine to be riding around without a seatbelt.

Mixed Messages on London's Congestion Tax

Expect Mayor Bloomberg to talk up the supposed benefits, while downplaying the significant problems with the congestion pricing tax imposed by London, the leading large city to attempt to curtail traffic in the central business district.

Anecdotally, most Londoners say they have noticed little difference.

Some have said they believe the decision to increase the daily fee from 5 pounds (about $10) to 8 pounds ($16) last year was either because the decrease in traffic hadn't been enough or because the income the city had seen hadn't been as high as hoped.

Transport of London said it took in 210 million pounds last year ($420 million) in fees and fines levied to those who didn't pay, with a profit of 122 million pounds ($244 million).

Most of that money has been pumped into transit improvements - mainly the addition of more buses in an effort to further reduce the number of cars coming into the city.

Officials reported an additional 72,000 bus riders in 2005 and a steady increase in users of the London Underground subways since the scheme began. The use of bicycles, too, has gone up precipitously. Other benefits have been a 13 to 15 percent dip in harmful vehicle emissions, 8 percent of which is directly attributable to the congestion scheme, officials said.

That element has been so successful that Livingstone has commissioned a study on creating a sliding scale by which cars that emit the least carbon will have the fee waived, whereas those that emit the most could be hit with a fee of up to 25 pounds ($50) a day.

Additionally, officials report an average decline of 70 serious traffic accidents per year.

While Transport of London says businesses within the zone have done better in recent years than those in the rest of the city, the London Chamber of Commerce says 84 percent of the businesses it surveyed after the scheme went into effect reported revenue declines.

One possible reason for a decline in traffic could be attributed to the revenue decline by those businesses surveyed. If they've cut back on business or are receiving less traffic as a result of the tax, that means that they're paying less corporate taxes and receiving less in other taxes (VAT) from their business operations. Those declines in revenues have to be made up elsewhere, meaning that the congestion pricing tax has to be increased to cover the declines elsewhere.

Instead of the supposed goal of supporting transit improvements, the congestion pricing tax will have to be raised to cover declines in taxes elsewhere - a tax burden shift.

Another thing to keep in mind is that once a tax is imposed, it is near well impossible to see it eliminated. Jurisdictions don't like seeing revenue streams eliminated, so stand to continue them.

As I've previously noted, NJ Transit operates at near capacity on its routes into Manhattan, so there's no way to actually increase capacity for those seeking alternative access to Manhattan to escape the congestion pricing tax.

What NJ Transit must consider is expanding the hours of operation on many of its lines. Once you get to 11:30PM, trains and buses run only occasionally - once an hour at best. Some train lines stop operation for several hours until the start of the morning runs at 4-5am. That's unacceptable if you're hoping to wean even more people from cars and use mass transit. Expand the schedule to include even more off peak and weekend hours so that people feel that they have a choice to take mass transit instead of driving into the City.

Jaw Jaw Instead of War War

Egypt has called on Jordan, Israel, and the PA to meet for a summit in Egypt. Egypt wants to retain its leadership role in the Middle East among Arab countries, where its main competitor among Sunni countries is Saudi Arabia. The last time that the Palestinians met to discuss matters, they claimed to reach an agreement on a unity government. Within hours that devolved into the civil war that resulted in Fatah being ousted from Gaza and Hamas firmly in charge there.

The diplomats are doing what they always do; they are talking. Expect the usual from this - demands that Israel make concessions for the sake of peace. No where do I expect concessions to be demanded of Fatah although they're not exactly in a position to give up much of anything.

Closing ranks against Hamas, Egypt's president invited Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders to a peace summit, officials said Thursday, the biggest show of support yet by moderate Arab states for beleaguered Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

The meeting will take place Monday in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, said Israeli government spokeswoman Miri Eisin. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has invited Abbas, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Abbas will call for a resumption of peace talks with Israel, arguing that only progress toward Palestinian statehood can serve as a true buffer against Hamas, which took control of Gaza by force last week, Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said.

''The most important thing to realize is that time is of the essence,'' Erekat said. ''We need to deliver the end of occupation, a Palestinian state. If we don't have hope, Hamas will export despair to the people.''

As immediate steps, Abbas will ask Israel to remove West Bank checkpoints that disrupt daily life and trade, and to transfer hundreds of millions of dollars in Palestinian tax funds Israel froze after Hamas came to power last year.

In Washington this week, Olmert said he would propose to his Cabinet on Sunday that it unlock frozen funds, thought he did not say how much money he thought Israel should free. Israel is holding about $550 million in tax revenues it collects on behalf of the Palestinians.

Despite the talk about peace, however, the Hamas takeover has dealt a setback to statehood efforts, with the Islamic militants in charge of Gaza and Abbas in charge of the West Bank.

Actually, Fatah is also comprised of terrorists, but we've decided to play realpolitik and give those terrorists a chance to act as a buffer against the more extreme terrorists in Hamas.

I'm not a fan of it, and consider it pseudorealism considering that Fatah still considers the destruction of Israel to be its ultimate goal - hardly a moderate stance. Still, the possibility that dipomatic action might undermine and forestall a wider conflict is what diplomats are hoping for. The problem is that hope is a very poor way to strategize dipomacy. It's wishful thinking when the Palestinians refuse to make concessions that could actually lead to peace.

Egypt is supposedly the key to dealing with Hamas. Well, if Egypt could manage to shut down the arms smuggling into Gaza, that may be worth considering. The idea that Egypt should be asked to take over Gaza and administer the territory is a nonstarter - Egypt didn't want it when Israel and Egypt signed the peace treaty at Camp David in 1979, so there's no reason to think that has changed. Egypt knows it doesn't stand to benefit from that - and the Islamists in Gaza could further undermine Mubarak's position.

However, it does stand to benefit from increased patrols along the Philadelphi corridor.

For its part, Hamas continues to threaten Fatah for what it considers an illegal takeover of the PA.

In an interview here, Mr. Zahar, the former Palestinian foreign minister, said Hamas would not sit idle if its political rival, Fatah, dominant in the occupied West Bank and backed by the United States and Israel, continued to attack Hamas institutions and politicians.

“If they continue to dismantle the local elections in the West Bank and punish Hamas there, the United States and Israel will face another surprise there,” Mr. Zahar said. Asked how, he said, “The way we defend ourselves against Israel and this occupation.” Pressed if that meant attacks and suicide bombings, he smiled and replied: “You said that.” Then he added: “We are ending the reign of the spies and collaborators in Fatah.”

In recent days, Fatah gunmen have been attacking and burning Hamas institutions in the West Bank, and its forces have arrested a number of elected Hamas officials there as well. Mr. Zahar, a physician singled out in the past by Israeli forces who killed one of his sons and his son-in-law, spoke on a day when Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, the Palestinian president, said he would not negotiate with Hamas. In a televised speech, he said that “there is no dialogue with those murderous terrorists” and added: “Our main goal is to prevent sedition from spreading to the west Bank.”

Their main goal is to create an Islamic state of Palestine, comprised of the West Bank, Gaza, and what is presently Israel. Make no mistake about that.

And in a poll conducted of Palestinian views on the situation, most Palestinians would prefer new elections but Hamas would still come out ahead. Make of that what you will.

Syria claims that it is willing to talk peace. Would they consider giving up the possibility of regaining the Golan? Or is that the deal breaker for them? Land for peace has shown itself to have limits - just look at what the Palestinians have done with Gaza when Israel withdrew and South Lebanon when Israel withdrew in 2000 - it turned in to Hizbullahland from which that terrorist group could start a ruinous war. Syria wants the Golan back, and anything less would not be acceptable to them. Count on it. This latest move by Syria is an attempt to put the pressure back on Israel, instead of on Syria, which repeatedly used the Heights to fire into Israel when it was in control from 1948 through 1967, and again during the Yom Kippur War in 1973.

Then, there's the not insignificant matter of who is actually holding Alan Johnston and what is being done to secure his release. There's a report that a member of the group claiming to hold Johnston was killed but note the language being used to describe the group; they're talking about a clan holding him, not the terrorist group Army of Islam which has claimed responsibility. Masked gunmen reportedly shot a member of the Dughmush clan, which could mean Hamas was behind the attack. Hamas has said that it would use force against those holding Johnston if he was not released, and Hamas' brand of diplomacy is to shoot first and make demands later.

The bottom story of the day from the UN is that Secretary General Ban has denounced the UN Human Rights Council decision to single out Israel's human rights stance.

UPDATE:
Well, this report clearly indicates that the Army of Islam and the Dughmush clan are one in the same. Via LGF:



I guess the Army of Islam decided to consult with the media critics to give 'em an extreme name makeover to make it more palatable to the West. Saying that you're the Army of Islam might be... inflammatory and undermine the Islamists jihad by being so damned overt in their calling.

Calling themselves a clan is so much more ... tribal.

Whatever they call themselves, they're still holding Johnston and deserve to be hunted down.

UPDATE:
We're also approach the one-year anniversary of the date on which Gilad Shalit was captured by Hamas in a raid that killed two other Israeli soldiers. Gilad is still being held somewhere in Gaza.

Hamas, meanwhile, has said that the PA should be comprised of technocrats instead of Fatah and Hamas thugs. Interesting idea, but hardly unoriginal. I believe that that idea has been floated by others around the Internet. It would benefit Hamas since it would get around some of the problems of having Hamas on the West's blacklist (no economic aid), but Hamas would still be part of the government. Technocrats sound better than kleptocrats or thugocrats, but the Palestinians have shown themselves to be lacking in competent leaders.

Hamas sees this trial balloon as a way of getting back into the money and to reassert power in both Gaza and the West Bank, instead of largely being confined to the hellhole of Gaza.

UPDATE:
Israel has agreed to meet for this summit, and it would appear that the US might be trying to apply the screws to Egypt to get them to do more to secure the Hamastan/Egypt border, to the tune of withholding $200 million in foreign aid.

Oh, and where are the usual suspects in Israel who are quick to condemn Israel for defending itself and kill terrorists, but are silent when the terrorists of Fatah and Hamas are busy killing each other. Hypocrites.

The Israeli Left and Arab Knesset members are enlightened and humane people. They are quick to cry out in the face of any injustice. In the course of the ongoing, Sisyphean and bloody war against Islamic terrorists raging in our region, there were cases where Palestinians used as cover by murderers have been hurt by mistake. Knesset Member Zahava Gal-On and Ahmed Tibi were quick to storm the nearest microphones in order to condemn the act, resorted to harsh, impassioned criticism of IDF commanders and fighters, and threatened to submit High Court petitions and turn to local and international human rights groups.

A blatant example of this is the nutty establishment of a commission of inquiry to look into the targeted killing of a top Hamas terrorist, the "saintly" Salah Shahada.

As it turns out now, their conscience is selective, just like their memory. More than 300 people have been recently killed in Gaza and Lebanon. In Gaza we witnessed a massacre, executions, cold-blooded daytime murders on the street, lynching against a backdrop of cheering masses, and horrendous acts of abuse one cannot find in any horror film.

However, it appears that the blood of these victims is not as red, and the reason is that those who are killing them, slitting their throats and abusing them are their Muslim brothers. Heaven forbid we criticize the barbaric butchers. It is easier to criticize those who fail to offer assistance than it is to slam Hamas, which is committing the crimes. As usual, we are being condemned, for not treating gunshot victims.

I would highly recommend the map feature at the Guardian (via Conflict Blotter). It's an interactive map that lets you see who controls what in the West Bank and various aspects of Israel's means of self defense - aka the security fence. It's the Guardian, so it's couched in terms of occupation and a pro-Palestinian bent, but the key detail is when you click on the links for Palestinian controlled and administered territory. It highlights a key detail that is often missing in news reports. Israel has relinquished control over large areas of the West Bank to Palestinian civil administrative control. Palestinians have been governing Palestinians - not very well I might add since Oslo in 1993. And that's part of the problem. The PA is a bunch of kleptocrats, so the Palestinians haven't been able to do much with what they have.

UPDATE:
Hamas is going to get a dose of what it's like to run Gaza, but the journalist writing this piece, still can't help but find ways to pin the blame on Israel.

Still, even Zahar must know that once the euphoria wears off, the Islamists are almost certainly due for a humbling lesson in real-world management. Maintaining order in a 25-mile strip of land choked with 1.4 million impoverished Palestinians is a daunting task for even the most disciplined and efficient of organizations. Governing will be all the more difficult while fighting periodic skirmishes with Israeli troops stationed just across the border. Earlier this week, Israeli and Palestinian soldiers exchanged gunfire at the busy Erez Crossing, and on Wednesday Israeli forces killed six more Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. American officials have pledged vigorous support for President Mahmoud Abbas's forces in the West Bank, and Hamas activists could face further arrests there, where Abbas’s Fatah faction remains relatively strong. Meanwhile, dozens of Gazans are still trying to flee the fighting; on Wednesday Israel allowed more than 50 residents to pass on a bus to Egypt, although others remained stranded at Erez.

The Erez Crossing is a creepy place, even in the best of times. The walls of the concrete tunnel that leads from Israel to Gaza are chewed with the charred pockmarks of past shooting attacks; brass M-16 casings litter the floor alongside the pulled pins of smoke grenades. At a series of locked gates along the way, the disembodied voices of Israeli soldiers bark confusing orders over loudspeakers, instructing you to open your bags, take everything out of your pockets, raise your arms. On past trips to Gaza, a Palestinian policeman has checked my passport on the far side, and then waved me in. But this time I was thrust into a scene of frenetic activity almost as soon as I stepped across the border. Dozens of Palestinian kids were hanging from the green steel rafters of the tunnel, swinging axes and hoisting blowtorches—stripping even the tunnel itself of any metal that could possibly sold for scrap.

The violence at Erez crossing earlier this week was due to Hamas firing on Fatah thugs who were trying to gain entry into Israel. Israeli troops fired to provide cover for the Fatah thugs, and have even provided some medical assistance.

Erez crossing is designed the way it is because of the ongoing and persistent threat of Palestinian suicide bombers attempting to gain access to Israel, and to deal with crowd control.

Everything of even remote value is being scavenged from Gaza, and the situation will get only worse as Hamas cements its hold on Gaza.

UPDATE:
Yet another reason not to consider Fatah a moderate - the Fatah torture chamber of horrors (via LGF). Expect Hamas to return the favor, which goes hand in hand with the honor/shame cycle of violence.

UPDATE:
Meanwhile, the Lebanese military claims to have finally crushed Fatah al Islam. That group's leaders are on the run, which means that they could try to regroup elsewhere - namely one of the other camps, but this is a positive step. 16 people were arrested for a bus bombing back in February.

Back in Israel, PM Olmert is considering releasing taxes collected by Israel on behalf of the Palestinians to the PA. That's quite a tidy sum of money too, and could go a long way to building infrastructure, though it is most likely to be used for buying weapons and paying thugs.

Hamas is making itself right at home in Fatah's former bases.

Moving much closer to home, New Jersey is one step closer to requiring the state pension fund divest itself from those securities that invest in Iran.

UPDATE:
Bibi thinks that Jordan needs to be more involved in securing the West Bank. There is a certain amount of logic to that proposal, given that Palestinians from the West Bank were Jordanians before 1967, and Israel and Jordan have a peace deal. However, it's not in Jordan's interest to bring still more radical terrorists into their own sphere of influence since many do not consider Abdullah to be legitimate.

Israel also wants Saudi Arabia in on the peace efforts. Well, that's splitting the difference between the two regional Sunni powers - Egypt and Saudi Arabia. I don't see this doing anything one way or the other, except as to provide yet more money to any possible deal.

Israel is also allowing hundreds of tons of food to enter Gaza.

UPDATE:
Abbas is considering early elections. He obviously doesn't believe in the polls that would have Hamas winning.

UPDATE:
It would seem that Fatah al Islam's old neighbors don't want them to come back. Actually, it's not just Fatah al Islam, but the Palestinians in general who resided in the Nahr al-Bared camp and who had no problem with the terrorists operating from within the camp.

Repeat Performance

"Welcome back my friends, to the show that never ends..." So begins the famous song Karn 9 Evil by Emerson, Lake and Palmer. For some, the show that never ends is the continuing assault on free speech all in the name of fairness.

The leftist dream to reassert the Fairness Doctrine on the media continues to percolate among the left because conservative shows dominate the airwaves of talk radio. They would love to get their grubbies on all forms of media, in the claims that some groups - those they oppose - have a better ability to find an audience than their own point of view.

To them, the market forces be damned. The concept of the Fairness Doctrine cuts hard against the heart of capitalism and free speech. It determines who can say what and in what forums and the government gets to arbiter the content, instead of the free market. It would save progressive radio stations like Air America from oblivion, while limiting successful right wing talk radio/syndicated shows out of "fairness."

That's neither fair nor a legitimate use of government power to save leftists from their own failures to capture audience on talk radio.

Thai Jihad Continues Apace

The Thai government has agreed to send yet more troops to South Thailand to fight the Islamists seeking to create a state within a state.

Thailand's cabinet has approved deployment of 2,760 additional locally-recruited paramilitary rangers, including a dozen platoons of woman rangers, to the country's southernmost provinces to carry out tactical missions in the turbulent region. Assistant government spokesman Natthawat Suthiyothin said the Cabinet decision for an additional deployment of army-trained rangers included 28 companies of rangers, plus 11 platoons of women rangers, to carry out missions in Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani with a Bt1.4 billion budget earmarked for this year, to be followed by an added Bt381 million budget for the following year.

The paramilitary rangers, however, are generally younger and usually provide deeper local understanding than seasoned veterans reassigned from other parts of the country.

The nearly 2,800 rangers will serve under the command of the Fourth Army Region which is directly tasked with containing southern border unrest and combating insurgents. The rangers have been trained to operate with high degrees of flexibility and rapidness, especially in the mountainous, remote areas of the southernmost region. The Fourth Army began to deploy the rangers during the past few months as a supplementary tactical force.

Rantburg has more on the violence in Thailand, including the death of yet another Thai policeman and the capture of three terrorists.

Four more were added to the butcher's bill in yet another bombing. Oh, and another school was targeted and torched:

Suspected Muslim separatist rebels killed four people, including a district chief and an army colonel, in Thailand’s rebellious Muslim south, police said yesterday.

One soldier was killed and two wounded late on Monday as they clashed with militants who set fire to a school in Pattani, one of three southernmost Thai provinces where more than 2,300 people have been killed in a three-year insurgency, police said.

One bomb was hidden in a tree near a tea shop, and the resulting explosion wounded 13 people.

Al Qaeda Bigwig Nailed in Afghanistan?

The focus of many of the articles on this attack relate to the unfortunate death of children in the attack, but more important is who was hiding behind these human shields:

U.S. special operations forces were targeting the leader of al-Qaida in Afghanistan — one of the organization’s top commanders — when they launched an attack against a compound that killed seven children Sunday in Paktika province of eastern Afghanistan, U.S. officials tell NBC News.

According to several officials, and contrary to previous statements, the U.S. military knew there were children at the compound but considered the target of such high value it was worth the risk of potential collateral damage.

Those same officials tell NBC News the target of Sunday’s attack was Abu Laith al Libi, the al-Qaida commander in Afghanistan and a top lieutenant of Osama bin Laden. The sources report that although six sets of remains besides those of the seven children were recovered, it’s not clear whether Abu Laith is among those killed.

Abu Laith, a physically imposing 40-year-old Libyan, is an outspoken leader of al-Qaida, appearing in videos and on the Internet. An October 2006 Defense Intelligence Agency analysis describes him this way: “Speaks Arabic with a Maghreb/Moroccan dialect; scars on back as if beaten by a belt or wire; senior Al Qaeda commander; expert in guerrilla warfare.”

The US used rockets to carry out the attack from a newer system called HIMARS, which is an offshoot of the MLRS system or rocket launchers.

Purdue University Study Shows Why the World Trade Center Collapsed

Ok, so you don't believe the Popular Mechanic's article debunking the 9/11 conspiracy hacks. Well, maybe you will believe Purdue University:

INDIANAPOLIS — A computer simulation of the 2001 World Trade Center attacks supports a federal agency's findings that the initial impact from the hijacked airplanes stripped away crucial fireproofing material and that the weakened towers collapsed under their own weight.

The two-year Purdue University study, funded in part by the National Science Foundation, was the first to use 3-D animation to provide visual context to the attacks, said Christoph Hoffmann, a professor of computer science and one of the lead researchers on the project.

***

The animation, intended in part to help engineers design safer buildings, begins with a map of lower Manhattan as it appeared on Sept. 11, 2001. The video then shows a plane slicing through several stories of the World Trade Center's north tower and follows the disintegrating plane through the interior and out the opposite side.

The report concludes that the weight of the aircraft's fuel, when ignited, produced "a flash flood of flaming liquid" that knocked out a number of structural columns within the building and removed the fireproofing insulation from other support structures, Hoffmann said.

The simulation also found that the airplane's metal skin peeled away shortly after impact and shows how the titanium jet engine shafts flew through the building like bullets.

Ayhan Irfanoglu, a Purdue professor of civil engineering, said half of the building's weight-bearing columns were concentrated at the cores of the towers.

"When that part is wiped out, the structure comes down," Irfanoglu said. "We design structures with some extra capacity to cover some uncertainties, but we never anticipate such heavy demand coming from an aircraft impact. If the columns were distributed, maybe, the fire could not take them out so easily."

A 2005 report following a three-year investigation by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, a federal engineering agency, recommended that cities raise fire standards for skyscrapers and develop new materials that can better protect tall buildings from fire. That analysis did not blame the collapse on the steel or design of the towers, but instead focused on the damage to the fireproofing.

There are now several studies that show that the damage from the planes caused the collapse. Nothing but conjecture on the part of the conspiracy theorists. Can we put this to bed now? I was there. I saw the second plane hit the building. I watched the building colapse. Enough is enough!!!

Not Quite The Lame Duck

For a lame duck, President Bush not only is wielding a veto pen more frequently, but Congress is incapable of overriding them. If anything, President Bush is showing himself more capable in pushing his own agenda than Congress is in pushing the Democrats agenda.

It's a most curious situation, and we can expect to see more of this in coming weeks.

Continental's Crappy Flight; UPDATE: Not Just Continental

This is just nauseating:

It was last Wednesday afternoon when his flight left Amsterdam, but roughly two hours into it, the passengers were told the lavatories were out of commission. An unplanned landing in Shannon, Ireland was made to fix the problem.

A pit stop became an overnight stay. The next day, the same plane headed for its original destination of Newark, New Jersey, but just after takeoff, the sewage overflow began. This time, there was no turning around.

"I don't know how you can say a plane needs to be grounded one day for a problem that's not as major as a problem the next day, and it doesn't qualify for being grounded," said Brock.

He says was there was one half-working restroom on the plane for the more than 200 people onboard.

He also says the flight attendants - who were serving meal service in a stinky, unappetizing cabin - told everyone to not eat or drink too much.

"To be told that we were supposed to monitor what comes out the other end of us was insulting," said Brock. "Shame on continental. It was the worst flight experience I have ever had."

Continental gave Collin a $500 voucher for a future flight for the inconvenience. He says he's not sure he'll ever use it.

UPDATE:
Apparently this isn't the only airline mess to deal with today. United Airlines had a computer failure causing delays and cancellations nationwide.

400 were stuck on a Cathay Airlines plane in San Francisco for 7 hours. The passengers weren't told about the problems until three hours into the ordeal. Passengers and the company differ over how the airline handled the situation - a night and day differental at that.

Passengers were stuck on a plane at LaGuardia Airport in NYC for five hours.

Passenger Alice Norris, who was trying to fly to Cincinnati from LaGuardia Airport, said, "We sat on the plane for five hours on the tarmac, and all they gave us was a glass of water and a granola bar," Norris said.

Those delays were due to stormy weather in the Northeast causing cancellations and backups throughout the system.

She's Kosher Alright

I reported yesterday that the outrage over Gal Gadot's posing for an ad campaign that included an event at the Israeli Consulate in New York City last night was overblown.

Still, Gadot felt that she had to come forward and issue a statement:

The stunning former Miss Israel and model, Gal Gadot, said she is proud of her sexy photograph - part of a new tourism campaign touted by the Israeli Consulate that show cases a host of scantily clad Hebrew hotties.

"Obviously, I don't think it's pornographic, or I wouldn't have done it," said Gadot, 22, who's starting law school in the fall.

She added, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Israel is a democracy and that's what it's all about."

Her picture appeared on an official invitation sent out by the consulate in New York. It touched off an uproar in Israel, where several female politicians denounced it as the wrong way to promote the Jewish state.

The invite was for a Maxim magazine party last night at Chelsea hotspot Marquee to hype its July issue showcasing "Women of the Israeli Defense Forces."

"I'm not involved in politics," said the 5-foot-9 beauty. "I leave that to the politicians."

Israeli Consul-General Arye Mekel tried to diffuse the situation.

"This is the first time we used the word 'shoot' in connection to Israel and we're not talking about killing people," Mekel quipped about the photo shoot.

UPDATE:
Via Amos, here's a video of Gal:



UPDATE:
This post will serve as my call for today's Best and Brightest - just like Gal!

Palestinians, Power, and Responsibility

Gazans are hoping to elicit sympathy from Israelis. That's going to be tough, considering all the rockets fired at Israel from Gaza. Still more were fired into Israel today, but the US media always seems to report the situation only when Israel fired back. They always seem to miss the part where Palestinian terrorists fired first. Here's the Israeli reporting on the rocket attacks and Israeli counter battery fire.

All this comes as the Israelis are allowing sick Palestinians, including known terrorists on watch lists enter Israel for medical care. Erez Crossing is where Palestinians have been coming to escape the hellhole that is Gaza for the safer confines of Israel or the West Bank.

Conflict Blotter recounts stories of Hamas war crimes:

The 22-year-old presidential guardsman and 11 other soldiers had been sent on a mission from Abbas’ compound to the Preventative Security headquarters on the last day of the fighting to rescue some 30 officers who were holed up inside the besieged compound. Once inside the compound they called for the armoured car they had been promised but it never came and they wound up pinned down by Hamas militants.

They surrendered. A Hamas gunman shot one of the 12 soldiers in the leg and told the rest to run away. As they fled, they opened fire, Iki said, shooting them all in the legs as they tried to run away. A Hamas gunman came up and executed each wounded soldier, continued Iki. Iki was lucky, the execution bullet hit him in the side of the neck and he didn’t die. He lay semi-conscious on the street for an hour and a half bleeding. The bus driver who had driven the Hamas militants to the fight checked his pulse at one point and found he was alive. He started to help him.

“Leave him or we’ll shoot you,” a masked militant said. The driver obeyed and left Iki to bleed.

Foreign nationals in Gaza are also getting out of Dodge.

Much of the Arab world is based on a honor/shame culture, and the Palestinian civil war should highlight this to the extreme, but the diplomats seem to ignore the implications. Hamas won and its power is greatly enhanced as a result. Fatah's loss was not only stunning because it supposedly had the greater numbers, but it had the backing of the likes of the US, Israel, and the rest of the West. Palestinians on the fence are going to consider backing Hamas, despite its terrorist background, because they'll back the winning horse. Fatah is at a greater disadvantage now, even with more US and Western aid pumped in because Fatah is the losing horse.

Hamas claims that the US and Israel is blackmailing the Palestinian people. Throwing people off rooftops is far more effective at blackmailing than throwing money to a bunch of kleptocrats in Fatah. Hamas is whining that they aren't getting money from the US and Israel so that they can use that money to attack Israel.

Of course, Fatah isn't shying away from killing Israelis either. Meryl Yourish reports the following:

Two armed Palestinians were killed in a gunfight with an IDF force in a village near Jenin Tuesday night, eyewitnesses reported.

According to the report, local gunmen opened fire at the force that entered the village accompanied by a military bulldozer. An al-Quds Brigades commander and an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades members were killed in the incident.

The AAMB is part of Fatah, Abbas's terrorist organization. All this goes on as the diplomats delude themselves into thinking that Fatah is the moderate among the Palestinian terrorist organizations and can be dealt with.

The US has finally issued a statement slamming the UN's Human Rights Council for once again singling out Israel for condemnation all while ignoring human rights violations elsewhere, including in Gaza and the West Bank by the Palestinians against other Palestinians.

Hamas is once again trying to assert that it is doing all it can to secure the release of journalist Alan Johnston. Right.

Hamas said that it was making intense, round-the-clock efforts to secure an imminent release of kidnapped BBC journalist Alan Johnston, on the eve of the newsman’s 100th day in captivity.

"When it comes to Alan Johnston we are multiplying efforts to secure his release, and we hope they will succeed and that he will be released in the coming days," senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya told a news conference.

They can make the claims without having to actually supply any proof. And the media will take them at their word. Hamas is also calling on the media to return to Gaza, despite the fact that being a journalist in Gaza is perhaps the most dangerous job in the world. Journalists are purposefully targeted for kidnapping and killing precisely because of their high profile positions, and the likelyhood of ransoms to be paid.

This is just delusional: the Syrians think that some Israelis in the Golan might prefer to live under Syrian rule.

Iran is announcing that it has finished manufacturing a domestically produced fighter jet.

Iranian news agencies Maher and Fars have reported that Iranian army commander Ataollah Salehi announced that in the next few months the Iranian army is scheduled to hold maneuvers during which they will present, for the first time, Iranian-made fighter aircraft – Azarakhsh.

The Iranians claim that the fighter jet is on the same level as the American made F/A-18 but FAS suggests that the fighter is cobbled together from a variety of reverse engineered older aircraft in its inventory. Meanwhile, Russia is denying that it has deals to sell fighter jets of its own to Iran and Syria.

Meanwhile, another scoop too good to check - about the situation in Lebanon, fed to Sy Hersh by none other than Robert Fisk, turns out to be less than accurate. Go figure.

UPDATE:
The NYT opened up it's op-ed page for yet another shill for Hamas, which ignores basis details:

Sadly, it became apparent that not all officials from Fatah were negotiating in good faith. There were attempts on Mr. Haniya’s life last week, and eventually we were forced into trying to take control of a very dangerous situation in order to provide political stability and establish law and order.

The streets of Gaza are now calm for the first time in a very long time. We have begun disarming some of the drug dealers and the armed gangs and we hope to restore a sense of security and safety to the citizens of Gaza. We want to get children back to school, get basic services functioning again, and provide long-term economic gains for our people.

Let's just ignore all the assassination attempts by Hamas on Fatah's Abbas and other top leaders, both in Gaza and the West Bank. Let's ignore the Hamas thugs throwing Fatah thugs off rooftops or executing them in hospitals or firing on crowds of Fatah thugs seeking to flee Gaza to Israel.

Hamas isn't providing political stability. It's enforcing its brand of law and order according to Islamist precepts. If you're a member of Fatah, you're toast. Law and order consists of Hamas thugs doing what they do best - cowing those without the guns into doing their bidding. As for getting basic services going, perhaps the Palestinians should consider using piping for sewage rather than rockets. As for the economics, perhaps they should consider growing agriculture in greenhouses instead of looting them and then using the remnants as rocket launching facilities or terror training camps.

UPDATE:
Oh, as for the food situation - Hamas claims that the food will run out in 2-4 weeks.

The Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip could start running out of flour, rice, edible oil and other commodities in 2-4 weeks unless Israel reopens the border crossings, the United Nations said Wednesday.

Gaza's crossings with border countries Israel and Egypt, including the Rafah Crossings in the south, the Karni commercial passage in the center and the Erez Crossing in the north, have been closed since late last week when Hamas assumed full control over the Strip after five days of fighting with the rival Fatah party.

Concerned Gazans have been stocking up on essentials, fearing the crossings with remain shut. The World Food Program estimates flour prices have risen 40 percent.

Here's a novel idea. Grow some in greenhouses as opposed to using 'em as rocket launching platforms. Oh wait. They looted the greenhouses and instead have to hold their hand out to the Israelis for food aid shipments. The irony is quite thick, especially as the UN repeatedly claims that Israel is violating Palestinian human rights. Yet, Israel is there providing humanitarian aid on a daily basis, ordered to in fact by Israeli courts, despite the fact that many of those receiving food and medical assistance are terrorists who would just as quickly shoot Israelis as each other.

UPDATE:
The Washington Post also engages in quite a bit of moral relativism in pushing for Hamas to be drawn back into a diplomatic process. Ahmed Yousef, who's a flack for Haniyeh wrote the piece. And the editors think nothing of letting terrorists and their shills write their demands on the editorial page of its newspaper.

UPDATE:
Abbas calls Hamas's actions a bloody coup. What a way to state the obvious, though Palestinian civil war is also fitting. Also, quite a bit of hand-wringing over the situation at Erez Crossing, where Palestinians are hoping for the opportunity to get out of Gaza and go to Israel or the West Bank.

Israel is also going after kassam rocket launchers and the Palestinian terrorists are finding time to get into gunfights with Israel:

Elsewhere Wednesday, Israeli aircraft pounded two rocket launchers in northern Gaza after two Qassam rockets were fired toward southern Israel, an Israel Defense Forces spokeswoman said.

It is the first Israeli airstrike since Hamas took control of Gaza last week.

There were no reported casualties from either strike.

Israeli soldiers killed six Palestinian gunmen during firefights in Gaza and the West Bank early Wednesday, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

In Gaza, Israeli forces pushed several hundred yards into the Palestinian territory, near Kissufim Crossing, to battle militants, the sources said. During the exchange, two Palestinian gunmen were killed and three others were wounded. Two of the wounded later died. An Israeli army spokesman said one Israeli soldier was wounded.

Overnight, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants in the West Bank town of Kafr Dan, near Jenin, Israeli and Palestinian sources said.

According to residents, the gunmen were members of Islamic Jihad and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.

As I repeatedly note, the AAMB is Fatah and there is no reason to distinguish between the two. Fatah gives its marching orders to the AAMB, which acts as a 'military' wing of Fatah.

UPDATE:
Syria has closed its border with Lebanon, with no reason given. (Via Haaretz). Hamas doesn't consider itself to be a protector of Israel's border, as terrorists continue to fire rockets into Israel. Of course, the world will soon find its voice to condemn Israel's reprisal attacks on those firing those rockets.

Meanwhile, Olmert and Abbas are set to meet in the next week. What I wouldn't give to be in that room to give them both a piece of my mind. Abbas and Fatah keeps making demands on everyone without even bothering to pay lip service to any of its prior obligations that it never fulfilled, and yet makes ever more extravagent demands on Israel for concessions. Olmert and Israel's government continue to give Fatah lifelines, despite no reason to continue doing so.

UPDATE:
The New York Times considers Israel's attack against terrorists firing rockets into Israel an escalation of the violence. Excuse me?! Palestinian terrorists firing rockets against Israel is the escalation; Israel's response is completely appropriate and within its rights as a sovereign nation to defend itself against attacks.

UPDATE:
Jay Tea at Wizbang points out that Gazans have gotten exactly what they asked for. They're now hostages of Hamas. Be careful what you wish for? Indeed.

UPDATE:
So, five more kassams struck Sderot today. Those rockets hit a power pole, knocking out power for a bit, and injured two Israelis. The media takes a powder, and instead will focus on Israel's response (which might come sooner than the terrorists had thought). The NY Times thinks that Israel's response is an escalation when it goes after the terrorists firing rockets against Israel.

Wonder what they'll come up with next? I don't. They'll simply recycle the same articles. It's far easier to recycle (and is good for the environment) than trying to report the facts as they are - that Hamas and Fatah are two sides of he same coin of terrorism, the terrorists continue to try and kill Israelis, and Israel has no choice but to eliminate the terrorists trying to kill Israeli civilians at every opportunity.

UPDATE:
This is just rich with irony. Abbas is calling Hamas "murderous terrorists." Fatah is no different, mind you, but Fatah wouldn't have a problem with Hamas if Hamas was busy killing Israelis and not Fatah leaders and thugs.

UPDATE:
Abbas has also said that Hamas tried to assassinate him. I don't have any sympathy for him as he's had no problem letting terrorists run amok in Gaza and West Bank who sought to kill Israelis. Now the shoe is on the other foot and he doesn't like it one bit.

As for why I continue to hammer away at the NYT and other media outlets that are shilling for Hamas and the terrorists, someone has to do it. These newspapers are attempting to shape public opinion by pushing an agenda that only an anti-Western leftist could love.

Bloomberg Goes Independent?

It's not like you couldn't see this coming. He was a registered Democrat for years, and registered as a Republican in order to bank on the goodwill established by Rudy Giuliani and to separate himself from the rest of the large field of Democrats running.

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is changing his party affiliation from "Republican" to "unaffiliated", a move certain to fuel talk that he is preparing for an independent run for president in 2008.
Michael Bloomberg
Is today's announcement the first step toward an independent Bloomberg bid for the White House? (AP photo)

"Although my plans for the future haven't changed, I believe this brings my affiliation into alignment with how I have led and will continue to lead our City," Bloomberg said in a statement released by his office late this afternoon.

Bloomberg went on to detail some of his accomplishments as mayor, from balancing the budget to reforming schools to making "the nation's safest city even safer."

This decision operates on several political levels.

On its face, it makes perfect sense. Bloomberg was never a Republican in any true sense of the word. When he first ran for office in 2001, he decided to do so as a Republican because the Democratic primary was already crowded with well-known candidates. The Republican nomination was his for the taking, and he took it. Then, in the general election he used his vast personal wealth and his pitch to bring a businessman's sensibility to the job to overcome the city's strong Democratic leanings. Now that he has been elected to two terms, Bloomberg has no need to remain in a party that he disagrees with on any number of issues.

He's now gone Independent. People think that this signals his first step towards running for higher office - the Presidency - in 2008.

I don't see it happening. We already have a bunch of candidates who talk like him, sound like him, and are pushing policies just like him.

They're called Democrats.

UPDATE:
Of course the $1 billion or more that he could throw at the election is no small potatoes and could influence the outcome - splitting the vote sufficiently that we're talking about the winner in the 2008 general election garnering a plurality of the vote and not a majority. It happened when Perot ran in 1992 and 1996, and it could happen again. For an independent to have legs, they've got to be able to draw from both parties, and I just don't see Bloomberg being able to achieve that given his liberal tendencies.

UPDATE:
Third party candidate have next to no chance of winning elections, but have the potential of becoming kingmakers down the road, though that didn't happen with Perot either. However, it does set up the possibility of a general election where Hillary, Rudy, and Bloomberg are all on the ballot.

That is a distinct possibility, as is the fact that they could spend a combined $1 billion on media buys in the NY metro area alone. Bloomberg is one of the most popular mayors in history, Hillary has been competent as Senator in bringing home the bacon, and Rudy is Rudy - the gold standard for NYC mayors. It would be a bloggers delight, that's for sure.

UPDATE:
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson's Website, DeMediacratic Nation, Big Dog's Weblog, Adam's Blog, Maggie's Notebook, Right Truth, Webloggin, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Rightlinx, third world county, Allie Is Wired, The World According to Carl, Pirate's Cove, Planck's Constant, Right Voices, Gone Hollywood, The Yankee Sailor, and OTB Sports, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Judge Orders Nifong Removal Effective Immediately

Yesterday, I reported that Mike Nifong said that he would step down as of July 13.

That wasn't fast enough for the judge, who ordered Nifong immediately suspended with pay, and that he would have a sheriff bar Nifong from any further business.

Judge Orlando Hudson filed his order this morning, suspending Nifong with pay. Nifong did not appear to be in his office this morning.

Hudson had announced Monday night that he planned to file the order today. In the document, he said Nifong's conduct had brought the office of district attorney into disrepute.

Nifong had pursued charges against three former Duke lacrosse players after a stripper said she had been raped at a team party in March 2006. The state attorney general this year cleared them of the charges and slammed Nifong's actions in the case.

Hudson, by suspending Nifong with pay, will take a first step in a process that allows Superior Court judges to oust district attorneys, elected officers of the court.

Gov. Mike Easley, who appointed Nifong to fill a vacancy in 2005, said Monday that he would begin looking for a replacement for Nifong.

Beth Brewer, a Durham resident, petitioned Hudson in February to remove Nifong, saying the prosecutor's misconduct stymied justice. "That man should not spend one more minute in office," Brewer said Monday.

Hudson asked Robert Zaytoun, a Wake County lawyer, to help prosecute the case against Nifong. Because the process has been used only one other time in North Carolina — against a New Hanover County district attorney who uttered a racial slur — Hudson said he is uncertain what to expect.

After a five-day disciplinary proceeding that concluded Saturday, Nifong stands guilty of numerous ethics violations and awaits the stripping of his law license. That will happen 30 days after the bar files a written order, which could take several weeks.

The judge has a point. North Carolina law is pretty specific as to what a disbarred lawyer can do and the process must be followed. It still is unjust that Nifong gets paid all through the interim given what he has wrought.

The judge also said that he would appoint a special prosecutor to look into criminal charges against Nifong, but his authority to make a move is not entirely clear.

Israel's Latest Bombshells

Some Israeli legislators are getting all wound up over the portray of one mighty fine looking Israeli woman who is helping raise awareness for an event at the Israeli consulate in New York City today, that is cosponsored by Maxim (that should have been a giveaway that you were going to get some mighty attractive folks to adorn the ad campaign).

But prominent Israeli women say using sex to market the Land of Milk and Honey is "an outrage."

Former Consul-General Colette Avital, a member of the Israeli parliament, yesterday demanded an urgent meeting with the Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik to get an explanation of what she called the "pornographic campaign," the newspaper Yediot Achronoth reported.

The consulate in New York says the campaign is just seeking good demographics.

"We found that Israel's image among men 18-38 is lacking," David Saranga, consul for media and public affairs said.

"So we thought we'd approach them with an image they'd find appealing."

That's the wrong image, said Zahava Gal-On, a Knesset member and chairwoman of the Meretz Party.

These critics complain that the photo is pornographic. Sorry, I see it as art.

It most certainly isn't obscene. It's also quite representative of what you'll see at Israeli beaches throughout the year.

Your mileage might vary, but this is yet another reason to go visit Israel.

UPDATE:
Those who are trying to make a mountain out of a molehill here had ample warning. This was known to the Israeli legislators back in March, when Israel decided to approach Maxim over doing an ad campaign.

The beer 'n' babes magazine Maxim will send photographers to Israel next week for an Israeli women photo shoot that Foreign Ministry officials hope redefines what the magazine's hormone-charged readers think when they hear television reporters say "the situation in Israel is hot."

"All the surveys we have done shows that the biggest hasbara problem that Israel has is with males from the age of 18-35," said David Saranga, the consul for media and public affairs at Israel's consulate in New York.

"Israel does not seem relevant for them, and that is bad for branding," he said. "In order to change their perception of Israel as only a land of conflict, we want to present to them an Israel that interests them." Which is where good-looking women in skimpy bikinis come in.

The nine-person Maxim team, including photographers, a reporter, hairstylists and make-up people, will arrive for a five-day photo-shoot on Tuesday, using Tel Aviv-Jaffa - and the old and new motif - as a backdrop for the photographs.

UPDATE:
Jammie has more thoughts on the matter, as well as a link to the Maxim spread on the IDF gals.

Corzine Contemplates Opposing Bloomberg's Congestion Pricing Tax

New Jersey governor Jon Corzine is contemplating opposing NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's congestion pricing tax because it would adversely affect New Jersey commuters. Some of the reasons mirror my own concerns, which I wrote when Bloomberg first announced the tax (he calls it a fee, but when you get whacked for $2,000 a year in increased payments to the government, that counts as a tax to me).

Corzine notes that NJ Transit trains are operating at near capacity and there's no way to increase capacity until 2009 at the earliest when all the multilevel cars are in service, and even then, that's only a marginal increase in capacity.

According to NJ Transit, they're buying three flavors of multilevel cars: coach cars (without restrooms) with 142 seats; coach cars (with ADA restrooms) with 132 seats; and cab cars (with ADA restrooms) with 127 seats. NJ Transit would like folks to believe that this is a major increase in capacity, but it is misleading.

Before the introduction of the most recent railcars to the system, NJ Transit mostly operated coaches with 131 seats. They were replaced with ADA compliant cars that seated between 107 and 118. So, it is true that the new multilevel coaches are a significantly higher capacity than the current Comet cars, but are only a modest increase over the cars the Comets were meant to replace. The new multilevel cars essentially provide a better and more comfortable ride (2 seats/wide aisle/2 seats) to the same number that could previously sit on the older cars but without the infamous middle seat (2 seat/aisle/3 seat configuration). The new railcars will be introduced first on the NE Corridor, and the cars it replaces are supposed to replace the oldest cars on the other lines (meaning that unless NJ Transit increases the number of cars per train, we will see a decrease in seats) even as NJ Transit struggles to meet current demand.

Also, it will be several years beyond that before any additional relief is to be had in the form of a new rail tunnel into Midtown, if that comes to fruition.

Bus traffic to the Port Authority is already at capacity, and the only way to increase capacity further is to devote a second lane to bus only traffic, and the Port Authority hasn't decided what to do as the Lincoln Tunnel is operating at capacity as well.

You cannot put a congestion pricing scheme in place when there are no options for the thousands of drivers who feel they have no choice but to drive into the City on a daily basis. A lack of alternative transit options means that those drivers will be stuck driving into the City and paying the tax, regardless of what Bloomberg thinks will come as a benefit years into the future from any congestion pricing scheme.